Top Stories

• Want Your YA Programs to Succeed? Then Involve Teens
  Utilizing teens in program creation and execution is critical to making these activities desirable and vital, states the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) latest resource in the Engaging America’s Youth Initiative series. Just released, Nine to Nineteen provides many examples of youth programming ... more » » » 

• Want Your YA Programs to Succeed? Then Involve Teens
  According to an April 21 webinar What is the Role of Gaming in Education? sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), education experts support the use of digital media to keep children and teens engaged in learning activities, and as an outlet for expressing themselves, exercising judgment, and gaining experience in social interactions. more » » » 
• Flippin’ Pages with the No Name Book Club
  Kelley Wansley, Children’s Services Director, Foley Public Library (AL) began her efforts to ramp up YA services a year ago, putting teen programming front and center. She tried to form a teen advisory board, but her teens told her they didn’t want that – too official. But they wanted a book club, and a teen ‘zine. more » » » 
• Personalized Reading Picks for Teens: RA, Your Way
  There’s been a lot of buzz lately around readers’ advisory services for teens, and Santa Clara County Library (CA) has adapted their very popular children’s service for use with teens looking for something to read. more » » » 
• Saved by the Bell: Sixty Second Tech Tip – Awesome Highlighter!
  Have you ever had to work on a group project and one of your partners has trouble locating the important information on a particular Web site page? What if you needed to highlight part of a Web site as part of a discovery project? Awesome Highlighter is the answer. more » » » 

The Debut

• Cecilia Galante
  Galante’s first novel, The Patron Saint of Butterflies (Bloomsbury; April, 2008), tells the story of two 14-year-olds, Honey and Agnes—best friends but complete opposites—and their harrowing escape from Mount Blessing, a religious commune. In our review in the June SLJ, Joel Shoemaker writes: “If both girls occasionally seem wise beyond their years, readers will nevertheless cheer them on as they ponder the limits of faith and duty.”
  
  SLJTeen spoke with Galante—a high school English teacher—during her lunch break. more » » » 

Teens Know Best

• Cabot, Meg. Airhead. Scholastic. June 2008. ISBN: 978-0-545-04052-5.
  Gr 8-12. When I recommended this to a friend, I said that it is an altered teen version of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, with the typical nerdy main character and a popular girl. What made it different was the mysterious way the two main characters switched bodies. more » » » 
• Summers, Gillian. Into the Wildewood. (Faire Folk Triology, 2) Flux. June 2008. ISBN: 9780738713328.
  Gr 6-10. First I would tell my friend to read the first book in the Faire Folk Trilogy, The Tree Shepherd's Daughter, (Flux, 2007, ISBN: 9780738710815). Into the Wildewood is a fun, light book with great characters and a fun storyline.  To me, I think the best part of the book is Keelie's cat, Knot. He is such a great character! more » » » 
• Newbery, Linda. Lost Boy. David Fickling Books. March 2008. ISBN: 978-0-375-84574-1.
  Gr 5-8. This story involves mistaken identities and the supernatural. The most compelling aspect of this book (to me) was how the old guy named Wil thought that the main character, Matt, was his son, and his attempts at trying to get along with his “son” again. more » » » 

GAMING

• Going From Passive to Massive
  Some of you may have read Christopher Harris’ recent article passively in the May School Library Journal on PMOG – Passively Multiplayer Online Games – and the potential of this model for learning applications. Harris states that PMOG “turns Web browsing into a social adventure, in which players—striving for order or chaos—forge alliances, do battle, and create missions, all while surfing the Net.” Now there’s another acronym to add to your gaming vocabulary – MMORPG ... more » » » 

Multimedia

• Avenged Sevenfold. Avenged Sevenfold. Audio CD. Warner Brothers/Elektra/Atlantic. 2007.
  Avenged Sevenfold recently came out with a new self titled album. The tunes on their new CD are a little bit different than on their other CDs. As different as they are, they're equally as great, some greater than past songs. My personal favorite on their new album is "Scream". It's harsh, dark, and amazing. more » » » 
• Say No to the World. Lostalone. Audio CD. Scorpia. 2007.
  This whole album gives you the eerie feeling of being lost in a void, surrounded completely by music. The rise and fall of the guitars against the deep thrumming of bass and drums fits perfectly with the unique vocals. more » » » 

DIGITAL WHIRL

• Tech Trends & Teen Lives - the latest from the web
  The Top 10 Tech Trends One of my favorites: "The mobile phone will be a mainstream personal computer."
  
  MTV Plans to Increase Its Blending of Ads and Shows" We are increasingly being asked by advertisers to create messages for audiences in our own voice."
  
  Google Launches Friend Connect, Trying to Tie Social Networks Together "Friend Connect uses OpenID, oAuth and Open Social to let users log in to their favorite apps using a trusted ID provider and then access their friend info from those apps - all while on another website altogether."more » » » 

OPPORTUNITIES

• So You Think You Can Write? Contest Winner Announced
  Orca Book Publishers has announced Leanne Lieberman of Kingston, Ontario as the winner of its novel writing contest, So You Think You Can Write? Lieberman’s novel, Gravity, which began as her master’s thesis, will be published by Orca in November 2008. The book centers on Eillie Gold, an orthodox Jewish teenager, who is forced to confront her own sexuality and spirituality when she discovers that she has fallen in love with another girl. more » » »