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Thanks to all who celebrated #TRW16 with #RocktheDrop! It was a great event filled with love of YA lit. Thanks for impacting communities with joy, readergirlz! Brava!

Check out a few pics from twitter!


AJ Pine


Katie Bayerl


Melissa Walker


Valerie Lawson


Sara Fujimura

Onward, rzg!

It's coming! Sunday is the first day of #YALSA #TeenReadWeek, readergirlz! Did you remember we are celebrating with #RocktheDrop on Friday, October 14? Instead of dropping YA books in public places in April for Support Teen Lit Day, we are collectively leaving our books in the wild a week from Friday. So here are your bookmarks. Print and place them in your favs, and be ready to leave the books someplace special for a happy reader to find. Full info here.

As always, snap a pic and post: #RocktheDrop. We want to see your contributions! Let's get ready. One, two, three...GO!

With our youth patrons returning to school, now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your community’s demographics and set goals to “Get Away” and connect with those underserved populations. As you consider where to start, the first step may seem daunting, but tackle the unknown in a way that is most comfortable for you. We’ll be sharing our ideas about setting goals during our Teen Read Week Twitter chat Setting Goals to Reach Underserved Teens onFriday, September 11 at 2 pm EST. If numbers and statistics read like a first language, you’ll probably have your own plan of action in which to gather information and compile results into charts and graphs. However, many of us need a different approach in order to ease our way into such unfamiliar territory and we offer a few ideas here.

Demographics from an insider view

Consider your teen patrons’ habits as a diving board into better knowing your community. For instance, if your teens often ask library staff for change to spare for food, comment about not eating breakfast, or are eager to attend library programs especially for the free snacks, you may want to further explore this trend. Start by investigating the nearby school’s stats on free and reduced lunches, the city’s poverty percentages, or the state’s caseload counter for food stamp families. The location of these resources will also provide other relevant data that may offer a more detailed view into the issue. Once you have a baseline of data, connect with local food pantries and other social service providers and start a conversation. You may discover any number of ways to partner with these organizations from creating a bookmark for the public listing the location of these services to facilitating meal programs.

Demographics from a bird’s eye perspective

Map the government, parks, nonprofit, and other community agencies within your library’s service area. If a particular trend in services exists, investigate its related statistical topics and connect with those organizations. Also, the types of businesses in your service may offer a starting point into better understanding your community. If you notice an unusual number of liquor stores in your area, you may check the location of rehabilitation centers or AA groups and connect with them. Another way to address your map of agencies, is to first connect with the organizations located nearest to your library, as those service are directly targeting your immediate area.

Take action with us in better understanding your community by joining the Teen Read Week Twitter chat on Friday, September 11 at 2 pm EST. Come ready to share your goals and gain new ideas and resources from your peers. When joining the Twitter chat, be sure to use #TRW15. See you there!

Amanda Barnhart is the current chair for YALSA’s Teen Read Week committee, an MLIS student, and a Young Adult Associate for the Trails West branch of The Kansas City (Mo) Public Library.

Get Away @ Your Library can mean a lot of different things to different people. When I think of it I think about why I read. One of the best things about reading is how it takes you to new and exciting places. Whether it is books about other cultures, time travel or historical events, books take us beyond our everday lives.

I love to read historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction because I love being taken outside my normal day-to-day world. With historical fiction, I learn so much about other time periods and get some insight into what it must have been like to be in that period. Certain periods are so far removed from our current world that they may as well be classed as Fantasy or Science Fiction. Speaking of which, when it comes to Fantasy and Science Fiction I am amazed by the worlds created by the author.

My newest interests are reading about books that take place in other cultures or countries. Sometimes you don’t even have to go very far away from home. Reading books about people from rural areas when you yourself live in an urban area or vice versa can take us into a place we have never experienced. Other cultures also help us to be more empathetic and knowledgeable about what we do not understand.

Some of the books that have taken me to other places that I highly recommend include The Precious Stone trilogy be Kerstin Gier, The Colours of Madeleine by Jaclyn Moriarty, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, The Grisha Series by Leigh Bardugo and so much more. Please check out the TRW Pinterest page for more recommendations!

Kristyn Dorfman is a School Librarian at Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

I’ll confess that there have been cycles in my ten years of teen services where my creativity to develop innovative library programs suddenly depletes itself. It takes time until I kick my own butt back into gear. I’m sure you’re familiar with this feeling that can result from the graduation of most of your teen advisory group, or your programming budget substantially shrinks, or your energy lags after delivering an outstanding summer reading program. If you are a newly minted teen librarian, you may not have experienced this sudden loss of drive to deliver 100% amazing library services. We all have our secrets for how we regain that equilibrium, especially when feeling depleted from intense summer programming.

Here are just a few tips to energize your programming creativity before, during, or after Teen Read Week:

Challenge yourself to explore their interests. Have those card playing teens who are always in your library after school teach you how to play Vanguard or Pokemon. It’s easier to understand and own the argument that these games make reading, math, and strategy fun when you are actually having to do it yourself. Once you comprehend the reasons for their enjoyment, it becomes easier to develop creative programming because you GET IT. For instance, our middle school anime and manga group will make Pokemon balls out of styrofoam and bring in a favorite stuffed animal. They’ll create a new Pokemon name and ability for their animal and have them spar against each other.

Challenge teens to explore your interests. After witnessing the effort I put into learning their shared interests, it was surprisingly easy to invite over a dozen teens to try their hand at knitting. I was able to share my enjoyment of pleasant conversation and the internal peace that knitting offers. Community knitters donated unused yarn to the library and we purchased the knitting needles. Over the course of three weeks, the library teens and I sat outside practicing our stitches and drinking hot chocolate.

Credit: Donna Rector

They took surprisingly well to the quieter yet creative environment. A few stuck with it for several hours before deciding it wasn’t for them, but respected the craft and returned to share conversation. One young man approached it with such a degree of seriousness that he completed a handwarmer in less than 24 hours. Several other teens couldn’t wait until the next meeting for instructions. Instead, they looked up how to take their finished pieces off the needles using YouTube.

Get crazy and mash-up both interests for a dynamic program. Appreciating each other’s interests helps to strengthen our relationships with teens. It encourages an environment of collaboration and respect, and, in the end, creativity. Because some of our best ideas come from teens.

Free Pattern on Ravelry: Pokeball Mitts

What are some of your secrets for getting out of a creative funk?

Amanda Barnhart is a Young Adult Associate at The Kansas City Public Library.

I have two new favorite teen program ideas – Blind Date a Book and Food Truck Menu Challenge.

Ok, Blind Date a Book isn’t very new; more often than not, you’ll see this in February for Library Lovers’ Month. Librarians across the country have taken this idea out for a ride and given it their own personal spin. Some benevolent librarians will give potential readers clues, by listing the genre or even a few spoiler-free sentences describing the plot or main character. Some have even successfully applied the speed dating concept to book choice – setting up tables with books at each station, allowing teens to sit with each book for a few minutes, then allowing teens to choose the book date to which they’re most attracted.

For my Blind Date a Book programs, I opt for complete “blindness” – offering up no hints at the contents of the wrapped tome. The “dates” I select tend primarily to be best sellers or YA classics that appeal to a broad range of ages, but I do include the occasional “acquired taste” titles. I decorate my stable of dates with stickers, stick-figure & smiley face drawings, and even phrases like “Short but sweet” (for the thinnest books) or “Can I hang out at your house?” The official rule is that the book must remain wrapped until it is checked out. Once checked out, the reader is free to unwrap the book – even if they’re still in the library. There are no penalties for returning their selected date right away. Sometimes, you just know you won’t be compatible, and that’s ok. I’ve included “rate your date” review forms and bookmarks that double as contest entries; both with varying degrees of success. However, my greatest satisfaction occurs when the books STAY checked out. To me, that means that the teen is reading something he or she would not necessarily have chosen or is re-reading a favorite. Either way, a teen is reading for fun – objective achieved!

Blind Date a Book can be done any time of year because the point is to get readers out of their genre comfort zones. So, go to your shelves and select some great dates – road trip books, dystopian & fantasy titles, or even some nonfiction about faraway places, titles you think your library’s teens would like to read and may not notice.

The Food Truck Menu Challenge is something I’m itching to try this year. Food trucks are hot and teens are becoming mini-foodies. Let your teens loose in the cookbook section of your nonfiction shelves (641), or pull a great selection for them. Anything is possible – blended drinks, barbeque, cupcakes, vegan options, and more. Teens can work individually or in small groups (two or three at most – remember food trucks are small!). Have the teens design a menu that can be prepared in a food truck – keeping in mind things like storage space, variety of ingredients, portion sizes, and pricing. If you can hold this in a computer lab, they’ll have loads of resources, but it can be done with a couple laptops or tablets for research and paper & pens. Give them about an hour to design their menu, and then let them share. You can give prizes for best overall menu or most creative dish. Teens love to eat; if your library has a kitchen or food prep equipment (microwave, electric griddle, blender, panini maker, etc.), make something! We’ve got a microwave and toaster oven, so I’ll be making mini waffles and offering different fillings – chicken nuggets & syrup, ice cream, fresh fruit, and whipped cream. Another option would be to “borrow” my favorite dish from a local food truck, the Tot Cart (www.thetotcart.com), and make loaded tots – tater tots, Velveeta, bacon crumbles, and sour cream.

Carolyn Aversano is a Teen Services Librarian at Ocean County Library, Jackson Branch, Tom's River, NJ.

Teen Read Week is coming up October 12-18, and libraries are encouraged to use the theme “Turn Dreams into Reality” to share our knowledge, resources, services, and collections with teens in an effort to promote reading for fun. As professionals working with teens in the library, each of us curates our own personal collection—in folder and binders, dog-eared books and browser bookmarks, or just in our haphazardly cataloged heads—of resources that guide us in promoting reading. Yet as we inform our patrons about the epic books in our collection, the multiple formats in which they can check out our materials, and the research on the college success of avid readers, let’s not forget that some of our greatest resources are the very subjects of our resource-sharing: the teens themselves.

It’s an easy thing to forget since, as library professionals, we like to think of ourselves as the experts. In many things, we are. And in some, we aren’t. You know that book that won dozens of awards but you just can’t get any teens to pick up? How about the poorly-written piece of fluff that they can’t get enough of? In the end, we can only guess at what will go over well. Each person has his or her own individual taste, but more often than not, teens’ tastes will be more similar to one another’s than adults’ tastes will be to teens’.

Our goal during Teen Read Week is to promote reading for pleasure, and the only way to do that is to help connect teens with books they like. There may be a time and place for encouraging teens to read “healthier” books than the ones they want—that’s up for debate. But this week isn’t that time. If we want teens to learn that reading is fun, we need to think like teens. And while we can’t entirely re-wire our brains (and probably wouldn’t want to, having been through that angsty stage of life once already), many of us are lucky enough to spend enough time around teens that we have easy access to two simple techniques: observe and ask.

Most library staff are good at observing. Circulation stats are great for long-term trends. For the short-term, pay attention to reference questions and keep an eye on the “Just Returned” shelves. Displays and handouts can be useful, too. I once put up a “Take a Book, Leave a Book” display in which teens were encouraged to check out a book off the shelf and replace it with one of their favorite titles from the collection for someone else to discover. Or, leave some genre booklists near your YA stacks, and observe which go out the quickest.

Asking is perhaps a less commonly used tool. Asking a teen what books she likes may seem less efficient than checking stats, but its impact is great in a different way. When we make a habit of asking teens their opinions, we show that their library is their own, and exists to meet their needs. We acknowledge that we, the “book experts,” respect and want to learn from their expertise. We begin a conversation that builds relationships, which lead to trust and a sense of community that allow us to better encourage the teens’ love of reading and the library. With further questioning, we can learn why a teen likes what she likes, and can use that knowledge to gain a deeper knowledge of teens’ reading preferences which will allow us to serve them better in a wider variety of situations. By encouraging them to talk about books, we help the teens learn to summarize and distill the core meaning or experience of a story. They practice explanatory and persuasive skills in telling us why the book was good.

Identify the best opportunities for conversing with teens about books in your job. For me, one opportunity is when walking from the Youth reference desk to the Teen Lounge to help a patron locate a title. Readers’ Advisory interactions are naturally a time to learn about someone’s reading tastes, especially if you ask why the patron enjoyed a certain title rather than coming up with readalikes based on your own criteria. Making a comment like “That’s a great book” or “That’s a very popular book” can sometimes spark a conversation. (Remember, you don’t always have to like the book. Saying something is popular or that you’ve talked to other teens who liked it is a great way to say something positive while getting around expressing your own opinion.)

If you are a collection developer, asking knowledgeable teens for their input on the collection encourages them to feel that they can make a difference in the library. When a teen asks me for manga suggestions, after helping him out I might say, “I am actually the person who decides which manga we buy for the library. Are there any we don’t have that you think we should?” I might ask the same question to someone I see reading manga in the Teen Lounge, if she seems willing and I get a good opening (I wouldn’t want to interrupt someone’s reading, of course). Most libraries have a suggestion process, but patrons might not know about it or might not take the initiative to use it, whereas they’d be happy to take a minute or two to respond to a direct question.

Keep in mind that some teens won’t want to talk, and if they don’t, don’t push it. The goal is to help them interact positively with books and the library, and if talking to library staff is not positive for the patron, then you are subverting your own goal.

We can learn a lot from professional literature, degree programs, conferences, and fellow library staff, but you can only learn about the unique characteristics of your own community by engaging with its members, and you can only learn what it is like to be a teen by talking to teens. Teens are often looking for opportunities to be seen as adults rather than children, and will appreciate your interest in their opinions. Meanwhile, you will be building a program that is truly centered on those you serve.

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Howdy Campers and happy Poetry Friday!

School has just ended this week, but plans are already afoot for next year – particularly working with my student library assistants on monthly programming ideas. After reading Teen Read Week posts from Courtney and Kate, I thought of ways I could collaborate with staff and students on projects that will have people in our school community saying “It Came from the Library.”

Students are planning a series of DIY projects for Lunchtime Learning Lessons (L3). They found a lot of great ideas on the TRW Pinterest board: personalizing bland book ends, découpaging picture frames, and creating paint chip bookmarks to name a few.

One of the big events we are collaborating with district high school librarians on is the Second Annual All School Read-In that I shared for last year’s TRW celebration. This day-long event combines a cozy spot to read with great books and fun treats. Considering how well zombies lend themselves to this year’s theme, I will make sure to have VooDoo doll doughnuts on hand – perhaps with some extra icing so students can customize these culinary creations.

To promote the Read-In, we are planning a silk screening session that will incorporate student artwork. One of my students, along with teachers from the art department, will be volunteering in the library to help make this program a success. Our main inspiration for this DIY-craft came from an event at the end of this school year. In preparation for a protest march decrying budget cuts, students designed a logo and spent time during lunch and after-school helping the school community print posters and t-shirts with this design. Having a central image helped create a shared message that united all the public schools in our city. We are looking to forward to creating the same buzz for recreational reading.

Our hope for all the L3 projects next year (whether we are sporting our rad silk-screened t-shirts or slipping an awesome bookmark into library books) is that people will stop us and ask “Where did you get that fabulous creation? ” to which we will exclaim “It came from the library!”

Paige Battle, NBCT Librarian, Grant High School, Portland, OR and Teen Read Week Committee Member

As the school year winds down for me, it’s easy to get caught up in the last minute whirlwind of final exams, papers, coercing materials returns, and talking my wonderful faculty off the proverbial ledge.

But when I’m really on my game, I begin thinking about the first couple of months of the next school year and cataloging what, if anything, I need to do to lay a foundation for successful programming. Teen Read Week is always an event that sneaks up on me (and I’m on the committee, for goodness sake!) since it usually happens mid to late October and I’m in full project swing by then.

After over a decade of being a school librarian, I can chalk up my success to that much-overused word, collaboration. For me, collaboration just means using the network of relationships I already have with my teachers and students and searching for any new relationships in my community that will help me do my job which, in the case of Teen Read Week, is promoting recreational reading.

My Library Advisory Board and I have already tackled some preliminary brainstorming. Teachers have already been approached for posing with their favorite horror books and these will advertise our offerings and be showcased on the school website. We are going to have a community poll with various horror movies listed and the top two winners will be a “Creature Double Feature” complete with popcorn and blankets to make our own picnic style movie night.

We are also going to produce a short library video (showcased on the library website and the school website, and shown during an assembly to promote our programming that week) interviewing two of our English teachers who teach related classes, Science and Society and Novel to Film, about the meaning and importance of the horror genre. My LAB came up with the idea of also interviewing dedicated gamers who can speak about what they find so appealing about the recent trends in zombie or other horror games. A few book covers and promotion snippets about programming and we’ll have an interesting vehicle for TRW.

When we had our amazingly successful Hunger Games movie premiere party, the most popular stations were the ones where student volunteers taught flame nail polish effects and did Capitol-style makeup on participants. With that in mind, we will be offering a session prior to our horror movie double feature instructing students in horror movie makeup, complete with faux vampire bites, zombie face makeup and gory wounds. My theater faculty have friends in the local community and university theaters who are proficient in these areas and have expressed an eagerness to come and instruct. I imagine we are going to get some great pictures from this instruction!

If you can, begin talking up possible connections with teachers and students so everyone will be ready to leap into the fray of the school year. Join the Teen Read Week 2012 Ning and peruse the ALA Store items with them to help with brainstorming. You can be sure that in October it will be something great that “Came from Your Library!”

– Courtney Lewis, Director of Libraries, Wyomin

Teen Read Week is the preferred week in our library calendar, largely because students refer to it as “cookie week”.  I am not above using shameless bribery to get kids into the library, particularly during the first two months of school, and I am the first to admit that my killer recipe for chocolate chip cookies has played a key role in my success as a librarian.

To my mind, theme weeks are a gift from the ALA gods.  Banned Books Week is my preferred method for teasing newbies into the library space in September (my library advisory board’s favorite display is all the books taught in our English curriculum which are banned in other schools or public libraries – it makes them feel like James Dean-esque rebels), but October is all about reading for fun, and that means playing up Teen Read Week in a big, big way.

My planning for TRW begins in early September during my first meeting with my library advisory board.  We discuss that year’s theme and do brainstorming sessions with whiteboards and markers to figure out how best to fit it to our audience.  This year, Picture It @ Your Library has been morphed into an anime/book to film theme due to the presence of two active student clubs (Anime Club and Film Club) which happen to meet weekly in our space.  Anytime you can partner with specific student groups, you’ve got a bunch of advocates doing verbal advertising on your behalf.  Collaboration=Strength in Numbers.

So we will be having key displays, the first showcasing books and videos relating to anime (we have a few of the drawing characters books that always prove popular) and the second display will have color printouts of book covers with the corresponding movie poster (I use the movie posters we have access to through our site movie license subscription).  Students will vote on their favorite book to movie adaptation, entering them into a raffle for one dozen fresh-baked cookies (I’ve also done iTunes or Barnes & Noble gift cards as an alternative raffle prize to good effect).

But hands down, the favorite day of Teen Read Week is “Get Caught Reading Day”.  A few days ahead of the chosen day, some of my LAB members make an announcement about how Teen Read Week celebrates recreational reading among teens and they highlight any raffles or events we are doing.  Then they announce that runners will be scouting around campus looking for students who are reading for fun, not for class.  Students are encouraged to have a magazine or fun book at the ready to browse all day and many of our faculty get in on the act and do the same.  My LAB members, after reading the volunteer instructions, are given a stack of coupons to hand out as they find likely candidates.

The usual places to find students are in the hallways, the student center, the dining hall, our dorms (we are a boarding school), and, of course, the library!  It’s a source of never ending amusement to watch kids position themselves in our sight line and exclaim over what they are reading.  Students flock in throughout the day to redeem their coupon for a fresh baked cookies.  In a school of approximately 430 students, I will bake around 250 (mostly chocolate chip but also some oatmeal craisin for the no chocolate people).

What is the point of these empty calories?  There is a method to th

It is Teen Read Week and I want to share some information about this celebration of YA literature with you. According to the ALA website...

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15. rgz Newsflash: p*tag for October's Teen Read Week!

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By: Lorie Ann Grover, on 9/30/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  poetry, YALSA, Janet Wong, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Teen Read Week, David L. Harrison, Julie Larios, Sylvia Vardell, Stephanie Hemphill, p*tag, Michele Krueger, Add a tag

Okay. 31 poets, 31 images and you have p*tag, 31 poems linked by tagging and repetition. It went like this: wait until you are tagged, pick an image, and then write a poem, using 3 of the words from the previous poet's poem. Ready, set, go! And we were off, under the guidance of Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. This ekphrastic approach to poetry, where poems are inspired by art, fueled the poets fully. While the resulting poetry collection is eclectic, the repeated words give a notable continuity to the stream. There's an organic pulse running from beginning to end as readers witness this captured Art Happening on their e-readers.

Personally, David L. Harrison tagged me, so I was able to read his wonderful poem "Family Reunion at the Beach." Then I was off to choose a photo from Sylvia's posted images given to inspire us. The photo of a crowd, blurred by the camera's movement, caught my eye. It seemed as if spirits were leaving bodies despite the people's focus locked on the stage. I then chose three of David's words from his poem: clasping, future, and eyes, for my own haiku "Crowd." Finally, I tagged the lovely poet, Julie Larios. I would later learn she used my words: trapped, eyes, away.

All other poems were hidden from the participants until the release of p*tag. So it was a delight to download and read the stream, read how images and poems and repeated words created a complete work of art. I love how one poet responded to another, and immediately offered another point of view. You can see this particularly between Julie Larios and Michele Krueger. One writes of rising above, the other finding "peace in place." Stephanie Hemphill's' "In Praise of Luck" lifted my spirit, although I'd call it providence. :~) And oh, the delight to see one I esteem so highly, Lee Bennett Hopkins, write with few words just like me.

So here is a poem a day for the month of October while we celebrate YALSA's Teen Read Week. How perfect for the theme "Picture it @ your library." Download p*tag onto your device. Visit the website to learn more, see photos, and try your own hand at the ekphrastic approach to poetry. Thanks, Janet and Sylvia! *standing ovation*

p*tag
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
available on e-readers

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16. 30 Days of How-to #22: Teen Read Week: Picture It Programming

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By: Beth, on 9/22/2011
Blog: YALSA - Young Adult Library Services Association (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Programs, YALSA Info., Teen Read Week, 30 Days of How-To, Add a tag

Every librarian has experienced it.  The heady rush of the weeks leading up to Teen Read Week where you promote the theme to patrons and staff, excitedly pull items for display, unleash your creative genius with promotion, and plan well-attended programming.  Wait.  Programming?

*Record needle screech*

Actually programming seems to be an aspect many librarians say does not come as easily as other aspects of the job, possibly because when it comes time to put people in the seats, putting ourselves on the line with the money or time investment in a program can be downright intimidating.

The first law of programming is Know Your Audience.  YALSA and other librarians can give seven thousand great suggestions, but you are the one best equipped to determine what is going to fly in your library.  You could read about an amazing anime tie-in to the Teen Read Week theme of Picture It @ Your Library, but if your patron group doesn’t know anime from animals and are all NASCAR fans, this is not going to work and, even worse, you’ve lost their trust because now they believe you have no idea what they like.  Not good.

But those same patrons might be enthralled with a technology tutorial on Photoshop Elements where they “Picture It” by creating the car design for their favorite driver, right?  Now you are a technology god or goddess who can name the top ten drivers and who even encourages them to send a copy of their design in a fan email to their hero.  You know your audience and you have their respect and trust.  Congratulations.

With your font of wisdom bubbling behind you, you may wish to consider these ideas as possible options for your fabulous audience.

• The book to movie connection is a natural tie-in to Picture It programming, so what about a poll of the best adaptation?  It can be either paper or posted on your library website using your blog software, a Google Docs form, or a service like Surveymonkey.  The culmination can be a Saturday night viewing of the movie that won, with a discussion afterward about whether the film managed to convey the emotion of the book.
• Poetry and writing groups can find inspiration in using images to inspire their work.  Whether its encouraging them to bring in their own original artwork or photos, pulling those glossy color art books off the shelf, or using a cool service like PicLit, showing the connection between writing and images can get creative juices flowing.
• Book trailers are another natural tie-in to this year’s TRW theme.  Actually teaching movie making software is certainly an option, but using super easy sites like Animoto and Glogster are also great ways to showcase the teen vision of a specific book, with far more instant gratification.  If there aren’t enough computers to go around for your patrons, what about just having a viewing of book trailers, maybe recent releases?  A discussion about which elements make readers want to pick up the book in question could be a great jumping off point for understanding reader tastes in your library.
• Book to Picture is a quick way to get your readers looking at themselves (younger audiences love this).  Have readers pose with the favorite book and print or post t
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17. Picture It

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By: Fleur Bradley, on 5/18/2011
Blog: YA Sleuth (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  YALSA, Teen Read Week, Add a tag

Teen Read Week is this October, from the 16th through the 22nd! Okay, so that's still a long time off, but I'm all about getting excited ahead of time. This year's theme is Picture It, and it's focused on graphic novels, illustrations, etc.--very cool and fun, especially for your reluctant reader. And for me, too.

Check out all the cool stuff YALSA has on the website, especially if you're a librarian (we *heart* you!). There are mini-grants and everything--free money for libraries, which we like.

0 Comments on Picture It as of 1/1/1900

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18. Happy Birthday, readergirlz!

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By: Lorie Ann Grover, on 3/8/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  YALSA, first book, Happy Birthday, Women's History Month, Teen Read Week, March, A Novel Gift, Operation Teen Book Drop 2010, Add a tag

Well, it's March, rgz, and do you know that means it's our 4th birthday? Woohoo! Raise a book and drop a comment in celebration. Share your love!

Looking over the past 4 years, I recall our launch, March 1st, 2007, in honor of Women's History Month. How about our migration from MySpace to Facebook and Blogger and Twitter? I think of great chats like the midnight worldwide extravaganza with Stephenie Meyer, Halloween, 2007. I think of 31 Flavorites where we hosted a different author everyday. I think of celebrations for Teen Read Week, donations of 30,000 books to underserved teens through Operation Teen Book Drop with YALSA and Guys Lit Wire, and the recent A Novel Gift with First Book, driving hundreds to register for 125,000 books. I think of winning the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading and the James Patterson Grant. 

I think of great dialog, passionate teens, and those who work to serve them. I think of an amazing crew of ladies who has donated their time to sustain this site.  

Here's to YA literature. Here's to you, rgz! Happy 4th birthday!

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19. Happy Halloween!

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By: Wendy Toliver, on 10/31/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Provo City Library, Halloween, Scott Westerfeld, Teen Read Week, Add a tag

We spent last week chatting about my favorite holiday of the year: Halloween. And I'm not sure about where you live, but here in Utah, we pretty much celebrated it yesterday since it fell on a Sunday this year. Here's how I celebrated Halloween.

On Thursday our local elementary school had their parade and class parties, and since two of my kids are in school, I helped out with both of their parties. For my fifth grader's class, I got to dress up like a witch (above) and tell a spooky story about Boo Hags while making a brew (which was more like a trail mix). It was a blast and I have a feeling some of those kiddies had a nightmare or two! (The true sign of success, eh?)

On Saturday, I was honored to be part of Provo City Library's 1st Annual Teen Read Fest. I'm always excited to receive an invitation there because that library is, in a word, amazing. They totally know how to fill their beautiful historical building with readers and authors and proud parents. I got to do a reading, speed dating Q&A sessions, book signings, and hang out in the green room with my new BFF (though he might not know this yet) YA author extraordinaire Scott Westerfeld. Then, I came home in a rainstorm to homemade chili a la my husband and spent the night handing out Halloween candy to goblins.

By the way, can you guess what I dressed up as???

And if you dressed up, what did you go as this year?

4 Comments on Happy Halloween!, last added: 10/31/2010

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Jessica said, on 10/31/2010 10:44:00 AM

post-apocalyptic survivor?

Wendy Toliver said, on 10/31/2010 11:45:00 AM

Exactly! :)

Jessica said, on 10/31/2010 12:52:00 PM

Awesome. I love it! I'm gonna steal that for next year...

Wendy Toliver said, on 10/31/2010 1:47:00 PM

It's really fun and easy to pull off. You'll have to show me pictures of yourself if you do it next year. :)

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20. Teen Read Week Rocks To The Sound Of Books With A Beat

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By: Anastasia Goodstein, on 10/21/2010
Blog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  teen read week, Books & Print, yalsa, Add a tag

To celebrate this year's Teen Read Week theme of Books with a Beat, YALSA and libraries everywhere are encouraging teens to embrace poetry, audiobooks, books about music, and anything else that puts rhythm and reading together. From literary battles... Read the rest of this post

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21. Teen Read Week!

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By: Heather Davis, on 10/21/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Teen Read Week, Libraries, books, Add a tag

It's mid-October and just week and a half from Halloween. Yay! But an even cooler celebration happens this time of year --ALA's Teen Read Week. To celebrate we're posting about it all week long on BBB.

Today, I'm remembering my early teens, when books were the salvation and the escape from the horrible world of school life. My dad was a teacher at the local high school, which was only three blocks from my middle school. So, I would ride into work with him and then trek over to my m.s. on foot. I was often early, so I hid out in the library, working my way through a ton of mysteries and spy books. In the afternoon, I'd be subjected to riding home on the bus with the gross boys, bullies, mean girls, etc. But those mornings, when it was just me, the librarian, and a written world of escape, were precious.

I recently got a reader letter from a girl who'd enjoyed Never Cry Werewolf. She said that she loved the book because it helped her escape from the awful world of middle school. Isn't that cool and funny? That what I once treasured about others' books, this girl treasured about mine? I wrote back that my respite used to be reading in middle school, too - but now I used writing to find that same escape.

Reading is unlike any other activity I know. Readers and writers escape together in some way. We're both invested in the worlds we're creating in our minds and on the pages. I think that's a beautiful thing and it changed my life, starting in my teen years.

So how did you come to reading as a teen? What was or is your favorite place to escape with a book?

Happy Teen Read Week!

Heather
www.heatherdavisbooks.com
Never Cry Werewolf - HarperTeen
The Clearing - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Wherever You Go - Harcourt, Fall 2011

3 Comments on Teen Read Week!, last added: 10/21/2010

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Wendy Toliver said, on 10/21/2010 7:48:00 AM

As a teen and today, I like to read right before bed. I also keep a book in my car in case I have to wait for someone.

DforDarla's Definite Reads said, on 10/21/2010 8:58:00 AM

It never really mattered where I read because most of the books would take me into their world. I try to keep a book with me at all times, just in case.

TinaFerraro said, on 10/21/2010 9:38:00 AM

Heather, I remember that reading gave me great escape during long trips when I was a teen, in particular, one tough one across half the country when my grandmother passed away. I have often hoped that teen readers find that same sort of respite inside my stories!

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22. We Got the Beat

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By: Tera Lynn Childs, on 10/19/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Teen Read Week, Tera Lynn Childs, Add a tag

As Wendy introduced on Sunday, this week is the fabulous Teen Read Week™ sponsored by the ALA (American Library Association) and YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) and the theme for this year's week is...

Books with Beat @ your library®

As the Teen Read Week Wiki says, this theme is open to lots of interpretations. And, being a child of the 80s, my first thought is the Go-Go's (as interpreted by Kids Incorporated):

Now beats can mean a lot of different things. Heart beats. Music beats. Hoof beats. Bad beats (in poker). Beat downs (not such a good thing). Getting beaten (as in a race). Beat feet (to run away). Beat an egg (which I don't do anymore, since I'm vegan). And those are just the one that I can come up with. There are even more great theme ideas on the Teen Read Week Wiki.

Your turn. How would you interpret the 2010 Teen Read Week theme?

Hugs,
TLC

1 Comments on We Got the Beat, last added: 10/19/2010

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nymfaux said, on 10/19/2010 10:25:00 PM

Love the Go-Gos!!! but how about a reporter's beat? or a cop beat? or for you vegans, how about a beet? ;)

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23. Happy Teen Read Week!

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By: Beth, on 10/18/2010
Blog: YALSA - Young Adult Library Services Association (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  YALSA Info., Teen Read Week, Add a tag

Happy Teen Read Week! YALSA and libraries across the U.S. are celebrating teen reading in all its forms this week. How can you join the celebration?

• Watch or download a special video message from author Nikki Grimes at the Teen Read Week website, courtesy of Zonderkidz
• Watch or download the announcement of the Teens’ Top Ten, featuring World Wrestling Entertainment Diva Eve, at the Teens’ Top Ten website
• Encourage your teens to visit www.ala.org/teenread and vote on next year’s theme (Picture It @ your library, Feast on Reads @ your library, or Cloak and Dagger@ your library)
• Tell us what you have planned in the comments or at the YALSA wiki

Have a great week celebrating Books with Beat @ your library!

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