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by the Sprague Branch Teen Squad 
Hey! I am Stephanie, the Teen Librarian at Sprague! Teen Squad is always a highlight of my summers. I love seeing what projects the teens come up with, and am always inspired by their intelligence, creativity and thoughtfulness.
My name is Samantha, and I am a Teen Squad member at the Sprague Library. I am so glad I am able to have this opportunity to serve our community and meet new people. I love to dance, bake, be with friends and family, and (of course!) read!
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by The Anderson-Foothill Teen Squad                 by Morgan, Sweet Branch Teen Squad  My Teen Squad Project during the school year was Teen-to-Teen Book Recommendations, a service where teens could request a book recommendation from me and I would find something new for them to read. Here's a look at the requests I got and what I recommended. Hopefully you can find something you might enjoy from this list. Happy Reading! What genres, authors, and books they like: Fantasy, Land of Stories, and they don’t like violence. What book I recommended and why: I recommended Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George because it is one of my favorite fantasy books. The reading level is about the same as Land of Stories and I like that they both have a storyline with lots of plot twists. Both Land of Stories and Dragon Slippers have mythical creatures, and the writing has a fairy tale vibe to it. They were both adventurous books that had lots of cliffhangers.  What genres, authors, and books they like: Rick Riordan, J.K. Rowling, and fantasy. What book I recommended and why: I recommended The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag. Like Harry Potter, The Witch Boy is about a boy learning to use his powerful magic with his various magical and non-magical friends. Also like Harry Potter, the friendships and mentor relationships are as interesting as the magic.  What genres, authors, and books they like: Fablehaven, C.R Grey, J.K Rowling, and fantasy. What book I recommended and why: I recommended The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman because the storyline and complexity of the characters is so great. The story is dark, similar to how some Harry Potter books are, and there is lots of magic and mystery in both.  What genres, authors, and books they like: Salt to the Sea, Rick Riordan and Historical Fiction. What book I recommended and why: I recommended The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley because I think the style of the writing is similar to Rick Riordan’s books. I also chose Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys because it is a great historical fiction book that combines mystery. This book reminds me of Salt to the Sea because they are by the same author and the books have similar writing styles.
What genres, authors, and books they like: Maze runner, Utopia, and no sappy endings. What book I requested and why: I recommended The Children of Exile by Margaret Peterson Haddix because it is my favorite sci-fi book. I also recommended Unwind by Neal Shusterman because it is a good dystopia-type book. I also recommended House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer because it is a great sci-fi book. All of these books are my favorite science fiction books because I love how the authors have made up the dystopian environment, and all these books made it feel like you were right there in the story.
What genres, authors, and books they like: Ready Player One, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan, Earnest Cline and Fantasy/Sci Fi. What book I requested and why: I recommended Under Their Skin by Margaret Peterson Haddix because it is one of my favorite sci-fi books. Both books, like most sci-fi novels have a futuristic setting, and I loved how the authors portrayed the future. I also recommended The Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee because it is a Rick Riordan presents book and is super interesting to read. It combines sci-fi, magic, fantasy, and Korean mythology really well.
What genres, authors, and books they like: Truly Devious, Mystery, Love and Gelato, Teen Drama, fantasy, Maureen Johnson, and Jenna Evans Welsh. What book I requested and why: I recommended Listen to your Heart by Kasie West because it is similar to Love and Gelato and has similar reading levels. I loved that they both had unexpected plot twists, and in both books no one could predict what happened in the end. I recommended One of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus because I think it is like Truly Devious; they were in fact on the same mystery book list. I also recommended The Iron King by Julie Kagawa because it is a good fantasy/mystery book.
by Main Library Teen Squad   Hi! I’m Becca and I am the Teen Librarian at the Main Library. I absolutely love working with my Teen Squad volunteers. They are the most inspiring, community-minded, and driven people I know! They are making a difference every day and I am so lucky to be able to spend my time with them (even if we have to do it virtually!). We are working on so many great projects together this summer and I can’t wait for you to see what amazing work they are doing to improve both our Library and our wonderful Salt Lake City community!   My name is Annabelle and I enjoy baking, cooking, and reading. I have a dog and a younger sister. I love indie music and listening to podcasts.   Hi, my name is Gage Jackson. This is my first year doing Teen Squad and won't be my last. I'm so excited to be a part of this. A little bit about myself is that I love photography and drawing. I also collect action figures and play video games. I also try my best at making people laugh... Doesn't really work.   Hi, my name is Trin and I’m in between freshman and sophomore year of high school. I’ve done Teen Squad three times before this year, and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to do it again. So far my projects have been working to create inclusiveness, and I think that is still a good project ideal to work towards.   Hi! My name is Ariel and I will be a Freshman in High School this coming school year at Alta High School. Even though you might think I was named after the Little Mermaid, the truth is, I was named after someone my mom found in her family tree, that was born and raised in Italy. I have been doing All-Star Cheer since I was 5 years old at Macs All-Star Cheer, and it keeps me incredibly busy when I'm not in school. I have had the privilege of traveling a lot to compete in cheer and recently came back from competing at the ESPN Center in Florida! When I am not working on my tumbling skills, at cheer practice or studying for school, I usually play video games or am reading a book. My favorite place to be is at the beach. I love the water and doing water activities. Summer is fun, because there's a lot of opportunities to go swimming and most importantly, I can sleep in! I look forward to being a part of Teen Squad and really focusing on helping the community.   Hello readers! My name is Avi, I use he/she/they pronouns and grew up around the library. I recently fell in love with video making and wanted to show my love of the library through film for my teen squad project. I hope you enjoy!   Hello! I’m Alejandra, but you can call me Ali if you want. I avidly listen to Yorushika, YOASOBI, ZUTOMAYO, Eve, Pinocchio-P, HoneyWorks, Harumaki Gohan, Kenshi Yonezu, and many more. I am usually constantly baking or cooking something in my home kitchen. by Lexi, Day-Riverside Branch  I think it’s safe to say, we are all experiencing some form of digital-fatigue. We’ve been communicating digitally for a long time now, from virtual schooling to relying on facetime to safely see family and friends. If you are craving social interaction that isn’t through a screen, I’d like to recommend the Library’s Teen Pen Pal project. Teens ages 12-17 can sign up to be paired with a pen pal based on their ages and interests. Don’t worry about stamps, you will simply pick up and drop off your letters at any City Library branch. We’ll send it to where it needs to go through our own sweet system of intra-library branch mail. You’ll get an email when a new letter arrives and viola! You’re going back in time and participating in old-timey communication. We’ve already had quite a few teens sign up, so you will get matched quickly to a pen pal we think you’ll click with. Why write physical letters? There are tons of reasons. You can add personalized art. You can meet new friends across the city in a safe way. And, most of all, writing letters is a classy friend’s game. Steve Topfer, associate professor in Human Development and Family Studies at Kent State University actually did a study examining the effects of writing letters on happiness, life satisfaction and depression. A sample of 219 undergraduate students wrote letters and the study revealed that, the more letter writing people did, the more they improved significantly on happiness and life satisfaction. (Read more about the study here). So why not? Sign up for a pen pal here! by Stephanie H, Sprague Branch  It is June and that means we are officially heading into summer here in Utah! You may have noticed that everything is in bloom right now, and there are baby birds all over the place. Here is a small list of flowers, plants and birds you may notice around your neighborhood: Sunflower (Helianthus annus) Probably one of my favorite flowers, you will see these cheerful yellow flowers popping up all over SLC, in yards, roadsides and the foothills. There are many different varieties of Sunflowers, and the seeds can be eaten and also used to dye fabric. Pollinators such as bees, wasps, hummingbirds and butterflies love sunflowers.  Columbine (aquilegia family) There are a few varieties of Columbine the grow in SLC, including the Yellow Columbine (aquilegia flavescens) and Graham’s columbine (aquilegia grahamii). Columbine have long petals that attract hummingbirds and moths. I found two different varieties of Columbine while walking through Hidden Hollow in Sugar House, including this one with yellow and red flowers.  Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) Miner’s lettuce is found all over SLC, including on roadsides, forest areas and even growing in people’s gardens. As you may guess by the plant’s common name, Miner’s Lettuce is edible although I would not recommend consuming it unless you know for certain that what you have found is in fact Miner’s Lettuce and you know that it has not been treated with any pesticides or weed killers.  Hummingbirds There are five different species of hummingbirds that hang out in Utah during the summer. The most common two are the broad tailed hummingbird and the black chinned hummingbird. I have to admit that I have a hard time telling the different species apart because they are often zooming around to different pollen sources. If you put up a hummingbird feeder in your yard or on your balcony you will definitely get visitors! You can use this easy recipe for your feeder, just make sure you clean it every other day! I was able to snap this picture of two hummingbirds perched on old Yucca stalks at Red Butte Garden last year.  Woodpeckers The two most common woodpeckers in SLC are the Hairy Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker. These two guys are almost identical except for size. The Hairy Woodpecker is larger than the Downy Woodpecker. I see these birds all the time while walking through neighborhoods. You may often hear them hammering away at a tree, looking for insects. The Northern Flicker is also part of the Woodpecker family, although they pound on trees as a form of communication. I spotted this Flicker while I was in a drive-thru.  If you are interested in documenting different plants and animals in your neighborhood, I highly recommend downloading the inaturalist app , iNaturalist was created by the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic as a way for citizen scientists (aka us regular folk) to record what is happening in their area and connect with other citizen scientists to discuss these findings. |
