The high school book club was given a great honor for the 2014- 2015 school year; they were given the opportunity to review books written by unknown authors.

The book club has teamed up with the Teens Top Ten, or T.T.T., which is a national teen reader’s choice award to pick the favorite teen book of the year. The high school was one of only 16 schools and libraries  picked to participate.

Publishers send the school copies of teen books that have yet to be published before they hit the shelves. Book club members read the books and review them, which are sent to the publishers to read. The students also nominate the books for awards such as the T.T.T.

The program motivates teens to read and to be able to critically evaluate the literature and analyze it. The students are considered book reviewers. The books are not only for members of the club, students are welcome to drop in the library and take a book to read. During the high school orientation, middle schoolers are also showing interest in the program.

The reviews are written and submitted to YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services association. Christina, the stow Public teen librarian nominated the Stow students to review the books by submitting a bio on the students and what they do.

YALSA was founded in 1957, and is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens aged 12-18. Through its member-driven advocacy, research, and professional development initiatives, YALSA builds the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens, which gives teen the power to review and pick their favorite book, as a professional book critic would.

The book club meets one Thursday a month and many times during the summer at the Stow Monroe Falls Public Library. During the school year, students are able to visit book club during lunch periods or study halls. Students are encouraged to take as many books as they want when at meetings but are urged to make reviews.

The program promotes reading, it demonstrates that reading is still big and  high school kids are reading more independently than they ever have, checkouts are constant, we have a lot of readers here. The high school has also teamed up with the stow public library and Kent state, along with YALSA and T.T.T.

School Librarian Kelly Lanci said, “ I think that sometimes with the new technology and with the way libraries are changing, for the better, for the twenty first century, a lot of times people are very opinionated about libraries and assume or think that we don’t like books anymore, that we don’t promote reading, we don’t want kids reading the newest titles and that is far from the truth. This honor proves that reading is happening, that we love our books, ebook or not.”

One annual tradition that takes place at the high school every year is the author meet up that the book club holds.

They either skype or bring in a guest author to speak with them for the book they are currently reading.

The book they have been reading is “AntiGoddess” by Kendare Blake. Blake is from South Korea and was adopted at the age of seven months.  She grew up in the small town of Cambridge, Minnesota.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Ithaca College and a Master’s degree in Writing from Middlesex University in London.

Her debut book was “Sleepless Society,” which is about post 9/11 teenagers coming of age. Her next two books were “Anna Dressed in Blood” and “Girl of Nightmares,” which are horror novels following the strange life of the main character, Cassio Lowood, a teenage ghost hunter. Her most recent greek-mythology focused series called “Goddess War” started with “Antigoddess,” which is the novel the book club read. Following Antigoddess is Mortal Gods and she plans to conclude the series with Ungodly, which will debut this year.

She currently lives on the West Coast, which is where she will be skyping from.

The main people in charge of this event were Kelly Lanci and Christina Getrost. Christina Getrost is the teen librarian at the Stow Public Library.

Getrost started by selecting a book that they were reading around spring time because she likes to do the Skype visit around the new year. She decided to go with the book “AntiGoddess” because they had planned to read it this spring.

Getrost got a hold of Blake and was able to set up the Skype visit for the exact day they had planned.

“One thing I also asked her was how to pronounce her name, and she gave me this cute reply. ‘So it’s three syllables. Ken, like the doll. Dahr, like Darth Vader, and a little uh on the end, like uh, what the [heck] are you doing with that Ken doll, Darth Vader? Ken-Dahr-uh.’ I thought that was hilarious,” said Getrost.

Blakes’ Skype visits usually do cost a fee to take place and this is common amongst many authors. Blake said that she would waive the fee if they purchased copies of her book. The public library had already purchased 50 copies, so they did not have to pay a fee for this Skype visit.

The book club members are very excited for this event to take place and have been preparing questions they are very eager to ask. Do not forget to tune into Stohion.com on March 19 for a live recap of the Skype visit.