Wanna get involved in YALSA right now? YALSA needs your help! We’re looking for expert programmers, Teen Read Week gurus, Teen Tech Week geniuses, Road Trip afficionados, Common Core Standards experts and more!

Based on Board decisions at the 2013 Midwinter Conference, I’ll be making appointments to the following Super! Awesome! Taskforces! All you have to do is complete the volunteer form.
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Teen Read Week is a good time for young adult librarians to reflect and reinforce why they have chosen to serve teens in libraries, school or public. Many of us who have committed our careers to the field can point to a person or persons in our youth that made a significant impression upon us. Maybe a youth group leader, a scout leader, a teacher, a coach, a band or choir director, or maybe it was a librarian, who took the time to connect with us. And it made a difference.

Becoming a young adult librarian allows us to “pass it on” to generation after generation of teens. We only get a few short, fast-paced years with each of our teens, so the time we spend with them is often intense, high-energy, and, for some of us “more experienced” librarians, exhausting. But what a satisfying feeling it is to put forth the energy and effort to reach out and then a teen takes the time to reach back! It might be immediately, like when they remember to say thank you when you hand them a book or ask excitedly after a program (when all you want to do is sit down and take your shoes off), “When can we do this again?” (more…)

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more you do, the more you can do… and don’t you forget it!”
- Lucille Ball

One of the biggest excuses/reasons I hear from my teens is that they just don’t have time to read!

These teens are too busy practicing, traveling to events, studying, and being involved with a myriad of other things that enrich their lives, help them be well rounded and will “look really great on their college resumes”.  When we think of reluctant readers, we don’t often think of advanced students, and yet – there is a reluctance there as well.
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One of the ways we celebrated Teen Read Week at Piscataway (NJ) Public Library was to createmonster cupcakes with our teens — using plain cupcakes, frosting (and food coloring!), licorice, candy corn, candy eyes, cookies, pretzels, sprinkles, and whatever else we could find that was FUN. Scary, friendly, and creepy creations were in abundance, and the program brought more teens into our two branches than we had previously seen for a food-decorating program. We had some great giveaways of ARCs, super creative monster bookmarks for all to put together, and even some gaming . . . and it all came from the library!

Hopefully many of you were able to make it to the #TRW12 tweet-up to share great ideas and a lot of enthusiasm. Often our teens get excited about what we’re doing because we’re excited ourselves! What are you doing in your schools and libraries to encourage your teens’ enthusiasm and creativity?

– Kate Vasilik, Piscataway (NJ) Public Library, Teen Read Week 2012 Committee

As you know, this year’s Teen Read Week theme is IT CAME FROM THE LIBRARY. This theme brings to mind all kinds of monsters and scary situations and one of the scariest monster situations I can think of is a zombie apocalypse. Just think, someone you have lived with all your life or gone to school with for years all of a sudden turns on you and attacks. All it takes is a bite or a scratch and you become infected. Scary stuff.  Here is a list of some of my favorite (scary) zombie books just in case you haven’t found them yet.

THE INFECTS by Sean Beaudoin
Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an “Inward Trek.” As if that weren’t bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of “infects” shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate “Zombie Rules” almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can’t keep the biters back.

ASHES and SHADOWS by Ilsa Bick
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
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Book displays. Every librarian has created one, with good reason. They work. It’s just like the candy, gum and other small impulse items located next to the check out. You didn’t know you needed that package of wet wipes until you saw it. The same can be said of a great display of books. It’s marketing genius, and it doesn’t cost you a dime.

With Teen Read Week just around the corner it’s time to create those awesome book displays that will highlight this year’s theme – It Came From the Library, featuring both horror and mystery genres. Below is a list of Gothic titles  sure to entice the most discerning patrons.
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On October 17, 2012, help YALSA celebrate Teen Read Week™ by joining the conversation about teen reading and young adult literature via a Tweet-a-thon!  YALSA wants to know: what’s on your YA lit reading list right now?  Steampunk? Audiobooks?  Horror? Graphic Novels?  Nonfiction?  Something else?

We’re encouraging people of all ages to Tweet their YA lit reading lists, recommendations, thoughts and ideas with the hashtag #TRW12 any time on Oct. 17.  We’ll be following and re-tweeting our favorites.  We want to hear from teens, librarians, library workers, educators, authors, editors and more!  What might you Tweet on Oct. 17? Here are just a few ideas:

• What you are reading, or want you want to read
• Your opinions on who the contenders are for the Printz or other YA lit awards
• Innovative ways that libraries are bringing reading to teens
• Quotes about YA lit, or about reading in general
• Book recommendations for others
• Tips for getting more teens reading
• Links to booklists, contests and other resources
• What trends you’re seeing in YA lit right now
• Visuals! Show us what you have going on for Teen Read Week by Tweeting a photo
• Whatever else you’d like to share about teen reading and YA literature

So, librarians, library workers and educators please alert your teens — and encourage all the adults you know to participate, too.   To learn more about Teen Read Week, please visit www.ala.org/teenread.

Hello YALSA, it’s Thursday!

We’re getting closer to Teen Read Week 2012, and after the fantastic tweetup yesterday, I thought I’d start celebrating early!
Are you ready for a contest that is made of awesome?

I had the honor of meeting our Teen Read Week spokesperson, John Green at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. last month. He was kind enough to sign a couple of John Green – Reading is Awesome Posters for me (in green sharpie, for those of you who are interested in that kind of information).

The awesome part: I am going to pass these on to two lucky Teen Read Week 2012 participants.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

Follow this link to the Teen Read Week Ning. If you haven’t registered  and signed up for the Ning yet- it’s not too late! Once you signup and login, look for the Teen Read Week – Made of Awesome Contest and just comment on the post!

• Tell me why you think Teen Read Week is awesome (one entry)
• Double entries if your comment has a TRW related picture attached to it.
• Triple entries if your comment has a TRW related youtube video attached to it.

Feel free to comment on the Ning post as much as you like, but only your first comment will count towards the drawing (so make it count). If you have more questions about this contest please comment on my post here.  I will pick the lucky winners during Teen Read Week, at noon on October 18th. Good luck everyone!

Best wishes,

Sarah Russo, Howard County Library System, Teen Read Week 2012 Committee

With just two weeks left until Teen Read Week 2012 is upon us, it’s time to start putting some real enthusiasm behind your promotion! Besides the traditional print materials like flyers, signs and bookmarks (don’t have yours yet? There’s still time to place orders with the ALA store!), and paper press releases, how else can you spread the word to teens throughout your community?

• Facebook reaches virtually all of your teen users. The simplest way to let your teens know about TRW through FB is by sharing some of YALSA’s posts and links. But you can also use Facebook to advertise the events going on in your building or classroom, promote some great reads like Teens’ Top Ten, and share pictures of teens “reading for the fun of it” around town.
• Many libraries connect with their communities through Patch, an online news source featuring local news, events, and topics of interest. Many even welcome guest writers to submit articles.
• Twitter is a great tool that your library may already be using. Get news out to the masses through words and images, featuring books, audiobooks, ebooks, free downloads, great literature and media apps, and more with simple, short tweets.
• Interactive displays can really attract attention to Teen Read Week and Teens’ Top Ten. Make them flashy (with bright colors as backgrounds, or even some glitter thrown about), make them loud (maybe not, but be sure to include audiobooks!), and use more than just traditional library materials by including some fun props. Try displaying Halloween masks when featuring spooky titles or plastic food when displaying cookbooks, for example. Take pictures of your display and add them to your library’s tumblr or Pinterest accounts!
• Programming in the weeks leading up to TRW can be great promotion, too. Prior to TRW, hold a Mock Award  or book discussion event to hash out what your teens think the top 10 teen titles should be.

It’s not too late to put some of ALA’s Teen Read Week publicity tools to use. Tell us what you are doing to promote TRW in your schools and libraries in the comments!

– Kate Vasilik, Piscataway (NJ) Public Library, Teen Read Week 2012 Committee

This has been a rough week in my school. In our county, four teenagers have committed suicide in the space of a week, apparently unrelated in any way to one another. Yesterday, our school, which has thankfully been untouched aside from having students who were friends with some of the victims, had an assembly where we delivered the message of the resources the school had available, a brief religious message (we are a private independent school), and then sent our students into small advisor groups for discussion. Coincidentally, the entire U.S. Army engaged in suicide prevention education as well, having experienced in 2012 some of the highest suicide rates in its history.

When I heard of the army’s situation, the first thought which occurred to me was that the military is full of adolescents, the age group to whom I provide library services. Many members of the military are new recruits 18 or 19 years of age, placing them firmly in the age range of adolescent development. For Americans between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death. Since the YALSA mission statement clearly states that its “mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens, aged 12-18,” this at risk age group is our target demographic.

I guess the fact that I was thinking about suicide while also pondering the upcoming programming for Banned Books Week and Teen Read Week made me wonder how these two disparate ideas could be linked. But while intellectual freedom programming or celebrating recreational reading don’t seem to have much impact on preventing suicide, in a small way they do. In fact it relates to my personal mission as a librarian, which includes the statement.

There is no such thing as too many caring adults in a student’s life.

Hopefully our programming, no matter how fluffy or serious it may be, includes a plan to reach out to a variety of interests and personality types in our target group. My “It Came from the Library” brainstorming will include my Library Advisory Board (LAB), a group of students specifically chosen for their friendly personalities and variety of activities and interests. By constructing a board which possesses multiple layers of diversity, their guidance and ideas automatically assists me in reaching different groups of students. Add to that their goal of developing themed programming which includes as many students as possible, and I’m putting their brainpower to work making the library as inclusive as it can be.

So I’m turning to my TRW Manual and my LAB for ideas that will make my library a fun sanctuary for everyone in the hope that my efforts will be not only informative and enjoyable, but help every student who enters this space realize that he or she is deeply cared about. Caring can come from the library, too.

– Courtney L. Lewis, Director of Libraries, Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School, Kingston, PA.