YALSA announces 2018 Teen Read Week™ theme

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), will feature “It’s Written in the Stars…READ” as the theme for this year’s Teen Read Week celebration, which will take place October 7-13. Teen Read Week is generously supported in part by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

Library staff, afterschool providers and educators can use this theme to encourage teens to think and read outside of the box, as well as seek out fantasy, science fiction and other out-of- this-world reads.

The official site will launch on April 12, during National Library Week. Library staff are encouraged to join the site at www.ala.org/teenread for a variety of free resources for help planning Teen Read Week activities, including access to the TRW grant application, the 2018 logo, a publicity kit, a program planning template and more. Theme related products will be available in the ALA store after the site launch and will include print (available in English only) and digital products (available in English and Spanish).

As libraries begin to plan for Teen Read Week, authors and publishers are reminded they can also be involved. Publishers and other corporate groups can become sponsors to help YALSA build the capacity of libraries to meet the literacies needs of teens. For more information on how to become a sponsor, please contact YALSA’s Executive Director, Beth Yoke at byoke@ala.org.

The mission of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is to support library staff in alleviating the challenges teens face, and in putting all teens ‒ especially those with the greatest needs ‒ on the path to successful and fulfilling lives. 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.