Best 2008 Teen Read Week™ Celebration Contest

The 2008 Teen Read Week contest honors a librarian for planning a collaborative celebration that involves at least one teacher and one librarian working together to use young adult literature in an engaging way and leads teen to “read for the fun of it.”

YALSA and AdLit.org honored celebrations that articulate the theme, incorporate youth participation, are creative and are age appropriate.

The Winners

• Jennifer Velasquez and Loretta Medellin for the Zombie Prom at the San Antonio Public Library.
• Kim Dillon and Barbara Samojedny for Books with Bite Week and ChopperFest at Washougal (Wash.) High School Library

Velasquez and Medellin's collaboration began with planning a zombie-themed event, in keeping with the Books with Bite theme. Students in a high school art class researched zombies at the public library and then created promotional buttons and artwork to transform the library's teen services area into a macabre prom scene. Makeup artists helped turn teens into zombies for the event, where they "devoured" books.

At Washougal, Dillon planned a full week of events, including daily prizes for getting caught reading, a Twilight discussion group, a movie night, a gaming night and a bingo game. The highlight of the week was an oral health presentation called ChopperFest, which Dillon planned with Samojedny and five other teachers. They presented lessons on the human body's integumentary system, with more than 200 students attending an oral health presentation by a dentist, with photos of real-life dental problems, as well as discussion of better oral hygiene.

Both won author visits: Velasquez and her library will host Kimberly Pauley, author of Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire. (Maybe.) Dillon's library will host Geno Salvatore, co-author of Stowaway, who will also run a Dungeons & Dragons game with teens in Washougal.

Honorable Mention

Five libraries won honorable mention and will receive a promotional pack from AdLit.org and YALSA.

• Cheryl Clark and Lora Brooks, Ardmore (Okla.) High School
• Natalie Houston and Barbara Lipovics, Leesburg (Fla.) Public Library/Oak Park Middle School
• Matt Rosendahl and Joni Jensen, Milltown (Wisc.) Public Library and Unity Schools, Balsam Lake, Wisc.
• Janet Warden and Heather Dotts, Claymont High School Library, Uhrichsville, Ohio
• Teresa Diaz and Tiffany Klepper-Vasquez, Eisenhower Middle School Library, San Antonio, Texas

About YALSA

The Young Adult Library Services Association's (YALSA) mission is to advocate, promote and strengthen library services to young adults. For more than 50 years YALSA has been the world leader in selecting recommended reading, listening and viewing for teens. Visit. www.ala.org/yalsa.

About AdLit.org

AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers. AdLit.org is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital, and is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and by the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation.

About Mirrorstone Books

Since launching in 2004, Mirrorstone has offered a wide array of fantasy fiction for children and young adults. Titles include The New York Times best-selling A Practical Guide to Dragons and A Practical Guide to Monsters (both selected as YALSA Quick Picks for Young Readers), the Hallowmere series (A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens) and the anthology for teens, Magic in the Mirrorstone. Mirrorstone is dedicated to turning reluctant readers in to lifelong readers. For more information, or to download teaching tools, visit Mirrorstonebooks.com.