Teen Zone Blog!

If you are interested in drama and acting, or just like performing, the Improv Club is for you. The group is for teens in 6th grade and up, or ages 11 – 18. No experience or registration is required. For additional information, contact akrupicka@ppld.org or khoke@ppld.org.

• When: Wed., Oct. 14 and Wed., Nov. 11 from 4 – 5 p.m.
• Where: East Teen Center at East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

This program for tweens is presented by the Space Foundation as part of All Pikes Peak Reads 2009. Students will design and build a lander similar to the new lunar lander, Altair. This design challenge will require students to build a lander that can land three astronauts safely on the lunar surface. Altair is the proposed Lunar lander that will land astronauts on the moon. It is being built by NASA as part of the Constellation program.

• When: Wed., Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m.
• Where: East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

This program for teens is presented by the Space Foundation as part of All Pikes Peak Reads 2009. Students will design a vehicle similar to the LCROSS impactor, which was built and launched by NASA as part of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission to study the moon. Students will design and build a vehicle that will release an impactor into a simulated lunar surface.

• When: Wed., Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m.
• Where: East Teen Center at East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

This summer’s Teen Writing Contest High School 1st Place winner is Bottles, by Colleen McCollum.

Colleen McCollum is, at best, an amateur at writing. Her experience in the field consists of school reports, diary entries, attempted poetry, and recorded dreams. She has, however, started a handful of stories that range in genre from fantasy to action to science fiction. Colleen loves to experiment with words to concoct anything between an amusing conversation and a dramatic stalemate. She will continue writing, probably throughout her life, and intends to enjoy it. Colleen has a habit of drawing her own characters and has a weakness for happy endings.

This summer’s Teen Writing Contest High School 2nd Place winner is Fortune or Fate?, by Brianne Dayley.

Brianne Dayley is 16 years old and this year will be a junior at Calhan High School out here in the little town of Calhan! Reading and Writing are probably her two greatest interests and she hopes to publish a novel before she graduates from college. She loves and takes interest in the little joys in life, keeps a consistently messy room, and some of her favorite writers/authors are Eoin Colfer, Orson Scott Card, Stephenie Meyer, William Shakespeare, and Sylvia Plath.

This summer’s Teen Writing Contest High School Honorable Mention winner is Dragon’s Ransom, by Rebekah Schroetlin.

Rebekah Schroetlin is 17 years old. Her favorite books are, The Lord of the Rings series, The Legend of Drizzt series, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Her favorite activities are reading, archery, training her horse, drawing, and writing.

“When I was ten years old, I first read J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. As soon as I finished it, I knew I wanted to be an author. I read as many books as I can and write stories of my own because when I do, I feel as though I am entering the world of the author and living alongside the characters. Someday, I hope that others will read my stories and feel the same way.”

This summer’s Teen Writing Contest Middle School 1st Place winner is The Mexican Butterflies, by Derek Sharman.

Derek Sharman lives just on the edge of Colorado Springs. He started hand-writing picture books at the age of five. Some time from seven to nine, he wrote his first novel, also by hand. He usually writes stories whenever he gets a strong enough idea, but he sometimes writes for assignments and contests like PPLD’s Teen Writing Contest. He likes writing science fiction best, but also writes other stories. Sometimes he writes books in a series.