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by Meagan, Sweet Branch Join Sweet Branch Teen Squad member Kamryn for our penultimate Teen Book Club. This month we will be discussing the National Book Award nominated graphic novel Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. The event will be held on Saturday, March 13th at 2:00pm. The event will be held via Zoom, and here is the link. In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along. Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive. - Graphix (publisher synopsis) Here are a few of the discussion questions:
Join us next month for the last book in our Book Club series! On Saturday, April 10th at 2pm we will be discussing Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich. by Kamryn, Sweet Teen Squad As you might know February is Black History Month, and I wanted to celebrate it by reading and discussing one of my favorite books! It's called The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book is amazing, and it is honestly one of my favorites so I hope you enjoy it too! About the Book
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. -Synopsis from the publisher Here are some questions we will be discussing: 1.In the first chapter, Khalil and Starr listen to Tupac in the car. Khalil explains what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. Discuss what this acronym means and how it shows up throughout the book. How else does the author use hip-hop as a motif? 2.Throughout the novel, Starr refers to police officer Brian Cruise as One-Fifteen, which is his badge number. Why do you think she does this? Does her attitude toward police officers change over the course of the book? How does her uncle play into this change? The book can be found on the library website as a book, an audiobook, or on Overdrive or Libby. The book club will be held Saturday, February 13th at 2:00 pm. This event will be online: Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/98103476634?pwd=TkRIbjlETURnR3dXNElDM3lKUG8wUT09 Please email [email protected] with any questions! For more amazing books by Black authors see this list. by Christine, Chapman Branch Did you know that not every box is the same? Not only are the books different (hand-picked recommendations just for you), but the rest of the box’s contents are too. We want to see your boxes! Share your unboxing videos and pictures by tagging The Library @slcpl, or submit them on the teen submission page and we’ll post them.
Watch our social media for reminders of Lit Loot signups, and on February 6 you can access signups through the Teen Page on our website. If you are wondering what a Lit Loot box is, basically it’s a Mystery Box for teens in grades 7-12. Each Lit Loot box comes full of treats, surprises, and a library book picked out just for you. You get to keep the treats and the surprises inside, but you must return the book and the box. Each library book is checked out on your library card, and to be eligible for future Lit Loot boxes you must return the box to a City Library location. We can't wait to see the pictures and videos of your Lit Loot swag! by Stephanie C, Main Library Way back in December we announced a new reading incentive program called 100 Books Before Graduation. If you missed that post, here's a brief recap: 100 Books Before Graduation is a new reading program where students in grades 4-12 can log their reading and get prizes. The City Library has done reading programs in the summer for years, but each year we get requests for reading programs that can be done during the rest of the year or anytime. The 100 Books program challenges you to read 100 books for fun, outside of school, before you graduate high school. 100 Books might sound like a lot, so that's why students can start this program as early as 4th grade. Some of you may finish early and decide to keep reading for more prizes, others will stretch the 100 books across the whole nine years. Each of you who participate will move at your own pace, but for every 10 books your complete you can get a prize from the library. So, how do you sign up? Starting tomorrow (January 23rd) you can begin this program. You can either stop by any library branch and ask for a 100 Books Before Graduation tracker, or log into Beanstack (our reading tracker) and sign-up there to log your progress digitally. A few important points:
Here are just a few of the prizes you will be able to get as you reach each 10-book milestone: There are over 10 different books to choose from for prize #5! Other prizes include candy, earbuds, reusable straws, enamel pins, book lights, and more! If you have any questions about the program you can submit them here on our Contact page, or call the library at 801-594-8200. *For younger students we have the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and 200 Books Before 4th programs.
Kamryn, Sweet Teen Squad My name is Kamryn, and for my project with the Sweet Branch Teen Squad I am doing a book club once a month! For January we will be discussing the book Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich! It is such an amazing book, and I am so excited to read this book with you guys! Dear Evan Hansen is about a kid named Evan becoming popular after his best friend Connor Murphy dies, but the big thing is that Evan never knew who Connor was before he died.
This book is based on a musical so you should go listen to that if you want. There is a ton of talk of suicide, depression, and drug use so if anything of those things is triggering to you this book may not be right for you. A couple of questions that I will be asking are:
The January book club will be held Saturday, January 9th at 2:00 pm. This event will be online: Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/98103476634?pwd=TkRIbjlETURnR3dXNElDM3lKUG8wUT09 |
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