Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page has kindly written an explanation of the Cybil Awards (Children and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards), for which nominations begin tomorrow. There are plenty of categories, and anyone may nominate books; they will be voted on by panels of bloggers.
If last year's short list is any indication, we will all have plenty of fabulous books to add to our must-read lists as the nominating and winnowing process proceeds. Winners will be announced on Valentine's Day, 2009.
Go to the Cybils home page for more information and to nominate your favorite books.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
A Librarian Ponders Summer Reading Club
Summer is over, Summer Reading Club 2008 statistics and reports have been turned in, and planning has already begun on Summer Reading Club 2009 – and I’m feeling confused and uncertain about this annual ritual.
2008 was an historic year for me – after more than 16 years working in branches as a Children’s Librarian and then Branch Manager, I transferred to an administrative position in our Children’s Services Department last fall, a wonderful job that allows me to train, aid, and encourage Children’s Librarians in all our branches, to work closely with books and other materials, to help develop and administer system-wide children’s programs, and much more.
What this means is that 2008 is the first year that I have not worked directly with the public. No daily shifts on the information desk, no regular storytimes, no puppet shows – and no Summer Reading Club! My office did a fine job of supplying our Children’s Librarians with supplies, incentives, and great ideas – but then we sat back and let SRC run its course in the branches.
Perhaps this distance is what has made me ponder the purpose of Summer Reading Club. In general, most folks agree that libraries offer SRC to keep kids reading all summer long, so that their reading skills stay honed during the long break from school. In addition, we are trying to attract non-library users to the library for the first time with our exciting programs and themes. Also, we want to promote the idea of reading for fun, tempting reluctant readers with goodies like graphic novels and providing personal reader’s advisory to kids who are already enthusiastic readers.
Those are all fabulous goals, but does SRC achieve them? In my library system, sign-up statistics (meaning simply the kids who signed up and received a reading folder) were slightly up from last year, while program attendance was up sharply across the board. I find sign-up statistics a bit misleading – a librarian can invite dozens of classes to visit the library in June and sign up every kid, creating large numbers, but how many of those kids come back all summer long, or even once? Program attendance is more interesting, especially considering that our Children’s Librarians had much less funding for “professional” entertainers such as magicians and puppeteers, and so presented mostly less flashy home-grown programs. Was the economy affecting the number of kids who went to summer camp or on summer trips?
But whether these statistics soar, decline, or stay even, they don’t answer some crucial questions. Are SRCs encouraging kids to read more than they normally would? Does attendance in SRC lead to better reading skills and higher grades? Are children reading more for fun as a result of SRCs?
The answers to all these questions may well be “yes,” but it’s hard to know how we can measure our success in these areas. Studies have probably been done, tracking the grades and/or reading skills of SRC participants vs. non-participants – although even if SRC participants turned out to be more successful in school, that could be simply because they come from families where libraries are valued, and therefore might already have a built-in advantage.
Certainly SRC must attract a fair number of kids to the library who have rarely or never visited, and often they bring their families with them. Children’s Librarians in my system visit as many of their local schools as possible, making presentations in assemblies or blitzing every classroom to entice kids to join SRC this summer. It’s a reminder to school-weary kids that libraries aren’t just about homework resources and a place to study; we’re free, we’re air-conditioned, and in summer we’re all about having fun.
I can’t help feeling, however, that books and reading sometimes fall by the wayside in all the excitement. Sure, the folders that children receive have spaces for reading and most Children’s Librarians have some sort of bare-minimum reading requirement in order for children to receive an incentive; I always asked that they either have read a book over the past week or be in the process of reading one (after all, it can take more than a week to finish a chapter book). Ask a question or two about the book or books (what was your favorite part? Which was your favorite book? Since you liked that mystery so much, would you like to try another?) if there isn’t a long line, initial and date the folder, hand the kid a cool pencil, and on to the next kid.
Mostly, though, the focus seems to be on the programs, the incentives, and the theme. A cool theme (we used “Reading is Magic” this year – very popular) can generate excitement among both kids and staff and is an excellent way to build programs and activities. Incentives can mean a lot to a kid who is very proud of herself for reading one whole book in a week (or three weeks). Innovative Children’s Librarians can and should always link a fun program like a magic show back to some great books that kids can check out.
But with all this frenzy, it’s especially important to find the time to focus on individual kids and their reading needs and desires. Plenty of families arrive at the library in a great flurry of kids and strollers, stay just long enough for the program and maybe the weekly incentive, grab a DVD or two or six, and then leave. Now, maybe they’ve got shelves overflowing with books at home, but how cool to take home a library book hand-picked by their very own librarian.
Or what about those kids who hang out at the library all day playing on the computers? They can sometimes be dragged into a program, they might consent to signing up for the reading club, but they’re at the library not because they like to read but because they have nowhere else to go – and the computers are free here. Some of these kids are only seven or eight and might be easy to hook on books if we put forth a bit of effort. Even a thirteen-year-old isn’t too old – my own husband accidentally discovered Paula Danziger’s The Cat Ate My Gym Suit at age 13 or 14, and read it all the way through. It was the first book he had ever read for pleasure, but not the last.
Unfortunately, branches are often busy and understaffed, and no one is busier than the Children’s Librarian. No one is more important, either, and I hope that Branch Managers can give their Children’s Librarians a bit of time to roam the children’s area and to simply sit down with kids and read to them once in a while. Too often, librarians are chained to the information desk. Some kids do venture up to us there – but many don’t.
We all have at least a handful of Eager Readers who check out stacks of our favorite books and whom we think of when we order the latest well-reviewed fiction, but there are plenty more who roam the shelves, guessing that there might be something interesting there but not quite sure how to find it, or who sit slumped at a table, bored out of their minds while waiting for the next available computer. These are the kids who parents probably didn’t bring them to our storytimes and so they don’t know us and don’t quite believe that books can be anything but a chore.
If Summer Reading Club were toned down a bit – still fun, still an exciting change from the boring school year, but less about flashy performers and prizes – maybe Children’s Librarians could reach some kind of balance. We could still attract some non-users to the library, still offer enough cool stuff to interest kids all summer long, but we’d have more time to add a personal touch that was less about entertainment and toys and more about books and reading.
“The right book for the right child” has always been a wonderful mantra. If I, as a Children’s Librarian, had eschewed the ritual weekly “handing out of the incentive” and instead simply asked kids to come talk to me about the books, I wonder how that would have worked. Instead of zooming from the community room to the information desk after a standing-room-only program so that I could hand out a sticker to 60 kids, I could have invited them all to join me in the children’s area so that we could find some fabulous books. Yes, I would have been swamped, but the focus would have been on books, not checking off a reading folder.
That sounds all very idealistic. Kids (and librarians) do love performers, incentives, and the rest of the SRC trappings. I’m just pondering the possibility of a slight change in focus and attitude, of reminding oneself every day what we’re all about and why we raise such a hullabaloo every summer. I think that, when I talk to Children’s Librarians who are either new and alarmed or faded and jaded, I will suggest that they concentrate not on numbers and statistics but on getting the right book to the right child, one kid or audience at a time. The theme and incentives are fluffy icing; the books are the cake; the kids are our guests. Let them eat cake!
2008 was an historic year for me – after more than 16 years working in branches as a Children’s Librarian and then Branch Manager, I transferred to an administrative position in our Children’s Services Department last fall, a wonderful job that allows me to train, aid, and encourage Children’s Librarians in all our branches, to work closely with books and other materials, to help develop and administer system-wide children’s programs, and much more.
What this means is that 2008 is the first year that I have not worked directly with the public. No daily shifts on the information desk, no regular storytimes, no puppet shows – and no Summer Reading Club! My office did a fine job of supplying our Children’s Librarians with supplies, incentives, and great ideas – but then we sat back and let SRC run its course in the branches.
Perhaps this distance is what has made me ponder the purpose of Summer Reading Club. In general, most folks agree that libraries offer SRC to keep kids reading all summer long, so that their reading skills stay honed during the long break from school. In addition, we are trying to attract non-library users to the library for the first time with our exciting programs and themes. Also, we want to promote the idea of reading for fun, tempting reluctant readers with goodies like graphic novels and providing personal reader’s advisory to kids who are already enthusiastic readers.
Those are all fabulous goals, but does SRC achieve them? In my library system, sign-up statistics (meaning simply the kids who signed up and received a reading folder) were slightly up from last year, while program attendance was up sharply across the board. I find sign-up statistics a bit misleading – a librarian can invite dozens of classes to visit the library in June and sign up every kid, creating large numbers, but how many of those kids come back all summer long, or even once? Program attendance is more interesting, especially considering that our Children’s Librarians had much less funding for “professional” entertainers such as magicians and puppeteers, and so presented mostly less flashy home-grown programs. Was the economy affecting the number of kids who went to summer camp or on summer trips?
But whether these statistics soar, decline, or stay even, they don’t answer some crucial questions. Are SRCs encouraging kids to read more than they normally would? Does attendance in SRC lead to better reading skills and higher grades? Are children reading more for fun as a result of SRCs?
The answers to all these questions may well be “yes,” but it’s hard to know how we can measure our success in these areas. Studies have probably been done, tracking the grades and/or reading skills of SRC participants vs. non-participants – although even if SRC participants turned out to be more successful in school, that could be simply because they come from families where libraries are valued, and therefore might already have a built-in advantage.
Certainly SRC must attract a fair number of kids to the library who have rarely or never visited, and often they bring their families with them. Children’s Librarians in my system visit as many of their local schools as possible, making presentations in assemblies or blitzing every classroom to entice kids to join SRC this summer. It’s a reminder to school-weary kids that libraries aren’t just about homework resources and a place to study; we’re free, we’re air-conditioned, and in summer we’re all about having fun.
I can’t help feeling, however, that books and reading sometimes fall by the wayside in all the excitement. Sure, the folders that children receive have spaces for reading and most Children’s Librarians have some sort of bare-minimum reading requirement in order for children to receive an incentive; I always asked that they either have read a book over the past week or be in the process of reading one (after all, it can take more than a week to finish a chapter book). Ask a question or two about the book or books (what was your favorite part? Which was your favorite book? Since you liked that mystery so much, would you like to try another?) if there isn’t a long line, initial and date the folder, hand the kid a cool pencil, and on to the next kid.
Mostly, though, the focus seems to be on the programs, the incentives, and the theme. A cool theme (we used “Reading is Magic” this year – very popular) can generate excitement among both kids and staff and is an excellent way to build programs and activities. Incentives can mean a lot to a kid who is very proud of herself for reading one whole book in a week (or three weeks). Innovative Children’s Librarians can and should always link a fun program like a magic show back to some great books that kids can check out.
But with all this frenzy, it’s especially important to find the time to focus on individual kids and their reading needs and desires. Plenty of families arrive at the library in a great flurry of kids and strollers, stay just long enough for the program and maybe the weekly incentive, grab a DVD or two or six, and then leave. Now, maybe they’ve got shelves overflowing with books at home, but how cool to take home a library book hand-picked by their very own librarian.
Or what about those kids who hang out at the library all day playing on the computers? They can sometimes be dragged into a program, they might consent to signing up for the reading club, but they’re at the library not because they like to read but because they have nowhere else to go – and the computers are free here. Some of these kids are only seven or eight and might be easy to hook on books if we put forth a bit of effort. Even a thirteen-year-old isn’t too old – my own husband accidentally discovered Paula Danziger’s The Cat Ate My Gym Suit at age 13 or 14, and read it all the way through. It was the first book he had ever read for pleasure, but not the last.
Unfortunately, branches are often busy and understaffed, and no one is busier than the Children’s Librarian. No one is more important, either, and I hope that Branch Managers can give their Children’s Librarians a bit of time to roam the children’s area and to simply sit down with kids and read to them once in a while. Too often, librarians are chained to the information desk. Some kids do venture up to us there – but many don’t.
We all have at least a handful of Eager Readers who check out stacks of our favorite books and whom we think of when we order the latest well-reviewed fiction, but there are plenty more who roam the shelves, guessing that there might be something interesting there but not quite sure how to find it, or who sit slumped at a table, bored out of their minds while waiting for the next available computer. These are the kids who parents probably didn’t bring them to our storytimes and so they don’t know us and don’t quite believe that books can be anything but a chore.
If Summer Reading Club were toned down a bit – still fun, still an exciting change from the boring school year, but less about flashy performers and prizes – maybe Children’s Librarians could reach some kind of balance. We could still attract some non-users to the library, still offer enough cool stuff to interest kids all summer long, but we’d have more time to add a personal touch that was less about entertainment and toys and more about books and reading.
“The right book for the right child” has always been a wonderful mantra. If I, as a Children’s Librarian, had eschewed the ritual weekly “handing out of the incentive” and instead simply asked kids to come talk to me about the books, I wonder how that would have worked. Instead of zooming from the community room to the information desk after a standing-room-only program so that I could hand out a sticker to 60 kids, I could have invited them all to join me in the children’s area so that we could find some fabulous books. Yes, I would have been swamped, but the focus would have been on books, not checking off a reading folder.
That sounds all very idealistic. Kids (and librarians) do love performers, incentives, and the rest of the SRC trappings. I’m just pondering the possibility of a slight change in focus and attitude, of reminding oneself every day what we’re all about and why we raise such a hullabaloo every summer. I think that, when I talk to Children’s Librarians who are either new and alarmed or faded and jaded, I will suggest that they concentrate not on numbers and statistics but on getting the right book to the right child, one kid or audience at a time. The theme and incentives are fluffy icing; the books are the cake; the kids are our guests. Let them eat cake!
Friday, September 26, 2008
'Tis the Season for Newbery Buzz
If all the amazing fall books piling up on your must-read shelves are whetting your appetite for some good Newbery Buzz, then go to the brand new blog Heavy Medal, hosted by School Library Journal and moderated by Nina Lindsay and Sharon McKellar.
Currently being discussed - The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. Yep, in my opinion it's definitely a contender!
Currently being discussed - The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. Yep, in my opinion it's definitely a contender!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets
Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets (Viking Press, 1955).
As an adult, I have an entirely different relationship to books than I did as a child, and it's a real shame. Maybe it's related to the loss of the ability to play make-believe that I experienced some time just before puberty hit - although I do think "Narnia!" whenever I walk down a mysterious misty tree-lined path (or even when a sidewalk in my urban neighborhood is canopied by an overgrown stand of bamboo). Maybe I've just don't know how to lose my self in a book the same way - although I dive into books with complete and blessed immersion as my main goal.
I don't think that adults identify so viscerally with books as children do. I love and need books as much as I ever did, and there are adult books that I truly love. A terrific book sweeps me along so fast and hard that I lose track of time and have to tear myself away in order to get a bit of sleep. But still, the book and its characters are separate from me. Some of its flavor might linger and a tiny bit of a good book must surely become a part of me forever, but I never lose track of the borders between the story and my own life.
However, kids inhabit the books they love. They are not just fully absorbed spectators, but actual participants in the story. The book has all the meaning that a real life event might, with the added benefit of being able to be experienced over and over, to be pored over and pondered.
Reading my frayed copy of Play With Me, I can remember the intensity with which I identified with its nameless narrator. The jacket vanished so long ago that I can't remember what it looked like; pencil scribbles and odd stains mar the beige back and cover but the cream-colored outlines of the little girl chasing a rabbit, blowing the seeds from a milkweed flower, and so on are still very visible.
That little girl was me. She was a wispy blonde to my tangled brunette, she wore an odd tie-up-the-back pinafore that looks to my adult eyes like a hospital gown, a truly silly bow nodded at the very top of her head. But she was all alone, a state of being that still resonates with me strongly to this day.
She is alone in a meadow with a few trees and a creek, not too far away from the house that is just visible in the distance, but far enough that you just know that all she can hear is the babble of water in the creek and the wind rattling the leaves in the trees, and probably lots of insects as well. And she is lonely and wants to play, but every animal she tries to catch or touch runs away.
The illustrations are simple charcoal pencil drawings against a cream-beige background, with the little girl's pink-beige skin the only bit of color. The plants and flowers are drawn with a careful, childlike enthusiasm - leaves are round and blobby, grass is spiky and sparse - and the animals (a rabbit, a grasshopper, a scolding blue jay, a turtle, a snake, a fawn, a frog) have only just enough anthropomorphism to make their eventual "friendship" with the girl seem not only plausible but perfectly wonderful.
For the girl eventually gives up on chasing animals and just sits quietly on a rock watching a bug in the creek, and as she continues to be still, all the animals come back one by one, closer and closer, until finally - huge moment for me, no matter how many hundreds of times I read it - the fawn comes up and licks her cheek.
I'm very good at staying very still and quiet, a skill that has stood me in good stead through many long and boring meetings, presentations, and social events. Could it be a result of this book? One thing I've learned, though - in order to make friends in the real world, a different and more challenging sort of skill is required. As an introvert, I find it easier to make friends with tiny hamsters, surly chickens, and indifferent squirrels than with people.
What did I gaze at more than anything else? The snake puddling his way back into his hole, the fawn hiding behind a stand of blobby-leaved plants, the little girl blowing the milkweed, the fawn licking the quietly delirious girl - and the serene sun, drawn just the way a little kid would, with rays and a face, smiling down on every page.
It is this kind of connection to books, and not just any books but to children's books, that led me to children's librarianship. I had to be around these books. I still do. They nourish me every single day. Thank goodness that my job (and motherhood) has allowed me to pass this joyful, eternal connection on to lots and lots of kids.
Whew. Time to get back to my book!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
As if I didn't already have enough on my to-read shelf...
...here are more books (for grown-ups, no less, so probably extra-long!) to add to my already groaning must-read shelf.
The National Book Foundation has released their "5 Under 35" 2008 fiction selections. Thanks to Bookfox for the link.
Slightly old news, but only three of these are in my library system yet anyway - The Man Booker Prize 2008 announced their shortlist earlier this month. These are always worth a read.
I think I need some kind of illness - not life-threatening or contagious, mind you - that will force me to stay in bed all day for a week or a month, eating buttered toast and reading reading reading.
The National Book Foundation has released their "5 Under 35" 2008 fiction selections. Thanks to Bookfox for the link.
Slightly old news, but only three of these are in my library system yet anyway - The Man Booker Prize 2008 announced their shortlist earlier this month. These are always worth a read.
I think I need some kind of illness - not life-threatening or contagious, mind you - that will force me to stay in bed all day for a week or a month, eating buttered toast and reading reading reading.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
September Carnival of Children's Literature
Go visit Jenny's Wonderland of Books to read a great round-up of posts about children's books past and present. My Little Brute Family post is there...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Review of All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn
All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion, 2008)Having been kicked out of summer camp, Travis and his sister Corey are packed off to stay with their Grandma at her bed and breakfast, the Vermont Inn. As soon as they find out that the inn is supposedly haunted, although no ghosts have been seen for years, the kids decide to plan a spooky visitation of their own. Their pranks thrill the guests but also wake up the real ghosts, who create quite an impressive poltergeistly display.
It turns out that there are two separate types of ghosts roaming about – a group of high-spirited young boys and a blood-curdling old woman. Without spoiling the plot (which is fairly predictable in a nicely shivery kind of way), let me just say that the inn used to be a poor farm, where destitute families came when they had nowhere else to go – and many of them in fact never went anywhere else again, thanks to a nasty piece of work named Miss Ada.
Travis and Corey figure out what the young ghosts need in order to rest peacefully, and they manage to accomplish it – but then they have to deal with the deadly rage of the ghastly Miss Ada.
It’s hard as an adult to read a ghost story for kids and to tell if it will hold any chills for them; my spooky-bone has been somewhat dulled by grown-up tales of terror. Having closed my eyes through much of the movie “The Orphanage,” to which All the Lovely Bad Ones bears a tiny resemblance, I found this book to be a cakewalk. However, I do think this will be a pleasantly scary book for any kid who hasn’t launched straight into Stephen King, especially with the fairly horrific tales of life at the poor farm. There are long-ago beatings and even death, as well as a gruesome (but luckily toned-down) grave exhumation, so this isn’t for the completely tender-hearted.
Give to kids ages 9 and up who insist they want a really scary book.
It turns out that there are two separate types of ghosts roaming about – a group of high-spirited young boys and a blood-curdling old woman. Without spoiling the plot (which is fairly predictable in a nicely shivery kind of way), let me just say that the inn used to be a poor farm, where destitute families came when they had nowhere else to go – and many of them in fact never went anywhere else again, thanks to a nasty piece of work named Miss Ada.
Travis and Corey figure out what the young ghosts need in order to rest peacefully, and they manage to accomplish it – but then they have to deal with the deadly rage of the ghastly Miss Ada.
It’s hard as an adult to read a ghost story for kids and to tell if it will hold any chills for them; my spooky-bone has been somewhat dulled by grown-up tales of terror. Having closed my eyes through much of the movie “The Orphanage,” to which All the Lovely Bad Ones bears a tiny resemblance, I found this book to be a cakewalk. However, I do think this will be a pleasantly scary book for any kid who hasn’t launched straight into Stephen King, especially with the fairly horrific tales of life at the poor farm. There are long-ago beatings and even death, as well as a gruesome (but luckily toned-down) grave exhumation, so this isn’t for the completely tender-hearted.
Give to kids ages 9 and up who insist they want a really scary book.
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