Library holds Teen Read Week

Jill Shufult's favorite poet is Shel Silverstein, but after reading selections to her friends last year she said she will have to find something different for Friday.

The Eagle Valley Middle School seventh-grader will be one of several students who will help transform the Carson City Library into a funky coffee house for the night as part of national Teen Read Week. This is the third year "Expresso Yourself" will be held.

Coffee, sodas and snacks will be on hand to add to the ambiance of the night that starts at 6:30 p.m. at the library, 900 N. Roop St.

Jill, 12, loves to read books, especially ones from the Harry Potter and "Song of the Lioness" series. She also likes to hang out with other teens who like books, so she can talk about them.

She said she couldn't wait to go to pizza night at the library a year ago. Since then, the pizza nights turned into an organized Youth Advisory Board that named itself the "Chinese Dragons." Jill is now secretary and says the group helps her meet other friends who love books.

"We kept meeting and doing the same things and it was fun," Jill said. "I like books a lot and I've always been interested in them, ever since I can remember."

The library holds the event to draw teens into reading, said Youth Librarian Cory King.

"It's a week that we use to just promote the library to teens and to let them know what we have here," King said.

The first year, more than 30 teens read poetry for 21U2 hours. The teens read their own works or published poetry.

"It was really fantastic," King said.

The library's teen advisory board has been promoting the poetry reading night among friends and at school. Anyone in middle and high school is invited.

A costume party will also be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the library. Teens are encouraged to dress up as a character from a book.

"It's more or less a Halloween party," King said. "It's also set up so that everybody who dresses up as a character will be promoting the book they got the character from."

King will go around the party and talk about each character, he said.

The goal of the library's youth services is to boost interest in the youth collection and get more teens to check out the section. The most popular books among the age group are fantasy and science fiction, King said.

"Our teen collection is used pretty well," he said.

Some of the latest popular titles available at the library are: "Postcards from No Man's Land," by Aiden Chambers, "Hole in My Life," by Jack Gantos, "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood," by Ann Brashares, "Abhorsen," by Garth Nix, and "Getting the Girl," by Markus Zusak.

Teen Read Week is nationally recognized and promoted by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.

For information, call 887-2244, ext. 1004.