Do you watch TV and love to write? Then enter the Federal Reserve Bank's Creative Writing Contest! Pick a show or episode and investigate the scenes to find the basic economic concepts within. Then write an essay, poem, play, or short story explaining how the show or episode demonstrates some of those concepts. Details here.

Teens ages 13 – 18! Create a video that encourages teens to participate in summer reading at the public library, including your interpretation of the 2012 teen slogan "Own the Night," and you could win $275 plus a $150 award for your library. One video created by a teen or group of teens will be selected as the Ohio winner in the national Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) “2012 Teen Video Challenge”. All state winning videos will be official 2012 CSLP promotional videos and will be viewed by teens nationwide.

Here are the 10 top teen books of 2011 as selected by Amazon--not the best selling books but what their staff felt were the best books of the year. Of these ten titles--three of them have been optioned for movie rights in the past month. What do you think of the list? Do you agree with the staff of Amazon?

Take advantage of our new Freegal database of free, downloadable music. Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library card holders can now download three of their favorite songs (to keep), from Sony Music Entertainment's extensive database every week. All the songs are in MP3 format to be compatible with the greatest number of devices. Explore new music, free to own - from the library! Check it out here and start listening!

Check out our new videogames for XBox360, Wii, and PS3--including the new Rocksmith! With the game and special cord, you can plug any guitar into your PS3 or Xbox360 system and play away! Plus we have games like The Cursed Crusade, Puss in Boots, Hulk Hogan's Main Event, and more! Check out the list here and stop in to see what's available.

Congratulations to Jeremy, Mitch, and Elijah for winning free copies of Inheritance, the newest Christopher Paolini book, at our Inheritance Book Release party on Monday night. Our 20 dragonriders had fun discussing the new book, what we think will happen in it, while making origami dragons and playing dragon jeopardy. And eating cake! More photos here.

Congratulations to Rowan Kramer, who won our Teen Read Week contest with her book review of Scars, and got to take home a lifesize standee of Edward Cullen! Check out the other teen book reviews here: http://www.smfpl.org/teen/bookreviews and submit your own!

Avast, ye landlubbers! It's the annual Talk Like a Pirate Day commemoration. Why? Just because these guys said so! And you can use our Mango Languages database to practice speaking Pirate, just like a real foreign language.

The Young Adult Library Services Association is sponsoring a photo contest for teens across the country. They're challenging you to create a visual version of your favorite book's title. You could win an e-reader fully loaded with great e-books! Learn more here. Have fun and good luck!

The following five books were chosen by Ohio high school students as their favorite books of 2011--have you read any of them? Vote for your favorite at the Teen Buckeye site.

The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2), by Cinda Williams China / Hunger: A Gone novel, by Michael Grant
Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy #6), by Richelle Mead / Things a Brother Knows, by Dana Reinhardt
Five Flavors of Dumb, by Antony John