Teen Blog

The votes are in and the students at Shirley Heim Middle School have chosen their favorite titles from the books presented during this year's Cafe Book program.

Top Pick:

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
Michael Vey seems like an ordinary teenager, but he has a unique power. After his mother is kidnapped he and his friends have to find his mother and fight the hunters to save other kids with the same powers.

Other Favorites:

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

Apothecary by Maile Meloy

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Curveball: The Year I Lost my Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Do you long for a library catalog with more robust searching options, social networking, and reading recommendations? Are you a fan of Amazon or Goodreads? If so, we think you will love the new catalog that we will be unveiling soon. Check back here on Monday for more details and the link to try it out. We can’t wait until you experience the CRRL’s new way to connect with the library.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to help astronomers learn about the Universe. You don't need a degree in biology to help track bird populations.  Interested in what whale songs mean? You guessed it—you don't need to be an oceanographer to help scientists figure it out. All it takes is an interest and computer access and you can join the growing ranks of Citizen Scientists. Most projects provide tutorials or clear instructions on their websites. You don't even have to be an adult!

This year the second floor of the Headquarters Library decided to do something a bit different for their holiday decorations. The Youth Services staff made the decision to have all of their decorations made from recycled and repurposed materials, specifically focusing on books weeded from the collection due to extreme damage. Then the system-wide Teen Council and teen volunteers from Headquarters handled the majority of the decoration creation. Over the course of three weeks these groups worked together to create the trees, snowflakes, paper chains and houses that make up the majority of the second floor decorations while staff members created the complementary hedgehogs. One fun twist that came from using old books was creating a game to go with the decorations.

Five trees created from old books are on the Youth Services Research Desk. We encourage all customers to come and try to guess which books were used to make the trees for a chance to win a prize. To go with the theme of recycled and repurposed decorations the Teen Council decided on the slogan “Go Green with the Grinch” to help tie all of the decorations together.

Check out this slideshow and view on Flickr to find out more about how some of the decorations were made.