Teen Poetry Contest Winners 2013

Wake County Libraries has announced the winners of the 2013 Teen Poetry Contest.  All of the winners and their poems can be found on this page.

Teen Video Contest Entry for Eva Perry Library

Every year, the Collaborative Library Summer Program hosts a Teen Video Challenge.  Teens, ages 13-18 are asked to make 30-90 second videos to promote libraries and reading that incorporate the summer reading theme slogan.  This year, the slogan is “Beneath the Surface.”

A team of teens at Eva Perry Library created a video for this contest.  After 2 hours of filming and countless hours of editing, our video is complete.  There will be one winner in each state, so wish us luck.  The winning teens receive $275 and the sponsoring library also receives prizes.

The video entry was created by Sahil Thakore, Joey Gizzi, Joey Matthews, Christopher Martinez, and Jack Cicin.  The concept was created by a group of teens, script by Sahil Thakore.  Music is by Nax Torres, under a Noncommercial Attribution Creative Commons License. And here is our video!

 

Read to Win 2012 Winners

Alexis, age 12, winner at Eva Perry Library

The State Fair is coming up and will occur in Raleigh from October 11-21, 2012.  Teens all over Wake County were given a chance to Read to Win passes to the State Fair!

From September 1-October 1, 2012, teens were invited to pick up a reading log.  For each hour they read, teens could earn a ticket.  The tickets were put into a pool, from which each library drew 2 winners!

The winners received enviable prize packs that included four free passes to the North Carolina State Fair, two t-shirts, and a commemorative coffee table book about the history of the State Fair.  A special thank you goes out to the State Fair for donating these prizes!

This week, all over the county, happy teens are picking up their prizes.

Poetry Contest Winners

The winners of this year’s poetry contest have been announced! Head over to our Contest page to see who won. Thanks to everyone who entered, and we hope to read more of your fabulous poems next year!

Teen Poetry Contest: Judges and Prizes

Still working on your poems? If you haven’t finished polishing your entry for the Teen Poetry Contest, don’t worry! There’s still time! You can still review the guidelines and submit your entries here.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

If you have finished, then you may be interested to know that your poem will soon be judged by a real-life YA author. That’s right, Melissa Walker will be one of the judges tasked with reading all the submissions and choosing a winner. If you’ve submitted your poem already, why not pick up one of Melissa’s books to read while you wait? You can place a hold on them through our online catalog. You can also learn more about Melissa at her website, or follow her on Twitter!

Haven’t even started your poem? Maybe you just need a little motivation. How about some fabulous prizes? The winner of our Teen Poetry Contest will receive a $50 gift card from Empire Eats Restaurants. Love great pasta? Authentic Lebanese? Smokey BBQ? Steaming coffee? Five great restaurants means five great choices!

So get writing! Find your inspiration (and find it quick) because you’ve only got until March 15 to enter. Good luck!

Team West Regional!

West Regional teens recently made a video for the CSLP 2012 Teen Video Challenge. They can win $275 and $150 for West Regional Library! Please support by watching and liking their video :] It’s a black and white silent film, and the theme was “Own the Night”.

Watch it here on Youtube. Good luck!

Some background information on why they made the video the way it was (to read after you’ve watched the video):
-The black and white silent film was inspired by Charlie Chaplin.
-The hardest scene to do was the setting up of the tea party. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare were both very tired by the end of filming the scene.
-The Mad Hatter accidently threw the dormouse (which is what she tosses) straight at the camera, which is actually her camera.
-The clipboard were all puns off of the characters that the actors/actresses played. The main character’s (the girl in the rocking chair) email was ownthenight@westregionallibrary which I thought was very clever.
-This took about 2.5 hours to film.
-While filming one of the scenes, Dracula (not pictured in the camera) flips his cape and the whole thing flies away, causing the Mad Hatter to burst into laughter and for the whole scene to be refilmed again.
-In a blooper, the main character is watching the March Hare spazz out and is laughing, but doesn’t realize that she is actually in the film.
-In a blooper, the March Hare hops to Dracula, who is sitting in the corner, but his ears come off.
-The actual planning of the video also took about 2.5 hours to plan.

-hils

Enter our Teen Poetry Contest!

Our 7th annual Teen Poetry Contest is officially open for submissions!

Love to write? Love the library? Feeling inspired?

Mind Over Matter. Or the Other Way Around.

Have you ever had that itching feeling? The one where you’re on the edge of some momentous discovery or creation, an instant before a breakthrough, so close that a heavenly choir is preparing to sing in the background? If you’re anything like me, that instant-before moment is right about when you lose your train of thought.

The other night I was doodling my own book cover for Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Everything was going well, the  images were flowing freely from my mind to my pencil to the paper. My fingertips were throbbing, but it was that pleasant soreness of effort and accomplishment. The two-dimensional graphite on my paper grew a magical depth and form, reminding me of the real magic that came out of Clary Fray’s illustrations. Okay, maybe my surprisingly decent drawing of a finger sandwich couldn’t actually become a finger sandwich, like Clary’s could in Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, but it could make my soul soar.

Eva Perry Library Reads: Outcast

*This blog post got Evelyn tickets for our Teen Summer Contest. Click here to find out how to enter!*

The book Outcast, by Rosemary Sutcliff, is full of historical adventure. The setting is near the end of the Roman empire, when barbaric hunting tribes inhabited Britain. Beric, the main character, landed as an infant on the coast of England, the sole survivor of a violent shipwreck. A kind couple took him in and raised him as their own. Fifteen years later, when the tribe’s crops failed, and sickness started spreading, the elders blamed Beric, who was of Roman descent, a nation despised by the Brits. He was thrown out of the only family and community he had ever known, never to return. The book follows the journey and engrossing adventures of Beric.  Outcast was an intriguing novel, filled with twists and turns.

Teens’ Top Ten 2011: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

*This blog post got Cheenu book bucks for our Teen Summer Contest. Click here to find out how to enter!*

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is one of the Teens’ Top Ten Nominations for 2011.

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, is the last book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. The background of this book is the country of Panem, the result of a devastated and ruined North America. The country of Panem is made up of the Capitol (the center of Panem) and thirteen outlying districts whose job is to supply the Capitol with various goods and products. Before the Hunger Games Trilogy began, a civil war broke out in which the districts revolted against the Capitol. The districts were eventually crushed and District 13 was supposedly demolished. As a penalty for the rebellion, the districts are forced to send one male and one female representative from each district to fight to the death on live television. Everyone is forced to watch this battle to show how weak they are.

2011 Student Poetry Contest: Winners

The winners for Wake County Public Libraries 2011 Student Poetry Contest have been announced!  Click the Pirate Kraken above to find out who won!

Last Call For Entries!

Today is the last day to enter the 2011 Wake County Public Libraries 2011 Student Poetry contest!  Check out the guidelines and submit your poem before 5:00 p.m.!

All entries must include your name, grade, school, phone and your parents’ name and phone number.  Please remember that the contest is open only to residents of Wake County, NC!

What are you waiting for?  Enter now!

Win $3,000 for Your Library and $50 for Yourself

Teens, how would you like to win $3,000 for your favorite Wake County Library and $50 for yourself!  The American Library Association is sponsoring a video contest for ages 13-18.  Entries are due by April 18.  This contest has no affiliation with Wake County.  Details can be found on the website.

Teen Art Contest at Eva Perry Regional

All students in grades 6-12 are invited to submit original artwork in our 4th annual Eva Perry Library Teen Art Contest and Exhibition.

Entries will be accepted from February 28-March 7.  Grades 6-12 can submit to the exhibition, and only grades 9-12 will be judged in the contest.

One entry per category:  painting, drawing, digital arts, photography, or mutimedia. And entry form must be submitted with each piece of art.

Click here for an entry form and a full list of guidelines.

Contest: Short Essay

Winning $100 for a hundred word essay sounds pretty awesome to me!   Respond to the question: “How does technology make the world a better place?” Check out the contest and rules on www.tweentribune.com

Wrestle Mania Reading Challenge

Do you like wrestling?  Are you a fan of the WWE?  We want to see you on the mat as part of the Wrestle Mania Reading Challenge! This program is sponsored by World Wrestling Entertainment and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Teens can compete to earn prizes, including a trip to WrestleMania, and money for their library.

Pre-teens and teens in grades 5-12 can sign up to read five books by April 2011.  Participants are also asked to complete an art project that will be mailed to the YALSA office to be judged against other teens in the country.  You could win wrestling trading cards, Coldstone creamery gift cards, or even a trip to Atlanta to see Wrestle Mania XXVII live!

Pick up your packet at Eva Perry Library in Apex, Green Road Library in Raleigh, Holly Springs Library, or Wendell Library.

Teen Read Week is held annually during the third week of October, and YALSA’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge runs from now through October 25, 2010. To find out more about the WrestleMania Reading Challenge contact Lindsey Dunn at lindsey.dunn@wakegov.com

West Regional Reads: Suspicion

Suspicion by Kate Brian

This is a another good book I read this week. Reed, Noelle, and their friends, the Billings Girls have a vacation on St.Barths over the winter break. Reed is poor but her friends are rich. She enjoy the vacation until on of her bff’s ex tries to kill her. The suspects narrow down to Paige  Poppy,and Daniel who left the party during the scene of the crime. These two times during the murder attempt  her friend Sawyer rescues her. It’s a really mysterious and has suprissing twist in the end. I really like this book and I want to read the next series.

Teen Reviewer: Kaviya, West Regional Library

Holly Springs Reads: Princess Diaries Extravaganza!

Curious about Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series? Check out these mini reviews for a taste of what they’re like!

The Princess Diaries: This is one of the best dairies I’ve ever read. Its extremely cute and funny. The writing is very “authentically teenage”, and very entertaining and well written. The main character, Mia, seemed like a typical teenage girl, which makes her easy to relate to. It will leave you wishing, just a bit that you were in her “five foot nine, flat-chested, freak of the school” Doc Marten shoes. A great book!

 
Princess in the Spotlight: It’s pretty obvious that Mia doesn’t really enjoy being the princess of Genovia. I mean it’s pretty stressful for any 14-year-old. She has to take Princess lessons, have a body guard follow her around and one day she has to inherit the throne of a country she’s only visited. This book was as great as the first “diary”. Its very funny, and entertaining. Mia still has her charm and wit. She is still very realistic, and easy to relate to. An awesome book.

West Regional Library Reads: The Lightning Thief

*This blog post got Kaviya a ticket in the prize drawing for our Teen Summer Contest. Click here to find out how to enter!*

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I read THE LIGHTNING THIEF this week. This is the first [in the] series. This book is about a normal kid Percy Jackson, who attends school but gets in trouble by getting in fights to defend his friend Grover. Grover is a satyr and Mrs. Dodds is Percy’s teacher who is really a monster from underworld whos is sent to kill Percy. Mr.Brunnan, a half human son of a Greek God and a mortal human protects Percy by handing him a sword called the Riptide to defend himself with. After that Percy ‘s life is in danger. His mom and Grover must get Percy in Camp Half-Blood. In this camp he meets the camp director Mr.Brunnan and the helper Mr.Dionysas. He meets a lot of new people and Annabeth who helps him to recover from his fight against the Minotaur.  Mr. Brunnan sends [him] on a quest to find the thief who stole Zeus’s Lightning Bolt before a war breaks out between  Zeus and Poseidon, Percy’s dad. Percy is given ten days to find the thief. The main suspect from Zeus’s point of view is Percy Jackson. I really read this book, it’s so awesome.

~Teen Reviewer: Kaviya, West Regional Library

West Regional Library Reads: more Maximum Ride

*This blog post got Cheenu a ticket in the prize drawing for our Teen Summer Contest. Click here to find out how to enter!*

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

This book is the third installment in the Maximum Ride books (make sure to read from the first and second books, you’ll understand this one a LOT better by doing that). In my personal view, this is the best in the series. It is full of twists and turns that make the Batman roller coaster in Six Flags look puny. I had to put effort to take my eyes off of the pages once the first twist started. The book is definitely an 11 out of 10 (yes, I mean what I say).