This Saturday get ready for a special Second Saturday Slam. This month One Book One Calgary teams up with the Calgary Spoken Word Festival 's crew to deliver a slam with a twist. Come enjoy, compete and/or listen and judge. Bring some of your poems that explore some of the rich themes in Canadian author Steven Galloway's novel "The Cellist of Sarajevo". This could be something related to music or art, the enduring power of the human spirit, diversity, or war and peace. Contestants will be chosen on a first come first serve basis. AND CSWF always offers really valuable and encouraging feedback. I've learned a lot as a poet in the ones I've attended (yes I DID dare to read some of my poems in public - therefore... I dare you!). Thanks to Sheri - D Wilson, Andre Prefotaine, Jen Kunlire and others!!!

And by the way if you haven't checked out the poetry of these guys and gals - they are fantastic!

The OBOC website also has some great books on it as well as book lists. My favourite being the ones that relate to the Human Spirit and Art and Music. Additional suggestions for great verse novels would be Orchards by Holly Thompson and Roses and Bones which includes Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block.

And as a side note - For the whole month of November we have a cool painted piano that you can see inside of downstairs on the main floor of the library! Come play a tune on your way up or down to the John Dutton Theatre.

Puss in Boots is back for ONE MORE ADVENTURE, but this time he's flying solo! Puss hears of a legendary treasure at the top of a magical beanstalk, and decides to go after it. Lots of swashbuckling fun, pop culture digs, and some over-the-kids'-heads humour, "Puss in Boots" is guaranteed to be a good time.

Want to win tickets? Just tell us the name of the Actor who voices Puss, and one other movie he's been in, and you'll be entered for the draw!

Leave your entries in the comments box below, and don't forget to give us your name and a phone number so we can contact you! (Your information will NOT be published anywhere!)

Just TRY to go to this movie and not have fun... I dare you.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

Congratulations to our Winners; Rosemary, Rhonda, Greg, Shushma, Aiza, Karen, Bethany, Cynthia, and Adrienne

Keep checking back with Movie Maniacs and the TeenZone for more contests, prizes and lots of event info!

Teen Read Week is from October 16th -- October 22^nd.

To celebrate we are having a photo contest with the YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association)

The Challenge: Choose an awesome book and take a photo that visually represents it in a interesting, unique way.

Prizes:

• YALSA prize: an e-reader loaded with all sorts of awesome books as well as a signed copy of Jay Asher's new book Future of Us.
• CPL prize: A gift package from Calgary Public Library including a gift certificate to Chapters Indigo.

Contest rules: Because we are running the contest with YALSA, we are following their rules.

How to enter: You need to enter your photo in both contests to be eligible for both prizes. To enter YALSA's contest send your photo here. and to enter CPL's contest upload your photo to Teens Create and email it to teenservices@calgarypubliclibrary.com , please include your name in the email.

For more info email teenservices@calgarypubliclibrary.com

Deadline: October 31^st

Okay... so the first time I saw the original "Footloose", I have to admit, I thought the premise was totally ridiculous. As IF anyone would or could forbid an entire town from DANCING!

I mean, not only would that be impossible to enforce, but it is also entirely ludicrous to imagine.

I didn't really like the first "Footloose" at all. Kevin Bacon really does creep me right out.

But then I did some thinking. And here's what I came up with:

People have banned weirder things than dancing before... China banned kissing and Russia banned Emo's, for crying out loud!

And what's more fun for ANYONE than the things you're not allowed to do? (Don't tell anyone you heard that here...) I mean... we go crazy for banned books and restricted music and controversial art... Forbidden = Awesome.

So I've decided I'm gonna go see the NEW "Footloose". It's still about a town banning rock and dancing, it's still poking some good-natured fun at hick-life (Y'all get it, we're from Cowtown!) and it's STILL pretty ridiculous. BUT! It's got Julianne Hough. And she's great. And the dancing isn't line-dancing, it's like stomping the yard! And the soundtrack is sick... there's a song by Victoria Justice. And the guy that got Kevin Bacon's role is actually pretty cute.

If this all sounds good to you, Calgary Public Library's MOVIE MANIACS blog is giving away FREE double-passes to an advanced screening next week, AND there's a killer ultimate Prize Pack. To win, just go HERE.

And remember... sometimes you just gotta CUT LOOSE.

Today marks the start of Banned Book week -- a week where we celebrate our freedom to read whatever we want... even if some people think it is unpopular, unconventional, or just plain wrong.

In honour of our right as Canadians to read ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, Calgary Public Library is holding a contest. There are three ways to enter:

• Choose a book from this list and find an article about why it was banned. Respond to this article with counter-arguments for why it should NOT have been banned. If you've read the book, tell us what you thought of it!

• Find a different example of censorship in Canada (other than book-banning) and comment on it.

• Make a poster advertising for Banned Book week and upload it to Teens Create.

Winners of this contest will receive a Gift Certificate to Chapters/Indigo (so you can buy ANY book you want!) and will be announced on Monday October 3rd

It’s that time again! That time of year where we Calgarians count ourselves lucky if we can milk a solid 8 weeks of sunshine out of our summer. That time where we laze around Prince’s Island Park trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes and geese. That time where we revel in the glory of reading books about… well… ANYTHING … as long as it’s not Polynomial Equations, Chemical Nomenclature, or (horror of horrors) Short Historical Fiction from the Canadian Prairies… Unless, you know, you’re into that sort of thing.

Whatever sort of thing you ARE into, Calgary Public Library is where it’s at. So... Gear up for this summer's YOUTH READ program! Full of challenges created by YOU, we have amped up all our Grand prizes, added new Weekly prizes, as well as ways to intereact with other teens, share your ideas, art, poetry writing and smarts! All this on top of your favourite activity - reading!

We’re running our YOUTH READ program from June 16^th until August 31^st, with contests, events, and some pretty sick prizes to be won all summer long!

*Go to the About This Contest page to learn how Youth Read works and be sure to check out our prizes. If your stymied about what to read, find out what others are reading. Challenges include: Cook/Invent a fabulous recipe, photograph it and submit it. Pick a celebrity & recommend a book they should read. Make a comic strip of a scene from your favourite book. Write a haiku book review of your favourite book and more!

So kick back, relax, and crack the spine of a new favourite, it’s time to YOUTH READ 2011!

DISCLAIMER: The creators of this site do not, in any way, recommend the cracking of book spines that have been borrowed from the Calgary Public Library. We also don’t recommend you crack the sides of your iPad or your e-Reader either. Or your own spine for that matter -- we can’t afford to pay your chiropractic bills… In fact, let’s just not crack any spines whatsoever. Instead, let’s kick back, relax, and gently-open-the-covers-of-a-well-loved-book or serenely-upload-the-WMA-files-of-an-e-book… it’s time to YOUTH READ 2011! (Yay.)

If you haven't noticed, the bloggers here in the Teen Zone get pretty freakin' psyched about books. And there's one coming out on Tuesday that has us positively tingling. It's called "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", and I have literally had my copy on hold from the second I heard about it.

Inspired by the freaky and crazy photography that came out of the Victorian Era, author Ransom Riggs pulled together some of the weirdest ones he could find, and wove a story around them.

It's about sixteen-year-old Jacob's discovery of an abandoned building that used to house children of extraordinary --and possibly dangerous-- talents. It's been labelled "tense", "moving", and "wondrously strange" and even though the book hasn't been released to the public yet, 20th Century Fox has already scooped the movie rights.

So here's the deal:

We're so excited about this book, we're going to start giving it away for free! We have several copies available to be won through the TEENS CREATE portion of this website.

There are two ways to submit an entry:

1) Create an image of the weird and wonderful. You're free to use digital photo-editing tools, but why not try playing around with perspective and exposure the way the Victorians used to? They loved things like carnival freak shows, fairies, and the paranormal.

2) Write a limerick as a caption to one of the photos in the image above! For example:

"There once was a man so balding,

That the back of his head was appaling.

He'd cover it with paint

(which attractive, it ain't)

and it earned him some awful name-calling."

Believe me, it won't be hard to write one that's better than that.

Once you've created your entry, all you have to do is log-in to TEENS CREATE, and upload your image or your limerick. Make sure you indicate somewhere in the title that it's an entry for "The fReAkY cRaZy Contest".

The contest closes June 16th, so you have about two weeks to get cracking. Once we have all of your submissions, we'll enter them in the draw for the book prizes. We'll inform everyone shortly after that who the winners are!

And just in case you guys need some paranormalic, steam-punky, or down-right creepy reads to tide you over until this one comes out, check out these:

Hey all!

CPL’s Movie Maniacs Blog is holding a contest giving away free tickets to KUNG FU PANDA 2!! All you have to do is follow this link to the Movie Maniacs page, where they ask you to leave a comment naming any ONE person who voice-acted in the first movie (it’s almost TOO easy). Don’t forget to leave a name and number they can reach you at!

Eric Walters is coming to Calgary Public Library on April 15th!

To celebrate, we're giving away a free copy of his recent book Shaken.

To win, be the 3rd person to email cplteenservices@gmail.com and name 4 books written by Eric Walters!

"Beastly", the new movie starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer was released Friday, ranking 3rd in Box Office Hits for the weekend. If you haven't heard already, it's the modern re-telling of 'Beauty and the Beast', and it's getting some really great reviews. What's more, all our copies (and E-Copies) of the original book keep whizzing off the shelves, so put yours on hold now!

CPL's TeenZone Blog, Movie Maniacs Blog and Interact PR are teaming up to bring you one 'beast' of a contest to celebrate the release of the movie!

To win one of our book prizes, just comment on this blog post with the title of one OTHER novel by 'Beastly' author Alex Flinn, which you can find through the library catalogue. Make sure to leave your full name (the one you use for your Library Card) so we can contact you and get you your prize!

You can also come to Crowfoot Library, Shawnessy Library, or the 2nd Floors at Central and Fish Creek Libraries this weekend (March 11-13), to pick up some cool 'Beastly' swag, including posters, notebooks, and some phenomenal bag charms! Come to the desk and say "BEASTLY" -- prizes will be given out on a first come, first served basis.