Summer Short Story Writing Contest!

CCPL’s TEEN Underground presents…

SUMMER SHORT STORY Writing CONTEST!!

Click to enter our teen Summer Reading contest!

WHO:  Charleston County residents ages 12 to 18.

 WHAT: Your fabulous writing. Send us your very best short story. It should be a complete story written in 1,000 to 8,000 words. Here’s the rub: Your story must involve a library. Any library. Anywhere. In any manner, large or small. But your story must include the word library at least twice.

Want a little camaraderie for this adventure? Join the Underground Writers club on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Main Library.

WHEN:  Deadline for submissions is August 10. DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 22!

Love dogs?

Well, good news: the Dog Days of Summer are here at CCPL!

Palmer's Picks: Wise Child by Monica Furlong

Hi guys! My name's Palmer, and I work in the Young Adult Services department of the Charleston County Public Library. I love graphic novels, root beer floats and thunderstorms (and flip glasses). I also love finding truly awesome books and sharing them with you avid readers! Remember to click on any title to put it on hold.

Wise Child

By Monica Furlong

If you’re like me, you’ve spent a good amount of time sitting in class or studying for tests, bored out of your mind and desperately wishing that school was a whole lot more like Hogwarts.“I’d be acing this class if it was Defense Against the Dark Arts,” you might’ve thought while trying not to drift off to sleep. "Writing a paper on ways to ward off werewolves is way more interesting than studying stupid plant cells! And why can’t I be learning how to make love potions instead of memorizing the dumb ol’ periodic table?”

Trust me, I understand.

Wise Child

The idea of a magical education is something that has filled me with longing ever since I began reading the Harry Potter series. Something I hadn’t imagined, however, was the kind of magical education the late Monica Furlong brings to life in Wise Child--something I like to call "magical homeschooling."

Instead of attending a magical academy housed in a sprawling castle and modeled largely after the English private boarding school system, Wise Child, the heroine of Furlong’s book of the same name, is taken in by her village’s resident healer and (suspected) witch when her father fails to return from a long voyage on the high seas. Living with Juniper means a whole new world of education and responsibility for Wise Child (the local nickname for youngsters who are a little too clever for their own good).

The magical homeschooling in Wise Child is a bit of far cry from the Divination and Charms classes that fill the days of the students at Hogwarts. Juniper’s particular brand of magic is something a touch more realistic--that is, she emphasizes the study of herbs and their properties, the value of learning to speak and write in English and Latin, and familiarizing oneself with the movement of the stars.

Teens Review Books for Teens

You Review:

Welcome to the place where teens review books just for teens. Email teenunderground@ccpl.org if you want to review, too! Click on any title to put the book on hold at your favorite CCPL branch, and be sure to comment at the end.

Windblowne

Windblowne
By Stephen Messer

You Reviewed by Javari

This book has a really original story line. The main world is all based around kites. Oliver, the central character, is a boy who lives in a land where people are obsessed with flying kites. But when Oliver tries to fly them, they crash in horrible ways.

Every year, the town of Windblowne has a festival of kites. Oliver really wants to fly a kite with success, but his parents are not helpful. So, when he finds out that his great-uncle Gilbert was once a champion kite flier, Oliver gets his hopes up that he will now be able to fly a kite without being laughed at. But Oliver’s hopes are dashed when Gilbert refuses to help.