The SurRural Librarian

If you’re lucky enough to have a book budget for next year, then your thoughts might soon be turning to Collection Development, or as it’s known in the real world – Shopping!

I love that spring cleaning time comes right before the start of the next fiscal year, because now I can take that stack of School Library Journals out to the hammock and start tearing out the pages. I do eventually use the computer for most of my collection development tasks, but I love good old print for the ease with which I can lay on my back & swing without having to squint to see my screen in the sun.

Of course, I have to do the usual statistic gathering – collection evaluation, finding out new units the teachers are doing next year, deciding which percentage I can spend on picture books, but for now – the field is wide open. And I just love browsing when I know I’ll have money to spend.

Here are some of my favorite (possibly non-traditional) ways to look for books to buy.

A trip to the Eric Carle Museum Library. If you are any where near Amherst, MA, I highly recommend traveling to the museum and spending some quality time with their picture book collection. You can peruse to your heart’s content and they have a magnificent collection of new & old picture books. Bring something to take copious notes with!

Your local independent book store. Again, spend hours browsing & reading and take notes. I always let the booksellers know who I am and what I’m up to, it’s a nice way to connect and I don’t want anyone to feel weirded out by the adult hanging out in the kid’s section all afternoon. Booksellers, like librarians, are an opinionated & quirky bunch, so you’re sure to find different books than you would on the shelves of box stores or the covers of publisher catalogs. And yes, I also lurk the stacks of my public libraries.

Blogs. This year make sure to check out Fuse 8’s Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results for any titles you might be missing from your collection. Elizabeth Bird has done a wonderful job of detailing each book in this top 100 list. She’s got links to super book talk resources like videos and gorgeous pictures from the books.  This list is compiled from her reader’s top 10 lists, and I find it an interesting slant on the usual.

Some of my favorite independent blogs for book reviews are:
planetesme.blogspot.com
hiplibrariansbookblog.blog-city.com
abbylibrarian.blogspot.com
6traits.wordpress.com
And check out the fabulous Vintage Kids Books My Kid Loves for other titles you might want to dig up used on Amazon. www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com

Let children mark up your catalogs. I let my 7 year old go crazy with a marker in my stack of journals, flyers & catalogs, just circling the books she thinks look interesting. Getting input from kids on the title & cover-appeal of books is a great help when you’re deciding which will fly off the shelves. I’m planning some class time where I give each student 10 stickers with their name on them and a stack of catalogs, and ask them to choose ten books they think I should buy. That would be a fun end of the year activity. We could work in some math too. Or you could just leave them out on the tables year-round.

Vermonters who use Titlewave will be glad to know that they have the DCF, Red Clover & GMBA lists built right in. Thanks Grace!

First, someone I voted for actually gets to be president. Then, a book I adore wins the Newbery. What’s going on here?

And look at the really sweet post on Gaimain’s journal about getting the phone call from the committee.

Yay for the Graveyard Book!

The new White House website went live during the inauguration and it’s got a blog!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

And look at that, blog is even in the URL. As if it needs to be repeated here, whole sale, blind filtering of blogs & wikis in schools has got to end. As if these weren’t argument enough…

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/
http://www.barackobama.com/blog/
http://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/
http://vsla.info/
http://www.vermontlibraries.org/
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blogs.html

Do school tech admins really want to be adding exceptions to their filters for every single legitamate use of a blog on the web? Or can we focus on teaching our students how to search for & evaluate information online?

Every reader his [or her] book & every book its reader.

These two laws of library science are constantly ringing through my head when I’m selecting books to purchase or weed. I have some readers at school who absorbed just about anything I give them with glee. I’ve got more who are always happy with the same genre and rarely deviate, and a few who are extremely difficult to please. It’s this last group that I spend most of my time thinking about.  Librarians are always on the search for that one book that will hook the potential readers.

Now and then I read a book that strikes me as just the thing to enchant a certain reader. Peter Gould’s Write Naked is one of those possible favorite novels. Peter writes with and about passion in a way rare in YA books. Romantic passion, but also passion for art, for community, for understanding. Knowing Peter & his passion for teaching & drama, this doesn’t surprise me a bit. This is a book I wish every high school would have on its shelves, sitting there waiting for the right reader. And not because I wish Peter well with his novel (which, of course, I do!) but because I’m sure it’s the potential love of some quietly passionate 10th grader out there, who’s just waiting for this book to come into his life.

Vermont kids will be especially drawn to this book. It’s got great local flavor (it’s set just down the road from my house!) and describes our rural life style romantically but truthfully. The characters are unique, unconventional and pretty darn lovable. The title is a little racy but the content is certainly appropriate for high schools. Having heard Peter read a segment at the VSLA conference last fall, I highly recommend him as a school visit. His infectious enthusiasm is just perfect for students. Great job Peter!

Reviews & other info here: http://us.macmillan.com/writenaked

Since school started, I’ve been reading like crazy. Here are a few titles that are must buys for the year.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is fabulous. Isabel is a rare character, a slave from the North. Her story brings so much life to the time period, so much depth to the sketch of history students at this age receive – how many of your students do you think realize there were so many slaves in NYC, or even that the city was occupied by the British during the war? Because of the popularity of Speak, I already have readers lining up for this book, which may not have been the case with another author. I’m sure this book will land in the hands of students who don’t usually read historical fiction, and I hope they surprise themselves by how much they enjoy it. With the promise of a sequel to come, this might be just the gateway book I’m looking for! (I posted this review on The Picnic Basket.)

Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins
I haven’t even finished this sequel to my favorite book in the whole wide world, but I love it already. LOL funny. Truly, I’m buying a case for the birthdays!
Chester by Melanie Watt
Ha ha ha ha. This book is already a big hit with my primary students. I drive a carpool of them, and listened to one read it to the others on the way home the other day, they just love it. With Scaredy Squirrel & Chester, Melanie Watt is a power house for these kids, best thing to happen to picture books since Mo Willems.

Owly by Andy Runton
The Owly books are a blockbuster. I have kids in every grade lining up for them. I keep all my graphic novels in baskets now because they circulate so often. Owly doesn’t even have its own basket – they are never in the library long enough. Completely wordless & way cute, these are the best thing to happen for early & reluctant readers in a while. I can’t believe how much the kids love these.

Other huge hits that my library couldn’t do without right now are Bone, Ivy & Bean and Amelia Rules.

Just back from swimming lessons where I sat by the side of the pool and thoroughly enjoyed an article by Jill Lapore in the July 21st New Yorker on Stuart Little, the history of children’s libraries & children’s literary criticism.

To top it off, there’s a podcast about the piece with Jill Lepore & Roger Angell – whose mom Katharine White had a big role in the story. Seems as though getting yourself into a twist over kids books has been a hobby of librarians throughout the ages.

Listen to the podcast here, read the article here, and learn what made Tonstant Weader fwow up.

Cory Doctorow (of BoingBoing) has a brand-spanking-new YA Sci Fi novel out called Little Brother.

Cool guy that he is, he’s posted electronic copies of the book online for free. Instead of accepting offers of donations from grateful readers, he’s set up a site where potential donors can send a hard copy of the book to a school or library that requests it.

How does it work, you ask? Welllll, our budget spent for the year, I thought I’d see. On Wednesday I asked to be added to the list of libraries and our name & address were posted on their site. Today (Friday) I received a copy in the mail from an anonymous donor! How coool is that?

See his site for more details.

And Thank You Anonymous!! I’ll be spending my Mother’s Day in the hammock with our new copy of Little Brother (librarian’s privilege). By Monday – it’ll be in the hands of a student.

Pre-readers review: great title, super cover and jacket blurbs from Scott Westerfeld & Neil Gaiman. Ooooh!

Here in Vermont, we’re having a perfect storm of book awards. Voting for this year’s books and lists for next year are popping up all over.

The DCF committee is now offering online voting (yay Steve!) and their super new list is up too. (pdf) They’re going to get big props from my kids for including Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It probably won’t completely make up for the lack of Rick Riordan books, but it’s a start.

The 2008/09 Red Clover list is online.

Librarians need to send in the votes for both the DCF & Red Clover awards by Friday, April 11.

The Green Mountain Book Award tallies are due May 2nd, forms for reporting can be found one their site. The new list isn’t online yet, but was sent out to the listservs. Great books. (Sarah Vowell – wow!)

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
Black and White by Paul Volponi
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Nick Vizzini
Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado with Vince Rause
The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci

The 5/6 are hard at work on their DCF projects. Everyone is working on a project using at least two computer applications and a good amount of creativity inspired by their favorite book on the DCF list. We’ve got comics, book covers, bookmarks and posters galore to share at the DCF conference in May.

A number of my students were swept away by TuxPaint & Comic Life. They really worked hard creating comic versions of their chosen novels, squeezing in computer time whenever they could.

Everyone once in a great while I am so moved by a book that I simply want the world to stop and join one big book group.

You all need to stop what you’re doing right now and get yourself a copy (or 24) of Shaun Tan’s elegant, moving, frightening, beautiful The Arrival.

This is a wordless book, and I’m pretty much at a loss for words myself. It’s just, great.

Clearly, I’m not the only one who thinks so.

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2007
A Book List Editors’ Choice
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2007
A 2007 Parents’ Choice Gold Award
A New York Public Library Best Book for Reading and Sharing

More images can be seen here at this extract.

We have an immigration unit in our 5/6th grades, and I can not wait to read this with them. I love this book and will be getting copies for the whole classroom.

Done with H. Potter, The Golden Compass & Narnia, and needing something new? You’ve just GOT to read Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I haven’t enjoyed a book this much in some time. This review from Salon is pretty great, so I’ll just link.

“Un Lun Dun” is a novel you can safely give to young readers without fear that they will come back wanting to enroll in a boarding school, take up the broadsword or join the Church of England.

Honesty, do NOT miss this book. What a joy!

Toys go out : being the adventures of a knowledgeable Stingray, a toughy little Buffalo, and someone called Plastic
by Emily Jenkins;  Paul O Zelinsky

I just picked up Toys Got Out, what a great book! An outstanding read aloud, it’s very much in the spirit of Winnie the Pooh, updated. It’s a short collection of stories with the same three main characters: a stuffed buffalo, a stingray and a rubber ball name Plastic (who experiences some existential angst in chapter two in a search for self-knowledge). There’s also a bath towel named TukTuk and a singing washing machine named Frank.

Really, what more do you need to know?

There are some fabulous little bits in this that gave my 5 year old and I full-on belly laugh attacks. And you know an author who has the dad doing the laundry has their act together.

And on a tangent… I was just in a workshop last week on Visual Thinking Skills, in which a super librarian insisted that picture books would make excellent material for VTS. The Zelnisky drawings in this book are a perfect example. They are beautiful, and tell a story, without being too literal. I’m going to try them out some time.

I abandoned Talk of the Nation soon after Ray Suarez, so I missed this until now.

Neil Gaiman, Christopher Paolini and Tamora Pierce were on back in December. Audio can be heard here.

I wasn’t planning on mentioning the Higher Power of Lucky broohaha. What more is there to say? Puh-lease.

But when my favorite Saturday radio show had a good laugh at librarians’ expense yesterday, I did just want to hide under the rug. For every rant about the “stereotypes” of librarians just not fitting anymore, there’s a ridiculous librarian out there making a bad name for us all.

Fortunately, a little sunshine was brought to my day by Neil Gamain with this lovely & helpful post on his blog…

An Absence of Scrota — your guide to quality literature…

I’ve decided that librarians who would decline to have a Newbery book in their libraries because they don’t like the word scrotum are probably not real librarians (whom I still love unconditionally). I think they’re rogue librarians who have gone over to the dark side.
…
Helpfully, over at http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/youth_literature_is_filled_with_scrotums.php you will find a list of books for the young, probably already in the libraries, with scrota (or even scrotums) in them. This is probably provided for rogue librarians who now need to hunt these books down and remove them, scrotums and all.

Ian Frazier’s Shouts in Murmurs in this week’s New Yorker is hilarious. He starts with this excerpt:

Check books out of the library instead of buying them. . . . New releases of hard-cover novels cost $25 and more these days. If you buy just two a month, that’s $600 a year.
—From “Ten Sure Ways to Trim Your Budget,” in the News.

Then follows extremely amusing letters in response, such as…

Mitch Gelman, West Hempstead, New York: “As an accountant, the first thing I tell my clients is ‘Get a library card!’ Otherwise, you’re too subject to temptation, and liable to find yourself in over your head. Few people know that the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is the ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ novels. You overspend on one, and, just when you begin to dig yourself out, the next installment comes along. Public libraries began during the Depression as a government measure against this very problem. They’re there for our protection, so we should use them.”

Go read it, it’s short.