CALLING ALL ARTISTS!

Did you know...
You can submit some of your art and writing in to this person, who will post it somewhere, I think it's in a magazine. Here is some of the criteria for your work that you submit:

• You, the creator, have to be in grades 6-12
• Any writing has to be no more than 1000 words
• Artwork must be black and white.

So, if you are interested, or you have any questions, email to this adress:

mjlteenlibrarian@gmail.com

Emotipeeps

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The Bunny The Meanie The OMG The Scream

The Girl

What if there was a girl you knew since first grade, but you were never really friends with? What if you wondered about her every year after that? What if she finally turned up in your class in fourth grade, and you got to know her and what a colorful character she was, and made friends with her friends in fifth grade?
What if she moves?
Not to Hillsbourough, or New Brunswick, or a place that you can ask your parents to go to this weekend. A place... like California.
Emily and Radhika were the girl's friends. In fifth grade, I made friends with them. But Flora was the girl; the one that moved.
It wasn't Flora's personality that I liked, it was her personalities. One minute, she'd be cute-little-panda-and-cookie-loving Flora. At recess, we'd burst through the doors and she'd scream, "Dude, wuz up?" Whether she was Flora or Flora, she was awesome.
Flora always made room for entertainment. In fourth grade, me, Flora, Emily, and Radhika were working at a table, and I went to get some markers. When I came back, everyone was giggling madly.
"What's so funny?" I asked. Emily has... uh... laughing syndrome let's just put it that way, so Radhika told me.
"Emily said 'Hi'-"
"And I said 'HAYRIDE!'" boomed Flora. Immediately, I fell onto my chair and laughed with them. Not just at the randomness, but also at the way Flora was oozing with enthusiasm when she said it.
At the beginning of fifth grade, the world turned from a huge blotch of color with gray specks to a huge blotch of gray with my friends dotting it with bits of color. Flora was gone. Never again would she fling color into the world when it was gray. Never again. Never again. Never again. We owe her so much and never again will she come back and let us thank her; the small holiday gift I'm sending her is nowhere near enough. Never will she break us free of the binds of school and its mounds of homework.
But wait folks, not all is lost! Have no (or less) fear! Email is here!

Soaking Wet

It started out as a cold morning
Then a warm day
I felt the sun was listening to my way
But the sun went by
The sky went damp,
Then,
Drop Drop, Drop
Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter
Rain falls my way
Kids come in the bus wet
SOAKING WET!
7th and 8th graders were
coughing choking, spitting rainy water!
They came in wet
SOAKING WET!
As their hair dripped like after a shower!
5th graders stuck their heads out the window
They came in wet
SOAKING WET!
As they shook their hair around like dogs!
Now as you can see,
We were wet
SOAKING WET!
Everyone else got to experience the rainfall,
But us sixth graders
Didn't get wet at all!
~Priya

First Day of Sixth Grade

We walk through the green carpeted halls,
Then up to D4
My arms get goosebumps
As the thought of being in 6th grade
Runs through my mind
Girls who have friends in this class
Cling together like PB&J
Talking about their summer vacation
While I
Stand alone,
With no friend to talk to
Mr.Edenfeild opens the door
As I step into my brand new classroom
My arms get the chills,
While my 5th grade blood
Is still flowing through my veins
Ready to be new and improved,
Ready for a whole new year.
~Priya

My Louisiana Sky

Tiger Ann Parker is bright in school and better than the boys at baseball, but she's forever being teased about her parents by the popular girls in her class. Tiger knows her folks are different from others in their small town, Saitter, Louisiana. They are mentally slow, and Tiger tries to keep her pain and embarrassment hidden as long as her strong, smart grandmother runs the household. Then suddenly, Granny dies, and Aunt Dorie Kay arrives, offering Tiger Ann a way out. Now Tiger has to choose from living a simple life on the beautiful countryside in Saitter to take care of her slow parents, or to live in the sophisticated life in the city of Baton Rouge with her Aunt.
This book describes everything, from the color of a blue dress being like a hard rain in the Louisiana sky, to how a sun bonnet makes Tiger feel goofy and how a scarf makes her feel sophisticated.
Kimberly Willis Holt writes this book as if you were in Tiger's shoes. I strongly recomend reading this book.

Princess Academy

Miri, a small but determined girl, must go to and academy and learn to be a princess. She and her friends try to become academy pricess, while her rival, Katar, tries to beat Miri in becoming academy princess. Miri and her friends must pass through the years while avoiding palm lashes and being thrown into the closet by their cruel teacher, Tutor Olana. The Academy encounters bandits, who try to kidnap the princess, and make big money off the king. The academy students can't help wondering what would happen to them if they don't escape from the bandits in time.
Miri will take you through the boring life of doing house work to the harsh life at the academy when her friends go against her.

Fever

When I hear "historical fiction", I hear boring. Not anymore!
When I got this book, the eerie yellow eye on the cover really grabbed me, so I decided to try it. And, the book turned out to be way better than its cover...
Mattie simply does chores all day and daydreams, but suddenly, everything goes wrong. Is it really the wharfs and the stench that makes everything upside-down, like the doctors say, or is it something more?
Join Mattie as she battles the fire of the summer to protect her life and the life of her grandfathers, all the while searching for her mother. Keep yourself awake all night reading Laurie Halse Anderson's historical fiction novel FEVER 1793 as you glide into Mattie's shoes.

Stargirl

Is she trying to raise the school spirit, or just trying to get attention? And what's with that rat she carrys around? Is Stargirl even her real name?
Stargirl is a great book about a girl who makes a change. Everyone's normal. The students are all one thing, and no one dares step out of line. But Stargirl goes off the chart. Her kindness captures the attention of Leo Borlock, and she changes the community in small ways. And what about the porcupine nectie?
Travel with Stargirl to her enchanted place and experience the magic, too. Jerry Spinnelli enchants you with the words and writing themselves...combined with an astonishing plot. Step in with Leo and Stargirl in STARGIRL.

Invisibility Research

In THINGS NOT SEEN, a boy turns invisible. Since I have been interested in invisibility for a long time, I decided to research it.
People are trying to create Invisibility Cloaks, as mentioned in the Harry Potter series, and some people have ideas. In fact, there are scientists in a university in Tokyo that have "already" created one. However, when I saw an image of the person in the cloak, I didn’t think she was a lot harder to see in it than out of it. The cloak projects everything behind her to the front of her, so it appears that you see through her. In this model, you have to be standing in a certain location to see the person like this.
There is another type of cloak being developed currently, and though I have not seen it, I think it will work better than the previous one. This one intends to bend the light off of the object, so that our eye can only pick up anything next to it and behind it. It will be similar to how we see things near a radiator or fire -- everything around it seems to be wavy. The scientists are trying to create this cloak within eighteen months. Some of this research was done by John Pendry of Imperial College, London.
These are some ways that scientists plan on creating invisibility cloaks. They say it will be used in the army sooner than we expect... I say I’ll use it for pranks sooner than anyone can suspect!
My source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12961080/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm

Things Not Seen

Things Not Seen travels through a world of invisibility. All Bobby Philips, a fifteen year old boy, wants is to lead a normal life. Unfortunately, he can’t lead his own life; he has strict and learning-obsessed parents who don’t let him make his own decisions. But, when Bobby finds out that he’s become invisible, new problems occur. What better excuse is there for his parents not to let him make his own decisions? However, when he meets Alicia, the blind girl that sees everything, nothing is the same. Bobby changes from being an "invisible" boy with an invisible life to someone else. The question of Things Not Seen is how Bobby and Alicia can change Bobby... but not back.
I thought this book was really good. Andrew Clements reeled me in like a fish, and didn’t let me off the hook until I had completely read the book. I think it was interesting how Bobby is described as someone who doesn’t really know or care what will happen to his life. He is passive, and comparatively invisible in personality. I liked the way Andrew Clements made him invisible to teach him a lesson.
This grippingly suspenseful plot grabs you from the beginning. Good writing, realistic characters that you can relate to, and a really plausible plot (though it can never actually happen) are all the work of Andrew Clements’ hand. I strongly recommend this book.

The Coca-Cola cafeteria

It is a well known fact that people will probably do almost anything for money. Montgomery Township Schools are trying to decide whether or not they want to advertise products to make money. The way they are going to advertise them is by naming parts of the schools after the products.

What would your reaction be if you walked into the cafeteria and as you sat down with your friends, the first thing you saw was a huge banner that said the COCA-COLA CAFETERIA, or the DUBBLE BUBBLE GYM? What would you think if the school tried to make money by encouraging you to buy common products?

I definitely think that it is a dumb idea. We're not even allowed to have soda, gum, or any good stuff that they're likely to advertise in school. So, if they decided to call the gym the Dubble Bubble gym, then the Principal shouldn't give out detentions for chewing gum. Even if gum and soda were allowed, I don't think the school should have to resort to advertising. I think they should not advertise the products through us.

What do you think?

Piano...

Did you ever think that piano would ever be useful? I know I never did. When you are very young and you start piano, you think it is just another activity, but when you get to 5th grade, it starts to get very annoying. For example, if you like doing any sport, or arts and crafts, or maybe even reading, it is wasted in the time you play piano, and everyone starts doing lots and lots of activities, so you never have time to do anything else. In 6th grade, sometimes you just want to say, "I can't take it anymore! I hate piano. It takes up so much time." Your parents always say that when you grow older, you can enjoy the art of piano. But if you look at it this way, piano won't get you much money when you grow up, and when you grow older, you usually listen to other songs, any songs but piano.
When you get older, and you have been playing piano for about 5 years, even though you hate it, you won't want to quit, even if it is a pain in the neck. You just keep on doing it, and for some reason, you just won't quit.

It isn't that the piano is a bad thing, it just doesn't give you anything.

Dawn's Ground Rules

In general, I am going to try to butt out of this blog. But I need to make sure we all understand and agree to some basic rules. I'll try to keep it simple.

First of all, I want you to always remember that the purpose of this blog is to give you really creative, smart, interesting ladies a place to talk with each other and learn from each other about things that are important or exciting for you. The following rules are meant to keep it that way, and they apply to both posts and comments.

1. No insults, name-calling, insinuations or hurtful statements. About any person. Including blog co-authors, friends, family, classmates, teachers, neighbors. Not even about (eewww) boys. Nobody.
1a. If you disagree with something, either take it up with the person who posted it, directly (i.e. not on the blog), or post a response that has the facts of why you disagree, not just your disagreement.
2. No posts about gossip or secrets. About anyone.
3. No personally identifying information -- no full names, ages, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, email addresses, etc. in posts. About anyone. Well...full names of public figures are ok, but you get the point.
4. No modifying someone else's posts, unless they give you permission.
5. Give credit where it is due. No plagiarism. And if you get an idea from somewhere or someone, please share the glory.
6. And last, but not least...I AM IN CHARGE! I WILL delete, as necessary. But only if the above rules are broken!

Please remember...blogs are open to a worldwide audience. I'm not saying you will definitely have a worldwide audience, but anyone in the world can hear your conversation. So please keep it civil, safe and interesting.

I think we must expect great things from you all.

this is another sample posting

here's bold font

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this is fun!

here's italic font

Death By Eggplant

Death by Eggplant(by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe) is probably a new book to most readers, but nevertheless, it is an AWESOME one.
Bertie gets the old eighth-grade responsibility test: flour sack baby. How much weirder do these projects get?
Bertie has to survive ten days with this irreplaceable and soon to be cherished flour sack, without it getting harmed in any way. But from that point of view, his baby being harmed is not a problem, because it's simply not an option with a teacher like Bertie's.
Bertie just wants to cook, but the whole world is stopping him. Absolutely no one supports him or his one passion. Grades are tumbling, parents are grumbling, and it's the least Bertie can do to be nice to his parents and get a bully out of the way... not to mention Baby Cleo!
Sympathize with Bertie as you read a clip of his school year in Death by Eggplant!

Lookout for the forthcoming review on FEVER 1793!

EXTRA, EXTRA, read all about it!

I don't know what you think, but I think enough is enough. Homework is supposed to be benificial, at least thats what the teachers say. And to a certain point it is...the problem is, the amount of homework the teachers give us is many a time WAY beyond that point.

In a Time For Kids magazine we had to read in school, it even said that kids who do 60 minutes of homework per day get the same benifeits as those who do 90 minutes of homework a day. That's thirty minutes of spare time that you could use practicing an instrument, playing a sport, doing crafts, or many other extracurricular activities, or even just talking, or watching TV. Down the drain. Wasted. No, none of those can happen since a whole half an hour is wasted on unnecissary homework. Thirty minutes may not seem like a lot, but if you had thirty minutes every single day of every single week...well, it adds up. I'm not saying that homework is always bad, but too much of anything is bad.

The extra homework that they give us is not always hard, it's just unnessecary.For example in math, they'll give you a full page of two digit addition in FIFTH GRADE! This is not hard, but it is unneeded, unwanted, and uncalled for. (Well, you could think of it as hard, because it is awfully hard to stay focused on homework of this level of intriguingness.) If the newspaper EXTRA ever ran out of extras, they could just ask some school teachers for some everyday homework.

Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment by clicking on the # comments button below.

Jillian's Origami!

Did you ever think that an origami paper bird would be a perfect touch to decorate a room? Or, maybe a lightwheight paper box would be prfect for storage? Get some origami from Jillian!

You can get a peice of origami made from paper as small as a Post-it note, to paper as big as 8.5 by 8.5 inches. You can get in any color; you just have to specify. Decorate your room, locker, desk, any area you want!

Calling all Comic Book Readers!

CAJ has brought you a NEW and TOTALLY AWESOME Anime comic book: Peeps! Its all about Gizmo, the adorable hamster, and friends...

Join us and this spunky little hamster on his adventures to meet new friends, win Mei Mei's heart, and most importantly, EAT NACHOS! Peeps! is a totally awesome read that is just right for kids and preteens! This book definitely won't be a waste, because you'll want to read this 10 episode hand-drawn comic over and over! Gizmo even has his own posters, too! Perfect for decorating rooms, lockers, closets, desks, anywhere! So why not get a copy of Peeps! and a couple of posters as soon as possible?

Get your comic book from Cecile in the summer of 2008! (Sneak peeks of posters are on this site)

Hey!

Thanks for checking out Monty Tweens! In here, you'll be able to see a new comic created by CAJ Hamster Comics Inc., and even more! This website is created and edited by Monty Tweens. Just click on the"peeps" link on the right and see more about this new comic.

Gizmo

This is Gizmo the Hamster, from the new comic, Peeps!

This picture of him was created by Cecile!

Want some cute posters?

You know you do!

Ask Cecile any time

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