Go on, admit. You read for fun.  We all do. It’s something to do on the bus ride, while you’re waiting on Mom/Dad or a thousand other things. We’re not talking about homework here. This is just sitting down and cracking open a book and immersing yourself in a good story. YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) is encouraging teens to read something out of this world with Teen Read Week from October 18-24. This year’s theme is “Read Beyond Reality @ your local library.”

Check out your local branch to see what’s planned for the week. Events range from a bookmark contest, a book review and drawing, “Weird Jeopardy” and more. There should be something for everyone. If that’s not your speed, just pick up a book and read something that you’ve never read before. Stretch yourself, have some fun!

And you can drop a comment below about the books you’ve read. It could be your favorite book of all time. Or one that REALLY sucked. Either way, you’ll be sharing your ideas with others and helping them to read for the fun of it.

See you at the library!

Do you want to build your own home library? Do you sometimes want to share books with friends? Want to avoid worrying about due dates and fines? Have I got a deal for you! Secondhand Prose, the Library’s book sale is a great place to rummage around and find great treasures and bargains. You’ll find all sorts of titles and subjects that are donated or discards from the library’s collection. Teen hardbacks are $1.00, paperbacks $ .50. The book sales are at the Library Services Center, 2450 North Meridian Street. The next one opens on Friday, November 13th, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, for members of Friends of the Library. If you’re not a Friends member, or once you have the book sale bug, try Saturday, November 14, 10-5pm, Sunday November 15, 12-4 pm.  Friday November 20, 12-7:30 is half price day and Saturday, November 21, 10-4 pm is $5 a bag day.

 Want to join a book club that goes beyond reality? The Pass the Book program @ IMCPL is just for you! It’s easy to do and you don’t need anything to participate. 

The event will kick off this Friday October 2nd at the First Friday Event at Central Library. After Friday you can get a special Pass-the-Book copy at your local IMCPL branch or–starting October 5th–at five Indianapolis schools. 

When you get your copy you log it in at www.imcpl.org/pass , read it, and pass it on to a friend. When you log and pass the miles traveled will be “logged” and you can see where the book you had has traveled and what other readers thought about it. 

The books are all by John Green, an Indianapolis native. The three titles; An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Looking for Alaska. All three books are hilarious, quirky and wildly entertaining. Once you read one you’ll want to read the other two.

REMEMBER: The books that you’ll pass around, once the program starts on Friday, will be specially prepared paperbacks, NOT the copies that you can request off this blog page.

Protect your first amendment rights! This week, September 26th-October 3rd is Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week was founded in 1982 by the American Library Association as a way to celebrate the freedom of expression of the written word. Banning books can be very dangerous because it limit’s a diversity of opinion. If everyone read the same thing then humans would not formulate new ideas that can lead to innovations in social, civil, arts, and political spheres.

A few frequently challenged books are The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the Harry Potter series, Forever by Judy Blume, and the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. Some of the reasons these books were challenged were for being unsuitable for age group, anti-family, occultism, and sexual content. Check out the list at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

Here are some challenged teen books you can find at IMCPL:

Forever by Judy Blume

 Katie, an IMCPL patron,  had this to say about Forever:

this book is a very good book! i loved it!!! it has a lot of good advice in it and it it will grab your attention when u first start reading it!!! Judy BL\lume is one of my favorite authors too………i really enjoy her books! if u like her too then i recommend u read this book!
 

TTYL by Lauren Myracle

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories by Chris Crutcher

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

When you hear the word Giant do you think of the Green Giant (the vegetable guy) or the Incredible Hulk (the green man)?  But did you know that you can be a Giant by reading to young kids (5th grade and younger)?

The 2 kinds of Reading Giants that Indianapolis Marion County Public Library has are Junior (Jr.) Reading Giants for Grades 6-8 and Reading Giants for Grades 9-12.  Jr. Reading Giants can earn up to 200 points for 1 hour of volunteer time while Reading Giants can earn up to 400 points for 2 hours of volunteer time.

After each participant completes their points they will need to fill out an application and write an essay due on Saturday August 8th.  Jr. Reading Giants write a 50 word essay with a chance to be one of the 175 lucky winners of a $25 gift card while the Reading Giants write a 100 word essay with a chance to be one of the 75 lucky winners of $ 45 gift card.

Please visit your local Branch to find out more information or to register.

2009 Summer Reading Program       News about the 2008 Summer Reading Program