Today we’ve got another poll for you. We want to know what you’d like to see more of in the library. A better selection of books? More chances for you to volunteer? Some YA author visits? Take the poll below to let us know what you’re craving! (You can choose more than one answer!)
Did you know you can earn community service hours by participating in one of Wellington County’s Teen Advisory Groups (TAG, for short)? Yup, that’s right!
But what is a TAG group, anyways? Well, Teen Advisory Groups are our way of making sure we’ve got the materials you want to see in the library. Come in and meet with other teens to discuss what kinds of books, movies, and music you’d like to see at the library. Play some games and eat some food, and find out all about what kinds of programmes and events we’ve got lined up for teens. Give us your input and advice for what you’d like to see at the library, and why.
You can participate in a TAG group at the Elora (Centre Wellington) and Erin branches of the Wellington County Library, and keep up to date with them here at the blog.
And there’s more! Not every branch of the county has a TAG group, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways you can actively participate with the library. The Arthur branch hosts a Teen Book Club every month, and at Clifford there is a Pageturners Book Club open to teens and preteens! In Mount Forest and Harriston, you can hang out at the Teen Café, where you can talk about books, movies, and more, and find out about gaining community service hours for school! Other branches sometimes hold single-session teen programmes, too, so always keep up to date with that’s going on at your local branch, and check out the library’s website here to find teen programming all over the county.
Want to see a teen-related programme at a certain library branch? Let a librarian know, OR post a message here on the blog! Let us know what you’d like to see, and where. If we get enough interest, your idea might just happen!
Update: This giveaway is now closed, and no more comments are being accepted. We will announce the winner next week! Meanwhile, why not vote for the book you’d like to see as July’s giveaway prize?
Ready for another giveaway? Because here we go! By popular demand, we’ve chosen to give away a copy of Edeet Ravel’s book Held! In addition to a review from one of our own readers, here’s part of what Quill & Quire had to say about this book:
“Seventeen-year-old Chloe Mills is in Greece on a summer volunteer work program when she is abducted by a couple who blindfold her, drug her, and take her by plane to another country. Worst case scenarios run through her mind: Will she be sold as a sex slave? Do they want to experiment on her? Kill her for her organs?
When she regains consciousness, Chloe finds herself in a makeshift apartment in an abandoned warehouse, where she is visited daily by a male captor who brings her food, books, even wine. She is surprised by his kindness, and disarmed by his good looks. As time goes by, Chloe increasingly comes to identify with her abductor. …
Guelph, Ontario’s Edeet Ravel once again proves herself an adept manipulator of difficult material. … Better still is the emotional and intellectual paradox the novel sets up: is Chloe’s abductor a master manipulator or the sympathetic victim of a tyrannical regime?”
As before, the following must be true for you to be eligible for this draw:
You must be between the ages of 12 and 19.
You must have a valid Wellington County Library card, or if you are under 16, you or your parent or guardian must have a valid WCL card.
You must leave a comment on this entry and answer the following question: What’s one thing you’re really looking forward to this summer?
Good luck! This contest will close June 30, so get your answers in before then!
Update: We have closed the poll, and we’ll be giving one lucky winner a copy of Held by Edeet Ravel at the end of June! Thanks for your votes!
WCL teens, we need your help! We’ve got a slate of cool new books we’d like to offer as prizes for the giveaways, but we can only offer one. So which one do you want?
Sinking Deeper by Steve Vernon
The tiny fishing community of Deeper Harbour is in deep trouble—and so is fourteen-year-old Roland MacTavish. Roland’s mom wants to move with him to Ottawa, away from his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and his even weirder grandfather, Angus. So Roland does what any sane teenager would do: He invents a sea monster. Unfortunately, the scheme quickly spins out of Roland’s control, and he has to go to greater and greater lengths to keep up the illusion. And then Roland must deal with a situation far more terrifying than any sea monster. (Summary from here.)
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
A plane full of pageant girls crashes on a deserted island—only the island turns out not to be so deserted. Lord of the Flies, Lost, a bit of James Bond and a lot of satire meet in Beauty Queens. Oh, and there are pirates, too (the good kind).
Structured to be like a reality TV special—complete with commercial breaks, words from the sponsors, and product placement footnotes—Beauty Queens is genius. (Summary from here.)
Held by Edeet Ravel
Recently reviewed by one of your fellow teen readers, Held seemed like a great addition to our giveaway list: Seventeen-year-old Chloe Mills is in Greece on a summer volunteer work program when she is abducted by a couple who blindfold her, drug her, and take her by plane to another country. Worst case scenarios run through her mind: Will she be sold as a sex slave? Do they want to experiment on her? Kill her for her organs? (Summary from here.)
Or, if you don’t see something that interests you here, is there a book you’ve been anxious to read that you can’t get your hands on? Let us know what it is and we’ll consider it for the giveaway too. The only criteria is that we prefer books that aren’t in the middle of a series.
The summer has wrapped up and we have given away all of our books! Thank you to all those who participated! Don’t forget to check with you library branch to see what’s happening over the fall/winter for teens!
Congratulations to our final winner of the summer :Brittany T
Did you like The Hunger Games? Moira Young’s first book Blood Red Road is receiving rave reviews across the internet from fans of Suzanne Collins’ books. MTV, for example, says:
“…this book raises the bar when it comes to the genre. Not only will it satisfy the cravings of “Hunger Games” fans, but it is—dare I say—better than “The Hunger Games.” Yes, blasphemy for a “Hunger Games” fan to say so, but it’s undeniable. This book will blow you away.
That’s because “Blood Red Road” simply delivers. The story, the writing, the characters and the narrative voice are stunning and completely original, setting this book apart from the crowd of dystopian novels.”
The summary from the publisher starts: “Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.”
That’s only the first bit of the summary. If you want to know more, head on over to Simon & Schuster’s page on the book to see what else is in store for Saba.
So. Appetite whet? Want a free copy? We’ve got one to give to one lucky winner! To be eligible for this contest you must fit the following criteria:
You must be between the ages of 12 and 19.
You must have a valid Wellington County Library card, or if you are under 16, you or your parent or guardian must have a valid WCL card.
You must leave a comment on this entry and answer the following two questions: Have you ever participated in the Teen Summer Reading Challenge? Why or why not?
The comments will close on May 31, and the winner will be chosen via random number generator from the comments on June 1. Good luck!
It may seem hard to believe, with midterms barely behind you and exams beginning to loom, but summer is just around the corner. This blog’s original reason for being was the Teen Summer Reading Challenge, a six-week reading extravaganza where, for every book you read or listen to, you get entered in a draw to win some fabulous prizes. Just like we’ve expanded the blog’s mandate, the TSRC is going to be bigger and better than ever this year! And we’re starting now.
Every month from May until August we’ll be hosting a book giveaway on this site for Wellington County teens. All you have to do to have the chance to win an awesome book — FREE — is have a quick look at the rules, and then follow them! And the rules are:
You must be between the ages of 12 and 19.
You must have a valid Wellington County Library card, or if you’re under 16, you or a parent or a guardian must have a valid card.
Answer the question posed in the giveaway entry by leaving a comment.
The winners will be chosen randomly from the comments on the last day of the month. Keep your eyes on this space — the giveaways will start soon!
Read the book, then see the movie with the Aboyne Branch of Wellington County Library! WCL has many copies of Jane Eyre, and you can pick one to read prior to heading out with a group of like-minded teens to see the latest film adaptation at the Gorge Cinema.
Meet Wednesday, April 27, 6:45 pm at the Gorge Cinema, and then stay after for dessert and movie dissection at the Café Crêperie. Call the Aboyne Branch to register!
Ever wish you could sit down for a full 24 hours and do nothing but read? So did Dewey, a giant of the book blogging world in 2007. So she created the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, in which people are encouraged to read whatever they want for as long as they can up to 24 hours, and use social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, whatever you have handy) to report their progress to the world. This idea was a roaring success in the global book blogosphere, and it’s now a twice-a-year event. People post about the lists of books they’re planning to read, about the food they’re planning to eat, and if they’re really ambitious, the money they collect from sponsors (this is totally optional) to give to a charity of their choice based on how many books they end up reading.
The next Read-A-Thon is on April 9, a Saturday. Intrigued? Want to know more? Check out the Read-A-Thon website, and join in or just follow along for a while as people around the world read as much as they can in 24 hours!
You may have seen the posters around your local library branch or school, or heard of this video contest from friends or elsewhere, but if not — did you know you could win $2000 by creating a 3-minute video that shows how we can take the stigma out of kids’ mental health issues?
1 in 5 kids suffers every day with something related to mental health — stress, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, bullying, schizophrenia, and more. Children’s Mental Health Ontario is holding this contest to highlight that issue, and to encourage people to both come forward if they’re having trouble, and to support the friends and family around us who may need our help.
Find out more, or watch some of the entries they’ve received. The deadline for entry is April 20, 2011 — so have some fun, do some good, and have a chance to win a great prize in the process!
You Blog it, We Read it! 