Ideas by State

click on a shaded state below to see entry

ARIZONA

Madison Meadows Middle School, Phoenix

In observance of the American Library Association's Teen Read Week October 13–19, 2002, the librarian and the principal of Madison Meadows Middle School came up with an idea. With the help of the Educational Technology teacher and the Meadows Ram Report Technology students, the school borrowed ALA’s idea of 50+ posters of famous people reading well-known books. We took still shots of our teachers with the books that they like to read or would recommend to the students. These photos and reports will be presented in the weekly Meadows Ram Report, which is an iMovie creation of the Educational Technology Students. The report is shown weekly on Friday mornings of learning events happening at school. This particular feature was shown on two Fridays, Oct. 11 and Oct. 18.

CALIFORNIA

Berkeley Public Library

To keep in line with the city’s Arts Festival month (August), Berkeley Public Library had our graphic novel program very early this year (instead of during the school year, or even close to Teen Read Week).A panel offour local comics artists, a graphic novelist, a daily comics artist, a comic book script writer, and a fellow who is inventing a whole new visual storytelling format presented to a crowd of forty, all ages (mostly teens and twenty-somethings, but also a covey of eighty-year-old ladies!) who kept them talking fortwo hours!

El Dorado Branch, Long Beach Public Library

We celebrated Teen Read Week by having a staff member from a local comics shop give a talk about graphic novels. The crowd was eager and enthusiastic and deemed the evening a great success!

Sunnyside Regional Library

The entire library system, including Sunnyside Regional Library, had a pumpkin-decorating contest (external decorations, somehow relating to a book or character) with prizes ranging from comic books to graphic novels to t-shirts with cartoon characters on them. This activity had very little participation. In my specific branch, the artists in my teen council painted huge Japanese animation-like posters for the“get graphic at your library”display. Another member used her computer to put together a collage of some of her favorite characters from graphic novels. Finally, everyone in the teen council participated in a book-buying trip to Barnes & Noble, where they were each allowed to spend $50 for new materials for the YA section. This was—as always—the most popular activity. They loved having the power to decide what was being added to their collection—many graphic novels were purchased.

The Girl’s Middle School, Mountain View

TRW falls in the middle of our Readathon, a fundraiser where the girls pledge to read a certain number of hours and get donations for doing so. Each week has a different theme, so I went whole hog on comix for TRW, putting up posters and having kids draw manga-style art to decorate the halls and the bulletin board. The art teacher did a unit on comix and illustrations, using Christopher Hart’s books as guides, and many girls created their owneight-page comic with the free materials we received. The best thing was the free comic giveaway—I went to a local book and magazine distributor and got him to give me a deal on a purchase of 250 comix. He threw in a spinner rack, and I set it up in the foyer crammed full of comix, letting the girls know they could each take a free one. It was a huge hit, and the following week I pulled together all the graphic novels, old and new, and I made the spinner rack the permanent home of my 741.5 titles! It was a tremendously successful event.

Orange County Public Library, La Habra

Our Teen Advisory Board decorated the library with posters (many from Dark Horse Comics, who sent them to us for free!—and others that I had picked up from ComicCon in San Diego last August), artwork, etc. The library looked fabulous!

On Wednesday, we held a “Get Graphic” event and a local comic book artist and writer came and spoke to the group. We also had pumpkin painting—and put the painted pumpkins on display in the library, and a few other art stations (such as the comic book journals we received as part of TRW) as activities after the speakers. Plus, we held an art contest and gave out the prizes that night.

The evening attracted twenty enthusiastic teens (all girls) and was a success because the teens planned it and were involved from the beginning.

County of Los Angeles Public Library, Culver City

DC Poster contest; cartoonist taught them to draw; three-hour anime festival.

I had good participation in all of the events, but they definitely liked the anime fest the best. They are nagging me to do it again!

Santa Monica Public Library

The library held an event called “2D/3D: Cartoon and Animation Festival.” This consisted of six workshops in cartoon and comic drawing and in computer animation as well as continuous showings of anime in the auditorium. The workshops provided information about career and educational opportunities in the fields of filmmaking, graphic design, and publishing.

Springstowne Library, Solano County Library, Vallejo

We had an art show of anime/manga art by local teens. It was small, but the art was excellent.

Alum Rock Public Library, San Jose

My plan for Teen Read Week is this:

Put up the poster for Getting Graphic @ your library^TM for TRW next to the ALA World’s Greatest Heroes @ your library^TM poster and have a prize for the teen who can correctly identify the most heroes.

This can also be adapted with other pictures of different graphic novel characters in the library’s collection too. I would include some manga characters and stand-alone graphic novels as well.

My prize is going to be a poster of the Heroes, and bookmarks for everybody else. I would like to give more, depending on what our Friends funds are like—such as a gift certificate to a local comic shop. Our library is one of the smallest in the system, but we have a prominent display space for teens, so it should draw a lot of attention.

Another idea, since I see many teens print out pictures on the computer to collect and draw, is to have a drawing contest. I would be the judge, but would put up everybody's work for display. When I was studying art as an undergrad, we were asked to draw ourselves as a hero, and I thought it would be fun to see what the kids would come up with given the same challenge. The dimensions would be small, regular size paper, black and white, or color. But would also include a "name" and description of any powers!

I think it will be really fun, and I am looking forward to it.

COLORADO

Longmont Public Library, Longmont

manga/anime drawing class—success
microsoft publisher class—success
guess how much candy in the jar/win the candy—big success!

CONNECTICUT

Danbury Library

I held a Teens Teaching Teens Program. I hadfive teens that taught balloon animals, two types of origami, face painting, and hemp necklace making. The program ran for 1 1/2 hours and the library supplied the materials such as hand pumps for balloons and paint for face painting, etc.

Westport Public Library, Westport

WPL held a“Pizzaand Poetry”evening for high school students. Students either read their own poem or those by established authors.

New Canaan Library, New Canaan

Our efforts were mostly in the form of displays and booklists. We have new YA shelves, and we displayed our new collection of graphic novels, paperbacks, and YA audiobooks there. We printed out several copies of the TRW poster and made multiple copies of YA booklists.

FLORIDA

Alachua County Library District, Gainesville

We are planning a week-long blitz of high schools and middle schools. Our plan is to appear on their in-house morning television programs, booktalk in classrooms, and distribute booklists for student and teachers to use. We will focus on introducing graphic novels for teens, although we’ll also promote new regular book titles. At the end of the week we’re sponsoring a Teen Graphic Novel program here at the library, featuring our local comic guy.

Broward County Library System

While the Broward County Library System had several small activities for Teen Read Week, the main event was the Graphic Novel Mini-Convention that was held at the West Regional Branch. Our guest of honor was Will Eisner. We also had some local artists and author Adam-Troy Castro. We had a “create your own superhero” contest several weeks prior and the winners were announced, with prizes being gift certificates from Barnes & Noble and some local comic shops (one of which had a table at the convention), The event was well attended, and our table of Library Graphic Novels had a nice amount of books taken from it. I wouldn’t mind doing it again next year.

Clearwater Public Library

Had a great Graphic program on Saturday—one writer,one penciler (very very cute), andone inker from CrossGen comics came and spoke to about forty-five people (adults and teens)—we hadthree comic books stores display stuff as well as donated raffle stuff—includingfour signed prints from CrossGen. And Chris Oarr showed up as well!

GEORGIA

Atlanta Fulton Public Library

The Atlanta Fulton Public Library offered a variety of programs during Teen Read Week. Programs included author visits, workshops such as SAT, Resume Writing, Web Page Design, and the American Place Theatre’s production of the dramatization of Richard Wright’sBlack Boy.

HAWAII

Waikiki-Kapahulu Public Library, Honolulu

“Get Graphic @ your library Con” was their Teen Read Week program. This mini convention hosted five local artists that did work from commercial art to cartooning book illustration to video game graphics.

ILLINOIS

Schaumburg Township District Library

Teen Read Month at STDL:

• Teen Read Month kits to sixty interested teachers
  
• Hidden Bookmark
  
• Snackin’Tuesdays + Days off school
  
• List the Graphic Novel Series contest
  
• Book Review Form raffles
  
• Little Coffee Shop of Horrors
  
• Teen Advisory Board/Writing Club Halloween parties
  
• All-town Halloween Teen Party
  
• Folding 1,000 Cranes for Peace

The programs were big hits. I had too many teens to manage at a couple. I signed up several teens at other agencies in the community for my mailing list during the month as well.

Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin

Conducted a“Search for the Super-Heroes” contest using the World's Greatest Heroes poster from ALA. Teens had to identify 10 super-heroes: graphic novel titles and authors were provided as clues. One winner received the poster as a prize. Teen response was not what we hoped, probably because the activity forced them to do a little research!

Mount Prospect Public Library

We invited a local comic book artist on Sunday afternoon to speak about her technique of creating her characters and story lines. She is distributing her materials independently and encouraged the teens to think seriously about publishing. She displayed her extensive portfolio and answered lots of questions. A friend of a coworker operates a comic book store, so he donated a box of comics for our comic book exchange. If teens visited his store at a later date, they could pick up a free comic. We had lots of snacks, too. I also had a display of comic books and Graphic novels on display in the adult services department for the entire week. Our program was very successful and the very first time ever that I had to gently mention that we had to wrap things up because the library was getting ready to close.

New Lenox Public Library

NLPL had many events during Teen Read Week. They held a How-to-Draw Workshop, Stan Lee video presentation, drawing contests, reading contests, a Teen Book Club that discussed Night of the Bat by Paul Zindel, and a library card sign up at the Junior High for the four lunch periods.

Central Catholic High School, Bloomington

The Central Catholic High School Library celebrated the week in a variety of ways. All week long two contests were held in the library. The first was a scavenger hunt; answers to each question could be found using the reference section of the library. They also held a contest titled,“Guess How Many Books Are in the Library?”Thursday was designated“reading day”; every student read a book for thirty minutes during homeroom. The librarian distributed bookmarks to each student during reading time. Freshmen also participated by reading books during English class on Friday.

INDIANA

Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel

Reading Program: Choose and read a graphic novel from our staff favorites list. Fill out a brief review form and earn a free comic, donated by Downtown Comics! (Limitone per person.)

Hero ID Contest: Can you name ALL of the people in our World’s Greatest Heroes @ your library^TM poster? If you can, you might win a $20 gift certificate to Downtown Comics! (five locations around the Indianapolis area.)

Graphic Novel Book Discussion Group: Love to talk about this format? Come to this organizational meeting! We will eat pizza provided by the Friends of the Carmel Clay Public Library and choose titles to discuss at monthly meetings in the future. Mike Costello, co-owner of Downtown Comics, will be our special guest speaker.

Forest Park Jr./Sr. High School, Ferdinand

Book displays featuring suggested graphic and other books, Silent Reading, daily mystery readers, rewards throughout the week for various library activities.

Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Evansville

Take a Japanese Journey to Celebrate Teen Read Week. Mon: Anime films; Tues: Japanese teacher telling us phrasesand manners of culture; Wed: Iwataya Restaurant preparedthree huge trays of sushi for a feast; Thur: Masatoshi Oki just hired in Japan this summer teaching in a high school spoke on growing up in Japanand he wore one of my kimonos; Sun: finale anime feature film. It was a fantastic week!

IOWA

Clive Public Library

We offered a “Design Your Own Web site” program and a “Magic—The Gathering Tournament.” The first we had to cancel due to low registration,but the latter was very successful. In addition, we kicked off our graphic novel collection this week.

KANSAS

Lawrence High School

Each year Lawrence High School Library observes Teen Read Week by displayingtheir own“Read to Succeed” posters in the library hallway. They makemore than one hundredposters of high school students reading their favorite books. Parent-teacher conferences were scheduled during this week, and the hallway was full with parents looking at posters. Copies of the posters are sent to the junior high schools in the district as well.

KENTUCKY

Woodford County Library, Versailles

We had an expert on anime come in with her collection of Japanese graphic novels and realia. She told about the history of the art and why she likes it. We also showed part of an anime film. Teens had to read a graphic novel in the preceding month to attend. It was a good theme. I didn’treally realize how interested my teen patrons were in graphic novels, particularly anime, until the program.

LOUISIANA

Ouachita Parish Public Library, Monroe

• Monday: Coffee house. Had vanilla cokes, cream sodas, and coffees with a few pastry-type things, tables and chairs, and dim lighting.
  
• Tuesday: Writing Workshop with Ronnie: writing classic horror fiction.
  
• Wednesday: Movie Night—giant ants taking over the Earth? AHHHH!!! Cokes and popcorn with a movie.
  
• Thursday: HALLOWEEN PARTY! called Not Another Halloween Party and planned by our Teen Friends. Refreshments, costume contest, and games (charades, pictionary, etc.).
  
• Friday: Crafts: Haunted Gingerbread Houses. Just like the ones you make a Christmas, but with the haunted house!

The teens loved all of the events! Surprise to me! Even the guys who were grumbling about making gingerbread houses got into it once they were there and eating tons of icing and candy! Using Halloween as the theme was worked the best for me. My teens love Halloween so I capitalized on that! If you are interested, I have posted pictures from every night of TRW on our Teen Friends site at the Yahoo! groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opplteens. Please be aware that you have to have a Yahoo! ID to get into the site, but it is a lot of fun once you do!

MAINE

Carrabec High School, Anson

I had a Teen Read Week Superhero Trivia Contest and gave away books and gift certificates to the local bookstore.

MARYLAND

Carroll County Public Library

The Mount Airy Branch has a list of events based on Teen Read Week. During Teen Read Week the Mount Airy Branch hosted an Anime Drawing Contest, having teens vote for their favorite graphic novels (it didn’t have to be in our collection, and we’re hoping to use the votes to expand our graphic novel collection), we held two book discussions, and artist John Staton came to discuss and demonstrate the art of manga style.

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston Public Library, Lower Mills Branch

BPL held two programs on comic books. In their weekly drop in art program they made comics and had a gentleman come and speak on the history of comic books and graphic novels.

Duxbury Free Library

We had a graffiti board on which teens could write their favorite titles and authors, we had our monthly anime evening, our semi-monthly book review meetings and a very fun “Dark and Stormy Night” Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest. This drew a lot of teen and adult interest.

MICHIGAN

East Lansing Public Library, East Lansing

Had displays; a local comic book writer come to talk about his experiences; their parent/son book group read different graphic novels and talked about what they thought of them—the generational differences (parents’ experiences/opinions of comics versus the boys’ experiences) were interesting.

Reynolds Township Library, Howard City

We had a graphic artist came in and share with the kids and do some teaching as well. The kids told me it was the best program yet! We also did a pumpkin-painting program that extremely well attended. I had kids at this program that I had been trying to get involved at other program and they just never showed any interest but then they came to this!

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis Public Library

The Minneapolis Public Library turned Teen Read Week into an entire month! They sponsored several programs to encourage teens to Get Graphic @ your library^TM, including, “So You Wanna Be a Comic Book Artist”—a comics workshop, “Make the Comics Connection” and learn about what’s new in the comics world, “Comics from Start to Finish”—a panel of a comics team with an illustrator, writer, and inker, and “Manga Mania,” a manga workshop.

MPL had great response from community agencies—local comics shops, the Minnesota Comic Book Association, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, who have a comics illustration program. They were able to do all these programs for only $375 as some participants donated their time.

MPL also premiered a new booklist,“Teens Recommend”, which includes fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels that Minneapolis teens are enjoying.

MISSOURI

Missouri River Regional Library, Jefferson City

After finalizing details with their Teen Advisory Council, MRRL will be doing a coffeehouse night to kick off Teen Read Week. We’ll set up our biggest art gallery/multipurpose room with small tables with cloths, dim the lights, play some jazz or world music in the background, and serve cappuccino, hot chocolate, and other soft drinks to get that cafe ambience. Teens are welcome to attend whether they perform a piece or not, but I will likely request that they do register ahead of time and that readers let me know beforehand which pieces they will perform.

Parkway West High School, Ballwin

1. We voted for favorite book and compiled the 4th annual Parkway West High School Favorite Top 10.
   
   
2. One of our high school students gave a presentation on graphic novels, Japanese manga, and Japanese anime. We had a nice group attend including an English teacher who participated in a discussion following her presentation. The result was a group of students formed a Japanese Anime club, which will meet the first Tuesday of the month in the library classroom to share anime DVDs and discussions.
   
   
3. We announced our first Teen Advisory Board for Parkway West High School as well as the school district.
   
   
4. We had a Create Your Own Web Site event Thursday after school, which will occur weekly in the library as long as the interest continues.

Marionville Library, Marionville

We had three programs. One was a book talk in the 9th grade English class. One was a coin-collecting program. Then the other one was a comic book artist! He was great. The youth brought copies of their work to share with him and he did drawings for the teens as well. We had a total of seventy-three!

Sedalia Public Library

For Teen Read Week, we invite high school students from an early childhood class to come to my preschool story time and read Building Block Award Books to the preschoolers. Usuallysix students come in the morning andsix come in the afternoon. We split intothree groups and they readfour orfive Building Block Award Books to the preschoolers. Then the preschoolers are asked what book they liked the best. We write it down and put in our jar. We send the votes into MLA. The preschoolers enjoy it and the high school students enjoy reading.

Teens were invited to the library to read Building Block Award books to the preschoolers at Preschool Story time. We split the children into groups and each teen read at leasttwo books to their group of kids. The teens were from the local high school who were taking childcare classes. The teens gained experience with children as they read books to them. The children enjoyed hearing the stories. Their favorite part was choosing their favorite book and voting on it. Also, all teens that came to the library on Friday, Oct. 18 were entitled to pick up a free paperback book. The teens loved getting paperback books and told how they share them with their friends. They also got to take a balloon home. It was a good experience for both teens and preschoolers.

Cape Girardeau Public Library

CGPL scheduled a guest speaker from a local comic book store to kick off Teen Read Week. He talked about the history of graphic novels and gave everyone who came a comic book to take home. They also held a decorating party in the teen area. Teens used stickers, markers, and magazines to make collages on tables in the teen area. Tables were covered with black paper and then decorated. After decorating was completed, glass was put on top of the tables to protect the work.

Jefferson County Library, Windsor Branch, Barnhart

Lord of the Rings movieand trivia night. Twenty-three teens showed up after the library closed to participate. We showed half of the movie, and then took a break for snacks and trivia questions over the first half of the movie. Then showed the other half of the movie and had more trivia questions about it. We had a tie and had to have some tie-breaking questions. Everyone enjoyed him or herself and had a great time.

St. Louis County Library

• An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe
  Celebrate Teen Read Week with Edgar Allen Poe. See, listen to and read the stories of Edgar Allen Poe.
  
• Have Lunch with Jan Greenberg
  Celebrate Teen Read Week with Jan Greenberg. Adults and teens meet St. Louis writer Jan Greenberg, the author of Heart to Heart, a work chosen as a Michael Printz Honor Book in 2002 by the Young Adult Library Services Association. Enjoy your favorite pizza while talking with Ms. Greenberg. Lunch registration required.
  
• “Get Graphic” Scavenger Hunt
  Come in for this introductory meeting and get ready to explore the world of adventure waiting at the library as we search out animators, illustrators, and authors of anime and graphic novels.
  
• Visit with author Jan Greenberg
  Join us and participate in a discussion with Jan Greenberg author of juvenile fiction such as Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie, Exercises of the Heart, The Iceberg and Its Shadow, Just the Two of Us, No Dragons to Slay, and Pig-Out Blues, as well as several juvenile books on art and poetry.
  
• Blue Horses presented by the Y-Rep Children’s Touring Theater Company
  Four friends imagine their dreams through a game of “Wish Upon a Star.” Acting out their wishes helps each of them gain a new self-confidence and understanding.
  
• Get Graphic at the Library
  Learn the art of cartooning. Make a Thaumatrope, a Flipbook, and a Cartoon Cell. Get the graphic detail of early cartoons. Video: Cartooning ... And enjoy some of your favorite cartoons with popcorn and soda.
  
• Teen’Zines!
  Got something to say? Want the whole world to hear it? Come to the computer lab and read other teen’s online magazines and learn how to make your own. This is for teens only and space is limited. Parental permission to use the Internet will be needed, so call (314) 868-0331 or come by our branch to sign up!
  
• “Get Graphic@your library^TM” exhibit
  Enjoy this fun, informative exhibit highlighting graphic novels.
  
• “My favorite Is�”
  Come in and tell us about your favorite book, poem, or short story and earn a chance to win a prize!
  
• Teen Boggle Tournament
  How quick are you? Don’t be shy, come and impress your friends with your Boggle ability. Prizes and refreshments.
  
  
• Games! Games! Games!
  Join with friends for an evening filled with fun, excitement, and friendly competition. Challenge them to a game of your choice. But don't forget the refreshments! Pizza will be served.
  
• Teen Trivia Night
  Who lived in the famous haunted mansion in St. Louis? Who played Peter Parker in the movie Spider-Man? Show your genius by answering these questions and more. Prizes and
  refreshments.
  
• Scary Evening Tales
  Join in the fun of scaring your friends with the tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. We will be viewing the movie The Cask of Amontillado, a chilling story of a crime committed to avenge an insult. Try out your knowledge with a trivia contest of Poe facts. The two top winners will receive prizes. Pizza and soda will be provided for all!
  
• Thoughtful Teens
  Have fun and help us plan our future teen events! We will do a craft, play games, and have snacks! Bring your friends and your ideas!

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Rye Public Library, Rye

Earlier in the month our Book Discussion group used the graphic novel Warlands and the boys love it! During the Teen Read Week we held a scavenger hunt for them, and the winning team received a gift certificate from a local graphic novel store called Jumpgate. The owner and an employee were invited to different schools to talk about graphic novels. Very few teens had been exposed to this genre before, many now love it.

Hillsboro-Deering High School, Hillsboro

Read proclamation, booktalked one book each day on announcements, art students painted ceiling tiles in the library with reading themes, reading interest survey, name heroes in poster (win comic book), hand out candy, book bags, reading records, booklists, SSR every day, develop a comic book character workshop

NEW JERSEY

Burlington County Library–Pemberton Community Library Branch, Brown Mills

For Teen Read Week, a“Read In”was held in the library. Teens could read wherever and whatever they wanted in the library.

Ocean City Intermediate School, Ocean City

The Ocean City Intermediate School Eighth Grade Language Arts Teachers and the Media Specialist organized a trip to the Ocean City Public Library where we met young adult writer Carol Plum-Ucci who wrote The Body of Christopher Creed and What Happened to Lani Carver? The students listened to Carol explain: what inspires her, writer’s block, and the writing process. The students got to ask her questions and give advice on their interests. Carol stayed and signed copies of her books for the students. We had a great time and the students were completely engaged in what Carol Plum-Ucci had to say.

NEW MEXICO

Rio Rancho High School

Rio Rancho had a local young adult librarian visit and speak to a group of students, prizes were given out to students who came to the library and filled out a form with their name and the name of their favorite book, and the library tracked checkouts by grade and congratulated the grade with the most checkouts during Teen Read Week.

NEW YORK

East Greenbush Community Library

For TRW this year I had a cartoonist come to the library and lead a workshop on developing a comic book character. The teens (grades 7–12) took what they learned and worked on an original comic book or graphic novel for our Comic Book Contest. They have a month, and then I will have my TAG pick the winner and announce it during the TRW party I'm having.

Howland Public Library, Beacon

HPL used the Get Graphic theme as the perfect launch for their new graphic novel collection for teens. They had comic book writer Todd Dezago come and do a workshop that was a big success. The Young Adult Group, YAAC, also went on a book-buying trip to Barnes & Noble to purchase books for teens. The new books are then set up in a“new books for teens”display.

Shelter Rock Public Library, Albertson

SRPL held a short story slam, a “Talk about Books” book discussion, and a design a graphic bookmark contest.

Goshen Public Library, Goshen

I hired comic book writer Todd Dezago to do a program for teens about what he does to create TELLOS and other experiences he’s had writing for Spiderman, etc. He was excellent. He talked about story structure and how it relates to writing comics. He was very comfortable with the group. He brought a sample comic and autographed it for everyone. I also purchased about twenty-five graphic novels to start this collection, and I promoted it relating to Teen Read Week. I had sixteen teens at the comic book writer program and about half of the graphic novels have been checked out. The only thing that didn’t work out was that I had planned to use the iron-ons as prizes but when I tried to iron them to a shirt they didn’t stick even though I followed the directions exactly. I tried withtwo different iron-ons thinking that the first one may have been defective. I also triedtwo different 100% cotton shirts. Anyway, other than that it was a great theme and I think the teens really enjoyed it!

Rogers Memorial Library, Southampton

We had a professional cartoonist/graphic artist come inand teach the YAs how to create their own graphic art work. The teens that participated were eager to create! We also scattered new graphic novels around the YA room, which encouraged teens to pick up new titlesand even check them out.

St. Edmund Prep High School, Brooklyn

St. Edmund Prep High School participated in Teen Read Week by holding an essay and art contest as well as a “Can You Guess the Teacher’s Favorite Book” contest. Faculty members submitted their favorite book from when they were in high school and students had to match the book to their teacher. They also used the ALA“Get Carded”poster and checked each freshman to see if they had a public library card. If they had one, their name was entered into a raffle drawing. Also, two representatives from the New York Film Academy came to the school and spoke to juniors and seniors about filmmaking. They also had a contest to match various movies to their correct film locations.

OKLAHOMA

Norman Public Library

We had two graphic author visits and launched graphic novels system wide. It was awesome! Teen came in droves. The author visits included drawing/illustration workshops and this was one of the best turnouts we had in years.

Mabel C. Fry Public Library, Yukon

We had time set aside for Teens to “Read for the Fun of It” each day, complete with snacks and drinks and a chance to be entered in a prize drawing. For every day that they came and read, they received one chance for the drawing. First prize, drawn at random, was a gift certificate to a local book/video store. Everyone that participated got cool “Get Graphic @ Your Library” pencils that they really enjoyed. Also, I had a graphic artist do a graphic drawing workshop. He was awesome! Neither he nor the participants could believe it when I had to cut in to wrap up the program after 2 hours and 15 minutes!

Pioneer Library System, Norman

Launched graphic novel collection. Had an author visit, graphic novel illustrator visit, superhero film festival, cartoon character drawing contest.

OHIO

Coshocton Public Library

I use Teen Read Week as an opportunity to showcase our Teen Advisory Board, all our teen programs, our YA collection, and the idea of reading for fun. I reserve the large display case, do a photo shoot of the TAB members with props that carry the theme, have a survey in the YA room, an independent contest drawing also in the YA room, and a social program on that Thursday night. The display, survey, and contest go on the whole month of October to give more teens a chance to participate. One week is a bit short to catch them during the busy fall school, band, and sports season!

Westerville Public Library

I wrapped up my Teen Read Week activities last night. This was only my second TRW (how many have there actually been?). Last year I had ZERO participation. This year I hadfour boys come to a Comic Book Exchange that wasn’t well advertised,nine kids to my Teen Book Club discussion of the illustrated Hobbit, and ten come to a talk by a young man I know who is writing/illustrating novels with the hope of getting published.

The best part of it all is that most of the kids were kids I'd never seen at anything before!

Cuyahoga County Public Library

Once again, we made several items in the teen collection 'Instant Winners' when teens checked them out; the circulation staff activated the revolving blue light and announced a Teen Read Week winner. The Teen Advisory Group sponsored an anime festival on Saturday afternoon and ran an identity contest using the ALA superheroes poster. Teens and staff enjoyed rewarding the instant winners and teens were encouraged to read for fun and prizes.

Mansfield/Richland County Public Library

1. Street Smart Self-Defense Program—twenty teens had a great time learning and practicing how to defend themselves if ever attacked.
   
2. Calligraphy Workshop for Teens—This program was offered atfour different locations (the Main Library andthree branch libraries). A local expert presented a hands-on workshop for teens to learn and practice calligraphy. The workshop culminated in the teens making a bookmark and writing their name on it in calligraphy.
   
3. CD Clock Workshops—These workshops were held atfive branch locations. This was a program that was offered during our YA Summer Library Program and offered again this fall due to demand. Teens really seem to enjoy making something useful out of all those free CDs.
   
4. Comic Book Trivia Contest—The teen librarian designed a one-page trivia contest based on comic book characters and their traits and made it available at the Main Library and alleight branch locations during the entire month of October. Approximately sixty entries were received systemwide, and the winner of the contest, chosen randomly from all the correct entries, received a $25 gift certificate to Old Navy.
   
   
5. Design Your Own Comic Book Character Contest—Teens were asked to design their own comic book character and name their creation. The contest was held during the entire month of October, and all the entries are on display for the month of November at the Main Library. The library received eighty-eight entries in the contest, and the Teen Advisory Board will judge. They will choose a first, second, and third place winner.
   
   
6. Whose Line Is It Now? Teen Improv Workshop—This program was very similar to the television program “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The library recruited two local improv troupe members to run the program, and the twenty teens that came had a blast.

Upper Arlington Public Library

This is our fourth year of trying a book drive for teens in Appalachia. We work with an organization“Grandma’s Gifts”run and started by a teen Emily Douglas in memory of her grandmother. This drive has become a community effort and very successful.

We also had a graphic artist run two workshops one for high school and the other for middle school students. Both were very successful and the students would like more programs—middle schoolers were very enthused. We also ran a graphic design logo contest for middle school students and up to design a“teens read in the library”logo that will be used on all our teen materials. We only hadtwo teens respond but got a great logo and the students did a great job!

Willoughby Public Library

Here at the Willoughby Library we had a local comic storeowner and his staff tell about the history of comics and a little about manga and collecting comic books. The response was small, but that is usual for this library.

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Cincinnati

Computer animation demonstrations, visits from local comic book and anime artist and historians, murder mystery nights, several presentations from John Fleischman, author of Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science. Also, a local pizza franchise donated coupons for a free large pizza—one for each of ourforty-two locations—teens entered the drawing for the coupons anytime they checked out an item during TRW.

The teens loved the comic book and anime artists. Also, we combined some of the visits from Mr. Fleischman with pizza lunches (in conjunction with our local friendly pizza franchise) for large school groups. More than two hundred teens saw Mr. Fleischman. More than eight hundred teens participated in our pizza giveaways.

Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Youngstown

To tie into the Teen Read Week theme,“Get graphic @ your library,”I’m conducting a teen computer class on HTML—learn to build your own Web page. I was thinking of having a two or three part series, using Notepad for the coding (tags), and saving it on a disk.

Bridgetown Middle School, Cincinatti

Two speakers visited our school. One draws cartoons for a local radio station’s advertisements and has written and illustrated a children’s book. The other owns a comic book company and talked about the history of comic books, how graphic novels are viewed differently in different countries, and how the writer and artist work together to engage both parts of the brain in comic books. He also brought samples of original artwork and scripts for students to see.

Bridgetown Middle School also cooperated with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County by taking students to the downtown branch to take a tour, get lunch, and listen to a comic book artist and a computer animator speak. Students also worked on droodles and displayed their droodle titles in the library.

Students also filmed video announcements and included book reviews of favorite books each day. We also held after-school tournaments for games like Mage Knight, Magic, Yu Gi Oh, and Hero Clix. A local comic book store found us adult volunteers to help monitor the games.

OREGON

Tualatin Public Library

TPL hosted separate nights of tie dying, Mahendi, bead bracelets, and Anime Movie night to celebrate Teen Read Week.

Beaverton City Library

BCL held a Comics Art Workshop with a professional comic artist, identify the superheroes in the ALA Superheroes poster, teen reading survey with two graphic novels displays.

PENNSYLVANIA

York County Libraries, Martin Memorial Library

We have a local tattoo artist coming in at our library to do temporary tattoos (no needle = not permanent, but he is using tattoo ink) for a program.

We also have a contest: celebrity tattoos. Match the head shot to the tattoo, to be displayed on a bulletin board during Teen Read Week (also serves as an advertisement). Winner getstwo (donated) tickets to the local movie theatre.

We are also having a comic book and paperback swap.

Butler Area Public Library, Butler

We invited the owner of a local comic book store to visit the library during TRW. He knew many of the teens already from being customers of his store. He brought a huge box of examples of graphic novels as well as freebies for everyone attending. He seemed interested in making regular appearances here at the library and mentioned donating some graphic novels for our collections. The program worked out well except for being cramped—we had hoped our NEW YA department would be up and running, but no such luck. We did give those who attended (twenty total) a sneak peak at the new department. They seemed pleased.

RHODE ISLAND

Cranston Public Library

We are planning to make the theme of our fall teen events, Get Graphic @ your library^TM. Our September teen event is called Get Graphic I. A young local artist and recent graduate of RISD will demonstrate his talents and talk about art as a career, he will help the teens to create their own“graphic novel collage”of anime/comic book art. In October we are planning Get Graphic II, an animation workshop where teens can create their own“movies.”We are also holding a teen online scavenger hunt. Our Teen Team is hosting a teen reading cafe where winners of our writing contest will read aloud from original works. Teens will relax with beverages and snacks and read. Teens can go to the open mic and read aloud from their own works or selections from their favorite authors. Finally there will be a read-aloud contest in which teens may read poetry, prose, or act out scenes from their favorite play before a panel of judges!

One Saturday in September teens will teach younger children how to draw anime and on a Saturday in October teens will read aloud to children in grades K–3.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Harvin Clarendon Co. Library, Manning

We had a “Game Night” and “Draw Your Own Superhero” contest. Game Night didn’t go over that well, but the superhero contest was a success. I had support from the local art teachers and receivedmore than seventy entries. We also released a lot of new books for check out. The new books, which included graphic novels, have bee pretty popular.

Berkeley County [Public] Library, Moncks Corner

We had a double-feature movie night at all four branches, showing two scary films. The program was well received. One had a graphic novel tie-in. This was a great program to do in that it required very little prep for a change, so it was a welcome break. It made doingfour programs in one week much less stressful.

Andrew Jackson High School, Kershaw

The school librarian and Andrew Jackson High School invited teachers to bring their classes to the library to browse lots of themed displays of books in a coffee shop atmosphere complete with cookies and cappuccino being served. Also, graphic novels were featured during lunch while an anime film was shown. In addition, the principal and vice principal volunteered to visit classrooms to discuss some of their favorite books. For teachers, the school librarian distributed a list of graphic novels with information about this format and a list of resources to use in the classroom. She also included the description that graphic novels are a “combination of art and literature to create something new and wonderful, much like a Reese’s Cup” and attached a piece of the candy to get their attention. (The phrase was something learned at the 2002 YALSA preconference, Getting Graphic @ your library^TM, in Atlanta during ALA’s Annual Conference.)

SOUTH DAKOTA

Big Stone City School, Big Stone City

This year our 7th and 8th graders did reading and book activities each day of the week.

• Monday was a READ-IN in the gym for 1.5 hours.
  
• Tuesday (and Thursday—Artwork-where Get Graphic @ your library comes in)—Tuesday they redesigned a book cover to make it more appealing to read.
  
• Wednesday they had the librarian come into their computer class. She showed them book lists and submitting a book review online.
  
• Thursday (Artwork again)—Taking a comic strip or making one of their own, they rewrote it to make the characters tell about good books they read.
  
• Friday—Read-a-Shirt Day and also they went into the younger grades and told about books they enjoyed as a younger student and then about a book they have read recently as a teen and enjoyed.

The teens enjoyed the week and did a good job on all their activities.

TENNESSEE

Rogersville City School

Rogersville City School held its second Teen Read Week Celebration by “Rocking and Reading.” Students were given extra time during their school day to lounge in rocking chairs and read “for the fun of it.” Sixth graders planned a "Reading on the Lawn" and brought beach towels and lawn chairs to spend extra minutes reading. Seventh and eighth-graders read to our primary students, and sixth graders created favorite book posters to display around the school. In honor of Teen Read Week, our library sponsored a “Book-a-Day Give Away.”

TEXAS

Madison Middle School, Abilene

Madison Middle School sent notices to every staffand faculty member about Teen Read Week and its importance. The notices included shocking statistics about the decline in teenagers reading for pleasure. Five expensive comic book collections were given to students who passed an Accelerated Reader test on the book Skellig, and Teen Read Week bookmarks were distributed to every student in the school through Language Arts teachers.

Austin Public Library, Terrazas Branch

We had a TRW kick-off party on Oct. 11. We had snacks and I introduced our new collection of graphic novels and our graphic novel/comic/manga/how-to-draw book display. We talked about comics, graphic novels, and manga. The students also received free comics, which were donated from our local comic book store. The last part of the party was a chance for them to start working on their“ultimate superhero”design for a weeklong art contest during TRW.Twelve students (ages 8–15) came to the party.Six students turned in superhero drawings.

Allen Public Library, Allen

We sponsored a poetry workshop led by a local poet. They learned some writing tips, wrote poems and read their work in a fun, nonthreatening atmosphere. We had sixteen teens attend the two-hour workshop on Thursday night, which I thought was a good turnout.

We also had a book give-away that teens could enter by writing down the name and author of a favorite book and taking it to the reference desk. We only had twenty teens enter, which was fewer than anticipated. I did ask them to fill out their e-mail address so we could e-mail them about future events. I think that will be useful.

Tegeler Career Center, Pasadena

Students designed book covers for their favorite books. Students also could come to the library where the librarians read to them. The librarian also used this time to booktalk twenty-five new books.

Austin Public Library

We provided a lot of programming and some of the individual librarians will also respond. One program was a Super Heroes program at our juvenile detention center. We had a caricature artist work with the kids to develop super heroes. The kids loved it. It combined art and writing and helped kids who are in trouble recognize that they had“powers”but also“weaknesses.”Even the guards got involved.

Austin Public Library–Southeast Austin Community Branch

As part of our Teen Time Travel weekly meeting, we had a pizza party and took several trivia quizzes about The Lord of the Rings. We are listening to the BBC dramatization of The Two Towers now. Last year, we listened to The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.

Groves Branch Library, Lubbock

“Get Graphic @ Your Library” program—We invited the owner of a local comic shop to come and speak to the teens. We hadsix junior high boys in attendance. The comic shop owner was very personable and engaging, and the kids had lots of questions. Even with the low turnout, I felt the event was very successful.

We also had a contest to see who could name the most characters from the DC Comics ALA poster. We hadeleven entries and the winning entry only hadten correct answers. This event was not as successful because the task was very difficult, possibly too difficult.

On October 17th we hosted 179 7th graders from a local middle school who came in smaller groups over the course of a day to get library cards and check out materials. Both the school librarian and I felt this was a very positive experience for both the students and our library.

Roanoke Public Library

We had two month-long contests: one to name as many superheroes as possible from the ALA/DC Comics Poster, and one to design bookmarks for the library. We had three special programs during actual Teen Read Week: Say WHAT?!, an open-forum discussion group for teens to talk about literature, poetry, or anything else, and two showings of Moving Words during Columbus Day, where participants read the book then watch the movie version at the library, then discuss the differences.

We had no takers for the bookmarks, two for the poster contest, two different teens show up for each of the movies offered, and two other teens show up for the open forum; all in all, it was actually pretty good, considering this was the first time our library ever had anything specifically for teens, we are a small rural library, and not within walking distance of any of the middle or high schools in the district.

UTAH

We had a great Teen Read Week costume party last week. The teens came dressed as their favorite superhero/graphic novel character. There werethirteen in attendance (this is not bad for a Thursday night!) and almost to a person they came dressed as characters in Japanese manga!

We played some fun“superhero” games and then created little games with the storytelling notebooks that were sent to us from Ouch! Comics. If anyone is interested in the games, I can send them to the list. I just sort of made them up, using standard party ideas (sort of) and adapting them for teens.

We are into food games here, although I did have to tone it down after the Summer Reading party lock-in when the games went somewhat awry and plates of whipping cream started flying around the room, and then we had an activity where they smashed raw eggs on their foreheads.

We used a tarp on the floor but the maintenance man complained, so last week I restricted the food to peanut butter! The kids love messy games, now if I could just convince the library staff....

VIRGINIA

Central Rappahannock Regional Library, Fredericksburg

We asked teens to submit their anime drawings for a young adult graphic novel display. Onlyfour teens entered their work, but one teen was overheard to say,“Cool. The library put me on display!”We also invited a local art teacher to teach an anime drawing class. This was so popular that we added a second class, so that thirty teens could attend each session. Even though there were not many submissions for the display, I would still sponsor the program again because of the pride of that one young lady. I would also repeat the anime drawing class, the numbers were great and we had a mix of races and genders that we rarely get from a teen program.

Chesterfield County Public Library, Chesterfield

1. “Check and Chick at your Library.” We partnered with local Chick-Fil-A stores. They lent us official“cows”to use in promotion. We sent posters to middleand high schools and put flyers in our libraries. Any teen checking out a book, magazine or book on tape during TRW received a specially designed TRW C-F-A coupon for a free chicken sandwich.
   
   
2. Cartooning contest. We designed publicity posters and flyers, which contained both rules andthree cartoon boxes. Teens could draw in color or black and white, one, two, or three boxes, and free rein was given—no theme was specified. Gary Brookins, editorial cartoonist of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and nationally known cartoonist agreed to be the judge. The Times Dispatch ran a feature story about the winner with her picture and her cartoon, as well as listing the runners-up and honorable mentions.
   
   
3. Teen Comix Awards. This was a take-off on the Oscars, with categories being chosen from the Oscar awards for a balloting process offered to the middle and high schools, as well as at our libraries. Favorite graphic novels were used, but instead of voting for the same, boringfavorite book, favorite character, etc., we tried to show the literary merit in graphic novels and have fun thinking about books from different angles. We used categories such as Best Documentary (nonfiction) Best Foreign Language Adaptation (published outside the United States), Best Visual Effects. Voting was closein several categories. Results were published during TRW.

Harrisonburg High School

My library secretary, who also is a graphic novel artist, prepared a PowerPoint presentation about the medium and presented it totwenty-four English classes. The direct contact worked well; the kids were attentive, interested, and excited and asked for a lot of the materials. The school book club, sponsored by the school newspaper also focused on graphic novels for the occasion.

WASHINGTON

Mill Creek Library

We had a really successful program at our branch! We had teens put on a storytime for preschoolers. It involved two sessions for the teens: on 10/5, the children’s librarian and I provided instructionand coaching for the teens; then on 10/19, we had the actual storytime.

Timberland Regional Library District, Tumwater Timberland Library

Events for Teen Read Week included roundtable discussions of graphic novels led by comics bookstore owners. Several libraries also hosted Teen Read Week Cafés, showcasing graphic novels and other teen materials with refreshments. Teens enjoyed sitting down and talking about their favorite writers and artists. At the Amanda Park Timberland Library, located up north next to the Olympia Rain Forest, the cafés drew a steady crowd before, during, and after volleyball games and football practices. Teens hung out at the cafés and checked out plenty of books. The mix of formal discussion programs and informal cafés worked well, appealing to teens’interest in graphic novels and sharing ideas and food. At the Oakville Timberland Library, the librarian added cartoon balloons to the TRW poster reflecting the anime characters’thoughts.

WISCONSIN

Forest Park Middle School, Franklin

We are a 7th and 8th grade middle school, so this is a perfect week to promote. We had a Design Your Own Bookmark contest, judged seventy-seven entries and awarded twenty small prizes. The biggest reward is that we have laminated the originals and will display them in a case in the lobby of the school, and run copies on card stock of all the designs so students can share them and carry a copy of their creation. We also had students and teachers fill in a Remarkable Reader survey, and we posted all of those on the LMC wall. Twenty students were chosen at random for small prizes for completing the survey. We also gave students the opportunity to tell us more about a book they enjoyed reading. Several teachers made this a class assignment, so there was great motivation! Starting next week (November 11) we will have students reading their recommendations during morning announcements. I'm not sure how many more books were checked out during Teen Read Week, but student interest was certainly aroused by these promotions!

WYOMING

Laramie County Library System, Cheyenne

In Cheyenne, they offered an art contest plus three programs for the week including their annual poetry slam, a game show (Dog Eat Dog), and a comic book art workshop.