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June 29, 2006

Techno-geeks and whales

I did my first book discussion with kids in ages this week. Fifteen kids signed up to eat some book-related snacks and discuss Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson. It seemed like a good idea when I picked the book, but then as I started trying to come up with questions, I began to regret it wasn't a more meaty, issue-related book. What if they all didn't get the humor? What if they all just thought it was stupid? Worst of all, I had completely forgotten the satirical book discussion questions Anderson included at the end. some of which were questions I had jotted down! How humiliating.

But I couldn't back out at this point, so I went to the store and bought the treats for the "Chomp" part of "Chat & Chomp". Fortunately they eat quite a bit in this book, so there were lots of choices--though I couldn't find any plankton or kelp (just kidding) there were Spongebob animal crackers, and a few other related goodies. The treats turned into the ice-breaker for the group, and they were able to figure out where each one was mentioned or how it fit in in general.

Here's what amazed me: They were great at doing a book discussion! They were thoughtful and funny and polite, sometimes even all at the same time. They were keenly interested in the playful ways the book is put together, with all sorts of visual jokes in the ways the words are placed on a page. They genuinely liked each of the characters, and could explain why quite precisely. I had thought they might not like the Tom Swift-like character of Jasper Dash because of his old-fashioned way of speaking, and they noticed his "weird" way of talking but they loved that he was a "techno-geek". They even compared this book about a half-human, half-whale trying to achieve world domination to the far more genteel Tale of Despereaux, because they noticed the similarity of the author addressing the reader directly. Amazing. Even after this many years, I sometimes forget how cool kids are!

Posted by susan at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

Alas, poor Harriet

I'm sorry to have to report that Harriet the Spy was the first character voted off of the ship in our summer reading game. Still onboard our ship The Barnacle are the Pigeon, Olivia, Captain Underpants, Harry Potter, and Arthur.

I for one am sad to see Harriet go. She's one of your pricklier characters in children's literature, but her grouchy tendancies remind me a lot of the real-life kids I know and the real-life kid I once was. Ol' Golly's sensible advice sticks with me today, and few books offer such a truthful depiction of the adult world. On the bright side, all of our copies of Harriet are checked out, so at least a few more kids may come to know the joys of a good tomato sandwich!

Posted by susan at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2006

Is Summer Reading worth the bother?

I know, I know, you're supposed to wait until July before you start having thoughts like that! We are 18 days into our program, with 1200+ signed up, and already we are getting a little tired, a little cranky. So it might be a good time to think just a moment about why we go to all this trouble.

Sure, there's plenty of research to show how important it is for kids to keep reading during the break from school. The Alaska State Library put out an excellent list of articles on reading over the summer. Intuitively, we know that kids who stop reading over the summer will lose ground, and increasingly we can't assume that reading is one of the things families automatically do when they have time. As parents devote less time to reading, so do their kids. So keeping up reading skills over the summer is important, but is it enough to make all the effort worthwhile?

Frankly no--developing reading skill is more the domain of the school reading specialist or media specialist, and I am a public librarian. What I want is for kids to love reading, and I'm not nearly as interested in scores and reading levels.

No, the thing that makes it worth the effort for me is I want kids to come into the library over the summer and for that experience be one of their fondest memories of growing up. I want them to remember as adults that feeling of walking into a cool library on a hot summer day. I want them to remember talking to the nice librarians and volunteers. I want them to remember that feeling of abundance when they walk out of the library with a stack of books that look exciting. I want them to recall signing up for summer reading as a treat to look forward to each summer. I want them to make memories that they will treasure.

It does take a ton of work but yes, it is worth it. I may have to read this over again by mid-July just to remind myself, but summer reading is definitely worth the bother.

Posted by susan at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

School or church?

While at Target doing some last-minute-of-the-fiscal-year shopping, I whipped out my public library's tax exempt letter. The poor cashier was puzzled. "What is this for? Is it a school, or a church?" she wondered.

It really brought home to me that as busy as the library may feel, many of our patrons have no idea that they ARE our patrons. Perhaps where they came from there were no libraries, or they have never had time to even consider the possibility of going to a library. It made me wonder if, when they receive a welcome letter from the library in their packet of information from the village, it makes no sense to them because they have no frame of reference for it. What's the best way to tell them that the public library exists, that it is for them, and what it has to offer?

It does help justify the staff time and energy that school visits take. But maybe we need to be sure that when we come to a classroom and talk about whatever we are promoting at the library, those of us in diverse communities--maybe everyone, these days--need to begin all the way at the beginning. The public library is a place where...

Official disclaimer: Spending money at Target doing end-of-the-fiscal-year shopping is poor management of resources and should be avoided!

Posted by susan at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)

Hinges for Coconuts

When you're the head of a Youth Services Department, some odd things pass over your desk. Over the months of getting reading for this year's Summer Reading game Voyage to Book Island, one staff member turned in a receipt for "hinges for coconuts". Another wrote up a task list including "find flotsam" and "buy birdshot". We polled both staff and patrons on their favorite book characters to send them off on a ship to be kidnapped by pirates (the characters, not the patrons). We begged our local stores and restaurants for donations, and came up with the right wording for imprinting on ducks. Now it has all turned into a big, glorious Summer Reading game which has turned the department into nonstop gratifying, glorious, exhausting activity.

On my own task list: buy chocolate for staff!

Posted by susan at 7:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 9, 2006

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Announced

http://www.hbook.com/awards/bghb/current.asp

This year's Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced this week. I was delighted with many of the committee's choices, including the fiction prize for Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I wasn't a huge fan of her Newbery-winner The Tale of Despereaux, so it surprised me when I fell in love with the china rabbit Edward and his haughty attitude. It's also an example of beautiful book-making, the way books used to be when they were very precious and most children only owned a few. The thick pages and color plates really show why e-books will never completely replace bound books—the words are the same, but the experience is very different.

The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards are unusual in several ways. They look at books from June of one year through May of the next, so they aren't going through quite the same last-minute crunch when the Fall books come out that many award committees are. They examine the entire range of juvenile publishing, from picture books through Young Adult, fiction and nonfiction, and the only requirement is that they be published in the United States. It's a huge number of books, but each three-person committee comes up with excellent choices that sometimes have been overlooked elsewhere.

Congratulations to DiCamillo, to Lois Ehlert, and to the late Faith McNulty, and most of all congratulations to the BG-HB Committee for finally being able to do something besides read! Your families will be glad to see you again, I'm sure.

Posted by susan at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

June 4, 2006

Something Different Every Day

That is what I love about being a Children's Librarian! All in one job description you have Reference, Readers' Advisory, Collection Development, and Programming. In the course of doing those jobs, you might one minute be helping a 60-year-old grandma, a few minutes later assisting a three-year-old, and in the course of a week you probably work with all ages in-between. You go from singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with the Babytime crawlers to helping a fifth-grader locate information on cytoplasm to calculating how much money remains in your DVD fund and writing a press release so your program next week will have an audience.

So, even after working at being a Children's/Youth Services Librarian for 24 years, for me the job remains engaging and invigorating. Yes, it can also be exhausting and some days even irritating, but it's never boring, because there's something different every day.

Posted by susan at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)