What to read next?

December 27, 2021January 8, 2022 Jenny1 Comment

How do you find the next book you’ll read, especially when you need a new book every one to four days? I gather suggestions from many places, adding titles to my to-read list faster than I can read them (even picture books!). Here are some of my best resources for finding books:

Recommendations from friends and colleagues: True, a lot of my friends are librarians, or teachers, or simply bookworms. After years of trading recommendations, we’ve learned each other’s tastes, so we have a good idea who will love a certain book (or not) and why. I also add to my to-read list monthly(ish) during my Adults Who Read Children’s Books Club meeting; it’s a group of school and public librarians, and their recommendations are incredible.
Reviews in trade publications: School Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus are my go-to sources. Even if you don’t have access to these, most public library online catalogs have at least one or two review sources built into them, so if you look up a book, you can see a review (or two or three).
Other reviews: Larger public libraries often have free-to-the-public copies of BookPage, and there are a handful of sites I check in on occasionally, like BookRiot.
Wowbrary: Some public libraries use this service; I get a weekly e-mail from mine with a list of new books in different categories.
Book Twitter: I joined Twitter when I was in library school, and I mainly follow authors (and illustrators), bookstores, libraries, publishers, agents, editors, and other bookish accounts. It’s the one social media app I have on my phone, and often enough I’ll see book news there before anywhere else.
Publisher newsletters: What with one thing and another, I’ve ended up on a lot of publishers’ newsletters: I get notices from Candlewick, HarperCollins, Little Brown Young Readers, Penguin Random House, Chronicle, and more. These tend to promote upcoming titles or those that are topical in some way (e.g. for Hispanic Heritage Month or Black History Month).
Publishers Lunch: An industry newsletter I started getting in 2007 when I began working at a literary agency and never unsubscribed from. I no longer read it every day, but often find something good when I do.
Edelweiss and NetGalley: These two sites offer digital Advance Reader’s Copies (ARCs, or galleys) to librarians; they’re a good place to browse for upcoming titles and get an early look.

LibraryThing Early Reviewers: As an active LT user, I browse these offerings monthly and often request (and receive!) an ARC of a book I’m excited about.
Library Link of the Day: This is more for library news than specific book recommendations – and lately, sadly, a majority of the links have been about attempted challenges or bans at schools and public libraries throughout the country. (Then again, these are recommendations, in a way, since I’m definitely the kind of person who will seek out a book others are trying to limit access to.)
Library patrons: Working in a library, I’m not only surrounded by books, I’m surrounded by readers! Readers are happy to tell you when they think that you, too, would enjoy their most recent favorite book. And isn’t it my professional responsibility to see what all the fuss is about?
End-of-year lists: For #kidlit people, Betsy Bird’s “31 Days, 31 Lists” is a treasure trove; I think at least three-quarters of the books on my kitchen table right now are because of her. I also enjoy NPR’s Book Concierge, which has been renamed Books We Love; there are lots of filters to play with along the left side, so you can narrow down the many recommendations, or search past years (it goes back to 2013). Of course, every trade and popular publication does its own end-of-year list(s) as well.

Where do you get your book recommendations? Is there a fantastic source I could add to my list?

Edited 1/8/2022: Bookshops! I can’t believe I left them off my original list, but I’ve discovered many, many wonderful books through in-person browsing and recommendations from booksellers (especially at the Carle Museum shop) and bookstore e-mail newsletters. If you haven’t already, sign up for your favorite local bookstore’s newsletter.

Can you judge a book by its cover…or its title?

December 20, 2021January 8, 2022 Jenny3 Comments

We’ve all heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” While this is a great lesson when it comes to people (don’t judge someone’s insides by how they look on the outside) it actually doesn‘t apply so well to books. Cover design is someone’s whole job, and if they do it well, potential readers should be able to tell a lot about a book by its cover! A great cover is eye-catching in some way; it makes people want to pick up the book and learn more.

But what about a book’s title? There are perfectly good books with generic, forgettable titles; and there are excellent titles for mediocre books (fewer of the latter, though, I think). Below is a list of titles that have stood out to me over the years: some are laugh-out-loud funny, some are poetic, and some inspire instant curiosity. (I requested Wolfie the Bunny based on the title alone; I didn’t even need to read the review. How could a book called Wolfie the Bunny be anything but amazing? Likewise, those of a certain generation can’t help but laugh at Pluto Gets the Call. And with adult novel Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – well of course she’s not, you know that right away.)

Adult

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
How Did You Get This Number? by Sloane Crosley
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by Dave Eggers
How to Talk to A Widower by Jonathan Tropper
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us: Stories by Laura van den Berg
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
That’s Not A Feeling by Dan Josefson
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Above: Cover images of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Children’s

Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman & Zachariah Ohora
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty
The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen
Pluto Gets the Call by Adam Rex & Laurie Keller
I Can See Just Fine by Eric Barclay

Above: Cover images of Wolfie the Bunny, Pluto Gets the Call, and The Rock From the Sky

What titles have made you laugh, made you curious, or otherwise compelled you to pick up a book?

Edited 1/8/2022: How could I have forgotten We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider? And Brita suggested some good ones in the comments as well, including A Tale for the Time Being and Nights When Nothing Happened.

Ms. Arch Changes Gears

December 20, 2021 Jenny1 Comment

Cover image of Merci Suarez Changes Gears — Hat tip to Meg Medina

I have been a bit quieter than usual on this blog since September (except for the Banned Books Week post) because I was somewhat overextended: taking two Master’s-level classes toward earning my school library teaching license, working three days a week in a school library (for grades 5-8), writing reviews for School Library Journal, parenting…and there’s still this pandemic going on. I never officially announced my shift from public libraries to school libraries, so…here it is!

So much of what I learned in grad school the first time around (not to mention in a decade of working at three different public libraries!) is transferable to school libraries, but there are some knowledge, skills, and abilities that are specific to working in K-12 school libraries, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requires additional coursework, practicum work, and testing to certify K-12 library teachers. So, this year I took “Fundamentals of School Libraries,” “Collections & Materials for Children,” “Curriculum and Instructional Strategies” and “Evaluation & Management of School Libraries.”

Main takeaways:

School libraries usually have significantly less funding and staffing than public libraries (and public libraries are not typically rolling around in piles of cash). If there is one full-time certified librarian in a school, that’s good – even though a better guideline is one certified librarian per every 500 students, with appropriate paraprofessional support.
School librarians wear many hats: we are teachers, administrators, and leaders within the school. School librarians are responsible for managing the entire school library program, which means we’re in charge of the collection (choosing, ordering, and processing new materials, repairing damaged ones, and withdrawing old ones), programming and teaching, budgeting, displays, communications (e.g. newsletters), annual reports, advocacy, and more.
Collaboration is important. The more librarians and classroom teachers can collaborate in lesson and assignment design, the better outcomes for students! However, especially in elementary schools where a class’s library time is the classroom teacher’s prep period, this is difficult.

For me personally, I have also found that middle school is way better as an adult than as a kid! And fifth- to eighth-grade is a really interesting range. Our whole library is open to every student, so while we mostly collect materials targeted toward the 10-14 age group, some books skew a little younger and some are YA. In my book talks to each class, I take their age/grade level into account, and always try to provide a diverse array in terms of content, format, and level.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to! In the “spring” (mid-January through mid-May) I’ll be doing my first practicum, at the school where I’m already working, which will count for my grades 7-12 practicum. Then I will need to do an elementary practicum before my current provisional license becomes an initial license. I’ve really enjoyed entering the school library world this year; we’ll see what next year will bring.

If you’re interested in reading more about school libraries, check out my friend Maya Bery’s blog. Maya is an expert school librarian; I’m lucky to be in a book group with her (her recommendations are always fantastic), and I also got to interview her and observe her teaching (virtually) for one of my courses this year.