YALSA and Soho Teen partner to promote Teen Read Week™

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) announced Monday, July 29, 2013, its new partnership with Soho Teen in promoting Teen Read Week™. Teen Read Week will be celebrated Oct. 13 – 19 with the theme “Seek the Unknown @ your library.”

“We’re very appreciative of Soho Teen’s support for YALSA and for libraries. This partnership is really important because it allows us to continue our mission in helping libraries implement innovative reading programs for and with teens,” said Shannon Peterson, YALSA president. “We all know how important it is for teens to continuously hone their reading skills, so it’s critical that we keep up our efforts to help them do so.”

With this new partnership, both YALSA and Soho Teen will partner on a range of resources that will be available to anyone who joins the online Teen Read Week community at www.ala.org/teenread. Any individual hosting Teen Read Week events at schools, public libraries or afterschool programs who joins the online community will be eligible to receive a Soho Teen Shelf of approximately 10 hardcover books. A total of four Soho Teen Shelves will be given away.

“Librarians are always the ones thinking outside the box and keeping reading alive in a world where kids have a zillion other options at their fingertips—Teen Read Week is just one more brilliant example. What better way to get teens reading than to create a big party around what is otherwise a solitary endeavor? Soho Teen is proud to join the celebration, both of reading and of our librarian comrades,” said Bronwen Hruska, publisher of Soho Press.

Soho Teen, launched in January 2013, is for fearless YA readers who crave thrills and a unique and unapologetic take on “mystery.” While every title has a high-stakes puzzle at its core, the list runs the gamut of genres—from the darkest fantasy to the funniest contemporary—and explores every nuance of romance, friendship and betrayal. (www.sohoteen.com)

Teen Read Week™ is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). It began in 1998 and is held annually during the third week of October. Its purpose is to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users. To learn more about Teen Read Week, visit www.ala.org/teenread.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail, yalsa@ala.org.