“Based on a chilling true story, Lionsgate’s THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT charts one family’s terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history” …Rated PG-13.

Bring your pennies to the library!  Or come to Wal-Mart tomorrow from 3-7 p.m., we’ll be there collecting pennies (or any money really!) for Pennies for Peace.  Remember, every penny helps young people in Afghanistan and Pakistan receive an education.  Thanks!

A penny buys a pencil in Afghanistan and Pakistan and empowers a child to read and write. Education can move mountains. Here are some of the things a penny -one single penny donated by you, added to all the other pennies people donate – can do in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

1 penny = one pencil
2 pennies = one eraser
15 pennies = one notebook
200 pennies = one teacher’s salary for one day
2000 pennies = one student’s school supplies for one year

This September 28th, Greg Mortenson, author of the book Three Cups of Tea will be visiting Alpena as part of the Authors in the Fall Series at the Alpena County Library. (Tickets are $10.00 and there are very few left so call soon if you think you want to come!) In honor of his visit we have decided to run a Pennies for Peace Campaign during the month of September. The pennies collected will benefit the Central Asia Institute whose goal is to build schools for children in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Keep an eye out for this logo

around town and if you find an extra penny between the seats in your car, drop it in. You’ll be buying a pencil for an Afghan girl. You’ll be starting her on her path to education and a better life.

Constance loved the way he spoke, his soft accent. She fervently hoped that Orlandra?s plan to have him in the villa once a week would work out, but knew in her heart that Father would object. He had very clear ideas about people?s social situations. No matter how kindly he treated Alexandre, he believed crew belonged a long way from ladies and gentlemen.

“It?s still beautiful. Even with the clouds,” she said. The sea breeze tugged at her bonnet. “Alexandre, earlier today I . . . you said you would help me. With the search for my mother.”

He turned to her, smiled slightly, as though afraid to smile completely. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

“Her name was . . . is Faith Emilia Blackchurch. She went missing in 1782. All I know is that Father had enough reason to believe she might be here that he took out an empty ship to find her. There was a ship, I think. The Monkey King. You speak the local language. If you can find out anything ? anything at all, no matter how small it might seem ? I?d be so grateful.”

“I will do my best.” They fell into silence as the sun slipped behind the horizon and the blue twilight came. . . . ? Excerpt from Unclaimed Heart, page 130 & 131

Unclaimed Heart is the story of a seventeen year old girl, named Constance, who lives with her aunt and cousin in Dartmouth, England. She is happy, but longs for something more. So when her father suddenly returns from sea with news about her mother, who mysteriously disappeared sixteen years before, Constance decides to sneak aboard her father?s ship to Ceylon and help look for her. Never in her wildest dreams did Constance expect the adventures that await her. She meets Alexandre, the handsome pearl diver, and as she struggles between her attraction to him and her father?s wishes, she soon realizes that Alexandre may be the only person who can help her find her long lost mother.

This book by Kim Wilkins is an easy read for its 305 pages. Set in 1799, the plot is somewhat predictable, but has a few twists and turns in it. Constance is a relatable teenage girl. She has the same dreams and desires that we have today. I found her longing for her missing mother and the confusion in her relationship with her mostly absent father very touching. The villain of the book is well developed, and everything comes to a satisfactory ending. Although, I felt some minor characters could have been developed a bit more, they are still very believable. Some interesting facts about pearl diving and the political factions of the time are included in the story, which helps the reality of the Ceylon setting. This book would probably appeal most to 12 to 18 year old girls, but has something for anyone to enjoy. A very good read! 3 ½ out of 5 stars!

We here at the library are smack in the  middle of Summer Book Club Craziness!  Little people everywhere, doing crafts, reporting on books, etc.  It’s a fun place to be.  If you’d like to volunteer for the Summer Book Club Carnival on July 21, give us a call – 356-6188 ext. 12.  Brenda is in charge of volunteers and she’s always looking for more.

After Book Club, we are thinking about doing another movie night, maybe in August.  Our last movie night we showed Blind Side and about 20 people came and enjoyed the movie, popcorn and snacks, for FREE!  It’s a great place to hang out with a bunch of your friends, everyone’s welcome!

What I need to know from you is, what movies would you want to see?  We have a couple of thoughts, maybe Avatar?  Or what about a Twilight/New Moon double feature?  Weigh in on those two or suggest any others you might want to watch.  I’ll post all your suggestions later, maybe we’ll have a vote!

Enjoy your summer and remember, the lake is a great place to take a book to enjoy while you bask in the summer sun!

Tracy

I’d like to thank all the teens who participated in the Teen Summer Book Club.  You all read for a grand total of 519 (!) hours!  Awesome.  It was more than fun for me to read all the reviews and watch the videotaped book reviews.  Many of you have given me suggestions for what we might do differently next year.  I’m very interested in everyone’s ideas, so feel free to email me or to post a comment on this blog.

Keep checking out the blog and the library’s website, because we will be planning more teen programming throughout the summer months!

Keep Reading!

Tracy

Each team will include six players and will compete in tournament-style gameplay. While you’re not participating in the team based tournament you can participate in the free-for-all tournament, play on the Wii, or just munch on some of the provided snacks. While you are playing, know that the team-based gametypes that are played will include Team Free For All and Capture the Flag.

Registration is at 10 AM on June 26, gaming starts at 11 AM and runs until 4 PM but may run over. Pre-Registration has already started here. It all takes place here at the Alpena County Library’s conference room.

For information about Nexuiz, head on over to Alientrap’s website here.

We recommend you download our pre-configured Nexuiz package here. Quality settings are set to the absolute minimum to help the older computers by default and can be changed in the in-game settings menu. Blood & gore effects are also disabled by default.

System Requirements:

400 MB of hard drive space
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Mac OS X 10.4 or better (PPC or x86)
Linux Kernel 2.2 or better with glibc

High Quality/Recommended

- A 1.5 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500+ or better
- 9600ati or 5700fx or better
- 512 MB of ram or better

Low Quality

- 1 Ghz Pentium III or AMD Athlon
- Geforce2 Video card
- 512 MB of ram