Have you heard? In celebration of the upcoming announcement of the 2017 Teens’ Top Ten (TTT) nominees on Thursday, April 13th, during National Library Week, 50 sets of the 2017 TTT nominees will be given away to libraries in need generously funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. And applications are open now! You can apply for the giveaway via the online form by May 1, 2017. To be eligible, applicants must be personal YALSA members and work in a library within 20 miles of a Dollar General store. Other eligibility requirements also apply. Learn more and apply here.
2017 Teen Read Week Site
Make sure you keep an eye on our Teen Read Week site at teenreadweek.ning.com early next week, during National Library Week, for an update featuring the 2017 theme! This year’s Teen Read Week will be celebrated October 8th-14th! So, don’t forget to sign up for an account to get the latest news, if you haven’t already. Continue reading Latest YALSA News!→
Attention Central MN! This FREE conference is a haven for students who love to read and write. Maria Burnham, Sauk-Rapids Rice High School Media Specialist, is hoping that if a few different schools get together and share a bus, they could share the cost of transportation along with CMLE who has agreed to pay for a portion of the bus fee. Please contact Maria if you’re interested in attending with students and she will work with you to coordinate details. Or, please pass this information along to any others you think would be interested. Maria is willing to do the organizing if you can get the kids! Call Maria at 320.258.1625, email her at maria.burnham@isd47.org, or find her on Twitter @MariaBurnham4.
Maria Burnham with Author Steve Brezenoff
Not sure? Read Maria’s account of Teen Lit Con last year….
Looking Back at TeenLitCon 2015!
Let’s face it. In the K-12 world, everyone loves spring. Our students have grown and changed since the fall, and the warmer weather has us all dreaming of summer days to come. For me, one of the reasons I so look forward to the spring is attending the TeenLitCon at Henry Sibley High School.
Last year was the first year I attended the event. I brought six students with me in a school van, and we made the hour-and-a-half long trek to the southern Metro on a beautiful Saturday morning in May to immerse ourselves in books, writing, and a love of reading.
Upon our arrival, the energy of the place was magnetic! The Henry Sibley gym was full of enthusiastic teenagers waiting to meet their favorite authors. The day started with a Q & A panel with E. Lockhart, Matt de la Pena, Gene Luen Yang,
“Next read” predictions gurus!
and Gayle Forman. The rest of the day was a “build your own schedule” of breakout sessions: book signings, keynote speeches by the four featured authors, writing workshops, button-making, poetry writing, “your next read” predictions, illustration tips, and book talks. I walked away from the day with a bag full of signed books and a renewed energy for teen literature. My favorite of the day? Joining in a dance party with Gayle Forman and about a hundred other students.
I’m looking forward to attending the event this year, once again held at Henry Sibley High School on Saturday, May 7th. Giving up a Saturday isn’t always easy (especially one in May), but this event is worth it! The van ride home last year was completely quiet as my students were engrossed in their new books. Some of my aspiring authors left the day with a few writing tips and opportunities for summer writing camps. Others were so excited to receive an advanced copy of a book by an author they just met. No matter the take-away moment for the student, all enjoyed the event and left with memories that will stay with them forever.
Thank you to the metro public libraries for sponsoring such a wonderful, FREE event to teenagers! Hope you’ll join me in attending TeenLitCon this year!
This post is part of an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books.
Title: The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi Review by Maria Burnham, Media Specialist at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School
I waver between giving this book three or four stars. It was the last YA book I read this past summer, and it was just an okay read (but perhaps I was a little saturated with YA books at that point).
The story is about a girl, Alix, who is being stalked by a mysterious man. Turns out that the man is the leader in a rogue group of citizens looking to get revenge on Alix’s dad who runs a questionable PR company. Throughout the book, Alix questions whether she really knows her father and all his business stands for.
Kidnapping, love, mystery, questionable ethics, deceit and loyalty–this 480-page book has it all. A good mystery for high schoolers, but not my favorite read of the summer. It was just a bit too cliche for me.
Would you like to review a book for CMLE readers? It is easy, we let you take the reins on the length and tone of your review. Send email to admin@cmle.org if you are interested and thank you!
Library Journal recently published the coolest, feel-good piece that would make any self-respecting librarian swoon. The heart of the post is that basically, we all want to give the end user the perfect book, the perfect match for their needs. What if the end user is a teen, and they want fiction about characters with mental health issues that match theirs? Welcome to the term bibliotherapy!
Consider that some teens need to hide their mental health issue out of self-protection in a stigma filled world. As the author points out….”kids with mental illness–kids with pills–can be confronted by others trying to buy or steal them. They can also be targets of ridicule.” Therefore, these teens often feel frustrated, alone and afraid to ask for what they need. As librarians, we need to make these books easy to find. Reading is never a replacement for professional therapy, but reading about fictional characters who share your issue can be comforting to the isolated teen! The right books can help.
Erin E. Moulton is a teen librarian and an author and did a fantastic job writing this post. She includes the research base around bibliotherapy, her sources for her 16 mental health categories, and best yet, includes book lists for each disorder. May is Mental Health Month so you have time to consider your collection now. Do you have enough of these titles for a display?
Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.
Who knew that dispensing literature from vending machines dates way back to 1822? And that these machines have dispensed a variety of items including poetry, tiny books, art, music, and film. Get the history behind this cool idea and read about how a Philadelphia high school is launching an innovative student-run publishing program that offers YA stories via a vending machine. http://tinyurl.com/ogwwek8
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