Teen Read Week

By Emily Daly, Young Adult Specialist

October 19, 2005

This week, Natrona County Public Library joins over 1400 other libraries, schools and bookstores in encouraging teens to sink their teeth into realistic fiction, nonfiction, self-help books, biographies, strange but true stories and more as they celebrate this year’s Teen Read Week theme, “Get Real! @ your library.” 

The national Teen Read Week initiative was developed eight years ago to provide fun and creative programs that promote reading not only for required assignments but also for personal reward and pleasure. 

Natrona County Public Library hopes to increase literacy locally by offering a series of programs just for teens during this special week.  A Teen Zone Open House kicked off the start of Teen Read Week on Monday.  Students in grades 6-12 came to the library after school and enjoyed making personalized “Get Real” bookmarks, watching movies, eating snacks, and hanging out with friends in the Teen Zone, a space filled with books, magazines and graphic novels geared toward the needs of teenagers. 

Students in grades 6-8 “got real” during NCPL’s Afternoon Book Club today at Metro Coffee Company, as they discussed a novel based on a true story, “Girl in a Cage,” by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris.  Another group of junior high students will meet Saturday at Metro Coffee Company at 3:30 p.m. to chat about the same title.  Teens in grades 9-12 have spent October reading Chris Crutcher’s autobiography, “King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography,” which they will discuss at Metro on October 26.  All three book club groups meet monthly at Metro Coffee Company and prove to be another great reason for teens to read, just for the fun of it!

Friday evening, teens are invited to participate in CSI: Wyoming, hosted at the library from 7-10 p.m. in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies.  Teens will act as detectives and learn how to analyze and diagram a crime scene, dust for fingerprints, put their forensic skills to the test and more!  The event is free and open to students in grades 6-12, but space is limited, so please register in advance by calling 237-4935, ext. 101.

After honing their investigative skills, teens can discover all that’s “real” in the genres highlighted in this year’s Teen Read Week theme.  For those who want to read realistic fiction about teens just like them, Kevin Henke’s award-winning “Olive’s Ocean,” Nelson Blake’s “Rock Star Superstar” and “Fade to Black,” by Alex Flinn, are just a few titles in this rapidly growing genre.  Fans of strange but true stories should check out John Fleischman’s “Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science” or Ann Bausum’s “With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote.”  And for teens inspired by CSI: Wyoming and looking for more information about forensics and detective work, there’s Richard Platt’s “Crime Scene: The Ultimate Guide to Forensic Science.”           

For more information on Teen Read Week or teen programming at your library, visit www.ala.org/teenread or call 237-4935, ext. 101.  See you Friday at CSI: Wyoming!   

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