Teen Read Week is almost upon us

This year's Teen Read Week will be celebrated during the week of October 14th through the 20th. The theme is "It Came from the Library!" in celebration of all things spooky, scary and supernatural. Eeeeekkkk!!

Teen Read Week is a way to spotlight young adult literature and encourage teens to read for the fun of it. Why do you read for pleasure? Is it for escape? To seek answers to your most burning questions? To walk in someone else's shoes for awhile? To experience the unknown? Or, like me, for all of the above?

In celebration of this most momentous occasion, we will be hosting a book swap for teens (in grades 6 through 12) at the Oregon City Public Library. The book swap will take place on Sunday, October 14th from 5:30 to 6:30pm  in the upstairs main room of the library. We encourage you to bring in your gently used books, cds, dvds, and videogames to trade with others. For each item you bring in you will receive a coupon you can exchange for someone else's item you want to take home.What better way to participate in Teen Read Week than to set your well-loved books free to be discovered and loved by someone new? Recycling literature is good for the physical AND mental environment!

We hope to see you all there. Have a great Teen Read Week, everybody!

P.S:  the Teen Reads website is looking for young-adult-literature lovers to take a survey in order to get readers' feedback about what kinds of features you want to see on their site. If you take the survey you will be entered into a contest to win a free book (450 people will win: those are pretty good odds, I'd say). Read more about it and take the survey here.

Vote for the Teens' Top Ten!

The Young Adult Library Services Association (or YALSA for those of us too lazy to bother with five-word association names...) has opened the polls for their annual Teens' Top Ten. The top ten books of the year nominated and chosen solely by teen readers will be announced during Teen Read Week (October 14th - 20th). Voting is for teens only. (Adults:  you can focus all of your intense passion for young adult literature by nominating titles for the Readers' Choice Awards: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/readerschoice)

Teens can go here to vote for their favorites. The polls will remain open until September 15th, so hurry and pick your faves today!

Incidentally, in honor of Teen Read Week, the Oregon City Library will be hosting an old-fashioned book swap on Sunday, October 14th at 5:30. We invite our teen patrons to bring in all their unwanted books/cds/dvds/videogames to trade with other teens. Remember: one person's thrice-read copy of MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance Vol. 4 is another person's undiscovered treasure. More details on the book swap to come.