On Friday, April 11th, I went to the Ballard Library to help with/participate in one of its teen events called Game On! Because it happened to be one of the few nice days we’ve have around here for awhile, there weren’t a lot of people (six total, if you count me and Lynn the teen librarian). Nevertheless, I had a good time and got to meet some cool kids. We mostly ended up talking about books and marking up some lists of books Lynn’s thinking about buying for the Summer Reading Program, but we also played a game called Chicken or the Egg?.
(Now, I hear from time to time some negativity about teens these days, but let me tell you a true fact: I, a reasonably intelligent college-educated soon to be post-graduate degree holder, was beaten at an historical trivia game by a freshman in high school. She was one smart cookie.)
Some things I picked up from my experience:
- Always have food for young people. Lynn had pretzels and lemonade.
- Be prepared for no one or tons of people to show up. You can make an educated guess, but you never know.
- Get teen volunteers involved in the planning and running of events and trust their judgment.
