Teen Me - What Teachers Read in High School

This may be the most fun library display I've done to date! Yes, it takes a bit of time and yes, more than a little prodding to remind teachers to bring photos of themselves as teens, but the end result is soooooooo worth it.  

A few weeks ago, my intern Janet designed a flyer featuring some of the best 70s, 80s and 90s fashion mistakes statements ever, along with a request for teachers to submit photos or scans of themselves from 'back in the day' along with a few titles of books they read in high school. A few trickled in but with added email prompts and *ahem* nagging from moi, I started to get in quite a few. Better still, our cafeteria staff and school nurse even contributed, to which I say, "Hey, the more the scarier merrier!" Well, we are talking about teens rocking past trends such as bell bottoms, polyester suits, big HAR, puffy sleeves, feathered hair, and - Lord forgive me - 'Like a Virgin'-era Madonna.

The layers of jewelry, the gloves, the big hair bow...yep, that's me my senior year of high school along with a few of my favorite reads from the era.  

I created the "Teen Me" poster using PPT, as always, and made sure to feature books my teachers and staff had read during their teens - such as Carrie, Jaws, Go Ask, Alice, and Killing Mr. Griffin. Some were upfront about the fact that they only read what they were made to read in school, so they shared their favorite required reads (The Count of Monte Cristo seemed to be the winner there). Others hung their head in shame to share they'd love Harlequin Romances and/or Fear Street, to which I was all, "Child, so did I. No judgment here." While the most popular author through the years appears to be Stephen King - no surprise, there - the book that popped up most frequently on people's lists was V.C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic. Not for nothing do I have the words 'teen angst' in this blog's title. Dark and angsty has always ruled teen hearts. <3

For the teachers worried about losing their precious pictures, I reminded them we now live in the digital age. I only needed their picture long enough to scan it on our copier and send digitally to myself via email...and done! Along with each picture, I included a colored clipart of a book with the book titles of the teacher's favorite book(s) listed on the front.

No sooner did I get up the display, than students stopped to point, read and laugh at their teachers. Mission accomplished. ;-)

  

Scappenger Hunt - Teen Tech Month

The month of March is so chockful of activities - research papers, digital newsletters, our state's school librarians conference, instruction on online safety, PASS testing - that I can't possibly be expected to recognize Teen Tech Week in just a...week. Nope. If I'm gonna do this mother justice, it's going to need to be a month-long event. *cue Bobby Brown* That's myyyyyy perogative.

So since I'm giving myself some extra time for this, I decided to adapt a scavenger hunt idea I saw on Pinterest (but, of course!) to use with my kiddos for Teen Tech Month. The plan is to sponsor a month-long "Scappenger Hunt."

Students who wish to participate will be given a card filled with apps, as seen in the picture above, and as they complete tasks having to do with those apps (see below), I'll hole-punch them until they're done. The prize will be a giftcard to the new WalMart opening in our town this March, and everyone who gives it the ol' high school try will get some candy for their efforts. Students can use their Smartphones, iPods, iPads, and other devices to complete their mission both in the library with me or at home.

No surprise, my school district blocks more than a few of these app sites, which is why I am going to allow students to use their Smartphones and devices in my presence for a few of the hole-punches. Others can be done on their own time at home - they're probably on many of these sites already.

I may tinker a bit more with these tasks, but so far I've got...

Facebook – “Like” our Powdersville High School Facebook page

Twitter – start following @PatriotsRead1 which is our new library Twitter feed!

Pinterest – tweet a funny/humorous pin you like from Pinterest to @PatriotsRead1

Goodreads – post to Edmodo the link to a suggested Listopia of good books you'd recommend to others

Bump – share a picture of Hello Kitty with Mrs. Chesney

Instagram – tweet an Instagram pic of you either reading or doing some activity in our library to @PatriotsRead1

Dropbox - upload a picture of your favorite book/magazine/manga to www.dropitto.me/PatriotsRead1  password: *****

Tumblr – tweet a link to your favorite tumblr to @PatriotsRead1 and share what’s awesome about it

QRCode reader – view one of the movie trailers from the ‘Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You’ poster outside the library

Edmodo – answer the poll and comment your favorite app on the poll on our Edmodo Book Freaks page

ReplayIt – share a picture using the ReplayIt app to our yearbook staff (they might even use it in the yearbook!)

Pandora – find the 80s Pop music station and tweet the first song you hear to @PatriotsRead1

YouTube – watch a book trailer and tweet @PatriotsRead1 the link

Camscanner – scan a written homework assignment  and save to Evernote to show Mrs. Chesney

Shazam – identify a song Mrs. Chesney will play over the iHome in the library

Evernote – show Mrs. Chesney the assignment you saved using Camscanner

I've just set up a school library Twitter account at @PatriotsRead1 and thought this would be a great way to get students following it. If you have any other suggestions, please comment them! I won't be doing this until the month of March, so I've got a little time to adapt and then promote.

Talking Dead

Business offices have watercoolers - schools have libraries. When AMC's "The Walking Dead" returns this Sunday - which, squee! - my students who are fans of the show are going to get the opportunity to dissect and discuss Sunday night's show the following Monday morning in the library. Yep, Monday mornings just got a little less suckier!

Last fall as the first half of season three aired, I found students dropping in throughout the next day to ask if I'd watched the previous night's show, sharing what they thought about so-and-so getting killed, wondering what the Governor was really up to, fangirling over how hot Daryl Dixon is...you get the picture. With such a huge student fanbase, I decided to tap into that and sponsor "Talking Dead." Every Monday morning starting Feb. 11, fans are invited to gather in the library before school at 7:40 so we can talk all things Dead.

I put up posters promoting the event earlier today and have already had about twenty students pop in to ask about it and say they'll be there. Interestingly, I've found some of my more shy boys are the ones who stop being tongue-tied and awkward when it comes to talking about their favorite show - which is a great opportunity for me to tear down some walls and build relationships! Can't wait... 

Blind Date with a Book

For students who might not have a book boyfriend or book babe in his/her life, there's always the chance of meeting a potential book crush on a book blind date. My fabbo new intern, Janet Allen, approached me with this idea, and I said, "Start your matchmaking!" The idea is to pull books, wrap them up, and then give students the opportunity to choose a book to take on a date (y'know, check-out) and see if they're compatible. Who knows, he/she might even fall in love with the book! We ask they at least give the book a few chapters before kicking it to the curb, and who knows - it might be love and the student will want to go out with other books by that author or in that genre. The idea is to step outside your book dating comfort zone and try something new!

Every student who goes on a book blind date can report back with a brief review letting us know if he/she'd give it a rose or send it packing home. Regardless of the outcome, there's the consolation prize of some candy for taking a chance on book love.

We wrapped books that girls might like in pink, and books for guys in red to help guide their choices. Like people, books come in all sizes - some went for skinny, some chunky, some short and some tall. We did discover that it might be best to choose books that are high interest and entertaining but maaaaaybe haven't been on a date in awhile. Some of our kids who are BIG readers opened 2-3 books before they found one they hadn't read. I teased a couple of the girls that that's what they get for being such book sluts! We decided that would be an awesome name for a girls' book club at school...except our administration probably wouldn't find it as amusing as we do. ;-) Also, don't forget to throw some cool nonfiction books in there - nonfiction books need love too!!

Taylor and Jennifer meeting their book blind dates...

...and pretty pleased with the results. Taylor normally

sticks with Orca Soundings, but she's giving her date,

Girls Against Girls, a chance and has even reported

back on some of the facts about girl drama

she's learned from the book. Jennifer is a huge vampire fan,

but she's willing to give Brutal and it's take on bullying a chance.

Book Boyfriends and Babes...

February is one of my favorite months being a school librarian, because it's all about the LOVE. What better way to get teens pumped for Valentine's Day and all things romance than to get them to share their book crushes? When I was sixteen, I read S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders for the first time and fell hard for bad boy Dallas Winston (didn't hurt that I had Matt Dillon as a visual!). He may have been rude, crude and rough around the edges, but his loyalty to Johnny and Ponyboy ("Let's do it for Johnny!") and vulnerability in the presence of Cherry Valance made me want to rip him from the pages and save him from the Socs and his own self-destructive ways with my love. Why did Dallas Winston have to be a fictional character?!! And why did S.E. Hinton have to go and kill him?!!!!!!

Dallas wasn't the first or last book boyfriend I'd lose to death. My most recent book boyfriend would have to be The Fault in Our Stars' Augustus Waters. C'mon, a boy who'd battled and overcome cancer, lost a leg to that cancer, but remained full of humor and hope to the point he'd fly thousands of miles overseas to make a dream come true for his terminal girlfriend Hazel? *sigh* *sniff* It's no wonder that Hazel loved you as she did, and when you died I sobbed for your family, Hazel and my heartbroken inner-teen self! 

So who are today's teen book boyfriends and book babes? For February, my students are sharing that with me and our school with this display...

I found an online candy hearts maker that allowed me to add the names of some of the more popular book crushes in recent series - Lola, Cricket, Bella, Jacob, Edward, Patch, Alex, Carlos, Luis (Fuentes brothers! *fans self*), Fang, Clary, Jace, Gale, Katniss, Peeta, Tris, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Augustus, Hazel, and Starfire (manga babe!). I have colorful cut-outs hearts that the students complete with info on their book boyfriend/babe, the name of the book, and why that character is so crushable. Snap a pic of the student, and we're good to go and swoon!

So far, the Simone Elkeles' Fuentes brothers seem to be garnering the most love from the girls, while Katniss is rocking the guys' world. I only started the display this past week and hope to add many more hearts down the hallway as we get into February!

Y.A. Books Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You...

My students are uber-excited about the upcoming movie, Warm Bodies. Like all things Zombie these days, the book has been a hit in our library, and once the movie trailer hit YouTube, students have been marking the days on their calendars until the Feb. 1 release. It doesn't hurt that the main character "R" is played by cutie Nicholas Hoult. ;-)

But Warm Bodies isn't the only popular teen read seeing a movie release this year. In the next few months, hot Y.A. titles like Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones will also hit the big screen, while adult books also marketed to teens, such as Safe Haven and World War Z (there go those zombies again!), are being touted as must-sees by my boo's too.

To tap in to the Y.A. cinema craze, I created this poster featuring the book covers, projected release dates, and QR codes for the movie trailers. For all the fans of the book Warm Bodies, I still have students coming in to say, "I didn't know that was a book! Can I read it before I see the movie next week?" Annnnnnnd that's the idea. ;-) FYI - if my school is any indication, you may want to pick up some extra copies of these titles because demand is HIGH.



I Mustache You a Question...What Have You Been Reading?

Okay, so obviously I'm late to the mustache party, but better late than never...

I can honestly say this reading display has been one of my most popular since teens love 'em some fake mustaches! Amazingly, I didn't come across anyone - jock, goth, nerd, cheerleader, *insert stereotype here* - who thought he/she was too cool to don a 'stache. Afterall, teens are hams at heart. ;-)

All I did was Google some mustache styles, cut 'em out, slap on some masking tape, and capture students posing with their current reads whether it be books or magazines. Took the opportunity to quiz them on their reads too - like whether they liked it, why they chose that particular book, etc. This display is also a work in progress as volunteers keep coming up with their books and asking for a mustache so they can be included.

Burning Blue – Paul Griffin

Who threw acid on Nicole Castro’s face? That’s the mystery that drives Paul Griffin’s lastest book, Burning Blue. Nicole has it all. She’s a pageant queen, but she’s also athletic and smart – part of the tennis team and president of the National Honor Society. There’s a lot of haterade to be felt for someone so seemingly perfect – and that’s what makes Burning Blue such a cool read, because all is not as it seems.

Late on her way to chemistry class, Nicole is accosted and doused in the face with acid from a squirt bottle. It all happens so fast, she never catches sight of the culprit. One side of her face completely burned and ruined, the list of suspects include her wrestling boyfriend, her best friends, a school janitor, a bitter teacher, a reporter desperate for big news stories, and other random students who potentially had a problem with the star student. Enter Jameson “Jay” Nazarro, a loner who feels a kinship of sorts with the newly damaged Nicole when he runs into her outside the guidance counselor’s office. Jay knows what it’s like to be considered a “freak” – he’s prone to seizures, and nobody likes hanging out with a guy who at any moment might spazz on the floor and pee himself, right? Years of lonertude have enabled Jay to hone his computer hacking and stalking skills, so he goes to work hacking emails and cell phones to track down the person behind Nicole’s life-altering attack.

Griffin doesn’t delve deep into the impact of the attack on Nicole’s own psyche, though she's got issues for sure; rather he keeps the focus on tracking down the broken psyche of a person who would do something so cruel to another human being. Because Nicole and Jay aren’t written as wimpering victims but wittily acerbic survivors, the reader pulls for them finding out the truth and Griffin keeps the suspects, plot twists and red herrings a’comin’. At times, I felt like I needed a scorecard to keep up with all the suspects and their possible motivations, but to his credit, Griffin knows how to write strong teen dialogue and keep things moving. Hand this to guys and girls looking for a good mystery.

Fan of #walkingdead? Try #readingdead

Mondays in my library are often spent doing the Walking Dead watercooler convo thing with my students - y'know, rehashing all the brain-bashing and nuances of the previous night's ep. The show's midseason 3 finale gave us much to munch on - who are the new peeps Carl locked in the cell? will Daryl survive? what about his crazy brother Merle? what will the Governor do next? Ugh, is it February 13th yet?!!

While we wait on "The Walking Dead" to return, zombie lovers can get their fix reading these zombie books in the meantime...

World War Z - Max Brooks
Ashes - Ilsa Brick

Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion

Infinitey (Chronicles of Nick series) - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Rot & Ruin - Jonathan Mayberry

Cell - Stephen King

This is Not a Test - Courtney Summers

The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks

The Enemy - Charlie Higson

Something Strange and Deadly - Susan Dennard

The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan

Book Christmas Tree

Thanks to Pinterest, the Book Christmas Tree has popped up in libraries all over - including mine. Using books with green, red or yellow spines, two students and I created this masterpiece in about an hour this morning. Didn't take long for word to spread through the school about the awesome Book Christmas tree in the library - since many of my students don't 'do' Pinterest ("No, but my mom likes it!" is the most frequent answer I hear when I ask students if they Pinterest), this is literally a novel idea to them, so they're in awe of it!

For added awesomeness, I'm sponsoring a Book Counting Christmas Tree Contest - the student who correctly or most closely guesses the number of books that make up the book tree wins a gift card to Target or GameStop. And, no, even I don't know the number yet - guess I'll find out when I take it down. ;-)

Body Weight Issues in Y.A. Lit and Donna Cooner’s Skinny

Books that address body weight issues will forever be popular because, thanks to peer pressure/the media/magazines/infomercials/the culture of celebrity, body weight issues will forever be with us. Is there a female out there who doesn't obsess about her weight? Whether you're a size 2 or size 22, it's like females are born with a 'I-will-never-be-satisfied-with-my-weight' gene - it kicks in with our hormones around age 10 or 11...and never lets up. Of course, females don't have a lock on weight obsession. I have a nephew who went on a purging binge his 8th grade year to try and rid himself of his 'blubber' as he called it. As with most weight issues, there were some other things going on at home that triggered this terrible time in his life - thankfully, with the encouragement of his family, he got some outside psychological help and, now a senior in high school, is doing much better.

In the past, Y.A. novels that address body weight issues have pretty much stuck to anorexia and bulimia, but with Donna Cooner’s Skinny, we can now add obesity and the effects of Gastric Bypass surgery to the lexicon.

“How can anyone possibly eat all that? And you wonder why you are HUGE?”

“God, she takes up so much space. Just look at those thighs. I can’t believe her fat is touching me.”

“They’re laughing at you. Look at that fat girl out exercising. Hopeless.”

“You’re like the big marshmallow monster in that old Ghostbusters movie. Soft. Gooey. Horrifying.”

Skinny is the voice inside Ever Davies’s head that constantly reminds her she’s anything BUT skinny. Ever doesn’t need her dad, stepmom, stepsisters, and classmates to comment aloud when Skinny is always there to pass judgment for them. Y’see, when Ever was in middle school, her mother died from a sudden sickness and her dad remarried a woman with two perfect daughters, leaving Ever to cope with her sadness by eating her way up to 302 pounds.

Her best and only friend, a nerdy boy named Rat, encourages Ever to take drama and try out for the school musical. Ever loves musicals and has a knock-out voice, one that even cute guy Jackson would take notice of if he could see past her rolls of fat and listen to her sing, but then that’s the thing – Ever allows her low self esteem to hold her back from pursuing the things she loves. In Ever’s experience, she seems to generate two reactions from the ‘normal’ kids – invisibility or revulsion. Most girls want nothing to do with her, afraid her ‘gross obesity’ will rub off on them, while guys take no notice of her at all except for the occasional douches/cowards who hurl insults from passing cars.

Ever does her best to remain invisible - she sits at the back of class, never volunteers answers, keeps to herself after school - but then one day she’s at a school awards ceremony and the worst thing possible happens – the chair she’s sitting in actually BREAKS…onstage…in front of everyone.  Skinny is quick to verbalize exactly what the shocked and horrified faces of those classmates and teachers surrounding her are thinking. Mortified beyond measure, the public humiliation is enough to drive Ever to make a change and try to lose the weight. How? Gastric Bypass surgery.

Cooner, a former Gastric Bypass patient herself, knows firsthand the range of emotions and physical changes that that come with this difficult medical procedure. There’s nothing easy about the surgery, from the procedure itself to the change in eating habits – no sugar in the diet, no water while eating or you’ll be too full for food, the need to chew your food into nothingness because you only get 3 tablespoons of food…total! For the surgery to be a success, exercise is also a must and patients are warned it can take more than a year before a desired weight is reached…if then. Determined, Ever does as the doctor orders and, sure enough, starts to shed the pounds. Unfortunately, Skinny still has some things to say. Even as her classmates take notice of her shrinking form and praise her for the weight loss, the sadness and insecurities that got Ever up to 302 pounds in the first place don’t automatically disappear post-surgery. As Skinny is quick to point out, can these same people who ignored and hurled insults at her when she was heavy truly be her friends now just because she’s several sizes smaller?

To her credit, Cooner also doesn’t write Ever as some misunderstood saint – Ever may have been discriminated against in the past for her size, but she’s  guilty herself of having wrongly judged the motives of others who tried to befriend or help her along the way. This realization is what helps Ever grow stronger in her sense of self-worth and in her relationships with others. Best of all, by learning to love who she is – flaws and all - she’s finally able to quiet Skinny…forever.  

For students who are drawn to books on eating disorders, I created the poster at the top there to share, and here are some other titles that my students have, um, devoured…

Wintergirls – Laurie Halse Anderson
Eighteen-year-old Lia struggles to come to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
Perfect – Natasha Friend
Following the death of her father, Isabelle uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.
Perfect – Ellen Hopkins
Northern Nevada teenagers Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre, tell in their own voices of their very different paths toward perfection and how their goals change when tragedy strikes.
Identical – Ellen Hopkins
Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart.
Purge – Sarah Darer Littman
When her parents check sixteen-year-old Janie into Golden Slopes to help her recover from her bulimia, she discovers that she must talk about things she has admitted to no one--not even herself.
Nothing – Robin Friedman
Describes a young man's battle with bulimia in a Jewish family and his struggle is confronted by family and friends and the pain of his father's cancer.
Skin – Adrienne Vrettos
When his parents decide to separate, eighth-grader Donnie watches with horror as the physical condition of his sixteen-year old sister, Karen, deteriorates due to an eating disorder.
The Best Little Girl in the World – Steven Levenkron
Kessie thinks she's overweight. She's five foot four and ninety-eight pounds. A now-classic that tells of one girl's struggle with anorexia nervosa.
Faded Denim: Color Me Trapped – Melody Carlson
Originally trying to lose only a few pounds, seventeen-year-old Emily's weight loss spins out of control as she develops eating disorders until she decides that trusting in God and her friends can help her regain her health.
Skinny – Ibi KaslikAfter
The death of their father, two sisters struggle with various issues, including their family history, personal relationships, and an extreme eating disorder.
Shrink to Fit (Kimani Tru) – Dona Sarkar
Basketball star Leah Mandeville believes that losing weight and becoming superthin will solve everything wrong in her life, and, reaching her goal, discovers that her "perfect body" comes with a whole new set of problems.
Hunger – Jackie Morse Kessler
Seventeen-year-old Lisabeth has anorexia, and even turning into Famine--one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--cannot keep her from feeling fat and worthless.
Just Listen – Sarah Dessen
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.

*list summaries from MARC records

SCASL Snapshot Day November 9, 2012

For the past few years, our state's association of school librarians (SCASL) has requested our school libraries participate in an initiative known as Snapshot Day. The idea is for each school library in South Carolina to choose a day during the month of November to collect data about its collection, circulations, technology, patrons, etc. so that data can be used to share within our school as well as compiled along with other libraries state-wide to be used as an advocacy tool. What better way to promote your library to people who may not understand what it is you do all day than to show them exactly what it is you've done in one day? Better still, why not pretty-up all that data with a poster that depicts information and scenes from that day? After gathering information based on my November 9th school day, I submitted the info to SCASL and created a poster about my library stats. The poster definitely grabs the attention of students and teachers and can be a conversation starter about the library collection and how patrons use our library. It's also an excellent gage for me to compare the previous Snapshot Day (conducted in April) with my latest one to see how my school library program is growing in its second year open...

My stats for November 9, 2012, were as follows:

Number of students attending my high school:  498
Number of teachers on my staff:  32
Number of school librarians on my staff:  1
Number of full or part time library assistants on my staff:  0
Number of computers in my school library and on mobile laptop labs:  72 (13 student desktops, 59 netbooks)
Number of mobile devices such as Kindles, Nooks, and iPads:  57 (20 Nook SimpleTouches, 8 Nook Color, 29 iPads)
Number of items in my library's collection:  3,088
Number of individual students visiting the library (not with a class):  88
Number of classes visiting the library and the total number of students in those classes: 9 classes/235 students
Number of teachers visiting the library (with and without classes):  11
Number of classes the school librarian taught:  4
Number of items circulated:  70
Number of individual student computer uses:  151

YALLFest 2012

On the ride home from this year's 2nd Annual YALLFest, the group of students I took to the festival were already making plans to attend next year's festival. Nicole, a junior, even asked if once she graduated, she could continue to go with our school to the festival as a chaperone. Teens don't normally think past the next weekend, so you know an event must've been amazeballs to inspire that kind of long-term planning!!

Me and the fifteen students I took as part of a field trip were all YALLFest newbies. I only heard about the first YALLFest after the event *sniff*, and kicked myself when I saw a list of the authors who'd been just a three hour drive away *wipes tear*. When you live in upstate South Carolina, Y.A. author visits or sightings are few and far inbetween. For years, author Neal Shusterman has been great about visiting schools in our area - for a fee that required sharing him amongst schools - but as library budgets continue to shrink, paying authors to come in our schools is fast-becoming a fond-reminiscence for most. When this year's YALLFest line-up was announced, featurting 44 of some of today's most popular and well-loved authors, my head and heart nearly exploded.

The easiest thing to do would've been to go on my own, but knowing I have students who love these authors and their books as much as I do, I couldn't NOT try to take some of them. The cost of the festival itself is FREE, so the only student expense would need to be for the school bus transportation. School field trips aren't cheap, so to reduce travel expenses for the kids, I charged $25 a person - which covered about a third of the cost of the trip - and paid the rest out of my library budget. Money totally well-spent.

Though there are some huge corporate sponsors - Amazon, Tumblr, Justine magazine, to name just a few - the YALLFest festival is Blue Bicycle Books' baby. An independently-owned, small local book store, much credit and thanks fall at the feet of the Sanchez family - owners since 1998. Putting on a festival event of this size is no small feat, especially one that's still so new to the scene, but these people come off as pro's. Miraculously, author panels started on time! Plenty of books by the authors were available for purchase! Authors showed up for their books signings, and in most cases stayed or worked it until they had signed and spoken to every fan in line! If there were any divas or douches, I didn't see them, because everyone I came in contact with - authors, booksellers, volunteers - had read the southern charm rulebook and was on his/her best behavior. And when some panel discussions got a bit bawdy - I'm looking at you, Simone Elkeles and Gayle Forman - well, c'mon that only added to the awesomeness.

Me and fifteen of the raddest readers you could ever meet.

Blue Bicyle Books had plenty of copies of all the authors' books available for purchase. New authors also had booths set up to promote and sign their books.

While waiting to get books signed, fans could take part in trivia contests where you match a book quote to its author and win a free t-shirt. Nine of my kids won shirts!

Nicole enjoying a fangirl moment with her favorite author, Ellen Hopkins. If she looks like she's hyperventilating, it's because she is!

Um, Nicole wasn't the only one who may have fangirl-ed a little over Ms. Hopkins...

One thing I also really appreciated was that authors, such as Jess Rothenberg, were willing to sign student notebooks or YALLFest posters in lieu of books. Not all kids can afford books - which is why they use libraries! - and the authors understood that and were happy to sign. Some clever peeps brought along their Nook/Kindle covers and had authors sign those - might have to steal that idea for next year!

Each hour from 11pm-4pm, there were at least three author panels you could attend to hear your faves discuss topics like "YA Boy Band: Boys Writing Girls (& Boys)," "The Future of Sci-Fi/Fantasy," "Not Your Normal Paranormal", and "Good Girlz and Bad Boyz." What quickly became obvious to all in attendance is not only are these authors passionate about what they do, but they're passionate about supporting each other and the profession. No shame in writing Y.A.!!

Ladies and gentlemen, Stephanie Perkins - one of my fave authors AND a style icon. 

Annnd the award for savviest marketing goes to Simone Elkeles and her publishers, who understand the hottness of the Fuentes brothers should NOT be contained to just words on pages...note: I laminated the poster to protect the boys from student drool. ;-)

So YALLFest #3 has been announced for November 9, 2013 - my students and I are already looking forward to it!!

New Library Displays - Wutchuwant? and MUST-HAVE SEQUELS!!

I'm a total XM radio junkie, and station 2 - Hits 1 - is one of my main jams. A regular feature of the channel is their daily "Hits 1 Wutchuwant Countdown" where the station countdowns the top five most requested songs of the day by listeners. Pop culture thief that I am, I thought, "Why not make my own Wutchuwant countdown for my library featuring, duh, our top circulated items?" It was easy enough to find an XM radio picture via Google Images, so the poster wasn't difficult to design at all. If you're a Follett Destiny person, just go into Library Reports and choose the Top Titles feature to see what those titles are (you can also do most requested holds), and voila!...you've got a display.

Best of all, this little display works ALL YEAR. The only thing I change are the book covers every 2-3 weeks. Students really do pay attention too, because I end up getting hold requests based on what they see their peers are also reading. Ahh, the power of popularity.

October and November are always big book release months, and this year has been allllllllll about the sequels! Me and my students have been anxiously awaiting Becca Fitzpatrick's Finale, Rick Riordan's The Mark of Athena, Robison Wells' Feedback, Kami Garcia's Beautiful Redemption, and Cinda Chima's Crimson Crown, just to name a few. To let my students know what to expect (because Ally Condie's Reached and Alexander Gordon Smith's Execution are still to come!), I created a 'Must-Have Sequels!!' display. Using an image of shoppers on Black Friday (who better to capture all that anticipation and excitement? ha!), I then added captions about the different books alongside the peeps with the tagline, "Avoid the crowds - pick up your copies here in the library!" This dispaly is directly behind my circulation desk, so it's easy for students to see and immediately put in their hold requests if all of our copies are out.

If you have cool displays you'd like to share, comment with a link - I always love to steal, I mean, get new ideas from others. ;-)

24 Hour Comic Book Day

Back in late September, the art teacher at my school approached me about working together to sponsor a 24 Hour Comic Book Day in conjunction with a local comic book store, Borderlands Comics and Games in Greenville. The idea behind 24 Hour Comic Book Day isn’t simply to read and share comic books for 24 hours, but to actually create your own 24 page comic book…in 24 hours! This isn’t an original idea – people take part in 24 Hour Comic Book Days in various places all around the country, usually in October – but it’s a first for our school and this area. Like most high schools, Powdersville High has a segment of students who are FANATICAL about their comics and mangas, so Matt thought it would be a great idea to host a 24 Hour Comic Book Day event of our own and get these comic fans of ours involved. Borderlands is a local comics store with a thriving patronage – drop by anytime, and you’re likely to see patrons browsing the shelves for comics, checking out the many collectible action figures, or gathered around tables in the back RPG-ing. Our art teacher, Matt Tolbert, contacted Borderlands to see if the store would be willing to host the event and store owner Rob Young, whose son Jacob is a Freshman at our school, couldn’t have been more gracious and excited to help sponsor the event.

Students prepping their work before the official kick-off time

We set the date for Friday, October 19, at 7pm until October 20, 7pm, which coincided with YALSA’s annual Teen Read Week - how’s that for awesome timing?!  Students registered for the event through me or Mr. Tolbert – and by registered, I mean told us they were planning to come. We mostly wanted a head count for food and art supplies.  Mr. Tolbert provided paper, pencils, erasers and inking pens, while Borderlands provided foodstuffs (think junk food!).

Art teacher, Matt Tolbert, sets the clock while Katie brainstorms

last minute ideas for her comic

Jessi used Dr. Who for inspiration - as you can see from the crazed look,

she's slightly obsessed!!

Joe kicked it out old school by drawing his own frames

Students began arriving around 6:30 on Friday with their own art supplies, snacks, Red Bulls, and – best of all – wonderful senses of humor. Many had never been to Borderlands before, so they took those first few minutes to fanboy/fangirl over all the stuff in the store! Around 7:00, the students gathered at a table set up for them and began preparing to draw. Mr. Tolbert provided template sheets with the comic panels, so students could choose the layouts they wanted and begin creating. We started out with 5 students, but one more joined them around 10:00 that night. All told, 6 students participated in the event though other students from our school came by at different times throughout the 24 hour period to see how things were going.

At 3:00 in the morning, things can get...weird. (picture courtesy of Borderlands)

Daniel shows off the first two pages of his comic, The Black Hat

So how did they go? Ask any of our participants, and they will tell you they had a lot of fun! Not everyone finished a book or stayed the whole time, but they had a blast while they were there. Most had never visited the store before and were enthused to find a new haunting ground for shopping and networking. Students also enjoyed the bonding experience, hanging out with students they may not have classes with at school but definitely share their love for comics and art. Though Matt Tolbert made it through to the end and almost finished his own comic, unfortunately none of our students made it the entire 24 hours. Our last couple of students bailed around 12:30pm the next afternoon. As they explained, they were either done with their books and saw no reason to stay longer or sleep deprivation had finally gotten the best of them! One thing Mr. Tolbert and I hadn’t considered was that these kids were technically up since Friday morning, Friday having been a regular school day. Unless a student grabbed a nap between school and the event – which none had! – a student would have been awake 36 hours by the end of the event. Yikes. Also, we had 10-12 more students who really wanted to participate in creating their own comics, only they had prior commitments and couldn’t attend. Although 24 Hour Comic Day is typically held in October, for our high school crowd, the months of January and February might be best for future Comic Book Days. Students typically have fewer pulls on their time in the winter months. Also, doing it on a Saturday – Sunday OR on a school holiday might help students get caught up on sleep ahead of time.  

Despite a few glitches, the event was such a cool experience for myself, the teachers, students and Borderland patrons involved, and hope to make 24 Hour Comic Book Day an annual event for our school and area. 

Rested and back at school on Monday - rock 'n roll!!