Fort Bend County Libraries is joining the American Library Association in celebrating the Second Annual Teen Read Week, now through this Saturday.
The week gives special recognition to the county’s growing teen population and their role in establishing new library programs and services reflecting the changing literary dimensions of this new population.
The rapid growth in the teen reader population around the country is reflected in the rising number of young adult programs and book collections at Fort Bend County Libraries. Teen Advisory Councils throughout the library system are making an impact by suggesting library programs and popular books and authors they would like to have included in the young adult area of the library.
Teen programs at Fort Bend County Libraries range from book clubs and DDR tournaments to knitting circles, cake-decorating classes and Guitar Hero challenges. Game nights and movie nights are also popular activities.
Some of the programs planned by the library system for Teen Read Week include:
- Cinco Ranch Branch, 2620 Commercial Center Boulevard, Katy, will present a Teen Café beginning today at 3 p.m.
- Albert George Branch, 9230 Gene Street in Needville, will present a Teen Celebration beginning today at 6 p.m.
- Missouri City Branch, 1530 Texas Parkway, will present a Fall Festival tomorrow beginning at 4:30 p.m.
- Sugar Land Branch, 550 Eldridge, will present a Guitar Hero challenge tomorrow beginning at 6 p.m.
- George Memorial Library, 1001 Golfview in Richmond, will present a program on Urban Legends on Thursday, Oct. 22, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
“The popularity of the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’ series whetted the appetites of young readers, and now that they have discovered that reading can actually be fun; they are chomping at the bit to see what else is out there that is new and exciting to read,” said Susan King, youth services coordinator at Fort Bend County Libraries.
While this technologically-savvy generation of “millenials” – the 10- to 20-year-old population that is second in size only to the Baby Boomers – seems to be embracing literature, literacy continues to be a topic of national concern, and falling test scores and lower graduation rates among teens today are a serious issue. Writers and publishing companies are being challenged to generate increasingly-sophisticated materials for this age group to retain their interest and anticipate future trends, library officials pointed out.
Rather than falling by the wayside in an increasingly electronic world, books are being integrated into the entertainment industry, as the stories segue into television series, movies, videogames, cartoons and the Internet. Some authors are even creating MySpace pages for themselves and their books, encouraging more interactivity between themselves and their audience and amongst the teens, as well.
Additionally, teen reading now extends across a variety of formats, from magazines and newspapers to blogs, graphic novels and audio books.
Teen Read Week is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association, the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association.
Do we still spend more on Libraries than we do on roads?
Good luck with this Susan!