Welcome to our third issue of What’s Up in the Loft, a newsletter for middle & high school students. Each month, we’ll highlight various library resources, new book recommendations, and upcoming events.
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Strategic Plan Survey
Strategic Plan SurveyThe Library is beginning a planning process where we look ahead to what our goals will be for the next four years – and input from our middle and high school community is pivotal to our success in creating this plan.
Please take a few minutes to respond to our online survey. Your answers will help us formulate a plan to steer the Library through the next four years, so we can continue offering programs, services and materials for the whole community.
If you’d prefer to respond on paper, we will have hard copies of the survey available at the Patron Services and Reference desks, as well as outside the office of the Library director on the second floor. You can also print out a PDF copy of the survey here. Please submit your completed survey to the Patron Services desk or the Reference desk.
Most Checked Out Middle & High School Titles of 2024
Ever wonder what gets checked out the most here at the library? Here are the top circulating titles in various middle & high school collections:
- Videogames: Among Us (all platforms)
- Middle School Fiction: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- Middle School Manga: One Piece by Eiichiro Oda
- Middle School Graphic Novel: The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz
- Middle School Nonfiction: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI: Young Readers’ Edition by David Grann
- High School Fiction: We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
- High School Manga: Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui
- High School Graphic Novel: Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
- High School Nonfiction: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
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New Book Drop!
Fresh to the shelves in the Teen Loft and the High School section… don’t miss these new hot titles!
- The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman – fans of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson shouldn’t miss this new dark academia murder mystery.
- All Better Now by Neal Shusterman – if you loved the Scythe or Unwind series, you won’t be able to put down Shusterman’s newest dystopia, set in the not-too-distant future as a deadly, unprecedented virus spreads, leaving long-term effects with its survivors…
- Away by Megan E. Freeman – for fans of 2021’s breakout verse novel Alone – a stand-alone companion novel that follows a group of teens experiencing the same sudden disaster covered in Alone. (You don’t have to have read alone to love this survival story!)
- Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft – Disney fans, get your tissues… if you remember the movie Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast, you’ll need this prequel in your life. And if you don’t…. you’ll need this love story.
Upcoming Events
- Spring 2025 programs are published in our online calendar and the print newsletter will be in mailboxes soon! Get excited for a Sunrise on the Reaping launch party celebrating the new Hunger Games book, a LEGO party, the next Teen Tiny Art Show, a murder mystery party (of course), delicious food trivia, dogs to study with, and more!
- The Loft will open at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 28.
- The next Teen Take & Create, Beaded Heart Keychains, will be available while supplies last starting Monday, February 24 in the Teen Loft.
- Homework Hangout will be in the first floor meeting room on Wednesday, February 26, from 3:30-5 pm.
- Sign up for Book Buddies and earn service hours while helping a 1st or 2nd grader with their reading practice on Wednesday, April 9, from 6:15-7:30 pm.
100 Books Before Graduation
Keep that Winter Reading steam going and log the books you finish in our 100 Books Before Graduation program! You will earn prizes for every 25 books you finish, including free books, a water bottle, portable phone charger, and a special gift bag at completion! So far this school year, 925 books have been logged and 8 middle and high schoolers have completed their 100 books… join their ranks and sign up today!
As always, you can share your feedback with us here – we’d love to hear from you!
We also invite you to recommend materials for us to include in next month’s newsletter!
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Middle and high school students, sign up to receive monthly information about upcoming programs, new books, homework help and more!
