Literary Short Stories with Teens--Take 2

Back in January, I attended a training in Princeton, NJ with People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos to conduct their NEH Grant-funded Story Talk program for teens here in Queens.

I became involved in this grant accidentally. A colleague from Westchester County mentioned having worked with this program (I mentioned it briefly in my 1/28 post) in the prisons in Westchester. They sounded so cool I emailed them and within a couple of days, they had added Queens Library to the list of libraries to be trained under the grant (lesson: it never hurts to ask).

So I did the training and lined up my first partner site, a group home for older teen boys with severe emotional disabilities (say what you will about me, I never take the easy road!). But at the training, the P&S folks talked about the size of the group they wanted and I didn't think I would be able to get that with the boys, so I shopped around for a Queens Library with a big teen population it might work. I found one (which I am not going to name; some of you know, for the rest, it doesn't actually matter) and scheduled the 8 weeks of programs there and also at the group home.

I started at the QL site first. I had a group of about 15 teens, mostly 7th graders, a little younger than the grant's target age of 14-18. The story I selected from the stories P&S supplied for the first series of programs was called "Do Not Attempt to Climb Out" by Anndee Hochman (who, btw, besides being a writer, does P&S programs with adults). I picked this one for a couple of reasons: 1) because I had already worked with it during the training so I felt very prepared and 2) because it has an ambiguous ending that I figured would get their attention. Ever the optimist, I arrived with all my supplies, plus donuts and juice and got ready to be a facilitator.

And then spent the next hour trying to get the teens to stop talking, stop hitting each other, sit down, sit up, etc.. I will admit that I left the library a basket case, went straight to do another program, went home and had a drink. But I also don't give up that easily, so I went back the next week to try again. It took 20 minutes for a slightly smaller group to sign an attendance sheet and things went downhill from there. I did manage on both occasions, to read the story aloud and start a discussion, but both times, the discussion was such a struggle I felt no one, especially the teens, got anything out of it. The second week, I ended early and we decided that it wasn't the right time and we'd try it maybe again in the future.

I was off the next day (that fluky 70 degree Friday) and walked from my apartment across the bridge over the Belt Parkway to walk the promenade under the Verrazano Bridge. I sat on one of the benches and was trying to just meditate about life and suddenly knew I had to try again with the library group. So I am.

This Monday, I did the first session with the boys in the group home. I had 7 participate. I might have had more but 1 who was interested can't be in the same room with one of the others who wanted to attend and another hadn't taken his meds while he was home for the weekend and had to be taken to the hospital. Again, I had selected "Do Not Attempt to Climb Out" and amidst the drama, started reading. Amazingly, there was not a peep out of the group as I read. The discussion, as at the library, was a struggle, but I held on to the listening part as hard as I could, knowing that was the first step (the staff assured me that the fact that 7 boys came in, listened attentively and tried to participate was a HUGE success).

Today, I got the newsletter from P&S and on the back cover is a book review of a memoir by a woman who taught poetry classes at San Quentin maximum security prison. The program manager who reviewed the book included a quote, told to the author by her supervisor: "'To survive and do a good job working in prison, you have to hold onto what it is you want to do and, at the very same time, let go of all assumptions that you're going to get it done the way you first planned.'" I had to laugh because isn't that pretty much what it means to do a good job doing library programs with teens?

It's so easy to forgot that lesson. Especially when we have high hopes and high expectations for a program and have this crazy dream notion of perfectly behaved children sitting silently and attentively (what? you don't have those teens?), reality is such a let down. But it shouldn't be. It is what it is and we just have to keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and trying again. I know this. We all KNOW this. Feeling it on those days who want to cry in your own program is a totally different thing.

But may tomorrow, at the library story program, I'll remember.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $362

Harry, I Miss Ya

ABC Family did a big Four-Day movie event of Harry Potter movies last weekend. I will just say that I watched A LOT of HP!!

It was weirdly nostalgic, weirdly because I will watch any of these movies anytime I catch it on TV so it's not like it's been a while, but for some reason (maybe seeing the trailers for the final film?) it made me kind of homesick for the days of waiting for the next book to be released and spending all weekend reading it so no one could spoil it for me on Monday.

Sigh. I wonder if there will ever be another phenomenon like HP. Sure,Twilight and The Hunger Games have put up a good fight, but they're not the same. My husband and I were watching "Get Him to the Greek" the other night and almost peed ourselves over the scene in the club with Tom Felton.


Cash in the Coffee Can: $348

Squee Moment

So I have marked on my Outlook Calendar today a gold box with the word Chime written in it. For those of you up on new releases, you will know that this means that Franny Billingsley's new book (her first novel since The Folk Keeper in 2001, which I LOVED) comes out today. I pre-ordered it from Amazon and cannot wait to read it. I am hoping it arrives when I can take an entire day or evening and do nothing but read it cover to cover!

I have two other new books marked for the coming weeks:

The Star Wars Craft Book by Bonnie Burton (tomorrow!)
True (. . . Sort of) by Katherine Hannigan (April 26--I sobbed aloud while reading the ARC on the R train so it's a must buy)


And most recently I've had the final Terry Pratchett Tiffany Aching book I Shall Wear Midnight, Joan Bauer's new book Close to Famous and something else I can't remember also on my calendar. I am beside myself waiting for Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore's next book that seems to be taking FOREVER!

So I started thinking about those moments of excitement and anticipation before a new book, and about our teens who start asking for the next book in a series or a new book by a favorite author as soon as the buzz hits the air.

There's nothing quite like this waiting, is there? It's like waiting for a door to another world to open and it's good to remember that our teens are as eager for those doors as we are.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $334

Literary Short Stories with Teens

To be completed when I have perspective!

Cash in the Coffee Can: $320

AWESOME SR Programs

I'm working on compiling the programs many (most!) of the libraries sent for inclusion in the SR Program brochure. We have so many this year that sadly, I will likely have to edit out some of the more generic "Teen Summer Reading Club Meeting" entries to fit all the programs in.

But can I just say how many REALLY creative and fun programs you all are planning for teens this summer! I am SO impressed. Really. No disrespect, of course, but I know sometimes planning around a theme, this far ahead doesn't exactly get the creative juices stirring.

I will also add that many of the MOST interesting programs were submitted by folks who aren't technically YA librarians, so way to rock the team approach (and heads up, "Official" YA folks--the competition is fierce!).

Cash in the Coffee Can: $306