71 Monell Avenue
Islip, NY 11751

T: 631-581-5933

F: 631.277.8429

71 Monell Avenue
Islip, NY 11751
T: 631-581-5933
F: 631-581-8429

71 Monell Avenue
Islip, NY 11751

T: 631-581-5933 

F: 631-581-8429

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Category Archives for Teens

New Year’s Resolution Suggestions for Teens

New Year’s Resolution Suggestions for Teens (and everyone else too!)

Here are some ideas to make 2019 your best year ever!

Number 1:

Be you! Boost your self-esteem by accepting who you are and embracing the fact that you are amazing and nothing can stand in your way. You are awesome!

Number 2:

Take care of yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally. Surround yourself with positive and supportive friends and family and ask for help if you need it. Eating healthier, drinking more water, meditating, and doing yoga are some things to help you feel your best.

Number 3:

Read more! Reading is an excellent way to boost creativity and expand your imagination. Reading helps relieve stress and exposes you to new ideas. Ask a librarian for book recommendations!

Number 4:

Dare to be brave! Do something you’ve never done before like learn how to crochet or make a meal from scratch. Learning new skills can help you prepare for the future.

Number 5:

Volunteer! The world needs you and your compassion! Volunteering your time for a good cause will make you feel great! The library is a wonderful place to find such (teen) volunteer opportunities.

Number 6:

Always be kind. You never know what others are going through - you just may be their glimmer of hope.

Now, go out there and rock 2019!

Tabletop Role Playing Games

Tabletop Role Playing Games

Some of my best friendships were made during my teen years sitting around a table pretending to be a half-elf druid with a Warg as a pet. I am still friends with the people I played Dungeons and Dragons with, and the game has become a staple of my adult life. Dungeons and Dragons is just one of the many awesome tabletop games that can be played with many people, but it  happens to be my favorite. As an avid gamer and mythology lover, anything to do with ancient myths (especially Greek or Norse), and mysteries is right up my alley. Tabletop gaming allows the creative type to unleash their imagination and have loads of fun, especially as the Dungeon Master, where your friend’s (character’s) fates are literally in your hand.

Some of my other favorite tabletop games are Werewolf, Call of Cthulhu, Munchkin, Apples to Apples, and Adventure Time Love Letter. I also enjoy playing the MMORPG World of Warcraft, which takes you to the warring realm of Azeroth, and reading about the Drow Elf Drizzt Do’Urden and his tumultuous life in the Forgotten Realms series. Tabletop gaming is an incredibly fun way to meet new friends, read some awesome stories, and create your own world or characters, places, and scenarios. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

Your library is the perfect place to learn how to play tabletop games, make new friends, and discover something that you will enjoy for years to come. Remember to stop by our Teen Room to check out our upcoming program calendar and flyers too.

Follow us on Instagram: @isliplibraryteenroom for updates and program information!

Step into the World of Virtual Reality at the Islip Public Library

Thanks to the Suffolk Cooperative Lending Library program, the Islip Public Library will have access to the HTC Vive Virtual Reality system from February 9 - February 12. Schedule a 30-minute appointment and transport yourself into another world -- the world of Virtual Reality!

Swim underwater, travel to a foreign country, jump off a skyscraper -- these are just some of the virtual reality experiences that will be available. While wearing the virtual reality headset, you will be able to "look around" the artificial world, move about in it, and interact with features or items that are depicted inside the headset.

So what exactly is Virtual Reality? Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment that can be explored and interacted with. You become a part of this virtual world and are immersed within this environment. While you’re there you can manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.

Please note - due to the intensity of virtual reality you must be 13 years or older in order to try it out.

Please stop by or call us at 631-581-5933 to find out more or to schedule an appointment.

Teen Read Week: Unleash Your Story

Teen Read Week: October 8-14, 2017

Teen books can change the way you see your surroundings and the world, and can help to open your mind to other people’s points of view. Sometimes you have set ideas about issues because you haven’t experienced them first hand. Characters in books can open you up to new experiences and challenges.

Teen books often explore difficult circumstances like bullying, depression, and challenging relationships or family circumstances, as well as the challenge of fitting in when you feel “different”.

Reading about other people and their stories helps you to be more understanding, empathetic, and compassionate. Want to be a better human? Yes! Who wouldn’t?!

Here are some great books to explore:
  • The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian. (Alexie)
  • Speak. (Anderson)
  • Split. (Avasthi)
  • Hate List. (Brown)
  • North of Beautiful. (Chen)
  • The Miseducation of Cameron Post. (Danforth)
  • Reality Boy. (King)
  • Saving Francesca. (Marchetta)
  • Say What You Will. (McGovern)
  • Darius and Twig. (Myers)
  • The Sky is Everywhere. (Nelson)
  • Before I Fall. (Oliver)
  • Winger. (Smith)
  • It’s kind of a Funny Story. (Vizzini)
  • Elsewhere. (Zevin)
  • The Book Thief. (Zusak)
Becoming a better student

18 Incredible Resources & Tips for Becoming a Better Student

On this page, I’ll give you a bunch of extremely actionable tips for becoming a better student. Enjoy!

  • Set realistic goals for yourself and write them down
  • Stick to a routine schedule
  • Get plenty of rest. The more alert you are, the better you absorb and retain information you learn during class.
  • Take advantage of the services the Library offers.
  • Stay after school for extra help when you need it.
  • Manage your time. It’s always better to work in increments rather than procrastinating until the last minute.
  • Learn how to take better notes.
  • Use a calendar to keep track of your tests and activities.
  • Join a club or sports team. Physical exercise keeps you energized and motivated.
  • Study with your friends or start a study group. When you study in a group setting you will learn by teaching, and when you explain concepts to your group members you will absorb the information more easily.
  • Work to stay healthy: eat nutritious foods, exercise, and sleep well so that sicknesses don’t keep you out of school.
  • Participate in class, and pay attention to questions your classmates ask.
  • Read something that interests you for 20 minutes a day - just for fun!

Use These Great Resources if You Want to Become a Better Student!

Listed below are some subscription Databases available to you (free) through the Islip Library. 

Access these through our homepage www.isliplibrary.org / click on Research

You can use these resources at the Library or at home (you’ll need your library card to access from home)

  • Homework Help: Interact with live tutors in math, science, reading/writing, social studies, PSAT/SAT, ACT, AP and state standardized tests.
  • Skills-Building: Brush up or catch up on a subject or skill with a live tutor
  • 24-Hour Writing Lab: Create a Brainfuse account and submit essays and other forms of writing for constructive feedback within one business day.
  • 24/7 Homework Question Center: Create a Brainfuse account and submit homework questions to be answered within one business day.
  • Foreign Language Center /Spanish-Speaking Support: Live help for your Spanish homework.

The Islip Library Teen Room provides a great place to study and do homework with your friends. There are 3 computers in the Teen Room for your use. If you prefer to use a laptop we have those too - for use in the Library. Our Mac laptops are available to run on a Windows operating system or the Mac operating system.

What to learn more?!

Attend this teen program: “Online Homework Help: Welcome Back to School” on Monday, September 12th, 7-8 pm at the Islip Library!

Got Empathy?

Got Empathy?

Do you have trouble “reading” the emotions, thoughts, or body language of other people? Is it difficult for you to imagine lives different from your own? Do you wish you could be less quick to judge and have more empathy for others?

Two recent studies show that reading literary fiction helps to increase your capacity for empathy. Wow! Besides expanding your mind, reading can also help you to become more compassionate!

One of the studies, published in the journal, Science (10/18/13) found that “after reading literary fiction people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence.” The researchers who conducted one study are social psychologists at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan; the other study was conducted by researchers in the Netherlands and produced almost identical results. They discovered that when you are engaged in reading literary fiction your brain is literally living vicariously through the characters. This is because literary fiction (as opposed to popular fiction or nonfiction) requires you to put yourself into someone else’s position. By contrast, in popular fiction, the author is in control; the story tends to center around plot, and the characters tend to be more stereotypical. Characters in literary fiction tend to be quirky and idiosyncratic, just like real people; they do not fit into a certain ‘type’. Because of that, according to one of the researchers, “each character presents a different version of reality, and they aren’t necessarily reliable. You have to participate as a reader in this dialectic, which is something that you also have to do in real life.”

If you already love to read literary fiction this is hardly news to you. One of the likely reasons that you enjoy doing so is because of the humanity and uniqueness of the characters. You can puzzle out psychological traits and motives and feel as if you are getting to know these characters as real people. You care about them and can imagine how you might feel or react if you were in their shoes.

How often, as we go about our day, do we encounter people who seem to care only about things that directly affect only their own lives - who see things only through their own limited viewpoint? We encounter people who seem to have almost no capacity to imagine themselves living another kind of life - be it as a person who speaks a different language, is a different race or sex, practices a different religion, is living with a disability, has a different sexual orientation, is homeless or fighting addiction or mental illness, or countless other variations. Unfortunately, a deficit of empathy seems to be increasingly common in our world.

The studies that link reading literary fiction to an increased empathy quotient provide especially useful information for parents and teachers. By encouraging young people to read literary fiction, and speaking with them about it, we can help them grow into adults who have the ability to imagine how it might feel to be a person living a life different from their own. They could grow up to be kind, understanding, and compassionate instead of judgmental, critical, and hurtful. Now wouldn’t that be refreshing?!! It’s never too late. We can all become more empathetic. Read some literary fiction today!

Here are some suggestions of literary fiction for adults and teens:                                                                                        (For suggestions of Children’s Literature, please see one of the librarians in our Children’s Room!)

 Americanah

Adichie

Angela’s Ashes

McCourt

Angle of Repose

Stegner

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Diaz

Calling Me Home

Kibler

The Color Purple

Walker

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time 

Haddon

Cutting for Stone

Verghese

Digging to America

Tyler

The Ghost at the Table

Berne

The Good House

Leary

The Grief of Others

Cohen

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Alvarez

The Invisible Bridge

Orringer

The Kite Runner 

Hosseini

The Light Between Oceans

Stedman

The Last First Day

Brown

The Lowland

Lahiri

Middlesex

Eugenides

Our Souls at Night

Haruf

The Piano Teacher

Lee

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Irving

Salvage the Bones

West

Snow Falling on Cedars

Guterson

The Space Between Us

Umrigar

State of Wonder

Patchett

A Thousand Acres

Smiley

Vaclev and Lena

Tanner

Waiting

Jin

White Teeth

Smith


teen books

Why Parents of Teenagers Should Read Teen Books

More than 4,800 books are published each year to be marketed to a teen audience. Reading teen books is an opportunity to put yourself in your teenager’s shoes, and to learn more about challenging topics. Many of the stories are appealing and well written. Reading teen books may help you to remember being a teen yourself and so make you more empathetic to what your kids are going through. Teens are dealing with new adult challenges at the same time that they are striving to form their own identities. Teen books can help you start a conversation about a difficult topic, especially if you and your teen simultaneously read the same title – form your own mini book discussion! Though times have changed, many of the complexities are timeless. A famous quote by Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is a reminder of that:

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

Here are some suggestions of books to read – all are available at Islip Public Library:

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Speak

Bray, Libba

Going Bovine

Brown, Jennifer

Hate List

Chbosky, Stephen

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Forman, Gayle

If I Stay

Lynch, Chris

Inexcusable

Myers, Walter Dean

Monster

Rowell, Rainbow

Eleanor and Park

Sepetys, Ruth

Out of the Easy

Woodson, Jacqueline

If You Come Softly

Islip Stars: Congratulations to Islip High School Class of 2016!

The Islip Public Library congratulates the Islip High School’s Class of 2016. The valedictorian and salutatorian are Amber Yildizel and Brian Lithen, respectively.

Bibliotherapy: angry teen

Bibliotherapy for Teens: Recommended Books

What is Bibliotherapy? It’s using books as a way of coping. In reading about others who are facing various issues, you can gain insight and understanding into your own challenges as well as into the challenges that your peers may be facing. Bibliotherapy can be helpful in understanding depression, substance abuse, anxiety, eating disorders, the death of a loved one, and many other issues.

Listed below are some books in our teen collection that might be of interest.

Abuse

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Speak.

Chaltas, Thalia

Because I am Furniture.

Flinn, Alex

Breathing Underwater

Anxiety/Mental Illness

Halpern, Julie

Have a Nice Day

Hautman, Pete

Invisible

Viccini, Ned

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Body Image

Clayton, Colleen

What Happens Next

Crutcher, Chris

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Friend, Natasha

Perfect

Bullying

Graham, Gardener

Inventing Elliot

Maciel, Amanda

Tease

Mathieu, Jennifer

The Truth About Alice

Death

Christopher, Lucy

The Killing Woods

Hubbard, Jenny

And We Stay

Nelson, Jandy

I'll Give You the Sun

Depression

Marchetta, Melina

Saving Francesca

Schumacher, Julie

Black Box

Wittlinger, Ellen

Blind Faith

Disabilities

Burcaw, Shane

Laughing at My Nightmare

Steinbeck, John

Of Mice and Men

Sundquist, Josh

We Should Hang Out Sometime

Divorce

Cohen, Rachel

Gingerbread

Reinhardt, Dana

How to Build a House

Scott, Elizabeth

Bloom

Drugs

Burgess, Melvin

The Hit

Hopkins, Ellen

Crank

Koertge, Ronald

Stoner & Spaz

GLBTQ

Green, John

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Johnson, Maureen

Bermudez Triangle

Levithan, David

Boy Meets Boy

Peer Pressure

Cormier, Robert

Chocolate War

Giles, Gail

Playing in Traffic

Flinn, Alex

Breaking Point

Self Esteem

Barson, K.A.

45 Pounds (more or less)

PewDiePie

This Book Loves You

Rawl, Paige

Positive: A Memoir

Young woman holding stack of books

Not All Teen Books Are The Same: Sometimes They Are Overlooked

There are so many Teen books to choose from, books are sometimes overlooked for various reasons because they are labeled as being the same old teen literature. Teen Angst, Quick, Dystopian, Fantasy series etc…

They sometimes stay on the shelves, just ready to be discovered. Some books that are really good that you may never have heard of are titles that you will make you laugh, cry, become open minded, imagine, learn something new, be empathetic, or just go on a journey to another place and time.

Some titles I recommend that are different than the typical genre are titles that have a lot of flare and touch on so many subjects.

We should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly a True Story, by Josh Sunquist. Twenty-five years old and still single why? Never having had a girlfriend, Josh was actually under his impression that he had been in relationships. Why was [Paralympic ski racer and cancer survivor] Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down the girls he had tried to date since middle school and asked them straight up: what went wrong?

The results of Josh's semi scientific, wholly hilarious investigation are captured from a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), to a misguided 'grand gesture' at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love--or at least a girlfriend--in all the wrong places.

Another often overlooked book is The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin.

It’s written like a piece of journalism. After Addison Stone, a talented street artist, mysteriously drowns, her former teacher investigates her death. The book itself is a compilation of the teacher’s findings, relaying what happened to Addison through interviews with Addison’s friends, which are interwoven with pictures of both Addison and her art.

It gives the impression that something bad is going to happen because all of the characters are fictional, it is a rare glimpse into New York art scene, fame and mental illness. This book is just not about what happened to Addison Stone it is also about who Addison Stone really was.

It's not just a Historical Novel , but Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, is about Missouri in 1849 and life on the Oregon Trail. This is Part Adventure, about friendship and overcoming odds and forging friendships in the least expected places. Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician -- not an easy thing if you're a girl, and harder still if you're Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hope of fulfilling her dream and, instead, leaves her fearing for her life.

With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. Life is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush. Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the lighthearted crew turns out to be unexpected allies.

Some other titles you may never heard of that are great reads:

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