Ahoy, Mateys!

And Avast, and Arr, and all those other great words beginning with that particular vowel. As our title does say NEWS and reviews, we thought this was an appropriate week to include a little of the former.

If you don't immediately know what is so exciting and newsworthy about this week, we are amazed, appalled, and aghast, but will attempt to advise you with some alacrity (ain't the thesaurus grand? er...amazing?). This Saturday is, of course, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, that fun-filled holiday for young and old that began in a backyard and leapt to the international scene with the assistance of one of our all-time favorite authors, Dave Barry.

There is still time for your library to cobble together a quick display of pirate books, or for your kids to plan a backyard treasure hunt this weekend (and for you older folks...well, as this is a family-type blog, we will refer you to talklikeapirate.com for some inspiration!) Our library likes to pair it up with Banned Books Week - books being treasures, of course, and challenged books being buried treasures...get it? Okay, we never claimed to be wits.

Tonight our monthly Teen Cafe will of course be pirate themed. As we type, there are already teens changing into pirate garb in the restrooms for our costume contest. The meeting room is set up with four 'ships' (tables). The teens will divide themselves into four teams of pirates (numbers are flexible) and begin by designing a pirate flag. Judging from some of the artwork and Youtube videos we have seen in the past, these could get interesting.

We will then have a scavenger hunt through the library, finding books on the most challenged lists. (See what we did there? In one move we have a) kept the kids busy with minimal effort on our part, b) made the event book-related to satisfy the crotchety old folks, and c) made someone else pull all the books for our Banned Books Week display. Are we good, or what?)

Finally...and here is where Miss Ami, the YS Librarian, is showing she is running out of ideas...we will explore some of the less desirable characteristics of pirates. Namely, their willingness to do anything for a bit of treasure, and their...smell.

Yes, pirates are not known for smelling terribly pretty, and frankly, neither are teenage boys. We are going to strew the floor with jewels (colored stones), which they must pick up and carry back to their ship, where they will be exchanged for candy. Oh, but they must be picked up and carried the entire way with...their toes. What can we say, it's easy, it's silly, and we have a very forgiving group of teens, who will do just about anything for food.

Speaking of food, we have of course grog (varying sodas), cannonballs (Whoppers and I don't know how to do the little trademark thingy, but you know it is), sea salt and vinegar chips, wooden legs (pretzels), planks (graham cracker sticks), eye patches (fudge Oreos), gold doubloons (flavored rice cakes), and our token healthy snack, scurvy salad (cut up Granny Smith apples and limes. Five bucks says the boys do strange things with the limes, and I end up taking apples home to the guinea pig.)

If we can get parental permission, we will try posting some pictures. In the meantime, let us know what you have planned for the big day, or if your mother/husband/boss is a spoilsport, just give us your favorite piratical quote from book or movie. More to come later!