The library will be closed at all locations on Friday, January 24th (Staff Development/In Service Day.) Operations will resume on Saturday, January 25th at both Beech St. and Benton locations.

The library's temporary locations are at the Beech Street Center and the E.C. Benton Library. For more information, including hours of operation, please click here.

Category: Teens

Book Review: Supernova

Posted on by Maya Escobar

Supernova by Marissa Meyer

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Supernova is the last book of the Renegades trilogy. The Renegades are a faction created to restore order to Gatlon city by capturing villain anarchists whose goal is to wreak havoc. It is good to note that most Renegades and Anarchists hold different superpowers. The story revolves around Nova Artino who holds two identities. She is a member of the Renegades but secretly works undercover for the Anarchists in spite of revenge for killing her family (well, according to her perspective). 

Although Nova clearly seems to side with the Anarchists at this point, her feelings about the situation get even more complicated when she develops an affection for Adrian Everhart, a dedicated Renegade, who also happens to be a sentinel, or one that operates outside of the Renegade’s jurisdiction. 

As the story progresses, the Renegades and Anarchists begin fighting over the Ace helmet, a super helmet that amplifies superpowers. It becomes the main point of the story as Nova is tasked to retrieve it for the Anarchists. She does so, but not easily. In the end she successfully returns the helmet to the Anarchists.

These events push the Anarchists and Renegades into a massive battle in which just as the Anarchist leader is about to be executed, the Anarchists come in clutch and pull off a convincing victory against the Renegade forces. Many Renegades also end up losing their powers and dying. Surely a massive blow. How can they get back up?

Adrian is also taken captive in the aftermath of this battle. In order to retrieve him, the Renegades march to the Anarchist base. The anarchists demand that the Renegade captain drink a potion (that ends up not harming him) in exchange for Adrian. The Renegade captain accepts but the Anarchists still don’t return Adrian. Nova, who was working along with the Anarchists at this time, is tasked with killing Adrian. This is also where her double identity is revealed to the Renegades. The Renegades explain to Nova that the Anarchists killed her family and not the Renegades. Learning this truth, Nova sides with the Renegades in a final battle that permanently defeats the Anarchist forces.

This book was entertaining to read due to the sheer amount of action and battle scenes. However, some sections of the book dragged too much on trivial details that did not contribute much to the plot. While the superhero genre is quite typical, the book approaches it in a unique way to create a different experience. It is also nice that the main character holds a double identity since it contributes so much to the complexity and messages of this book. The themes of betrayal and loyalty are presented very nicely at the resolution and the book ends convincingly.

However, this book did have several downsides to it. Superpowers were obtained through traumatic experiences and lost in dumb ways. While the story is not supposed to be realistic, I think this is taking things too far out of the realm of sensible things. My biggest concern reading this book was that Nova could never figure out who truly killed her family and then just believed the Renegades at the end. That was the one big unconvincing scene in the story.

I would recommend this book to young readers who enjoy action-packed stories with intricate character dynamics. While not the pinnacle of the genre, it offers a fun and engaging experience that many will find enjoyable. 

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 7/15/24.

Death Knell: A Shadowdark RPG Megadungeon 2024

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

A bell tolls throughout the seven realms, bringing with it a fear of the unknown and a quivering dread that chills all mortals’ bones. A mysterious dungeon island has appeared, a dark peak in what was once open oceans. United for the first time in centuries, the nations of Regnis send heroes to explore its depths and the dark secrets–or treasures–within.

Join us for this is a virtual Shadowdark RPG Megadungeon, with rules based on traditional D&D 1st Edition, and using Discord and Owlbear.rodeo. Players can explore a vast new dungeon level each week (from June 26 – July 31) with Game Masters from across the country. Open to ages 13-21. Limited registration, so act fast!

Book Review: Almond

Posted on by Maya Escobar

Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn

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As a huge fan of global literature, Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn no doubt comes to mind
when I think of my all-time favorite books. I read this book around three years ago and was
immediately struck by its prose, plot, and engaging yet simple storyline. In that vein, this book
was incredibly easy to read and I was able to finish it in two days.

Almond follows the story of a boy named Yunjae from childhood to adolescence. The
unique point of the story comes from Yunjae’s brain condition called alexithymia, which makes
it near impossible for him to feel emotions like fear, anger, and happiness. Due to his condition,
Yunjae spends most of his childhood in the company of his Mother and Grandmother who
attempt to teach him how to function in society despite his condition.

The rest of the book follows Yunjae’s complicated relationships he forms in school. Most
notably, one with his friend Gon. Through this friendship, Yunjae’s emotional range is
broadened as his world expands with new experiences and social situations. He faces tragedy
when both his Mother and Grandmother are victims of random violence. Yet, this experience
teaches Yunjae about his emotions and deepens his relationship with Gon.

To me, the plot of this book was beautifully simple in the way that it felt relatable and
interesting. The dialogue was easy to follow, and each character felt distinctive and highly
developed. The book is broken up into three parts representing major plot or character shifts, this
kept me engaged as a reader and worked nicely with the flow of the story.

My favorite element of this book was the friendship between Yunjae and Gon. This
relationship felt very natural and their dialogue reminded me of friendships in my own life. The
two characters have conflicting personalities; Yunjae is shy and cold, Gon is outgoing and
emotional. This makes their friendship very dynamic and interesting to read about as you are
able to see the ways they push each other out of their comfort zones and complement each other's
personalities.

However, I felt that the second half of the book lost some of the quality that the
beginning had. The book begins to center Gon’s development and focuses on a storyline that felt
a bit rushed and random. This new plot involves Yunjae having to rescue Gon from a violent
gang. However, it felt as though this conflict came out of nowhere and became a bit confusing.
Still, I loved this book overall and consider it one of my favorites. I would recommend it
to anyone who feels stuck in a reading slump as it is very easy to read. I also would recommend

it to anyone who loves character-driven stories and simple plots. Moreover, the book has
beautiful descriptions and dialogue, it feels like any line from the book is a memorable quote.
One of my personal favorites is this one:

“From what I understood, love was an extreme idea. A word that seemed to force
something undefinable into the prison of letters. But the word was used so easily, so often.
People spoke of love so casually, just to mean the slightest pleasure or thanks.”

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 4/14/24.

Book Review: Out of Darkness

Posted on by Maya Escobar

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

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Historical fiction books to me are considered to be one of the best genres out there. It allows authors to take pieces of history and turn them into personal stories that tell the story of those who came before. Out of the Darkness is a novel by Ashley Hope Pérez that beautifully lives up to what a historical fiction book should be.

This story is based around the historical event of the 1937 New London School explosion. The story begins with a young Mexican-American teenager, Naomi Vargas, and her two younger twin siblings, Carrie and Beto. In September of 1937, they are forced to move from their loving but poor home with their grandparents in San Antonio to New London, Texas to live with the twins’ father and Naomi’s stepfather, Henry Smith.

Henry had previously been with Naomi and the twins’s mother, Estella, but then left her while she was dying due to false pregnancies, a side effect from Henry’s abuse towards Estella. Naomi was also abused by Henry and is uncertain about living with him. The twins go to school at the New London School while Naomi stays at home doing household chores and longing to leave Texas and Henry.

However, this sadness takes a turn when Naomi and the twins meet Wash Fuller, an African-American teen around Naomi’s age living in the segregated area in New London, Egypt town. The four bond over feelings of being an outsider in a primarily white town. Soon enough, Wash and Naomi also fall in love, and enjoy their time together with the twins.

While life is getting better for the Vargas, the universe seems to have other plans. Henry slowly becomes more abusive and controlling towards Naomi and the twins. He desperately wants all of them to feel like a family so in order to do this, he proposes that him and Naomi get married. Naomi is shocked by Henry’s proposition and is also scared that once they get married, she could never see Wash again and never leave Texas.

To prevent this from happening, she makes a plan with Wash to leave for Mexico with the twins, and hide away from Henry. In an unfortunate turn of events, Carrie killed during the New London School explosion, creating a non-sealable hole in the Vargas family, and prompting Henry to push even more for the marriage. Just as Wash, Naomi, and Beto prepare to finally leave for Mexico along with Wash’s family, Henry finds out their plan.

Angered by the betrayal from his own family, Henry kills Wash and forces Beto to kill Naomi. After being forced to kill his own sister, Beto then shoots Henry, ending the source of pain and suffering and destroying the only connection to his broken family. At the end of the book, Beto leaves for Mexico with Wash’s family and lives out the rest of his childhood with his grandparents.

I am and will forever be awed by this book. It is truly remarkable, and the author did an amazing job crafting such a beautiful, meaningful story that teaches a lot about family and gives us an insight into what segregation was like in the late 1930s in Texas. I especially like how the author went deep into each and every one of the characters and gave them special story of their own that makes the readers feel even more connected to them.

Although this story included a lot of difficult topics, like sexual abuse and segregation in the south during that time, the author wrote this book in a way that kind of showed the reader how important it was to talk about these topics because it made the story what it is and provided a deep depth into the book overall. Out of scale of 10, this book deserves a 100 because it is truly amazing and it is a true work of art. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and I would definitely read another book by this author.

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 2/23/24
To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at askbelmont[email protected].

Book Review: The Murder Game

Posted on by Maya Escobar

The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle

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I am a big fan of murder mystery books. I love the suspense, thrill, and excitement that comes with it, and how these books always leave you guessing at the edge of your seat until the end. So imagine my excitement when I received The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle as a gift from a friend last Christmas. I was beyond myself, ready to indulge in another great book.

However, as much as I like murder mystery books, to me, this one didn’t necessarily start off on a great foot. Now, I have to admit part of that is due to the fact that the story needed to build up the background first, but I felt like the place where the author started was in a pretty odd spot.

So to explain, our main character Luke Chase, the famous survivor of a kidnapping, and his trouble marker but best friend, Oscar. They are both teenagers who live in a boarding school and one night they sneak out into the woods to meet up with two of their other classmates, Kelsey and Pippa. While in the woods, they hear sounds from nearby adults, and they think they’re caught, so they head back into the boarding school.

The next day, they discovered that one of their teachers, Mrs. Heckler had been murdered. This leads them to believe that the sounds that they heard last night in the woods might have been the sounds of Miss Heckler before she was murdered. Now, I understand that this might have not been an idea starting spot for the book but to me as a reader expecting more from the murder mystery book, I felt like it was pretty slow for the first three or four chapters, and I was really bored. Actually, I almost stopped reading the book.

It wasn’t until a few more chapters later that the book started picking up pace when Luke and Oscar decided to look more into the murder to try to see who murdered Mrs. Heckler. Eventually as the police start looking more to the case, Luke and Oscar become suspects, especially Oscar, who had been known to be a troublemaker. Once they find out that they had been in the woods the same night Mrs. Heckler had been murdered Oscar was framed for the murder. Oscar sent away, and Luke, along with his other classmate, Pippa are determined to prove him innocent, and find out who the real murderer is.

After relentless research, they find out that the murderer was one of their teachers all along, who had been pretending to help them in this case. The teacher even tries to kill Pippa as well while framing another person, but Luke comes to the rescue and prevent this from happening, thus shining light on the true murderer and saving the day, once again.

Throughout this book, I felt like the real action came during the part when they were kind of searching for the murder but when it came to the big finale, they didn’t deliver as much as I’d hoped for. Maybe it was the start or how they ended, but out of a scale of ten, I probably give this book a seven or an eight. I feel like the author could’ve done so much more in the story, like add more action possibly more depth or make the conclusion just a little bit more exciting. After all, we did have all this build up, and for it to come down to a small little scene to conclude the story, it was not impressive at all. So, if you’re a murder mystery loving reader, such as myself, I’d suggest possibly picking up this book if you just want a little fun reading but if you’re really looking for a good story, this might not be cup of tea.

-Review by Teen Volunteer, 2/23/24

To submit a review of your own, email the YA Services Librarian at askbelmont[email protected].

Volunteers Wanted: Eclipse Watch Party!

Posted on by Maya Escobar

03/21/2024

The library is looking for teen volunteers to help at our April 8th Eclipse Watch Party.
When: Monday, April 8. The event is from 1:30* to 4:00PM plus cleanup time.
Where: Town Field, 288 Beech Street (next door the Beech Street Senior Center).
What: Help out with food and craft tables.

*we know you are in school; looking for volunteers any time during this time period.


Email [email protected] to sign up!

CANCELLED Get Ready for Prom

Posted on by Maya Escobar

03/20/2024

Whether it brings to mind Pretty in Pink or Carrie, prom is kind of a big deal. We’re here to help make your big night shine with an afternoon of workshops.
Get a fabulous face with Ann Marie Laurendeau of Anemone Makeup, who will demonstrate makeup techniques. Following the tutorial the Belmont Wellness Coalition will address questions about dating and healthy relationships.

Saturday, April 6
12:00 – 3:00PM
Beech Street Center
266 Beech Street

Space for the makeup tutorial is limited, please register in advance.

Questions? Email [email protected].

Starmoth: A Super Dungeon Recap

Posted on by Lauren Pfendner

08/10/2023

One of our ten major games in the Super Dungeon was Starmoth, a homebrew adventure crafted by volunteer and professional tutor, Dennis Yi. His games had a variety of educational and philosophical ties for his players and he gave permission for the library to share the insights and nerd culture references he posted for his players at the end of the Super Dungeon.

If you would like to play any of the Virtual Escape Rooms designed by this Game Master, see them here!

What is the Starmoth?

  • It’s an evocative name.
  • It’s a species of Althean moth, now endangered due to the destruction of surface ecosystems, whose wings bear a starry pattern that remind people of the lost night sky.
  • It’s an aspect of Throg Below and Peraxa Above, representing the duality of earthly decay and skyward flight.
  • It’s a constellation whose two wings are sometimes identified as two sub-constellations, the dove and the crow.
  • It’s the ghostly green nebula that haunts the night skies of the Serene Sea.
  • It’s a certain Frenchman’s worldbuilding project that serves heavily as inspiration for Dennis’s games.

This short story is a good entry point for the vibe: https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/118yrdx/the_imperial_dream_starmoth/ More core starmoth references: https://starmoth.space/intro/ https://starmoth.space/History/xenohistory/ https://old.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/xr4n7d/the_sequence_starmoth_setting/ Dennis’s Starmoth Sequence is rooted, as far as he believes, in existentialist themes and various neat oddities in linguistics and mathematics.

Language

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is also known as linguistic relativity, the idea that the language we speak shapes thought. For example, while languages across the world have developed color words in the same order, indicating a universal biological constraint behind language, differences in color terms cause differences in color perception. 

Characters

Gerald

Gerald the Shambler and the Gate-Builders as a whole are based on the Sequence from Starmoth, a similar but more terrifying ancient star-spanning empire with a habit of assimilating other civilizations via cultural manipulation. This cross-pollinated with Ella’s ideas to create the Gate-Builders featured in Super Dungeon 3. https://starmoth.space/History/xenohistory/ Gerald took further inspiration from modern AI technology and its weaknesses, such as in Winograd schema and garden path sentences. (See video by Tom Scott: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3vIEKWrP9Q ) Gerald also played Sprouts, a game with deep mathematical grounding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouts_(game)

Hubert and Rupert

Hubert and Rupert, who appeared in this session (but were not named), had personalities inspired by Statler and Waldorf from the muppets and names borrowed from a webcomic, Dresden Codak: https://dresdencodak.com/2005/06/22/rupert-and-hubert/

jan pona

jan pona was originally Kalisa, a sort of gay fey spirit (who instead of being very short-lived does not exist in linear time): https://starmoth.space/ShortStories/chroniclesofthedrive/ https://starmoth.space/History/xenohistory/?post_id=160&title=ladies-that-wander

radioactive pseudopenguins

The radioactive pseudopenguins are borrowed directly from Starmoth. https://old.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/sapamk/the_penguins_are_radioactive/

Week 2: Nirenberg on Nauvis

The planet of Nauvis, including the maps and enemies, is from Factorio, a factory-builder game featuring angry bug wildlife. The theme here was of biotechnological evolution, not as an observation but as an imperative. See also synthetic biology and utility fog. Nirenberg was the decipherer of the 64 genetic codons. The puzzles were based on DNA coding, starting with real DNA codons and moving on to a fictional triple-helix genetic substrate molecule. “Hello world” is a computer science tradition, while “int main” is common in C-like programming languages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)

Week 3: Anansi’s Bottle

The Vlotians took inspiration from Starmoth’s Vriij. Their philosophy reflects the self-negating aspect of Buddhism. https://starmoth.space/History/xenohistory/?post_id=137&title=vriij- Candor, the Drow, mixes eastern meditative traditions into Drow dream-quests. Various tech items reference Star Trek, such as EPS conduits and Holodeck. The video game FTL: Faster Than Light contributed ship tokens and the ship interior map, while Babylon 5 gave the Gate-Builder ship image. The space combat scene and Firebase-Class battleship IPCS In Your Heart Shall Burn were adapted from Starmoth’s short story “Assault on Draugr”, though that had a happier ending. https://starmoth.space/History/humanhistory/?post_id=200&title=assault-on-draugr Certain Prophecy is a Covenant ship from Halo, while Inspiral, Coalescence, Ringdown was named for a ship from the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. The ambiguity puzzle about using each word in two different ways was flavored as a neural network training evaluation. It was borrowed from a book by Alex Bellos. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/oct/31/test-your-wits-with-a-book-of-ingenious-language-puzzles The puzzle about connecting cables was the three utilities problem, on a torus. Anansi’s Bottle, of course, references the tale of how Anansi spilled all the wisdom in the world. https://mythologyexplained.com/anansi-the-spider/

Week 4: Nephila

Nephila is a genus of orb-weaver spiders and a reference to Eriophora, the gate-builder asteroid-ship in the Sunflowers cycle by Peter Watts. The Island is a good introduction to the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila https://rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterWatts_TheIsland.pdf The Oberth Kuiper maneuver at the beginning of the session was a reference to an xkcd comic: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1244:_Six_Words jan pona’s sunsurfing minigame used rules borrowed from a board game, Triplanetary. http://www.sjgames.com/triplan/ The psychoanalytic dream sequence was inspired by puzzle video game Baba is You and lucid dreams. The speech and dreams of the ship itself were inspired by the hybrids from Battlestar Galactica.

Week 5: The Two Vlotias

The minigame puzzle about trying to cut off the waystation connections before the Mold reached Vlotia was the Shannon switching game. The map started out as a stargate map from Eve Online, which also provided many of my ship, planet, and background images. The story continues to borrow from the Starmoth’s Vriij. During the session I also referenced Star Trek, specifically Deep Space 9. The Gate-Builders in general mix the Federation’s culture and the Borg’s technology. Real-life biology featured this week includes manta ray intelligence, hydras’ indefinite regeneration, and octopuses dying after they’ve hatched their eggs.

Week 6: The Sporangium Eye

Monday’s session was pure toki pona, with lessons abbreviated from jan Misali’s 12 days of learning toki pona. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOmpMyMxd8T9lZjF36c4mn4YgwZ4ToT6 The story at the end of the tigers and the strawberries was a Zen koan. https://www.feelingoodfeelingreat.com/2014/08/07/tigers-strawberries/ https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-tiger-and-the-strawberry-b73de1dccf19

The farstation and its builder, the Iconoclast Seeker, was inspired by the Avid Watcher, a Sovereign from Starmoth. For images, I used XCOM’s gatekeeper. https://starmoth.space/History/xenohistory/?post_id=251&title=sequence-sovereigns

Final session puzzles:

  1. An adaptation of Set, the card game.
  2. Elder Futhark runes
  3. Two layers: Morse code, a Vigenere cipher.
  4. Rebus
  5. Silly phonetic misspellings, a la https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti. See also Mark Twain’s Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling. https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.html
  6. ASCII with parity for error correction and data reconstruction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_bit
  7. Masyu https://www.puzzle-masyu.com/

Philosophy

I referenced a number of philosophies in my games. jan pona references Taoism and Zen. Where jan pona trends towards Existentialism, the black hole cult (singularity patron) seen in Aeidolon’s games trends towards Nihilism, as do the Vlotians with the negative side of Buddhism. Gerald the Shambler expresses something between Modernism and Postmodernism. Another way to see the typology of my characters is via the Vinegar tasters: On realizing existence has no inherent meaning, jan pona is at peace, Rupert and Hubert laugh (philosophical laughter: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/355), the Singularity-worshippers are in terror, and Vlotians are bitter. Gerald and the Gate-Builders meanwhile attempt to construct the purpose of life as expansionism and infinite growth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_tasters

Music

John Quijada, creator of Ithkuil, has a prog-rock album sung entirely in the language. https://www.youtube.com/@johnquijada2756

jan Usawi is an amazing musician who sings in toki pona. Favorite tracks: “tawa lon linja”, “likujo”, “monsuta”

https://janusawi.bandcamp.com/album/lon https://janusawi.bandcamp.com/album/7-8 https://janusawi.bandcamp.com/track/monsuta

bonus vibe music:

Lorde – Te Ara Tika / The Path (track, in Māori) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmTxdO4LlK4&list=PL7aRhEMqaSuT5lw0h8a4AFZf6dIlxbsg_

M83 – Oblivion (feat Susanne Sundfør) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjpbQ1OWMPE

Eivør – Slør (album, in Faroese) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmu8sVs7o8Q&list=PLiN-7mukU_RHRU-6aKUFnnOUUDiZQQmNx

GUNSHIP – Dark All Day (album) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFkNuoaI3E

Boards of Canada – Trans Canada Highway (EP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrZ88ooxYf4

Redshift – Halo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dE7w046lIA

God is an Astronaut – All is Violent, All is Bright https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUjV_zKX7xk

Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veMONQwn7W8

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