book displays

I'm playing catch-up with my book display photos (which are, I realize, probably more for my own archival benefit than anyone else's). Here's the one I took down this week...

...with some historical fiction, some mysteries, and some historical mysteries. Today, I put up this Halloween horror display...

...as well as this mostly realistic fiction display.

I'm unable to escape the irony of creating a book display for junior high kids with the heading "just be yourself," considering that it's hard enough to know yourself, much less be yourself, at any age—especially when you're in junior high. But hey, it's something to aspire to.

The "just be yourself"/"stand up for what you believe" display is full of books about individuality as it relates to exploring one's own identity and/or standing up for social causes. It also serves as an opportunity to include a larger-than-usual number of books with GLBTQ characters in a nod to National Coming Out Day on October 11.

I'm not patting myself on the back with the post title, just being punny. I decided I didn't feel like doing a back-to-school display in the junior high fiction, so we've got dragons and faeries instead. Call it escapism if you want, but 18 years later, the thought of going to junior high school still makes me go, "Blech!"

The signs say, "Not all dragons are evil" and "Not all faeries are good." In spite of the proliferation of faerie fiction lately, dragons are still more numerous by far. We'll see how the two factions fare in terms of circulation...

It being the height of vacation season, I wanted to display some books that don't take place in the U.S. I wanted some books that feature American kids abroad and others that feature kids from other parts of the world in their native land.

While I'm not in favor of making reading a numbers game, with less than two weeks left of summer reading club I wanted to appeal to kids' sense of economy. Besides which, many of these books don't usually get much action because they're thin! (I've mentioned before how many parents and kids in this community turn up their noses at books that aren't doorstops.)

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.

I know you've been lying awake at night wondering, "Spies versus pirates: who would win?"

After five days of my latest junior high fiction display, I'm here to tell you: spies all the way.

I can barely scrabble up enough spy books to keep the display semi-stocked. Meanwhile, not a single one of those pirate books has budged all week.

In fairness to pirates, our multiple copies of Kenneth Oppel's Airborn and Skybreaker are all checked out, as is Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers series.

Then again, so are 85% of our Alex Rider books, all our copies of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girl series, all our Young James Bond, and Jennifer Barnes' The Squad series.

I think the spies still come out ahead.