On Saturday, March 13th, 2010, Eisenhower Library and Ridgewood High School will present LitWorks: A Teen READ Workshop. Here you can meet eight excellent authors, like Simone Elkeles, James Kennedy, Daniel Kraus, Stephanie Kuehnert, Barry Lyga, Adam Selzer, Terry Trueman, and Jake Wizner. Included is a free lunch at Ridgewood High School’s cafeteria. Meet at Eisenhower Library at 10:00 a.m.

LitWorks Website

Looking for a good romantic book? Our genre of the month this month is Romance, and our list has a list of all of the Romantic YA Books at Eisenhower Library.

Romance List

For all of you looking for a good scare, the genre of the month is Horror! The list contains titles of many of the YA section’s horror offerings.

Horror Booklist.

We like to get a jump on things here at Eisenhower, and this Thursday, with the help of our Anonymous Writers Group, we did just that, starting up the September festivities of our Random Acts of Poetry programming a few days early. Here are some photos of the fun:

Remember to join us for a writing workshop with poet and writing instructor Margie Skelly (Monday, September 14th at 7:00 p.m.), then stop by the Answers Desk for a piece of sidewalk chalk and display your new skills outside for all the world to see.

Starting in September, the Library will be participating in the Macy’s Museum Adventure Pass Program. As long as you have a library card, you’ll be able to check out a pass to participating museums, including the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston and the Oriental Institute in Chicago, as well as other locations such as the Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Botanic Garden, and Morton Arboretum. Don’t miss out — check out a museum!

We now have the newest and most popular video games for adults and kids for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and 3, and Xbox 360. Keep checking to see what’s on the shelf—at this time we are not allowing holds or renewals on our video games.

You’ve heard of random acts of kindness. You’ve heard of poetry (and we’ve already talked about Magnetic Poetry). It doesn’t take a genius to put the two together (but if you want to call us geniuses, go ahead…), and that’s exactly what we’ve done in designing six months of poetry programming at Eisenhower! Between September of 2009 and February of 2010, join us for a variety of poetry-related events:

• In September, join us for a writing workshop with poet and writing instructor Margie Skelly (Monday the 14th at 7:00 p.m.), then stop by the Answers Desk for a piece of sidewalk chalk and display your new skills outside for all the world to see.

• In October, join us for an Open Mic Night (Monday the 12th at 7:00 p.m.) and showcase your developing talent!
• In November, link up with us in the Meeting Room (Monday the 23rd at 7:00 p.m.) as we construct an exquisite corpse; each poet adds to a composition started by the participants before them, but can only read the last line of the poem they’re continuing. Practice all month on the whiteboard near the Answers Desk.
• In December, relax with us for an informal gathering around tea and crumpets (well, tea and snacks…we did say informal) as we share our favorite poems, old and new. Join us (Thursday the 10th at 3:30 p.m.) and let us in on your favorites—or bring your own work!
• In January, dust off your balaclava and become a poetry ninja, committing random acts of poetry. Simply photocopy or transcribe one of your favorite poems (we like this one), find a book on our shelves that fits its themes, and slip in the page for the next patron to find, read, and love.
• In February it’s all up to you. Submit your best personal creation—long, short, silly, serious, and everything in
  between—to the Your Barbaric Yawp Poetry Contest! Three winners will receive a surprise prize!

The September, October, November, and December programs require registration–stop by the Answers Desk to sign up! Each program is designed for poets of all ages.

from Toothpaste for Dinner

Looking for some new comic books? Want to find some classics? The Eisenhower Library YA section just received a huge donation of comic books. We now have many classic comics from the ’90s, new superhero comics like Green Arrow, the final issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, and many others! Come check out the comic book rack in the YA section for all your comic book needs.

A couple weeks ago, I saw the newest entry in the X-Men movie franchise, the prequel/reboot X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie shows what’s happened in Wolverine’s long lifespan before he joins the X-Men. Please be warned that this review contains spoilers.

In the beginning of the movie, we see Wolverine as a young boy developing his powers, then fighting in several wars. Eventually, he joins Weapon X where he performs secret missions alongside characters who haven’t been featured in Marvel movies yet, like Deadpool, Maverick, and the Blob. Deadpool, one of my favorite characters in all of comics, was done quite well in the first ten minutes (except he wasn’t wearing the classic red-and-black costume. At least they’re making a Deadpool spin-off movie).

Wolverine leaves Weapon X and tries to live a normal life, however, his brother Sabretooth begins to pick off people involved in Weapon X. Eventually, Wolverine’s lover is killed, leading to a showdown between Sabretooth and Wolverine. When Wolverine loses, he gets adamantium bonded to his bones, which was one of the highlights of the movie. Afterwards, Wolverine finds Gambit as the two go attack the island which Weapon XI is being built on. Wolverine has a showdown with Weapon XI (which is just Deadpool with his mouth shown shut. Nice touch), and eventually wins.

The movie overall was pretty good, and went through Wolverine’s comic origins quite well.  However, it introduced a lot of beloved Marvel characters (like Gambit, Deadpool, and Emma Frost) and gave them very little screentime, the worst of these being Deadpool. While he was great in the beginning, they turned him into Weapon XI at the end, destroying the character.

All in all, I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

Don’t forget to check out our Movie Reviews page for more reviews — then add your own!

For those of you looking for something to do, Magnetic Poetry is here to save the day. You can choose several different magnetic kits with different words (each one is themed). Like a real magnetic poetry kit, you can make random things or regular poetry. The Internet Magnetic Poetry kit has hours of fun packed inside.