(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) September Book of the Month - The Scorch Trials

The second novel in James Dashner's dystopian sci-fi action thriller series is finally hitting the big screen this month! Were the Gladers "rescued"?? Who are the masked and armed men?? What is in the ruined city where the boys and Teresa were brought to?? Who is Paige and is she working for WCKD?? What exactly is "Phase Two"?? Will there be any more of those awful Grievers?? What's with Teresa and Thomas??

We all have these burning questions from the last film and it's high time we get answers for them, don't you think? Although books and the films they spurn usually have some changes that are necessarily made to make it more compact and smooth for a movie running time, there wasn't as much complaints for the first film so the same is expected for the sequel.

However... If you can't wait for September 18, why not hit the bookshelves at the High School Learning Resource Center and get your hands on the book before everybody else?? Maybe even borrow the very first book before this one to refresh your memory on what happened previously??

The Scorch Trials is definitely heavier than its predecessor. It was as if that just prepared you for greater things, or scenes, to come. If you thought that the first novel was scary, you'll be at the edge of your seats while reading this one. We're not going to spoil much but expect the unexpected.

This book starts exactly where the first book dropped off (the first film had a similar ending to the book, just that the book's ending explained a bit more than the first film's cliffhanger did).We're meeting some new characters to confuse us more on who's really bad and good. As our very own cliffhanger, all we can say is we hope you'll like the book as much as we did and as much as you'll probably enjoy the film!

(DLA Las Piñas GS LRC) Film Showing of the Week - WALL·E

We're going all the way back to June 2008 on Friday as the LRC cinema presents a critically acclaimed and award-winning eco-friendly sci-fi animation by Pixar and Walt Disney of a robot that's essentially a trash compactor appropriately named WALL·E (remember what his name meant?) designed to clean up an abandoned, waste-covered Earth far in the future.

He falls in love with another robot named EVE who also has a programmed task and follows her into outer space on a charming adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity. Who says popular films can't be art? There was a reason everyone found the movie golden back then. At that time, the animation was already flawless and realistic. It eclipsed even Toy Story in the Pixar pantheon and is perhaps the company's best film to date.

There are many little things in the film that have so much meaning to them. There are things that will be nostalgic to older viewers (there are obvious homages to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), and things that younger viewers will love to look at. However, it does steer for the cheesy, cliché aspects of a child's film yet still remaining a completely G-rated film. It's actually perfect for everyone.

WALL-E ranks first in TIME '​s "Best Movies of the Decade". Strongs critiques about larger societal issues like consumerism, corporatism, nostalgia, environmental problems, waste management, human impact on the environment, and risks to human civilization are addressed as the vision of Earth being a garbage-strewn wasteland (and humans as hoverchair-bound lumps who can barely walk) speaks volumes. See you in the Grade School Learning Resource Center on August 14 at 4:00 P.M.!

(DLA Las Piñas GS LRC) July Book of the Month - Minions

You might have watched the highly-anticipated comedy with your entire family and friends on the perfect date you've already planned as thorough as you could since the end credits of 2013's wildly popular Despicable Me 2 foreshadowed Stuart, Kevin, and Bob auditioning for a brand new film which turned out to be a Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment production featuring small yellow impressible creatures who call themselves Minions!

There's no Margo, Edith, and Agnes this time as it's not a sequel but we get to learn firsthand how the Minions evolved through the ages from shapeless single-celled organisms at the beginning of time into the lovely clever sidekicks they are today.

We witness the adventures they had to go through as each master they followed was eventually replaced (or eaten) by a badder one. It's as intriguing as a Minion's life can be especially when it's brave Kevin leading the way alongside teenage rebel Stuart and lovable little Bob as they venture into a world that may not be quite ready for dominionation just yet.

The Library has recently acquired three (3) full-color books namely Minions: The Junior Novel, Minions: Seek and Find, or Long Live King Bob! to re-live the thrilling journey that ultimately led all of us to the world's first-ever female super-villain Scarlet Overkill and Minionkind's biggest challenge yet: annihilation.

Seek and Find is a hard-bound written by Trey King filled with over 200 things to find inside while The Junior Novel was adapted by Sadie Chesterfield. Long Live King Bob! puts the smallest Minion yet in the spotlight. Bob has big dreams but will his unconditional love of everyone and everything lead to triumph or trouble? He messes up big time when they are sent to steal the English queen's prized crown jewels but ends up becoming the new King of England instead.

DLA Las Piñas GS LRC: Top Library Users & Borrowers (June 2015)

Top Library Users

Mr. Paul Mark C. Amdres

CLVE Area

Kylie T. Largada

3 - Loyalty

Top Library Borrowers

Ms. Rizziah Mae D. Matias

ELA Area

Level and Section with the Highest Library Attendance

4 - Charity

Ms. Cecille Mendoza

Adviser

(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) July Book of the Month - Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings

Who isn't into fashion and compassion?? People with no heart, that's who! You get to practice these things all day every week but it isn't everyday that you're given the chance to take these things to the next level! What talent or passion makes some people seize onto childhood hobbies and turn them into lifelong careers? How do others let go of their childhood dreams and discover how to make themselves shine in other, unexpected ways?

Those are just a couple of the questions Sophia Bennett explores in her funny yet elegantly charming modern-day fairytale debut, the first in a projected trilogy about four talented teenagers. At the center of the novel are three best friends, each of whom has already identified her own passions, more or less.

Jenny's got real stage presence but her body type which isn't helped out at all by her stylist's bad choices is getting her the wrong sort of attention in the gossip rags. Edie is the brains of the bunch, a high achiever with her sights set on Harvard or Oxford and beyond that a career in politics.

And then there's Nonie, whose lifelong passion is for fashion who knows she'll never be a model like her mother and grandmother was but aches to be a designer although she is not sure if she has the talent.

Although it's is a frothy, fashion-filled fantasy, the book is not just fluff or simply wish-fulfillment fodder for junior von Furstenbergs. As an author's note reminds readers, the focus on Crow's story is based on real-life tragedies that may inspire political action as well as pattern-making. And Nonie's story in particular, about discovering your true talents and real happiness only when you set aside stubborn childhood dreams will speak to even more.

(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) June Book of the Month - Paper Towns

We're always going to be looking for a good book to read and there are always going to be books that are going to hit the big screen. Movie trailers often feature a great cast and musical score with the familiar literary title but most of the time, you just can’t tell how good the film will be unless you have read the book first unless spoilers really bother you. It's your inside man and helps you decide if a week's worth of strenuous organizing with either pals or family over that movie date will be worth it or not.

We'll finally be seeing Paper Towns next month. It will be John Green's second Young Adult fiction to have a media tie-in. The movie will probably be exciting to generate as much income as possible but it surely will not be anything like the book since a lot of people who have read it finds the story either boring or slow which is both good and bad.

The story is deep and indeed drawn-out, there's a lot of narration and thoughtful internal monologues but what makes it better is that it's in a boy's point of view and who doesn't like hearing about what boys are actually thinking about when they talk so sparse and silly in real life?

The characters are so intriguing and different from each other even if some of them are buddies and therefore, have some similarities. Also, some people might find that several characters resemble personalities from Looking for Alaska.

The plot is very Young Adult in that it discusses what real young adults face a lot -- struggles and realizations galore (self-discovery, anyone?). Slow parts quickly end though to reveal more thrilling scenes. If you like the film and haven't read the book yet, it will probably be not what you're expecting. The ending is happy but probably not as much as everyone wishes it would be since it'll be realistically uncertain. It's easy to think of more compelling reasons as to why you should read before watching but we'll leave you to it. ;)

(DLA Las Piñas GS LRC) February Book of the Month - Big Nate

If there's a common thread among bestselling books for elementary school boys, it's the merry mischief maker traipsing through a comics-laden landscape. It is now a common literary trajectory that boys begin their independent reading lives following Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" before moving on to Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and the more recent phenomenon, "Big Nate" from author and illustrator Lincoln Peirce.

He's been penning Big Nate as a daily comic strip for more than 20 years. The strip, about a spirited sixth-grader who lands himself in trouble for situations he never saw coming, is now syndicated in 300 newspapers. It was never intended for children.

That changed three years ago when Lincoln reached out to Jeff who had been in contact with him since almost two decades earlier when their roles were reversed. Jeff, at the time, was a college student and comic strip aspirant who had been reading Big Nate in the Washington Post.

He wrote to a handful of cartoonists seeking advice, Lincoln wrote back, and the two maintained a correspondence for a couple of years before falling out of touch. It was only after Jeff had created a sensation that Lincoln reached out to him who was speaking at the local public library. The two met in person and he asked the Big Nate cartoonist if he would create content for his new kids' website called Poptropica.

"My hope was that his strip would find a larger audience and that it would be published in book form," Jeff said. Two months after its Poptropica debut, Lincoln landed a 16-book deal with a publisher. The series was based on the comic strip, chronicling the small and large dramas of life in the sixth grade with stylish humor whether Nate Wright is being sent to detention for shoving too many green beans in his mouth or trying to avoid taking tests.