Filed under: Displays
We all have our favorites…beloved books that Hollywood has decided to adapt to the big screen. There have been plenty of well received adaptations (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Jaws, etc.) while others (The Scarlet Letter, Congo ) have been widely criticized. If you stop on by the Castro Valley Library, you’ll see our newest display that highlights all of the wonderful book to screen adaptations. Are you more inclined to experience the swashbuckling adventure of The Three Musketeers as told by Dumas, or the version constructed by Walt Disney Studios? Does Tim Burton’s unique vision of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory hold more appeal to you than that of Roald Dahl? Regardless of format, stop on by and grab some your favorite page to screen titles.
Last Saturday, 23 teens crammed into our meeting room to duke it out with their peers in our Super Mario Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament. This was the largest teen program that we have had since I’ve been here and by far the craziest. Because there were so many teens, we had multiple games going at the same time.
Our 1 on 1 tournament was conducted on a small TV tucked away in the corner of the room. These close quarters provided a tense atmosphere for the teens that chose to participate. After nearly 2 hours of intense battles, and immense trash talking, one teen emerge victorious (playing as Bowser) to capture the 1 on 1 championship.
On our big projector screen, a 4 player free for all proved to be a good relief from the intense 1 on 1 tournament, as the more casual gamer enjoyed the chaos and mayhem of Smash Bros.
Coming October 25th, we will be holding a Madden 09′ tournament on the Nintendo Wii for teens. Please feel free to contact the library to sign up
Filed under: Programs
Last Thursday after our senior services Emergency Preparedness Program, we invited all of our guests into the meeting room in order to experience video game bowling courtesy of the Nintendo Wii. 15 or so curious souls laced up their bowling shoes, grabbed their ball, and stepped onto virtual parquet floor to give it a try. After the first couple of frames in which the participants spent a majority of the time getting a basic feel for the controls and dynamics of the game, they soon became comfortable and were promptly off and rolling (mainly strikes and spares). It was a blast to watch the enthusiasm and interaction between all those who not only played the game, but watched it as well. Due to the amount of positive feedback we received with this little demonstration…
The Castro Valley Library will be holding a Nintendo Wii Bowling for Seniors program on Wednesday, October 1st from 1:00-2:00 pm. If there are any questions regarding this program, please contact the Castro Valley Library at (510) 670-6280
On Saturday, racers buckled up for almost 2 hours of shell shooting, mushroom zooming, high octane action as local teens challenged eachother in our Mario Kart Tournament. The action was fast and furious as the teens battled it out, 1 on 1, in a best of 3 competition before advancing to the next round. The “Moo Moo Meadows” and “Rainbow Road” courses proved to be the most popular choice amongst courses, the latter of which often offered very entertaining races due to the fact that the racers kept falling off of the track and plunging to their doom.
When the tournament was over we set up some 4 player racing action that was an absolute blast. There was a lot of hoot and hollering and playful trash talking, and if the noise coming from the room was any indication, everybody had a lot of fun.
This month’s LEGO club theme was “robots” and judging by the weaponry on this month’s winner, you could say he blew away the competition. Here we have Nicholas with his robot creation “The Devastator.” As you can tell this robot is packing serious heat. According to Nicholas, among “The Devastator’s” many enemy robot obliterating weapons are a gatling gun, a laser gun, 2 laser cannons, a heavy duty cannon, a hunter killer missle, and for good measure, a power saw that can cut through robot steel like it was aluminum. Add to this “The Devastator’s” 10 inch titanium armor and “jump jets” and this is one robot you shouldn’t mess with.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Join us on June 28th for our next LEGO club where our theme will be “Around Town.” What does your town have…a fire station, a post office, a movie theater? Build any building that you would see “around town” and share it with others on June 28th
On Saturday, the library invited Jimi Hendrix’s in training to test their faux guitar playing skills in our Guitar Hero III Tournament. The crowd was treated to a full on rock experience as each “gig” consisted of 2 players battling it out trading crunching guitar chords and soaring solos in an effort to acquire the most points. The final showdown pitted 2 highly skilled competitors, Andrew(left) and Elis(right) in an epic rockfest, as both shredded their way through Dragonforce’s 8 minute opus “Through the Fire and Flames”…on EXPERT!!!!! Both were neck and neck throughout the entire song until Elis captured the title of Guitar Hero III champion with one scintillating riff and the very end to put him over the top. With the crowd rising to its feet with a thunderous ovation and calling for an encore, the humble rockers did what every good musician does…leave the crowd waiting for more. Thanks to everyone who participated…we’ll see you on tour next year!!!
Last Saturday, Castro Valley Library LEGO club members and race enthusiasts descended upon Children’s Moving Up Area Speedway to pit their highly creative and unique race cars against each other. It was a highly competitive field consisting of 16 entrants with each race being a best of 3 contest. The highlight of the competition was an epic series of races pitting brother against brother. Both cars were so evenly matched that we had to have 6 races to determine a winner because we had 3 ties. Eventually a winner was crowned in the “brothers” showdown and this winner went on to capture the championship of the Children’s Moving Up Area Cup !!! When all was said and done everybody involved had a good time and half the fun was checking out other people’s creative car designs. Be sure to come to our next LEGO club meeting on Monday, March 24th from 2:00-3:00. Our theme will be space vehicles…hope to see you there
On Saturday, we had our Holiday Gifts in a Jar program. Local teens dropped in to create a festive, layered, quick pour cookie mix that they could give to a loved one for the holidays. The recipe of the day was an oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie mix which seemed to be a hit with the participants. Towards the end of the program we hovered on the brink of a small chocolate chip crisis, as our stockpile sunk dangerously low (I attribute this to a combination of a rather liberal usage of chocolate chips in their recipe, and some extracurricular “taste testing” of the product) When it was all said and done, we survived the shortage, and everybody had a good time and went home with a great looking (and hopefully tasting) gift.
October 14-20 is a busy week for us here at the Castro Valley Library. That’s because it’s Teen Read Week. Come on in and check out our Teen Read Week display, where you’ll find an eclectic collection of books aimed for teens. Everything from graphic novels, to popular teen fiction, to the “classics” that are assigned in school, is just waiting here to be checked out.
Also for teens, this Saturday, October 20th from 2:00-4:00 we will be hosting a Dreams Interpretation workshop which will be led by local Renaissance man Steve Klitzing. In this program teens (and adults) can have the mysteries of their dreams unraveled. Does your constant dreaming of Brad Pitt mean he’s going to leave Angelina for you? Is that dream where you’re falling down an endless pit a sign of impending doom? Bring 1 personal dream to the program and Mr. Klitzing will help you to analyze and better understand your dream.
In what will be a continuous monthly program, we held our 1st Teen Open Mic on Monday. Teens from the local Castro Valley high schools we’re invited to share their own music, art, comedic stylings, poetry and other written works with their peers. (Poetry and written works were the dominate creative work featured on the 1st night. These works covered a wide variety of topics including nature, race, love, friendship, and even the transformation of a beloved childhood park as the years rolled by) Between 15-20 teens showed up for the program, roughly half of which braved an audience composed of their peers, a couple of local teachers, and even a family, to share their creation with everybody. Castro Valley High School Senior Ryden Ishida (pictured), who is a major creative force behind this venture, kicked off the festivities by reading a poem he had created. All in all, everyone in attendance seemed to have a good time, and we look forward to seeing these and other talented teens at future open mic events.
Our Teen Open Mic Program will be held the 1st Monday of every month (that means next one is Nov. 5th), from 7.00-8.00 p.m. in the Castro Valley Meeting Room. We invite teens to come on by and check it out.
Castro Valley Library 