Buena Park Library District to Host Video Game Mania Event for Teens

The Buena Park Library District, located at 7150 La Palma Ave., between Knott and Western Avenues, will be having a Video Game Mania event for teens on Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 2:00pm-3:30pm in the library’s downstairs auditorium. Games will include Wii’s new Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Playstation 2’s Guitar Hero III, and Game Cube’s Super Mario Kart. No prior registration is necessary. For more information, call the Library at 714-826-4100 ext. 125.

Library Tour for California's Newest Literary Talent -- Andrea Portes to Read and Discuss her debut novel, "Hick", at the Buena Park Library District

One of California’s brightest new literary stars, Andrea Portes, begins a regional library tour this April and one of her stops will be at the Buena Park Library. She’ll read from and discuss her “knockout” debut novel, Hick.

Saturday, April 12, 2008
2pm
Buena Park Library District
7150 La Palma Avenue, Buena Park, CA 90620
714-826-4100

The novel hit the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, was a May Book Sense Pick, a Midwest Connections Pick, and earned glowing reviews nationwide. All this for a new voice publishing with an independent press, which means, of course, that buzz continues to build about Portes herself, a young, hip, striking nightlife writer who survived a difficult, transient childhood only to reach Bryn Mawr…and now the bestseller list. Indeed, this new literary tour de force comes with as powerful a personal story as the ones she writes.

Hick is the story of Luli McMullen—feisty, precocious, and out on her own at 13. Luli is running away from Nebraska to Las Vegas, where she plans to escape her disturbing present and even less hopeful future by finding herself a sugar daddy. That Luli finds trouble on the road almost immediately is no surprise. But on her perilous journey west, she learns the truth of American rootlessness and discovers both the power and the peril of her own sexual curiosity.

It’s Luli’s voice that makes this novel gripping. She charts her own course with a vivacity and vision that marks her indelibly in any reader’s memory. Hick is quite a ride—raw and edgy, hilarious, hopeful and heartbreaking. It's at once a true-to-life portrait of an inviolable spirit threatened by drugs and alcohol, teen sex and crime, and a stubbornly idealistic novel about growing up in America.

Luli’s story is loosely based on Andrea Portes’ own childhood. Portes is a young writer who is becoming a cultural force in the hippest parts of Los Angeles. She grew up outside Lincoln, Nebraska, later shuffling between Illinois, Texas, Brazil, North Dakota, and North Carolina before attending Bryn Mawr College. She received her MFA in Theater from UC San Diego and became a script reader for Paramount Pictures. She now lives in Los Angeles and is a nightlife columnist for several websites.

Learn more about Andrea Portes at http://www.myspace.com/andreaportes.

Scale Model Planes, Ships, and Automobiles on Display at the Buena Park Library

1911 Fire Truck by Mark Deliduka
Originally uploaded by bpld

The Orange County chapter of the International Plastic Model Society (IPMSOC) shares their hobby in March and April with an amazing display of scale models at the Buena Park Library District. Although the word "plastic" is part of the club name, many different materials were used to build these models, including paper, wood, and resin. The display is on exhibit in the Library lobby and runs now through April 26, 2008. The Library is located at 7150 La Palma Avenue in Buena Park, between Knott and Western Avenues.

Besides the variety of building materials, the modelers have an array of subjects they turn their eye to ... airships, fire engines, submarines, Notre Dame cathedral, rockets and space ships, and even a science fiction insect. The IPMSOC members have included a description of the model building process and an explanation of scale modeling in their display. The organization states model building is a pastime that "builds minds and fosters relationships". Besides improving manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, developing patience and imagination, children can also deepen their relationships with parents or grandparents as they work together. It's a hobby for all ages ... the youngest model builder represented is a 3 year old! The Orange County chapter of IPMS was founded forty years ago in 1968. They meet on the third Friday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the La Quinta Inn in La Palma.

Drop by the Buena Park Library and look at the parade of cars, ships, jets, and other incredibly detailed models ... you may find a new hobby to take up! The Buena Park Library is open Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. For information, please call the Reference Desk at 714-826-4100, ext. 125.

Annual St. Patrick's Day Media Madness Sale Returns

Starting Monday, March 17th, 2008, the Volunteer Guild celebrates the return of its ever popular Media Madness Sale in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. The sale ends Saturday, March 29th, at 4:30 p.m., but don’t wait until then to get the best bargains ever! It is a “Buy One, Get One of Equal or Lesser Value” of all sale items such as: VHS videos, Sheet Music books, and all kinds of audio music in CDs, Cassettes and LPs – that’s long-playing albums, folks. Yes, WE HAVE A LOT of LPs, of all different kinds – classical, easy listening, rock … you name it. In fact, come see for yourself! We will have magazines on sale during this event, too, so all your bases are covered during the March Media Madness Sale. Come early for the best selection!

The Guild Bookstore is on the 2nd floor of the Library, located at 7150 La Palma Avenue in Buena Park, between Knott and Western Avenues. Sale proceeds benefit the Volunteer Guild which supports all the Library’s programs and collections.

For further information about this and other upcoming sales, please call the Guild Bookstore at 714-826-4100 ext. 123.