Students gather around a table to discuss a book. During the dystopian-themed Book Tasting in the library, Friday Jan 16, middle schoolers had the opportunity to discover new books. “It was really fun to talk to people about books they had read,” seventh grader Allison Levine. said. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Ryvkin.)

Have you ever been to a library and had no idea which book to choose? A book-tasting, hosted by the library ambassadors, may be the solution.

Middle schoolers had the opportunity to visit the Tia Palermo Library and “taste” books during mentorship Friday, Jan. 16. The library ambassadors and librarian Denise Soto collaborate to organize book-tasting events. Each event has a different theme, and the most recent one was dystopian novels. The middle school ambassadors spread out an array of books and spoke to the students to share a short overview of each book that was offered.

Juliet Nichols (‘29) first had the idea to organize a book-tasting when she was in eighth grade. She said she noticed many people in her grade rarely went to the library, so she worked with Soto to change that. At this book-tasting, Nichols helped to set up and check out books for the attending students.

“It’s really nice to see people enjoying the library,” Nichols said. “It’s one of my favorite places on campus, and it’s really nice that I got to help spread that and let other people enjoy it as much.”

Allison Levine (’31) put together the list of books for this event. She chose some of her favorite books, including “Shatter Me” by Tahereh Mafi and “Divergent” by Veronica Roth. Levine said she loves dystopian books and was really excited to get to share some of her favorites with her classmates.

“It was really fun to talk to people about books they had read,” Levine said. “A lot of people came, and they had read a lot of the books, so it was fun to talk to them about that and help people discover more books.”

Colette Selmo (’31) attended the event and said she had a great time. Selmo was hosting a perspective student for a day visit, and she said she thought the guest enjoyed the book-tasting. While Selmo didn’t check out any books, “The Selection” by Kiera Cass caught her attention.

Soto said students have expressed excitement about this opportunity being centered around middle-schoolers. The library will continue doing book-tastings one to two times each semester, she said.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from it — that kids were really excited that this was just for middle school,” Soto said. “The first time we did it was last school year, and we decided to keep going.”