Blog Archive: June 2008

Kids finally took a couple of pirate books! But we're so wiped out of spy books now, I decided to refresh both junior high fiction book displays. (Besides, instead of "Spies v. Pirates," I had "Pies v. Spy Rats" in my head all week!)

Books to Make You Cry / Books to Make You Laugh

General as it is, this display was hard to choose books for! What makes you cry or laugh is sooo subjective, right? I especially had trouble with the sad books. It takes a lot for me to cry at a book—basically, a beloved pet or main character must die. Other readers aren't so callous.

(I promised Brenda Ferber I'd include Julia's Kitchen in this display, because she's always having girls tell her it made them cry! But when I went to the shelf, guess what? It was already checked out!)

Kids at War / Kids on the Homefront

This display was more straightforward, though I immediately hit on this problem: what about books taking place on foreign soil, when the main character is a native of that place? They're on the homefront, but that's where the war is. What a fortunate existence we Americans lead, in that so very seldom is the warzone and the homefront one and the same.

For its summer reading club, my department puts no restrictions on what kids may read. They don't have to read particular titles or genres, fiction or nonfiction. They don't have to read library books. They don't even have to read in the traditional manner; read-alouds and audiobooks count. The only thing we ask is that books be "right for them," "at their level," etc., and even that's on the honor system.

The lack of restrictions makes it easier for the kids (fewer rules to follow) and for staff and volunteers (fewer rules to enforce). It also taps into that wonderful, literacy-promoted practice known as free voluntary reading, the premise of which is that if people are free to choose their own reading material, they will enjoy reading more, which encourages them to read more and become better at reading. My opinion is that any assigned reading should stay in school; it's summer, for crying out loud!

So, this story from one of my coworkers irked me. She lives in another library district, and she took her 10-year-old son to the library to sign up for summer reading. The library in question requires that members read a certain number of fiction and a certain number of nonfiction books. Moreover, it requires that members spin a wheel to determine which shelf they can choose a book from.

Mom's eyebrows went up, but Son enjoyed spinning the wheel. They went into the stacks and found the corresponding shelf, and Son chose a book. He carried it back to the librarian's desk for approval. Whereupon the librarian told him it didn't count, even though he'd picked it off the specified shelf, because it was a comic book.

Oooh, it makes me mad just writing about it! Graphic novels and comics are legitimate literature that exercises and promotes literacy. I could not believe that after complying with all those restrictions, the boy's chosen book still didn't fit this library's notion of what constitutes summer reading.

My coworker's planning to write to the library director. My hope is that the librarian who shot down the comic book was acting under misinformation. But at too many libraries—public libraries— comics and graphic novels are still the red-headed stepchildren of "real" books.

Some of the best things in life—the best online resources, anyway— really are free. For example, I don't know what my department would do without Mid-Continent Public Library's amazing Juvenile Series and Sequels resource.

Wondering the order of the Betsy-Tacy books? Getting Anthony Horowitz's series mixed up in your mind? Browse thousands of children's and YA series by author name, series title, book title, and series subject. You'll get a neat list in clean text of series in sequential order!

My department uses this resource just about every day, sometimes several times a day. Very rarely have I found errors or omissions.

Actually, I do know what we'd do without without this resource: we'd go to Amazon.com and deal with long load times and multiple edition/publication date confusion. But we don't have to, because MCPL has put this absolutely fantastic resource out on the web, free for all.

Looks like MCPL also has a weekly radio show, The Library Guys. Each week they interview an author and plug library programs. Many of their author interviews are available for download. I sense a definite bias toward mystery and suspense for adults, but still: cool!

I went to Kathleen Duey's website this morning, desperately hoping for news of the next volume in her A Resurrection of Magic sequence. Alas: none. According to her interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, Book Two is coming out sometime in 2008. Anyone know more?

Anyway, my real reason for posting: Kathleen Duey posts a lot of photographs to her blog of places and items she visualizes when she's working on her book. An elaborate dome in an Abu Dhabi hotel lobby becomes the ceiling of the king's library in Limori; these keys become part of the story as well. Duey apparently uses this technique a lot when "world building" in her fantasy novels.

I can usually get a pretty good picture of people and places when I'm writing realistic fiction, because I can draw on my own experiences. (e.g., I've seen quite a few public schools in my life.) But whenever I've tried to write speculative fiction, too many details are vague because I haven't been able to fully visualize the world. Maybe I can persuade my father to part with some of his 50 million National Geographic magazines and mine them for ideas!

Julie Bowe tagged me for this meme ages ago, but I've been waiting for a rainy day to post it. It seems to be a mutation of the "5 Things" meme that's been going around lately.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Spending my first summer truly away from home, working two minimum wage jobs at my university-- one in the College of Fine Arts, the other in the Children's School.

What are 5 things you need to do today?
1. Get rhubarb-ginger sorbet recipe from my neighbor.
2. Walk my dog.
3. Make rhubarb-ginger sorbet.
4. Get in some more writing time.
5. Eat rhubarb-ginger sorbet.

What are some snacks you enjoy?
1. Ice cream
2. Apples
3. Baby carrots
4. Trader Joe's Apple-Raspberry Sauce
5. Corn chips and salsa

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Buy a house
2. Work part-time instead of full
3. Invest for retirement
4. Set up a charitable foundation
5. Travel more
(Doesn't everyone always say basically the same things?)

What are 3 bad habits?
1. I'm a lousy correspondent.
2. Running out the door at the last minute in the morning
3. Putting off washing the dishes
(I could list many more, if pressed...)

Name 5 places you have lived.
1. Kalamazoo
2. Madrid
3. Pittsburgh
4. Oakland
5. Chicago

What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. Camp counselor
2. Education research assistant
3. Substitute teacher
4. Law office assistant
5. Youth services librarian!

Who do you want to tag?
Anyone who wants to play!