BOOKS

What’s Teen Read Week you ask? It’s a super special event sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association every year during the third week of October.

From Oct. 18 to Oct. 24 this year, libraries across the U.S. will be encouraging teens to read just for the fun of it. As in, not for a book report, not for school, not because you have to!

With so many other ways to entertain yourself, chillin’ out with a good book seems to have taken a back seat. But hey, it’s free, it’s fun, and a lot of studies show that teens who read for pleasure perform better on tests and they’re far more interesting people. (Well, maybe that last part is just an opinion, but it seems to be true.)

10. Vote for the Teens’ Top Ten RIGHT HERE! The Teens’ Top Ten is a list of books nominated by 15 teen book groups from across the United States (CLICK HERE to see this year’s nominees). The winners will be announced online during Teen Read Week. Voting starts Aug. 24 and ends Sept. 18. Help decide what this year’s most popular books will be.

9. Ask your librarian (either your neighborhood library or at school) what she or he plans to do to celebrate Teen Read Week and see how you can help out.

8. If your librarian doesn’t know anything about Teen Read Week, have he or she check out the Teen Read Week web site to find activity ideas and more.

7. See if you can get your entire school in on TRW. Check with your librarian about their plans, then see if your school would be willing to talk about Teen Read Week during morning announcements. YALSA even wrote a script you can use. CLICK HERE.

6. Get creative! Make a book trailer (a short vid about the book, kinda like a movie trailer) for your fave book. Post it to YouTube during Teen Read Week.

5. Join in! Ask if your library has a Teen Advisory Group, and then volunteer to be a part of it. You’ll be able to help your library decide what events and programs they should have for teens.

4. Tell your community about Teen Read Week. YALSA has created a template for a letter to the editor. Copy and paste it (CLICK HERE for text to use), update it with your own info, and send it to your town or school newspaper.

3. Ask your parents to set aside time to take you to the library so you can find free things to read. Your parents will love you so much for saving money that they’ll buy you those new jeans you want (a girl can dream, right?).

2. Encourage your friends to read. Join a book club at your library or start your own and meet during Teen Read Week. The 2009 Teen Read Week theme is Read Beyond Reality so consider a book with a fantasy or sci-fi theme.

1. Read! The best way to celebrate teen reading is to do it. Pick one of our books, pick up the latest manga or revisit the Twilight series for the 80th time.!

Ready to dive into some fabulous fall reads? Check out the amazing books in our Teen Read Week interactive book blog plus enter to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to TradeWinds Island Resorts! CLICK HERE!

9/6/2009 6:00:00 AM