Ways to Celebrate

Activities by State from 2001

California | Colorado | Connecticut | Florida | Georgia | Illinois | Indiana | Kansas | Kentucky | Massachusetts | Missouri | Michigan | Minnesota | Montana | Nebraska | New Jersey | New York | North Carolina | Oklahoma | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas

California

The Teen Library Advisors of O’Connell High School planned several events. Monday was a classroom door decorating contest, Tuesday was “Read a T Shirt Day,” and Wednesday through Friday was a paperback book exchange.

Colorado

Castle Rock celebrated Teen Read Week by offering something in the library every day. Monday was the “World of Magic,” and a magician held a program called “Cover-to-Cover: Magic and Books.” Tuesday was “The World of Your Ancestors,” with a program on family tree making. Wednesday was “Your Inner World,” where a workshop on writing biographies was given. Thursday was “The World of Science Fiction and Fantasy,” which included a book chat on favorite science fiction and fantasy titles. Friday was the “World of Fun and Games,” where friends could hang out at the library having coffee and snacks, play a number of games, and listen to music. A book drawing was held each day, and the book fit the day’s theme. For example, on games day the prize was a paperback edition of Hoyle’s rules for card games and a deck of cards.

Las Animas School library had a cappuccino and Book Talk Circle; a “sock it to reading” contest; a student-created display of how, when, why, and where they practice their reading habit; and a pumpkin-decorating contest for students who visited the public library.

Connecticut

Westport Public Library hosted a Poetry and Pizza night where students could read their own poetry or a familiar author. They also teamed up with the local high school, Staples, by showing the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? since the freshmen class had just finished reading The Odyssey. A contest comparing the movie and the book ensued between four English classes.

Florida

Robert F. Sikes Public Library in Crestview held a workshop teaching teens to read and tell stories to a group of young children. Role playing and using voices to enhance stories were a few of the techniques taught.

Mayport Middle School in Atlantic Beach held a bookmark contest. Students designed a bookmark for their favorite fantasy genre book. They also had a daily trivia quote. A quote from a popular fantasy book was read during the morning announcements, and students had to identify the title of the book. Winners each got a paperback book of their choice.

Georgia

The Southwest Georgia Regional Library System in Bainbridge had teen programs every day, including a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, a demonstration of the ancient art of Kendo, a makeover class given by reps from beauty parlors, Henna tattoos by a local herb hobbyist, poetry reading by a local poet, an urban legends talk, and a Puerto Rico country talk that included dancing. The local Kiwanis Club sponsored the events and provided refreshments daily. They had a turnout that was better then expected and resulted in teens organizing the Teen Library Council.

At CEL Regional Library in Savannah, members of the Teen Advisory Group presented “The Hobbit: A Reader’s Theatre Experience.” Teens performed a play based on the book using Reader’s Theatre tactics. A parent volunteer created simple costumes to capture each character, and props were used. Segments of the book portrayed included: An Unexpected Party, Roast Mutton, Riddles in the Dark, and Inside Information. Teens also stimulated their creative thinking and took part in a “fantasy creature creation.”

Illinois

Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village paired Teen Read Week with Amnesty Week. They forgave book fines when missing books were returned. They also invited the Elk Grove Public library to come and give book talks all day relating to the Hobbit theme as well as to promote their services and a new library card promotion to the community. “Reading AccomplishMINT” bookmarks (with a mint) were given out to all students who checked out a book.

Prairie Trails Public Library in Burbank hosted a “Sights and Sounds: Art Gallery and Open Mic Night.” The high school art teacher brought artwork over to be displayed in the library.

At the Flossmoor Public Library, members of the Young Adult Advisory Board organized and presented a story time program for children in grades K–3. The theme was “Celebrate Arthur’s Birthday,” and the teens read aloud in a book buddies format, lead a sing along, helped with a craft, played two games, and put on the play “D.W. Gets a Library Card.” The hour concluded with singing happy birthday to Arthur, with cupcakes and candles.

Palatine High School combined forces with cafeteria staff to celebrate Teen Read Week and National Cafeteria Week. This year’s theme was “Lunch by the Book.” Students participated in a “What Came First, the Movie or the Book” contest and a “Match the Book with the Character” contest. The cafeteria allowed the media center to produce coupons for free milkshakes. The coupons read, “shake yourself to the library for a good book,” “shake things up with a good book,” and “have a cool treat with a cool read.” The cafeteria staff also invited a representative from Palatine Public Library to come and register students for public library cards.

Indiana

Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library in Evansville conducted three programs during Teen Read Week. A chief of staff from the mayor’s office spoke to teens after school concerning the importance of reading. An anchor woman from a local TV news station spoke of her job and the importance of reading, and teen author Harry Mazer participated in a ribbon cutting at Central High School’s new library.

Kansas

Lawrence High School made “Read to Succeed” posters featuring different students reading. (This year they made more than one hundred posters!) The posters were distributed throughout the junior high and helped promote the new library at the alternative high school. They also have a “students picks” section, where students can add their favorite books, on their Web site as well as a slide show of all the “Read to Succeed” posters.

Kentucky

The Independence Branch Library held a program on building a skateboard park. The program talked about how to make a petition effective, doing the background research for the proposal, understanding the petition process, understanding the legal/social issues involved in such a park, and making allowances/plans for all of that. The library served as a great place to conduct all the research and meetings. Librarians had a handout stating that the library was not advocating the park, but simply providing a forum for the discussion and offering resources (computers, meeting rooms, books on skateboarding etc.) that could be used by anyone interested. They also included web sites of interest, a place to do an online petition, free e-mail sites, free Web site hosting sites, and information on local officials who were supportive on the handout.

Massachusetts

Amesbury Public Library turned Teen Read Week into an entire month! They also started a Book Review Writing Group with middle and high school students and had a haunted library with a haunted stacks tour. There was a costume contest as well as a storytelling workshop. Another contest was an art contest where teens create their interpretation of a character in The Hobbit.

Framingham Public Library held a “Celebration of Fantasy Literature” that featured a chainmail-making demonstration, hands-on jewelry making, and Japanese bookbinding. They also had a selection of fantasy fiction and relevant nonfiction on armor, costume, and dragons. Medieval refreshments were available, and everyone was encouraged to show up in costume.

Missouri

Students at Pleasant Lea Junior High in Lee’s Summit rose to a specific challenge by their principal during Teen Read Week. They were challenged to read a cumulative of 150,000 minutes during the week and were to keep a log signed by parents to verify times. Since the students exceeded their goal, the principal had to perform in a lip-sync contest for the entire school. The top thirty-seven readers were then invited on a field trip to Barnes and Noble to select a free paperback book and have a cookie and soft drink. They also advertised for Teen Read Week on their video delivery system by showing videos of “mystery readers” and then students had to identify the readers.

Michigan

East Lansing Public Library held a parent/son book discussion on the book Flags of our Fathers with a special guest, a local veteran of Iwo Jima.

Minnesota

Hennepin County Library expanded Teen Read Week to Teen Read Month. They had a Teen Graffiti Board in their teen room, where students could add poetry, notes, riddles, jokes, or a list of good books they have read. They also offered online chats with two different authors.

Montana

Missoula Public Library had a presentation by the Society for Creative Anachronism on books and reading in the Middle Ages, stressing that many people then were not allowed to read.

Nebraska

This was the Yutan Public Library’s first time participating in the Teen Read Week program. They implemented a program that allowed teens to earn points through the following: going on a scavenger hunt, with questions that had to be answered by searching the library; going to a Lord of the Rings book discussion at Barnes and Noble; bringing children into the library to read a book to; reading to children at a local daycare; writing a book review (more points could be earned if it was an award-winning book); making a list of the places they could think of to pick up a book, magazine, or newspaper; and designing and wearing a Teen Read Week shirt; making a list of reasons why people should read. In addition, librarians went around “catching” students reading for extra points all week. Teens accumulated their points for a grand prize at the end of the week.

New Jersey

The Teen Advisory Board at South County Regional Library in Atco came up with the idea of a “Sports Alive” program for Teen Read Week. Teen Advisory Board members dressed up in their favorite sports attire, and each member set up a display table with their favorite sport’s memorabilia and read sports fiction and/or explained their display to the younger children. The sports represented included baseball, karate, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and tennis. The program also included local children’s book author Joe Massucci as well as two mascots from the area.

New York

St. Edmund Prep High School had teachers and selected students dress up as their favorite literary character. Teachers also posed for a picture with their favorite book, and the photo was enlarged and displayed. If students were caught reading, their picture was taken. There was also an essay and poster contest based on the theme “Make Reading a Hobbit.” A book collection was started for the Reach Out and Read program for those less fortunate. Students chose their favorite book to play a version of the TV show Survivor, with students voting off books until there was one lone survivor.

North Carolina

W. C. Friday Middle School in Dallas celebrated with a reading trivia quiz and a poster contest. The trivia quiz consisted of three parts: author/title match-up, character mis-match, and who am I biography questions. Students involved in the poster contest were to draw their favorite book or comic book characters. Winners received gift certificates to be used at an upcoming book fair. In addition, DEAR time was held following each lunch period.

Okalahoma

Edmond Memorial High School sponsored a contest where students had to identify pictures of teachers when they were teens. They also had a display of books that teachers and faculty enjoyed when they were teens.

Ohio

Coshocton Public Library used a game show modeled after the TV program Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Westland Area Library in Columbus collaborated with the Key Club at Westland High School to take part in storytime activities. The teens went through some training with librarians, were given access to resource material and craft supplies, then given control of the entire process from planning to execution. The teens chose patriotism as their theme and set up craft tables for children to make Uncle Samhats to wear during the program. They then read the Pledge of Allegiance, after which all participants stood and recited the pledge. The pledge was followed by a snack and an opportunity for latecomers to make hats.

Westerville Public Library showed the animated Hobbit movie and talked about how it was the same or different from the book. They also had a program, Teeny Tiny Tales, in which teens read “Scarry Stories” to kids.

Pennsylvania

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh celebrated Teen Read Week by having a core of librarians visit all 117 middle school classrooms to book talk from a list of twenty books and have students fill out a library interest survey. They also talked about library services for teens and distributed brochures of all the services the library offers that might be of interest to teens. Movie passes and gift certificates were raffled off in every school as an incentive to fill out the survey.

Rhode Island

Cranston Public Library kicked off Teen Read Week by having a fashion show celebrating “Unity in Diversity” that featured an intermission Power Point presentation of multicultural young adult books with background music from a diversity of cultures titled “The Best Books Break Down Borders.”

South Dakota

Big Stone City School Library had an essay contest on “The Reading Habit” and held a Hobbit scavenger hunt in the school library. Students also made a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down poster about the latest book they read and, something they will remember best, read to students in grades 1, 2, or 3.

Tennessee

Rogersville City School lined their balconies at the school with rocking chairs and encouraged teens to “read for the fun of it.” Teens also made posters of their favorite books and had a picture of them holding that book mounted on the poster. The students logged 338 hours of reading, and local businesses rewarded them with small prizes. Students brought pillows to school and read “just for the fun of it,” and their teachers read excerpts of October Sky to them. They also used the remarkable reader survey and awarded prizes, had a guest storyteller do a reading from The Hobbit, and had seventh- and eighth-grade students read to the students in K–4.

Texas

Bishop Lynch Catholic High School in Dallas started a book club that kicked off during Teen Read Week. High school students also collected gently used children’s books to distribute at the local elementary school. These books will be given to younger students to whom the teens will be donating their time as reading partners throughout the year. Teens will be partnered with refugees from Kosovo and Bosnia.

Johnny G. Economedes High School in Edinburg held a noninterrupted, ten-minute sustained reading time, achieving a cumulative total of 23,650 minutes reading. Approximately 1,898 students ages fourteen to eighteen and two hundred teachers/staff members participated. A live drum roll on the public address system initiated this prolonged reading activity, news media was there to cover it, and school officials are contacting the Guinness Book of World Records record holders with documentation for recording purposes.

Irving Secondary schools celebrated Teen Read Week with a variety of activities that included hosting J. R. Edmondson, author of The Alamo Story: From Early History To Current Conflicts; holding scavenger hunts in the library; having students reading to younger children; filling out surveys; delivering daily announcements from Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens, holding book fairs and family reading nights; identifying teachers in a reading contest, “Look Who Got Caught with a Book in Their Face”; and holding a read-in at Barnes and Noble.

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Ideas from Teen Read Week Working Group

• Invite a graphic artist, cartoonist, or computer graphics technician to demonstrate their talents as career possibilities for teens.
  (Visit www.swgc.mun.ca/visual/vcareers.html for a list of many different careers in the arts)
  
  
• Introduce teens to the world of picture books for older readers. Encourage them to try to create one of their own. Share it with the group or put it on display in the library.
  
  
• Have the English and Art Departments work together. Art students could draw scenes from a graphic novel or comic book, while the English students write stories to go along with the scenes.
  
  
• Have the art department at the local high school decorate the YA section of the library.
  
  
• Establish a teen writing group. Produce a literary magazine of their writings accompanied by their graphics.
  
  
• Invite a comic collector or owner of a comic/graphic novel store to discuss the different genres.
  
  
• Love a book that has a terrible cover? Redesign the cover the way it should look!
  
  
• Make a poster that convinces people to try reading your favorite type of book or reading material.
  
  
• Make bookmarks describing you as a reader. Make it clear what books you would like without mentioning authors, titles, or characters. Make bookmarks of your favorite authors, characters, titles, etc.
  
  
• Design trading cards or game cards of your favorite characters.
  
  
• Make a prototype of the CD/album covers of Bilbo Baggins’ (or any other favorite/hated character’s) brand-new CD. Good covers should indicate song titles, music genre, guest stars, and details common to the music market.
  
  
• Find a favorite poem or passage. Find (or make) a piece of music, a piece of art, a video, a sculpture, etc., that best captures the feeling of this piece of writing.

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Swap Shop: An Information Exchange

Wonder what other libraries are planning this year for Teen Read Week? What problems they’re encountering or what events are generating the strongest interest? Send an e-mail to yalsa@ala.org with questions or information you’d like to share with other librarians, and we will post it below.

Lola Teubert, Evansville VC PL
posted: 08-23-02

During Teen Read Week, a teacher from Castle High School will instruct us in some conversational Japanese, we will show Anime Films, and a Japanese restaurant is holding a Japanese feast at the library. The finale of the week will be having a teacher from Japan explaining innuendos in Anime and more conversational Japanese for the group.

Catherine Craven, Teen Librarian, Missouri River Regional Library, Jefferson City, MO
posted: 08-23-02

I still need to finalize some details with my Teen Advisory Council, but it looks like we 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.

Diane Masla, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, Florida
posted: 08-23-02

We are planning a weeklong 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.

Linda Kucalaba, Teen Services Librarian, Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County
posted: 08-23-02

To tie into the Teen Read Week theme, “Get graphic @ your library™”, I’m thinking of conducting a teen computer class on HTML—learn to build your own web page. Has anyone ever done this? Any suggestions? I was thinking of having a two or three part series, using Notepad for the coding (tags), and saving it on a disk. I seem to remember there was discussion on this topic about a year ago on one of the listservs, and someone even shared their class outline and handouts, but I haven't been able to find them in my files.

Does anyone remember this?

Any suggestions and comments would truly be appreciated.

Many thanks.

Linda Kucalaba
Email: lkucalaba@libraryvisit.org

Jennifer R. Rice, YA Librarian/Webmistress, East Greenbush Community Library, NY
posted: 08-23-02

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

RoseMary Honnold, Coshocton Public Library, OH
posted: 08-23-02

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!

Dymphna Harrigan, Teen Librarian, Danbury Library, CT
posted: 08-23-02

I am having a Teens Teaching Teens Program. I have 5 teens that will teach balloon animals, two types of origami, face painting, and hemp necklace making. The program will run for 1 1/2 hours and the library is supplying the materials such as hand pumps for balloons and paint for face painting, etc.

Hopefully things will come off as planned, but it has generated a lot of excitement for the teens that want to sign up.

Bea Ingersoll, Children's Librarian, Sedalia Public Library
posted: 09-05-02

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. Usually 6 students come in the morning and 6 come in the afternoon. We split into 3 groups and they read 4 or 5 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.

Teresa Parham, Teen Services Librarian, Alum Rock Public Library, Santa Clara County Library System, CA
posted: 09-05-02

My plan for Teen Read Week is this:

Put up the poster for Get Graphic @ your library™ for TRW next to the ALA World’s Greatest Heroes @ your library 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. Since the heroes on the poster are all DC. I would include some manga characters and stand alone graphic novels as well.

My prize is going to be a “mini” poster of the Heroes, and book marks 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 of 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 am looking forward to it.

Francisca Goldsmith, Sr. Librarian, Teen Services, Berkeley Public Library
posted: 09-05-02

To keep in line with the city’s Arts Festival month (August), we had our graphic novel program way early this year (instead of during the schoolyear, or even close to Teen Read Week). Last week, a panel of 4 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 40, all ages (mostly teens and 20-somethings, but also a covey of 80-year-old ladies!) who kept them talking for 2 hours!

Cranston Public Library in Cranston, RI
posted: 09-05-02

We are planning to make the theme of our fall teen events, Get Graphic @ your library™. 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 on-line 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 mike 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.

Maggie Ahrens, York County Libraries, Youth Services Specialist, Martin Memorial Library
posted: 09-05-02

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 gets 2 (donated) tickets to the local Movie Theatre.

We are also having a comic book and paperback swap.