Word Out 2012

Hot Summer Read: F in Exams

F in Exams: The very best totally wrong test answers

By Richard Benson

Q.  Where was the American Declaration of Independence Signed? A:  At the bottom.

If you’ve ever been tempted to give a more “creative” test answer during an exam, F in Exams  is the book for you.  Hilarious, off-beat, and surprising, these answers are the best of the worst!  We guarantee this book will have you and your friends ROFL.  (Warning:  use these answers at your own risk!)

 Available as an eBook

 

 

Show us Yar Bookface, Matey!

Ever notice those dramatic photos of faces on some book covers? Want to add to it? 

Show us your bookface!  Me hopes it's a strange one.

Whaat? Pick any bookcover with some part or whole face on it. Get behind it. Get fancy.  Need to add your pet boa constrictor into the photo for that special touch? Go for it. 

Already have 5 bookcovers in mind? No problem. There's no limit on how many different books you can do.

Send in your photo(s) to tplwordout [at] gmail.com with the book's face + you behind it.  Remember, due to privacy, we can only accept pics where we can't see your entire face.

Once we've got a few pics, we'll put up a gallery and keep adding to it.                      

               

Kudos to Kitchener Public Library for the rad idea and sample photos.

Twitter Tag Fun

Our @tplteens twitter feed was busy playing with the #boringmovies hashtag meme this week!

Some of our favourites:

RT @miss_reading: @TPLteens Dial M for Meh. #boringmovies 

RT @zestbooks: @ab81 @TPLteens #boringmovies  is on! Here's a zombie one: Night of the Still Totally Dead

@miss_reading: @TPLteens Dial M for Meh. #boringmovies 

‏@andcoke #BoringMovies . A pocketful of lint.

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@MJonHarrell: "The Boring Legacy" #BoringMovies 

RT @rockskimmer: @someothercraig Conan the Contrarian? #boringmovies 

@ZestBooks: @ab81 @TPLteens #boringmovies  is on! Here's a zombie one: Night of the Still Totally Dead Dead

‏@TPLteens: Sherlock at Home. #boringmovies 

RT @monaliesasmile: RT @TonyDijamco: #BoringMovies  The Antisocial Network

RT @maureen_morales: Honey I Shrunk Your Sweater #boringmovies

@TPLteens: The Fast and the Furriest. #boringmovies  We're going to retweet the best ones we see...

‏@TPLteens: Parrots of the Caribbean #boringmovies  (Anyone? C'mon, beat that one.)

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@TPLteens: Pleasant Dreams on Elm Street #boringmovies 

@TPLteens: The Bourne Diplomacy #boringmovies 

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@TPLteens: Napoleon Sparkler. #boringmovies 

@TPLteens: The Bride of Frank. #boringmovies . Add yours...

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Got any good ones to add?

Webcomics = The Best.

OK, so as I already stated, I Thombrarian am a huge comix nerd. I just can't get enough of those multi-panelled narratives.

Up until recently, I read my comics pretty strictly on paper. Recently though, I've discovered a whole pile of really amazing comics on the web that I just can't get enough of.

One of the first that I totally fell in love with is Kate Beaton's Hark a Vagrant. Beaton's an ex-history student who manages to make Canadian history one of the funniest things I've ever read about. Since her site came out, she's published two anthologies on actual mashed-up tree product (1, 2), but I still love checking out her site for new content all the time.

Kate's really great at giving shout outs to other fantastic webcomic artists, and so another that I've recently discovered through her site (and have been reading voraciously) is John Allison's Bad Machinery. BM is about high school, dating, sea monsters, yetis, ghosts, parents, football, and about a million other things, all awesome.

Finally, I recently stumbled upon this truly strange but pretty wonderful webcomic, The Songsmith's Heartland by Nick Thornbarrow. Based on an album by one of my favourite musicians, Owen Pallett (did I mention I'm a huge music nerd too?), The Songsmith's Heartland turns the songs of Pallet's record Heartland into a moving fantasy adventure, in which the protagonist Lewis becomes the hero in the strange world of Spectrum.

Do you have any webcomics that you can't get enough of? Share some below, and maybe we'll even profile them on the site!

So You Want To Watch Kung Fu...

... and you've seen the complete works of the guys who made big names in Hollywood? If Jackie Chan and Jet Li are old hat for you, and you've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon more times than you can count, you might want to take a look at the library catalogue! True story. You could start with searching a few other big names: Chow Yun-Fat, perhaps.

But sometimes the simple solution will turn up some great stuff. In this case, searching under "kung fu" and narrowing down your list from there to adult DVDs turns up a whole bunch of goodies.  Who knew, right? About 2/3 of them are in chinese, but if you just want the action and don't care about understanding the dialogue, this is what you want, right here.

You can dig a little deeper by searching for subsets of kung fu. Shaolin? Turns up a nice little list, including some of the same titles as above, and some new ones, nearly all in chinese, again, and some of it nicely obscure for those connaisseurs among you - and also, of course, the more Hollywood Shaolin Soccer.

Happy hunting - and to help spread the love for good action flicks, share your favourites in comments for someone who may have missed out on them!

 

 

Word Out's Creative Writing Challenge!

Imaginative, hilarious, creative? Of course you are. 

Show us what you've got! Word Out 2012's Creative Writing Challenge is this:

Post a short story or poem that is inspired by one of postcards below.  To post, click on 'comments' and insert your work.  At the top of your post, just be sure to indicate which postcard was the inspiration.  And let's keep those short stories and poems, well, short. Please keep it under 300 words.  

Contest ends Saturday, August 25th.  Author of winning entry will get a package of hot new books and $25 gift card for Chapters.  

P.S. If interested, you can also submit your work to Young Voices. TPL's annual magazine for teen art and writing.    Ready? Go!

Prize Update!  - Thanks to the amazing entries, we'll be "upping the ante" and giving out 1st, 2cd, and 3rd place prizes! Exact prize details to come soon...

                                             #1 (more below)

 

                                    #2

                                

                                   #3