0 Comments
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 Anagha, Day-Riverside Teen Squad Hello everyone. My name is Anagha Rao and I was a participant in Teen Squad 2020. At first, I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t even think I would get in. I applied for the Day-Riverside branch just because I wanted a productive way to spend my time this summer. However, I ended up learning numerous useful skills that I use everyday. In Teen Squad, we had the opportunity to create a library-related project of our choice to make the library better. At first, I didn't have any ideas, and it felt intimidating to initiative a project. But, I received tons of support from the librarians and my Teen Squad group during our regular Zoom meetings to discuss ideas and make friends. The project I chose was a 30-day fitness challenge to help encourage people to stay active during the pandemic. I began by preparing the materials and planning out the logistics of the program (how many days it would last, how would people complete it, etc.) Since many of the libraries were closed, I had to find creative solutions to making sure that the challenge was virtual. I found that the library’s BiblioBoard was a great way to market my project to the public and encourage people to participate. I also learned a lot about working digitally and using different software like Zoom, Google Forms, and many more. The amazing thing about Teen Squad is that I was able to commit 2 hours a week or 10 hours a week, depending on my schedule. This is why Teen Squad is a great summer activity, even if you have other extracurriculars going on. Another skill I learned was presenting. At the end of the program, we presented our projects to the other participants. But don’t be intimidated by that! As long as I prepared once, it was easy to share my ideas, and everyone in Teen Squad was very supportive. I was inspired to hear about all the different projects teens in Utah have created in order to make the library a better place. My Teen Squad project was the Step Up Challenge. It is a 30-day fitness challenge to encourage teens to stay active during the pandemic. If you want to participate in the basic challenge, you would log any fitness activity everyday either by steps, time spent exercising, or distance walked. There is also an additional Bingo challenge where teens can challenge themselves to try different types of activities to stay healthy. Every time you complete a challenge, you cross it off and try to get a Bingo or a blackout. Lastly, there is a Healthy Habits challenge that encourages teens to practice other healthy habits such as eating fruits and vegetables or staying away from screens. In order to participate, you must go onto the library’s BiblioBoard and print out the packet. At the end, it was an incredible accomplishment to have started your very own library-related project, and I was happy that I took that step to apply. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about applying to give it a shot because it is an incredibly rewarding experience.
by Amrita, Anderson-Foothill Teen Squad We've put together a booklist of books for activism! These book categories contain various topics that aren't very popular in young adult book sections, so we're giving them a spotlight. Each category has two sub sections, one for non-fiction and one for fiction, so there should be something for everyone. Hope you like it! Many of these titles are available to check out from The City Library. Search our catalog here. And click here for a printable version of the booklist. |
AuthorsBlog posts are written by our Teen Librarians and, in some cases, teens like you. Visit your About page to learn more about our Teen Librarians. Archives
August 2023
Categories
All
|