I found this article while I was doing some of my biology homework and I thought it was interesting because my aunts told me a while ago that it worked and I did not know if I believed them.  So here is an article that proves them right.

A group of test subjects who were directed to doodle while listening to a series of long, dull conversations remembered the details much better than the group who simply sat and listened.

It’s February again!  What does that mean for ICPL teens?  Anime/Manga Fest! So all you 7-12 graders are invited to watch big screen showings of:
* Yu Yu Hakusho
* Azumanga Daioh
* Black Cat

We’ll talk about our favorite comics and manga. We will eat massive amounts of candy sushi and will hold our first ever DIY Bento arrangement contest!

There will also be a chance to display your fan or original artwork so be sure to bring your finished drawings or do some freehand work while you’re here!

If you have any questions send us an email at teens@icpl.org or call 356-5200 , option 4 (Fiction Desk).

Two of my favorite authors died within the last 24 hours

Howard Zinn, the historian and author of A People’s History of the United States, died of a heart attack last night at age 87. I love Howard because he had the guts to tell the “untold” histories of unheard Americans, like Native Americans, Black Americans, Women, and Vietnam War Vets. His re-telling of Columbus’ “discovery” of America really stirred some people up!

J.D. Salinger just died too, at age 91.  While I love Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters, and Seymour: an Introduction, my favorite book of all time is still Franny and Zooey.  Whenever I’m not feeling like myself, I can just pick up a copy of Franny and Zooey, and then I start to feel like me again. . . you know what I mean?

These guys are both great.  I’m really going to miss them!

Rachel asked me to make a bento box in preparation for the Anime Festival on Saturday, February 13. How romantic, eh? Anyway, bento boxes are yet another wonderful Japanese invention, like washi tape and pokémon. Bento, roughly translated, means, I believe, “ridiculous amount of energy to create tiny, adorable, somethings.” Or something like that. They are basically little portions of food like sushi, rice, vegetables, fruit, etc. arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. They can be quite elaborate. Google image it.

You can use anything. A pimento and mento bento would be quite a cento.

Ahem. Here’s the how-to.

MAKE YOUR OWN BENTO BOX
Total time: 1 hour

What I Used:

• one box (I used a round gift box from Ikea, but tupperware works very well. Or, if you’re a bento snob like Jason, something like this. Or, cuter, that.)
• aluminum foil
• 2 slices sourdough bread
• 1 cucumber
• 2 cherry tomatoes
• 1 clementine
• plain cream cheese
• fruit jam/jelly/preserves
• rice
• vegetable peeler
• sharp knife
• ice cream scoop
• rolling pin
• wax paper

Instructions:
1. Line box with aluminum foil, set aside
2. Scoop a ball of rice with ice cream scoop, place in box
3. Wash vegetables, peel cucumber
4. Cut a few round cucumber slices, star
5. Cut long, thin strip of cucumber
6. Score 2 cherry tomatoes

7. Peel clementine, cut thin slices

8. Flatten slices of bread with rolling pin, between wax paper. Cut off crusts, roll again

9. Spread slices of bread with whatever. I did one with jelly, one with cream cheese and thin slice of cucumber

10. Roll up bread (like a sushi roll), and slice into cylinders approximately 1.5 inches long

11. Arrange everything in some cute way in the box

THE BIG REVEAL…

Enjoy!

I was volunteering, as I do on Friday nights, and I picked up 7 copies of Fahrenheit 451. Some people might think I’ve picked up too many copies, but I am slowly nudging them onto my friends who are unfortunate enough to not be in TAG.

If you want to know about what some of us Iowa City teens think about Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight series and the New Moon movie; (we may or may not be splitting into teams…Edward or Jacob?) then stay tuned.

We will give you our assessment of unkempt facial hair and tell you about our favorite cheeses.

If you have had a bad experience crafting it might make you happy to know that we have too. Just listen to our luckless crafting quests.

Libba Bray has won this year’s Michael L. Printz Award for her book Going Bovine!!  You probably know her from the amazingly popular Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing) or her visit here to the Iowa City Public Library in 2007.  Going Bovine is a road trip story about a guy with Creutzfeld Jakob’s (aka mad cow) disease…and it’s so super good that it “exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.”   So let’s all get reading!

Moonphase

ICPL Anime Fest is just one month away!  Check back soon for more info about the February 13th fest…  In the meantime, we want to know what you want to watch!  Read up on the finalists picked by teens from the ICPL Teen Advisory Group below, then click here to vote for your favorites.  Polls close on Thursday, January 21, so vote soon!

Full Length Finalists:

Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
In the year 2015, huge, tremendously powerful alien war machines called the Angels appear in Tokyo. The only hope for humankind’s survival lies in the Evangelion. But only a handful of teenagers, all born nine months after the Angels first appeared fourteen years ago, are able to control the Evangelion!

Metropolis
Set in the future, Metropolis is a grand city-state populated by humans and robots. Amidst the chaos created by anti-robot factions, detective Hunsaku Ban and his sidekick Ken-ichi are searching for rebel scientist Dr. Laughton. But instead Ken-ichi finds Tima, a beautiful young girl bereft of memory and speech, seemingly helpless at the site of the scientist’s destroyed lab…

Shonen (Sci-Fi/Action) Finalists:

Black Cat
This series follows the adventures of former assassin Train “Black Cat” Heartnet who abandons his elite enclave of hit men to become a bounty hunter. Traveling the country with his partner, Sven Vollfied, Train uses his killer instinct to hunt down notorious and wanted criminals.

Mushi-Shi
Mushi-Shi brings you into a dreamlike world where ghostly organisms called Mushi that are neither plants nor animals hover on the borders of perception. Mushi master Ginko roams the earth in an effort to learn more about these strange beings, along the way helping people who’ve experienced the Mushi’s supernatural effects.

Nabari no Ou
Rokujou Miharu is a seemly reluctant junior high student living in his own world. However, within him lurks the ultimate power of “Nabari.” Because of his power, the Wolf Pack of Iga were sworn to bring Miharu back to Iga village. Meanwhile, he is being protected by his English teacher and his classmate, both Banten ninjas!  To survive, Miharu must enter the hidden world Nabari to become the king.

Yu Yu Hakusho
Urameshi Yusuke, 14 years old, is about as troublesome and violent as teenagers come. Then one day he does the unexpected, sacrificing his life to save a young child! But the afterlife is not prepared for someone like Yusuke… Dead with nowhere to go, Yusuke becomes a ghost and must earn his way back into existence.

Shoujo (Comedy/Romance) Finalists:

Azumanga Daioh
Every day is a new adventure in Miss Yukari’s English class — especially when both teacher and students constantly find themselves in one crazy situation after another! Follow their chaotic adventures as they negotiate projectile volleyballs and endure cutthroat competition while busting through huge amounts of homework.

Moonphase
Working as a photographer for a magazine that runs stories about the occult takes Kohei Morioka to a castle in Germany, where he meets a young vampire and brings her back with him to Japan. The rest of this supernatural series follows their hilarious experiences living together as unlikely roommates — a situation made all that more entertaining especially since one of them is a creature of the night!

Paniponi Dash!
When M.I.T. grad Becky Miyamoto takes on teaching a 10th grade class, the job should be a breeze for someone with her intellectual capacity. But child prodigy Becky is only 11 years old! Dealing with surly adolescents, a strange depressed rabbit and a group of aliens who are observing her, Becky has her hands extremely full.

Sgt. Frog
After a botched attempt to take over Earth, a platoon of froglike aliens is scattered across the globe. Among the team is the lazy Sgt. Keroro, who finds himself in the care of a human family that makes him do chores and run errands. Keroro must balance his rapidly waning lust for the battlefield with his growing love of the Internet, karaoke and other human pleasures.

WHO WAS THERE
Emma, Erin, David, Zoe, Kim, Rachel, Jason

ANIME FEST
Anime Fest 2010 is coming!  This year’s fest will be on Saturday February 13, and will feature anime film screenings, J-Pop music, DIY bento boxes, and books talks about our favorite manga (à la David and Kim).  Meanwhile, Emma has agreed to blog about anime vs. manga, and maybe Erin will even tell us what she thinks of Yotsuba… — thanks everyone!  Email teens@icpl.org if you have any other ideas to make this year’s Anime Fest the most amazing ever.

FAHRENHEIT 451
ICPL is launching The Big Read of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 on February 1st!  TAG’s contribution to this huge community event is going to be another one of our thoughtful and poignant podcasts (you know, the ones where we discuss G.I. Joe super powers and “Blawesome”-ness).  So get reading ASAP — it’s really short! — and come with your radio voices to February’s TAG meeting.  David is going to blog about upcoming Fahrenheit 451-ness in late January, and Kim will keep the blog posts coming in February.

UPCOMING EVENTS
So another year of TAG is halfway over   We are still going to try to fit in a movie night, gelato-making tour, and playground games extravaganza (including the game “tag.”)  We are thinking March = movie night, April = gelato-making tour, and May = outdoorsy end-of-the-year bash.  Stay tuned for more info!

ECO SUMMER READING PROGRAM
What are your ideas for Eco SRP?  We brainstormed a few ideas at the meeting, including a bike repair workshop, an ICPL community garden, and reusable water bottle giveaways.  Email teens@icpl.org with your Eco SRP ideas, or just leave us a comment!

Hey, check out our latest podcast episode!  We chat about Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce, The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, Evermore by Alyson Noël, and Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.  And in addition:

• Jason carefully deliberates the awesomeness of G.I. Joe Ninja vs. G.I. Joe Sniper, and laments his youth
• Rachel wishes she could evaporate goats with her mind
• Kim is annoyed by gratuitous Twilight references in every single book she reads; Carly, Brenna, Stephanie and Jason weigh in on gorgeous, perfect, unattainable vampire boys
• Carly is weirded out by Alice in Wonderland’s obsession with her cat

Just a heads up, you’ll probably have to crank your volume waaaay up.  Enjoy!