Teens Choose Own Adventure at Library Program

Considering the ever-growing popularity fan fiction has with people of all ages these days, it's no surprise that Barbara Weber, the young adult librarian at the Wyckoff Public Library, would come up with a similar idea for a workshop tailored to the creative minds of local teenagers. After all, what teen wouldn't want to rewrite their own version of an existing storybook?

"Get Me Rewrite!" debuted for the first time at the library in 2009 for boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 16. Weber has the teens split themselves up into groups of four or five, then hands each group one copy of a specific storybook that she has chosen beforehand—each with the dialogue carefully hidden under Post-It notes.

Then, the teens' imaginations are allowed to run wild, as they go page-by-page in the book and, based on the illustrations alone, brainstorm ideas with each other onto a set of index cards. By the end of the session, each group has essentially come up with their own unique adventure, which is then shared out loud with everyone.

"It's ridiculous," Weber said of the idea. "But," she added, laughing, "it's fun."

This year, Weber got the kids prepared for "Get Me Rewrite—The Sequel" by posting on her blog that, "This year's picture book to be re-written… should be as much a fun challenge as last year's… gentle book about bunny rabbits. Get your quills sharpened and your sense of humor honed for this one, Wyckoff teens! It will be a hoot."

And a hoot it was, indeed. The story Weber chose was "Melrose and Croc Beside the Sea" by Emma Chichester Clark, the most recent in a series of picture books about two best friends—a Golden Retriever named Melrose and a crocodile named Croc.

In the original story, Melrose surprises Croc with a trip to the beach after poor Croc wakes up in a bad mood one day. But after the Wyckoff teenagers had spent considerable time tossing ideas back and forth with each other—and sharing plenty of laughs—each group had successfully re-created Clark's tale and transformed it into three totally different—and equally silly—stories.

In each of the three groups, which included two collections of girls and one faction of boys, everything about the original book had been successfully twisted, turned, and shaken up—and Weber couldn't have been prouder of their efforts.

"(These stories) were cleverly written… very interesting and well done," she praised the kids afterward. Before they disbanded for the night Weber asked one member of each group to take the index cards home, type up the story, and e-mail it to her.

After all, who knows? We might be seeing these kids' names in print on the bestseller list someday.