Drive-in-Movie: Polar Express

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Movies are always a big hit at the library but, sometimes, you need to do something different to break up your routine. This month, we decided to host a “Drive-in-Movie” where our kids could decorate a sleigh to sit in while they watched Polar Express.

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To make the sleighs, we used old cardboard boxes left over from our quarterly FOL book sale. Our teen volunteers used box cutters to create “curvy” shapes and presto! Insta-sleigh. To keep this activity organized, we assembled all the pieces “buffet” style. That way, each child could gather his or her supplies and take their sleigh away to work on it.

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The kids had an absolutely fantastic time. There was glitter, tape, and wrapping paper everywhere! But the mess was half the fun. 🙂 Once the sleighs were built, our kids picked a cozy spot to sit and snuggled up with some popcorn to watch the movie.

In total, we had 25 kids and 12 parents at this event – not too bad for a Wednesday afternoon! We’ll be bringing this one back next year.

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Teen Holiday Display: Tradition Tree

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For my December Teen Display, I wanted to do something inclusive and festive. So I decided to create a “Tradition Tree” and put it up in the Teen Section. I created book ornaments using our Ellison Die Cut Machine. I also hung Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa banners in the windows, along with correlating fiction titles. Then I invited our teens to write down their favorite holiday traditions and place them on our tree.

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So far, this has been a really great passive program. In the first two days alone, ten teenagers have hung ornaments on our tree! I like this display because it celebrates the diversity of our traditions, rather than a generic “happy holidays.” Individually unique, together complete. 🙂 Here’s to the holidays!

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We Need Diverse Books: The YA Holiday Edition

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IMG_2895I was one of those kids who got bullied/excluded when I was little, which means, as an adult, I have a minor obsession with making sure everyone feels included.

So I was determined this holiday season to incorporate not just Christmas books but Hanukkah and Kwanzaa titles into my book display.

Surely, I thought, there would be a bevy of titles I could incorporate. After all, we have an unholy amount of picture books on the subject. There just had to be titles for teens as well, right?

Wrong.

After countless hours of searching the Internet, pestering Facebook friends, authors, and so on, I realized that there’s next to nothing available for non-Christian teens during the holidays.

It was baffling. I mean, it’s 2014 for goodness’ sake. But after sifting through dozens of (admittedly lovely) holiday titles, I only found two non-Christmas titles for teens: one for Hanukkah and one for Kwanzaa. I ended up having to add two middle grade titles – The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming and Feast of Lights – to my display just to balance things out.

Now I get it. We all have cultural biases. But we need to work to overcome those biases so no one is left out. Teens, just like children, need to see themselves and their traditions represented in the books they read. And diversity in books isn’t just something for our little ones: our middle and high schoolers need it as well.

So to all my author friends: Gimme some YA Hanukkah and Kwanzaa books. Stat.

For everyone else, here are the two diverse YA holiday titles I ended up going with:

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My True Love Gave to Me: 12 Holiday Stories

A beautiful, well thought out, much-needed addition to the YA holiday marketplace. As the publisher states, “Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there’s something here for everyone.”

 

 

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Listen for the Fig Tree by Sharon Belle Mathis

An older yet moving YA novel about a blind sixteen year-old, Muffin Johnson, who struggles with an alcoholic mother. Muffin is trying to find light in her dark world and Kwanzaa plays a role in that quest.

 

Any diverse YA holiday titles I’ve missed? Help a librarian out. Post them in the comments section below. Thanks and Happy Chrismakwanzikkah!

Hunger Games Day

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So…confession: I adore The Hunger Games. So do my teenagers which, of course, means programming. This year, though, I decided a single program wasn’t going to be enough. Instead, we planned an entire DAY dedicated to Ms. Everdeen. 🙂

Part 1: Hunger Games Archery Class

a1Yes. You read that right. Archery. At the library. We partnered with the Tampa Archery School to make this program happen and held it in our large, grassy yard.

Bryce Smith and several of his fellow instructors came out and brought all of the necessary supplies: bows, arrows, targets, etc. Bryce walked our teens through a fifteen minute orientation and lined them up to shoot.

And I have to say, for their first time out the gate, they did a pretty good job! Better than I could’ve done at any rate. 🙂

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Part 2: Mockingjay Movie Release Party

Food & Decorations:

Our color scheme was black and yellow, so I created parachutes with each of the twelve District crests and hung them (and some streamers) around the room. At the entrance, I had laminated bookmarks courtesy of Living Locurto. I also had a dystopian book display to encourage additional reading.

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Our menu included Cinna Sticks, Nightlock berries (blueberries), Cornucopias (Bugles), Peeta Bread & Hummus, and Catching Fire Cupcakes. The two dozen cupcakes were generously donated by Sweet Ida Mae’s Bakery.

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Crafts:

We offered two options for this program: locker magnets and bottle cap keychains/necklaces.
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Games:

We had two options available for our adventurers: “Pin the Mockingjay on Katniss” and “suction cup archery.”

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Afterwards, we all settled in to watch Catching Fire. I raffled off a copy of the trilogy and tickets to see Mockingjay.

In total we had 23 teens and tweens attend this event. I’m very much looking forward to doing it again next year!

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Teen Zombie Prom

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Well, we survived: Zombie Prom, that is. 🙂 Here are the highlights for all you undead aficionados.

Decorations and Food:

Our color scheme was red and black, so we decorated with streamers, balloons, and blood spattered banners throughout the meeting room. Our “A Night to Dismember” pennant banner was hung over the food table. We also created cardboard tombstones and surrounded them with severed Dollar Store limbs and moss we collected from outside.

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For food, we offered two main options: severed finger cookies and undead cupcakes (that bled cherry sauce when bitten into). I may or may not have spent about six hours baking the aforementioned treats but, in the end, it was worth it. The teens loved them. We also had a ice brain mold floating in our “blood-filled” punch bowl. 🙂

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Most importantly, we also had a teen Zombie book display, featuring novels by Carrie Ryan, Darren Shan, Jonathan Maberry, and other zombie-writing authors. As a library, we strive to promote literacy at all of our events.

 Photo Booth:

We wanted to provide a spot for our guys and ghouls to commemorate their eerie evening, so we hung some velvet curtains, a “Zombie Prom” pennant banner, and arranged some extra tombstones for a freaky photo-op.

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Craft:

For our craft this year, we decided to keep it simple. We printed out 1-inch circular zombie images and the teens got to make bottle cap necklaces and key chains.

Costume Contest:

Just prior to showing Dance of the Dead, we had a costume contest. Each undead contestant strutted his or her stuff before our three judges. Each zombie was scored using a predesigned rubric. Our Zombie King and Queen each won a $25 Amazon gift card.

In total, we had thirty teens show up for prom this year – a whopping 67% increase over last year! 🙂 I’d say that’s bloody brilliant. Here’s to the zombies!

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Teen Craft: Edible Calaveras

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ss1Halloween is, undoubtedly, my favorite holiday. So I wanted to do something fun and exciting for our teen Halloween craft this year. What better way to “bring out your dead” than by making Mexican Sugar Skulls?

Traditionally, calaveras are made with sugar, water, and meringue powder (or egg whites). These skulls are so hard that, if you tried to bite into them, you’d end up chipping a tooth.

Fortunately, I found a lovely tutorial on how to make an edible version from Dollar Store Crafts. If you want step-by-step directions, make sure to check it out. This site is an absolute budget life saver when it comes to crafts and one of my new favorite haunts.

Supplies:

1 cup of sugar (the white, processed kind)

1 rubber skull ice cube mold

2 teaspoons of water

Several tubes of Betty Crocker’s “Gel Decorating Icing”

Basically, you just mix the two teaspoons of water into the sugar until it’s the consistency of sand. Then you press the sugar firmly into your mold, place a cookie sheet on the back, and flip them. When you pull the mold away, you should have lovely little sugar skulls waiting for you!ss3

I also had a giant skull mold that I borrowed from a co-worker. I ended up using a combination of white and raw sugar while making it (since it took five and half whopping cups). The raw sugar gives the bottom half of the larger skull a nice golden color. However, the white sugar definitely hardens better, so I recommend only using it.

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After letting my skulls dry overnight, I got to decorate! It was a lot of fun and I really think the teens are going to enjoy it. I’ll be sure to post the pictures after we host the craft. Happy skull making!

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  Senor Calavera y sus amigos

Sweet Ida Mae’s Treat Decorating Class

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sim2There’s a universal rule in programming for teens: if you feed them, they will come. So what better way to lure teens to the library then with a program that’s all about food? Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library, I was able to invite our local cupcake bakery to host a cupcake and cake pop decorating class.

It really does pay to reach out to your local “Mom and Pop” shops for programming. Not only are you supporting local business when you do but, in my experience, you tend to receive higher quality programming.

These wonderful ladies brought all the supplies: the food, the frosting, the lesson. All I had to do was set up the tables. It was wonderfully easy and fun.

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In total, we had thirteen teenage girls show up for our Sunday afternoon class. Giggles and smiles ran rampant as we all ate FAR too many cupcakes. We’re inviting the ladies of Sweet Ida Mae’s back again in December. We can’t wait to decorate holiday treats with them! Here’s to a sweet program.

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Teen Zombie Book Display

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IMG_2261So we’re bringing back ZombieFest this year in the form of Zombie Prom. We’ll be showing a zombie movie, crowning a zombie king and queen, and dancing to some zombie tunes. To celebrate and promote our event, I thought I’d create a deliciously creepy book display.

I pulled all of the zombie-themed books I could find, both from YA and the adult section:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Zom-B by Darren Shan

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Mayberry

World War Z by Max Brooks

Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies by Seth Graham Smith

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Using a white table cloth and some paint, my teen volunteers helped me create our “The Zombies Are Coming…” banner. To finish it off, I attached zombie “caution tape” over the windows, along with our zombie standee, a few severed limbs, some moss and a couple tombstones.

So far, it’s been a tremendously popular display. Here’s hoping it’ll help us successfully promote Zombie Prom!

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My Year in Numbers (aka Teen Library Program Attendance)

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MegStats2So excuse me while I geek out for a moment. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I’m also ridiculously competitive. I can’t stand to lose. So my goal during my first year as a Teen Library Assistant was very, very simple:

I wanted to blast my predecessor’s teen program attendance record out of the water.

One habit I picked up from my time as a teacher is using data to drive your efforts. Otherwise, you end up stumbling around blindly as you attempt to reach your goals. So I sat down with my boyfriend who, very generously, helped me create an Excel spreadsheet. I used it to track my monthly progress and see how I was doing.

I wasn’t sure I’d make it. Some programs were more successful than others. But I’m pleased to announce that I improved teen attendance at our branch by an average of 96% this year! Ninety-six whopping percent! I am beyond ecstatic. 🙂 Guess that means I’m doing something right. Here’s to a successful year!

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