Write! Create! Get Published!

Now is your chance to see yourself in print! Artists and authors in 6th through 12th grades are encouraged to submit items for publication in Renton Library’s new Teen Magazine!**

Send your submissions* (including original poems, stories, artwork, song lyrics, reviews, comic strips, personal ponderings, and more) to the Young Adult Librarian or turn them in at the Children's Desk or Information Desk!

*Submissions should include your name, grade, and contact phone number or e-mail address.

**We're also looking for a title for our Literary Mag. If you have ideas for a creative or catchy title, e-mail them to the Young Adult Librarian.

The 2010 Book Award Winners are Announced!

The American Library Association has announced the winners of the 2010 book awards for kids and teens. Here are the results for Young Adult books. Check one out today!

YALSA Printz Award Winner

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure..

Printz Honor Books

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes

Newbery Medal Winner

When You Reach Me, written by Rebecca Stead

As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

Newbery Honor Books

Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

2010 Morris Award (honoring a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens)

Flash Burnout written by L.K. Madigan
In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, 15-year-old Blake emerges with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself.

Teen Tuesdays

The last Tuesday of every month is "teen Tuesday" at the Highlands library! Middle and high schoolers can stop by for fun stuff like video games, movies, art, contests, prizes, and always free snacks!

Q: Why have teen Tuesdays?
A: For fun! Teen Tuesdays are a chance for teens to hang out, bring friends, get free stuff, and find out what kind of cool stuff your library offers.

Q: Who can come?
A: Anyone! Any teen middle or high school-aged (even if you go to school somewhere else or are homeschooled) is welcome, so bring your friends!

Q: What do you do?
A: Different things each month, but in the past we have played video games, watched anime movies, made cool art projects out of duct tape and dye, and just hung out. Oh, yeah, and there are always free snacks and prizes just for stopping by!

Upcoming Teen Tuesdays:
Tuesday, January 26, 3-4:30 p.m.
Video games! Stop by for Guitar Hero, DDR, SingStar (pop), and maybe a surprise game or two. Oh, yeah, and chocolate bingo.

Tuesday, February 23, 3-4:30 p.m.
Anime club! We will watch Japanese anime-style cartoons (rated TVPG), fold origami, draw manga, and eat real Japanese snacks and treats (they're tasty).

Questions about teen Tuesday? Email kbaker@rentonwa.gov. See you there!

Readergirlz' Latest Live Chat

Tonight, Wednesday, January 6th begining at 6 PM PST, chat live with Young Adult author Beth Kephart, author of Nothing But Ghosts at the readergirlz blog!

THEN.....on January 20th, at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, you can chat live with E. Lockhart, author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and several other great young adult books. That will also be on the Readergirlz blog.

Read to Vote!

Voting is a great way to express your opinion. You may not be quite ready to vote in an election just yet, but there are still opportunities out there for you to express your opinion. Every year, the Pacific Northwest Library Association provides an opportunity for you to vote on your favorite book from a list of nominated titles. Although the voting doesn't start until March, there's no time like the present to get start reading the nominees.

Read at least two books in your grade category, and then vote for your favorite title between March 15th and April 15, 2010. You may have even read some of them already.!

This year's nominees are:
Junior Division (Grades 4 to 6)The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal by Jeff Kinney
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Igraine the Brave – Cornelia Funke
Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Marley: a Dog Like No Other by John Grogan
Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
No Talking – Andrew Clements

Middle Division (Grades 7 to 9)
Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Zen And The Art Of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick
Peak- by Roland Smith
Plain Janes by Cecil Castelucci
Schooled by Gordon Korman
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landry

Senior Division (Grades 10 to 12)
Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney
Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Drop in at the Library This Saturday for Game Days!

OK....you've been sitting around like a slug over the holiday break, haven't you? Well, here's your chance to get moving and have some fun. Stop by the Renton Downtown branch this Saturday, January 2nd for Game Days from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. We'll have Dance Dance Revolution, High School Musical karaoke, Guitar Hero, and board games. Come on, it's time to get off the couch and work off some steam at the library. Oh, and maybe check out a book or audiobook too.

Teen Tuesdays Go Big

Sure, winter break is great...but what about that slow week after Christmas? Stop by the Highlands Library Tuesday the 29th for a Bigger & Better Winter Break Teen Tuesday!


Make your friends stars with your own cartoons. Make expansive art. Eat Bigger & Better holiday treats! Play SingStar, DDR, and Guitar Hero and take home free stuff!!


Teen Tuesdays are the last Tuesday of every month, 3-4:30 at the Highlands Library, and are always for teens only.
(image is courtesy of freeimages.co.uk)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It's the day of the Reaping, an annual ritual in Panem, a futuristic world where hunger and starvation are the norm. Every youth between the ages of 12 and 18 from all 12 districts await the verdict. One boy and 1 girl will be selected from each district to participate in the Hunger Games, twenty-four in all. They will be trained for a week, with abundant food, exercise and clothing. And at the end of the week, they will be placed in the arena, where they will be observed by millions on live TV as they are forced to fight to the death.

16-year-old Katniss is used to hunting for food since she secretly poaches meat back home to feed her family, and to barter with at the market. So when her younger sister’s name is called to be a participant in the Reaping, Katniss steps forward to take her place. In another world, Katniss and the other participants might have been friends. Some might have even been more. But in the world of the Hunger Games, there can only be one winner, and that is the only person left alive.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

It is the near-future where advances in biotechnology have made it possible to create synthetic body parts and even brains that behave just like human tissue. But it is still a controversial and very illegal practice. Jenna Fox has just woken up after a year in a coma, and the world she wakes up to is completely unfamiliar to her. Slowly a few memories begin to return, and not only her own memories, but she can recite Thoreau and the details of obscure events in history as though she pulled them out of a textbook, and she can even remember things that happened when she was only a year old. But she can't seem to remember the car accident or what happened to her friends Kara and Locke who were in the car. As her memories begin to return, Jenna begins to make some very disturbing discoveries about her existence, and even her own humanity. Is she real, or is she something else?

The Giving Season......Renton Library's Mitten Tree

Hey Teens! How would you like to do something meaningful for others this holiday season? Between December 1st and December 31st, you can decorate the library's first Annual Mitten Tree with mittens, hats, scarves, socks, and other warm fuzzy things. Items donated will benefit mothers and children of the YWCA of Renton.

You might even try your hand at knitting some things yourself. The library has some great books on knitting.

Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit with 15 Fun and Funky Patterns by Shannon Okey

Knitgrrl 2: Learn to Knit with 16 All-New Patterns by Shannon Okey