Fridays are usually my day off during the summer. With summer reading in full bloom, the Reference Department and the Children's Room at work are getting hit with requests for more help for teens in choosing their books. It can be a difficult thing to do because young adult literature spans the years between 11 and 18. There is a lot of maturity to be developed in that time period, which means some of the books for older young adults can have more adult themes.

This led to some concerns by the staff so they asked me to do a workshop on young adult literature and knowing how to better serve the tweens and teens in order to give them good stuff to read that is both reading level and age appropriate.

With all of my teaching experience, I am not usually too worried about doing workshops at conferences and such, but this one was a little different. The primary reason was that I was presenting to people who really helped teach me to be the librarian I am today. It felt a little funny presenting to them.

The whole thing went pretty well. I had no problem with the content of the presentation, and I made sure to give them all handouts. We had time for questions, and it was more of a discussion than a lecture.

I also figured that since it was relating to teen stuff, I would make sure to have food. Everything with teens goes over so much better with the inclusion of food. While there were no teens there, it just seemed like a natural fit. I brought muffins and some juice.

The good news is that everyones said they felt more comfortable about helping the kids after we got through with the presentaiton so it seems that it fit the bill