Library programs cater to young readers

In what may come as a pleas­ant sur­prise to peo­ple who fear the Face­book gen­er­a­tion has given up on read­ing, a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Inter­net and Amer­i­can Life Project reveals the promi­nent role of books, libraries and tech­nol­ogy in the lives of young read­ers, ages 16 to 29. In fact, the report found that “about 8 in 10 Amer­i­cans under the age of 30 have read a book in the past year. They’re more likely to read, and they’re also more likely to be using their library.”

Young adults are using the Delaware County Dis­trict Library at a nearly unprece­dented rate, too. To make the library a wel­com­ing place for young folks, we have cre­ated teen spaces with com­put­ers loaded with soft­ware that will be of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to this age group. Espe­cially pop­u­lar are the pro­grams that Teen Librar­ian Mandy Hen­ning and staff develop and present for young adults. Atten­dance at these cre­ative pro­grams has soared over the past few months.

We have some cap­ti­vat­ing pro­grams for teens sched­uled in the com­ing month. On Mon­day, Nov. 5, Deputy Direc­tor Don Yarman will be teach­ing basic tech­niques in “Knit­ting 101,” at the Pow­ell Branch at 6:30 p.m., and pre­reg­is­tra­tion is required (614–888-9160). Also at 7 p.m. Nov. 5, teens can visit the Orange Branch to learn screen print­ing and take home a poster cre­ated dur­ing the pro­gram. Screen print­ing pro­grams will be repeated through­out the month at all Library loca­tions, too, along with pro­grams on papermaking.

There is always a good selec­tion of pro­grams for teens on the library’s cal­en­dar. Check it out on our web­site at delawarelibrary.org or by pick­ing up a copy of the library’s quar­terly calendar.

Encour­ag­ing young peo­ple to read, appre­ci­ate lit­er­a­ture and become life­long learn­ers is a core belief at DCDL. The titles below are a sam­pling of the intrigu­ing teen lit­er­a­ture that will be added to the shelves of the library this month. If you haven’t read a young adult novel lately, give one a try!

• Angelfall by Susan Ee. It’s been six weeks since angels of the apoc­a­lypse descended to demol­ish the mod­ern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and super­sti­tion rule the night. When war­rior angels fly away with a help­less lit­tle girl, her 17-year-old sis­ter Pen­ryn will do any­thing to get her back.

• Armaged­don by James Pat­ter­son. Daniel faces das­tardly Num­ber Two, who has slowly been amass­ing an under­ground army of aliens to help him enslave Earth’s pop­u­la­tion in prepa­ra­tion for the arrival of Num­ber One, the most pow­er­ful alien in the uni­verse and Daniel’s arch-nemesis.

• Burn for Burn by Jenny Han. Three teenaged girls liv­ing on Jar Island band together to enact revenge on the peo­ple that have hurt them.

• Dodger by Terry Pratch­ett. In an alter­na­tive Lon­don, ruled by the young Queen Vic­to­ria, an enter­pris­ing lad can find adven­ture and oppor­tu­nity if he is very smart, and very, very lucky. Dodger has the brains, the luck and the cheek to scrape by on his own.

• Out­casts United: The Story of a Refugee Soc­cer Team That Changed a Town by War­ren St. John. Mem­o­ries of war, polit­i­cal crack­downs, rev­o­lu­tions and eth­nic cleans­ing are part of life in Clark­ston, Ga., turned into a refugee cen­ter by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. This fast-paced account fol­lows the story of Luma Mufleh, a bright-burning advo­cate, who started the Fugees soc­cer team and trans­formed the town.

• Safe­keep­ing by Karen Hesse. Radley’s par­ents had warned her that all hell would break loose if the Amer­i­can People’s Party took power. With the pres­i­dent assas­si­nated and the gov­ern­ment crack­ing down on cit­i­zens, the news is filled with images of vig­i­lante groups, fren­zied loot­ing and police raids. It seems as if all hell has bro­ken loose.

• Start­ing from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow. Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hang­ing on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dump­ing her for a boy and her fail­ing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.

• Unspo­ken by Sarah Rees Bren­nan. Kami Glass is in love with some­one she’s never met — a boy she’s talked to in her head since she was born, mak­ing her an out­sider in the sleepy Eng­lish town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she has learned ways to turn that to her advan­tage. Her life seems to be in order, until dis­turb­ing events begin to occur. The key to it all might be the boy in her head; the boy she thought was imag­i­nary is real.

• Zom-B by Dar­ren Shan. When news reports start appear­ing of a zom­bie out­break in Ire­land, B’s racist father thinks it’s a joke, but when zom­bies attack his high school, B is forced on a mad dash through the ser­pen­tine cor­ri­dors, mak­ing alle­giances with any­one with enough gall to fight off their pursuers.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!

Posted by Mary Santos on Nov 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.