J.D. Salinger

I was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school when I first read The Catcher in the Rye. It was an important book for me, as it was for many others. The book read like Truth with a capital T. It made me feel deeply and want to think profound thoughts and do good deeds and expose phonies. How can certain books affect people so profoundly? I don't know. There was something about the character of Holden that seemed to give form to many of the things I wanted to say but couldn't articulate.

So, many thanks to J.D. Salinger from my teenage self. I hope his death will not bring an onslaught of sleaziness.

Ranger's Apprentice News

I'm a fan of John Flanagan's series the Ranger's Apprentice, so I was excited to find Erak's Ransom, his latest installment, sitting on the hold shelf for me. The book was a little bit odd in that it went back in time. The events in this book take place before Will becomes a ranger, so it comes chronologically after book 4 (The Battle for Skandia) and before book 5 (The Sorcerer in the North). I think my expectations were too high, because I was disappointed. I still liked Will and Horace and the horse Tug and I was glad to see Evanlyn back in the mix, although she didn't have that big of a part. The Skandians are always fun and I liked the desert setting. I thought the action was a little slow, especially in the beginning, but things picked up midway. All in all, I give it a B.

If you're a Ranger's Apprentice fan and you're between the ages of 9 and 14, check out this contest. Might be fun to go to Austin in June.

Dictionary Danger!

Sometimes people are just a little bit silly. There's a story making the rounds on my librarian listservs about a K-8 school district in California that has pulled dictionaries from all its classrooms because a parent complained that her fifth (or fourth) grade student found the term "oral sex" in the book. The school had purchased some copies of the 10th edition of the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary because some of their fourth and fifth graders needed to look up words. The school board will decide whether the dictionary ban will be permanent.

Wow. I always thought the perfect spot for me would have been in a school library--until stories like these come up. It seems like common sense to allow dictionaries in the classroom for students who need to look up words--even "naughty" words. But the power of one squeaky wheel should never be underestimated, especially in instances where the wheel can claim young minds might be corrupted. What do you think? If you were in fourth grade, would you be upset by looking up sexually explicit terms in a dictionary?

Marcelo = Best Book of 2009?

I'd mentioned in a previous blog entry how I love those end-of-the-year lists, especially the lists of best books. I noticed when looking through the entries for this year's best teen books, one title kept showing up: Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. Feeling like I was missing out, I read Marcelo. And when I was done, I knew if I had written a list of the best teen books published in 2009, I wouldn't have included this book.

The novel is narrated by the title character: Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old functioning on the high end of the autistic spectrum. Marcelo has always attended a special school for students with cognitive disorders, and that's where he'd like to finish out his high school career. But his father, a high-powered attorney, has other plans. He wants Marcelo to work in his office's mail room for the summer in order to experience the "real world." If Marcelo is successful in the mail room, he can attend the school he's used to for his senior year. Otherwise, his father will put him in the public high school.

Marcelo narrates the story, so we get to know him well. The subject that most interests Marcelo is religion, and he has a close relationship with a female rabbi, who happens to be his mother's best friend. He is also very fond of working with the horses at his school and he really enjoys music. Marcelo has always heard what he calls internal music. It's hard for him to describe, impossible for him to reproduce, but it's beautiful.

Instead of working with horses, the summer job he'd always dreamed of, Marcelo is pushed into the mail room of his father's cut-throat law firm. He's forced into all kinds of situations that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable for him. He has to interact with people he doesn't know or quite understand. He has to walk and take trains and buses in the city to get places he's never been before. And he learns a lot--about himself and his father's real world.

I didn't hate this book--not at all. But I didn't love it, either. There's a lot of Marcelo talking in this book--to the rabbi, to Juliet in the mail room, to his mom, to himself. Talking and more talking. After a while, I'd had enough. But I'm definitely in the minority. So someone else read this book and explain its appeal. Or better yet, let me know I'm not the only one in the universe who didn't absolutely adore this book.

Phone call from an author

Part of my job is to try to get middle and high school kids reading. A good way to do that is to bring a beloved author to town in person, thus generating reading excitement. Last year, we had Rick Riordan and Sharon Flake--a mighty fine year! This year I'm working with the author David Lubar. My favorite book of his is Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. A lot of kids like his book Hidden Talents and some of the younger students love his "weenie" short stories as well as his new series starting with My Rotten Life, which features a 5th grade boy who turns into a zombie.

Anyway, I contacted David Lubar last August and he said yes right away and we settled on a date of April 5 & 6, but he lives in Pennsylvania and the flights were really expensive so we didn't officially book anything. Well, I'd been worrying about this in the back of my mind because all of a sudden it's January and nothing is set. So I sent him an email and he called me--that same morning. Luckily the plane ticket prices had come way down, so he booked his flight, enabling me to then book his hotel and all of a sudden what had been a nebulous mess started to look like an actual plan. Whew!

If you're not familiar with David Lubar yet, there's time to get ready. I've given you a few titles to start with. Here's a neat blog entry about David written in November 2009 by Cynthia Leitich Smith. And here's a link to his blog, Gadfly in the Ointment, which is funny.

Go ahead and mark your calendars--I know how those things can fill up. On Monday evening, April 5, at 7pm you are going to want to be here at the Champaign Public Library to hear the very funny David Lubar speak. Bring your friends too.

Snowy day

Well, the schools are closed for the day, but the library's open until 5pm. The snow has stopped for a while, though there's more predicted for tonight. Yuck, winter weather. It's the pits. I tried to shovel out some of the stuff before I had to come in this morning. I cleared the sidewalks, but didn't make much headway on the drive.

After shoveling, I showered, dressed, packed my lunch, bundled up, and headed into work by foot. I don't live far and I'd rather walk in the deep snow than drive on treacherous roads. I was trudging along when I noticed a father cleaning snow off of his van. With him was a small boy, maybe 3 years old. I looked at the boy and then I shared a smile with his dad. You could tell from the boy's face and his excited hops that he thought all this snow was very, very neat and exciting and wonderful. That was fun to see. I also had to laugh this morning when I got to tell my 17-year-old daughter that her dream had come true: school was cancelled. While struggling with AP Physics and BC Calculus last night, she had made me promise if there was an announcement that there was no school, I would wake her up briefly to let her know the joyous news.

I don't like snow anymore--at all. But I do like being reminded of all the times in the past when a big snowstorm really did seem like a gift.

Rick Riordan updates

Rick Riordan has a busy year coming up. The movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief will be released on Feb. 12. The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid, the first book in his new middle school series delving into ancient Egypt, comes out in May. And right now he's working on the first book in his Camp Half Blood spin off series which will be released this fall. Whew. Go, Rick.

If you have a little extra time, read Rick's blog. It gives a neat inside look into what he's working on and who he's met and there's even a kitten rescue story. And the photo to the left is a reminder of how happy all of us librarians were when Rick visited the library last March. Great to know that sometimes wonderful things happen to people who do deserve them.