From http://www.ala.org/yalsa/best/2012
According to Gretchen Kolderup, YALSA’s Best of the Best Reading Challenge begins April 1, 2012 (no April Fool’s joke, I promise). She writes, “You’ll have three months (until July 1, 2012) to read as many titles as you can from YALSA’s 2012 award winners and honor books and selected Top Tens (including Amazing Audiobooks, Best Fiction for Young Adults, Great Graphic Novels, Popular Paperbacks, and Quick Picks). Everyone who completes the challenge will have the opportunity to create a response to their favorite book from the challenge that will be posted on The Hub, and you could also win a tote bag of 2012 YA literature. Keep an eye on The Hub for details.”
Follow the links if you want to view the lists. ICPL has all of the books, so feel free to take the challenge!
Photo from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience
It seems that as people who grew up playing with Legos become adults, more and more examples of AWESOME Lego sculptures (seriously, works of sculptural art) dance about on the internet. Take this recent article from the Wired blog, “Wired Science.” Generally when you stumble upon a Lego creation, it’s an incredibly intricate sculpture of Barad-dûr, the Fortress of Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings or an actual working printer constructed out of those small plastic pieces. However, Wired’s article compiles a collection of models and structures of scientific origin: the DNA molecule, a human kidney, and the ATLAS detector (that huge installation used to study fundamental particle physics in Switzerland) are all fodder for Lego creativity. There are many more fascinating sculptures on the article page, so go check it out! Or create a sculpture of your own!
Until recently, I spent a fair bit of time on Twitter. However, as a full-time graduate student in the University of Iowa Library and Information Science program and a part-time intern at ICPL, my time of late has been spent learning, reading, and dreaming about libraries. But when I do manage to stumble back to Twitter, I always check in on the antics of one Maureen Johnson.
Ms. Johnson, the author of such young adult novels as The Name of the Star and 13 Little Blue Envelopes (both available in the young adult fiction area at ICPL), spends an abnormal amount of time in the world of tweets and hashtags, but in so doing, manages to be one of the most entertaining people on the internet, in my opinion. There is something of a learning curve to her tweets: she writes about “Monday dragons,” “flying monkeys,” and what she calls “danubing” (I imagine it’s a dance suspended somewhere between a waltz and hula), but after this short adjustment period, one can’t help but follow along. Although the majority of her tweets are silly in tone, she does occasionally post articles about young adult literature, often inspiring discussion about controversial issues. She frequently travels to the United Kingdom to write, and often offers advice and suggestions to aspiring young adult authors. Be sure to check her out; she’ll put a smile on your face. 
You can find her on Twitter, and you can follow her blog on her website.
Curious about Twitter? Wondering how to compose a thought in 140 characters or less? Stop by the Teen Tech Zone on Thursdays from 3-5 PM and Saturdays from 1-4 PM, and I’ll help you write your first tweet!
I found this lovely little game last year, and I’ve shared it with every person I can. It’s simple: just start clicking on the boxes. You can create chords, make smiley faces or flowers, or just go crazy and click every box. You can stop a particular note/box by clicking the box again. So go ahead: make some music!
(Link from the tumblr account http://mandaflewaway.tumblr.com/)
It’s not easy being green, but with these Muppet edition Adidas Superstar 2.0 Kermit shoes, looking good is as easy as tying the laces. The shoes feature a soft suede upper, the iconic Adidas Superstar shell toe and Kermit the Frog’s unmistakable collar over the tongue in honor of the original hip-hop artist.
Click here for the official site.
