YALSA, readergirlz team up to celebrate Teen Read WeekTM with 31 Flavorites
Contact: Stephanie Kuenn
Communications Specialist
312-280-2128
skuenn@ala.org
For Immediate Release
Oct. 2, 2007
YALSA, readergirlz team up to celebrate Teen Read Week™ with 31 Flavorites
CHICAGO - In honor of Teen Read Week™, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), will partner with readergirlz, one of the foremost online book communities for young adults, to launch 31 Flavorite Authors for Teens.
Teen readers will have the unprecedented opportunity to chat live with 31 popular, critically acclaimed authors in 31 days. Both YALSA and readergirlz hope to motivate teens to read more books for pure pleasure with this program. Teen Read Week is a national literacy initiative administered by YALSA, with the goal of encouraging teens to read, just for the fun of it. This year, Teen Read Week will take place October 14–20, 2007; the 2007 subtheme is LOL @ your library®.
Every evening in October (5 p.m. PDT, 8 p.m. EDT), teen readers can connect with an author on the readergirlz group forum on MySpace, including top international best-selling author Stephenie Meyer (“Eclipse”), New York Times best-selling authors Meg Cabot (“The Princess Diaries”) and Ann Brashares (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”).
“Readergirlz is bringing teen readers and authors into an exchange like no other before—all in honor of YALSA’s Teen Read Week,” said Lorie Ann Grover, readergirlz cofounder and young adult author. “We’re bringing literature right to teens in their own space, the Internet.”
“By supporting Teen Read Week, readergirlz makes a statement to teens that reading is an essential and fun part of teens’ busy lives,” says YALSA President Paula Brehm-Heeger. “If teens let regular reading fall out of their daily or weekly routine, they lose valuable literacy skills. Teen Read Week is a time to help teens keep their reading skills sharp by reminding them that reading can be fun.”
For additional information and the complete daily schedule for 31 Flavorite Authors for Teens, please check
www.readergirlz.com and
www.myspace.com/readergirlz. To learn more about YALSA’s Teen Read Week, visit
www.ala.org/teenread.
Started by four award-winning YA authors—Dia Calhoun (“Avielle of Rhia”), Janet Lee Carey (“Dragon’s Keep”), Lorie Ann Grover (“On Pointe”) and Justina Chen Headley (“Nothing but the Truth and a Few White Lies”)—readergirlz has quickly become one of the foremost online book communities for teen girls. To promote teen literacy and gutsiness in girls, readergirlz features a different YA novel and corresponding community service project every month. For more information about readergirlz, please visit
www.readergirlz.com and
www.myspace.com/readergirlz.
For 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, 800-545-2433, ext. 4390; or e-mail:
yalsa@ala.org.
