Transliteracy in Teen Summer Reading

I recently worked with two other librarians (Chrissie Morrison of the East Greenbush Library and Kaela Wallman of the Schenectady Public Library) on a presentation of incorporating transliteracy into your teen SRP. Transliteracy is the ability to be literate across multiple forms of media (books, radio, internet, tv, etc.) This Teen SRP challanges teens to complete quests rather than following the model of just tracking books or minutes read.

Teens will complete x number of quests and for each quest they get a raffle ticket. You can chose to have the raffle at the end of the summer or raffle off one item per week. To view our presentation click here

We created quests that use the various media in and out of the library. Kaela put some of the quests we brainstormed into a little book that the teens will use to records their quests over the summer.{ Booklet } In order to keep stats make each quest equal to a number of minutes if you report minutes, or a number of books if you ocunt books. Comment on this blog post if you have more Quest ideas! I love to read the creativity of librarians!

Quests:

• Watch a movie (fiction or documentary) based on the lifeof a musician, singer or band
• Write your own ghost story (at least 1 page long
• Read a book of your choice
• Using the website http://www.bartleby.com/100write 2 quotes you like and why
• Create a piece of art (photo,drawing, collage, painting,etc)based on a dream
• Read a book with the word star in the title
• Read a book about a famous musician, actor or athlete.
• Borrow & listen to a music CD from the library.
• Borrow and read a magazine from the library
• Write your own poem or song lyrics inspired by the night sky.
• Research a famous person from your town. Write things you learned about his or her life.
• Discover 2 famous people who share your birthday. How are you and they similar or different?
• Take a picture of yourself in front of a historical marker. For extra credit use the libraryto learn more about the site you chose
• Go star gazing and identify at least 3 constellations -- bonus raffle ticket for borrowing a book about stars/constellations from the library
• Become a fan of the library on Facebook and post on our wall the title of a book you recently read and write a review of it.
• Make a video about the Teen Space in the library and let us post it to our YouTube channel
• Take a photograph at night
• Build a reflective solar cooker & experiment by cooking a marshmallow in it to make s'mores! Instructions here http://stardate.org/teachers/activities/cooker
• Find out what the night sky looked like the on the evening of the day & year you were born
• Read a book that was recommended to you by a friend or librarian
• Visit another library in our library system and borrow a book from them with your library card
• Read a book published in 2012
• Read at least 2 books from your schools recommended summer reading list
• Listen to an audiobook

Book Display: Favorite Book Club Books

I put out this display for February 2012. This is a collection of popular Book Club books from the past 10 or so years.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

The Help by Katheryn Stockett

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

The Kite Runner by Khlaed Hosseini

Room by Emma Donoghue

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Alchemist by Paul Coehlo

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Bel Canto by Ann Patchet

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Shack by William Young

Teen Zombie Program

Ideas for a 90 minute teen zombie party! Here is the flyer for my event https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Ml6iIDXdszNmFmY2ZiMDctZGRlZi00NTg1LTlhODYtZWM0OTM2MmU3NDIy/edit

By the way that's me in the picture above.

Learn Thriller music video dance moves then dance as a group and film

• Thriller Video

Zombie makeup

• You Tube Video
• Purchased liquid latex in clear, stippling sponge, thick and thin fake blood, green, blue, white and black liquid facepaint.
• The liquid latex is a pain to get off (just like ripping off a bandage) so do not apply near facial hair or hairline
• Rinse off makeup with warm washcloth and mild soap

Decorate zombie cupcakes

• Get ideas from the book "A Zombie Ate my Cupcake: 25 Deliciously Weird Cupcake Recipes" by Lily Vanilli
• Or the book "Zombie Cupcakes: From the Grave to the Table with 16 Cupcake Corpses" by Zilly Rosen
• There is also "Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones, Witches' Knuckles, and Much More!" by Sharon Bowers
• Wow! There are a few zombie cupcake themed books to choose from!

Zombie origami

• Use the book "Zombigami" by Duy Nguyen

Zombie Walk Off-prize for best zombie walk

Write a Zombie Haiku based on the book "Zombie Haiku" by Ryan Mecum

Zombie Books in our Collection:

• Dust & Decay
• Zombie vs. Unicorn
• Triskellion 2
• The Passage
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Ashes
• Zombie Haiku
• Forest of Hands and Teeth
• Dead Tossed Waves
• Boneshaker

Links to other zombie library programs:

Compendium of ideas

Programming Librarian

Library Websites with Style

I am always on the prowl to find great ideas for my library's website. This blog entry has some recent websites I have come across that are doing some pretty neat web design on a dime.

• Haverstraw King's Daughter Public Library They put a movie trailer plug-in on the teen page to play book trailers. Their children's page also has an amazing collection of app looking icons for popular games. Very clean and streamlined design.
• Nyack Library The children's portion of the website uses a really handsome Tree image map where you can click on different leaves on the tree and go to different portions of the YS webpage.
• Bethlehem Library in Delmar, NY has the landing page of their Teen page a giant iphone. How trendy!

Summer Reading Prizes for Teens

Each year for my Teen Summer Reading teens read all summer long to rack up points. At the end of August we have a big party and each point a teen has earned over the summer translates into 1 raffle ticket. The teens then have the chance to try and win cool prizes in a Penny Social style raffle. I make sure to give ALL participants who logged any reading throughout the summer a gift bag with a book, ice-cream coupon, button, and candy. I also keep a special box of consolation prizes for teens who did not win anything at the raffle.

I buy most of my prizes from: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, BJ's Wholesale, Target, Dick Blick Art Supplies,

Here are some of the best teen summer reading prizes I have given away:

• Themed Book Baskets (Twilight, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Chronicles of Narnia, Movie Night)
• Lego Kits
• Manga Drawing Books
• Sketch Pads and pens
• Candy and Cookies
• Domo Doll!
• T-Shirts
• Anything Book related (Hunger Games pins, Harry Potter Scarf)
• Purses
• Teen Book Bundles
• Wallet on a chain
• Wrist cuffs
• Metal Lunchboxes
• Justin Bieber Standee!
• Fun USB drives
• Gift Cards

Stuff They Were Not Into as Much as Me!:

• Chinese Calligraphy Set
• Dream Journals
• Stickers
• Chess Set
• How To Kits
• Japanese Candy
• Mario Brothers Beach Towel
• Magnetic Poetry

Here are some pictures of past summer reading prizes for teens I have awarded:

Teen SRP Prizes

The Rainbow Project

The Rainbow Project is a booklist of recommended books for kids and teens revolving around the topics of GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Questioning.) It is the brainchild of the ALA GLBT Round Table and SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table.)

Check-out their website here

This is a booklist of just some of the recommended books from the August 2011 issue of VOYA magazine. (v 34, #3, page 226-227 by Lynn Evarts.) Check-out the article for the full listing.

• Will by Maria Boyd, 2010
• Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi, 2010
• Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz, 2009
• Out by Sandra Diersch, 2010
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green, 2010
• The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Change by Amy Ignatow, 2010
• Me by Ricky Martin, 2010
• Scars by Cheryle Rainfeld, 2010
• Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson, 2010

Recommended websites for LGBTQ teens:

• Avert.org An abundance of information for young people confused or concerned about sex. Has a small section on GLBTQ sexuality.
• Teenshealth.org Covers many topics on teen growth including sexual harassment and bullying.
• GoAskAlice Like a "Dear Sally" with issues teens are concerned about.
• PlannedParenthood Special section on how to come out to your family
  

Home School Open House Preparation

Learn how to get the most out of your public library!

Online Resources available using your library card:

Grolier Online

• Featured Lesson plans available by subject or grade level. Each topic features objectives, preparation, resources (including links to Grolier Encyclopedia Entries), vocabulary, activities, discussion questions, extensions, and assessments.
• Feature Showcase- Dynamic, fun content for students. About 9 of these showcases are on the website.

Twayne's Author Series

• Critical Interpretation and discussion of works of literature

NovelList Plus

• Featuring book discussion guides
• Subject reading lists for different age groups. Titles link to library catalog
• Author Read-a-Likes
• Picture Book Extenders- Bring picture books to life with discussion questions and activities relating to the book

Picture Books for Curriculum :

• Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
• Imogene's Last Stand by Candace Fleming
• Librarian on the Roof by M.G. King
• The Lion's Share: A Tale of Halving Cake and Eating it Too by Matt McElligott
• If I Ran foWebsites:
  NYS Regulationr President by Catherine Stier
• Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff

NYS LEAH (Loving Education at Home) There is a Schoharie Chapter (Gallupville LEAH), Amsterdam (Family Pathways LEAH)

NYS Regulations