After a brief absence due to technical difficulties, our booklists are back in a slightly different form. Currently they're not linked to our catalog. But they will be--eventually. Each link below opens up a PDF of the printed lists kept in the Teen Center at the Central Library. Thanks for being patient, and we hope you find plenty of great reading here. Feel free to stop in or send us an email if you have any questions.

We're back! Time to come in and return that mound of books, CDs, DVDs and other random materials that you stockpiled, hibernating bear-like, in order to survive our week-long closure. As always, there is an abundance of intellectually stimulating and emotionally gratifying material to be had at the library. There's even a new art display: digital artwork created by Sage Hill School students will grace our walls through the month of January. So swing by, stay for a bit, and check out the new books, the old books, and everything else in the building just waiting for you to discover it. Hope to see you soon.

It's been another great year working with our teen customers, their parents, teachers and other assorted adults. Thank you to all of you for your support of the library and for making it such a vibrant place. On behalf of all the staff we wish you a fun holiday season: sleep in, eat dessert, read for hours in your pajamas, while away the days with friends, music, movies.

The library will be closed from 1pm on December 24th through January 1st. It will re-open at 9am on Saturday, January 2nd. However, our website and databases will be available during the closure. For a little more information on this closure visit our homepage.

Since we always aim to take excellent care of our customers, here are some links to keep you from going into library-withdrawal:

My iLibrary free downloadable book service

YALSA Booklists (lists and awards for print and audio books from the Young Adult Library Services Association)

Overdrive free downloadable book service

NBPL Teens Facebook Page - Check out the Discussions tab. We would really appreciate your input about the services you need most from the library.

So there it is. Enjoy the holiday break and come see us, soon, in the new year!

New Teen Center fiction titles have arrived just in time for the holidays. Around this time of the year a break from required reading can be welcome. So, without further ado,  here are some books to help rekindle the love of reading.

Hate List, by Jennifer Brown

The Vast Fields of Ordinary, by Nick Burd

Stealing Death, by Janet Lee Carey

Give up the Ghost, by Megan Crewe

Betraying Season, by Marissa Doyle

Ice, by Sarah Beth Durst

After, by Amy Efaw

Hush Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick

After the Moment, by Garret Freymann-Weyr

Sphinx's Princess, by Esther Friesner

Crossing Stones, by Helen Frost

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Splendor, by Anna Godbersen

The Orange Houses, by Paul Griffin

Hazel, by Julie Hearn

Breathing, by Cheryl Renee Herbsman

Soulstice, by Simon Holt

Crocodile Tears: An Alex Rider Adventure, by Anthony Horowitz

Eli the Good, by Silas House

Ash, by Malinda Lo

The Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon--and Me, Ruby Oliver, by E. Lockhart

Flash Burnout, by L.K. Madigan

Hamlet, by John Marsden

The Real Real, by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Krauss

Front and Center, by  Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Ask and the Answer, by Patrick Ness

Shadowland, by Alyson Noel

Witch and Wizard, by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet

Punkzilla, by Adam Rapp

Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?, by Louise Rennison

Dark Calling, by Darren Shan

Nothing Like You, by Lauren Strasnick

Kiss of Life, by Daniel Waters

The Monstrumologist: William James Henry, by Rick Yancey

Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have, by Allen Zadoff

Once Was Lost, by Sara Zarr

Prophecy of the Sisters, by Michelle Zink

That's right. NBPL Teens now has its own Facebook Page. Come on over, become a Fan, and get in touch with your fellow library users. We'll be posting events; photos; book, music and movie discussions; new materials; reviews and more but we need you to make it a real online community. You can recommend a book or check out our YAAC videos. Find out about upcoming events like Lisi Harrison (Saturday, November 14th). Connect with other readers or send the library staff a note.

Click the link in this post to get to our Page. Or, scroll down to see the teen-designed reader-surfer yaac--he'll take you to our Page too.

Teen Read Week is all about  reading for the fun of it. It's also the time of year when the Teens Top Ten is announced. Teen book groups across the country chose their 25 favorite fiction titles of 2008. Then teens voted online for their favorites from the nominated titles.

So without further ado, we present to you the winners of the Teens Top Ten nominations (all available at NBPL)!

1.  Paper Towns by John Green
2.  Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
3.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4.  City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
5.  Identical by Ellen Hopkins
6.  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
7.  Wake by Lisa McMann
8.  Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
9.  The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
10.Graceling by Kristin Cashore

For more information, check out the home site of the Teens Top Ten. 'Paper Towns' author John Green makes a special appearance.

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) takes a week in October to shine the light on reading for the fun of it. No required reading, no assigned texts to be used in an essay later. Just whatever book, comic, audio book, magazine or other reading material you feel like exploring. This year Teen Read Week is October 18-24. To celebrate, come to the library and choose from thousands of fantastic stories.

And don't forget to watch for the winners of the Teens Top Ten nominations. Teen book groups across the country chose their 25 favorite fiction titles of 2008. Then teens voted online for their favorites from the nominated titles. The ten titles with the most votes will be announced to kick off Teen Read Week on October 18th.

For a complete list of all the nominated titles, click here.

Banned Books Week is September 26-October 3, 2009.

What is Banned Books Week? What do we mean by 'banned' books? Are they bad books, dangerous books, wrong books?

What do you think?

Take a look at a list of some books that have been challenged--that means that their right to be in a library collection has been questioned or challenged. Which means that the right and ability of readers (adults, kids, teens) to access those books has been challenged.

Is this an issue of freedom?

If a book or movie offends one person's set of beliefs, should the rest of the community be denied the use of the book or movie?

How does being denied access to reading and viewing materials affect our ability to think critically about the world we live in?

It's that time of year again. No, not baktuhskool! It's Teen Top Ten voting time. The YALSA-sponsored list of 25 nominated books was compiled from teen reading groups' submissions of their favorite books. Now it's time for all teens nationwide to vote for their ten favorites.

Nominated titles include Wake, Graceling, Truancy, Untamed, Runemarks, The Disreputbale History of Frankie-Landau Banks, Breaking Dawn, and more.

Go to the Teens Top Ten page to see all the nominated titles and then vote for your favorite. Voting continues through September 18th. Read, vote, repeat!

Then, stay tuned for Teen Read Week, October 18-24, when the winners will be announced.

Congratulations to all the winners of  the Teen Summer Reading Program  Grand Prize Drawing and Art Contest! Drawing and choosing winners is always tough for us librarians because really we want everyone to win (it's true!). But we hope that everyone had fun reading and creating this summer and that you'll all keep up the great individuality (you make our job fun).

Our Art Contest First Place winner this year was Jasmine O'Hea. She won with her poem, 'Cottage of Colors.'  Read her winning poem by clicking this link. To see all the contest submissions stop by the Teen Center at the Central Library.

While you're there, you can submit a book review for a chance to win a $10 Regal Cinemas gift card in our monthly teen book review drawing. Hope to see you soon!

Yikes!Less than two weeks are left in the Teen Summer Reading Program. There are still prizes to be won though, including two more weekly drawings, the Grand Prize of tickets to Disneyland, gift cards to Best Buy, and a gift certificate to Sterling Art for the winner of the Art Contest. So if you haven't turned in a review lately or if you haven't turned in your artwork for the 'Express Yourself' art contest, now is the time to go for it. TSRP ends Friday, August 14th.

But wait, there's more! After TSRP is over, look for the Teen Book Review Raffle. Submit book reviews for Library books and be entered into a monthly drawing for gift cards to places like Regal Cinemas, Starbucks, Barnes&Noble, and more. Information on how to participate will be posted on this site after August 17th.

Thanks to everyone who made our three Mail Art Workshops so much fun. In the true spirit of mail art, we'll be sending our gorgeously original, imaginative art to our partner library for this program, the Hoopa Branch of the Humboldt County Library system. Art pieces include drawings, decorative envelopes, origami and, a big hit with librarians and kids alike, sun prints. Sun prints are made on special paper using sunlight to imprint shapes onto the paper. Once dry, the paper turns a deep shade of blue while the silhouettes of the original objects remain a light shade of blue-white. Sun print paper can then be decorated with glitter-glue pens, paint, colored pencil or anything else that sticks.

Selections of artwork from the three workshops are currently on display at the Central Library Teen Center. They'll be there until the first week of August at which time they'll be sent to our partner library. In exchange, the Hoopa Branch will send us artwork that we'll display through the end of the summer. Stop by and view the creations; they're sure to make you feel happy.

The Teen Summer Reading Program is finally here!

***shouts of joy and wild applause as pandemonium breaks out***

Those of you who love to read but sometimes have to spend lots of time doing other stuff (school? work? schoolwork?) know the sheer bliss of two and a half months of reading whatever you choose. And with the Teen Summer Reading Program there are even rewards to be had for all this unfettered fun. After you sign up for the program and read your first five books you win a free paperback. Each review you turn in is also an entry form for a weekly prize drawing--of which there will be eight, so keep on reading throughout the summer. And at the end of the summer all the reviews you turned in will go back into the running for the grand prize drawing.

This year's Grand Prize is a pair of one-day Disneyland park-hopper tickets. There are also second and third grand prizes of Best Buy gift cards. And the YAAC is once again sponsoring the Art Contest. The winning submission will be a piece of art in any medium reflecting the theme 'Express Yourself at Your Library' and the prize will be a $25 gift certificate to an artist's paradise: Sterling Art Supply in Irvine.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up at any NBPL location or use the online form. After registering you'll find a link for printable review forms (also on the main menu links of this page). If you do sign up online remember to go to the branch you chose on the form for your registration packet and prize. You can stop by any time before August 14th.

If you need a repeat of the program details, check out the TSRP brochure.

Finally, don't forget to check out the upcoming Mail Art event. It's interesting, promise.