Summer @ the Dublin Library

The first day of summer arrived and I for one just love the idea of slower, warmer days, filled with thoughts of gardening, farmer’s market fruits and vegetables, sunshine, swimming, lazing around the patio with the family, watching the cat bliss out in a pot of catmint in the sun,  and just having more free time.  And if the economy and the price of gas are putting a dent in your vacation plans this year, the Library can offer at least some perks for a stay-at-home vacation.  The best perk of course, is that everything we offer is FREE.  The pick of our collection from dvds to summer beach reads is all available with your library card.  For all you readers out there we have reading programs for children, teens and adults. 

The kids are playing “Catch the Reading Bug” a bingo style board game.  For every 30 minutes a child clocks reading, he/she can get a spin of the dial, block out a character on their bingo board, and win prizes such as stickers, pizza coupons and the ultimate prize a free book!  Kids can earn bonus spins by doing some of the activitities on the kids summer reading blog at http://summereadingame.wordpress.com/

For teens the theme is Freak Encounters, Explore the Unexplained.  Teens can pick up a reading log at the Reference Desk, keep track of their reading and get a prize for each level they reach.  Read a total of 50 hours over the course of the summer and you also win a free book. 

Adults, we do not leave you out.  The adult program is Timeless Reads.  This is so easy and so fun.  Just read a book that you think has stood the test of time.  Enter the weekly drawing and win a $15.00 gift card.   We have a great display going in the library with some suggestions for timeless reads, but you can certainly offer your own.  When I think of timeless reads, what pops into my head are things like To Kill a Mockingbird, Prodigal Summer, Prince of Tides, Lord of the Rings,  Corelli’s Mandolin.  Share your timeless reads on the adult summer reading blog at http://summerreading4adults.wordpress.com/.  At the end of the summer we will put all the weekly winners in a hat and draw a grand prize winner for a gift card to a bookstore. 

Don’t forget to look to us for some special free programs.  This Wednesday is the start of Wild Wednesdays at the Dublin Library with programs for children scheduled for June 25, July 9, July 30 and August 6.  This Wednesday it’s Alex Ramon, the magician.  Alex is known as the “San Francisco Bay Area’s Best Stage Magician,” and is just returning from Mickey’s Magic Show tour with Disney Live. The first show is at 1:30 with a repeat performance at 3:00 p.m.  We start giving out free tickets one half hour before the program.  Looking ahead, on July 9th Python Ron will be here. Python Ron will bring bugs and spiders for a creepy crawling good time.

We will post more on events coming up in July very soon!

 

 

 

Anime and Manga Review: xxxHolic

I’m continuing my review of the Dublin Library’s anime and manga collection this month with xxxHolic, a popular manga series by CLAMP, the team that created Card Captor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Tsubasa Chronicle.

xxxHolic is set in modern-day Japan, with occasional crossovers to the alternate universe of Tsubasa Chronicle. It’s a personal favorite of mine, and I’ve been enjoying reading Tsubasa Chronicle and xxxHolic in parallel.

As xxxHolic begins, orphaned high school student Kimihiro Watanuki is plagued by ghosts and demons, thanks to his extreme sensitivity to the spirit world. The unrelenting harassment by the supernatural is making him fear for both his life and his sanity.

Seemingly by chance, he stumbles across a strange little shop located in what he thought was a vacant lot. There, he encounters a beautiful, mysterious woman named Yuuko, a witch who grants wishes–for a price.

In return for shielding Watanuki from the harassment of the spirits, she demands that he come to work for her as a part-time cook and housekeeper.

Watanuki agrees to the bargain, but Yuuko’s solution proves nearly as troublesome as his original problem…much to Watanuki’s disgust, to fend off his spirit stalkers, he’s forced to keep company with his classmate and rival, Shizuka Doumeki.

Doumeki, who is tall, handsome, athletic, and rather taciturn, is the son and grandson
of powerful Buddhist priests, and a naturally talented exorcist in his own right.

Watanuki can’t stand his new bodyguard at first–not only is he wildly jealous of Doumeki’s calm, quiet confidence, but the girl that Watanuki has a crush on is also much too friendly with Doumeki, in Watanuki’s opinion.

Watanuki is a kind and compassionate person who’s suffered some terrible tragedies in his life, but he’s also extremely lonely and insecure, and his insecurities often manifest as childish temper tantrums. He’s a caretaker by nature, and as the series continues and his circle of friends slowly begins to expand, he starts bringing obento (boxed lunches) to school every day for his friends.

In Japanese culture, gifting someone with a bento lunch is a sign of affection and caring. Never very articulate when it comes to discussing his feelings, Watanuki shows his caring by feeding the people important to him.

Yuuko isn’t shy about take full advantage of her bargain with Watanuki (and of his excellent cooking skills), and keeps him busy running her household. She also begins to send Watanuki–with the faithful Doumeki tagging along–out on various errands to fix problems in the spirit world.

Watanuki’s kindness and compassion help to resolve most situations, and when they don’t, Doumeki stands ready to lend a hand with his stubborn loyalty and his exorcism talents.

The series has an X-Files feel about it at times, as the two boys go on various missions and encounter a variety of supernatural beings, from the friendly (such as the fox-demon family who own an oden stand and serve up helpings of their delicious stew to customers) to the utterly terrifying (a spider demon who believes in an eye for an eye, literally).

As xxxHolic progresses, Watanuki finds himself becoming friends with Doumeki against his will, and he also finds a soft spot in his heart for Yuuko, who is by turns manipulative and lonely. Twelve volumes into this continuing series, I also get the feeling that Yuuko is training Watanuki up as her successor in balancing elements and resolving conflicts in the many parallel universes that she guards in her role as the Witch of the Dimensions.

Some of these parallel universes, most notably the universe of Tsubasa Chronicle, intersect with xxxHolic, and characters from the two series appear at various points in each series’ storylines.

The artwork is lush and detailed, with CLAMP’s distinctive style of long, lanky figures, flowing hair, and gorgeously depicted outfits (especially Yuuko’s clothing, which ranges from traditional Japanese formalwear, to sophisticated evening gowns that make her look like a movie star from the Golden Age of Hollywood).

So, is xxxHolic appropriate for your child? The publisher rates this series as appropriate for ages 13 and up, and I agree with this rating.

The publisher has done a very good job translating the original text, keeping the original Japanese honorifics where appropriate to convey nuances of relationships between characters, and providing informative historical and cultural footnotes at various points in the text. xxxHolic contains no sex or offensive language, but there is some gory violence, and occasional disturbing and creepy paranormal story elements.

 

Directors’ Showcase

Hollywood came to the Dublin Library on March 1 as we hosted our first ever Directors’ Showcase. We screened 9 original films produced by local area teens before an audience of 40! Sandra Myers, a film instructor from Las Positas College, provided comments and insights on each film along with tips on how to improve. Prizes were awarded to the audience favorites. Check out some of the films and see what you think.

“Walk the Dog” by Mike Deagen

“Heart Disease” by Jennifer Meredith

“Dr. Feel Good, Ph.D., Hill Giant” by Morgan King

“White and Nerdy” by Griffin Lewis

 

Teen Tech Week

Tune In @ Your Library, March 2-8 during Teen Tech Week 2008, a national initiative to raise awareness that libraries offer all kinds of different formats from dvds to music cds and online homework help.

Think the library is all about books? Think again. We’ve got lots of ways to get “tuned in”. Did you know that each month the library gets about 10 new CDs for the Teen Collection? These include Top 40, Alternative, Rap, top Billboard hits of the month. These hot titles might be in demand so place a hold and be notified when they’re available. Some recent acquisitions include Growing Pains by Mary Blige, Sawdust by Killers and American Gangster by Jay-Z, Simple Minds by Simple Minds.

DVDs with teen appeal are also part of our collection, everything from anime favorites to teen classics like the Breakfast Club, 16 Candles or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Studying for the SATs.? Need test practice for your AP courses? Go to our Learning Express Library and get access to practice tests online. Help you earn the score you want. Doing a term paper on social issues, such as abortion, immigration, global warming? Check out another of our online resources, Opposing Viewpoints.

And don’t forget our Live Homework Help that is available daily from 1-10. Connect with live tutors from the comfort of your home and get help with that sticky algebra problem.

IM Reference is also available from 3-5 pm, Mon-Thurs.

All this and more is FREE. So Tune In @ Your Library today!

 

Anime and Manga Review: Ranma 1/2

I’m continuing my review of the Dublin Library’s anime and manga collection this week with Ranma 1/2, a classic comedy anime series by the creator of Inuyasha.Ranma 1/2 skillfully combines appealing characters, fantasy, slapstick adventure and romantic comedy.

The series revolves around Ranma Saotome, a teen-aged boy and lifelong martial arts student. While on a training mission with his father, Genma, in China, Ranma and Genma fall into a set of cursed springs. As a result, Ranma turns into an attractive girl whenever cold water touches him, and Genma turns into a giant panda.

As the series opens, Ranma and Genma show up as surprise houseguests at a martial arts dojo owned by Genma’s old friend, Mr. Tendo. Mr. Tendo’s youngest daughter, Akane, is a tomboy and skilled martial artist. Poor Ranma and Akane both get the shock of their lives when their fathers announce that the two teenagers are betrothed.

Not at all ready to settle down, but also unwilling to defy their fathers, Akane and Ranma reluctantly agree to try being engaged. Thus paired off, the two of them begin to spend time together, a rough road considering that Ranma is frequently rude and arrogant, and Akane has a hair-trigger temper.Their relationship is both strengthened and made more difficult by the challenges of enrolling Ranma at Akane’s high school.

With a childhood spent following his father from place to place in search of martial arts training, Ranma is anything but a well-behaved student, and he quickly becomes notorious at school for pulling pranks and getting into brawls.Although he’s initially horrified by his tendancy to turn into a girl whenever he gets wet, the cunning Ranma quickly learns to use his gender-switching powers to play tricks and manipulate the other boys at the school. Akane is usually mortified by her fiance’s antics, but she soon comes to realize that life with Ranma, while noisy and frequently aggravating, is also a lot of fun.Slowly, they become friends and then even more slowly, they begin to develop deeper feelings for one another.

In addition to Ranma, Akane, and their family members, the series has a well-rounded cast of secondary characters: the panty-stealing, old scoundrel of a martial arts master Happosai; the rich, handsome, and extremely pompous high school athlete Tatewaki Kuno (who falls in love with Ranma’s female alter-ego, leading to many comic complications); the Chinese Amazon warrior Shampoo, who swore to wed Ranma after he beat her in a martial arts contest; and Ryoga Hibiki, Ranma’s rival in both martial arts and romance.

Ryoga also fell into one of the cursed springs, and is cursed to turn into a cute little piglet when wet. Directionally-challenged, tongue-tied around girls, and head-over-heels in love with Akane, Ryoga is humiliated at first by having such an unmanly alter ego. But, like Ranma, Ryoga soon finds ways of turning his situation to his advantage. To Ranma’s displeasure (and jealousy), Ryoga’s piglet form is adopted as a pet by an unwitting Akane and named P-chan. This situation of course leads to more hilarious complications as Ryoga tries to keep Akane from discovering his secret, and Ranma tries to keep P-chan out of Akane’s room and bed.

All in all, Ranma 1/2 is a light-hearted romp with some hysterically funny scenes (including a martial arts figure skating competition that left me howling with laughter). Unlike many anime series, including Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2 is episodic, with continuing characters and situations, but no real season-long story arcs.

So, is Ranma 1/2 appropriate for your child? The series was originally intended for pre-teens and teens, and it’s got bloodless slapstick violence, some tastefully-done nudity in non-sexual contexts, occasional references to sex, and panty raids.

 

Lights, Camera, Action!

TEENS!  Are you creative?  Enjoy making videos?  Have you made one for a school project? For fun?  For friends? Showcase your talent and share it with a wider audience at our Dublin Directors’ Showcase. 

Interested? Submit your original video January 7- 18. This showcase is open to all teens.  Entries must be on DVD with running time no more than 10 minutes.  Content must be PG appropriate and produced solely by teens without adult help.

Fill out the entry form available at the Dublin Library Information Desk or print out the form here and bring to the library.  Drop off labeled disc with entry form attached January 7-18 at our Information Desk. 

Videos will debut at the Dublin Directors’ Showcase on March 1, 2-4 p.m. in our Community Room. Invite family and friends for a fun afternoon. 

Need more information or have questions? 

Contact Donna Leach, 925-803-7272 or email dleach@aclibrary.org.

 

Anime and Manga Review: Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex

After taking an extended break to deal with book deadlines and some family matters, I’m returning this week to review Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, an action-adventure anime series available at the Dublin, Fremont Main and San Lorenzo library branches.

Loosely based on the Ghost in the Shell theatrical feature films, and with many of the same characters, though the storyline is quite different, Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex is a 26-episode anime series that’s partly a police procedural set in a near-future science fiction setting, and partly a philosophical musing on what comprises a human being.

Major Motoko Kusanagi leads a team of anti-terrorism police in a near-future world where almost everyone has cybernetic enhancements. There are also robots that look and act human, which has led to interesting social and legal dilemmas about who is human, and therefore entitled to human rights, and who is merely a machine, something that can be owned and disposed of at the owner’s will. The distinction is the soul, or the “ghost in the shell.”

Kusanagi treads a fine line between machine and human. Struck down by a crippling childhood disease, her brain was implanted in a beautiful, ageless, superhuman cybernetic body. Yet, she is considered human, because she has a “ghost.” Her team mates all have varying degrees of cybernetics, including artificial eyes that enhance vision. The one exception is the rookie member, who has made the highly-unusual choice not to acquire any cybernetic implants. This choice frequently hampers him in the course of his police work; yet, it also renders him immune to some of the cyber-attacks employed by terrorists.

The series, episodic at first, starts by exploring questions about what it means to be human, the philosophy interspersed with punchy action sequences and lots of explosions. Then the storyline settles into a tense investigation of a cyber-terrorist known as “The Laughing Man,” which then morphs into vicious inter-departmental infighting between Kusanagi’s boss and his rivals as Kusanagi and her team begin to uncover truths that the government would prefer stay buried.

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex also has a wonderful soundtrack–the opening theme, sung in what sounds like Latin and Bulgarian, is haunting and gorgeous, and the rest of the series’ music is a deft blend of rock and neo-classical.

Is this series appropriate for your child? Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex is a hard action series that includes intense violence and acts of terrorism. This show is probably most appropriate for teens (13 years and older).

 

Homework Help @ Dublin Library

We got started a bit late this year with our homework assistance program, but I am pleased to introduce our new Homework Help Coordinator, Tracy Dodge.  Tracy is a graduate of San Francisco State and is currently enrolled in Diablo Valley College’s Library Technology certification program.  We are delighted to welcome her, as well as many of the volunteers from previous years, such as Tiffany, Quincey, Paul, Stella, Samantha and Mia. 

Homework help is changing this year to better incorporate all the services of the Library.  We no longer meet in the Group Study Room but are seated at the large table in the Children’s Area.  Tracy has summarized all of the library’s homework help options in a new flyer that will soon be available:

Dublin Library Homework Help Resources

         Homework Help in the Library Homework Help is a drop-in program offered in the children’s section of the Dublin Library Monday though Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. High school volunteers are available to assist students in grades 3–8 complete their after school assignments. This program is made possible by funding from the Alameda County Library Foundation, Five Bridges Foundation, Dreyer’s Foundation, Bank of America, Morris Stulsaft Foundation and Safeway Foundation.

                   Live Homework Help Online

Through the Alameda County Library website www.aclibrary.org, students in grades 4–12 and introductory college courses can connect to professional tutors for one-on-one help in an Online Classroom. The service requires a library card number and is available from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day for help with Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. (En Español: Domingo–Jueves 1–7 p.m.)

           Homework Help Links @ aclibrary.org 

Visit the Kids’ Place Homework Help page for tons of links to Encyclopedias and other resources related to History, Biographies, Social Studies, Math, Science, and more.

There are also Homework help links for Teens that include link lists for frequent assignments such as the Decades reports, and primary sources on the web.   Research Tools  include the full text of magazine, newspaper and journal articles, as well as specialized information databases like Opposing Viewpoints, the History Resource Center or the Student Resource Center. If you are connecting from home, all you need is your library card number to access thousands of articles of information for free. Need more help? Contact a reference librarian by phone, IM, or e-mail. 

 

Teen Read Week

LOL @ your library!  That’s the theme of the 10^th annual Teen Read Week (Oct 14 -20, 2007), sponsored by the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association. The Dublin Library is joining with thousands of libraries across the country to encourage teens to celebrate this year’s theme “LOL @ your library” by reading humorous books and graphic novels “just for the fun of it”.  Feed your funny bone and check out our display of humorous books in the Teen section of the Library.  Let us know what makes you laugh by answering our Teen Advisory Board’s Question of the Month posted on the bulletin board in the Teen Area.  Check out the nominations for the 2007 Teens’ Top Ten Books at www.ala.org.teenstopten/ and vote for your favorites during Teen Read Week, October 14 -20. Need some good book suggestions? Check out these for LOL:

Alice I Think by Susan Juby. 15 year old Alice has been homeschooled by her “hippie” parents.  When she starts at a public high school she has a few opinions to share in this diary.

Sunshine Rider: The First Vegetarian Western by Ric Lynden Hardman. I’m already hooked just by the title.  How could a character in a western possibly be vegetarian?? 17 year old Wylie Jackson leaps at the chance to join a cattle drive but finds himself assigned to the chuck wagon and to keeping an eye on the pesky cattalo (a cross between a buffalo and a cow).  Somewhere in the mix, Wylie turns vegetarian!

 The Adventures of Blue Avenger by Norma Howe. David Schumacher created the comic book hero the Blue Avenger when he was 13. At 16, after the death of his father, he decides to legally change his name to the Blue Avenger and seriously set about righting the wrongs in the world.

Do you have something to recommend that will have us LOL?? Tell us!

 

Anime & Manga Review: Inuyasha

This week, I’ll begin my reviews of anime and manga items in the Dublin Library’s collection. And I’m going to start with one of my favorite series, Inuyasha.

On the surface, Inuyasha is a classic shoujo series, complete with a schoolgirl heroine who pulled into an alternate world to fulfil a magic quest, handsome men who aid her in her quest, and romance. What distinguishes Inuyasha from other entries in the genre are the fine characterizations, and the genuine jeopardies that face our heroine and her friends. Bad things happen to good people in this series, and the characters are frequently forced to overcome their own weaknesses and past deeds as well as facing the monster of the week. 

 Kagome Higurashi, the 15-year-old heroine of the series, is the daughter of a Shinto shrine family. When a demon appears and pulls her into an old well on the shrine grounds, Kagome manifests unexpected spiritual powers, and manages to fight off the demon–only to find herself stranded 500 years in the past, in the time known as the Sengoku-jidai, or Warring States era.  Almost at once, she is recognized as the reincarnation of a famous demon-fighting priestess, Kikyo, who was the guardian of a mystical jewel before her tragic betrayal and death 50 years earlier.  And then she unseals an infamous half-demon boy named Inuyasha, and things get really interesting…

 Kikyo, though a sworn shrine maiden, found her duties as the jewel’s guardian onerus and longed to rid herself of it. She fell in love with a half-demon boy named Inuyasha, and together, they planned to use the jewel to purge him of his demon half so that they could marry. However, they were each betrayed on the eve of the big day, and Kikyo died believing that Inuyasha had murdered her and stolen the jewel. For his part, Inuyasha fell into a 50-year coma, believing that Kikyo had betrayed him.

 He awakens into a world where Kikyo is only a memory among the old people of the village, Kikyo’s young sister is now the aged village priestess, and Inuyasha himself has become a story used to frighten the village children into behaving. 

 When Kagome unseals Inuyasha, and then inadvertantly shatters the sacred jewel, the two of them find themselves bound on a quest to find the fragments and reconstruct the jewel. The jewel, dangerous when whole, is just as potent in pieces, and demons and evil men can use the fragments to wreak great havoc.

Thus begins a long quest that is part adventure, part romance, and distinguished by excellent characterizations and the development of interesting relationships between the characters. Inuyasha is a gruff, foul-mouthed, rude boy who has lived his life as an outcast in both the human and demon worlds. Under the influence of Kagome’s determined kindness, her trust in him, and her friendship, Inuyasha slowly begins to shed his mistrust, revealing his sensitive and noble character (he never does get rid of his potty-mouth, though the English translations of both the manga and anime series have toned down his language considerably to make the work suitable for teens).

 Inuyasha and Kagome are soon joined in their quest by new friends–Miroku, a charming scoundrel of a Buddhist monk who seeks to undo a long-standing curse that will eventually kill him; Sango, a demon-slayer who saw her entire village slaughtered by an evil presence seeking to use the power of the jewel; and Shippo, an orphaned fox-demon cub whose parents were killed for the jewel fragments they possessed.

And then there are the opponents–Inuyasha’s full-demon brother, Sesshoumaru, who hates and resents Inuyasha; Kikyo, whose legacy haunts Kagome and poisons her relationship with Inuyasha; and Naraku, a human-turned-demon who lusts after power and who revels in the corruption of good.

 The anime series drew to a close after 167 episodes and the quest still incomplete; the weekly installments of the manga series are still running in Japan, and at last count, 519 chapters had been published, with no end in sight.

Is Inuyasha suitable viewing for your kids?

There is quite a bit of violence, some of it fairly gory.  There are demons and rotting corpses and various supernatural storylines, some of them fairly frightening for children. Bad things happen to good people, which may distress younger viewers. And there are bawdy jokes and some circumspect mentions of sex and sexuality. The Anime News Network Encyclopedia rates Inuyasha as suitable for teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity), and I agree with this rating.