Club Draws Teens Into Reading

By Judy Hertfelder

Are you in seventh or eighth grade? Do you like reading? Do you like art? If you answered yes to one of these questions, then The Book and Art Club could be for you. The Book and Art Club was founded in November 2004 by two very bored teenage girls who answered yes to all the above questions.
I bet you’re wondering what the Club is. Each member of the club nominates a theme and then we vote. Then we research that theme by reading books, magazines, and internet articles. After that we meet again and decide how we are going to put what we learned into art. We go home, finish our art projects, come back to the library, and display our projects in the young adult section.
Our main goal is to find themes that Mariposa teens will find interesting so they will check out more books. So far we have reached our goal. We always welcome new members. If you want to join, go to the front desk at the Mariposa County Library and ask about the Book and Art Club or call, (209) 966-3409 and ask for Judy.

Best Books Picks

By Susie & Paula Hertfelder

We have discovered the Harry Potter series by British novelist J.K. Rowling are some of the most exciting, wonderful, and inspiring novels we have ever read. So far in the series there are five books. The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out July 16. The Series will be complete with the seventh Harry Potter. The first three of the Harry Potter books have been made into movies, and the fourth will be coming out this year.
The first book in the Harry Potter series is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry Potter is famous in the wizarding world. Harry doesn’t even know he is famous, or even that he is a wizard. Since the age of one Harry has been raised by his muggle aunt and uncle and tormented by his cousin, Dudley. Harry’s Aunt Petunia and his uncle Vernon hate magic of all kinds, so they tell Harry that his mother and father died in a car crash. But this is not the truth. Harry’s parents were murdered by
the most evil wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort tried to murder Harry, but the curse did not work, and Lord Voldemort’s powers were vanquished. Harry gets accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets Voldemort again. Voldemort tries to steal the sorcerer’s stone, a stone that will turn any metal into pure gold, and that produces the elixir of life, a drink that will make you live forever. Voldemort must not get the stone….
(To be continued)