More STAB@ALA talk:

This appeared in the King County Library System weekly Memo on Febraury 13th, 2007:

The Shoreline Teen Advisory Board visits the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference (or STAB@ALA)

On January 21^st, twenty-one teens from the Shoreline Teen Advisory Board (also known as STAB), descended on the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in downtown Seattle. Clad in identical black t-shirts, the group’s mission (other than to gather as much free stuff at the exhibits as they could carry), was to discuss some of the 232 books nominated to the 2007 Best Books for Young Adults selection list before a standing room only crowd of 300 people. The crowd consisted of librarians, publishers, agents, editors and other adults curious to know what teens think about young adult literature today.

The STABies did extremely well. Audience members commented on the group’s thoughtfulness, insights and passion. One publisher was heard to remark that this was the best teen participation forum he had seen. Best Books for Young Adults committee members praised the teens for their critical reading and examinations of the books nominated.

The teens enjoyed themselves immensely. Apart from their erudite discussion of the books at the teen forum, each of them returned with bags full of books, pens, note pads, water bottles and other assorted convention giveaways. More importantly, the teens returned with a sense of a job well done, a greater understanding of libraries and an even deeper love of reading. They also had sore backs from carrying around all of their free stuff.
The trip was sponsored by the Friends of Shoreline Library. The STABies were chaperoned by Yoshiko and Jeanne of the Friends of Shoreline Library, Alene and Aarene of the Richmond Beach-Shoreline cluster and Gail, a volunteer from the community.

For a complete listing of the titles that made the Best Books for Young Adults list visit
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/bestbooksyoung.htm

For some photos from the event, visit:
http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/librarylad/