MSLA 2022: “We respond to many names”

March 27, 2022March 27, 2022 JennyLeave a comment

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Although K.C. Boyd’s keynote was hampered with technical difficulties, we persisted. (All of us librarians, library media specialists, teacher librarians, etc. are familiar with tech hiccups after the past couple years.) In the first half of her talk, she spoke about the school librarians’ advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., after schools went remote during COVID. “Always remain ready” to advocate, she advised, even when things are going well, and keep the focus on the students: “It’s not about the librarians, it’s about the children.” It is unfair to students, especially those in already under-resourced schools, to lose access to school libraries and librarians.

(This reminded me of the Massachusetts Equity & Access study from 2018, available for download from MBLC. Even across the Commonwealth, there are dramatic disparities between schools, meaning that some students have access to fully staffed, high quality library media centers, while others have no certified librarian and less (or no) access to library resources. Research has shown that students in schools with a certified librarian and a school library have improved reading scores – something everyone wants – so funding school libraries equally is essential.)

When school libraries are threatened, librarians must become activists as well as advocates. (An advocate speaks on behalf of a person or group; an activist acts intentionally to bring about social or political change.) K.C. suggested that mid-career, late-career, and retired librarians are the ones who should be on the front lines of this advocacy work, and she provided some guidelines for teamwork:

listen to understand
be respectful
let go of your privilege
gently “check” your peers
wellness checks
we are all in this together

Library activists should BE PREPARED with messaging: one message, many voices. K.C. advises, “Remain student-centered at all times….Keep ‘I’ out of the conversation….[the message is] We care about students.” Root your message in research; K.C. cited Dr. Keith Curry Lance and Dr. Stephen Krashen. Librarians can testify at education hearings, write op-eds, use social media, and tap local and national organizations, like EveryLibrary, for help. The bottom line is that “Inequity in school library services is wrong,” and we must work toward equity. She closed by saying, “We all must be truth tellers. Tell the truth. There is strength in numbers.”

Hashtags: #GoodTrouble (a reference to a John Lewis quote, though apparently it is also a TV show now), #DCPSHasLibrarians (DC-specific), #FReadom

Photo of Read-In protest — Photo of read-in protest from NBC Washington https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-school-librarians-hold-read-in-protest-over-funding/2690626/

NLP logo Separately from her keynote, K.C. Boyd also presented a session on “The News Literacy Project and Digital Citizenship.” KC is a national ambassador for the News Literacy Project (NLP) for the DC/Maryland/Virginia region. K.C. said, “I think it’s very important that digital literacy is taught in our K-12 schools.” Students are bombarded and overwhelmed with information and sometimes it’s not reported well. “We want students to be responsible users of media” and “it is our responsibility…to create a digital world we want to live in.” Particularly in the turbulent past two years – the Black Lives Matter movement, the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the COVID-19 pandemic – it is “important for kids to understand where they could get good information.” K.C. said that she wanted her students to have “a full understanding of what was taking place,” so she used the NLP and Checkology to teach media literacy. Those lessons helped kids understand the news and how it is presented in society. “We owe our students the truth,” K.C. said, acknowledging that every community is different and advising librarians to “walk the line.”

The Checkology program is free for educators to use. I first heard about it a few years ago from Damaso Reyes at the “Libraries in a Post-Truth World” conference.

MSLA 2022: Every library is organized…differently

March 27, 2022 JennyLeave a comment

“Ditching Dewey or Sticking With It?”

Demco Dewey poster 900s Anna Ring of Chickering Elementary School in Dover/Sherborn conducted an action research project, surveying hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school libraries to find out what organizational systems they use: the Dewey Decimal System, an adapted version of Dewey, or something else (Library of Congress, BISAC, or a homegrown system). She found that most elementary libraries are still using Dewey or adapted Dewey, while some middle and high schools are using other systems. A few key themes emerged from Anna’s presentation and from the discussion among the participants:

Students should understand that every library has some organizational system; it may not be the same in every library, but once you understand the system, you can learn how to use it to find what you want. Understanding that there is an organizing principle is a transferable skill, even if another library uses a different system than the one you’re familiar with.
Librarians want students to feel successful, and for collections to have “maximum browsability”: “I want to make it as easy as possible for kids to find things.” This might mean grouping certain series together (like the Who Is/Who Was books) instead of sticking rigidly to Dewey. Many librarians also championed labeled bins as a way to increase visibility, browsability, and findability – there might be bins for biographies, easy readers, I Survived books, Magic School Bus, animal books…
Reclassifying and reorganizing takes a LOT of time, so take a slow, considered approach, and get student input!

A final small but important point: some libraries choose to “keep Dewey but ditch the decimal,” as students don’t learn decimals in math until third or fourth grade. And good signage helps!

“We can do something about it now”: Pablo Cartaya keynote at MSLA 2022

March 26, 2022 JennyLeave a comment

The Massachusetts School Library Association annual conference began tonight with a keynote speech from Pablo Cartaya, author of the middle grade novels Each Tiny Spark, Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, and The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora. The self-described “Cuban-American guy” spoke about the importance of reflection and representation. He talked about a code-switching childhood in which he spoke Spanish at home and English at school, and never saw a character like himself in the books he loved to read: “When I was growing up I never read one story about a Cuban-American kid.” However, as an author, Cartaya said, “We can do something about it now….I want to do something about the fact that those books didn’t exist for me.” How many people, he wondered, “imagined themselves as a hero that looked nothing like them?”

Cartaya shares a belief common among authors, librarians, and others in the book world: that books can ease transitions and increase empathy. He told our group, “You’re stewards of so many lives and so many stories.” And while it’s vitally important that kids see characters like themselves in the books they read (mirrors), the stories he and many others write are “human stories…about the human condition” (windows). Cartaya said, “I think if COVID taught us anything, it’s that we can have a little more empathy for each other….Books can do that.” Books can show us what it’s like to “live in another person’s skin,” feel how another person feels; books are a way to experience and understand the multitude of people and stories in this world. Embracing multilingualism and multiculturalism, said Cartaya, is what makes our communities thrive.

Cartaya spoke about the importance of reflection as “integral to our way forward.” He is continually asking, “What went wrong, what can we do better, what did we miss?” He showed respect for young readers, and described how he changed his approach to in-person author events, saying, “I don’t think authors should presume” what kids are thinking and feeling, “we should ask them. They need a space to tell their story, not me telling them how they feel.” (In the chat, several librarians shared their pandemic prompts and writing projects they use with students.)

Overall, a great intro to MSLA 2022! I’m looking forward to tomorrow and Monday’s sessions, and will write about those here as well. For now, buenas noches.

Virtual event: Starfish author Lisa Fipps at the Newton Free Library

February 15, 2022 JennyLeave a comment

Cover image of Starfish Big thanks to the children’s librarians at the Newton Free Library for organizing, promoting, hosting, and moderating a delightful virtual author visit with Lisa Fipps, author of the novel in verse Starfish, a Printz honor book. Lisa was incredibly friendly and personable, doing only a short introduction before answering tons of questions from the Newton Free Library book club and other attendees.

Some snippets:

On the writing process: Lisa sees “movie trailers in my head”
On autobiographical fiction: Ellie got “the watered down story of my life” with authentic emotions
To those who say “things like that would never happen”: “They do.”
On growing up without seeing herself in books: “I didn’t know anybody like me” (#RepresentationMatters)
On wanting to make post-publication changes: “I don’t know any writer who doesn’t look back on a book” and want to change something. Lisa didn’t read Starfish until six months after it was published, and while there are small things she would change if she could, “I’m okay with it.”
On how to get published: “First you have to write the story.” Then find an agent (hers is Liza Boyce), who will help you find an editor (hers is Nancy Paulsen).
Will there be a sequel or prequel? The Printz committee asked this too! Not sure.
On future books: Nancy is editing book number two now, and Lisa is writing book number three.
How long does it take you to write a book? Starfish took eight months, the next book took six. Lisa is trying to write 2-3 books a year; “I want to be a full-time author and you need to write a lot to make that happen.” (Currently she works at the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library in Indiana)
On that stuff on the table behind you: the penguin collection is because Nancy Paulsen’s imprint is part of Penguin Random House (which at least two librarians agree should have been called Random Penguin when they merged). The “inspiration jars” (see photo) are full of good reviews, fan letters, kind words, etc. That’s a lot of warm fuzzies!
On the role of music in writing: Lisa creates a playlist for every book she writes, to get into the characters’ heads; when actually writing, she listens to music with no lyrics.
How have family members responded to Starfish? “I have no idea, I’m estranged from my [biological] family” (except for a nephew); “I have families of choice.”
Advice for young writers? Write. And read a lot. “I try to read 3-5 books a week.”
What time of day do you write? Evenings after work, with marathon writing sessions (8-10 hours!) on weekends.
Do you read other novels in verse? Yes! The first one she read was Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones. “I think verse is a way to tell a powerful story in a short amount of words.”
On Ann Patchett’s advice to read your work aloud to yourself: “You will hear any clunkiness in your writing like that.” Lisa even recommends doing this while wearing foam earplugs.
On the therapist character in Starfish: Lisa used the wisdom of therapists mixed with the personality of a critique partner. (Readers loved Ellie’s therapist. Librarian Ms. Bery included Starfish in her list of books that normalize therapy.)
On Catalina’s character: Catalina is a “composite character” (bits and pieces of different people).

Thank you so much, Lisa Fipps and Newton Free Library!

2022 ALA Youth Media Awards

January 24, 2022January 26, 2022 JennyLeave a comment

It’s the Oscars of #kidlit! (And honestly, at this point in my life, I’m much more excited about the ALA Youth Media Awards than about the Academy Awards.) This year I was following the announcements on Twitter and relaying them to my co-worker while we prepared to teach a bunch of seventh graders how to find reliable results when searching the internet (pro tip: there are more results after the first result! O brave new world…).

SLJ posted the winners of all the awards, but didn’t include the honor books on the same page; American Libraries has a complete write-up. I was thrilled to see Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, win the Caldecott medal (and a Newbery Honor and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature – Picture Book), and equally delighted to see Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff and Last Night at the Telegraph Club win the Stonewall.

Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter won the Morris, the Printz, and an American Indian Youth Literature honor for YA; other AILA honor books I cheered for included Christine Day’s middle grade novel The Sea in Winter, Traci Sorrell’s picture book We Are Still Here, and YA novel Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger.

Sea in Winter

Cover image of Unspeakable I can’t imagine anyone was surprised that Unspeakable by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, won two Coretta Scott King awards (for author and for illustrator), as well as a Sibert honor and a Caldecott honor. I’m looking forward to reading CSK illustrator honor book Nina, but I’m really surprised that Christian Robinson’s other 2021 book, Milo Imagines the World, didn’t get any official recognition.

By the time the Pura Belpré awards were announced I was busy in the library, but I was happy to catch up later and see that ¡Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge by Raul III won the Youth Illustrator award, Yuyi Morales received an honor for Bright Star, and Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet got a YA honor!

Cover image of Starfish Other Printz honor books included Starfish by Lisa Fipps (a novel in verse!), Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, and Revolution in Our Time by Kekla Magoon (the latter is the only Printz book I hadn’t already read, but it’s on my list now).

Also added to my to-read list:

Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award and the Newbery Award winner The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Schneider Family Book Award winner My City Speaks, and honor books A Walk in the Words, A Bird Will Soar, and A Kind of Spark
Sydney Taylor Book Award Gold Medalist How to Find What You’re Not Looking For and Silver Medalist The Summer of Lost Letters
Theodore Seuss Geisel Award winner Fox at Night, written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor
Sibert Award winner The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art

greatstink I’d actually read a bunch of Sibert honor books, though not the winner; I was super excited to see The Great Stink on the list. We Are Still Here by Traci Sorrell and Unspeakable also got honors, as did Summertime Sleepers (which taught me the word “estivate,” which is like hibernating but in the summer).

Finally, I was so happy to see A.S. King receive the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement, Grace Lin receive the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and Jane Yolen recognized with the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award. A.S. King’s particular brand of magical realism/surrealism is completely unique to her; her books are deep and weird and thoughtful. Grace Lin writes for children of all ages, and her novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a favorite in our house. And Jane Yolen is Jane Yolen.

Previous year’s incoherent ramblings about ALA YMA:

2021 ALA YMA

2020 ALA YMA

Edited 1/26/2022: Note to self: next year write a post more like Abby’s (ALSC blog).

2021 Reading Wrap-Up

January 1, 2022 Jenny2 Comments

Here is 2020’s reading wrap up. Many of those books are ones I’m still talking about, thinking about, and recommending, especially:

The picture books On Account of the Gum by Adam Rex, Lift by Minh Lê and Dan Santat, My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano and Jillian Tamaki, and Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away by Meg Medina and Sonia Sánchez
Early reader and chapter book series (Elephant & Piggie, The Princess in Black, Ivy & Bean, Dory Fantasmagory, Clementine)
Nearly all of the middle grade books I listed, including Show Me A Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte, The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead, and Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult novels The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, and The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Nonfiction: the History Smashers series by Kate Messner. Even more titles came out this year and I’ve been recommending them all to students and teachers alike.

Now, on to 2021. This year was another good year for reading, even if it wasn’t good by (m)any other metrics. Betsy Bird did her marvelous and comprehensive #31Days31Lists again, and though I’ve read many of the titles she mentions, I requested a bunch of others from the library – they’re already starting to roll in!

Total number of books: 743. Yeah, this is a lot, even for me – I was surprised when I counted them up, especially since the number of picture books stayed approximately steady from last year to this year. Early readers, chapter books, and YA went up a bit, while middle grade dropped some (that was a surprise, too); graphic novels went way up.

Partially read or started-didn’t-finish: 19. Again, a cookbook, a book of poetry, and some children’s books that the kiddo wasn’t into (or took away to read by herself).

Picture books: 327.

Note: I’m limiting my list of standout picture book titles to those published in 2020 and 2021, because…327 books! In the other categories below, I haven’t limited myself to books published in 2020-2021, though many of them were.

When We Are Kind by Monique Gray Smith, illus. Nicole Neidhardt
What A Lucky Day! by Jashar Awan
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho
The Polio Pioneer by Linda Elovitz Marshall, illus. Lisa Anchin
All the Way to the Top by Annette Bay Pimentel, illus. Nabi Ali
A Small Kindness by Stacy McAnulty, illus. Wendy Leach
Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand, illus. Nabi Ali
Scarlet’s Tale by Audrey Vernick, illus. Jarvis
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer, illus. Mariachiara DiGiorgio
Avocado Asks: What Am I? by Momoko Abe
Oh Look, A Cake! by J.C. McKee (reminded me of I Really Want the Cake!)
I Am Not A Penguin: A Pangolin’s Lament by Liz Wong (reminded me of The Angry Little Puffin)
Watercress by Andrea Wang, illus. Jason Chin
Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It) by Carrie Finison, illus. Daniel Wiseman
A Map Into the World by Kao Kalia Yang, illus. Seo Kim
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. Floyd Cooper
The Oboe Goes Boom Boom Boom by Colleen AF Venable, illus. Lian Cho
Dad Bakes by Katie Yamasaki
Maybe… by Chris Haughton

Early readers: 42.

“Living In…” series by Chloe Perkins
Disgusting Critters series by Elise Gravel
Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems
Fox & Chick by Sergio Ruzzier
Pea, Bee, & Jay by Brian Smith
Chick & Brain by Cece Bell
Flubby Will Not Play With That by J.E. Morris

Chapter books: 55.

Zoey & Sassafras series by Asia Citro
Twig & Turtle series by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke
Ruby Lu by Lenore Look
Unicorn Rescue Society series by Adam Gitwitz and others
Princess Pulverizer series by Nancy Krulik
Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (graphic novels)
Book Buddies: Ivy Lost & Found by Cynthia Lord

Middle grade (some overlap with YA and GN): 56. Cover image of Starfish

Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
Starfish by Lisa Fipps
Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon
The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book by Kate Milford
The Sea in Winter by Christine Day
A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold (all three Bat books)
Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz
The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz
The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo
Imaginary by Lee Bacon
The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung
Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
Simon B. Rhymin’ by Dwayne Reed
Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
Yusuf Azeem Is Not A Hero by Saadia Faruqi

YA (some overlap with MG and GN): 51.

The Selection (series) by Kiera Cass
I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (re-read)
Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, & Nic Stone
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Graphic novels: 88.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Gareth Hinds (YA)
Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte (MG)
Haylee & Comet by Deborah Marcero (early reader/chapter book)
Hildafolk (series) by Luke Pearson (MG)
Jukebox by Nidhi Chanani (MG)
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang (YA)
Blancaflor by Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez (children’s)
Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse (MG)
Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks (MG)
Bear by Ben Queen (?)
All Summer Long by Hope Larson (MG/YA)
Friends Forever by Shannon Hale (MG/YA)
Act by Kayla Miller (MG)

Adult fiction: 34.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie
We Are the Brennans by Tracy Lange
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Nonfiction (adult): 28.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Learning in Public by Courtney E. Martin

Nonfiction (children’s): 87.

The Great Stink by Colleen Paeff, illus. Nancy Carpenter
Rescuing Titanic by Flora Delargy
If the World Were 100 People by Jackie McCann, illus. Aaron Cushley
Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge by Rachel Dougherty
Drowned City by Don Brown
Yummy: A History of Desserts by Victoria Grace Elliott (GN)
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe, illus. Jos A. Smith

Short stories/essay collections: 13.

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self and The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans (stories)
The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken (stories)
Ancestor Approved by Cynthia Leitich Smith et. al. (linked stories)
Calypso by David Sedaris (essays)
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (essays)

Audiobooks: 16.

Starry River of the Sky and When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin, narrated by Kim Mai Guest
Elana K. Arnold’s Bat books, narrated by Patrick G. Lawlor
No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen, narrated by Nissae Isen
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, narrated by Jax Jackson
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, narrated by Graeme Malcolm
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, narrated by Judith Ivey
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale

Five-star ratings: 33. Sometimes I’m blown away by a book when I finish it but it fades in my memory; others stay vivid. There were some of each this year; those that made a sustained impact include (in order from picture books to adult books) Sootypaws, All the Way to the Top, The Polio Pioneer, Haylee & Comet, Castle Hangnail, Amari and the Night Brothers, Red White & Whole, Imaginary, Winterkeep, The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Piranesi, Braiding Sweetgrass, Say Nothing, and Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Re-reads: Not so many this year, other than familiar series (Ivy & Bean, Lunch Lady, Clementine) and picture books (we revisited This Is A Dog, Bo the Brave, Binny’s Diwali, A Small Kindness, On Account of the Gum, The Last Loose Tooth, The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, and others), and the graphic novel Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks: 161. That’s about 20% of the total, which feels low to me – better next year. I use the #WeNeedDiverseBooks tag any time the creators of or characters in a book are outside the dominant narrative (white, straight). These stories are essential.

LibraryThing has changed their “stats” page to “charts and graphs.” As in previous years, I read more female authors/illustrators than male ones, and more living authors (1,560) than dead (304). And as the genre chart below shows (no surprise), I read a lot of children’s books!

Screen shot of LT genre statistics

LT also provides a map of authors’ nationalities. I read mostly American, Canadian, Australian, and UK authors, but some Iranian, Indian, Pakistani, Mexican, Japanese, Russian, Nigerian, and others as well. If anyone has books to recommend by authors from outside the US/Canada/UK, please share your suggestions!

Screen shot of LT

And that’s the 2021 reading wrap-up. Onward to 2022! What books are you looking forward to this year?

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.

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.

Banned Books Week 2021: Books Unite Us, Censorship Divides Us

September 27, 2021 Jenny2 Comments

Banned Books Week – misnomer though it may be – is probably my favorite display to put up every year, because I believe so strongly in the freedom to read (which is what we should probably call this week). This year’s promotional materials from ALA feature the phrase “Books Unite Us, Censorship Divides Us.” I made a small sign for the display with this logo and phrase and a quote (“The freedom to read is essential to democracy”); then Tall spinner rack display with challenged books I looked up the ALA’s Top 100 Most Challenged Books by Decade and Top Ten Most Challenged Books List (top 10 by year) and pulled as many of those titles as I could find in our library to put on display.

I also put a small display on the desk near where students check out and return books: my “books change lives/books change lives” jar. This is something I’ve made part of my Banned Books/Freedom to Read display in public libraries for the past several years (see my 2017 post for the Robbins Library here, and the 2016 post here). With the jar, I invite patrons (students, this year) to write the title of a book that has meant something to them; the jar fills up with evidence of the importance of books to people’s lives. This year, I accompanied the jar with a quote from Ban This Book by Alan Gratz:

“How do you say why you like a thing? …How do you explain to someone else why a thing matters to you if it doesn’t matter to them?” (Alan Gratz, Ban This Book, p. 39)

This whiteboard stands near the checkout/return desk; it always has today’s date, the due date of books checked out today, and a First Line Friday – the first sentence of a book. I change it out every week, and visitors to the library can guess the book or peek underneath the flap to find the source. This week – spoiler alert! – the quote is from Ban This Book by Alan Gratz. Ban This Book is about a girl named Amy, who, when she discovers that her favorite book, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, has been removed from the school library – over the protest of the school librarian and against the school library’s own established request for reconsideration policy – begins a secret “banned books library” in her locker at school. This builds into full-blown activism by Amy and her friends; they realize that “if you can ban one book, you can ban them all,” and they all show up at a school board meeting to advocate for their books’ return to the library shelves.

Below: Rotating spinner display rack featuring Speak, Monster, George, Bridge to Terabithia, Blubber, The Giver, Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Golden Compass, Stamped, Ban This Book, Goosebumps.

Picture Book Biographies

August 25, 2021 JennyLeave a comment

When I was little, I had a set of picture book biographies. I haven’t been able to find them since, but I remember that the series included books about Beethoven, Ben Franklin, and maybe Nellie Bly (the set skewed heavily white and male, but there were a few women included).

While I know that hardcover sets like this still exist*, I love the beautiful, creative stand-alone picture book biographies (and collective biographies) that have been published with what seems like increasing frequency in the past few years. Our reading at home skews toward fiction, but I’ve always felt that biography, while technically nonfiction, has fiction’s appeal: it’s the story of someone’s life. Plus, you usually learn something else – about history, or outer space, how to make a vaccine, or the latest in bridge-building.

*I like the Little People, Big Dreams series; they’re pitched to a younger audience, and they do a good job introducing young readers to a diverse array of historical figures, like Agatha Christie, Josephine Baker, Wilma Rudolph, Stevie Wonder, and David Bowie.

This list is not at all exhaustive, but includes many of the picture book biographies I’ve enjoyed over the past few years. I’ve separated them into a few loose categories, and some books appear in more than one category.

Authors

Just Like Beverly: A Biography of Beverly Cleary by Vicki Conrad & David Hohn Cover image of Just Like Beverly

Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade & Cozbi A. Cabrera

You Are My Friend: The Story of Mister Rogers and His Neighborhood by Aimee Reid & Matt Phelan

Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM)

Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed & Stasia Burrington

What Miss Mitchell Saw by Hayley Barrett & Diana Sudyka (Maria Mitchell) Cover image of The Spacesuit

The Spacesuit: How A Seamstress Helped Put A Man on the Moon by Alison Donald & Ariel Landy

Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker & Tiemdow Phumiruk

Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing by Dean Robbins & Lucy Knisley

Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly & Laura Freeman

Mario and the Hole in the Sky: How A Chemist Saved Our Planet by Elizabeth Rusch & Teresa Martinez marioholeinsky

The Polio Pioneer: Dr. Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine by Linda Elovitz Marshall & Lisa Anchin

Dr. Fauci: How A Boy From Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor by Kate Messner & Alexandra Bye

Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean’s Biggest Secret by Jess Keating & Katie Hickey

The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World’s Coral Reefs by Kate Messner & Matthew Forsythe (Ken Nedimyer)

Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge by Rachel Dougherty

Musicians, Dancers, and Artists

Cover image of Josephine Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle & Rafael Lopez

Guitar Genius: How Les Paul Engineered the Solid-Body Electric Guitar and Rocked the World by Kim Tomsic & Brett Helquist

Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson by Leda Schubert & Theodore Taylor III

Firebird by Misty Copeland & Christopher Myers

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell & Christian Robinson

The Noisy Paintbox: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock & Mary GrandPre

Activists and Politicians

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel & Melissa Sweet (Clara Lemlich) Cover image of All the Way to the Top

All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, Nabi Ali, & Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins

The Next President: The Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America’s Presidents by Kate Messner & Adam Rex

The First Woman To…

Cubs in the Tub: The True Story of the Bronx Zoo’s First Woman Zookeeper by Candace Fleming & Julie Downing

Her Fearless Run: Kathrine Switzer’s Historic Boston Marathon by Kim Chafee & Ellen Rooney

herfearlessrun

What Miss Mitchell Saw by Hayley Barrett & Diana Sudyka (Maria Mitchell)