Totally Tweens and Teens

The library programs featured in this unique collection are those that have been suggested, created, and led by youth with the help and guidance of the supportive adults at their library. Many times, librarians bring ideas to teens in hopes of getting them to buy in and perhaps help them to run programs. In this book, you’ll primarily find a role reversal! Tweens and teens lead the way with whatever adult information, support, and supervision they need to see their proposals through.

To accomplish this, the youth are encouraged to create new ideas, are empowered to make decisions, and are given control. Plus, the ideas they bring to life are not just peer-focused. The programs, activities, and events they create and lead can be for children, adults, or even for all ages or mixed audiences, as well as for fellow tweens and teens.

In addition to finding a wide array of proven ideas, recommendations, and testimonials from real tweens and teenagers, you will discover helpful advice on using the philosophies behind allowing youth to not only have a say but to take action; testimonials from adults who have worked directly with youth having this level of empowerment; suggestions on getting approval and providing funding and other support for youth ideas; ways to evaluate such youth-led programs; and sample forms, flyers, and other materials that can be adapted.

In 1980, Diane P. Tuccillo became the long-time YA Coordinator at the City of Mesa Library in Arizona where she led a dynamic, nationally known TAG. Most recently, she was Teen Services Librarian at the Poudre River Public Library District in Fort Collins, Colorado from 2007 until 2017 where she co-led a vibrant Interesting Reader Society (Teen IRS) TAG.

Tuccillo has been active in many professional organizations, including YALSA, ALAN, and the Arizona Library Association; has been a book reviewer and article contributor for professional journals such as School Library Journal and VOYA magazine and for professional books such as Nilsen & Donelson’s Literature for Today’s Young Adults. She is an Emeritus VOYA advisory board member and still writes for that publication. This is her fourth book about library work with teenagers.