READERGIRLZ ROAR FOR BANNED BOOKS WEEK

Adult/Teen Librarian Danielle Dreger-Babbitt from Mill Creek Library WA is here to Roar with readergirlz for Banned Books Week
Welcome Danielle.

Tell us about Banned Books Week
Banned Book Week was started 32 years ago to celebrate the freedom to read after more and more books were being challenged in libraries and schools. According to the American Librarian Association, over 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. Over 200 of them happened in 2013! You can learn more about Banned Book Week on the ALA website.

What do you do to spread the word about Banned Books Week and Intellectual Freedom Issues?
I do a banned book display each year.  My favorite displays are the ones I did in 2011 when library patrons wrote about their favorite banned books and the 2012 display that took up a whole shelving unit. I love being able to showcase these banned and challenged books.

 

Along with each year’s display, I include Banned Book lists and pamphlets as well as bookmarks and buttons for library customers to take home. We’ve had essay contests where readers write about their favorite challenged or banned books and win copies of banned books. When I visit the middle schools to talk about books in the fall I often bring along books that have been challenged from other parts of the country and have the students guess why they might be banned or challenged.

Readers Roar: (Let’s hear what teens have to say about banned books)

“If people read the books before they banned them, they might have a better understanding of why the book is important. If you ban a book, it only makes me want to read it more.”- Jessica, Grade 11

 

Any Banned Books you would like to highlight?
Some of my favorite banned and challenged books include Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Shine and TTYL by Lauren Myracle, and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  And my absolute favorite banned/ challenged book is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Most teens are amazed to hear that it has been taken out of some schools and libraries!

What can readergirlz do to celebrate Banned Books Week?
Check out the activities on the BannedBooksSite . Readergirlz can celebrate their freedom to read by reading one or two banned or challenged books during Banned Book Week. Bonus points for reading these all year long, not just in September and for sharing these titles with their friends and family.

 

More ideas from readergirlz diva Janet Lee Carey: Grab your favorite Banned Book and RIP = Read in Public. Do a selfie while reading your favorite banned book and post it on your favorite social networks. Use twitter hashtag #BannedBooksWeek and @readergirlz when you post on twitter.

Use the site Support Banned Books Week  to add a temporary banner below your profile photo. Divas Janet Lee Carey and Justina Chen's photos:  

 

ONE LAST BIG ROAR from guest poster, Danielle
The best way to support libraries is to use them! Check out books and DVDs and CDs, use the databases to find information, and attend as many library programs and events as your schedule allows. By doing these, you are showing us that you think libraries are important. There are many ways to give back to your library. Consider becoming a volunteer or join the library board or Friend’s Group.  Teens can join the library’s Teen Advisory Board and help make decisions about future library programs and purchases. You can also donate books to the library for the Friends of Library Book Sale. The money from these sales supports library programs and special events!

About Danielle Dreger-Babbitt
I’ve been a teen librarian for over 10 years and have worked in libraries in Massachusetts and Washington. I’ve been an Adult/ Teen Librarian at the Mill Creek Library for over 5 ½ years. I’ve been active in ALA’s YALSA   (Young Adult Library Services Association) for the last decade and have served on committees including Outreach to Teens With Special Needs, The Schneider Family Book Award, and most recently The Alex Awards, for which I was the 2014 committee chair.

In my spare time I write for children and teens. I love to read YA and MG fiction and cooking memoirs/ cookbooks. I own two cats and two badly behaved (but adorable) dogs. I also love to travel and recently visited Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

Let’s Link:
Sno-Isle Teen Blog 

Thanks again for the terrific Banned Books post for readergirlz, Danielle!

Films Now, Books First

What are your favorite book-to-film adaptations? Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Book Thief? Anxious for the movie version of Divergent? Can't wait to see the next installment of The Hobbit? Leave a comment at Allie's latest Teens Wanna Know article!
 

http://teenswannaknow.com/films-now-books-first/

The Healthy Hunger Games

In a recent interview with Seventeen, Jennifer Lawrence had this to say about being healthy in mind and body:

Seventeen: You've said girls should embrace their curves. Why did you think it important to make that statement?

Jennifer Lawrence: When I was playing Mystique in X-Men, I remember thinking, If I'm going to be naked in paint in front of the entire world, I'm going to look like a woman. I'm going to have curves and have boobs and have a butt. Because girls are going to look at that, and if I look like a scarecrow, they are going to think, Oh, that's normal. It's not normal. I'm just so sick of these young girls with diets. I remember when I was 13 and it was cool to pretend to have an eating disorder because there were rumors that Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie were anorexic. I thought it was crazy. I went home and told my mom, "Nobody's eating bread--I just had to finish everyone's burgers." I think it's really important for girls to have people to look up to and feel good about themselves.

I agree with Jennifer: It is very important for kids and teens to have good role models, and to have healthy eating habits. Encourage your friends and family members to eat right, and lead by example. Try to eat fresh food in every color of the rainbow, every day. It's easy and fun to do. Hint: Incorporate fruits and veggies into your meals and snacks!

I'm typing this as I eat my dinner -- farfalle (bowtie) pasta and brown rice mixed with tomato sauce and green peas. Yum!

Rock the Drop: Photo Op!

Thanks to The Novel Affair for Rocking the Drop!


Marisa dropped The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on a park bench in San Diego, CA. "We hope that whoever finds it loves it. We hope to start a fire for YA in someone’s heart!"

Rock the Drop: Photo Op!

"Okay, readergirlz, that was a BLAST! Left mine in a plaza and a coffee house frequented by the after school crowd." --Tamara Ireland Stone

Rock the Drop: Photo Op!

Katniss in the beauty aisle! Thanks, Amanda!

I left a copy of The Hunger Games at my local CVS pharmacy. I'm really hoping someone picks it up! It's a great read. --Amanda Worthington

True Grit: What do you think of star Hailee Steinfeld?

Our featured book this week is True Grit by Charles Portis.

The new movie (who's seen it) drew attention to this classic title, and some say star Hailee Steinfeld would have been the perfect Katniss in the Hunger Games films. (The honor went to Jennifer Lawrence last week.)

Did you guys see the movie? What did you think of Hailee as a kick-butt leading woman?

rgz SALON: Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, reviewed by Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl speaks about the pleasures of reading to library and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. She's the author of Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest; Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; and More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, all published by Sasquatch books. Plus, she has her own librarian action figure. How cool is that?!

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's Nancy!

Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins' first novel, is one of my all-time
 favorite fantasies. A brave eleven-year-old hero, page-turning adventures, moral dilemmas, and a super ending made it a perfect book for middle-grade 
readers. Now, in The Hunger Games (the first volume of an intended trilogy), Collins has written a remarkable and thought provoking novel for teens about the oppression and dehumanization of its citizens by an all-powerful central government, evoking George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. At the same time, it’s an impossible-to-put-down action-adventure-romance story. Panem is a wealthy and powerful city in post-apocalyptic North America; it’s surrounded by twelve outlying, poverty stricken districts that serve, in effect, as colonies providing the resources needed to maintain the capitol’s wealth. Sometime in the past the districts attempted a rebellion, which Panem brutally put down. As a reminder to the districts of their powerlessness, the Capitol requires each one to choose, by lot, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the annual Hunger Games, the ultimate TV game show, a fight to the death on live TV, in which the last contestant alive wins fame and fortune. The Games are treated as a huge celebration in the Capitol, with pre-game up-close-and-personal interviews of each “Tribute,” betting on, and opportunities to send aid to, one’s favorites, and round the clock watch parties. The story is told in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who we get to know and care about deeply during the course of the novel. When her beloved 12-year-old sister, Prim, is chosen by lot to be the girl tribute from district 12 (formerly know as Appalachia), Katniss bravely, and to the astonishment of all (but within the rules of the game), volunteers to take her place, and sets off on the most dangerous, and exciting, “adventure” of her life. And the reader gets to accompany her every step of the way. One of the things I found so remarkable (and disorienting and disturbing) about this book is the way it was able to pull me, emotionally, into the excitement of the celebration and the adventure of the game itself, almost as if I were experiencing it as a wealthy citizen of the Capitol, even though I knew, intellectually, that what I was reading about was a government forcing children to kill other children. The Hunger Games, surely destined to be a classic of teen literature, is a superb choice for book discussion groups of all ages.