KNIT HAPPENS! @THE LIBRARY

Who can think about sweaters in summer? Or scarves in August? But summer is the perfect time to begin knitting projects so they are ready for winter gift giving. If you don't know how to knit or are looking for a group of people to knit with, then check out San Francisco Public Library.
Knit Happens! Teen Knitting Club
for teens 12-18
Saturday August 26th
2-4pm

If you want to learn to knit or just hang out and knit with other teens, join us! The library will provide supplies to practice on but bring your own yarn and needles to start your own project.
Questions? e-mail Betsy Levine, Teen Librarian, at blevine@sfpl.org

Need some knitting ideas? Check out these books

Teen Knitting Club: Chill Out and Knit
Jennifer Wenger

Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit With 15 Fun and Funky Projects
Shannon Okey

Knitting not your thing? Check out this...

Second-Time Cool: The Art of Chopping up a Sweater
Anna-Stina Linden Ivarsson

HARRY AND THE POTTERS---CHANGE OF VENUE

Harry and the Potters will perform in Civic Center Plaza. Due to popular demand and one super Teen Librarian, Betsy at the Main, Harry and the Potters will perform in Civic Center Plaza Saturday July 22nd at 2pm.

HARRY AND THE POTTERS will play CIVIC CENTER PLAZA on SATURDAY JULY 22nd at 2pm.

The venue has changed but the band is the same. Harry and the Potters are so popular so fantastic that we had to find a larger venue for the concert. So we thought big, we thought Civic Center Plaza.

The Simpsons

Summer is re-run season and most of my favorite programs fill the summer TV air-waves with repeats. This is can be good and bad because there are episodes I have missed and episodes that I want to watch again and again. There are also those episodes that I wish I could forget. Unfortunately, there are many episodes of my favorite program from this past season that I want to forget. The Simpsons. I really do love The Simpsons. I love The Simpsons in an unhealthy obsession-like love. The type of obsession that can put you in jail. The Simpsons is THE best program. Heck maybe I feel this way because I grew up watching this animated masterpiece. I have watched the program for 14 years. That is half of my lifetime on this earth (did I just give away my age?). So, when re-runs promise a not so funny episode (yes, there are a few bad episodes, just like everyone has a bad day once in a while) I turn to the next best thing.......The Simpsons books! Yes, The Simpsons are in book form. The books are awesome, they are like watching TV, but in a book form. When I read these Simpsons books on the MUNI, passengers stare at me as I laugh and laugh and hoot and holler. So when you need a TV fix....Read a book, a Simpsons book.

The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family

Simpsons Comics A Go-Go

Simpsons Comics Barn Burner

Simpsons Comics. Belly Buster

Simpsons Comics Big Bonanza

Simpsons Comics Extravaganza

Simpsons Comics Madness

Simpsons Comics on Parade

Simpsons Comics Strike Back

Simpsons Comics Wingding

...and many, many more!

Find them at San Francisco Public Library
www.sfpl.org

WIZARD ROCK at THE LIBRARY

Back by popular demand for their third sensational summer tour...

Harry and the Potters!


Saturday, July 22, 2006
2-4pm
Koret Auditorium, Main Library

Opening band...Draco and the Malfoys

If you missed the last performance of Harry and the Potters at SFPL, be sure to make it to this show. This band performs some of the best Indie sounds known to man. And, you get to be loud in the library!

Check out their website for more info or look for them on myspace.
http://www.eskimolabs.com/hp/

Have you heard the great sounds of Harry and Potters? Let us know what you think.

Speak

As I was browsing through the DVD collection, on the hunt for a movie to watch this weekend, I stumbled across a FANTASTIC find. The DVD of SPEAK, the movie version of the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen. Have you read SPEAK? Share your thoughts. And please (I know a librarian should not say this) check out the DVD, though you may have to wait until I return it.

SPEAK
-Laurie Halse Anderson

Formatt:
Book
DVD

Booklists: This Just In.....

Hot off the presses; the latest additions to the SFPL teen collection. Check them out today.

Black Powder
-Robin Staton
Travel back in time, from L.A. to England as Lanston attepmts to change history and prevent the murder of his best friend.

The Radioactive Boyscout
-Ken Silverstein
A true account of boy who makes a nuclear reactor. (thats a fun project for summer, LOL)

The Hip Handbag Book: 25 easy-to-make totes, purses and bags.
-Sherri Haab
A cure for summer boredom, make a bag that is one of kind!

S.A.S.S (Students Across Seven Seas)
-Follow the stories of love, highjinks and adventure of students studying in foreign lands.

Getting the Boot
Pardon My French
Spain or Shine
Westminster Abbey

Events--June 13th at Portola

You're never too old to hear a good yarn! Come hear storyteller David Ponkey tell heroic tales on Tues. June 13th at 4:00 pm at:



Portola Branch Library
2450 San Bruno Ave.
San Francisco CA 94110
415-355-5660
wkramer@sfpl.org

Booklists:GLBTQ Pride Month

GLBTQ Pride Month. Stop by the San Francisco Public Library for some great GLBTQ fiction and non-fiction. Here is a list of some of my favorites. Be sure to post your favorites!

Baby Be-Bop
-Francesca Lia Block

A Really Nice Prom Mess
-Brian Sloan

Geography Club
-Brent hartinger

What I Know Now
-Roger Larson

Gravel Queen
-Tea Benduhn

Orphea Proud
-Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Absolutely, Positively Not...
-David Larochelle

Boy Girl Boy
-Ron Koertge

What I know Now
-Roger Larson

Clay's Way
-Blair Mastbaum

Luna
-Julie Ann Peters

Rainbow Boys
-Alex Sanchez

My Hearbeat
-Garret Freymann-Weyr

M or F
-Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts

Becoming Visible
-Kevin Jennings

GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens

Booklists: The Inside Scoop- Sizzling Summer Read

Summer is almost upon us. Gone are the days of assigned school books and before us are the days of fun and lighthearted reading.

My suggestion for a Sizzling Summer Read? My Pick for the perfect beach book? My choice for the comatose days before us?

The Insiders
-J. Minter

Jonathan is the glue that keeps his friends together. Through break-ups, wild parties, shopping sprees and a cousin who sets her sights on his friends, Jonathan is there to make sure his group stays together. Join this eclectic crew in an exciting romp through New York City as they test the definitions of friendship and love.

Continue the excitement with these Insiders novels:

Pass It On: An Insiders Novel

Take It Off: An Insiders Novel

Break Every Rule: An Insiders Novel

Hold On Tight

Booklists: The Coldest Winter Ever

Every month I perform a sort of ritual. This ritual is as certain as the orbit of the planets in the Milky Way galaxy. The ritual is ordering new copies of The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. The Coldest Winter Ever may in fact be the most stolen book in the TEEN collection. And those copies that are not secreted away are checked out and never returned! So, month after month I order more copies of this TEEN favorite. I know, I know I could just order 40 copies a year and be done with it, but there is a certain satisfaction of ordering the book every month. It means that the book is popular, that some TEEN out there likes this book; wants to read this book. So dutifully I purchase more copies.

Books like The Coldest Winter Ever are sometimes referred to as "Urban Fiction". In the past few months I have been getting more and more requests for Urban Fiction and happily I do my best to provide TEENS with as many books as they can read.

Have you read The Coldest Winter Ever? Tell us what you think and make a recommendation, right here for other TEENS to read.

In the mean time here are some of my picks:

Push
-Sapphire

Imani All Mine
-Connie Porter

Monster
-Walter Dean Myers

Bang
-Sharon Flake

Ballad of a Ghetto Poet
-AJ White

The Dying Ground
-Nichelle Tramble

Living for the City
-Jervy Tervalon

Too Beautiful for Words
-Monique Morris

Autobiography of My Dead Brother
-Walter Dean Myers

Money Hungry
-Sharon Flake

Upstate
-Kalisha Buckhanon

Coming Soon to a Library Near You........

Bluford series
Hip-Hop High School
Teenage Bluez

Dear Ms. Manners

Dear Ms. Manners,

I need your advice : my local branch public library is overrun with teens! During my last visit all library computers were being hogged by teens using www.myspace.com; as I waited for my turn on a computer, I decided to read but was unable to because of ... TEENS!

The TEENS were: sitting on tables; talking loudly; leaving assorted litter and debris about; and congregating in a menacing fashion.

What does one do here?

Sincerely,
Troubled by TEENS


In the past few days I have been bombarded with complaints about TEENS in the library. In the past such complaints elicit my standard response, "The public library is a place for all people regardless of age, race, religion etc..." Except this past Tuesday as I glanced around the library my eyes beheld a sight that I shudder to think about even as I type this post. Everywhere about the library TEENS were perched on tables, ON TABLES, litter was strewn about the TEEN Section as if a 6.5 temblor struck San Francisco. Teens voices echoed across the hallowed hall of the library. And then I lost it. I kindly explained to the patron that I would take care of the situation and then as if the heavens opened up with a rain of thunder I descended upon the TEENS. Immediately after removing the offending TEENS from the library I was struck down with GUILT.

As a TEEN Librarian, I hate having to scold TEENS or kick them out of the library. My job, my civic duty is to get TEENS to come into the library. I want TEENS in the library reading books, using the computers, doing homework, attending programs and just hanging out. But these last few days I have witnessed a complete meltdown of manners. I for the first time understood why patrons so often complain about TEENS.

The time has come for a more than gentle reminder of etiquette.

1. Sitting on Tables:
Do I need to explain? We have plenty of chairs, in fact at some branches such as the Excelsior Branch we have "comfy" chairs in the TEEN Section. Please Please do not sit on tables. It really disrupts my IMing when I have to get up from my desk and remind TEENS not to sit on the tables.

2. Clumping:
"Please keep this walkway clear in case of emergency". We have all heard this phrase before and it does apply in the library. Walkways do need to be kept clear so people can move freely about the library. And if an emergency suddenly demands the evacuation of the building? There will be a whole lot of trampling going on.

3. I Don't Feel Like Walking Over to the Garbage Can Syndrome:
We at the library ensure that waste receptacles are placed throughout the library. So use them!

4. My Friend Is All the Way Across the Library So I Must Yell to Get Her Attention:
In days past folks were discouraged from talking in the library. The library of today encourages people to talk, we decided that "hey it's okay to talk BUT NOT YELL". In fact we think it is great when TEENS socialize in the library. Just remember that others use the library and don't want to hear your business!

5. I Just Love the Latest Cell Phone Ring I Downloaded, So I Have My Ringer Set On High:
It's called vibrate people. Set your phone to vibrate and if you must answer the phone, please go outside to do so.

There, I said my peace and I feel so much better. Try to incorporate these etiquette tips in your next visit to the library. The library is for everyone and in order for it to be for everyone we must all do our part to make it work.

what's your etiquette tip for the library?

Want to read more about etiquette and manners?
Check out these books from your local library.

Emily Post's Teen Etiquette

Dear Ms. Demeanor: The Young Person's Etiquette Guide to Handling Any Social Situation With Confidence and Grace

How Rude! The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior and Not Grossing People Out.

A Pocketbook of Manners for Young People

Social Savvy: A Teenager's Guide to Feeling Confident in any Situation.

June Events Preview

June is almost here. That means the end of another school year or the beginning of a summer school term. Either way be sure to schedule in a library Teen Program.

Today's modern teen has an active and busy schedule, but with some early planning one can be sure to fit in a variety of library sponsored teen programs. And guess what? Library Teen Programs are for TEENS.

Ever have a super fantastic idea for a library teen program? TELL US! Lets us know. Post an idea on this bloc or just tell your local library staff member. Better yet...Join the TEEN ADVISORY COUNCIL and let your voice be heard.

The June List

Make Books with Jewelry!
Combine fabulous jewelry and books. You will make a small book and decorate it with assorted beads, charms and other pretty things. Bring your own old bracelets and earrings or use the stuff provided.
Saturday June 3
2-4:00pm
Children's Center Main Library, 2nd floor
blevine@sfpl.org for more details

Annual WritersCorps Book Party and Celebration
Youth Poets will read their poetry at the Main
Wed. June 7th
5:30-7:30pm
Koret Auditorium

Customize a Trucker Hat
Print your own original design on a trucker style hat (one of those blank baseball type looking caps) HATS PROVIDED. You will leave with a hat that bears the image or words that you decide.
Tuesday June 13
4-5:30pm
Excelsior Branch
dscappaticci@sfpl.org for more info

Knit Happens!
You know that knitting is one of the hottest things going right now, so learn how! Already know how to knit? Then come gather with teen knitters and have some fun talking, knitting and just hanging out. The library will provide practice yarn and needles.
Saturday June 17
2-4:00pm
Children's Center Main Library, 2nd Floor
email blevine@sfpl.org for more details

Chinatown Teen Zine...
I know you've read it! Know help create it! The bilingual online zine is the thing to read.
Fridays June 2,9,16,23,30
3:30-5:30pm
Saturdays June 3,10,17,24
1-3:00pm
Chinatown Library
355-2888 for more info

Last but not Least....

TEEN SUMMER READ begins June 16th.....
Read books and Get Prizes!
Teen Summer Read deserves its own post, so guess what? I am going to write a Teen Summer Read Post.

Did you know.....

Did you know that folks UNDER 18 do not pay overdue fines on items checked out on their card?
Often, teens have stacks of books at home that are years overdue (not you! some other teen). Then the library sends them "the letter". "The Letter" in a very stern tone informs the teen that they owe hundreds of dollars in overdue fines. What results is the teen stays away from the library because they owe all this cash. Don't stay away. BRING THE ITEM BACK and OWE NOTHING.

The library just wants the books back. So please bring them back. Once they are checked-in, your outrageous overdue fine disappears and you can once again check-out library materials.

Did you know that a replacement library card is 50cents (insert 5ocent joke here) for those under 18? Your first library card is of course FREE.

Sad but makes you happy to be alive: Reviews

I read the book A Certain Slant of Light. And I think that book is really good because it is about spirts that stay in this world and I think it is good because it kind of makes you think to be happy that you still live and to enjoy your life. If you lost someone special to you or you are into ghost stories. I think you should read this.

Recommended by marilyn

Happy Sad

Whats your favorite "happy" book?

Whats your favorite "sad" book?

booklists: Something Sad, Something Funny

I spent the morning doing what I love best - BOOKTALKING. Imagine a class of 25 or so high school students hanging on to my every word as I "push books". Booktalks are mini-advertisements that star my favorite actor, ME. Here at SFPL we Teen Librarians strike out into the world of high school with a collection of books that we believe teens should read, want to read and will read, if only the teens know the titles exist. Well, standing there in front of 25 or so high school students, "pushing books" with booktalks it occured to me that one of the titles is just plain sad and another title just plain happy. Personally, I love a sad and depressing book that leaves you trembling with tears. I also enjoy a book that is nothing but nonsense and laughter.

Something Sad:

America by E.R. Frank
The story of a teenage runaway being treated in a mental hospital

Something Funny:

Wearing of This Garment Does Not Enable You to Fly: 101 Real Dumb Warning Labels
The title says it all.

Of course these titles are available at your local San Francisco Public Library.

have a favorite "sad" book? A favorite "funny" book?
Post the title and let others know

Addiction: Events & Booklists

Some people are addicited to coffee (me) some folks are addicted to illegaly downloading music (I will not rat you out) and some people are addicted to Anime. If you find yourself addicted to anime be sure to check out Anime @ the Library every Friday afternoon at the Parkside Branch.

Anime not your thing? Need to keep those idle hands busy?
Knit Happens.
Yes it really does
One Saturday a month at the Main, 2pm in the Main Children's Center.Check out the Teen Program listing on www.sfpl.org. If you know how to knit, then show up and knit! If you dont know how to knit, then show up and learn! Knit happens and it happens at the Main!

Because I am a librarian I must mention books. Interested in knitting? What about knitting books?

Teen Knitting Club

Knitgrrl: learn to knit with 15 fun and funky projects

Second Time Cool: The Art of Chopping Up a Sweater

Okay, so this last book is not about knitting, but hey we all have that ugly sweater from grandma or good friend that lives in the back of your closet. Why not turn it into something useful?

Not Too Late

Do you love to write? Do you wish you were assigned MORE essays and term papers as homework? Would you love to win something for writing an essay? OF COURSE!
The Asian Pacific Heritage Month Essay Contest ends May 27th. That means there is still plenty of time of write an essay for the contest. Go ahead wait till the last minute. , which is 4pm May 27th. Just be sure the essay is about "Freedom For All" (details on the sfpl website).

Welcome

Welcome to SFPL's new teen blog! Soon to come: advice columns, events, listings for new books, cds, and dvds, suggestions for what we should buy, pics, and much more!


Don't forget to sign up for Teen Summer Read!