What's Up for Teens

The San José Public Library invites teens to create a book trailer for our Summer Reading Celebration during the months of June and July. Upload a short clip, no longer than 4 minutes, to YouTube. Be creative! The contest is open to all participants in the Teen Summer Reading Celebration.

How to enter:

Think of a favorite book you read for Summer Reading and envision it as a short video, one that will capture the interest of your audience. Create your own book trailer, reviewing the book. You can submit more than one video, but each video has to be for a separate book.

• Sign up for Summer Reading starting on June 1, 2013.
• Post the video on YouTube using the tag: SJPL2013SRC
• Submit the YouTube link to your book trailer along with your name, age, contact information (either a phone number or email) and your library branch to: 2013SJPLBookTrailerContest@gmail.com
• All entries must be submitted by July 31, 2013
• Book trailers may not be longer than four minutes in length
• Story being reviewed should be a young adult or adult fiction or non-fiction book.
• Cite all images, video and audio that you did not create

A panel of judges (staff at San José Public Library) will review all entries and select the top three winners, to be announced in August 2013. The panel of judges will use the following criteria when reviewing book trailer entries:

• Content: Clear introduction; strong hook; summary without dominating narration; fresh and interesting commentary with strong conclusion
• Voice/Sound: Interesting; well-rehearsed; smooth delivery; holds audience attention; easy to hear narration over soundtrack; voice sounds natural and helps convey meaning; soundtrack adds to tone/feel of presentation
• Images: Crisp, clear, engaging, enriching, extending details and meaning; appropriately cited.
• Presentation: All elements (color and graphics) work together seamlessly to create an interesting book trailer

Need some examples? Check out the winning entry from last year's Book Trailer Contest, created by K. Rai.

Here are links to some professional book trailers:

• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu

Teens who submit links to their Book Trailer will automatically be entered in the contest. The top 3 winners will receive:

• 1st place: iPad Mini
• 2nd place: $50 gift card for iTunes
• 3rd place: $25 gift card for Jamba Juice

Finished with the Percy Jackson series? But dying to read more?  Have no fear, Rick Riordan has written a sequel series to Percy Jackson and the Olympians!  The first book in the Heroes of Olympus series, The Lost Hero, starts off with three kids on a school trip who discover encounter something entirely out of their world.  Leo, Piper, and Jason soon discover that they have a godly parent and are demigods (half-human, half-god).  Although Percy Jackson is not present in the first book, Percy is definitely mentioned and will come back later. They are also three of the seven demigods destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy.  Follow their journey, discover their secrets, and find out what they were born to do; find out in The Lost Hero.

Finished with The Lost Hero? Read the sequels: The Son of Neptune (#2), The Mark of Athena(#3), and The House of Hades (coming Fall 2013) 

High school students - would you like to find out how you score on the SAT?  Take a full length practice SAT test, proctored by Princeton Review.  This is a great opportunity to try your hand at the types of questions you will see on the actual test.

 There will be SAT practice test administered on Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 1:30 PM until 6:00 PM (tentatively) at Berryessa Branch Library. Please register by calling 1-408-808-3050 or come directly to the information desk.

You do not need to print an admission ticket, but must bring a couple of pencils and a calculator to the test. Check out this SAT Day Checklist to get prepared for the test.

Come back on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 5:30 pm for the strategy session to receive a personalized score report.  Parents are welcome to attend the strategy session.

Aimee Carter’s young adult debut The Goddess Test is a great read for teens who have read (and who are planning to read) the Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series.  This novel brilliantly incorporates the world of Greek Mythology and legends based on Greek folklore, but at the same time maintaining the reader’s interest.

The first book in the Goddess Test series is The Goddess Test.  And the first book of this trilogy introduces a girl named Kate whose mother is very sick.  Kate knows that her mother is going to die, and she’ll do anything to make her happy; so they drive up to Eden, the town where her mom’s was raised.  At Eden, Kate begins to encounter weird things, people, and even places.  There she discovers that the Greek Gods are real, and Henry-who claims to be Hades, The God of the Underworld - is giving Kate a chance to save her mother if she agrees to become his future wife, and the Queen of the Underworld.  All she has to do is pass the tests.

There are seven tests she must pass, but these seven tests can be administered anywhere and at anytime; however, 11 girls have tried to take these tests, and all of them have died.  This book is full of suspense, mystery, drama, and love; it’s a book I couldn’t put down!  The sequel, Goddess Interrupted, was much more enticing, and it became much more suspenseful as you reached the end.  But both books had great endings, unfortunately the sequel ended with such a big cliffhanger that it left the readers wanting more!  The final book in the trilogy, The Goddess Inheritance, comes out February 26, 2013, and I can’t wait to see how Aimee Carter ends this brilliant series!  Check out The Goddess Test and Goddess Interrupted at a library near you.  And request your copy of The Goddess Inheritance to finally know how it ends.