Youth Week Art Exhibition Winners Announced

This was the first year that the exhibition was held in a professional art space, Gallery NTK in Croydon. It showcased works by 39 local young artists, aged between 12-24 who either lives, studies or works in the Ashfield Council area. During the exhibition, people were invited to vote for their favourite artwork. We received 90 votes in total. The Winner of the Most Popular vote was Nicolette Khoury for Still Life with Flowers.

to read more...

New Books

Book Reviews featured in the upcoming Library Gazette

Confessions of a liar, thief and failed sex god by Bill Condon YF COND
If you loved Craig Silvery's Jasper Jones you will be hooked on Bill Condon's latest novel.
It's 1967. Young Neil is about to lose his brother to War, be faced with the brutal death of one friend and discover another, he falls in love and unwillingly treads a path that may lead to murder.
A great gut twisting read, highly recommended for older readers.

Matty forever by Elizabeth Fensham JF FENS
With a friend like Matty nothing else matters. A beautiful tale of friendship, racial tolerance and family, that could be set in any Australian suburban community. Ideal for children aged 7 to 9, this story is broken into short accessible chapters and will be easy for children to emphathise with.

The greatest blogger in the world by Andrew McDonald JF MCDO
Charlie's mission is to Be the Hero, get the Girl and Save the Day, oh, and win the Greatest Blogger in the World Competition. He has plenty to Blog about – a mate with an illegal red-cordial business at school, a little brother who only wears a tuxedo, a mother who wants world dominanion and a duck named Barcode. A quirky book that is targeted for years 5 and 6, but is a challenging read.

Pink by Lili Wilkinson YF WILK
Ava is intelectual, uber-cool, black, seriouse and a lesbian; But she wants to be perky, pink and popular. So she is stripping the black from her hair, hanging with the pastels and joining the school musical. Ava is determined to be everything the world wants her to be. Pink is witty, sharp and chocked full of awesome.

The poison throne by Celine Kiernan YF KIER
Set in a fantastical medieval Europe, fifteen year old Wynter Moorehawke is a unique girl; qualified in a man's trade, best friends to the princes, speaks to the kings' cats and knows a few spectres to boot. This first book of the Moorehawke Trilogy is compelling storytelling. If you liked Phillip Pullman's Dark materials trilogy you will love this.
Eight must read picture books:

Crazy hair written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean : Obscurly amazing!

Work Experience

We have had two lads from Sydney Tech this week working with us, Suvra and Jeffrey. They have done a few different things and gotten out and about.

A few words from the boys:
Jeffrey : This week we did a lot of things such as scan books, stack books, move books into boxes, help the little kids at summerhill community centre, and then we helped with the setup of a harmony day concert. yes indeed it was a great week i would for sure definitely recommend this to anyone for work experience and, a little bit, of hard...work. yes thats right this place is no bludge this is full of hard work, **edit**. it has been a great week (Y) =]
Suvra: This week at work experience we met alot friendly faces who made us do countless task over the week. My favourite was getting the old books and recycling them **edit**. We were playing basketball with the books. However packing reference books into boxes then palcing them in the foyer was quite boring and repetitive but it was worth it because there would be nothing else to do. It was "definately" fun watching little kids being entertained. But overall I would recommend this job to anyone looking to do work experience.

Library is Closed

Ashfield Library will be moving to a temporary location due to the Civic Centre redevelopment. The Library will close this Friday (18 December 2009) and will reopen in a temporary location under Ashfield Town Hall on Monday January 4 2010.
The library hours will be :
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 9am-4pm
Sunday closed.
This will be for approximately 13 weeks.

Vamp Fiction

If you are into Vamp Fiction here is a author resurected for you.

L.J. Smith is author of many series featuring our favourite fanged and spellbinding friends that have been around for many years, but are enjoying a revival of the undead kind!

The Vampire Diaries has also taken to your TV screen on GO!99

Listed are a few of her titles with blurbs fro LJ's website.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume I: The Awakening

The most haunting love triangle of all. Two vampire brothers, one good and one evil, are in love with the same beautiful girl. Stefan meets Elena, and falls for her instantly. But he swears never to approach her because of his dark secret. On the other hand, Elena has sworn to make Stefan hers or die.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume II: The Struggle

Damon is haunting Elena’s footsteps; coaxing and coercing her by turns. Stefan desperately tries to protect her from his brother. And Elena is having her blood drawn by two separate vampires. Meanwhile Caroline plots to expose Elena in front of the entire town. Can things get worse? They do, when Elena drives too fast over an unsafe bridge and drowns.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume III: The Fury

It’s happened. Elena wakens as a vampire. She belongs to Damon, now, and to his world. The town mourns her as dead while she haunts the Old Wood by night. But by the time she remembers that Stefan is her true love, a new and powerful enemy appears. This is the last battle; and the only way Elena can win it is to sacrifice herself.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume IV: Dark Reunion

As a psychic, Bonnie has dreams of Elena in the Other World. But the dreams quickly turn frightening. There is a terrible new enemy stalking Fell’s Church, killing young girls. Elena’s friends call for Stefan and get both him and Damon—but whose side is Damon on? The ending is the most surprising yet for Elena!

The Vampire Diaries: The Return : Nightfall --On Order

A pair of kitsune--fox spirits--from the other side of the world possess Damon and force him to commit abominations. Meanwhile, Stefan apparently abandons Elena and her friends on a quest to find the one place where the curse of his vampirism can be lifted from him. Definitely for mature audiences.

Shadow Souls--out 2009? A penitent Damon, along with Elena, and Matt follow Stefan into the darkest dimension in an attempt to set him free from the prison he has found instead of salvation. Bonnie and Meredith join Elena as all three are forced to enter as slaves, the chained and leashed property of a vampire--Damon.

Midnight--out 2010. The surviving group of Fell's Church friends return to find their town in a shambles. Meredith makes a horrifying discovery in her research and Bonnie has an out of body experience which might explain all the mayhem that is going on. Matt faces down Caroline, while, Elena must face the most important question of her life: who does she really belong with? Stefan or Damon?

from vamp's to witches

The Secret Circle, Volume I: The Initiation -- On Order

Shy, sixteen-year-old Cassie falls in love with the mysterious Adam before moving to New Salem, thinking she’ll never see him again. But as it turns out, Adam is there, too, at a high school where a strange elite rule. Beautiful fair-haired Diana, whom Cassie learns to love as a sister; voluptuous dark Faye, who wants to turn Cassie into her puppet. The greatest surprise: Cassie, like the other elite boys and girls, is a witch! And then Cassie discovers that Adam is actually the boyfriend of gentle Diana, now her best friend and the leader of the coven!

The Secret Circle, Volume II: The Captive -- On Order

Adam and Cassie have sworn not to love each other for the sake of their beloved leader Diana. But Faye has caught them in their one embrace. Now she uses it to blackmail Cassie, forcing Cassie to lie to Diana and to dig up the strange crystal skull that gives them all such dangerous visions. Meanwhile, students are being murdered, and the witches are under suspicion. And Faye wants from Cassie the ultimate betrayal: her vote for Faye as coven leader.

The Secret Circle, Volume III: The Power -- On Order

Faye rules the Circle, while Diana reels from Cassie’s apparent treachery. Cassie and Adam are drawn more strongly together than ever. A new principal appears who seems to know all the Circle’s secrets and is dedicated to persecuting them. Cassie, no longer the shy girl she was only a few months ago, takes charge in solving the murders, the mystery of the crystal skull, and the true meaning of the Secret Circle. Her reward is her dream come true.

Bring all the spooks together in Night World.

Night World: Secret Vampire - Hits the shelves in December

The Night World isn’t a place. It’s the world of vampires, witches, and shapeshifters who live in the human world—by their own rules. And the first two rules of the Night World are simple: 1) Never tell any human about its existence, and 2) Never fall in love with a human.

Spunky, sassy Poppy has always been in the best of health. Until today, when she discovers that she has a rare disease, and only weeks to live. James, her best friend, and the coolest boy at school, is confronted with a frightening decision. He can make Poppy a vampire like him, or he can let her die. But telling Poppy about the Night World is almost as dangerous as letting her die of a human disease, for he’s broken both of the Night World’s rules, and fallen in love with her.

Night World: Daughters of Darkness -- Hits the shelves in December

Mary-Lynnette, seventeen, loves to watch the stars from her Oregon backyard. Then one day, she thinks she’s witnessed a murder through her telescope. She’s wrong: it’s only three vampire sisters burying their mysteriously-killed aunt. Mary-Lynnette, by the laws of the Night World, must become kin to the sisters or be sentenced to death: a sentence that seems to be sealed when their brother Ash appears. Gorgeous, lazy Ash has never dreamed that he could fall in love with a human, but it seems that Mary-Lynnette doesn’t want him on any terms because of his lurid vampire past.

Night World: Spellbinder -- Hits the shelves in December

Thea and Blaise are cousins, and witches, and as different as day and night. They even belong to different witch covens, Circle Twilight, for the not-so-wicked-witches and Circle Midnight for the real hellions. In fact, Granny Harman, the Witch Leader, often compares them to Hellewise and Maya, the sisters who were the mother of all witches and the very first vampire, respectively. But when Thea breaks the laws of the Night World and falls in love with Eric, an ordinary human boy, she has unexpectedly to rely on the whims of Blaise or both she and Eric are doomed. This is the book in which Circle Daybreak debuts.

Night World: Dark Angel -- Hits the shelves in December

Childlike, innocent Gillian Harman is trying to save a baby she hears crying in the woods when, to her own surprise, she dies! Even more surprising is her guide in the afterlife, Gary Fargeon, an “angel” with a great body and a gorgeous face. Returned to life, Gillian listens to her dark angel in all things . . . and soon finds herself anything but childlike and innocent. But things are not what they seem, and even angels can make mistakes. Soon Gillian is on a quest to find out just what deed Gary committed to strand him in the afterlife; and to find out the secret of where she belongs in a world she never knew existed: the Night World.

Night World: The Chosen -- Hits the shelves in December

Rashel Jordan lost her mother to a golden-eyed vampire at the age of five—and just barely saved herself by her wits. She’s grown up to the age of seventeen as a vampire hunter—the best. But when a group of hunters captures Quinn and decides to torture him, Rashel feels something in her soul twist. Left alone with Quinn, she goes along with her mad impulse and allows him to escape. But Quinn, a vampire with one of the darkest reputations in the Night World warns her not to expect him to return the favor. Nevertheless, when Rashel gets herself chosen for a bloodfeast and finds that Quinn is in charge of gathering girls for the dark ceremony! Enemies—and soulmates—what will happen during their final fight?

Night World: Soulmate -- Hits the shelves in December

Sixteen-year-old Hannah goes to a psychologist to understand the meaning of her the notes she keeps finding—in her own handwriting. “Dead before 17,” “He’s coming,” “Watch out.” Only under hypnosis is their cryptic meaning revealed. Hannah is actually an Old Soul, a girl who has been reincarnated many times and can remember her past lives. And in every one of them, the fair-haired stranger appears—and Hannah loves him—and Hannah dies at age16. Meanwhile, the leader of all the vampires of Circle Daybreak, all those who have human soulmates, Lord Thierry, is searching. He’s looking for her—the girl he loved and accidentally killed thousands of year ago. Who will find Hannah first—her vampire soulmate, or Maya, the first of all the vampires who has murdered Hannah a thousand times to keep her from Thierry. And who will Hannah believe when they do find her?

Night World: Huntress -- Hits the shelves in December

Jez, with flaming red hair and silvery blue eyes, is the epitome of the wild teenage vampire, riding her motorcycle and chasing skinheads through the woods. She and Morgead regularly challenge each other for leadership of the gang, and Jez believes—naturally enough—that the handsome, dark-haired vampire hates her. But suddenly the world changes for Jez. She discovers that she has no right to the Night World, because one of her parents was human. Now Jez has turned into a vampire huntress, and one with a special job: find one of the four Wild Powers who can fight off the Apocalypse, the end of the world. To do so, though, she must challenge her dearest enemy once again for the leadership—knowing that she has only half-vampire Powers.

Night World: Black Dawn -- Hits the shelves in December

Maggie is the picture of an ordinary human teenager. Yet when her brother’s lovely girlfriend reports that he has been killed in a mountaineering accident, she knows it is a lie. The chase leads her to discover an entire community of human slaves ruled by vampires in the hollow of a Washington mountain. There also, she finds Delos, the second of the Wild Powers, the vampire ruler of this kingdom where she is a slave—and her soulmate. Her modern clothes cause the other slaves to hail her as a messiah come to bring them freedom. Can even level-headed Maggie deal with her arrogant soulmate and an entire kingdom to be freed?

Night World: Witchlight -- Hits the shelves in December

Keller is a seventeen-year-old shapeshifter, a panther, who goes by her last name only. She’s an operative for Circle Daybreak and her mission is simple: find the third Wild Power who can fend off the Apocalypse. Keller does find Iliana, and much more, as well: a dragon in the shape of a human, and her own liege lord Galen. So, she learns: dragons walk the Earth again, even if in disguise. And Iliana is as far from a serious Wild Power as Keller can imagine. A love triangle quickly develops between the handsome princely Galen, the exquisite but bubble-minded Iliana, and Keller—who counts herself out with her favorite saying, “I’m just a grunt.” Life has surprises in store for the cynical, embittered Keller, and her opinions of both Galen and Iliana are in for a radical change.

MTV Story on LJ

Ye Olde Blog by LJ