Z by Michael Ford

The Hunger Games Central

'The Hunger Games' Central
May 18 2011 02:55 PM ET


This Week's Cover: First look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in 'The Hunger Games' -- EXCLUSIVE
by EW staff
Categories: Exclusive First Look, The Hunger Games, This Week's Cover


Fans of The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins’ terrifically urgent dystopian trilogy about children forced to fight to the death — have always been protective of 16-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen. So when Lionsgate and director Gary Ross announced that they had cast 20-year-old Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) in the lead role, the community was thrown into an inevitable tailspin. Was she too old, too blonde, too pale, too pretty to do the gritty warrior girl justice? In this week’s cover story, EW was granted an exclusive interview with a newly brunette Lawrence, and spent hours watching her train on a Los Angeles archery range and track, just days before she was due on the North Carolina set.

In a free-wheeling interview, Lawrence describes her first encounter with Ross last winter, during the height of Oscar season. “He was asking me what the experience was like,” she recalls, “and I just kind of opened up and said, ‘I feel like a rag doll. I have hair and makeup people coming to my house every day and putting me in new, uncomfortable, weird dresses and expensive shoes, and I just shut down and raise my arms up for them to get the dress on, and pout my lips when they need to put the lipstick on.’ And we both started laughing because that’s exactly what it’s like for Katniss in the Capitol. She was a girl who’s all of a sudden being introduced to fame. I know what that feels like to have all this flurry around you and feel like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t belong here.’”

When Lawrence was offered the role, she describes her response as a mixture of elation — and desperate anxiety. “I knew that as soon as I said yes, my life would change,” she says. “And I walked around an entire day thinking ‘It’s not too late, I could still go back and do indies, I haven’t said yes yet, it’s not too late.’”

And yet, who can turn their back on Katniss? “I love this story,” she says, “and if I had said no, I would regret it every day.” After officially signing on, Suzanne Collins herself called to offer a starstruck Lawrence her most hearty congratulations. “I feel like when you said yes,” the author told her, “the world got lifted off my shoulders.”

For more on The Hunger Games, including photos of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and a guide to the film’s other characters, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands May 20.

Warner Bros. Plans The Lost Years of Merlin

Source: The Hollywood Reporter , TA Barron May 16, 2011


Warner Bros. is moving forward with a feature film adaptation of T.A. Barron's young adult series The Lost Years of Merlin, says a story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Designed as a 12-book series, newcomer Ed Whitworth is set to adapt the first chapter for the screen, potentially establishing a feature film franchise based on a young version of the wizard from Arthurian legend.

"A raging sea tosses a boy upon the shores of ancient Wales," begins the novel's official description, "Left for dead, he has no memory, no name, and no home. But it is his determination to find out who he is—to learn the truth about his mysterious powers—that leads him to a strange and enchanted land. And it is there he discovers that the fate of this land and his personal quest are strangely entwined."

The film version will be produced by Donald De Line (Yogi Bear, Green Lantern) and appears to be a separate project from the Merlin film in development at Working Title, announced late last year.

www.comingsoon.net


Dotti Enderle
***
CROSSWIRE (Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek)
*Texas Institute of Letters Young Adult Award Recipient
*June Franklin Naylor Children's Book Award Recipient
*WWA Spur Award Finalist
www.dottienderle.com

Coming Soon--The Aura

Check back to see our new literary magazine created by our Creative Writing Club!!

Plague by Michael Grant

Plague is the fifth of the Gone Series about a group of young adults with supernatural powers, who are forced to take sides among peers while trapped in FAYZ, a world created by the young autistic Peter. Morality and logic have ceased to work after FAYZ forces a disastrous onslaught of attacks upon its residents. Edilio has been elected head of the council, but the real leader is Sam, and his (reluctant) girlfriend Astrid. A teenage couple at odds in the FAYZ, their actual relationship is far from what either of them had hoped.

A page turner at every word as a new breed of parasite, persistently impenetrable, voracious, and breeding by the minute, is on the move. Its main targets are the residents of FAYZ. The Plague sneaks in from outside the city bringing a death cough, the severity of which can propel its occupant through the air. With the threats growing ever nearer, the council and its members struggle to keep the FAYZ, and themselves, alive.

As with most of the other Gone novels, this book is fast paced and each page causes the reader to want more. Don't even bother to start here if you're new. If you're a veteran, this is a perfect addition.

Rating 5 out of 5

Reading Next: I Am Number Four

Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

Sacie Lloyd's novel The Carbon Diaries 2015 provides a unique insight into what the world could be like in the near future. The novel follows the story of Laura Brown, a teenager in the soon to be London learning to deal with energy rationing in the midst of drastic climate changes and extreme weather damages. While dealing with the physical and emotional strains this places on her and her family, she must also find a way to complete her education , deal with teachers who don't seem to understand the pressures she is facing, hold her band together, and find a way to get the boy next door to realize she is interested in him. Facing dangers and challenges that seem extreme now, she begins to realize the gravity of the ecological situation her world is now facing.

The novel provides an interesting and entertaining read; however, there is an obvious political bias and message that becomes repetitive throughout. Lloyd's passion for environmental issues comes through clearly in her writing as she spreads an important warning about what could happen if we continue to ignore the damages being done our ecosystem. While this message is important, the repetitive nature of the novel can be a turn off

This review is from Amazon. I must admit as hard as I tried, I could not get through this book. It was extremely repetitive and the message was received in the first few chapters.


Rating 1 out of 5

Reading now: Plague by Michael Grant

FIGHT LIBRARY CUTS

Andrew.Roraback@cga.ct.gov 800 842 1421 Malloy 800 405 1527
Clark.Chapin@cga.ct.gov 800 842 1423

GOVERNOR MALLOY ‘S BUDGET PLAN B WILL ELIMINATE FUNDING FOR
State Library & Archives, ICONN, CCAR, State Service Centers and Connecticut Library Consortium.

If the State Library Goes Away there will be no more:
State Law Library
State Archives (dating back from 1631)
Genealogy and Ct History
Library for Blind and Handicapped
State Library website resources for CT
Federal Documents Collection
State Document
Premier Research collections
Connecticut Newspaper Collection
ICONN
Statewide Catalog/interlibrary loan
Connecticut Library Consortium
State aerial surveys
State records center
Federal library funds
Transporting library materials between libraries
Free borrowing from any library
State aid to public libraries
Public library construction grants
Library service centers
Training, consulting and professional resources for library staff statewide
Public library statistics
Large print collections
Downloadable books
Summer reading resources
Access to legislative histories
Indexing for legislative materials
Digitized images of Ct
Digital state publications
Video archive
PUBLIC RECORDS of ct
Historical Probate record books and files
Historic documents preservation grants
Historical programming in schools
Resources for teachers

WHO WILL BE AFFECTED
ANYONE USING PUBLIC LIBRARY
Blind and physically handicapped,
Lawyers
Students, teachers
Librarians
Genealogists
Researchers
State agencies
Legislators
Town Clerks
Historical societies etc etc
WHAT IS LOST
Access to government info
Ability to use any library in state
Historical record of state and municipal gov.
Cooperative resource sharing
Blind and physically handicapped library service
ICONN
Training
Cost benefits of cooperative purchasing
Ability for environmental impact reviews
Ability to complete commercial private phase one reviews for mortgages and land development.

39 Clues--the movie

Brett Ratner Finds The 39 Clues

Source: Deadline

May 9, 2011



Brett Ratner has signed on to direct The 39 Clues for DreamWorks, Deadline reports.

First announced for adaptation in 2008 with an eye for Steven Spielberg to direct, the film will be based on a series of young adult books, collectible cards and an online game. Combined, the multi-tiered experience tells the tale of the Cahills, the most powerful family the world has ever known. Their source of power is a mystery that can only be unraveled by assembling 39 clues hidden around the world and throughout history.

Ratner, whose last major theatrical release was 2007's Rush Hour 3, is currently preparing his next project, Tower Heist for release on November 4th. He was also recently rumored to be up for the adaptation of the Radical Comic book series Hercules: The Thracian Wars.





Dotti Enderle

* * *

CROSSWIRE (Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek)

* Texas Institute of Letters Young Adult Award Recipient

* June Franklin Naylor Award for Best Children’s Book on Texas History

* WWA Spur Award Finalist

www.dottienderle.com

ARC Giveaway~Dreams of Significant Girls!

I have 1 ARC Copy of Dreams of Significant Girls by Christina Garcia set to be released July 2011 up for grabs. Please see giveaway rules/how to enter below.

Summary: Brought together each summer at a boarding school in Switzerland, three girls learn a lot more than just French and European culture. Shirin, an Iranian princess; Ingrid, a German-Canadian eccentric; and Vivien, a Cuban-Jewish New Yorker culinary phenom, are thrown into eachother's lives when they become roommates. This is a story of 3 paths slowly beginning to cross and merge as they spend the year apart, but the summers together. Through navigating the social-cultural shoals of the school, developing their adolescence, and learning the confusing and conflicting legacies of their families' past, Shirin, Ingrid, and Vivien form an unbreakable bond. Like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, this story takes readers on a journey into the lives of very different girls and the bonds that keep them friends.

http://bookjessicalover85.blogspot.com/2011/05/arc-giveawaydreams-of-significant-girls.html

***GIVEAWAY RULES!***

1. This contest is open to all participants interested that reside in the U.S.
2. Give yourself +1 entry if you are a follower of my blog
3. Give yourself +2 entries if you post about this giveaway somewhere on your blog or on Twitter (please leave a link if you do this).