Tween/Teen Thursday!

Hot Reads for Cold Days!

Contributed by LaShawn Myles, Youth Services Librarian

December 21^st, is the first day of winter.  Reading some great winter reads, will help stave off the chill.  Here are some great picks.

Young Adult

Frozen
Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

DB084361 (audio)

More than a century after a catastrophic disaster wiped out most of humanity and covered much of the earth with ice, fifteen-year-old Cass yields to the voice in her head urging her to embark on a dangerous journey across a poisoned sea to the mythical land, Blue.

After the Snow
S.D. Crockett

DB075997 (audio)

Fifteen-year-old Willo and his family are "stragglers," independent homesteaders who reject the repressive government that seized control after a new ice age brought an era of scarcity. When his family vanishes from their home, Willo sets out to find--or avenge—them.

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
Gary Paulsen

DB043280 (audio)

Paulsen and his team of dogs endured snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, and hallucinations in the relentless push to go on.

Shadow & Bone (Book 1)
Leigh Bardugo

DB075094 (audio)

After exhibiting new-found powers during an attack on her convoy, Alina Starkov is taken from her post as a lowly assistant cartographer--and away from her only friend, Mal--to become the protégée of the mysterious and deadly Darkling. Some violence. For junior and senior high and older readers. 2012

Grades K-3

Blizzard

John Rocco

BR021045 (Braille)

After a massive blizzard, a boy becomes a hero when he manages to walk to the local store and bring supplies back to his neighborhood, which has been snowed in for days. PRINT/BRAILLE.

Snowflake Bentley

Jacqueline Briggs Martin

DBC08707 (download audio)

BR012032 (Print/Braille)

A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations. 

Upcoming Events

Maryland Regional Braille Challenge

Braille is an important key to literacy! It allows for the enjoyment of reading, leads to school success, and opens the doors to future employment. Each year in February, students who read braille in grade Pre-K through grade 12 are invited to participate in the Maryland Regional Braille Challenge reading and writing contests. Parents are invited to participate in workshops about current topics related to visual impairment, the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) and education, while students are taking the tests. Teachers and school staff are invited to assist with test proctoring and scoring and helping to facilitate the day.

Students whose test scores qualify for the National Braille Challenge will be invited to compete at the annual competition which is held at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, CA each June. 

Save the Date: the 2020 Maryland Braille Challenge will be held on Saturday, February 8, 2020

See 2020 MD Braille Challenge Flyer for more information

Register for the Maryland Braille Challenge by completing this 2020 MD Braille Challenge Registration Packet and this  2020 MD Braille Challenge Permission Form.

Enter the Student MDBC Creative Writing Contest

For more information, contact:

Jackie Otwell
410.444.5000, ext. 1488 | jacquelineo@mdschblind.org

Enoch Pratt Library Poetry Contest

Maryland poets, this FREE contest is for YOU!  If you are a Maryland resident age 18 and older and enjoy writing, submit your work to the Enoch Pratt Free Library.  Rules are listed below.

• Paid or volunteer staff of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review and their immediate families are not eligible, nor are previous Pratt Library Poetry Contest first-place winners.
• Please send only one original poem, on any theme and in any form, for consideration.
• Your entry must be unpublished, either in print or on the Web, including personal blogs, Facebook, or Twitter. It cannot be currently under review for possible publication. 
• Your entry must not exceed 100 lines.
• Submit your typed entry as a Microsoft Word attachment by e-mail to contest@prattlibrary.org or by mail to:

Poetry Contest, Fiction Department

Pratt Library, 400 Cathedral St.

Baltimore, MD 21201-4484.

• Entries received after Sunday, March 1, 2020, will be disqualified.
• Please submit your name, address, phone number, and a brief biography on a separate page. Please do not put your name, address, phone number, or biography on the entry itself. Our judges will see only the poem.
• Confirmation of receipt and comments on your entry will not be provided, nor will your entry be returned to you. These rules are also available on the contest page, where an announcement of the winner will be posted in mid-April: www.prattlibrary.org/poetrycontest

The winning poem will be published in Little Patuxent Review, enlarged for display in a Central Library window and celebrated at a public reading at the Library.