Win a beautiful Harry Potter print, signed by the artist!

You know I mentioned before that if you wrote a book review during Teen Read Month (October 2013) you would get entered in a drawing for a fabulous prize, but I didn't say what the prize was?  Now it can be unveiled!

For each book you review this month, you will get a chance to win this wonderful poster of the new Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone cover, signed by the artist Kazu Kibuishi himself!

Drawing will be held on Monday November 4, 2013, and winner will be announced here!

Two new prize choices for Teen Summer Reading

Hey everybody! Hope your summer is off to a great start. We are already seeing all kinds of terrific book reviews, and have already given away 45 prizes.  Much to my surprise, some of our leftovers from previous years have been more popular than anticipated, and we have already run out of earbuds, and are very low on flashdrives!   We still have lots of LED bookmarks, and iPod/iPhone speakers, but now we are also adding hacky sacks and foldable flying discs!

We still have lots of time for you to read and review...you might be able win one of each. :)

Teen Summer Reading Contest

School isn't quite out yet, but we are SO ready for summer!   It is time for the 2013 Teen Summer Reading Program!  This year's theme is Beneath the Surface, where we encourage you to dig into things and find out what is really going on, and explore new worlds you haven't imagined before.  One place to get started is with our Beneath the Surface booklist.  But we will also have all kinds of great activities (all free) for you to participate in.

Plus, we have our fun and super laid back Teen Summer Reading Contest again this year.  Every teen or adult book you (a teen 12-18 years old or 6th-12th grade) read between June 1-August 16, 2013, you can write a review for, and be entered to win one of these great prizes*:

Plus, one lucky reviewer will have their awesomely entertaining/creative/wonderful review...best loved by the teen librarian...picked for The Librarian's Choice Award! What do you get for that? A backpack full of brand new books!  

We can't wait to hear about what you discover Beneath the Surface of books this summer.

*Reviews must be written in your own words. Plagiarism will be caught and disqualify you from the drawings. Only one review per book is accepted. Additional reviews will be deleted.The Teen Summer Reading contest is for teens 12-18 years old, or in 6th-12th grade. Summer Reading contest participants are eligible to win in only one category. Youths leaving 5th grade who are entering 6th grade must choose and submit entries for the Children's or Teen Summer Reading Program. Failure to comply with this restriction may disqualify participant from all categories.

Featured Teen Book Review of the Week: Pictures of Hollis

Pictures of Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff

Describe the book: Hollis woods is a foster kid who thinks she has to run away from everybody. A touching story Of a teenage girl just wishing for a family, Hollis tells her story through art and memories, and in the end finally finds her place in the world.

What did you think: This book almost made me cry at parts, but I just couldn't put it down. I was always wondering what was going to happen next. My absolute favorite part was when Hollis finally sees Stephen again and he asks her if she was ready to come home.

Who would you recommend it to: People who love a good story with a happy ending.

- R.S. from Arlington Library

A teen submitted review will be featured every Monday through August 13. The reviews will be chosen from the Sno-Isle Teen Book Reviews. To win you must be a teen (6th-12th grade, or 12-18) who uses a Sno-Isle Library.  If your review is featured, one of our librarians will contact you with a small prize!

Teen Read Month - Mini Contest #3

This week's Mini Contest is for a Secret Surprise Bag once again contains:

Candy.
Really cool pins.
More books.
A really random surprise.
An assortment of the newest and greatest Sno-Isle Libraries swag.

Plus...a shiny new hardcover edition of the long awaiting new book by one of my favorite authors, Jack Gantos, called Dead End in Norvelt:

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

How can you win this great prize package?  In the comments below, write your own title and description (in the style above) about the book you would write about the summer you were 12 (or will be, if you are a 6th grader who is still 11).  For example mine would read something like this:

Bike Spokes and Weird Folks in Spokane

In the town pretending to be a city of Spokane, twelve-year-old Dawn R. spends the summer of 198something bicycling around with new found freedom, encountering fellow library geeks, dozens of books, milkshakes, swimming pools, Gremlins, and a bite in the butt from a surprisingly vicious dog!

Winning entry will be chosen next Thursday. Watch back here to see if it is you!

Teen Read Month - Mini Contest #2

Enjoying Teen Read Month? Have you had a chance to Read for the Fun of It? I love love love all the haiku you submitted for last week's contest. So much that I am having trouble picking one out, so I'm getting some more opinions...so sorry for the delay!

This week's Mini Contest is for a Secret Surprise Bag contains:

• One super awesome book (either brand new or autographed).
• Candy.
• An assortment of the newest and greatest Sno-Isle Libraries swag.
• Really cool pins.
• More books.
• A really random surprise.

Plus...an autographed copy of the brand new book by Nancy Holder and Debby Viguié (authors of the Wicked series) Crusade.

An international team of six teenaged vampire hunters, trained in Salamanca, Spain, goes to New Orleans seeking to rescue team-member Jenn's younger sister as the vampires escalate their efforts to take over the Earth.

How can you win this great prize package? Share a picture of your favorite place on Earth to read! You can place a link in the comments below to a picture on the web, or you can email it to me at teens @ sno - isle . org (but with no spaces) and I'll post it to our Facebook site! Tell us why it is such a great place to read, and why you want to protect it from vampires :D

Winning entry will be chosen next Thursday. Watch back here to see if it is you!

And the Winners Are...

And now for the moment you have all been waiting for! 5265 teen book reviews were submitted this summer, all with dreams of winning the fun and fabulous iPad 2 or an iPod Touch for Librarian's Choice Award. Your reviews were all so wonderful, I wish I could give each and everyone of you a prize, but as we know, there can be only one (for each category ;)

For the grand prize drawing of an iPad 2, our lucky winner is: Kat F. from Oak Harbor, whose review of Murder on the Orient Express was randomly drawn (though I must say it is a fine review, too!)

Choosing a favorite review from so many was INCREDIBLY HARD! Thank goodness we had a crack team of Teen Librarians reading your reviews all summer long. They were all so good! So....for the prestigious Librarians Choice Award: Reilly R. from the Coupeville for this wonderful review of Zombies vs. Unicorns:

Description:
Since the beginning of the universe there has been an incredible rivalry of Zombies and Unicorns. But until 2010 this war had only been fought in secret. Thus begins a most epic battle of words and wits, which has been published into this very book for your personal entertainment. Authors of all kinds have chosen their side. Now it's your turn.

My Thoughts:
This book was so good, meager words don't do it justice. Each story makes you love either Zombies or unicorns, and you just get tossed back and forth! Each story completely defied the stereotype of both creatures. Whether its zombies that are zombies because of their religion, or sarcastic, head smacking unicorns, this book has them all.

Recommendation:
Highschoolers who do or don' like to read.

Thank you to every single one of you who submitted reviews this summer, and made it our most exciting and wonderful yet. Please continue to submit reviews, even though there isn't a prize right now...we love to keep up with what you are reading and take your opinions and thoughts most seriously.

And GIANT thanks to the Sno-Isle Library Foundation, who has made all of this possible. Their generous support enabled us to offer all our wonderful prizes including the iPad, iPod, and earbuds. They are terrific supporters of our libraries, and truly love our teens :)

Yours in reading,

Dawn

You Did It - Our Biggest Summer Yet

I can't even begin to tell you how impressed I am with all you fabulous teen readers of Snohomish and Island Counties! Between June 1st and August 15th you reviewed 5265 books...well over our goal of 5000. SO AMAZING!

That is a TON of reviews. Our Teen Librarians are frantically going back over all their favorites to pick out the one from each branch that will be voted on to win the Librarian's Choice Award. Once that has been selected, we will also pick our Grand Prize winner. I know it is driving you crazy waiting...but it won't be until next week. So, in the meanwhile, here are another 15 earbud winners (even though we didn't have a full week in the end there ;)

Krysta W. - Monroe Library
Brooklyn C. - Marysville Library
Emma T. - Mill Creek Library
Ashly L. - Snohomish Library
Tatiana S.-Z. - Mountlake Terrace Library
Nancy O. - Lynnwood Library
Raiden U.-R. - Lynnwood Library
Myung T. - Lynnwood Library
Megan T. - Mill Creek Library
Jessica V. - Mukilteo Library
Natasha F. - Marysville Library
Symone W. - Mukilteo Library
Christian D. - Marysville Library
Caila J. - Granite Falls Library
Adrian N. - Lynnwood Library

Thanks so much for all the wonderful reviews...will let you know next week who are winners are for the big prizes! <3

Weeks Seven AND Eight Earbud Winners

Sorry I forgot to do the contest last week! I made a draft of the blog post, then took of to Cleveland for Digiapalooza (a conference on downloadables). We have so much cool stuff you can get from the library from home for free, and lots of great stuff coming down the road!

So just what are you listening to with your earbuds?

Right now I'm checking out this music:


and looking forward to listening to these books:


Heard anything good lately?

Anyhow...here are the lucky 30:

Amy C. - Monroe Library
Hope R. - Monroe Library
Abigail C. - Mill Creek Library
Halle C. - Stanwood Library
Emma C. - Mill Creek Library
Zoe J. - Mukilteo Library
Cassie K. - Stanwood Library
Nick P. - Marysville Library
Ann D. - Lynnwood Library
Madison B. - Mill Creek Library
Yeonhee J. - Lynnwood Library
Katie-Beth H. - Edmonds Library
Alexandra G. - Mukilteo Library
Jadia B. - Monroe Library
Olivia B. - Lynnwood Library
Naomi G. - Arlington Library
Estella J. - Lynnwood Library
Abbie G. - Marysville Library
Alethea C. - Marysville Library
Kristen S. - Langley Library
Brian T. - Lynnwood Library
Roman Y. - Marysville Library
Emily I. - Edmonds Library
Min C. - Mukilteo Library
Matthew B. - Marysville Library
Brianah N. - Marysville Library
Linh L. - Snohomish Library
Mackenzi C. - Marysville Library
Leah L. - Oak Harbor Library
Katie P. - Snohomish Library


Your Teen Librarian will notify you when they arrive :)

Haven't won yet? Keep trying, you still have two weeks!

We've hit over 4500 reviews!
Can we reach 5000?!?

Week Six Earbud Winners

What is this heat wave everyone is talking about? I'm looking outside and seeing some decidedly un-summery weather. But I guess this is good for books, because you can cozy up out of the rain with a nice stack of them! And lots of you have! We have over 3400 reviews submitted now! Once again, WOW!

This week's earbud winners are:

Adam A. - Mukilteo Library
Maddy E. - Mukilteo Library
Izabel N. - Marysville Library
Katie O'M. - Monroe Library
Nora H. - Edmonds Library
Ashley McC. - Monroe Library
Zahra Al-H. - Marysville Library
Vincent C. - Monroe Library
Grace M. - Marysville Library
Zach A. - Monroe Library
Robin C. - Oak Harbor Library
Korina T. - Oak Harbor Library
Daria J. - Lynnwood Library
Zane V. - Langley Library
Aileen D. - Lynnwood Library

Your teen librarian will contact you when they come in.

Keep those reviews coming!

:)

Week Six Earbud Winners

Is it really possible that the summer is halfway over? How can that be possible? We've only had a few sunny days! But on the plus side, boy have you gotten a lot of books read this summer! We are now up to 3206 reviews! WOW!

This week's earbud winners are:

Aaron S. - Marysville Library
Grace M. - Lynnwood Library
Julianne T. - Arlington Library
Michael H. - Oak Harbor Library
Zainab A. - Marysville Library
Alea W. - Marysville Library
Katie E. - Marysville Library
Elise E. - Snohomish Library
Abby M. - Mukilteo Library
Alex N. - Lynnwood Library
Rachael A. - Langley Library
Sarah B. - Mill Creek Library
Olivia E. - Lynnwood Library
Alexa H. - Monroe Library
Teresa B. - Lynnwood Library

Your teen librarian will contact you once they arrive :)

Week Five Earbud Winners

Now that we've FINALLY had a bit of sun, and the rain and drizzle is back it is a perfect excuse to stop going outside and get back to the serious business of READING! And reviewing, of course.

Our review count at the moment is a marvelous 2638! Can we hit 5,000 this year? I believe that yes we can! Especially if this rain keeps up... ;(

This week's earbud winners are:

Annika B. - Arlington Library
Pauline W. - Arlington Library
Mirka M. - Freeland Library
Cole H. - Lake Stevens Library
Frances T. - Lynnwood Library
Naomi T. - Marysville Library
Charley M. - Mill Creek Library
Sammy L. - Mill Creek Library
Drew Q. - Mukilteo Library
Amber B. - Mukilteo Library
Katelyn B. - Mukilteo Library
Dominque N. - Oak Harbor Library
Lily W. - Snohomish Library
Halle C. - Stanwood Library
Sadie C. - Stanwood Library

Your Teen Librarian will contact you when the earbuds arrive. Keep them coming folks!

Week Four Earbud Winners

Can you believe we are already a month into summer? It is going by TOO FAST! I need to go to a baseball game...as Michael Chabon says in his terrific baseball+fantasy read Summerland, ""The fundamental truth: a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day." Nothing can make a summer afternoon stretch out longer and more luxuriously. Except maybe reading a book in a hammock?

We have over 2000 reviews submitted now. That completely blows my mind. I love to know there are so many teens out there who love reading as much as I do! And I'm so glad I can reward some of you with awesome prizes for doing what you love :)

This week's earbud winners are:

Jonathan M. - Lynnwood Library
Sara A. - Snohomish Library
Lisa A. - Oak Harbor Library
Emily M. - Mukilteo Library
Khanh L. - Lynnwood Library
Graydon F. - Monroe Library
Rachana B. - Snohomish Library
LeAnne S. - Stanwood Library
Bao-Quang B. - Mukilteo Library
Hailey S. - Mukilteo Library
Kevin M. - Monroe Library
Charmaine B. - Lynnwood Library
James I. - Clinton Library
Jacob O. - Lynnwood Library
Teresa K. - Mill Creek Library

Your Teen Librarian will contact you when the earbuds arrive. I LOVE reading your reviews. Keep on sending them in :)

Week Three Earbud Winners

WOW! We have over 1500 reviews submitted now for the Teen Summer Reading Contest. I wish I had time to read them all...but don't worry...the Teen Librarian at your branch is reading YOURS. And they will be picking out their very favorites as nominees for the Librarian's Choice Award! But that doesn't happen until August...now it is time for our weekly drawing, and the earbud winners!

This week's earbuds and Sno-Isle pouch go to:

Julien C. - Snohomish Library
Belle C. - Monroe Library
Natnael D. - Lynnwood Library
Isaac G. - Monroe Library
Gary W. - Mill Creek Library
Fatima J. - Mill Creek Library
Tori W. - Arlington Library
Jaden J. - Oak Harbor Library
Natalie S. - Edmonds Library
Heather M. - Monroe Library
Jaskiran G. - Mill Creek Library
Lacy N. - Lynnwood Library
Taylor S. - Marysville Library
Zoe W. - Lynnwood Library
Kenneth M. - Oak Harbor Library

Keep on reading, we have lots of summer and prizes left to go :)

First Round of Summer Reading Winners

This year's Teen Summer Reading Contest is off to an awesome start! So far we have 360 reviews submitted from teens all over Snohomish and Island County...and most of you aren't even out of school yet.

Have you seen our awesome Sno-Isle Teens earbud pouches? How can you qualify to win one? Just review the books you read this summer, and we will randomly select 15 reviews every week!

This week's winners are:

• Maxine V. - Marysville Library
• Margaret D. - Oak Harbor Library
• Alexia W. - Mill Creek Library
• Monina N. - Mill Creek Library
• Megan H. - Sultan Library
• Lena P. - Snohomish Library
• India S. - Edmonds Library
• Victoria E. - Edmonds Library
• Vanessa C. - Marysville Library
• Faith F. - Marysville Library
• Samantha C. - Mill Creek Library
• Marina M. - Mill Creek Library
• Zina D. - Mukilteo Library
• David W. - Arlington Library
• Adnan M. - Lynnwood Library

Your Teen Librarian will contact you once they receive your prize and let you know when you can pick it up :)

Super Smash Kart Tournament This Weekend

Are you a Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros master?
Now is the time to show off your stuff!

Super Smash Kart Tournament
The Ultimate Competition and a chance to show off your skills! Compete against other teens in tournaments for Super Smash Bros. and MarioKart. Prizes will be awarded. Doors open at 1:00, Tournament starts at 1:30. Sign up at the door or early online.

Saturday March 12th, 2011 - 1-5pm
Marysville Library

Which One Do You Like Best?

We are looking at giving away 1G USB drives as prizes for Teen Read Month. Which design do you like best?




Color Clip Flash Drives








Custom Printed USB Memory Bands







Guitar Shaped Flash Drives









Retractable Flash Drive Key Chains





I’d love to hear your opinion on this ASAP! Which ones do you like? Any you hate? What colors would you want?

Win a signed copy of THE SEA OF MONSTERS

I have one Rick Riordan-signed paperback copy of Percy Jackson #2, The Sea of Monsters.

In order to win, you must:

1. be 12-18 years old,
2. able to pick it up at one of the Sno-Isle Libraries,
3. watch the following video, (all of it)
4. answer in the comments the questions I ask after the video:

(Yes, I know, I ask so much of you)



Would you want to read on one of those, or are you going to hold onto reading your paper books? What do you guys think about ebooks in general? What do you like/dislike about this whole issue? Why?

You have until 11:59pm on Sunday, March 14 to answer.

I'll draw one lucky winner from the comments. If you add interesting discussion by returning and interacting with other comments, you can earn more entries per substantive comment (meaning: only if those comments add something to the discussion), up to 3 entries per teen.

Frisbee in the Lynnwood Library?

Can we do that?

Well, yeah. As long as the library is closed. Which is exactly what we're doing Friday night (February 26th). By 7pm, Lynnwood Library will have been transformed into an 18-obstacle course for Frisbees. Dare to try your hand?

We'll provide the Frisbees, the snacks, and for a few lucky players, a prize. You'll be 12-18 ready to have fun - absolutely no skill is required!

As with all library programs, this is a FREE event thanks to the Sno-Isle Foundation & the Friends of the Library.

ECO-HERO? There's $500 in it.

From Action for Nature:

"WHY?
To recognize the individual accomplishments of young people (ages 8-16) whose personal actions have significantly improved the environment.

HOW?
Action For Nature will award cash prizes of up to $500 to young Eco-Heroes from around the world for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental advocacy, environmental health, research or protection of the natural world. Their individual initiatives will inspire others to preserve and protect our fragile environment.

ARE YOU AN ECO-HERO?

DO YOU KNOW AN ECO-HERO?"

Find out more.

Deadline is February 28, 2010.

Via SLJ.