movie night2

Nearly every week a newly released feature film that is described for people with visual impairments is shown at Rave Motion Pictures in Ypsilanti. This week they are NOT showing a film with described narration. But here's an idea: Did you know that AADL has a very robust and ever-growing collection of Described Video Recordings in DVD format for L Card users to borrow? More and more films are being produced with this feature. Some are now available by mail to our WLBPD patrons.

Ned Vizzini is the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah.. .. He has written for the 'New York Times' 'The Daily Beast' and season 2 of MTV's Teen Wolf. His work has been translated into seven languages and will soon be in Czech. He is the co-author, with Chris Columbus, of the forthcoming fantasy-adventure series House of Secrets. Forthcoming in the fall of 2012, is a new teen novel, 'The Other Normals.'
It's Kind of a Funny Story published in 2007 was also a major motion picture from Focus Features in 2010.

He is also a Judge for this year's It's All Write Teen short story writing contest. The panel of 10 judges will look at the finalists in three grade categories of 6-7-8 (Middle School), 9-10 (High School) and 11-12 (High School) and select the winners who will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on May 12, 2012.

With a background in cultural anthropology and ESL-teaching, award-winning author Laura Resau has lived and traveled in Latin America and Europe. Her experiences inspired her novels for young people-- What the Moon Saw, Red Glass, Indigo Notebook, Ruby Notebook, Jade Notebook, Star in the Forest, and Queen of Water. She lives with her family in Colorado.

She is also a Judge for this year's It's All Write Teen short story writing contest. The panel of 10 judges will look at the finalists in three grade categories of 6-7-8 (Middle School), 9-10 (High School) and 11-12 (High School) and select the winners who were announced at an Awards Ceremony on May 12, 2012.

Nina LaCour received a MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and currently teaches English at an independent high school. She is also co-founder of 'Write Teen' a series of YA writing classes. Hold Still, Nina's first novel, was published in 2009 and is a William C. Morris Honor book, a Junior Library Guild selection, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and a Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of 2009. Nina won the 2009 Northern California Book Award for Children's Literature and was featured in 'Publisher's Weekly' as a Flying Starts Author. Her second novel Disenchantments, brings together influences of music and art on a group of friends as they decide what's next in life.

She is also a Judge for this year's It's All Write Teen short story writing contest. The panel of 10 judges will look at the finalists in three grade categories of 6-7-8 (Middle School), 9-10 (High School) and 11-12 (High School) and select the winners who were announced at an Awards Ceremony on May 12, 2012.

53 Finalists were honored on Saturday, May 12, from a pool of 350 submissions for this year's 20th Annual Teen Short Story Writing Contest.
Caitlin Horrocks, author of an applauded debut collection of short stories, This is Not Your City and a previous winner of the AADL contest
in 1997 spoke to a packed house of teen writers, their families and friends. She was inspiring and witty in her remarks. Below are the top nine winners in each of three grade categories:

Middle School (Grades 6-7-8)
1st Place - Elise Blaauw - Story/Expressionless
2nd Place - Sarah Kopacz - Story/Like Summer Rain
3rd Place - Kristen Hayden - Story/Shades

High School (Grades 9-10)
1st Place - Hannah Blaauw - Story/Glass Cage
2nd Place - Leon Pescador - Story/When the Sky Falls
3rd Place - Madeline Woods - The Rapid Evolution from Dumpee to Dumper

High School (Grades 11-12)
1st Place - Madeline Bradford - Story/Everything But Wings
2nd Place - Josie Benson - Story/Black Walnut
3rd Place - Vanessa Decker - Story/Sadie's Eyes

Congratulations to all!

The Avengers (PG-13) is based on the Marvel comic series by Stan Lee, first published in 1963 and remains a bestseller. A Super Hero team featuring iconic Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow must face an unexpected enemy that threatens global safety and security. With Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG-13) follows a group of British retirees who decide to “outsource” their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past. The script is based on a novel by Deborah Moggach, previously published in the UK as These Foolish Things.

Starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, and Maggie Smith, it is my pick for our girls' night out.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting (PG-13) is adapted from Arlene Eisenberg's (written with her daughters Heidi Eisenberg Murkoff and Sandee Eisenberg Hathaway) perennial bestseller. It is a hilarious and heartfelt big screen comedy about five couples whose intertwined lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood. Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker complete the cast.

I have done nothing in the last 2 days except immersing myself in Beatriz Williams's Overseas, a rather puzzling title (the connection will be revealed in due course) for this most appealing romantic fantasy (or is it a paranormal romance?).

Independent, ambitious, smart Kate Wilson, an analyst at Sterling Bates (Bear Stearns, you think?) catches the eyes of British billionaire hedge fund mogel (and a 5-star client) Julian Laurence. The chemistry is undeniable and the flirty emails promise a whole lot more. Then Julian begs off. Kate is crushed. Months later, they finally connect, after a timely rescue at Central Park. (You get the picture, no violins but some nice Chopin, courtesy of Mr. there-is-nothing-he-can't do).

Of course disaster strikes, fast, furious, but not entirely out of the blue, though Julian did! Kate finds out that Julian is actually Julian Laurence Ashford, aristocratic WWI hero/poet, supposedly killed in 1916 in France. Now a mysterious and malevolent force is out to destroy them. It seems like Kate, with her 21st century sensibility and toughness is the only one who could travel back in time, reverse the course of history to save them.

This debut novel which won two Romance Writers of America awards already, is poised to become the sizzling read this summer. Comparison is being made to Diana Gabaldon and Anne Fortier. Fans of the movie Pretty Woman will delight in the frame of the novel - the Cinderella storyline, the Manhattan glitterati (a ruby necklace made an appearance here as well), and sometime, if we are lucky, love could rescue us.

Readers interested in the scenes set in World War I Amiens might check out historical notes at the author's website. The character Julian Laurence Ashford is actually based on biographical details from a number of historical figures. Amiens is also the setting for Sebastian Faulks' "intensely romantic yet stunningly realistic" Birdsong, recently adapted into a PBS Television Masterpiece Classic.

* = starred review

Kelly Milner Halls has more than 25 books published, one of which is the amazing non-fiction title Operation Rescue: Saving the Baghdad Zoo, which tells the story of remarkable animals and the team that worked to save them. A recent release, Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story is a collection that she edited with a lineup of YA authors with a he said/she said telling of each story. Her shorter nonfiction has been published in numerous publications. She lives in Spokane, Washington.

She is also a Judge for this year's It's All Write Teen short story writing contest. The panel of 10 judges will look at the finalists in three grade categories of 6-7-8 (Middle School), 9-10 (High School) and 11-12 (High School) and select the winners who will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on May 12, 2012.

Poor Iris Baldwin lost her mom as a young child, and now that she is a teen, her overbearing, insensitive dad is sending her away for the summer. Iris feels awkward, alienated, and angry about his latest girlfriend as she spends the summer with kindly Doctor Nesbitt and his elderly mother. Gradually Iris finds friendship, compassion, and a mindset that feels like home. Set in Kansas and Missouri in the 1920s, this coming-of-age novel -- the first by talented author Barbara Stuber -- offers romantic and tragic subplots, including a young neighbor's pregnancy and a violent death in Iris' family.

Once I picked this novel up, I couldn't put it down. After I finished reading it, I was delighted to see that this historical novel was picked in 2011 for Best Fiction for Young Adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. Written for kids in about sixth through eighth grades, the story "offers strong character development and an engaging protagonist," according to School Library Journal. It's a natural for readers drawn to the Great Plains. Check out the author's website here.