CardiganNation

where cardigan love and YA lit collide

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Hunger Games Word Puzzles

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | 3:05 pm

Need a Hunger Games word puzzle for your Mockingjay realease party? Check out the Puzzlemaker at Discovery Education to create word search or criss-cross puzzles.

Here is one that whipped up today: Hunger Games Criss Cross Puzzle

Also, if you need help creating the clues, you can use the Hunger Games Wiki to help you with all the major and minor characters and plot points.

Have fun!

—HeadCardigan | no comments
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Waiting for Mockingjay

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 | 9:49 am

Well, Mockingjay is due to hit bookstore August 24th, so considering that I’ve been pre-ordered since I finished Catching Fire, I guess I can wait a few more weeks. While we all count the days (twenty-one, by the way) here is a great interview with Suzanne Collins via School Library Journal.

Check your local library website for pre-orders, but I’ve got to warn you, at this point, it might be a long wait…

—HeadCardigan | no comments
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Librarians + Gaga

Saturday, May 29, 2010 | 3:50 pm

University of Washington iSchool Students and Faculty, doing a remix of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face:

Thanks to Amelia for the link!

Enjoy!

—HeadCardigan | no comments
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Top Model/Harry Potter Mash Up

Thursday, May 13, 2010 | 11:18 am

Tyra Banks has a signed a three-book deal with Delacorte to write a YA series entitled “Modelland.”

From the Variety news article:

In a concept that marries “Top Model” and “Harry Potter,” “Modelland” centers on a teen who manages to get into an exclusive academy for “Intoxibel las” — who are the most exceptional models known to humankind and harbor unknown powers. Once there, she finds herself competing to be accepted as part of that world.

Delacorte, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, will launch “Modelland” in summer 2011.

I’m not surprised that Tyra has decided to write for the YA market. Tween and Teen girls love Tyra, and with the neverending cycles of America’s Next Top Model, as well as the Tyra Show, she always cranks out new material for her fans to enjoy.

What I don’t really get is the Fantasy angle. Tyra has so many fans because she is the Supermodel who shows pictures of her awkward teen years and admits that even today she has cellulite and wears Spanx. Young girls love the Ugly Duckling/Swan storyline that runs through her persona. Adding a dash of magic seems out of character with her brand, but, oh well, we”ll see what happens.

—HeadCardigan | 2 comments
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Get Well Soon Nerd Herd

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 | 11:00 pm

It isn’t often that I read YA chick lit. These days I’ll pick up the latest Sarah Dessen, or laugh along with Georgina Nicolson, but when I was a teen I didn’t really read those sort of books. My journal was so full of adolescent mooning and wishful thinking that I used YA lit to escape to places with strong kick-butt girls who didn’t have my sort of problems, like Alanna from the Lioness Rampent series or Julie of the Wolves or Karana from the Island of the Blue Dolphins.

These days I have discovered that “chick lit” is so much more than I thought it could be, and I am stumbling across authors who are really writing the female teen experience with such heartfelt authenticity that I wish I’d had them when I was growing up.

One such author is Julie Halpern. I recently read “Into the Wild Nerd Yonder” and then went immediately to the library and requested her debut novel, “Get Well Soon.” Both are novels that tell of a young girl’s experience in a very real and relevant way.

Amazon Link  / Library Link

In “Get Well Soon” we meet Anna Bloom. Anna is fat, depressed, and suffers from panic attacks. She has stopped going to school and may or may not have said that she wanted to kill herself. Her parents surprise her by committing Anna to local mental hospital so that someone can figure out how to “fix” her.

Far from being dark and slow, Get Well Soon addresses the realities of Anna’s situation with honesty and humor. Forced to journal her feelings, Anna decides instead to write letters to her friend Tracy, chronicling her daily trials with the mental hospital and her fellow oddball inmates. This book has wry humor, heartfelt intensity, and a solid dash of punk rock.

Amazon Link  / Library Link

In Halpern’s second book, “Into the Wild Nerd Yonder” we meet Jess, a girl who loves math, sewing, and the first day of school. Jess has always hung out with Bizza and Char, but lately all those girls can think about are boys (Jess’  older brother in particular) and hooking up. While Jess has the creative goal of making a skirt a day (what a great use of all that wacky/cool patterned fabric I always see at JoAnn’s) her “best friends” aren’t really interested. When Bizza goes after Jess’ long time crush, it becomes clear that they aren’t the friends they used to be.

Halpern does an amazing job of describing the teenage anxiety of maintaining friendships while still trying to be true to oneself. Jess soon realizes that she may have more in common with the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, one nerd in particular, and has to accept that she might be a little nerdy herself, and that that might not be so bad after all.

Like “Get Well Soon” Jess’ voice is honest and true, as well as laugh out loud funny. Halpern is on to her third book, and I can’t wait for more from this talented writer.

Check out www.juliehalpern.com for more info about the author, including her favorite foods, her upcoming book, and her “Blog of Wonder.”

—HeadCardigan | no comments
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Men wear cardigans too…

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | 7:20 pm

A cardigan from 21Men, an offshoot of Forever 21

Dress like Diddy in this Sean John “Knockout” Cardigan

The Classic Mr Rogers

… just settling a little dispute with the man in my life. Enjoy!

—HeadCardigan | 2 comments
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[Quinn] Fabray Cardigan

Monday, April 19, 2010 | 12:05 am

I’m a big fan of Glee, and in honor of the upcoming Madonna episode, here is the Fabray Cardigan! I especially love the elongated sleeves with the thumb holes. Is there a technical name for that design feature? Half-mitts? Sleeve-mits? Mitt-Sweaters? Whatever the label, it is super-cute! Enjoy!

—HeadCardigan | no comments
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Mockingjay Launch Party?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 | 11:03 pm

“Postapocalyptic Battle Royale in the Appalachian Mountains” is how I booktalk Hunger Games, followed by, “It’s really good, trust me.”

The Hunger Games series; Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and soon, the third and final book, Mockingjay, are written by the talented Suzanne Collins, formerly of Gregor of Overlander fame.

Considering that I’ve been on a pre-order for Mockingjay for several months, and that I have a ways to wait before its August 24th release, I can understand why many people don’t start a series until it has been completely finished. The anticipation is killer! Well, to those patient readers, I salute you, but I am not one of your ilk.

If you have a bunch of teens also chomping at the bit, why not have a Mockingjay Launch Party? Below are a few ideas:

- Tribute Competition/Parade: Dress up as tributes and have a parade and compete for best costume. What would be really fun would be to break the teens into teams, and then they would have to pick a District out of a hat and then have twenty minutes or so to dress their tribute. You could give them grab bags made up of surplus craft supplies from previous events, and then give out prizes to the winning team. If you had a group of hardcore fans they could dress up beforehand and have a parade, and vote for a winner.

- Training Sessions: Have stations set up where students can test their skills. Knot tying, plant identification, camouflage face painting, bird calls, etc. You could earn a badge or a stamp for passing each station, and then the winner would be the tribute with the most stamps. You could also have the tributes work in teams for this one.

- Hunger Games Trivia or Jeopardy Game. This could accompany a pizza or cupcake party. As an added bonus, the teens could decorate the cupcakes themselves – you could call that station Peeta’s Bakery or Peeta’s Cakes. You could also have a cupcake station in the training sessions instead of face painting.

- Fan Fiction contest: Scholastic had a “How Would You Survive?” essay contest between Hunger Games and Catching Fire. What about a “What Happens Next?” or “The True Meaning of the Mockingjay” essay contest for teens to do over the summer? The winner would get a hardcopy of the book. You would need to limit the word count so that you wouldn’t have to do too much reading, or have the teens pick the winner, but you could do the the pizza/cupcake party idea with this as well, and the winning entries could be posted for teens to read and discuss.

- Mockingjay Pins: I know that the pins were really popular when Catching Fire came out, some of them are hot tickets on eBay, so what about a homegrown version? On the cover of Mockingjay is a free-flying silver bird, sans circle. This was the closest I was able to find. It is technically a swallow, but it might be a cool prize for everyone to have. Another idea would be to scan the Mockingjay onto paper and have the teens decorate and make their own mockingjay badges if you have a Badge a Minit machine. Everyone could also make their own slogans, “Down with the Capitol” or some such, or “Team Peeta” and “Team Gale” pins.

- What to Read While Waiting for Mockingjay? This might be easier to do if you have a Teen Advisory Group, but you could have the teens come up with readalikes for The Hunger Games Series, and then they could write up reviews and make a book display. If you have a bulletin board and a teen area, you could have a countdown to Mockingday calendar on the board, and X out each day, as well as have the reviews and photocopies of the other teen recommendations on display. This might be a fun Summer Reading Club activity if it fits with your theme. The Mockingjay Launch party could also be your end of SRC party.

—HeadCardigan | 2 comments
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Why I read YA lit

Monday, January 4, 2010 | 10:53 pm

It isn’t necessarily that I only read YA lit so much as that for the majority of my reading, I prefer fun, fast paced, well-written fiction and that I am a big fan of series. YA lit, believe it or not, tends to hit all of those points. I also read a lot of “adult” books, like fantasy, investigative nonfiction, and just to throw a curve ball in there, cookbooks.

YA has come a long way from when I was a teenager, and is currently experiencing a golden age. I re-discovered the genre several years ago when I realized that many of my favorite reads were crossovers like Yan Martel’s The Life of Pi, among others.

I did some of my master’s work on the growth of YA fiction, and these days, with everyone and their mother having read Twilight, YA lit is enjoying growth as a legitimate mainstream genre.

But don’t just take my word for it. Check out this article in the LA Times.

And now, a cardigan:

—HeadCardigan | 2 comments
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