During our peak business hours on any day of the week, it’s common for a teen to meander up to the circ desk every 5 min to inform me of the boredom or new drama in their lives. What begins as a game can quickly become distracting for the patron I’m currently assisting. I’m sure that you too are familiar with the various ways harmless teen behavior becomes disruptive or escalates to more serious issues. In an attempt to create a positive environment for teens to interact outside of programs, I struggle to find the right type of activity to sustain their interest as well as occupy a good amount of their spare time. Because it’s hard to break into conversation with some teens, I’d like to share a few practices I’ve tried which have shown to influence constructive relationships between teens and books as well as teens and myself.

When displaying “Pep Rally” found in Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems by John Grandits, I’m greeted with gaffaws as teens gaze upon the wry stick figured cheerleader illustration. The word ‘air’ fits within a large O for a head, ‘ridiculously thin waist’ bends to form the torso, ‘bOObs’ cross the mid-section, and ’stupid little skirt’ collapses upon itself as it swishes side-to-side. In this collection of 30+ poems, language acrobats across pages, zig-zaging, and curling as hair might on a “Bad Hair Day.” These clever word pictures accompany the opinions of a mistrusting high school teen who eventually learns to confide in someone like “Andrea, a cheerleader who turned out to be a regular person- annoyingly pretty, but a regular person.” It doesn’t matter if teens read all of the poems, for they just might open up towards you.

You can use prompts found in the Write Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing by Bonnie Neubauer to get teens thinking outside of typical first person stories. On a strip of paper type “Without looking down, describe what, if your feet had eyes, they’d see right now” or other various excerpts to litter your teen area, create a bulletin board display, or slip them inside books during checkout.

Hopefully you’ve picked up a few good hints to assist you in your interactions with teens. As I discover other helpful practices, I’ll give ya a holla and share. For more inspiration, follow these links: Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverant & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life by Alan Wolf OR Poetry is Contagious: How I Teach My Students to Write Award-Winning Poetry by Betsey Coleman.