Dawn Abron – Zion-Benton Public Library, Teen Associate
Meet Dawn Abron. She WOWED the Teen Read Week Committee with her Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant application this year. We’d like to thank Dawn for taking some time out of her busy week to tell us about what she did with the SEEK THE UNKNOWN theme.
1. Describe your TRW YALSA/Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant.
Teens in our district enjoy writing short stories so we decided to showcase their passion of writing with an annual competition.’ We used the grant to fund our First Annual ZB Inked Short Story Competition.’ We had two categories: high school and middle school.’ First, second, and third place winners were rewarded with a Kindle Fire, a Kindle Paperwhite, and a $50 movie theater gift card.
We began our TRW with a short story boot camp.’ We invited a local author and creative writing teacher, Kathi Baron, to give teens tips for writing great short stories.
2. Tell us a little about your teens’ stories.
Teens used this year’s theme, Seek The Unknown, as the theme for their short stories.’ Our teens really ran with the theme and entered fantasy stories about a girl who was given the gift of radiance through fireflies; men trapped in the Amazon with giant, deadly spiders; and a girl from Mars with an interesting past.’
The winning stories were about a little girl dealing with arguing parents and strong young lady from the Medieval Times.
3. Do you have any pictures you’d like to share of your teen space?
The first and second picture is our teen space, The Hive.’ The third and fourth are pictures of our TRW display.’ We used Dr. Who’s Tardis’ to be the focal point.
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- The Hive
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- The Hive
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- The Tardis – The focal point of TRW
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- Inside the Tardis
Thanks Dawn. We really appreciate you sharing your ideas with everyone.’ For those of you that want to keep up with what Dawn is doing at the Zion-Benton Public Library, you can visit the website at zbteens.com.
Karin Perry is an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University.’ She spends her time reading young adult literature, watching TV, petting her adorable Chihuahua, and napping. You can find her @kperry.
