What’s Sally Reading?

Teen Read Week is Oct. 16 – 22, 2011! The theme this year is “Picture It @ your library” so there are plenty of different directions you can go with it.  A recent post on YALSA-BK by Rosemary Honnold offers several different websites to visit that have resources for you mix and match to create your program.   Thank you, Rosemary!  Here they are: YALSA Teen Read Week page: Teen Read Week Wiki: (add your titles and program ideas to the lists!) This link has “50 Ideas for Teen Read Week” by Pam Spencer Holley, a list of general ideas that will work for any year (link also included below). Teen Read Week Facebook page:  This link has a video contest for grades 9-12, one of whom will win a $1,000 scholarship. Teen Read Week Photo Contest for ages 13-18. YALSA Blog postings about Teen Read Week every Thursday beginning September 1. The Hub: Your Connection to Teen Reads. Check out Pam Spencer Holley’s 50 Ideas for any Teen Read Week: And for “Ten Ideas for Teen Read Week without Having a Social Program,” check out this page on Rosemary’s See YA Around site. In honor of preparing for Teen Read Week, I recently finished the book Firespell by Chloe Neill.  This looks like the start of a new teen series, “The Dark Elite” which seems likely to be connected to her adult series “Chicagoland Vampires” (Some Girls Bite, etc.).  Lily is sent to boarding school in Chicago (from upstate New York) while her parents take a sabbatical to Germany.  A high school junior, Lily is not happy with this major change.  However, she soon learns one of her new roommates is involved in something that keeps her out late at night… and is dangerous.  Lily follows her and is enmeshed in a conflict between two groups with magical abilities.  Lily has no such abilities but wants to help her roommate, Scout, and her group to protect others.  No vampires in this title, but good storytelling, action, a bit of romance, and good vs. evil. (The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers.  After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)