Giant Trees

Although I spent most of my Saturday in my office at Central Library, butt in chair, eyes squinting at my computer screen as I tried to catch up on work, there was a very pleasant interlude at lunchtime - the 31st Annual FOCAL Award luncheon.

The FOCAL award, which is presented annually to an outstanding book with significant California content, was presented to Jason Chin for his book Redwoods, which is about a boy who finds a book about these California trees while riding in a New York City subway train and is transported to a very different landscape.

One special feature of the FOCAL award luncheon is that it features the kids who win that year's essay contest on why they liked the winning book and why they would like to meet the author. Those kids do get to meet the author - and even sit next to him or her at lunch - and read their essays aloud. I got to sit at the parents' table, where a very proud dad nevertheless confessed his worry at whether kids would still be reading for pleasure 10 or 20 years from now, what with the ubiquity of computers and handheld devices.

When that topic became too fraught, we admired the centerpieces, created by kids at the Palms Middle School. Each featured a redwood tree mounted on a real, hand-tinted page from Mr. Chin's book, with a squirrel and a backpack alongside it - all kid-created and completely amazing. I wish my cell phone photo above did them more justice.

By the way, were you wondering what the difference might be between a sequoia and a redwood? Both live in CA, both grow humongous and are reddish, and in fact they are related - but they are very different in several key ways. Author Caroline Arnold, who wrote a book called The Biggest Living Thing (about sequoias), kindly took the time to explain some differences to me.

A bonus to the luncheon was that it took place at a restaurant just two blocks from Central Library. The short walk to and from the luncheon was utterly blissful, as the temperature had heated up to a glorious 80 degrees. Yes, you read that right! It won't last, but for now we Angelenos are getting plenty of vitamin D and loving every minute of it.

To review or not to review?

So here are my two Newbery Dilemmas:

1. Should I review any Newbery-eligible books on either my blog or in School Library Journal?
We're absolutely allowed to express our own personal opinions about books, so long as we don't disclose any Newbery Committee business. However, I feel uneasy about folks reading a positive or negative review that I have written and thinking something along the lines of "Since Eva's a committee member, I bet she will (or won't) recommend/promote this book to the committee."

To avoid any possible guessing or misinterpretations, for 2011 I will try to stick to reviews of non-eligible books (non-U.S. authors; non-2011 titles; etc) and will also focus more on library services to children and teens. Some of my fellow committee members seem to feel the same, while others don't see a problem - and it's definitely a personal choice. It'll feel strange not writing about all the books I'm reading, that's for sure.

2. How will I satisfy my YA jones?? Not to mention my penchant for the occasional grown-up book...? And then there are all those 2010 books I never got to! Judging from the experiences of previous committee members, the last 6 months of the year in particular will be all Newbery, all the way, and that's fine with me (it was great not having to load up on middle-grade ARCs, knowing they'd all be coming my way). But maybe during these early months I can squeeze in some of those juicy ARCs I picked up at ALA - Judy Blundell's Strings Attached, Rachel Ward's The Chaos, Alison Goodman's Eona, Catherine Fisher's The Dark City, and many more. There will undoubtedly be guilt and plenty of it, however.

Did any of you ex-Newbery or other award committee members suffer from these dilemmas? If so, how did you solve them?

Did YOU read it?

I've been reading some of the blog posts that have come out since the announcements of the ALA Youth Media Awards, and most folks seem not to have read the Newbery winner Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool. However, there seems to be general happy bemusement at a dark horse winning - it's so much fun to be utterly surprised. I was trying to get my hands on a copy even a couple days before ALA, based on good reviews and several recommendations from librarians in the Children's Literature dept of Central Library, so hopefully there will be a copy on my chair when I get back to the office tomorrow (hint hint).

Oh, what a lovely midwinter ALA it was. My full day of YALSA institute on Friday was topped off by a lovely dinner with, among other luminaries, Joanne Rocklin, whom I invited to give a presentation to kids at the Venice Branch about 10 years or so ago. Maybe even 15 years... She lives in Oakland now and has a new book coming out with Abrams.

Saturday's high point was meeting with my fellow 2o12 Newbery Committee members. I had met Chair Viki Ash once before, but I have followed the blogs of two other members for long before we were all elected - Stacy Dillon of Welcome to My Tweendom and Lynn Rutan of Booklist's Bookends blog. It was lovely finally meeting them face to face, and in fact all the committee members seem, based on the few hours we've been together so far, to be smart and amiable folks. I have a feeling we're going to work well and happily together.

Speaking of bloggers, I met two other folks whose blogs grace my Google Reader. Both Monica Edinger of educating alice and Marge Loch-Wouters of Tiny Tips for Library Fun are as smart, dynamic, and friendly as their blogs, and it was so great to meet them in person. Monica's experience as a classroom teacher gives her a perspective on children's literature that is fascinating to me, and Marge's quest for the answers to "Why do we children's librarians do what we do and how can we do it better?" is one that is very near and dear to my own heart.

I picked up a heck of a lot of truly mouthwatering ARCs and am beginning to stress about exactly how much YA fiction I am going to be able to slip into my reading schedule this year.. More on this and other Newbery-related dilemmas tomorrow.

Review of Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Cypess, Leah. Mistwood. Greenwillow, 2010.

Isabel is a Shifter, a creature of mist and fog whose duty for hundreds of years has been to be the protector of the king and his family. When Prince Rokan comes the Mistwood to find and bind Isabel and bring her back to the castle, Isabel remembers this, and also finds the castle and her role very familiar. Right away, she realizes that her powers, such preternatural quickness, an intuition that is magical, and an ability to know where Prince Rokan is anywhere in the castle, are designed to help her protect him at all times. And she wants to protect him - the idea of harm coming to him is unthinkable.

But there are huge gaps in Isabel's memory and in her abilities. Why can't she shift at will, as all the other Shifters (who were of course only one Shifter - herself) could and did? And why can't she remember why she left the castle for the woods in the first place, 10 years ago? As it turns out, Prince Rokan and his sister Clarisse are not who Isabel first thinks they are - and neither is Isabel herself.

Isabel exhibits plenty of confident hubris (born of her Shifter abilities and memories) but is also often painfully confused and hesitant. She knows there is something unfinished and not quite right about her, and so she is a character to whom many teenagers will relate. Feeling powerful one moment and timid the next, Isabel tries to bluff her way through a tricky and dangerous political situation.

We don't hear very much about the swirl of court intrigue, and what we do hear isn't particularly vivid or convincing. However, it's clear that the emphasis isn't on the court or even necessarily on the greater implications of the legitimacy of Prince Rokan's claim to the throne. Rather, it is Isabel and her own personal dilemma that is the focus. Why is she feeling so many human emotions if she is the Shifter? To whom should she give her loyalty? It is the relationships between Isabel and the other characters (all teenage royalty) that is the main concern.

I was left with plenty of questions that weren't sufficiently answered, even after the (fairly easy to guess) origin of Isabel's problems is revealed. The background (the court, the kingdom) isn't given much shrift, and while it seems to be on purpose, it results in a world that doesn't feel quite real in either complexity or emotions. Isabel - sure, she's very real. But the castle, court, and kingdom are quite generic. Although Isabel's abilities and the situation are reminiscent of Graceling by Kristin Cashore, this book lacks the depth of that world.

A stand-alone companion to Mistwood, called Nightspell, is coming out in late May 2011. It takes place in the same world, so it will be interesting to see if Cypess fills in some of the missing details. Recommended for fantasy fans ages 12 and up.

Teen Services and the Whole Library Experience

This is the view from my hotel room. It's a wonder I ever leave it!

Yesterday was a full day of work and play at ALA. I attended the all-day YALSA institute on Teen Services and the Whole Library Experience. To tell the truth, I wasn't quite sure what this meant, but it sounded great - and lord knows I need all the training and tutorials on YA services that I can get. As it turned out, this was a primer on how to get all the other folks in your library branch and/or system to understand and buy into the idea of giving good service to teens. Although the workshop didn't offer all the features and speakers promised in the link above, it was worthwhile for some good nuggets of information.

There were several enthusiastic speakers, plus a long and wonderfully chatty luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory (with wine! but we would have had fun anyway), so some good tips. I was particularly taken with Sara Ryan's remarks on how to talk to non-YA librarians about teens. Here are my notes:

Sara Ryan (author of Empress of Nowhere; Teen Services Specialist at Multnomah) “Make it work”
Multnomah has a mandatory training for all staff on serving teens
Crucial to give other staff tools/resources that will make them feel more able/comfortable to give good service to teens, whether it’s reader’s advisory or homework assistance
Some good exercises to do in meetings/trainings with other departments

• Remember the teen that you once were
• Imagine a hypothetical teen and walk with him/her through a typical library experience
• Ask: Why do teens need libraries? Why do libraries need teens?
• Who are we trying to convince and what is the crucial info we want them to know about teens?

Strategies for convincing people:

• Charts (to display stats on everything from circulation to teens in community)

Info about teen brain development

• Info about adolescent development - ages and stages; no one ever operates at “developmental best” all the time
• hot vs cold cognition - emotions affect our thought processes
• Sleep deprivation
• Surroundings - doing better in familiar, comfy surroundings
• Practice makes perfect
• Support - modeling, taking an interest, mentoring, working alongside
• Info about development assets and how your programs contribute to them http://www.search-institute.org/content/40-developmental-assets-adolescents-ages-12-18
• Stories and anecdotes - take it from the scary and vague to the real and personal (how to measure the “invisible” work YA librarians do? the mentoring, the supporting)
• Keep folder on ref desk to write down anecdotes
• Ask teens to write up what the library means to them or what they like (during summer reading programs; when they ask for a recommendation, etc)

Penny Johnson, teen specialist at the Baraboo Public Library in WI, shared some strategies for effecting change in one's organization, focusing on how to share proposals and say "PLEASE:"
P=Proposals, not problems. L=Liaisons. E=Expertise A=Avoid arguments. S=Share success. E=Exemplary Excellence. My favorite of these are those two "E"s - my goal is not only to continue to grow and learn, but to encourage Children's and YA Librarians to be as fabulous as possible, with the ultimate goal of changing and improving the lives of our kids and teens. And if this makes LAPL shine like a beacon of light... awesome!

The strength of the workshop was that all the attendees came away with a renewed sense of purpose and a strengthened commitment to teen services. I'm lucky in that the Los Angeles Public Library administration, and in particular our director Martin Gomez, is extremely supportive of teen services, and in fact has made "helping students succeed" one of his three main service goals, with an emphasis on teens. But of course there are individuals throughout the library system who are not so wild about teens (including, perhaps, some of the more than 20 former adult librarians/new YA librarians who just began their new positions last week).

Some personal resolutions for 2011:
Be relentness. Never go off-message. Keep advocating for children and teens AND their librarians - within the library system, in our community, and beyond.

Not off to a good start

We're already 6 days into the New Year and I've only written ONE blog post?? It's a good thing that my New Year's Resolutions do NOT include writing regular blog posts but DO include reading my little heart out.

I've been reading so much - and such a variety - that I'm behind in my reviews. Here, therefore, are just a couple super-short blurbs. And then - off to ALA and plenty of fodder for plenty of posts.

Silberberg, Alan. Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze. Aladdin, 2010.

This reminded me a bit of Angleberger's The Strange Case of Origami Yoda but with a more poignant backstory (the death of Milo's mother a few years before and the subsequent dysfunction of his family). There are silly, childlike drawings of middle school kids and plenty of middle school nerdly angst - and also Milo's attempts first to bury and and then to deal with the memories of his mom. The touching elements of this book crept up on me slowly and by surprise - wasn't loving it for the first few chapters but was sold by the end.

Stroud, Jonathan. The Ring of Solomon. Disney Hyperion, 2010.

If the first three Bartimaeus books drove you crazy with their pompous protagonist and their endless footnotes, this will, too. But since, as far as I'm concerned, Bartimaeus is the rockin'est djinni ever (and Stroud can do no wrong), this is one fabulous, satisfying read. 'nuff said.

Review of Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

(Short preamble - skip to the next paragraph to read about Sapphique)
This is my first review of 2011, but I'm not too sure how many more I'll be doing this year. I'm on the Newbery Committee (woooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!) and to judge from my colleague Madeline, who is on the 2011 Committee and has been reading like crazy all year and especially over the past 6 months (and most especially over the last month), there won't be all that much time to read anything but Newbery-qualifying books. And while I'm assuming that reviewing those books on this blog is allowed as long as I make clear that these are all MY opinions and not the committee's, I don't know if I'll feel comfortable with that. So... this blog may have mainly a Children's Library Services focus for a year, or perhaps I'll move to reviewing picture books (which have the benefit of being short). But enough of this rambling - on to the review.

Fisher, Catherine. Sapphique. Dial, 2010.

Those of us who read and loved Incarceron were thrilled to see Sapphique published in the same calendar year. Thank goodness Fisher is such a fast and accomplished writer, because she does like cliffhanger endings.

Finn is now Outside the prison Incarceron, working with Claudia and her tutor/mentor/friend Jared to fix the portal to the prison while also trying to stay alive and well despite all the machinations and plots boiling around them in the Court. The Warden is stuck inside Incarceron, as are Finn's oath-brother Keiro and companion Attia. All three are trying to figure out a way to use a powerful Glove to get out of the prison, without letting the unbalanced and cruel consciousness of Incarceron itself get it first.

Like the first installment, scenes take place alternately in Incarceron, with its strange and eerie artificial landscapes, and Outside, in a world whose archaic perfection is an illusion in almost every way. There aren't many revelations in this installment, as readers already know most of the secrets revealed in the first book, so it's easy to simply jump into the story and become immersed without any confusion or puzzlement. The plot hums along all the faster for this, and by the end, with both worlds literally falling apart around the characters' ears, readers will be reading as fast as they can to see what happens next.

In many of these dystopian books, the society in which the characters find themselves has been created expressly in reaction to a past hideous situation - a nasty, decades-long war, perhaps, or destructive climate change, or something else that led to a decision to cast off all the old ways and start anew. Usually this means a huge loss of freedom and knowledge for the citizens, since the new society's creators figure that humans do stupid and destructive things when allowed to do or know too much; consider The Giver by Lowry, Matched by Condie, the Ugly series by Westerfeld, and many others. But the rub is that there must be a small, elite group in the know, the ones who are "protecting" all the others by squelching all dissent in order to keep society going. These folks, even if well-meaning initially, generally have become downright nasty by the time the story we are reading takes place.

The interesting thing about Sapphique is that, in order for the society to keep running, the entire ruling class that is benefiting from it must buy into the illusion that all is well. This is a particularly fascinating aspect of the novel - I kept wondering how far illusions extended. Is the food Claudia eats actually exquisite, or is it rotting meat and rough barley bread? And if the latter, does the technology that maintains the illusions also ensure that folks don't get tummy aches? The situation of the poor people is also thought-provoking. Presumably they are leading more of a real life, so they may actually be more healthy than their aristocratic neighbors, not to mention better able to survive when the illusions disappear.

Although very few of the main characters remain particularly likable, with the exception of the fabulous Jared, the reader can't help but root for them. This well-written and fast-paced fantasy novel is recommended for those who have read and enjoyed Incarceron.