LOL Read - Swim the Fly

Are you looking for a laugh-out-loud funny read?  I highly recommend Swim the Fly by screenwriter Don Calame!  I listened to it on audio and fell down laughing many times -- not only does narrator Nick Podehl do the voices of each character perfectly, but he also has spot-on comic timing with the hilarious dialogue.

Here is a brief synopsis:

Fifteen-year-old Matt Groton and his two best friends, Sean and Coop, always set a summertime goal -- this year's is to see a real-live naked girl.  But given the fact that none of them even has the nerve to ask a girl out on a date, this is going to be a challenge.  Plus, Matt gives himself a second, more daunting goal -- to swim the impossible 100-yard butterfly to impress his crush, hottie Kelly West.  The trouble is, Matt can't even do one lap of the fly, let alone four.  His friend Coop points out the flaw in Matt's plan: "I'm sure Kelly finds the sight of a scrawny, pasty white dude flopping around in the water like a spastic salmon very hot." 

Matt and his friends cook up many wacky schemes to catch a girl in the buff, but all they succeed in doing is getting into trouble.  Some plots (like dressing in drag to sneak into the girls' locker room) strain credibility, but the hilarious results more than make up for it.  

All in all, Don Calame's sometimes-raunchy debut novel is worth a look (or a listen)!  Next up: this book's sequel, Beat the Band. 

Lisa U.

CC Library

The Hunger Games Movie

The day is finally here! The Hunger Games movie was released today, and it doesn't disappoint. Click here to see School Library Journal's review, which says the movie stays true to the book but doesn't glamorize the gore of the games.

If you go to see the movie, let me know your opinion! I would love to hear from you.

And if you'd like to read other books like The Hunger Games, click here for Hornbook's list of dystopian readalikes.

Experience Magic at CC Library!

Attention: All teen magic lovers and wanna-be magicians! Ran'D Shine, a Philadelphia-based performer and educator of magic, is coming to Chester County Library on Friday, February 24th, at 6:30 pm. His magic tricks will amaze you, and he'll teach how to do some yourself. Check out his web site at http://www.randyshine.com/.

This is a FREE event for teens in grades 6 and older, and refreshments will be served. You can register for this event by calling 610-280-2632, or by emailing tlc@ccls.org. Hope to see you!

Book Review: Ten Miles Past Normal

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell is a sweet coming-of-age story about Janie Gorman, a high school freshman who lives on a goat farm with her modern-hippie parents, and who desperately wants to fit in. It doesn't help that her home is on the outskirts of town, far away from her middle school friends and best friend Sarah. Because she and Sarah no longer have the same lunch period, Janie ends up in the school library at lunchtime, where she becomes friends with a funky chatterbox named Verbena.

High school becomes a little more bearable when Janie joins the jam band on Friday afternoons where she meets the cute Jeremy Fitch and the friendly Monster Monroe (yes, that's his real first name), and when Janie and Sarah work on a history project where they meet two elderly civil rights activists who live in their hometown.

Janie learns that, if you want to live large, you have to take a few detours off the beaten path and step in a little goat poop along the way; she also comes to realize that "normal" is vastly overrated. I listened to this audiobook with Jessica Almasy as narrator -- her various character voices are spot-on, making the characters and the story believable. I highly recommend this book!

Lisa U.
Chester County Library

The Hunger Games Parody

Ah, parodies....they're so wrong and yet so right. And they're not just done on Saturday Night Live, either -- now there's one for the best-selling trilogy (and soon-to-be-movie) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins! The Hunger But Mainly Death Games: A Parody is now available from Amazon for the Kindle (Bummer....why can't they make a hardcover??). Here is the hilarious product description:

Mockstrich season has begun. Welcome to "The Hunger But Mainly Death Games," the hilarious Hunger Games parody, and the only book brave enough to suggest that Suzanne Collins' epic trilogy was way more about death than food.

Or at least this is what Bratniss Everclean discovers, when she leaves the comforts of Slum 12, Pandumb's garbage dump, to shortsightedly volunteer for a teenage death tournament. But she soon realizes there are fates worse than death...like weirdly having to date her fellow competitor, and lifelong stalker, Pita Malarkey. Okay, okay, it's not worse than DEATH, but it's still pretty annoying.

Still, with help from her agent Oofie Triptrip and her mentor, Hagridmitch, who's confident he can guide Bratniss to victory in the "Tri-Wizard Cup," maybe Bratniss will somehow survive this book she's the narrator of.

"The Hunger But Mainly Death Games" is the perfect book for anyone who's going through Hunger Games withdrawal and ready for a wonderfully twisted take on their favorite story and characters. This book is also for the unfortunate teens who are trapped in a Hunger Games at this very moment and could really benefit from some levity. We're here for you, assuming you brought your e-reader into the arena.

You can read a small sample of this twisted tale on Amazon.com. If you purchase and read this book, I would love to hear from you!