Get Ready for Teen Summer Reading!

Teens are invited to participate in the Express Yourself Summer Reading program at the Monroe Library.

Like last year you'll have a chance to win prizes for the books you read and review this summer. For every 5 books you read and review online you'll win a gift card to Fred Meyer, McDonalds, or Starbucks. Also there will be weekly drawings for USB lanyards and a Grand Prize drawing for a laptop at the end of the summer. The more reviews you submit, the better your chances to win! The online review form can be found in the Teen section of the Sno-Isle website. You are free to start reviewing on June 8th.

http://www.sno-isle.org/cr/teensummerreading/?ID=entryform

We'll also be doing some fun things at the library all summer long. We will have Teen Gaming every other week on Wednesday afternoons. In June we will be visited by one of Seattle's premeire DJ's to talk about the business and creative aspects of DJing. In July you can express yourself at an open mic night at the library. And in August we'll be playing Lazer Tag after hours in the library. Check the Teen section (or ask Bookz) for dates and times.

http://host5.evanced.info/sno_isle/evanced/eventcalendar.asp?et=Teen+Program&lib=14&dt=dr&ds=2009-6-1&de=2009-12-31

You can sign up for events at the website, but you don't have to sign up at the library to take part in the program. Have a great summer and good luck!

Kate leaves the Monroe library....

for her annual Monroe School District tour. Students will soon be learning about this year's Summer Reading program at assemblies and class visits in the elementary schools. Then, as of June 8th, children ages 5-12 can come into the library to sign up.

Google Earth

If you haven't checked out some of our new features on the public computers you may have been missing out. For instance, we have now added Google Earth to each computer. With Google Earth, you can view satellite images of all different places around the world. You can pull up images of your own home, a possible vacation spot, or even your favorite place to go on a weeknight, which we all know is your local Monroe Library of course!

It also allows you to see some really cool sights by using a 3D model of some locations. It won't create a 3D rendering of your own house, but try going to some scenic places with large elevation changes like Mount Ranier.

For those people who get really into this, you might even be able to submit your own scenic photos for inclusion in the program using the site http://www.panoramio.com/ which is also owned by Google. So give it a shot the next time you are in the library and find out what amazing things you can discover. Let us know if you find something really fascinating. We would love to see it as well.

(all photos came directly from Google Earth)

Big Read Film Program: Brick

As part of the Big Read the Monroe Library will be showing the movie Brick on May 21st at 7pm.

Much like The Maltese Falcon, Brick is a noir-ish detective story set in California. The twist is that Brick is set in a high school and all of its characters are teens or young adults. It tells the story of Brendan, a loner whose desperate ex-girlfriend calls him when she gets in trouble. After she disappears Brendan begins looking into her life and cirrcle of friends to get to the bottom of what has happened to her and who is responsible.

Rian Johnson made the film, his first, after being influenced by the works of Dashiell Hammett and tapped a young cast of up-and-coming actors including Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Stop-Loss) and Emile de Ravin (Lost). The film was nominated for a number of awards including an Independent Spirit Award and won at Sundance for Originality of Vision. All adults and teens are invited to join us for our showing of this remarkable film and a discussion to follow.