Reading and writing most certainly go hand in hand, and this summer at the library there have been many opportunities for teen students to keep up with both during the two-month break from school.

In the “Teen Tales” creative writing group, young writers come together to share their works, develop their own writing skills and get some valuable advice from a published author. Margie Gelbwasser, author of the young adult novel “Inconvenient” has been moderating the writing group along with Catherine Dodwell who heads the teen library programs.

The exercises presented to the students each week involved everything from developing story ideas, characters, editing and critiquing each other’s work.  Some weeks the writers were asked to develop a story inspired by a certain photo they were presented with. Another exercise involved coming up with scenarios of which the writers had to include in their own stories. At the end of the summer, chosen students works will be turned into a book for the library.

This past Friday, the students gathered to go over a draft produced by writers in the group. One young author read her piece aloud and then each of the other group members was asked to highlight three things they liked most of the piece. The group also discussed the opening of the piece and talked about what introductions to the character could be further developed allowing the reader to get a better understanding of the character.

Gelbwasser reminded the group that criticisms do not mean that the readers don’t like the piece. Such exercises are done to help writers pick up on things to help them expand their stories.

Last month Gelbwasser served as guest speaker for the “Speak Out” book discussion group for students in grades 10 through 12. Two weekly book discussion groups were held this summer. Along with the writing workshop, these activities were developed as part of the summer reading program a collaboration between the library and the school district to keep kids reading and writing over the summer break.