Do LOLcats & FAILBLOG.org give you five minutes of awesome happiness everyday? Then you must join us for an evening with Internet content connoisseur Ben Huh at the Downtown Library on Fri., Feb. 5 at 7 PM. I Can Has Cheezburger? (aka LOLcats) and FAIL Blog are two popular blog sites in Ben's company, Pet Holdings, Inc., one of the largest blog networks in the world. We expect a crowd for this event so be sure to arrive a bit early. No registration is required and this event is free of charge.

Ben Huh | Friday, February 5 | 7 PM | Downtown Library

lolcats

drozd dino

If you’re a beginning or experienced comics/graphic novel artist looking to hone your skills while mingling with other artists, join the next Comic Artists Forum on Sunday, February 7. Several participants are creating a 6-8 page mini-comic. Those who complete their comic by April can sell their work at the Kids Read Comics Convention in Dearborn June 12-13.

Basic supplies (paper, pencils/pens, rulers, erasers) will be provided. To get your creativew juices flowing go online and visit Art & Story: Talking Shop with Comics Creators Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd.

Comic Artists Forum | Sunday, February 7 | 1-3:00 PM | Malletts Creek | Guest Artist-Jerzy Drozd | Teens and Adults

Hey, teens! Old man winter is really flexing his muscles! With such bitter cold to cope with, what better way to warm up than to drop into AXIS Coffeehouse this Friday and share poetry, monologues, music and good times.

You’ll really warm up when you hear one of our AADL staff members talk about a chance for you to record one of your poems for a podcast that will be posted on the library website.

AXIS Coffeehouse | Friday, January 29 | 6:30-8:00 PM | Malletts Creek | Teens Gr. 6-12
Microphone

amigurumi

Sunday January 31, 1:00-4:00 PM -- Pittsfield Branch: Program Room

Looking for a seriously fun and unique new craft obsession? Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed toys. Whether you're a beginner or have plenty of experience at amigurumi, join us and learn how to make your own deliciously cute amigurumi cupcake, creature or mushroom. We'll have our "crochet cam" set-up to make instruction easier and projected on the big wall!

This event is for Teens in grade 6 & up and Adults. Registration is not required and this program is free of charge. All supplies will be provided

short story

Got an idea for a short story? The timing is perfect if you do, either have an idea you've been thinking about, or put an ending to a story that has a brilliant beginning but you just didn't know how to finish. The 2010 It's All Write short story writing contest for area teens has begun. The last day to turn in stories is Friday, March 19. Click here for complete guidelines.

1st Place ($250), 2nd Place ($150), and 3rd Place ($100) prizes will be awarded in the following categories : Grades 6-8, Grades 9-10, and Grades 11-12.

Need inspiration? You might want to check out last year's winning stories or any of the short story collections edited by Donald R. Gallo.

Microphone
Coffeehouse is about dropping in to share poetry, monologues, music and good times. When stepping up to the mike you can share the works of others or even better, your own work.

This Friday meet one of our AADL staff members who will talk about a chance for you to be recorded for a podcast about Coffeehouse that will be posted on the library website. Interested? Join us this Friday.

AXIS Coffeehouse | Friday, January 22 | 6:30-8:00 PM | Malletts Creek | Teens Gr. 6-12

Printz Medal

The following Printz titles were announced at ALA Midwinter in Boston:

2010 Printz Award Medal
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Can Cameron find what he's looking for? All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school - and life in general - with a minimum of effort. It's not a lot to ask. But that's before he's given some bad news: he's sick and he's going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure - if he's willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

2010 Printz Honor books:
Charles and Emma: the Darwins’ leap of faith by Deborah Heligman

Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

board-dom

We're teaming up with the Vault of Midnight for family-friendly board games such as Ticket to Ride, and more Euro-style strategy games! Members from the Ann Arbor Go Club will be here to teach and play the ancient strategy game Go We'll have snacks, too.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 | 1 - 4 PM | Downtown, Multi-Purpose Room | Grade K-Adult

Floating somewhere between graphic novel and short story collection is the fantastic Teen Fiction book, Tales from Outer Suburbia, by Shaun Tan. "Outer" describes these stories fairly well, for their quirky and sometimes other-worldly cast of characters may inhabit a very familiar suburban setting, but what happens within each tale is definitely outside the neighborhood norm.

Take one of my favorite tales called "Stick Figures" -- which as the title denotes -- is about a group of innocuous stick-figure beings with tufts of grass for heads who regularly get beaten into pieces by neighborhood boys. Also intriguing is the story "Alert but Not Alarmed," where every house in the community is issued a home missile to keep at the ready, except that day never comes, so the residents find other uses for the government's arsenal. The illustrations are essential to the stories and are incredibly diverse, ranging from (what appears to be) found poetry snippets to lavishly detailed charcoal sketches that allow this outer suburbia to come alive in many imaginative ways.

water front

Who determines the future of shared public resources? Water is the liquid gold of the 21st century. While corporations urge local governments to privatize municipal water, communities are organizing to ensure affordable access to this life sustaining resource. The Water Front is the story of the community of Highland Park, Michigan, and a grassroots campaign to defend affordable water as a human right. Residents of Highland Park have received water bills as high as $10,000; they have had their water turned off, their homes foreclosed, and are struggling to keep water, a basic human right, from becoming privatized.

This film program is cosponsored by the U M Michigan Community Scholars Program. Discussions will be led by the MCSP faculty and students after the screening.

January 21, Thursday, Downtown Multi-Purpose Room, 6:30-8:30 PM, Grade 9-Adult