Teen Read Week 2018 Brought a Crowd into the Library

Why do I bother to celebrate Teen Read Week (TRW)? 

Student interpretation of "It's Written in the Stars"

I have a steady stream of students in the library every day at all three lunches, and I do not need a special week of programming to encourage students to walk in the doors of the library. But TRW is an annual event, and I want my kids to have fond memories of all our TRW activities over the years that they attend this school. I like tradtions, and this tradition started when I came to the school, so it means a lot to me to keep it going. 

Playing the guessing game

Over the years, my students and I have developed programming for TRW that is altered and edited every year but always has the same components. As such, planning is pretty simple. We look at the theme set by YALSA and adjust all our activities to fit that theme. 

Crafting tissue stars

These are the events that are always scheduled: showing of an episode from Twilight Zone with treats, a simple craft that can be completed in about 30 minutes (length of a lunch period), a literary guessing game with sweet treats as prizes so many can win, some sort of picture taking to recommend books, guess the number of candies in the jar with the winner getting all the candy, a bookmark contest with a winner from middle school and one from high school, fine forgiveness for the week, and voting for Teen's Top Ten. Some years we have added events that included special visitors or authors, but that list is our general plan. It works for us, and the kids here seem to love it. I always ask members of my book groups to help with the planning and to give me ideas. If I need student helpers for any event, then I call on them. 



Below are just a few pictures to highlight the fun that was had during TRW 2018, but you can see a lot more on the library website here.

Focused on the video

7th grade helpers for the guessing game

Even the high school students like playing the game

Few came close to the number of candy stars in the jar


The tissue stars were easy but looked beautiful hanging in a window

We used star ratings to make book recommendations

High School Winning Bookmark
Middle School Winning Bookmark




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