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. ;-)

  

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!

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. ;-)

It Came From the Library – TRW Young Adult Horror Picks

Who doesn’t love a good scary story? One that makes you get up and double-check the locks on the doors, spooks you when a tree branch scratches against the window, or fools you into seeing shadows of creatures and ghouls on the walls around you. This year’s Teen Read Week theme is “It Came From the Library - Dare to Read…For the Fun of It!” so I decided to run with it and emphasize books that make your spine tingle and your heart race - even made my own Teen Read Week poster for my school (snatch for yourself if you'd like!). Since the release of Twilight and Hunger Games, the Y.A. horror trend has veered more towards the paranormal or dystopian variety of 'boo!', but traditional horror that centers around more realistic killings and murder mysteries is making a comeback (ie. Ten, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, I Hunt Killers). For teen fans of horror, what’s out there to recommend beyond long-standing favorite Stephen King and the already popular vampire and werewolf series? Here are a few of the more popular titles amongst the horror fans at my school –  and I would love to hear some suggestions from you!

I Hunt Killers – Barry Lyga
This is Not a Test – Courtney Summers
Dead Time (The Murder Notebooks) – Anne Cassidy
The Body Finder series – Kim Derting
Rotters – Daniel Kraus
The Butterfly Clues – Kate Ellison
The Furnace series  - Alexander Gordon Smith
Demonata series – Darren Shan
Anna Dressed in Blood series – Kendare Blake
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone – Kat Rosenfeld
World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War – Max Brooks
Something Strange and Deadly – Susan Dennard
The Hunt – Andrew Fukuda
Rot & Ruin series – Jonathan Mayberry
Living Dead Girl – Elizabeth Scott
Blood Wounds – Susan Pfeiffer
Ashes – Ilsa Bick
The Loners – Lex Thomas
The Angel of Death – Alane Ferguson
The Body of Christopher Creed – Carol Plum-Ucci
The Truth Seeker – Dee Henderson
The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson
Ripper – Stefan Petrucha
Ripper – Amy Carol Reeves
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Death Cloud – Andrew Lane
Miss Perengrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs


 

Send Me An Angel - Books and a Poster feat. those (always not-so) Heavenly Creatures

I am seriously behind on my reading and blame two things – 1) the impending start of school with its back-to-school library displays and teacher in-services I’m responsible for, and 2) the Olympics. I have been a mayjuh Summer Olympics junkie, as much for the sports as the host city of London (love me some Royals!), and it’s oh-so-much easier to multi-task by creating poster displays whilst cheering on the Fab Five or drooling over Ryan Lochte than it is to try and follow the plot of a book with those diversions. Olympics, I really need for you to be over soon, so I can get my life back long enough to hand it over to my school for the next nine months.

Vampires, werewolves, mermaids, fairies, demons, zombies, draki…the paranormal market is flooded with supernatural beings of all kinds, but none are as big at the moment as angels. Three of the most popular angel series also have books coming out in the next couple of months – Alexandra Adornetto’s Heaven (Halo Series), Jessica Shirvington’s Entice (Embrace series), and the one my students are most excited for, Becca Fitzpatrick’s Finale (Hush, Hush series).  I’ve found students who are into one of the following series typically go on to read the other series once I direct them to the books, so what better way to make my job and their search easier than to create a poster featuring a few of the angelic selections out there?

Hush, Hush Saga – Becca Fitzpatrick
Hush, Hush
Silence
Crescendo
Finale (October 23, 2012)
Christian Grey may be all-the-rage with the twenty-something and up crowd, but ask my girls who the hottest  guy is in fiction, and they’ll tell you it’s fallen angel turned guardian angel, Patch Cipriano. I witnessed a Patch vs. Peeta fangirls smackdown in my library before summer break – the fandom is that serious. They cannot get enough! Unfortunately, Finale is set to be the, well, finale to the series when it’s released this October.

Unearthly series – Cynthia Hand
Unearthly
Hallowed
Boundless (January 2013)
Clara discovers she is part angel, and as such, is meant to spend her time here on earth helping others – such as the mysterious boy in danger who keeps haunting her dreams…

Fallen series – Lauren Kate
Fallen
Passion
Torment
Fallen in Love (a novella)
RaptureAfter a tragic accident costs her the life of a good friend, Luce is sent away to a boarding school in Georgia where she meets hot but enigmatic Daniel. Only Daniel’s got a secret, and guess what it is? This series has attracted a few of my guy readers too…

Halo trilogy – Alexandra Adornetto
Halo
Hades
Heaven (August 21,  2012)
Three angels are sent to earth to battle forces of evil – then one of them up and falls in love with a human. Enter trouble…My library also has the Halo series based on the video game, so it’s always fun when a student picks up the Halo from the wrong series and wonders why the cover looks so not what he/she expected…  ;-)

Immortal City series – Scott Speer
Immortal City
Natural Born Angel (April 23, 2013)
Los Angeles, the city of angels…no, literally. Angels are the newest celebs, and Jackson Godspeed is the Channing Tatum of them all. He could have anyone he wants but falls hard for regular girl Maddie…and that’s when things get really interesting. Funny and romantic.

Embrace series – Jessica Shirvington
Embrace
Entice (September 4, 2012)
It’s fallen angels versus humans in Shirvington’s series, already a hit in Australia. Violet prepares to fight on the side of the protectors of the humans, but when her trainer betrays her and a fallen angel saves her, she can’t decide who to trust…and love.

The Infernal Devices series – Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess (March 19, 2013)
A prequel to her Mortal Instruments series, we see how the Shadowhunters got their start. Not angels, per se, but they do fight demons and Clare packs her books with lots of action and supernatural characters from all walks of life (demons, vampires, faeries..). Guys are as into these two series as the girls – or at least they are at my school.

Sweet Evil – Wendy Higgins
Anna is the child of an angel AND a demon – so which part of her will win when she crosses paths with bad boy Kaidan?

Dark Kiss (Nightwatchers series #1) – Michelle Rowen
Bishop is sent from Heaven to earth to complete a very important task…and then he meets Samantha, who’s just experienced her first kiss, a kiss that forever changes her and sidetracks Bishop from his work.

Forbidden – Syrie James and Ryan James
Half-angel girl falls for boy who’s supposed to eliminate all angels, aaaaaand you can guess the rest. ;-)

What the Kids are Reading - PVHS Edition (Book Poster)

For my upcoming high school ELA in-service on the latest and greatest in Y.A. lit, I plan to share with teachers across the district the trends/series/books big at my school. For example, the dystopian trend shows no signs of slowing down, helped in part by the fact quality books and series in the genre continue to be released. Paranormal romances also continue to saturate the market, and while vampires, werewolves, faeries, and mermaids are still with us, zombies and angels are the biggest rage at the moment. Many girls continue to gravitate towards books with edgy, realistic angst, while boys - andrenaline-junkies at heart - like their superheroes and battles against evil. A decade ago, many thought manga would come and go, but guess what? Manga is not going anywhere but off the shelves and into kids' hands - I have so many Manga-obsessives, we have a Manga club just for them to fangirl/fanboy about their faves!

Perhaps more unique to my student population are war books and hi/lo series books such as those titles released by Orca Soundings and Urban Underground (the Bluford series' older sibling). I just happen to have a lot of boys who will read any and all nonfiction war books - Unbroken, Flyboyz, The Things They Carried, Seal Team insert-any-number, etc. -  which works perfectly with Common Core's emphasis on nonfiction, so...yay! Even my students who HATE to read can find Orca Soundings or Urban Underground titles they like. The high action and shorter length is obvs part of the appeal, but I've been especially pleased to see these same non-readers coming in on their own to check out other books in those series. I've even been able to leap-frog a few onto books outside of those publishers but with similar themes, such as Geoff Herbach's Stupid Fast, Lisa McMann's Dead to You, and Kody Keplinger's The DUFF. The Drama High, Denim Diaries, and Kimani Tru series work similar street lit magic with my african-american reluctant readers.

Lastly, I definitely want to bring to every teacher's attention R.J. Palacio's Wonder and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Those two novels have made the biggest impact in childrens and Y.A. literature this year...and justifiably so! They're each well-written, well-reviewed, and most importantly of all, well-received into readers' hearts. You read a book like Wonder or The Fault in Our Stars, and you're changed. Those will be my first book club selections for a secondary book club I plan to start in the district when we go back next week. Heck, Wonder should be required reading for every educator regardless of level!

The titles I have here may not necessarily reflect what all is being read in your individual schools, so why not consider making your own poster/flyer as an FYI for teachers about your students' tastes? If you've got access to PowerPoint and Google Images, you can do it! ;-) 

That was Then, This is Now (Book Poster)

In a couple of weeks, I will be doing an in-service for secondary ELA teachers about current Y.A. literature. Many of my teachers will tell me they don't have time to read 'new' books, because they're so busy reading and teaching the classics. The librarian/eternal teenager in me argues we're doing our students a disservice by not keeping abreast of what they're reading NOW - not saying you've got to read it all, just be aware of trends and the bigger titles. We do an even greater disservice to students when current literature is treated as somehow 'less' than the classics. Yeah, yeah, yeah we don't call the classics CLAHHHSSICS for nothing, but the themes that pervade in classics such as 1984 and To Kill a Mockingbird can be found in quality Y.A. lit today - Hunger Games and Shine, anyone? And who out there can argue we won't be talking about The Fault In Our Stars a decade or two or three from now? Quite frankly, I don't want to live in a world where my grandchildren aren't as swept up in the tragic love story of Hazel and Augustus as much as I was!

Obviously, this poster touches on just a few of the themes and titles that apply. I hope to do more in the near future with correlating traditional classics with current classics (great oxymoron, that!) for teachers and students to make connections and read. Feel free to use.  

I Know What You Read Last Summer... (Book Poster)

Had to happen...I'm in back-to-school mode. Though I don't offically start back until August 14, I've been busy preparing some back-to-school and library orientation activities for students, some project collabs with teachers, and a few literacy/Web 2.0 tool in-services for teachers. I'm a truly sick puppy, because this is actually FUN for me.

I've designed several book posters/flyers - a few intended for some teacher in-services, which I'll share soon - but this one is specifically for my students. I know them and their interests well, and these should be the books they'll be buzzing about upon their return - can't wait to fangirl with them over these newer releases!

Please feel free to use.

Btw, the "I Know What You Read Last Summer" theme arose from the realization that, as I was saving book cover pictures, there sure were a lot of really dark books released this summer. Serial killers, plagues, flesh-eating creatues, back-stabbing girls...if this keeps up, this year's Teen Read Week horror-themed "It Came From the Library..." will promote itself! 

And, yes, that background is a skeleton mermaid. How awesome is she?