MANCHESTER, NH – When school’s out in the summer, you might struggle to find things to do. Don’t worry! If you’re a teen, the Manchester City Library has just the thing for you! I recently interviewed Dori Eisenstat, a librarian and the woman who runs the teen program at Manchester City Library.
Every summer, Manchester City Library does a summer reading challenge for teens ages 12-18. During the challenge teens document what books they’ve read and for how long to earn prizes. These prizes include coupons to restaurants, free books, and button badges for every level you pass. You can also be entered into a raffle that will be drawn at the end of summer. There are also similar challenges for kids ages 3-12 and adults 18 and older.
Not only can teens participate in the library reading challenge, but there are also craft workshops every Thursday, and once a month there is a teen movie and pizza night, where teens can vote for what movie they want to see. The crafts vary and are always fun and a great way to be creative, especially if you bring your friends. Some of the crafts they’ve done are paper maché bowls, hand-made marionette or sock puppets, tie-dye, and print making. There is also a take-home craft that you can pick up at the children’s desk in the library. For July, the craft was a mini paint set which included paint, a palette, brushes, and a mini canvas and easel. Participating teens will have the opportunity to display their tiny paintings in an art show in August.
I asked Dori why she started running the teen program for the library, and here’s what she said.
She explained that when she was a kid she believed that she had to have artistic talent to do art, but she didn’t think she had that talent and didn’t feel very confident. She decided that art wasn’t for her and didn’t take any art classes in school because she wasn’t one of the “art kids.” It wasn’t until she was older that she realized she enjoyed using her creativity to make things and that she didn’t have to be “good” at art to make it. She found that just the act of painting and gluing things together was fulfilling and a nice way to distract herself and engage her mind. When she was able to be creative, she felt better. She didn’t want people to think they had to be an extremely talented artist to make art; art is just fun and for everybody. The way she runs the library teen craft workshops is by going over how to make the basic craft, but then allowing everybody to take it in any direction they want. She likes coming up with ideas for the crafts, enjoys practicing making the craft, and then offering everybody the opportunity to make the craft their own. She likes how it allows teens to be creative and use their imagination.
One thing that is really important to Dori when coming up with the craft workshop ideas is making sure they are affordable. She wants them to be available to anybody, free of charge. There is never a fee for any of the teen library programs since she aims to purchase items within the library budget. She also uses a lot of recycled items for the crafts like paper towel rolls, pages from books that couldn’t be fixed, yogurt containers, felt, newspapers, comic books, and more. She finds it very fulfilling to be contributing to and building a community. She has always been drawn to careers that involve helping people, and being a librarian is actually a second career for her.
Before she had kids she earned a degree in social work and became a social worker in foster care. She found the job emotionally difficult since her family is extremely important to her and it was tough to see how some kids don’t have a family they can count on. When she had kids she became a stay-at-home mom which she loved, but was also hard because she wasn’t able to have a lot of time to herself. When her kids were teenagers she wanted to go back to work, but didn’t have the emotional space to be a social worker again.
She decided to go to librarian school and became a librarian, still wanting to help people. She was drawn to working with teens, partly because that was the age group her kids were in, so she could relate to them and was used to working with them. She also likes how teens are at the age where they’re trying to make sense of the world and trying to find what impact they can have on the world. She finds teens to be hopeful and critical, seeing the world in a way they never have before. When you’re a little kid your world is small. It just consists of your family, maybe your friends and some school. When you get older, doors of opportunity start to open up and you view it in a new way, especially regarding the things you can and can’t change.
She wants the library’s teen programs to be designated teen spaces. This is why parents are not allowed at the teen programs unless their child has special needs. The teen programs are meant to provide a space just for teens, where they can hang out and be themselves, not feeling they have to restrict themselves because they’re around other adults or little kids. Anybody who enters the Manchester City Library comes in voluntarily, so it’s important to make sure everybody is comfortable. The age group allowed for the teen programs is 12-18. If you are younger but going into 6th grade you can also join. The teen programs are open to any teen. This means you do not have to go to a Manchester school, or even live in New Hampshire. Teens can bring their friends from out of state or just out of the city.
The library offers other programs that are open for people across all ages. In the fall, Dori will continue to run the Teen Plus program which started last year. Once a month, in the evening, there will be a craft workshop where teens can bring parents, grandparents, younger siblings, other family members, or come with their friends. They can hang out, create a craft, have some snacks, and have a good time.
For the rest of the summer, the teen craft workshops at the library will be happening every Thursday until some time later in August. There will also be another teen movie and pizza night, and in August a mini art show featuring the mini paintings from the July craft kit. In August and each month for the rest of the year there will be a new take-home craft kit. During the school year, teen Thursdays will continue. Sometimes there is a craft for teen Thursdays, otherwise it’s just a nice place to hang out with your friends, play some board games or video games and have a snack. The Teen Plus program will also continue during the school year one evening a month. There will also be teen movie and pizza nights during the school year.
Something new that has been added to the Manchester City Library Teens website is teen book reviews so if you read a book that you absolutely loved or disliked leave a review! This will allow teens to see what other people their age have said about books and see which ones they might be interested in reading. Writing a review will count as community service hours so filling out a volunteer form is required. Other summer volunteer activities include helping to set up the teen craft workshops, handing out button badges, and other activities, so if you’re looking for community service hours, fill out the volunteer form and help out! Dori is also always open to suggestions for take-home craft kits, teen Thursday crafts, and future summer craft workshop ideas. She wants to make sure people are interested in the crafts, but it’s also important to learn something new.
Overall, the Manchester City Library teen program is fun and always has something new going on. If you’re interested, please check out their website (https://manchesterlibrary.org/teens) and have fun!
Talia Harmon is a student writer and contributor for the Inkubator program.
The Inkubator program is aimed at nurturing and growing New Hampshire’s local journalism ecosystem – support for educators, opportunities for students and pathways for future journalists, artists and creators. And beyond that, we want to engage our community in this process because together, we rise. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Inkubator. (Want to see Ink Link deliver community news to your town? We’d like that, too – and we can do it with your support. Ask us how.