Early Buzz for the Iowa Teen Award Nominees

All sixth and seventh grade students recently watched the ITA Prezi presentation (see previous post) and responded to an interest inventory after watching book trailers for the nominated titles.

Early interest shows that four titles have generated the most "buzz" with students: 

We'll learn in March during our voting period if early interest holds throughout the year. Maybe one of these titles will go on to become our building--and maybe state-wide--winner!

2016 - 2017 Iowa Teen Award Book Nominees

With school starting soon, it's time to start thinking about the Iowa Teen Award nominees fro the coming year. Check out the Prezi below to see the titles and book trailers to pique your interest!

Any of the titles already familiar to you? Maybe you've already read some of them? We'll be talking about the nominees and promoting them throughout the year, so stay tuned. And happy reading!

Summer Reading at the Grimes Public Library

This week Ms. Olson from the Grimes Public Library visited the library to share details about the teen summer reading program. 

She and the other youth services librarians are ready for you to join them this summer!

The summer programming will feature several new activities, including:

• Teen Tattoos (with Sharpies!)
• GIF It Up!
• Pixel Art
• a video game tournament
• Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

You can access all of the teen reading program activities on the Grimes Public Library website HERE. Check out the screenshots of the June and July calendars below:

June calendar of activities

July calendar of activities

When you access the calendar online, be sure to let your mouse hover over the event so you can see event details.

So on June 1 when we dismiss for the summer (yay!), be sure to stop by the Grimes Public Library to sign up for the summer reading program. So many great activities and prizes await!

Celebrating National Poetry Month

As April is National Poetry Month, students in 7th grade language arts visited the library to "write" book spine poems and found poems. Students worked in pairs and individually to create poetry from fiction titles.

Just two days later, the same students returned to the library to "write" found poems. In this activity, students used pages from weeded fiction titles to create a poem. 

DCG Middle School Library & Social Media

Social media is everywhere, so why not bring the MS Library along? If you haven't been following us on Instagram or on Snapchat or on Pinterest, now's the time to join us!

The Instagram and Snapchat accounts feature pictures and videos of students, lessons, book talks, class activities, and all things library! Both can be found with the username DCGLibraries and reflect happenings in our K - 7 libraries.

The Pinterest account is a board that features middle school book recommendations and book trailers. CLICK HERE to access the board and visit often as it's updated regularly.

State Award Winners Announced

After voting for Unstoppable by Tim Green to be the Iowa Teen Award book for the year, we waited with anticipation to learn of the statewide winner. Drumroll please. . . the winning ITA book for the year was Skinny by Donna Cooner.

The winning book for the Iowa Children's Choice Award--for which we didn't vote at the Middle School--was Duke by Kirby Larson.

Iowa Teen Award Results

It's that time of year again! Voting for the Iowa Teen Award winner took place last week in our building, and again this year the results were close. With almost 40% of our students eligible to vote, we saw realistic fiction take control of the field. The winning book, with 15% of the vote, was Unstoppable by Tim Green.

Green's book was VERY closely followed by Jo Knowles's See You at Harry's with 14% of the vote.

For a total recap of all voting, please see below:

On Mon. Apr. 4, 2016, at the annual conference for the state of Iowa librarians, the overall statewide winner for the Iowa Teen Award will be announced. Stay tuned to learn if our DCG students think similarly to students across Iowa or if a different book will be the winner!