Calling All Teens

The Summer Reading Program is off to a strong start this year with nearly two-hundred participants registering at the Grand Terrace Library branch so far. Although the program is brimming with exuberant children, the library is hoping to enroll more of the local teenage demographic. Jeff Smith, an employee at the library for nearly six years, serves as the library's young adult specialist and shares that throughout his years at the library, he has noticed a severe decline in teenage participation. Given that the library sits on the opposite side of town from Grand Terrace High School, Smith understands that the library's location is a geographical inconvenience to teens. But, as Smith explains, the lack of teenage patrons is directly linked to the rise of interest in electronics and social media. "Teens are just not as interested in reading as when they were little, over the years we have lost a lot of young readers," Smith shared. Smith and his coworkers are constantly brainstorming ways to reach and engage teenagers, but the world's fast pace society makes it difficult. "Teens are just hard to appeal to all around, this generation has constantly changing interests. It's hard to bring them in and even harder to make them stay," says Smith. Brandy Valdez, mother of ten-year-old Vincent, nine-year-old Victoria and five-year-old Jacob, brings her three young children to the library on a regular basis, she shares, to instil a love of reading within them. "We make sure we join the Summer Reading Program to keep up reading and grammar skills," states Valdez passionately. "I have always been a reader and I've made sure to encourage my children to read and write at a young age." Valdez, a PTA mom at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, also notices a lack readership with children. "Many parents I have met do not encourage reading. I feel bad for the kids of this generation because they lack stability. If parents do not promote reading, their children will never be interested in it and it will reflect in their grades." Valdez shares that she plans to keep her children into books and away from social media for as long as she can. The youngest Valdez, Jacob, notices the positives of being a bookworm, even at his young age. "Whenever I get bored I want to read, it keeps me smart and gives me something to do," he expressed enthusiastically. The interest the Valdez children have in books reminds Smith of the power of reading; "Seeing children enthralled in a book has, sadly, become a rare sight. I want people to remember that they can escape to new worlds through different perspectives through reading. Reading inspires creativity and imagination, teenagers seem to be forgetting that."