Betsy's Blog

Vacation time

2012-01-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

I get to go on a vacation this Friday. I'll be in Florida for one whole week. No library, no cold weather. Good times ahead. There's only one problem about going on vacation--all the stuff you have to do beforehand.

Now I'm not talking about the packing I have to do at home. That's just normal, going-on-vacation stuff. I'm talking about work stuff. I'm close to the point where I think I should skip the whole stupid vacation just to cut down on the number of emails and instructions I have to write.

I know I shouldn't be whining. I mean, I get a whole lovely week off in a warm, hopefully sunny place. But this vacation comes at a kind of bad time. My department has 3 new practicum students, one of whom will start while I'm off. I'm the one who coordinates the training of these students, so that means I need to make sure there's a schedule of who's training whom when and have a backup person to revise the original schedule when staff members call in sick. I'm also supposed to do the payroll on Monday, so I need to send out the reminder "turn-in-your-time-sheet" email as well as get the master check off list ready and hand off the old schedules for checking. Then there are the weeded books that need to be looked at for possible reordering and the Hunger Games readalike booklist that needs to be finished (but I don't think it will be) and the proposal I need to prepare in order to justify a cool new eBook idea I had and the updating I really should do for the library's Facebook accounts and website and ...

You get the picture. There's a lot to do. Basically, I need a vacation from getting ready to take my vacation. And don't even get me started on what I'll be greeted with when I come back. But, like Scarlet, I don't want to go crazy, so I'll think about that tomorrow.

No new blog post next week because I will be walking on a beach somewhere, not worrying about things in Champaign. I'll check back in, tanned and relaxed, Feb. 8.

It's a Launch!

2012-01-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

This coming Saturday, I'll be hosting my first ever launch program for a book. Local author Julie Cross has written a fabulous teen novel titled Tempest. Julie calls it a cross between The Time Traveler's Wife and The Bourne Identity but with teenage protagonists. The book is a fast-paced adventure with 19-year-old Jackson Meyer as the time traveler who gets stuck two years in the past where he meets his current girlfriend for the first time--again--and has the opportunity to stop something terrible from happening. I got to read an advance reader's copy of the novel and I think folks are really going to like it. Julie's well known in the area because she taught gymnastics at the YMCA for a long time, so she has many supporters wishing her well.

Right now, we have 90 people registered for the free event. That's a lot. The room holds 120, so even factoring in that registered people don't always show up and unregistered people often do, it should be a full house. I'm making my checklist (call bookseller, check on volunteers, review room set up, test microphones, etc.) when I thought it might be fun to look at what other places had done for their launches. The common term is "launch party" but we don't have "parties" at the library because of the non-library-ish cake/balloon/present connotations the "p" word often brings to mind.

Here's the blurb from wisegeek.com:
At a minimum, a launch party has freebies for guests such as branded clothing or bags, while some upscale launch parties will have gift bags filled with expensive branded items. The launch party also includes high quality catered food and drink, and entertainment. Circus performers, famous musicians, and everything in between can be found at a launch party, as companies struggle to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Hmmm...no gift bags, no food, no circus performer, and I have a feeling Taylor Swift may be busy on Saturday. That was depressing, so I thought I'd be more specific and look at BOOK launch parties. Here's what the folks at The Writer's Handbook Blog advise:

Location. Inexpensive or free! No need to rent the Grand Ballroom and hire an expensive caterer. But I do recommend finding a public place rather than a private home. Think about local community groups, cultural centers, or restaurants or pubs that serve food and have a meeting room.

(What about a LIBRARY, Writer's Handbook people??)

Theme. If your book has a theme that lends itself to a party, use it! A Jane Austen literary-criticism book will have different theme than a Canadian fur-trade voyageur book). Doesn’t need to be overdone, but it helps to create interest if you add a bit of topical flavor in some food to be served, design of the invitation, etc.

(Time travel might be a little tricky to pull off...)

Program? Personally, I prefer to see a launch party as just that: a festive party.

(Uh-oh. Maybe that's why they didn't list libraries. They know we can't have "p-words" here.)

Party or not, I hope everything goes well on Saturday. Julie's a real sweetheart and deserves it. If you're in the area, register now and you can witness it all firsthand.

Absence Makes the Heart...

2012-01-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

One of my bosses--the one who was in charge of creating the public desk schedules for my department--retired over the summer and now, along with one fewer staff member (sniff, sniff), we've got a new person doing the scheduling. This change has resulted in a greater variety of people working in the TeenSpace during the after-school hours. I'm usually in Teen at least once a week, but I'm not often there 3 or more times a week like I used to be. This change, coupled with the public school's winter break, meant I had a semi-long stretch of days free from after-school TeenSpace craziness. Frankly, I kind of missed it.

This week school's back in full swing and I was back in TeenSpace--Monday, Tuesday, and I'll be there again tomorrow. Before school let out on Monday, I was a little worried that I'd lost my TeenSpace mojo. Maybe working up on the second floor had made me forget how to roll with my middle school buds. But I hadn't. Being back in the small, crowded room full of 30-40 loud 6th, 7th, and 8th graders felt nicely familiar. In no other part of the library am I greeted by name (usually both first and last because "Betsy Su" is far too cool a name to ever separate). In turn, this is the only spot in the library where I know all the faces and at least half of the names of every single person in the room.

I don't think I'm a beloved figure. I'm just not friendly enough for that. But, by this time of the year, I am a somewhat accepted fixture in the lives of the kids--that library lady who's always around. And that's not a totally bad thing to be.

New Year, Blank Slate

2012-01-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe another year's beginning. I love the idea of the new year being a clean slate, a fresh start, a time to begin again.

But I think I've taken this idea one step too far. It's a new year and my mind's a blank slate. I guess that means it's clean and fresh and ready for something awesome to begin. The only problem is, I can't think of what.

I could tell you that I'm in the middle of the new Maureen Johnson book The Name of the Star and that I'm not loving this "American girl at English boarding school investigating Jack the Ripper type murders"as much as my co-worker did.

I could share that it's been a little bit quieter at the library with the UI finals over and the public schools on break.

I could say there was an absolutely beautiful pink sunset today, but that seems a little off topic.

So, I will simply wish for you a year full of good books and some quiet times in which to read them. In return, you can wish for me to have a slate slightly less blank next week.

Two Out of Three's Not Bad

2011-12-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

A week's passed, Christmas is over, and I'm no longer stuck in the middle of two out of the three books from last week--progress! I'm happy to report that The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater lived up to its hype. It was a subtle, atmospheric book, using striking characters to examine the all-consuming, often incomprehensible loves we have for harsh places and wild creatures that don't always seem deserving of that love. Beautiful descriptions, complex characters, super cool plot with literally devil horses racing plus an understated but hot romance. Whew!

I also finished and enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. This was a gory but fun tale of a modern-day high school student traveling the country killing ghosts who are killing people only to fall for Anna, one of the murderous ghosts he's supposed to get rid of.

I'm still firmly stuck in the middle of the teen disaster novel Ashes by Ilsa Bick and I'm about to throw in the towel. I did start Delirium by Lauren Oliver and I loved the premise: In a future world, love--or amor deliria nervosa--is treated as a fatal disease. Once you turn 18, you get "the procedure," which cures you of being susceptible to this killer, then you're given a set of compatible matches from whom you pick your mate. Great start, but slowed down very quickly and seemed headed toward a kind of didactic path. I think I'm done with this one. I did like author Oliver's Ground-Hog-Day-like novel Before I Fall, so I'd suggest trying that one first.

Hope you're able to squeeze in some reading while you enjoy the last few days of 2011.

Stuck in the Middle

2011-12-21T12:53:00.001-08:00

I often read a couple of books at once, mainly because I like different books at different times. I can't read tense, scary books right before I go to sleep, for example, so I have a bedtime book backup. This week, however, I find myself stuck in the middle of three different teen books. Not usually a good sign for any of the books, but I haven't given up on them yet.

The oldest one in the pile is Ashes by Ilsa Bick. I got to hear this author speak in Naperville a couple of months ago and that made me want to read her book. Alex is the 17-year-old main character and she's got an inoperable brain tumor. The book starts with her heading off for some back-to-nature time after struggling through treatment for her tumor. Alex is a real tough cookie--almost unbelievably so-- with brains and know-how and a commitment to living out the rest of her life the way she wants to. But right as she begins her trek, a huge electromagnetic pulse occurs, killing billions and turning lots of others into zombies. (I'm not making this up. That's really what happens.) So Alex finds herself teamed up with a crabby 8-year-old as they try to stay alive. I think I slowed up on this one because the action slowed up and I wasn't very invested in the characters. I'm tempted to jump ahead, but that seems wrong.

The second book I'm reading is Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. This one's set in present day with another 17-year-old main character, this time a young man named Cas Lowood. Cas travels across the country with his white-witch mother, doing the job his father used to do: killing murderous ghosts. If you think murderous ghosts don't need killing because they're already dead, you'd be wrong. Anyway, Cas has been doing this for the past three years, taking over after his father was killed while working, and Cas has always been able to get the job done--until now. He and his mother arrive in a new town and Cas meets Anna, a ghost he can't kill--and doesn't really want to. I think this one has a neat, kind of doomed love affair flavor, but Anna, the ghost, has already murdered a character, so I'm a little afraid there may be no happy ending in store. I do want to see what happens next.

Finally, I'd been hearing all sorts of buzz about the book The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, so I had to jump into that as soon as my turn in the hold list came up. Stiefvater is the author of the werewolf romance trilogy Shiver, Linger, and Forever (and I realize now that I only read Shiver). Anyway, this one has a super-cool premise. It's set on a small island near England where every fall vicious, carnivorous, super-scary water horses ascend out of the water to feed on anything they can catch. The crazy islanders literally risk life and limb, attempting to capture one of the beasts and then ride it long enough to win one grand race, The Scorpio Race. Neat, right? One of the book's main characters is Sean Kendrick, the defending champion of the race for the past 4 years. Sean is the island's "water-horse whisperer." He's 19 and feels a special bond with the horses, although that doesn't mean he takes their murderous nature for granted. Sean works for a rich jerk who owns a large stable of horses, water and normal, and Sean longs to have enough money so that he can live free with Corr, the water horse he's ridden to win the races. But his boss owns Corr and won't sell. The other main character is Kate Connolly, or Puck as she's known to her friends. Puck lives with her two brothers, all orphans after a water horse killed their parents. Puck only enters the race as a desperate attempt to keep her older brother Gabe from deserting her and their younger brother Finn when he announces he's leaving the island. Puck is skilled at riding her farm horse Dove, and she thinks if she can win the race riding Dove, she'll avenge her parents' deaths as well as win the money she needs to keep her family together. But Puck is in way, way over her head with no idea at all what she's up against. Exciting stuff so far! And, hopefully, I'll have at least one of these books finished before another week goes by.

Anticipation!

2011-12-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

Rather than gripe about my bad luck with teen books recently or whine about the stress felt in a week full of changes, I thought I'd list some of the teen books of 2012 that I'm most anticipating.

1. Tempest by Julie Cross. This is kind of cheating because I already got to read a copy of the Champaign author's debut teen novel. It will be enormous fun to host her launch party for the book at the library on January 21 at 2pm. And you're invited! Register here.

2. Froi of the Exiles, #2 in the Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta. Who knew there'd be a book 2 after Finnikin of the Rock, my very favorite book of 2008? Since the author is Australian, it's already out there and it sounds AWESOME! But I'll have to wait til March--unless I take an unexpected trip...

3. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. I'll admit I was a little disappointed with Fire, Cashore's second in this loosely connected series. Something about the whole concept of life being SO hard for the main character because she was SO beautiful and drove men wild annoyed me. But Graceling was a special favorite and this interview says Katsa, the main character from Graceling, will be in Bitterblue, so that's already a good, good sign. Coming out May 1, 2012.

4. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak. I'm not sure anything will ever be as good as The Book Thief, but here's what Markus said a few years ago about his book to be released in September of 2012. "I'm writing a book called Bridge of Clay - about a boy building a bridge and wanting it to be perfect. He wants to achieve greatness with this bridge, and the question is whether it will survive when the river floods. That's all I can say about it for now - not out of secrecy, but you just don't know what direction a book is going to take, no matter how well you've planned." Markus takes so many years to publish each book, if you're any fan at all, you really have to be anxiously waiting for a new arrival.

5. Unwholly by Neal Shusterman. Again, I'm shocked that there could be a sequel to Unwind--that was the book set in a future where unwanted teens could be "unwound" or sent to a special facility where their organs were taken from their bodies to be recycled in someone else's. I guess I'll have to wait to find out more in September!

Of course I've got more. I'm sure my buddies Rick Riordan and John Flanagan will have new books out, and I'm hoping Sarah Dessen's got one, but I haven't seen anything announced. What about you? What are some of the books you're looking forward to in the year to come?

Review of Inheritance by Noah Blue

2011-12-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

I welcome a guest blogger today. Noah Blue, a sixth grader, offers his insightful comparisons of dragons in top teen fantasies in his review of Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. Great job, Noah!

In Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle about the adventures of Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, he cultivates Saphira into a humanlike figure. Her emotions and speech are very much the same as ours, only she speaks through her mind. The people who read this book are quickly captivated by Saphira’s intelligence and her willingness to do anything to overcome what stands between her and her goal. She is fierce when challenged, but is a kind and compassionate character. She is extremely loyal to Eragon and they work as a team because they both need each other for comfort and survival. She is not only intelligent, loyal, and compassionate she is also creative, athletic, and strong. Paolini started his Inheritance Cycle when he was only fifteen years old. It is amazing such a young man could create a character as beloved as Saphira.

Paolini does an amazing job of shaping Saphira into a main character, while in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and J.K. Rowling’s The Goblet of Fire dragons are only wild beasts and tools used by the authors to create dangerous situations. Paolini is one of the first authors I have read that has created a book where the dragons are not greedy, non-intelligent, disheartened, or an enemy to the main character. Tolkien creates Smaug, a villainous, treasure hoarding, witty character who guards the loot he has taken from pillaging surrounding villages and castles. The reader sees the cunning and fire breathing strength in Smaug, but he is not a character who is usually rooted for in a way where people want him to come out victorious. Rather they would see fit for Smaug to be vanquished by Gandalf, Bilbo, and the dwarves. The reader wants the party to defeat Smaug, while most everybody does not want Saphira to lose or die. In J.K. Rowling’s The Goblet of Fire, the author uses dragons as a tool to bring down contestants in an arena for a challenge that leads to Voldemort’s inevitable return. The reader does not want Harry Potter to die, and the point of the challenge is to defeat the wild and majestic Hungarian Horntail. In her last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Rowling’s portrays the pitiful plight of dragons when they are tortured and misused by wizards and goblins in the Gringotts Bank. The Ukrainian Iron Belly was chained and tormented into becoming a vicious vault guard protecting the banks large hoard of gold and treasure. The reader has sympathy for the dragon because of the mistreatment by its caretakers. Rowling uses the dragon’s desire for freedom as a vehicle to help Harry and his friends escape from the so called inescapable Gringotts bank. In many cases, authors make dragons horrible foul beasts who want to destroy good people and pillage towns. Paolini in contrast has successfully created a glowing witty lovable dragon that is fighting for good people and not against them.

Paolini sets Inheritance in a time where dragons are almost extinct. Saphira is thought to be the last female of her kind and with the two male dragons left as enemies; the race will likely die out. This along with how the author depicts Saphira makes the reader want a dragon for his or herself. Paolini presents Saphira as a mighty and athletic character who maneuvers gracefully through the air. The feel of her muscles rippling beneath her rider’s body makes the reader jealous of Eragon who flies as one with his dragon. It would be great to have a friend like Saphira in a tight situation. Saphira seems to show up at the perfect time to save Eragon and to render his enemies senseless. Enemies fall before her in crumpled heaps. Her loyalty towards Eragon and their teamwork is displayed in many battles. They ride into combat together and protect each other with magic, claw, and sword. They fight to the end even if death seems eminent. This is shown in Eragon’s battle against Murtagh, an enemy rider. Even though Saphira is fighting the dragon, Thorn, in an aerial combat she is still contacting and channeling energy to Eragon in the middle of the fray.

Paolini has done an astounding job of turning a fire breathing monster into a great companion and friend. Eragon and Saphira’s kindness towards each other outside of battle is similar to the strong bond between a brother and sister. Even in the instance of Saphira’s inability to talk, they can still communicate telepathically. They spend most of their waking hours either training, flying, or eating and regaining their strength. An example of this is their sparring matches with the elves. Eragon must have enough knowledge to face Galbatorix, the evil dragon rider king. To do this, he has sparring matches with the elves every day to become more skilled with a sword. Both Tolkien and Paolini make me yearn to have elfish friends. Knowing this is the last book makes me sad. Books can be like friends in a way. Stopping this series is like losing a friend. Since I have not read the ending yet, I bet it will be something explosive and very dramatic. After the Harry Potter series was finished, I still wanted more books and that will probably be true for the Inheritance Cycle as well.

When to give up

2011-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

Some books catch my attention from the first few words and others--don't. I always wonder how many pages I should give a book before throwing in the towel: 100? 50? 200? If a book has gotten stellar reviews or won prestigious awards, I usually try to give it at least 100 pages. If I don't make it to 100 pages, then I'll keep re-checking out the same title, thinking surely now I'll be in a more receptive mood. But 9 times out of 10, I'm not. It's hard to get excited about a book you rejected the first time around.

And that makes me feel guilty or like there's something wrong with me. For example, the book Chime by Franny Billingsley has gotten 6 starred reviews, is a National Book Award finalist, and has been described as "extraordinary and moving" as well as "exquisite to the final word." I checked it out once, but I didn't get close to 100 pages in. I had trouble with the strange language used and that kept me from enjoying the story or characters or pretty much anything about the book.

Other books I've given up on lately include Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I didn't realize this was book 2 of a series, but I still don't think I'll try again. It started with a supposedly wise-cracking main character who was getting attacked by some kind of paranormal things and the writing, character, and plot all left me feeling blech.

I gave a longer try to The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. This had an underachieving, overweight 16-year-old princess named Elisa as the main character. Elisa has never done anything impressive in her life except be born with a special gem in her bellybutton (seriously). This gem shows that Elisa is "chosen" or specially picked by the gods to fulfill a great destiny--if she can find the power within herself. Even though I found Elisa totally wimpy and annoying, I had some hopes for the book because early on she married a hot older king from a neighboring kingdom and after the wedding, their caravan got attacked when they were traveling back to his kingdom. But then the plot slowed down again and Elisa seemed even farther from achieving anything, other than literally contemplating her own very special navel, so I stopped reading after about page 120.

I did actually finish The Future of Us the other day, but it's still not one I can recommend. The premise was cool. It's 1996 and Emma and Josh are high school students, neighbors, and former best friends. Former because Josh tried to kiss Emma one night the previous summer and she pushed him away because she doesn't feel that way about him, so, although they're still friends, things have been awkward ever since. A new school year starts, Emma's divorced dad sends her a new computer, and Josh brings over an AOL disc that lets Emma get on the Internet. Emma logs in and finds a strange site titled "Facebook" that seems to show photos and updates from her future self. Whoa! Emma starts compulsively looking at her future life and then is horrified by it, so she makes changes in her present day life to change her future. Josh, who takes turns with Emma narrating the book, is appalled by Emma's messing with the future, partly because his own future looks awesome--he sees his future self married to the hottest, seemingly unattainable, girl at school. Neat idea, but I thought it dragged on.

Finally, there is one book I did enjoy: The Outcasts, the first entry in John Flanagan's new Brotherband Chronicles. Flanagan wrote The Ranger's Apprentice series (which I love) set in medieval-ish times in the kingdom of Araluen. This new series, set in the same fictional universe, moves the story over to those crazy Skandians, who are brawny, seafaring fighters. Hal, the central character in The Outcasts, lives with his mom, who is actually from Araluen. Hal's father was Skandian, but died in battle before Hal was born. Because he's not 100 percent Skandian, Hal isn't really accepted by most in his town. The book starts when Hal is a teenager, old enough to go to battle training. At the training, the teens are divided into teams and Hal ends up on a team of the misfits. I'll bet you can guess what happens next. The fun is in the details of the training, the characters, and the joy of rooting for the underdog.

Change

2011-11-30T16:31:00.001-08:00

Today's the first day of the library's transition to a new catalog, and that means we can't do a lot of things that are normally routine. A simple question like "Do you have this book in?" becomes tricky. If it's fiction, you just need to figure out the author's name, if it's brand new or older, if it's general fiction or a genre like mystery, and if we own it in regular type, large print, or paperback. If you get that far, then you cross your fingers and hope like the dickens that there's a copy on the shelf.

If it's nonfiction, things get a little harder because you have to figure out the call number. Luckily, we can check the catalogs of other libraries and see where they put the book. Hopefully, we've given the book approximately the same call number, so once you've found that number, you go to the shelves doing the hope-like-the-dickens thing again.

Most of the time customers are pretty patient and understanding. But it's never fun to be the breaker of bad news. Even with all the announcements and signs and web postings and one-to-one talking we did to prepare our customers for this short down-time, we couldn't get the word out to everyone. There will always be a few folks extremely disappointed that they can't check out a book without their Champaign Public Library card itself in hand or they can't get the book they were first on the waiting list for right now.

But come December 8, we hope to be new, improved, and sparkling brightly. So please bear with us. Fingers still crossed, we think the change will be for the better!

Wow!

2011-11-23T13:26:00.001-08:00

Every now and then, I read a book that blows me away. That happened yesterday and the book was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, who passed away in 2007.

At the center of the story is Connor, a 13-year-old British boy who lives with his beloved, seriously ill mom. Connor's dad has moved to America with a new wife and family. Connor's life is hard in many ways. He's the willing caregiver for his mom and himself, cleaning and cooking and keeping track of his mom's progress, or lack thereof. All this plus school leaves Connor tired out, partly because of a recurrent nightmare that he won't talk about. He is almost invisible at school, except for a long-time friend who he tries to avoid and a merciless bully he can't get away from. As if Connor's life wasn't tough enough, a monster starts visiting him each night at 12:07am. This boy can't catch a break. The monster, shown in the book cover above, is a huge thing that emerges from the yew tree in his backyard. The monster says he's come to tell Connor three stories and after those stories, Connor must tell the monster a fourth tale, sharing the truth about what happens in Connor's nightmare.

I started the book yesterday after work and finished it in about 100 minutes, sobbing uncontrollably for the last third. I've read many books about a teen dealing with a recent death in his or her family, but I can't remember any that went into the detail of what it felt like during that family member's last few weeks. A Monster Calls has a beautiful honesty, revealing and reveling in the gray areas that we all must struggle through. I loved Patrick Ness's book The Knife of Never Letting Go and I loved this book, too. The characters (especially the monster), the stories, the writing, and the illustrations--wow. I urge you to give this powerful book a try.

Books & Movies

2011-11-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

One of the hottest crossover teen/adult series right now is The Hunger Games. The first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins came out as a teen book in September 2008, when I devoured it and recommended it, but it's really in the last 6 months or so that demand for the series with adults has skyrocketed. What's the deal?

The third book, Mockingjay, wasn't released until August 2010, so maybe the series needed to be completed before everyone jumped on board. But I suspect that word of mouth coupled with the fact that the book is being made into a movie has added to its allure, especially once the casting of the main characters became public in March of this year.

The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight--In each case, I've liked the books better than the movies. So why would turning a book into a movie make people go crazy for both? I think most of us have certain strong ideas about the looks and mannerisms of the characters we've come to know--and in some cases love--while reading. Even though I can't give you the name of what actress should play Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, my initial reaction to Katherine Heigl taking on the role is "NOOOOOOO!!"

And that's where the fun comes in. Obviously, I have no say over things in the movie world, but I do have total power over what books I read and what movies I see. No one can argue that I'm being unreasonable about my passionate aversion to certain casting decisions because I'm the only one who knows how I saw the characters while reading. It's fun for me, teen librarian in Champaign, Illinois, to ridicule the choices of Hollywood bigwigs, knowing without a doubt they really messed up. With that in mind, let's enjoy criticizing the trailer for the movie The Hunger Games. We know what's best, after all.

Some things don't change

2011-11-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

Change is a constant in life and I'm feeling it today. Outside, fall is slipping into winter with colder weather and a dark walk home at 5pm. Inside the library, exactly one month from today, we'll have a brand-new catalog that I'm hoping my 49-year-old brain will have learned how to use. Each day seems a little more packed as we add responsibilities that former colleagues had performed or work extra public service desk shifts that are now open.

And then there are the middle school kids. The very definition of being an adolescent means that you're going to change a LOT--physically and emotionally. Sometimes it's a change of mood. The sunny 6th grader that greeted you with a wide smile yesterday looks like she's about to cry today. Sometimes it's a change of interest. The video game that the 8th grader raved about last week is now totally forgotten.

It sounds corny, but for some of us, one thing won't change: our love of reading. I finished Blood Red Road, the road trip book I was excited about last week and it was good, very good. So, if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by all the changes in your life, I invite you to take a deep breath, grab a snack, a blanket, and a book you've heard is good, and read. It'll feel good.

The Road Trip

2011-11-02T11:45:00.001-07:00

People have a hard time finding a good book to read, and I think one of the reasons why is that we don't take much time to think about what we like in a book. Some things are, admittedly, hard to pinpoint. It can be an unexplainable combination of plot, pacing, character, and writing style that surprises and delights.

But some of us are a little more predictible. I, for example, love stories where characters are on a journey. It can be a quest to retrieve a stolen hoard of treasure from a dragon like in The Hobbit. Or a humorous road trip to get a recalitrant ex-jock to fulfill his commitment to star in a film like Heaven, Texas. It can even be a 16-year-old driving her elderly boss to shoe stores across the country like in Rules of the Road or the upsetting life-or-death walk of the close-knit father and son in The Road. There's something about a character setting off on a life-altering trip that really appeals to me.

So, I was excited last night when I started the book Blood Red Road, a debut novel by Moira Young. The book introduces the main character Sama, her twin brother Lugh, little sister Emmi, and their broken down father, eking out an existence in a barren post-apocalyptic world. Their precarious world shatters quickly, and Sama soon sets out on a journey to find Lugh. Ah, I said to myself. So far, so good. Just what I wanted to read.

Rick Does It Again!

2011-10-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

I finally got to read The Son of Neptune, book 2 in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series, and it was worth the wait. The book was long, 521 pages, but that was actually reassuring because it is a book to savor. We all know it will be at least a year until we get to hear from Percy Jackson again.

In this story, Percy, minus his memory, winds up in California at Camp Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Camp Half-Blood. Here Percy makes two new demigod friends, Hazel and Frank. Both of their backstories, doled out in enticing tidbits over the course of the book, are very interesting. Percy, Hazel, and Frank, three appealing misfits, must go on a new quest with extremely high stakes.

I've often experienced jetlag with authors. I tend to like their earlier works best, maybe because the ideas they presented were new and fresh. But somehow Rick Riordan has managed to keep the quality of his books sky-high. The Son of Neptune follows the same basic formula as his other books. Characters take turns narrating chapters. A band of underdogs take on a seemingly impossible quest and overcome incredible odds by discovering their own hidden strengths. It sounds easy to replicate, but it's not. Great job, Rick. I was delighted with Percy's return.

Banish the TV; Bring on the Quiet?

2011-10-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

I had to wait in a doctor's office for about an hour today. Since I knew I would have to wait, I came prepared: I brought a book to read. However, as happens in every single doctor's waiting room I've ever been in, there was a tv hanging in the corner of the room. While I was in the small room, a talk show and a game show aired.

Now, I have nothing against tv. I watch too much of it, to tell you the truth. But I don't watch talk shows or game shows, and I don't like having the tv on while I read.

I'm also usually pretty tolerant of noisy places. I raised three kids, all of whom played instruments including violin and drums. I work in the TeenSpace, which is often filled with middle school students talking not too softly.

But I really don't like tvs playing in doctor's offices. I don't like the unnecessary noise. I don't like the programs they show. I don't like the money wasted on buying that tv and the equipment used to mount it on the wall, and I think of how that money could be better spent, like lowering the cost of this visit or providing care to someone in need.

I didn't ask the receptionist to turn the tv off. I've never had the nerve to ask that in any of the offices I've waited in. But maybe if all of us who are secretly irked by the mindless proliferation of unwanted reception area tvs banded together, we could change the world, one waiting room at a time.

Hope it's worth the wait!

2011-10-12T13:08:00.001-07:00

I'm 12th in line, still waiting to read The Son of Neptune, the second book in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. That's better than being 178th in line, which is where the hold list for this title ends, but it still means I can't find out what happens to Percy Jackson--yet. I may break down and buy a copy of the book, but I'll hold on a little while longer. I could read the first chapter, but I think that would only make the wait harder.

I did get to read Ranger's Apprentice: The Lost Stories by John Flanagan this week. Two thumbs up! I was scared it would be lame but it wasn't. The author published the book to answer some of the questions he'd gotten over the years from readers of the series. I was obviously not one of the readers anxiously awaiting answers since I'd forgotten most of the backstory that preceded these tales, but even for senile folks like me, the stories were enjoyable and satisfying. It was good to read about the wedding of Evanlyn and Horace, and I liked learning more about the ranger Gilan. Definitely a must read for series fans.

Just what I needed

2011-10-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished the book The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt. I'd started it the day before. It was 216 pages long and set a small town in California in 1986. The book had no vampires, zombies, faeries, or werewolves. No end-of-Earth-as-we-know-it catastrophes occurred. The plot had no horrific crimes or accidents or extensive drawings that you had to look at closely because they worked in conjunction with the words to tell the tale. And the fact that the book was missing all these things came as a big relief to me.

Sometimes it's fun to read a short book that's not too tense. Really fat books require a big time investment, even if they're awesome. Not surprisingly, books that are about something really stressful, like a dying parent or a contest to the death, can be very stressful to read.

So, I say THANKS to Dana Reinhardt for writing a book that I truly enjoyed without having to put forth much effort. I liked the main character and the writing and the setting and the plot. I especially liked the fact that I could unwind with this book after a long day, that I could enter the world of the novel and relax.

YA Lit Conference & Banned Books Talk + 2 mini reviews

2011-09-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

I got to travel to Naperville this past Saturday to attend Anderson's Bookshops' 8th Annual Young Adult Literature Conference. It was held at a hotel, not the bookshop, and it was packed with authors including Sharon Draper, Mike Lupica, Lisa McMann, Patrick Carman, Jacqueline Woodson, and Coe Booth (and that's not even ALL of them.) A few of my favorite moments from the day:

1. Debut author Torrey Maldonado describing the magic found in opening a book that you want to read and sharing how being a teacher after trying other jobs has given him the most amazing seven years of his life.

2. Mike Lupica revealing his son's real-life basketball troubles and turning the experience of coaching that team of misfits-turned-champions into his book Travel Team.

3. Lisa McMann joking about hating school and faking sickness to stay home and read. She also described how she tells the students she visits that they don't have to be adults to write books or come up with good ideas or illustrations. Then she demonstrated how her own son had helped her while writing her latest book The Unwanteds by drawing some of the creatures she wanted to put in the novel.

4. Patrick Carman is one charming guy. I loved when he projected not-so-flattering elementary & middle school photos of himself. He also commented on coming to writing later in life and finally figuring out what his father had been trying to show him: Do something you love, even if it might be risky. You can always try again.

5. Sharon Draper's reading of letters she's received from fans. "I need the date of your birth and your death and three accomplishments" was one example. She communicated how her love of languge is a blessing and gift. When she writes, the words come to her, giving her, like Torrey talked about, the ability to take words and make magic.

Only bad thing about the conference: I am terrible at chatting up new folks and that makes me feel a bit like a failure for not making all the connections one's supposed to make at these conferences.

After my long day at the conference, I got to rest on Sunday, but then Monday came and I had to do another scary thing: Give an hour-long talk about Banned Books Week at the UI. Giving any kind of talk makes me nervous. Giving a 60-minute talk on a topic which I am definitely not all that knowledgeable about made me even more worried. But it all went well. I presented the talk with a co-worker, so we divided and conquered. The hour timeframe was cut by a quarter because of announcements from the group. And the students who came to the lecture were interested in a nice, non-threatening way.

Book reading: I finished Divergent

by Veronica Roth. This is another dystopia novel set in a future Chicago where society is divided into five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Dauntless. The main character of the story is Beatrice, born in the self-sacrificing Abnegation faction but secretly longing for something else. The book was interesting and I enjoyed the future Chicago setting. The description of Beatrice's, or "Tris's," trials as she is tested to the limits are harrowing. It's the first in a series, and I liked it enough to give the second book a try.

When Divergent got too intense, I read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. If you loved Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I think you'll love this one, too. It's another story in words and pictures and the words are about a 12-year-old who's lost his mother and travels alone to New York City to try to find the father he never knew. The pictures tell a different story set in an earlier time about a deaf girl trying to find her own way in New York City. An interesting book, for sure.

It's harder than you think

2011-09-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

One of my bosses retired this past summer, and her position was left open to save money. That meant all the jobs she used to do got parcelled out to the remaining staff. I offered to take on some new responsibilities, one of those being supervising practicum students.

Since we have a library school in town, there are smart graduate students eager to work here to gain credit and experience. Two young women started this month, and I've been in charge of setting up their training. Their first two weeks, or 16 hours, are used to show them the basics, like how the telephone system works and how to unjam the copier and how to look up someone's library card number. It's a lot to remember.

But the real thing these practicum students will need to know is how to work at the Information Desk and that isn't something they can learn in the abstract. The student who started first will move into a regular 4-hour shift on the desk next week. Time to sink or swim.

Even though it's been decades since I started, I still remember how it felt: terrifying. You never know what the next person is going to ask. It could be anything from where's the bathroom to find the latest treatment for stage 4 lung cancer to get a book on how to file for a do-it-yourself divorce.

Then there's the stress of keeping up when it's busy--the phone keeps ringing, someone's instant messaging, and there are five customers in line.

But the true test of working a public service desk well is how you handle what we call the "difficult" customers. They are (usually) few and far between, but they can rattle seasoned professionals, let alone newbies. The woman who mumbles and you can't understand what she is saying, even after she repeats it five times. The man who snaps out orders and throws his library card at you, sighing heavily at your seeming incompetence. The single mom who yells, then cries, because she didn't save her research paper before the computer logged her off and now all her work is gone. Each one unique, each one tough.

I tried to figure out a way to prepare my first two trainees for what's to come, but I don't think I succeeded. I'm not sure it's possible. They will be thrown out there like the rest of us were to try their best. Wish them well.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2011-09-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I finished an unusual book this week titled Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The book tells the story of a 16-year-old boy named Jacob who's grown up listening to his grandfather's tales about an unusual home he stayed in after he was orphaned during WWII. The home was located on a small island off the coast of Wales and Jacob's grandfather has photographs of some of the strange children who lived there with him: a boy with bees living in his stomach, a girl who levitates, & another boy who's invisible. Jacob loves his grandfather and believed the stories when he was little but now feels kind of gullible because everyone tells him the stories can't possibly be true. The novel's text is interspersed with old photographs and the look and feel of the book itself contributes greatly to the one's experience when reading it.
I really enjoyed this book at its beginning. Its uniqueness in tone, story, and use of photos was compelling. I grew less fond of the book as the novelty wore off. The book has, as it's meant to have, a creepy feel. It's chockfull of strange monsters and odd characters and I found myself wishing for folks I could like a little bit better. The book has a cool trailer for you to watch, and the author has a neat blog as well. If you give Miss Peregrine's Home a try, let me know what you think.

Good reads

2011-09-07T17:38:00.001-07:00

I had some extra time & luck over the Labor Day weekend--three teen books read! Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts was pretty much what I expected. It was a fairly funny, neatly illustrated tale of the woes of Rafe Khatchadorian, sixth grade nerd. Rafe learns about the Hills Village Middle School Code of Conduct during his first assembly at middle school and decides he's going to make his mark at the school by breaking every rule in the Code of Conduct book. There's a bully, a girl, parent trouble, and all sorts of teacher creatures. Easy to read and good for folks who like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Next I read The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson. This is actually a companion book to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which I read a few years ago. The central event around which the books revolve is a car crash with three teenagers. The teens' bodies were almost completely destroyed in the crash, although they were able to recover 10 percent of the tissue of one teen, Jenna. The first book deals with her genius father creating a new body and putting the saved mind of Jenna inside that body. This second book is set 260 years in the future and we learn that the two other teens, Locke and Kara, have had their minds trapped inside black boxes all that time and only in the past year have received bodies. Pretty heavy stuff here about families and guilt and what constitutes "valuable" life and what rights should individuals have. The author does an incredible job of making sure there's an extremely interesting story to go along with all her thought-provoking ideas. Well worth your time. I liked this one better than The Adoration of Jenna Fox, but I would still read that one first if you haven't read it.

And last but not least, a good teen mystery, which is a rare and wonderful occurrence. Reality Check by Peter Abrahams caught my attention and held it. The story starts out in a small Montana town with Cody, a sophomore quarterback who's good at football but not much else. Cody's mom died of cancer years ago and his dad -- and their prospects -- have gone downhill ever since. Cody's girlfriend is Clea, who is beautiful, smart, and rich. She's an accomplished equestrian with a daddy who owns most of the town and who definitely does not want his princess to be with somebody like Cody. To separate the two, Clea is sent to an exclusive equestrian boarding school in Vermont. A few months go by with life still spiralling downward for Cody. And then he gets the news that Clea is missing from her Vermont school. I liked the background story and the romance as well as the suspense and twists when the fish-out-water Cody goes to Vermont. Give it a try.

Trading Cards!

2011-08-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

It's sometimes hard for us to get to know the middle school students who come to the library after school. We don't have a class roster or seating chart. If the student signs on to use a computer, we can look at their name, but we don't always get a chance to talk to the person.

So, a few years ago, my department decided to make trading cards. We put our photo on the card and add a few fun facts about ourselves--favorite color, best vacation spot, what's our pet's name. Then we offer the cards to students, using them as ways to put names with faces and learn a little bit more about the kids we are going to see until next May. As an added treat to the students, if they collect 10 cards, they can turn them in for a prize.

We started offering our cards on Monday, but today was the first day we had a surge of interest. (I'm sure it was just a coincidence that today was the first day I put out the basket of prizes that could be won!) So far, I've had the pleasure of meeting Matt, Heaven, Brandon, Avion, Veronica, Karmryn, Kaylie, Bum Soo, Asia, Abby, Belle, and Dee.

It sounds a little goofy but I think it works. Lots of the time our main interactions with students we don't know are the not-so-fun chores of reminding them to stop running or yelling or pushing. Coming from a stranger, that often has negative results. But if I'm able to say, "Hey, Dee. Slow down, buddy," everything works a little more smoothly.

ACK!

2011-08-24T18:40:00.001-07:00

It's 8:40pm on Wednesday night and I'm about to fail on only my second week of back-to-blogging. Busy times! The middle school students came back Monday, but since their dismissal time was 10:55am, we didn't see too many. Yesterday was the first sort of normal day and I chatted with some buddies from last year. Summers were good, teachers are fine. They were pretty blase about everything.

I did get a kick out of one 6th grader. I don't know his name yet, but he had left a Superman graphic novel on one of the jellybean chairs and I didn't know anyone was still using it, so I put it away. He politely asked me if I had seen the book, so I got it for him along with a Thor graphic novel that was on display. The young man took those two books, sat in his purple chair, and proceeded to read from 3pm until his dad came to pick him up a little before 5. His eyes didn't leave the pages. Keep in mind that the TeenSpace, while a lovely spot, is not the absolute best place to read at that time of day. Kids are constantly walking back and forth, jostling each other, laughing, talking loudly to each other across the room, talking loudly to the person sitting right next to them--you get the picture. Through it all, this guy sat and read, unperturbed by any of it. His ability to tune out the chaos was impressive and I told his dad.

Otherwise, not much new to report. I stopped at page 197 of Matched by Ally Condie because I just couldn't take it anymore. This is a book that's been popular. In fact, two fellow staff members have already requested the second book, Crossed, that's due out in November. Matched is set in a dystopic future where everyone's life is all mapped out for them, including their mate. The main character, Cassia, is miraculously matched with her very best friend but she really likes the mysterious Ky. You get the picture. Cassia was my main problem with the book. She was bland and wishy-washy and drove me nuts. Not one I can personally recommend. Hope I have better luck next time.

I'm back!

2011-08-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe my last post was May 10 when I was worrying about Tamora Pierce's visit in June. (Everything went well, in case you were wondering. Her fans showed up and she answered their questions, signed their books, and talked at length to their delight. yay!) My blog plan as of today is to write something every Wednesday evening. We'll see how it goes.

I came back to work Monday after two weeks off and suddenly the season's changing. Oh, it's still hot outside, but the library's summer focus of encouraging teens to read for fun is morphing into helping kids with their school assignments and dealing with all the middle school folks who flock to the library when the final buzzer sounds across the street. Monday at 10:55am will be our first test.

So I will enjoy these last few days of relative calm in TeenSpace. Next week will be different for sure.

A Watched Registration Never Fills

2011-05-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

The author Tamora Pierce will be at the library June 4. She'll talk twice, once at 10:30am and another time at 3:30pm. This is exciting news. She's been writing for years, she's got a lot of local fans, and she's a best-selling author. And I'm the one responsible for getting her to come.

So why am I worried? Well, there's the not-so-small problem of getting people to actually show up at the library for famous authors that they love. Sounds silly, but then I'm the one who thought all of Laurie Halse Anderson's readers would be beating down the door to see her--but they didn't.

So, we've got signs & bookmarks & links all over the website. The TeenSpace is full of Tamora's books, attractively displayed with the bookmarks giving the details of the visit already in place. We've even got a contest where fans interested in winning front row seats or having a free lunch with Tamora can email me, bsu@champaign.org, stating why they deserve such an honor. Pretty cool, no?

There are 25 days until the program and there are 18 people registered for the morning session and 4 for the afternoon. There's room for 120 at each session. Two people have emailed me with their reasons why they should get to eat lunch with Tamora.

There are still 25 days until the program and most people plan things, especially things like attending a free library program, at the last minute. But if you're planning to come, register early and you'll have my thanks.

Where She Went

2011-04-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, Where She Went by Gayle Forman was my third thumbs-up read in a row, proving that good things really do come in threes.

This is the sequel to If I Stay, a book I wrote about in this blog back on July 15, 2009. Adam was Mia's boyfriend in the first book and now it's his turn to tell a tale. Three years have passed since Mia's accident and Adam and his band have become rock sensations, successful beyond their wildest dreams. Again, I don't want to spoil anything for readers, so I'll just say this was a compulsively readable story about a young man with a seemingly "perfect" life who is struggling to find his way in a world where he feels anything but perfect.

City of Fallen Angels (aka good book #2)

2011-04-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

I got to read book 4 in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare this weekend, and now I'm left to hang. Turns out there are going to be six books in the series, and City of Fallen Angels raises a lot of questions that I'm hoping I won't forget about before books 5 & 6 arrive. But don't let that keep you from reading!

City of Fallen Angels takes off from where City of Glass ended. Clary is learning to be a Shadowhunter, as well as preparing for her mom's wedding. Clary's true love Jace (sigh) has LOTS of BIG new problems that I can't tell you about without wrecking things. Simon, Clary's best friend who was turned into a very reluctant vampire early in the series, is still my favorite character and he's become an important pawn in the power struggles of the evil ones, a fact that blends nicely with the still geeky musician's dating troubles. There's action and romance and lots of neat interactions between characters whose otherworldly powers don't overwhelm their recognizably human emotions. If you haven't read any of the books yet, start with City of Bones . You'll find a lot to enjoy.

Good books!

2011-04-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

I've read three good books in a row -- definitely time to celebrate! As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins was the first in my string and I'll admit it was a little different. The book begins with the main character, a 16-year-old boy named Ry, traveling on a train from his home in Wisconsin to summer camp. His parents are off on a trip to the Caribbean, leaving Ry's grandfather in charge of their home while Ry experiences camp. But when the train has an unexpected stop in the middle of Montana and Ry thinks he has time to get off to use his phone, things start to go wrong. And they never stop going wrong. This is one of those books that works best if you don't question the coincidences. Ry is a likable character and it was fun to read about his adventures.

Necessity, the mother of Invention

2011-04-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

We won't have any computer access to our library catalog for the next two days. The servers at our library system are down so that software can be upgraded.

What does this mean? I can't tell you for sure if a book is checked in or out. I can't look up your library card number, therefore if you don't know your library card number, you won't be able to use the Internet. I can't place a hold on a book for you.

We do have some tools to help. There's a national database called WorldCat that includes holdings from this library, so we can find out if we own a copy of the book and its approximate call number. We have printed sources giving general Dewey Decimal call numbers, so if the subject you're looking for is electrical wiring, I know to look on the shelf at 621.319.

I have always kind of enjoyed these "down" days. It gets my creative juices flowing & presents me with opportunities to feel victorious. If I can't find the book, I'm scot-free because there's always the possibility that someone else has it checked out. But if I DO find the book, I feel like I've won, proving my worthiness in extreme computer-deprived conditions.

I guess I'm feeling cocky because the one question I've had so far this morning, I was able to answer. (Find a book listing the value of Fisher Price toys? Haha, presto--here it is!)

Here's hoping your Thursday provides opportunities for you to triumph.

Til 5 O'Clock Comes

2011-04-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Some days the hours between 2:45 and 5:00 seem like a tense contest: Will I make it til 5pm without having to kick anyone out? Today is one of those days when I thought there'd be a loser. It's only 4:10, so the contest continues.

It's a tricky thing to be here with 30 to 40 middle school students. For the kids who are here every day, it's fine. We understand each other pretty well by this time of the year and at most a gentle reminder (no, you really can't eat in here) is all that's needed.

But every now and then we get an influx of new-to-TeenSpace students. I don't know their names, and they don't know who I am. When I come up to tell them they're being too loud or there are too many bodies in too small a space, I'm seen as someone who's "out to get them," unfairly picking on innocent kids who just want to have some fun.

Staying calm helps. So does talking quietly. If you can separate the one person causing problems from the group and try explaining things just to him or her, sometimes that'll work. It helps immeasurably to know the name of at least one of the crowd. Then, you've got an ally, no matter how much that person wishes he or she were anonymous. It's a whole lot harder to be rude and angry and mean to someone who knows your name and is talking at a normal tone.

It's now 4:34 and I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Maybe today's another day when none of us will lose the contest. But, unfortunately, I know better than to celebrate yet.

Busy April

2011-04-04T13:18:00.001-07:00

Happy spring, everyone! Although the weather's not totally cooperating yet, I think the days of shoveling snow are behind us, which in itself is cause for celebration. With the spring come plans for summer reading clubs & an author visit from Tamora Pierce, so there's lots to get done between now and the beginning of June.

The library currently uses software from a company named Evanced for its meeting room bookings and its event calendar. This summer will be the first time we've tried using their Summer Reader program and I still need to get trained on how it will all work. The thought of not having all those registration cards & reading logs floating around is lovely, but I think I'll have to see it work in order to believe it will work.

May will also, hopefully, bring booktalks at the middle schools. Usually a brave co-worker and I go to each of the three middle schools in the latter half of May to introduce students to the library's summer reading program, invite them to join, and suggest some fun books for their summer leisure reading. Right now, we've got to figure out which books we want to push as well as find some cool book trailers or game or some kind of awesome activity to keep the students' attention during the talk--not an easy feat.

Last but not least, May will bring the big publicity push for Tamora Pierce's visit to the library on June 4. I've had the rooms booked and the contract signed for months, but now's when I need to talk to the graphic artist about what different signs are needed, fill in requests for those signs to get made, see if I can get a bookstore to come sell her books for the program, develop a couple of contests to generate excitement before she comes, make sure we've got enough copies of her books, ...

Whew. I think I'll stop now because, to tell you the truth, I have a few things to get done.

Little Dorks Grow Into Big Dorks: Listening to Laurie Halse Anderson

2011-03-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

I held my first ever virtual visit with an author Tuesday night. Laurie Halse Anderson talked to us larger than life, projected on the big screen using our laptop, a webcam, and a free video call through Skype. It was amazing.

I wasn't sure if the whole thing would work. First you've got the technology issues, which are always scary. Luckily, the library IT folks know what they're doing & they're patient with worriers. But of greater concern was the fact that I'd be holding a program with an the author who wasn't physically there. Would the interaction feel impersonal, stilted, distant?

Turns out the opposite was true. From the second she magically appeared on our screen, Laurie made the visit feel like she was shooting the breeze with friends. She was animated but relaxed, appearing in what looked like a comfy gray sweatshirt, seated in a chair on the third floor of her home in New York. She even told us she was in her "business office" and then moved her laptop to show us the piles of paper she had stacked next to her. (Gotta feel close to a woman who doesn't hide her mess!)

Laurie started off by telling us about her life growing up in upper state New York as an easily distracted, not-so-great student who didn't like to read. Once she broke the code of reading, however, the act became, in her words, "my playground and my solace." Her family life was difficult, and she spent her senior year in high school abroad, working--really working--on a pig farm in Denmark, an experience she highly recommends. She then returned to the U.S. and worked for minimum wage, which helped her decide to attend community college, another activity she strongly recommends. She ended up at Georgetown University, got a degree in Linguistics, became a newspaper reporter, and started writing, writing, writing.

There were only a dozen people in the audience, but unless they were really good actors, they all loved the program. Laurie was funny and honest and articulate and answered all the questions we had. While she talked, I kept wishing I knew shorthand because so many of the things she said seemed like gold nugget sound bites, including the quote I used as this post's title, "Little dorks grow into big dorks." When asked if she would ever write for adults, she said she might, but explained her passion lay with the younger set. Why? She said she can't change the reading habits of adults, but that wasn't so with children and teens. She's got the letters & emails & hugs to prove that.

There was a bad moment about 25 minutes into the program when we lost our Internet connection in the room and thus all contact with Laurie, but Dustin from IT came to the rescue and we were back in Laurie's NY home in about 10 minutes.

The downside, of course, was the extremely low attendance. I wish more people had taken an hour out of their busy lives & shown up to hear Laurie speak. It would definitely have been worth it.

What if you throw a party & no one shows up?

2011-02-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

I've written it before, and I'm sure I'll whine about it again. Programming is hard. Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. I'm in charge of a program with the author Laurie Halse Anderson. Here are just some of the awards she's received:

•New York Times Bestselling Author
•Two-time National Book Award nominee
•2010 School Library Month Spokesperson for American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of American Library Association (ALA)
•Amazon Blog “Omnivoracious” – One of Eight Influential Young Adult Writers of the Decade (2000-2009)
•2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award, given by the American Library Association for significant and lasting achievement in young adult literature
•2008 Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) Award, given to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature.

Pretty impressive, huh? Add to that, her book Speak is assigned summer reading for incoming ninth grade students at one of the area high schools, and you'd think folks would be beating down the door for the opportunity to interact with her.

Well, think again. I scheduled 3 book discussions prior to her visit (a 4th was cancelled because of the blizzard) to build up excitement, but no one has attended a single one. The library's graphic artist has outdone herself with library tv slides and articles in the newsletter and a big sign for a book display. I've emailed every high school English teacher I can think of along with all my school librarian friends asking them to spread the word about this program. So far, I've got 20 people registered for tomorrow night. And unfortunately I know that if I've got 20 registered, I'll be lucky if 10 show up. Argh.

At any rate, I'm greatly looking foward to hearing from Laurie Halse Anderson tomorrow night via Skype. I just hope some more people feel the same way and are able to join me.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

It's February 14, and the teens are being pretty good, although there's a new boy in the room who's causing a little extra excitement. I've seen lots of red & pink clothing as well as students clutching various heart-shaped items, so that's fun. The sun is shining and it's finally not freezing. Yahoo! But I've been warned by a frustrated volunteer to avoid the library parking lot. She had to park on a snow drift and that was after circling for 10 minutes. Doesn't seem to matter how big the lot is, it's never big enough!

Parking woes aside, my question for the day is: What's your favorite Valentine's Day book? I was looking at some lists online and The Time Traveler's Wife showed up often. That's an excellent choice for adults, but not for middle schoolers. Pride and Prejudice was another frequent pick, but I'm ashamed to say I've never read it, although I have watched at least 3 different filmed versions.

But what romance is best for the middle & high school crowd? I think the author Sarah Dessen works for girls who don't mind some family drama with their romance. The Truth About Forever is my favorite of hers. And I loved the relationships in Graceling & Finnikin of the Rock, but those wouldn't work with folks who hate fantasy. The Twilight series is probably the top teen pick, although those books can draw some very negative reactions. And I just got asked to find Linger, the second in Maggie Stiefvater's true love werewolf series after Shiver. I think My Life as a Rhombus is good as well as How to Build a House for realistic fiction.

Love is in the air, and on the pages, this Valentine's Day. Let me know what teen romance favorites I missed.

New books!

2011-02-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

It's after school and I'm here in the TeenSpace for the first time in a whole week. There's a group of 10 middle school students, I think mostly 8th graders, sitting in a circle in front of me fascinated by ... two new books. Go figure. The two books they're reading aloud from are Weird but True: 300 Outrageous Facts and Weird but True 2.

When these books first showed up on the new books cart, I was disappointed. I had ordered them based on a list put out by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The list spotlights books that have appeal even for teens who don't usually like to read, which sounded good. But the actual books were tiny and seemed pretty silly and I couldn't imagine anyone checking them out. But now I've changed my mind. Any books that can create this much excitement and interest for this many students are okay with me.

Awards season

2011-01-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

Maybe you're excited about the Oscars, the Golden Globes, or even the Screen Actors Guild awards. But here in library-land, we get excited about different awards, the ones that were presented earlier this month at the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference in San Diego.

The big winner in literature for teens was Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I have actually read this book, always a good sign, but I can't say it was a personal favorite. It's a very bleak novel, set in a dystopic future off America's Gulf Coast where the main character, Nailer, struggles to survive by scavenging oil tanker wrecks for any copper wire and other usuable salvage. It's a dangerous job in a world of savage folks, one of the most savage being Nailer's own father. One day, Nailer and a friend discover a virtual treasure trove--a luxury ship that's full of valuables. But of course there's are complications. I personally found the book depressing, but I guess causing smiles is not a requirement for winning the Printz.

Four more teen books were given the award of Printz Honor books and they are Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick; Stolen by Lucy Christopher; Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King; and Nothing by Janne Teller. Revolver is the only one of these I've read, and I really enjoyed it. It's a fast-paced, extremely interesting tale about a 15-year-old boy named Sig who lives in freezing, remote Finland in 1910. Sig finds his father's dead body on the frozen lake outside his family's cabin and Sig must remain with the body while his sister and stepmother go for help, a task that takes a very dangerous turn. You should definitely give this one a try.

You can read more about the Printz honor books here and more about the other awards from YALSA's website. Grab some Twizzlers and hunker down. It's awfully cold out there.

Historical Surprise

2011-01-21T13:32:00.001-08:00

I was at Franklin Middle School early this freezing morning talking to a class of 7th graders about historical fiction. Now don't tell any of them, but historical fiction is not a favorite genre of mine, so I was worried about the talk. But I made it through, the students were really nice, and an added benefit was that I got to read a new book I really liked, one I might not have read otherwise.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia just won the Scott O'Dell Award for best historical fiction book and I really enjoyed reading it. The book's set in 1968 and describes an African American family living in Brooklyn. Delphine's the oldest child in the family at 11 and she tells the story. She lives with her father, grandma, and two little sisters--Vonetta, who's 9, and Fern, 7. Cecile, the girls' mother, left after Fern's birth, and they haven't seen her since. Delphine's dad has decided it's time for the girls to spend a month with their mother, so the sisters fly by themselves to Oakland, California. Well, Cecile is a poet and a printer and she is not at all happy to have these girls around, taking precious time away from her art. She's determined to have the girls out of her house & life as much as possible, so every morning for the next four weeks she sends them down the street to the community center for breakfast and a day with the folks running a Black Panthers summer camp for youth. Dephine, Vonetta, and Fern had been raised by their grandmother to act in a certain way, generally to be quiet, stay out of trouble, and avoid conflict. The teachers at the camp teach the girls to act differently. They preach proudly standing up for your rights and fighting injustices as loudly as needed to be heard. Delphine & her sisters don't know what to make of it all and are sure it's going to be a very long four weeks.

The personalities of the three sisters and their bonds to--and bickering with--each other were highlights of the book for me. I was interested in seeing how this summer affected each of them and would love to read more about this family if the author were to continue their story.

More FUNNY Comics from Jacob

2010-12-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

Jacob, Edison's most industrious comic artist, has been busy. Here are three of his latest installments of "Funny Comics." To see a bigger image of each strip, just click inside the picture of the comic. Great job, Jacob! Keep up the good work.

Recent reading

2010-12-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Cold weather and a couple of days off combined to make reading time for me, so here are some quick reviews of recent reads.

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar is, believe it or not, a teen novel about bridge. I'm not a bridge player but I dove in. Alton, the 17-year-old main character, ends up reading the cards for his rich, blind uncle when his family volunteers his help during his uncle's bridge tournaments. He's reluctant but gets drawn into the action. A lot of the bridge stuff went over my head, but overall this was an interesting, realistic look at how a normal teen deals with conflicting family demands.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson was my next read and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The story's about two high school students named Will Grayson. One's heterosexual and determined to slide through school without making a splash. This strategy is doomed to fail, however, since his best friend is Tiny Coooper, a plus-size, flamboyant gay teen who wants to produce his life story as a musical play at their high school. The other Will Grayson is an angry, clinically depressed gay teen who is isolated except for his online friend. The two Wills live in different Chicago suburbs but end up meeting with surprising results. Curse words appear frequently, so this is not for everyone. But for those not offended by language, I'd recommend it.

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray has to re-live one day in his life over & over? The teen book Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver follows that same premise. Samantha, a senior at the top of the popularity hierarchy in her high school, dies in a car crash after a party and then gets the chance to re-live her last day over and over. I thought this book was too long, but I found it intriguing to view high school from the perspective of one of the mean girls. Samantha definitely learns some things about herself and her friends as she re-lives the day, but the book manages to flow without being preachy.

I'm in the middle of Paranormalcy by first-time author Kiersten White, but so far so good. Sixteen-year-old Evie is the main character and she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency or IPCA. Evie is able to see through any being's glamour to identify vampires, hags, faeries, and werewolves. This skill makes her invaluable to the agency and she helps tag the paranormals she finds to keep them under control. Something odd's going on, however, with multiple paranormals turning up dead with no visible cause of death. This book has a cool plot as Evie starts to uncover some things about the agency that she really doesn't want to know.

Reading Award Winners

2010-11-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

I try to read books that win major teen awards. It gets embarrassing otherwise. So, when the Teens' Top Ten list was announced and I saw three titles I hadn't read yet, I placed some holds. I am ashamed to admit that I could not finish Hush, Hush, the first of the three that came in for me.

Hush, Hush is a paranormal romance. Nora is a senior in high school and she narrates the story, after a kind of confusing prologue. Nora is attracted to and frightened by Patch, the mysterious young man who's been assigned as her new lab partner in Biology. And that pretty much sums up what happened in the first 150+ pages of the book. Oooo, Patch is mysterious & hot & seems to know what I'm thinking--but I really don't like him at all. Oooo, why does Patch make me so flustered and why do I keep thinking about him? I just couldn't take any more of Nora's dithering and nothing cool or exciting or fallen angel-y had happened yet, so I threw in the towel. Defeated.

After my failure to appreciate Hush, Hush, I started the National Book Award winner Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine and finished that off in one day. Victory! I did need more than one tissue, though, so be warned. This short novel tells the story of Caitlin, a fifth grader with Asperger's syndrome. Caitlin's mother died of cancer years ago, but her older brother Devon was only recently killed during a shooting at the local middle school. Devon was Caitlyn's best friend as well as being her key to understanding a very confusing world. Without him, both Caitlyn & her father struggle. The book shows Caitlyn working with her school therapist, interacting with her classmates, and attempting to connect with her bereaved father. I thought the book had a good emotional punch in addition to being well written and dealing convincingly with the aftermath of a family tragedy.

If you read Mockingbird and want a couple more books like that, I'd recommend Rules by Cynthia Lord and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Both of these good books feature a main character with autism.

Jacob's Cartoon: Stupid Comics

2010-11-24T18:40:00.001-08:00

Jacob is a student at Edison Middle School and a frequent library visitor after school. I noticed him with a comic the other day and he wanted it posted on the library's website. So enjoy the first episode of this talented young artist's work!

Is it just me or is it really loud in here?

2010-11-12T13:33:00.001-08:00

When you work in the TeenSpace after school, you're usually the only person in the room who's older than 13. And sometimes that makes you question your judgment.

Today, for example, it seems INCREDIBLY loud. I tried to identify which of the 38 people in the room were the main source of the chaos, but, try as I might, I couldn't pinpoint it. I'd pass by a group and ask them to be quieter, and for the most part, the students all smiled and nodded and seemed to comply. But the noise never seemed to abate.

What I want is an unbiased meter I could use to help me out. A magical, sparkly meter in a wand shape would be cool, but not necessary. Settings could include:

0. Silence: Enjoy.
1. Pretty quiet: Consider yourself lucky.
2. Normal: This amount of noise is to be expected. If it seems too loud, it's just you.
3. Loud: Time to crack down.
4. Intolerable: It's not you. Really. Feel free to bring on the mean.

So if you see an inexpensive noise meter, let me know. I could definitely use one.

Limpy Wimpy?

2010-11-10T18:45:00.001-08:00

I checked out and read the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, The Ugly Truth, yesterday after work. Yup, read it all in one evening. If you've never read a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, you might be amazed at my reading speed. No need for amazement. These books are short, full of drawings, and read really quickly, which is why so many kids love them.

The trouble is I can't remember anything memorable that happened in the book, so I don't think I can give it a thumb's up. Didn't hate it, didn't love it. The main character Greg and his ex-best friend Rowley are still ex-best friends, so maybe that was why I didn't like The Ugly Truth as much as I'd liked the previous ones. I missed Rowley. Greg's still Greg, but I think he needs the innocence and likability of Rowley to offset his selfishness and make his stories more palatable to readers.

Good Reading

2010-11-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Good news for those of you who liked Scott Westerfeld's steampunk novel Leviathan--Behemoth, the second in the series, is out. And more good news for fans of the Ranger's Apprentice series. Book 9, Halt's Peril, has also been released.

It's still 1914 in Westerfeld's alternate world, and the powers that be are headed toward war. Great Britain leads the Darwinists, or those who believe in a society that uses genetically engineered beasts as their way of life. Germany heads the Clankers or those who instead rely on purely mechanical machines. Caught in the middle are Prince Alek, the Clanker heir to the Austria Hungary throne, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist young girl who's disguised as a boy in order to be part of the British Air Service. Behemoth finds Alek and Deryn in Istanbul where Alek needs to escape before he's imprisioned and Deryn's got a top-secret mission to accomplish. Fast action, great characters, interesting premise, and gorgeous illustrations add up to another winner from Westerfeld.

I am usually sick of series long before they reach book 9, but I am still really enjoying John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice books. Halt's Peril sticks to my favorite three characters: Will, the oh-so-talented apprentice; Halt, the grizzled master; and Horace, the straight-forward muscular soldier. The three are tracking Tennyson, the charismatic cult leader who managed to escape after killing Halt's brother in the last book. Will, Halt, and Horace spend the book on the road with their devoted horses, so readers get lots of details about tracking, camping, cooking, and all the assorted things that can go wrong out in the wilds. My two thumbs are way up for Flanagan's latest. Enjoy!

They're Back!

2010-10-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

Time to celebrate! Rick Riordan returns to Camp Half-Blood in The Lost Hero, just released this month. Starting not long after Percy, Annabeth, and their friends defeated the Titan lord Kronos and saved Olympus, this novel kicks off a series about an even greater threat to society. Clues dribble in as to just what this danger is while a new cast of half-human, half-god main characters struggle to understand the parts they must play. Jason, Leo, and Piper are the new demi-gods, and they're an appealing trio. A lot of the book's fun is in the reader's slow discovery of who has what power, so I'm not going to give anything away here. Rest assured that those who loved the first Percy Jackson series will be relieved and excited to find more.

Best opening lines in Young Adult Novels

2010-10-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

One of my library listservs recently discussed the best first lines from young adult books. I enjoyed reading them and thought you might too. Here are some of my favorites.

"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.” Feed by M.T. Anderson

"One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No 'poof.' No flash of light. No explosion." Gone by Michael Grant

"The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World." Going Bovine by Libba Bray

"Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun." The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything." The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

"There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife." The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

"Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead."
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

"If your teacher has to die, August is the time for it." Teacher's Funeral by Richard Peck

"The thing about a cavity search is this: it has nothing to do with the dentist." Born to Rock by Gordon Korman

"Things had been getting a little better until I got a letter from my dead sister. That more or less ruined my day." Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

"It's the first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache." Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

"Froggy Welsh the 4th is trying to get up my shirt." The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

"First the colors." The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

"When the doorbell rings at 3 in the morning, it's never good news." Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

Monsters of Men

2010-10-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

I finished Monsters of Men a few days after I started writing this post, but I've had a tough time writing my review. The book's title--from a quote repeated throughout the Chaos Walking series, "War makes monsters out of men"-- is upfront in its warning. This will be a decidedly uncomfortable yet important and timely theme to ponder.

Main characters Todd and Viola continue narrating the story in alternating chapters from two very separate places. Viola's with the Mistress and her camp, meeting the new arrivals from the space ship. Viola has the added problem of being increasingly ill due to the band placed on her arm in the previous book. Todd is stuck in town with the Mayor, or rather President now, and finds himself in an alliance with the very man he's sworn to be rid of. And in a very interesting twist, author Ness adds a third narrator: Number 1017 or the one Spackle who was left alive at the end of book 2.

I would definitely recommend reading this series. The Knife of Never Letting Go grabbed my attention from page 1 with its fascinating concept of NOISE, its road-trip structure, and, most of all, Todd, its extremely likable main character. I can't say that I loved books 2 & 3 as much. But undoubtedly, this is a beautifully written, thought-provoking series that I won't forget.

Clockwork Angel

2010-09-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

I'd been anticipating Clockwork Angel, the new book by Cassandra Clare, for a while. Her Immortal Engines series, which begins with City of Bones, had been a favorite read. So I was excited when it was announced that she'd be writing a new series, The Infernal Devices, and it was to be a steampunk prequel to Immortal Engines.

Clockwork Angel begins in 1878 in New York with 16-year-old Tessa Gray. Tessa's aunt has recently died, leaving Tessa alone in the world except for her older brother Nate who had travelled to London to work for their father's former employer. Tessa goes to join Nate, but as soon as she gets off the boat, she is waylaid by the Dark Sisters and finds herself their prisoner. There is something very special about Tessa and the evil sisters teach her to use an ability she didn't know she had: She's a shapeshifter, able to totally transform into someone else. Fortunately for Tessa, some Shadowhunters arrive at the Dark Sisters' house right before she is sent off to the "Magister" and they rescue her, taking her from the sisters to their Institute, a headquarters for the Shadowhunters who work to keep humans safe from Demons and certain inhabitants of the Underworld -- vampires, warlocks, werewolves, fairies -- who misbehave.

Will and Jem are the two Shadowhunters who bring Tessa to the Institute and they provide the romantic interest. Tessa is drawn to the rude, doesn't-give-a-damn Will while gentle Jem, who is sick with some disease Tessa isn't told about, is drawn to Tessa. Tessa must find her brother. The Shadowhunters must find the "Magister" before he takes over London and the world with the army of creepy flesh-covered mechanical soldiers he hopes to create.

It all sounds a lot better than it was. I didn't care much about any of the characters, except perhaps Jem and Charlotte and Henry, the married couple in charge of the Institute. The action wasn't as involving as I'd hoped for. Maybe the second book will be better. I seem to be in the minority with my lukewarm reaction to this title, so let me know your opinion if you give this title a try.

Treasures

2010-09-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, the library hosted our second "library open house" of the month for a team of over 100 sixth graders from the middle school across the street. My co-workers and I think of this as an introduction to the library, its services, and its staff--just a little reminder that the library exists and is here to help them. This was the first time we'd ever had both teams come visit. We'd been working with Team Adventurers for a number of years, and we were excited to finally get Team Voyagers to come. We figured we must have done something right if suddenly the other team was interested in coming, too.

These visits are tricky for a number of reasons. The logistics of moving that many 6th graders from place to place takes about double the time you'd expect. We divide the big group into 4 smaller groups and then have a presentation in 4 separate locations in the library, so getting enough staff members to help and getting the rooms reserved is tough. But probably the hardest part of the whole thing is thinking of ways to keep the attention of 28 sixth graders, most of whom you don't know. We set up stations of Social Studies Jeopardy, Speed Book Dating, Bookmark & Badge Making, and then my station, probably the most boring, Library Questions & Answers. Since I know sixth graders aren't going to voluntarily ask a lot of library questions, I had some questions typed up, cut apart, and folded in a paper lunch bag. I let the kids pick a question to read out loud and then I answer it. To make it exciting, I highlight some of the questions and if a student pulls a highlighted question, he or she gets to pick a prize from the Treasure Chest. Simple, but it worked well with my first team earlier in the month.

Right away, I could tell this visit wasn't going to go perfectly. The clock read 1:15pm with no sign of any students. Because the team was only here until 2:30pm and we had 4 stations for them to visit, we had a strict 15-minute per session schedule. By the time I got my first group, I had 1 minute left in my session. Oops. In the middle of my second session, one of the teachers interrupted me to ask where her class was. Not a good sign. During my third session, the teacher was texting during my talk. Hmm... And during my last session, the teacher left the room with a student, so I was the only adult left with about 24 students I didn't know. A group of 4 boys started misbehaving so I asked one of the young men to move to another chair and instead he walked out of the TeenSpace into the wild library yonder.

Well, the one teacher found her class, the other stopped texting, and the third managed to locate the boy who walked out. I think my co-workers' sessions all went better than mine. But there was one cool thing that happened during my last presentation. A sixth grader who'd drawn a highlighted question was having trouble picking a prize from the Treasure Chest. I had put two copies of Shonen Jump, a manga magazine, in the chest. It's a magazine featuring Japanese comics--the ones with the big-eyed, spiky haired characters. The issues I had were from 2009 and I'd given up on anyone picking them as prizes, but here was this boy, agonizing over which issue to choose. When I told him he could have them both, his face lit up. So the visit ended on a bright note. It was good to know that someone was still able to find a treasure at the library.

Misunderstandings @ the Library or "Am I hearing what you really said?"

2010-09-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

I work at a public service desk. A person asks me a question, and I try to answer that question. Seems straightforward, no? Let me use last night as an example of how seemingly simple exchanges can in fact get a little -- or a lot -- twisted.

First, Connie, a co-worker, called me from the TeenSpace. A young lady had come in wanting a teen novel and all she could remember was that the book dealt with people being mean to the main character and there were cheerleading pompoms on the book cover. Nothing leapt to my mind, so I did a little searching and came up with The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading. I felt hopeful because, c'mon, how many books like this could there be? There was a copy on the shelf, so I called downstairs with the author's name and crossed my fingers. I was helping someone else when Connie called back, but another co-worker told me that Connie said the name of the book was "O.M.G. Girlfriend," a book I'd never heard of. I felt a little bit like a failure, so I tried to find the cover of "O.M.G. Girlfriend." Nothing. I caught up with Connie at the end of the night and asked how she'd discovered the mysterious book. Turns out I had found the title and Connie had been exuberantly calling back to tell me, but our co-worker had taken Connie's exclamation as the name of the book! Misunderstanding #1.

That same night a gentleman came up to the desk at 8:57 pm wanting two books. The first I found and put on hold for him. The second I couldn't find. He was surprised and wanted to know if the book was still in print. I offered to check Amazon for him and then discovered my mistake. The author of the book was first name: "Golo," last name: "Mann." When the gentleman first told me the author's name, I had asked him if that was two words and he said no, so I looked for a one-name author "Golomann." Strange, I know, but we were about to close and it was some odd history book and I'd asked him if it was two words. When I said, "Oh, it's two words," he said he thought I'd meant was the first name "Golo" two words--like "Go Lo Mann." Misunderstanding #2.

Maybe you had to be here, but that combination of my two mixups in the span of a couple of hours struck me. Communication is never easy but sometimes the mistakes can make a funny story.

Gone Country

2010-09-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

I've never before found a teen novel in which country music is important, so it was fun to read Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee. The main character Retta Lee just graduated from high school and, with the wholehearted support of her best friend, decides to try her luck as a singer in Nashville. She manages to borrow a junker car for the summer and leaves behind her small town, her needy mother, and her dead-end waitressing job. Her shiny hopes dull quickly because of some hard luck, but Retta learns to keep pushing if she wishes to fulfill her dreams of performing. This is a quick read that holds the interest of any country music fan as well as those who are interested in striking out on their own.

The Power of a Friendly Word

2010-09-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. Even though I'm the teen librarian, there are days when I get tired of middle school students. More specifically, I get tired of their exasperation with me. The heavy sighing and eye rolling and snippy comments can wear me down. After I explained to one young lady that there could be just one person in a chair, she abruptly turned her back to me and loudly told her friends they needed to move to someplace not "so authoritative." (I think she meant authoritarian, but she's only in 6th grade, so I'll give her a break.)

After school in the TeenSpace, I am the bad guy. I walk around telling hungry teens they're not allowed to eat in here, even if they do it sneakily. I'm the adult spoiling the fun of five excited sixth graders shouting about a spectacular video game victory while gathered around a single monitor. I don't let anyone punch anyone else, even if that person is a cousin, sibling, or very best friend. But I try to be a polite bad guy. I stay calm and talk quietly and treat everyone I'm dealing with respectfully. That respect is usually, but not always, reciprocated. And although they're in the minority, it's these exceptions that can sometimes stick with me, causing my normally sunny view of the middle schoolers to cloud.

So that's why I need to remember today when a student named Nathan entered the TeenSpace and proclaimed, "Oh good. It's you. You're my favorite librarian." And he wasn't even being sarcastic. Sweet.

Mockingjay

2010-09-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

I finished Mockingjay on Sunday. This is the hotly anticipated third book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins that started with The Hunger Games. I purchased the book before reading it, something I rarely do. And after reading it, I remember why. Mockingjay is not a book I want to own.

The Hunger Games captured my imagination right away. I liked its three-part structure, beginning with Katniss in her village, where the priority was clear: she had to provide enough food to keep her family alive. When the story moved to the Capitol, Katniss's world turned upside down. Everything was about what was on the surface and how it played for the camera was all that mattered, providing a sharp, thought-provoking contrast to the novel's first section. After the Capitol segment, you got the payoff: the games themselves. It was a shocking spectacle, a live telecast broadcast throughout the Panem, a game that really wasn't a game at all because the contestants were literally fighting for their lives. The main characters Katniss & Peeta had to try to survive while 22 teens from each of the eleven other districts tried to kill them. Should they be allies? Enemies? The ethical dilemmas Katniss faced rang true. The action was exciting and enhanced by the author's vision of what food and weapons and technologies would look like in the future. It was a book that surprised you and made you think as well as making you care about what happened to its characters.

Catching Fire, the second novel in the series, didn't succeed as well for me, but I still enjoyed the characters and the fast pace in the book's second half. And now there's Mockingjay. Its world is dark, its characters so damaged it's painful to read about them. The action is slow, especially in the book's first half. No one knows who to trust and no one's motives are pure. The book was depressing to read and I was frankly happy when to be finished with it. But what did you think? Is there something that I missed that you enjoyed? I'd love to hear.

Easing back

2010-08-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today's my first day back at work since August 5. During that time I went to Las Vegas, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon. I played the slot machine and got warned that I could receive a $10,000 citation if I continued to let my under-21-year-old daughter play with me. I ate a delicious pretzel roll at the best buffet ever. I climbed 860 feet and found a hidden canyon. I stared at the immensity of the Grand Canyon, trying unsuccessfully to process it, and I saw the Milky Way in the night sky. I drove in a car for hours and was entertained just by the view outside my car window. I helped my youngest child move into a dorm room while my eldest temporarily moved back into my basement. It was an eventful 17 days.

While I was gone, school went back in session. Since the library is right across the street from Edison Middle School, we are definitely affected by the school calendar. Lots of students cross the street after 2:45 p.m. to use the library computers, do their homework, chill with their friends, or just kill time until their parents can pick them up after work. I'm in the TeenSpace and it's 3:34p.m. I don't want to jinx anything, but students are behaving. I see a couple of new sixth grade faces, but most of the students are familiar--with me and with how the library works. No eating. No cursing. No raucous shenanigans--yet. How's my first day back at work in 17 days going? So far, so good.

Are Libraries the Next Big Pop-Culture Wave?

2010-07-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

I just got a chance to read the NPR column "Why the Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries" by Linda Holmes and I think she's on to something. Libraries are definitely in the news and on the rise. Some of the news is horrible, with budget cuts causing layoffs, closings, and greatly reduced hours. None of that has happened in Champaign--yet. Property tax growth has definitely slowed, causing some changes: open positions are generally left open, programming budgets have been trimmed. But as far as usage goes, my library is busier than ever. I laugh when I remember summers decades past when we thought of summer as our slow time. That's not true any more. Be it the great service, Champaign residents' love of books, our extreme humidity, the terrible economy, our free wifi, or comfy seats with neat views--throngs of people are using this library.

So, Linda, I vote yes. I believe libraries are the next big pop-culture wave. Cupcake, your reign is over.

Feedback

2010-07-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

We asked some questions on our summer reading sheets, and here are the latest responses turned in.

Who's your favorite author? Responses include Darren Shan (Ben), Robert Muchamore & P.C./Kristin Cast (Ashley), James Patterson (Ally), Masashi Kishimoto (Tori), and Tamora Pierce (Caitlyn).

Dream travel destination? Gettysburg & Palmyra are Andrew's goals. (Since he listed them together, I'm assuming he means Palmyra, Pennsylvania, although the ancient city in Syria would be cool, too.) Brenda wants to travel to Athens, Greece, and Vikram would like to go to Egypt.

When asked what's the most important recent discovery, Vikram said solar panels. He thinks they'll be a big part of our renewable energy in the future. Shruti said she loves 19th century novels like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. She wrote this in the important discovery blank, so that's where I'll leave it.

Favorite spots in the library include the cafe and anywhere. And if they had a million dollars? Ally would give it to people in Haiti; Ashley would buy stuff and donate some; Tori would buy all the manga in the world, then give it to kids who want to read manga; practical Caitlyn would stash it away in her college savings account; and Ben would put his in a savings account, too.

How would you answer?

A Quiet Evening, A Good Afternoon

2010-07-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday at 7:09pm and I'm seating in a completely empty TeenSpace. Normally, this would be unusual but fine. There's always something for me to do in this room: weed damaged books, reshelve out of order graphic novels, put up a new display, use the computer to order materials... But there actually was a program scheduled for tonight: Discover Gaming @ the Library. So the fact that no one's here is not exactly the best possible situation.

Programming is a tricky business. Right now, I'm planning programs I hope teens will come to in September through December. When I first thought about the weekly summer gaming program, I envisioned a full room with 4 people playing Wii and a bunch more at surrounding tables, playing a variety of board games, new and old. Kids could bring their friends, siblings, and even parents--the more the merrier. If we tired of the video games, we'd play Charades. It was going to be epic but easy. My vision has not yet been realized. The greatest number of attendees I've had so far is five and they've stuck to playing Wii. My supervisor told me next week's program would have to be cancelled due to lack of staff and after that I have only 2 weeks left to produce huge attendance numbers--not likely. The trouble with programming is I can never predict who'll come.

But on the bright side, I had a good afternoon yesterday. The TeenSpace was full of students, using the computers and looking for books. My high point came with one home-schooled 12th grader. She'd won a prize in the weekly drawing, so she was trying to pick out something she wanted from the offerings in our glass display case. She had never read the book The Giver by Lois Lowry and so I talked to her about how I'd read it rather recently. I told her I'd been shocked by the book's premise and bleak tone and -- to my thought anyway -- shocking ending. She decided to take The Giver as her prize. A few minutes later, she came up and asked if I'd tell her about more books to read. So we started through the stacks with me pulling books and describing them and her listening with rapt attention and stuffing books into her bag. I wanted to keep this girl around forever but my shift was up and I left her reluctantly, ending up 10 minutes late to the desk upstairs.

After my totally triumphant work with this heavenly young lady, my streak continued when I helped a gentleman make a copy. Not a big deal, one would think. But this gentleman was so delighted with my help and his copy that he offered me the extra 15 cents he had left over after paying for his copy. He assured me that, *wink, wink,* no one would know and that he really, really appreciated my help. I laughed and assured him that he could keep his coins but we were both smiling over the exchange.

So, I'll take a quiet room and a big fat zero for my program count tonight. But maybe on monthly report for July, I need to add a comment or two about a couple of very pleased customers.

UPDATE: At 7:28pm, a mom brought in 3 brothers who were thrilled to play Mario Kart. No zero--hurrah!

To Kill a Mockingbird at 50

2010-07-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

Some books pack such an emotional wallop they stick with you, and for many of us, To Kill a Mockingbird is one such book. This month is the 50 year anniversary of the book, and its publisher is celebrating. If you haven't read it, then I definitely recommend it. But if you've already met Scout and Atticus, should you attempt a reunion after all these years? I'm still deciding.

J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye was another book that had a big impact on me. I loved Holden and his sarcastic yet idealistic, world-weary but still sort of naive commentary. However, I didn't love him when I re-read the book several years ago. In fact, he annoyed me to no end. Maybe it was because I was reading it after having been the parent of two 16-year-old young men. I don't know. But re-reading the book really wrecked my first reading of the book. I don't think another reading of To Kill a Mockingbird would do the same. But at this point, I don't want to risk it.

Stick with adult books, John

2010-07-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

I just finished Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer the new young adult novel written by best-selling author John Grisham and I can't recommend it. Theodore is a very nice middle school kid with two lawyers as parents and an insane interest in the law. He knows every judge, bailiff, and courtroom employee in town and dispenses practical advice to his classmates. One needs information to forestall a foreclosure, one has a brother who's been caught with some pot, and then there's the big one: A student whose cousin witnessed something of vital importance in a murder.

I enjoyed learning some of the ins and outs of the legal system from a 13-year-old's perspective. I thought Theodore seemed like a precocious but likable kid. What the novel really lacked for me was action. There just wasn't enough going on to keep me involved.

Money & travelin' & discoveries

2010-07-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

We're smack dab in the middle of the teen summer reading program here at the library, and one aspect of the program I enjoy is hearing back from teens. So on one of the reading logs, we have a spot where teens can finish off sentences. One begins with "If I had a million dollars, I'd: " And here's what they wrote:

Meret would donate to charities.

Jessica would buy a house that's custom made & a couple of cars. :)

Savannah would give 25% to charities, 25% to her family, 25% to animal shelters, and keep the last 25%.

Sonie would buy all the anime & manga she's read and liked.

Another sentence we left open was "I'd like to travel to..."

Gabe wants to see Disney World & Sea World

Rachel is off to her nonexistent private island that is uncharted.

Colleen wants to go to New York and stay & explore on the beach or head to Spain.

And finally the sentence that got the most interesting answers so far was "I think the most important recent discovery was:"

"nanotechnology" answered one teen and "indoor plumbing" from another!

And now for something completely different...

2010-06-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

Ever been in a slump where every book you start just seems blah? Well, I was there until I picked up Heist Society by Ally Carter. This realistic fiction book is different. The main character of the novel is 15-year-old Kat Bishop. Kat is the member of a family of highly skilled art thieves--cool start. Like a lot of other adolescents, Kat decides she wants no part of the family business, in this case stealing valuable artwork. So she enrolls herself in an exclusive boarding school, which is where she is at the start of the novel. But, she doesn't stay there long. Seems her father has been framed for a theft he didn't orchestrate. The man who's been robbed is determined to get his paintings back--no matter what. So Kat must jump back into the business she wanted to avoid to save her dad. This is a quick fun read--perfect for summer.

Jumping Back In

2010-06-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the non-existent posts lately. The longer my gap stretched, the harder it seemed to come up with something worthy. So I put worthiness aside and decided to ease my way back with a scene that made me smile.

I was on vacation during the second week of June and my first day back was a Saturday. Saturday, which means working on the public service desk for 8 hours and that can be rough. While I stood braced, ready to tackle any questions thrown at me, I spotted a boy and a girl at the check out desk. The boy was about 4 years old and the girl maybe 2. They were both blonde and very cute, industriously stacking their picture books on the library's checkout pad. Standing close were a couple who looked like they were the children's grandparents. As the two children carefully placed each checked out book into their bags, their grandmother got out her camera. She had the children pause mid-action and even asked the person working at the checkout desk to bend down and be a part of the shot.

My own love of books and reading began early and is tied to particular people and places. If you've been given a similar gift, pass it on. Make going to the library a photoworthy event.

Calling all environmental poets!

2010-05-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Want to go green? Have a passion for poetry? Would you like to see your poem online? A Uni High student is sponsoring an online contest to spread awareness about Earth Month and going green. Participants of all ages are invited to write a short poem or insight about being environmentally friendly. The top entry will win a $10 gift card from eco-friendly Wal-Mart, and two random entries win a book. All poems submitted will be "potted" online. Hurry! This event ends May 9th, 2010.

Books that are ... forgettable

2010-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished the book The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. It was okay. Violet, the main character, was born able to sense where murdered bodies are. The bodies can be animal or human, but if they've been murdered, they give off an aura that Violet can sense, either through sound, sight, or smell . She is also able to match the aura of the dead thing with the creature responsible for its death, which comes in handy when a series of young women start disappearing in Violet's community. This book reminded me a little bit of Wake by Lisa McMann--that's the one where the main character gets drawn into sleeping people's dreams.

My problem is I found The Body Finder pretty forgettable. I mean, I liked the premise, and I did like the book's romance between Violet and Jay, her best bud since elementary school who suddenly turned all hunky over the summer and how they awkwardly attempt the move beyond best friends. But in the end, it felt kind of run of the mill.

I often feel this way about books. Another example is Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan. In this book a young man is torn between a photography friend who's a little messed up and his super hot but demanding girlfriend. I finished the book but then didn't feel like I could really recommend it to anyone.

I feel gypped by blah books. When I take the time to read the thing, I'd like to get something out of the deal. I know everyone has different tastes and obviously someone really liked the books or else they wouldn't have been published. But that doesn't help me personally. Maybe I should write a book about a librarian who can get a refund of the time she spent reading a book if she didn't end up liking it enough.

Hearts at Stake

2010-04-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey, the beginning of The Drake Chronicles. The series kicks off days away from Solange Drake's 16th birthday. This is special because the Drake family has a long and noble heritage. They are biological vampires, meaning that their bodies transform into vampires on their 16th birthdays. It's a rough change, one that not everyone survives. Solange is special because she's the first female born to her family in centuries. She is also seen as a threat to the current evil vampire queen because of an ancient prophecy and the fact that Solange emits pheromones that male vampires find irresistible. Solange's best friend is a human named Lucy and the novel is told with the two young women narrating alternating chapters. I enjoyed the inclusion of all sorts of family in the story. Lucy has hippie-ish parents and Solanges has seven older brothers, a fiery mom, a steadfast dad, and an eccentric great aunt or two. There's also lots of romance with Solange's hot brother Nicholas for Lucy and a dark haired vampire hunter named Kieran for Solange. This quick read is packed with action and likable characters, making it a good choice for a rainy day like today.

Reading in Spurts

2010-04-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

Often I have to read in short spurts of time, squeezing in a few pages while eating or waiting for a haircut. This way of reading is okay with books that are written in spurts, like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid or maybe even one of Gail Giles' nail-biters. But disrupted reading can often wreck a more complicated book. And I think that's what happened to me with the new Megan Whalen Turner title A Conspiracy of Kings.

This is a book of political intrigue set in a complex imaginery medieval-ish world. Characters have names like Eugenides and Sophos, and, to add to the fun, they can also be called by their titles or the countries of which they are monarchs, like Sounis, Attolia, and Eddis. (Feel free to email me if I've got this wrong. It's complicated!) Bottom line--lots of weird names.

Then there's the fact that A Conspiracy of Kings is actually the fourth book in a series. The Thief came out in 1996; The Queen of Attolia in 2000; and The King of Attolia in 2006. I don't mean to pick on an author's creative process, but that's a LONG gap between books. I started reading the series when The Queen of Attolia came out, so I read the first two books in succession and then really enjoyed the third 6 years later. But I must have had a few hard years between 2006 and 2010, because I had trouble this time around.

I understand that this is frequently a problem with series of books, and that doesn't mean that I don't like them. In fact, my very favorite books of all time are parts of series. The added problem this time was the way I read the book, sneaking in a few pages here and there. I could tell it was a really good book, but then I had to read the book club book, so I stopped reading. It was late at night and I got tired and fell asleep. By continually stopping and starting, I did the book a disservice. So, if you haven't read this series yet, I recommend it highly. But I think it would be most enjoyable to read the books in order and at a time when you can read in big chunks of time. Will I go back and re-read the series from the beginning, giving it its due? I'll have to put that on my list for after I retire.

2009 Teen Bestsellers

2010-04-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

Magazines route slowly, very slowly, at my library, so I'm just now reading the Publishers Weekly that has the list of last year's best selling books. And for the top ten Children's Bestseller's, there are only two authors on the list. Can you guess the two?

If you said Stephenie Meyer and Jeff Kinney, you were right. The Twilight saga from Meyer took places 1-4 and 7. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series from Kinney filled in the rest.

Are you surprised, delighted, appalled, bored? I would have predicted Meyers on the list, but I wouldn't have picked Jeff Kinney to take up all the other spots.

Pure Poetry?

2010-04-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

I planned a "Pure Poetry" program for my Thursdays @ the Library event yesterday. I put things together pretty quickly because I'd been taking the author David Lubar around earlier this week and it didn't seem possible that I had to present yet another program just two days later. But I remembered that I had some bargain notebooks in my laundry room. They were on sale for some ridiculously low price (29 cents!) at Meijer's last fall, and I hadn't been able to resist. I thought the kids could create Poetry Notebooks while we did some other poetry related activities.

I looked online and found the rules to a collaborative poetry game called Exquisite Corpse. Each person playing writes a word on a piece of paper, folds it over, and passes it to the next person. We've all played games like this, and they're sometimes really fun, so I thought I'd try it. I went with a simple format--adjective, noun, verb, adjective, noun. Here's what the middle schoolers came up with:

The ugly mountain spits on the squirmy trunk.

A juicy hat bounces on the big, hairy, squishy dog.

Slippery pizza climbs on chunky Super Aidan.

The exquisite mall runs from sticky Pepsi.

Sleepy Katie lounged while the short clock buzzed.

The drippy kitten slurps stinky hair.

Slimy Clifford, the Big Red Dog, twirls ugly Ford trucks.

Smelly Asher's brother chews on a pointy leg.

Heavy Aidan runs toward crooked hair.

Is it poetry? You decide. But I kind of like the image of a "juicy hat" or twirling trucks.

New favorite book

2010-03-31T17:43:00.000-07:00

I finished the extremely well reviewed new fantasy book Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta over the weekend. I was off for three whole days in a row, so I got a chance to sit and read for long stretches of time. Both the book and the length of time spent reading were delightful.

Ten years before the novel's start, assassins entered a country named Lumatere and murdered the entire royal family--except perhaps for Balthazar--the king's son, heir to the throne, and best friend of Finnikin. After the murders, the formerly idyllic country is thrown into chaos, causing various groups of citizens to turn on each other. During this tragedy, a powerful woman is burned at the stake and while she is dying, she curses Lumatere. Those left within the country are trapped by an impenetrable black fog and the rest of Lumatere's inhabitants are now exiles, forced to scrape out an existence at the mercy of others, none of whom are very merciful.

The novel's main character is Finnikin, the 19-year-old son of Lumatere's most important guard. He has spent the last decade traveling across the continent with Sir Topher, the murdered king's top advisor. The two have been searching for Lumaterans, recording their whereabouts, and helping when they can. At the start of the novel, Finnikin and Topher are introduced to a strange young woman named Evanjalin. Evanjalin is supposedly able to walk in the sleep of others, and through that talent she claims to have found out that Balthazar is still alive, meaning he is the rightful King. Evanjalin also claims that Finnikin is the one who is supposed to lead the Lumaterans back into their rightful home. And the adventure starts.

This book is very complicated and rich in details. I found myself looking at the map in the front of the book fairly frequently to understand who was where. The novel's characters are well developed, revealing their flaws and talents in extremely interesting ways. The atrocities people inflict on each other during wars and catastrophes are shown in unflinching detail, adding a dark, powerful impact. The book has been compared to Graceling by Kristin Cashore, a fair match up in my opinion. Dive into this new world of Finnikin and Evanjalin. You'll be enthralled.

Liars in Fiction

2010-03-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

I finished the book Liar by Justine Larbalestier the other day. It had been highly recommended by Amanda, a cool co-worker who warned me that the book was sure to rouse strong feelings in its readers. She was right.

Liar is narrated by a high school girl named Micah who's a compulsive liar. She lies about everything: her gender, her dad's job, where she's been, and what she feels. At the beginning of the book, Micah vows to tell the real story, no lies or omissions, about the death of Zach, a popular boy at her school with whom she had a secret relationship. No details have been released about Zach's death, leaving the school and surrounding community to nervously wonder what happened.

Micah tells her story in "Before" and "After" segments, chronicling her life with and then without Zach. Details come slowly, effectively building a reader's impression. Then, bang! Micah will write that she lied about something she'd written. Sometimes she tells the reader about the lie in the very next sentence; at other times, you've read half the book believing the wrong thing.

I found this book extremely interesting. It was well written, fast moving, and very suspenseful, although I found the "big twist" in the second section distracting. This book made me realize how much I usually trust narrators, even in fiction novels, to be telling the "truth." And when they don't? It's very unsettling. I can't tell you exactly what happened in Liar because I don't really know. I can't sort Micah's lies from her truths. And I think that's just how she would like it.

Early birds and long days

2010-03-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's 4:48pm on a Saturday afternoon. The library closes at 6pm and I've been at work since about 8:25am. I got a lunch and two breaks, so you'd think that my mind would be just as ready to dive into answering complex questions as it was at 9am.

Unfortunately, that's not true.

When I work on Saturday, I spend 8 hours on a public service desk. Maybe that doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you've ever worked on a public service desk, you might understand. There is some wear and tear on a body & mind even when helping the nicest folks. For example, I often deal with customers I have a hard time understanding. It may be the softness of their voices, their accents, the speed with which they talk, or the way they run words together. People tend to get offended when you can't decipher what they're saying, and their irritation feeds my nervous tension.

That's just one small instance of Saturday fatigue. There's also a certain amount of stress when I've got folks waiting in line for assistance, even when they're waiting patiently. I want to hurry up, hurry up, hurry up so that I can help the next person. Then if I get a complicated question that takes me away from the desk for a long time, I worry that I've abandoned my partners. Don't even get me started on technology troubles. If I get a person who wants to burn a CD or obtain a readable printout from the microfilm machine, it's going to take anther chunk out of me.

My list could go on, but I'll stop. The point of my post? For me, it's to stop whining and toughen up. For you? It's an insider's tip: If you want the best possible help when using the library on a Saturday when I'm working, be an early bird.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2010-03-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

I don't work in the TeenSpace after school every single day, but I'm here two days in a row, so I'm comparing. Yesterday this place was WILD and I was exhausted by 5pm. I think every single member of the 600 plus student body from Edison was here and they were wound up: running around outside and inside; talking loudly in excited clumps; giggling, jostling, and cruising for trouble.

Today, in contrast, the space is full but the students are calm, moving at a normal pace, talking with inside voices and politely asking for help. I'm blinded by their halos, but also mystified. What's the difference between yesterday and today?

I decided to create a list to see if I could pinpoint the magical ingredient that causes perfect behavior in middle schoolers.

1. The weather. Yesterday was cloudy; today it's sunny and beautiful. Do dreary days promote squirreliness in middle schoolers? Maybe there needs to be a study.

2. Monday vs. Tuesday. Monday is a day that fosters kooky behavior. This seems possible for all ages.

3. Yesterday I bopped in expecting normal-ness and was blindsided. Today I expected chaos and was happily surprised. Perhaps it all depends on what I'm ready for--or not.

4. It was school color day at Edison, and the overwhelming red caused an increase in student aggression, like a bullfighter's red cape taunting a bull. Today is twin day which did not have a similiar effect.

I have to admit that things have gotten a little crazier just while I've been writing this, so maybe the mystery is not all that mysterious. Middle school students have a lot of energy and it's hard to predict what will unleash their excitement. I did just look outside the window and noticed about 15 students rolling down the hill at the middle school across the street. Maybe the fact that those students are there and not here provides the answer I was seeking.

National Grammar Day

2010-03-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

I'm ashamed to say that I let March 4, aka National Grammar Day, slip by without its proper recognition. It's even sadder to admit that I never realized this day existed. Here's a blurb from the website if, like me, you hadn't heard about this relatively new but exciting holiday:

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It's not only a date, it's an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!

I love that there's a National Grammar Day and a website. I love that they have a Grammar Song and Punctuation Rap as well as a Songwriting Hall of Shame. It cracks me up at look at their list of Grammar Myths Exploded, their Grammar Devotional, and, of course, the fun t-shirts that are available to purchase.

So let's mark our calendars for March 4, 2011, and set a National Grammar Day date for sure.

Laughs @ the Library

2010-03-08T14:57:00.001-08:00

1. What do you call a penguin in Florida?

2. Why did the chicken cross the playgound?

We started a new month-long reading program on Friday called Laughs @ the Library. Humorous author David Lubar is coming to town on April 5, and we hope this program helps generate some excitement, and good reading, prior to his visit.

Part of the program is a raffle drawing. Kids fill out slips to possibly win small prizes. The slips ask things like who's your favorite funny person and what's the title of a funny book you've read. But my favorite slip asks students to tell the librarian a joke. If the joke is short, I have the student write it down. So far, we've had five jokes turned in, two of which made some sense but aren't funny, one I don't understand, and two that made me smile. Those two are at the top of the post.

I absolutely love jokes, especially clean, sort of stupid ones. Sometimes high school teachers ask me to come to their classrooms to talk about good books to read. This can be a very scary prospect because if there's one thing almost guaranteed to make a high school student NOT want to read a book, it's for them to see me recommending it. So to bolster my courage, I usually bring some jokes with me to the high school--along with candy, of course. In the middle of the period, when their eyes are glazed and their heads are down and I'm beginning to feel like the period will never ever end, I'll ask if anyone wants to hear a joke. And voila! With that small break, we bond over hilarious puns and muddle through the rest of the hour.

So enjoy the jokes and celebrate Laughs @ the Library. http://www.champaign.org/teenspace/read_watch_listen/teen_book_clubs.html.

1. Lost. (from Hannah)

2. To get to the other slide. (from Garrett)

The next BIG plan

2010-02-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

Planning never ends. Right now in theory, I should pretty much have the summer programs set, the fall programs gelling in the back of my mind, and a BIG program in progress. And that's what I've been working on this afternoon--my next BIG program.

Since I'm a book-lover, my big programs usually involve having a favorite author come to town. So I've been searching the Internet, tracking down contact information for authors, and trying to figure out if a visit to the Champaign Public Library would even be considered. Some authors tell you flat out that they're not doing school visits, like Sherman Alexie, for example. But his site leaves open the possibility for community or university visits, so I shot his people a quick email. (After all, Champaign's got a community AND a university.) $2,500 for a day plus travel expenses for a day with Tamora Pierce? Sounds almost too good to be true, so I emailed her.

What author tops your wish list? Leave me a comment, and I'll see what I can do. You never know until you ask, after all.

Recent Reading

2010-02-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't stopped reading, honest. I just haven't felt inspired to write about what I've read. (It's been a LONG February.) But here are some quick updates on teen books I've read lately:

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan. This new title is about Blake, a 15-year-old, who's torn between his hot girlfriend Shannon and his artistic friend Marissa who has family troubles. I know I finished the book, but I've forgotten who he chose. Not a good sign.

Gone by Lisa McMann. This is the final volume in McMann's trilogy that began with Wake. (The second book is Fade.) I really liked the idea behind the trilogy. Janie, the high school aged main character, gets sucked into people's dreams. She has a terrible time because she can't stop herself from being drawn in, so she's always at risk if anyone around her is napping. Gone was okay. It revolved around Janie figuring out what to do with her "gift," how to deal with her alcoholic mother, and discovering her father, just as he's lying in a coma.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman. This was my favorite of the bunch. Two cars crash. Two kids, one from each car, are thrown from the cars after the impact. As their two spirits travel through a dark tunnel toward a light, they collide and the two are thrown off course into Everlost. They meet others in this world and have to figure how Everlost works and how they fit in. The second book in the series is Everwild, and I'm in line for that now. Shusterman also wrote Unwind, another very interesting book about unwanted teenagers being turned in and used for extra parts.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern. This was another kind of forgettable one about Jessie, a high school sophomore who loves to sew skirts. Her two best friends turn into punk wannabes and seem to be interested in Jessie only because her older brother has cool friends. So Jessie decides to find new friends but worries whether or not she'll be seen as a dork. I liked the relationship between Jessie and her brother, but as a nerd from the womb, I got irked by Jessie's incessant worries about how other people saw her, sort of defeating the whole point of the novel.

I'll throw in a very engaging adult book that we read last month in the high school book club: City of Thieves by David Benioff. It's set during the siege of Leningrad and is about two teens--nerdy Lev who's caught looting the body of a German paratrooper and suave but crazy Kolya charged with deserting the army. Their crimes are punishable by death, but the two are given an out. If they can find a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake, they'll be freed. So the odd couple start on their impossible quest and bring readers along for a harrowing but extremely readable ride.

Hunger Games Excitement

2010-02-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

The good folks at Scholastic publishing have released the new cover and title for the third book in Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy in a blog posting. Yay! The book itself won't be released until August 24, but it's always fun to see what the cover will look like.

What do you think? I'm not that impressed, though I'm hardly qualified to judge. One librarian on a listserv said she liked how the depiction of the bird progressed through the covers of the books in the series. For The Hunger Games, the first book, the bird is present on the cover as a golden pin, which tied in well as an important item from the story. In Catching Fire, the second book, the cover shows a live bird but in a stiff, rather static position. As you can see from this newest cover to the left, the mockingjay is now proudly flying free, having broken loose from the circles that previously restricted it. So much for my deep cover art analysis!

If you haven't read The Hunger Games, give it a try. What's not to like about a dystopic future where 24 teens coming from 12 districts are forced to fight to the death on live tv while all the other residents in the districts are required to watch?

One Day Late

2010-02-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

I've got it written down on my weekly schedule in large letters: "SNAPSHOT DAY: A Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries." A colleague emailed me a reminder in addition to the local library system. Today, Feb. 10, is a special day when all employees at Illinois libraries are supposed to be keeping statistics and taking photographs to show how in-demand libraries are. Times are tough and budgets are decreasing. This is not the time for hiding or false modesty. It's a day to be loud and proud. Illinois libraries, hurrah!

But guess what? I forgot to bring my camera to work. Worse, I forgot to get the library's camera out of my boss's office before she left for the day. I could get a security officer to unlock her office right now, but it's 6:37pm and I've missed the after-school crowd and I don't see any inspiring photographic library opportunities at the moment.

So do you think one day would make that big of a difference? In theory, the library will be as much in demand tomorrow as today. At least that's what I'm hoping.

J.D. Salinger

2010-01-29T07:14:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-26T07:36:00.001-08:00

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?

2010-01-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

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.

Rules

2010-01-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

I just read Rules by Cynthia Lord. It's a middle school award winner from a few years ago. I'd never read it, but had always liked its cover and it was short, so I read it this past weekend.

The narrator of the story is a 12-year-old girl named Catherine who often has to watch after David, her younger brother who has autism. Catherine loves her brother and gets upset when others make fun of him, but she also wishes for a carefree life where she wouldn't have to worry about stuff like him pulling down his pants in public places. The novel takes place during the summer when Catherine's best friend is away visiting her father, a new girl moves in next door, and Catherine becomes friends with Jason, a paraplegic who can't speak but points at word cards to convey his thoughts.

I liked the book. There was nothing earth-shatteringly exciting in the plot, but I enjoyed reading about David and Jason, and I thought the author's depiction of Catherine's feelings was very well done.

Another year passes

2009-12-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is a good time to stop and think about all the things that happened over the last 365 days. Everyone's always in a big hurry, but take just a minute to think about what went right this year.

For me, 2009 was the year of successful author visits with Rick Riordan in March and Sharon Flake in November. I didn't have any prior experience coordinating with all three middle schools on such big events, so it was very satisfying to have everything go relatively smoothly. And seeing the interactions between authors and students? Priceless. Being a part of bringing a favorite author face to face with his or her middle school fans was inspiring and exhausting and very stressful--definitely the highlight of my year.

I'll also remember this as the year I helped the library jump into the social networking world. I'm by no means a technologically savvy person, but in January, with the help of a volunteer, I started a Facebook page for the library. Now we have 735 fans for the Champaign Public Library page plus 157 fans for the TeenSpace page. Wow!

What are some of the things from the past year that make you smile? And what are you looking forward to in 2010?

For Twilight Lovers: Shiver

2009-12-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

I just finished one of the most romantic teen books I've read in a while. It's Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. The story's told in the alternating voices of the two young people in love. First there's Grace, a straight-A, independent-by-necessity 17-year-old high school student with two extremely disinterested parents. Grace was attacked by wolves when she was little and was sick for weeks afterward, but she survived. Ever since the incident, Grace has been enthralled with wolves, particularly one wolf who visits the woods outside her home year after year.

The second main character is Sam, and he's the wolf. Sam was bitten by a werewolf when he was little, and now he is a human when the weather is warm and a wolf during the cold months.

The story takes place at a time when Sam should be in wolf form, but he was recently shot, and for some reason that made him change into a human. Sam shows up at Grace's house and the two begin an intense relationship that both realize will be extremely short lived.

I read this book in spurts, which made it hard to get into the story. If I had it to do again, I'd read it in longer sessions. The two characters feel real, and there's a unique urgency to the story since Sam literally has to keep warm or he'll turn into a wolf. There's also some suspense because of subplots involving another teen that was recently bitten and has trouble adjusting. I think the strength of the story is the interaction between Grace and Sam, and that's the part that reminded me a little of Twilight's Bella and Edward. So give Shiver a try if you looking for a true-love story with a werewolf twist.

End of the Year Lists--Yay!

2009-12-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

I love end-of-the-year lists. You know the ones I mean. The top 10 movies, the 13 most embarrassing outfits worn by fashionable folks, the 9 most downloaded songs... And of course, the lists of best books. Those lists are my favorites. You can see what you missed or argue passionately about what book was picked -- or left out. So here are a few links of the supposedly best teen books this year. Let the arguing begin!

Publisher's Weekly put their list out early in November. Scroll down for the teen selections. I've only read 6 of their 15 fiction selections, so I'm feeling kind of behind. But they've included Fire, Catching Fire, and The Ask and the Answer --good job, PW.

The New York Times has a very short list of "notable" books, mixing the children's with the teen. Interesting that When You Reach Me made both lists as well as Marcelo in the Real World. I read the former and thought it was okay. It kind of linked back to A Wrinkle in Time (which I thought was a much, much better book) and I haven't read Marcelo yet. I heard it's something like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, which I did like a lot. It's great that the NYT put The Last Olympian on the list, too. We all love Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan, that's for sure. And I don't imagine the Times often puts the fifth book in a series on their best list.

Amazon has their editors' picks on the same page as customer favorites. I've read 5 out of 10 of their editors' teen favorites and only 2 out of 10 of their customer's. (I'm just a little sick of vampires.) Marcelo is on this list, too, along with Leviathan, another good one.

And here's the list from School Library Journal, with children's books are mixed in with teen. Looks like I really must read Marcelo in the Real World. It's the only book that made all four lists. Happy reading everyone. Let me hear back about your favorites.

P.S. After I wrote this, I found this neat compilation put together by H.W. Wilson. List lovers, rejoice!

The Knife of Never Letting Go (aka "my new fav")

2009-12-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, when I was laid up, I discovered a fantastic new book: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I'm dying for someone I know to read it so that we can talk about how awesome it is.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is the story of Todd Hewitt, a boy who lives in a sparsely populated town in a future New World where an alien virus has somehow killed all the women and infected the men and animals so that all their thoughts are broadcast to the minds of others in a overwhelming mix of words, images, and sounds. This cacophony of others' thoughts in your head is called Noise.

In isolated Prentisstown, life is about survival. The hundred plus men in the town must hunt and grow enough food to fed themselves, build their own shelter, care for their sick. Todd's parents are dead and he's the only "boy" left in the town. His birthday and the mysterious ceremony by which he'll become a man are just weeks away. But before the fateful day, Todd and his dog Manchee discover an odd pocket of total silence. And that's when the story takes off.

This book is lengthy but once I started, I read quickly, only stopping when it all got a little too intense. The unique voice of Todd and the author's skilled creation of this strange and ominous world hooked me hard. Try it! The good news is that the second book in the series, The Ask and The Answer, is already out. The bad news? The third and final book, titled The Monsters of Men, doesn't come out until May 2010.

Leviathan--new from Scott Westerfeld

2009-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

There's a cool new book out from Uglies author Scott Westerfeld. It's called Leviathan and here's a warning up front: It's not like Uglies--at all. In my opinion, it's a whole lot better, but I know some readers may feel differently.

This book is set in an alternate England just prior to the first World War. The first main character is a young woman named Deryn who's disguised as a boy so that she can fly with the British Air Service. The ship she's flying in, called Leviathan, is acutally a genetically engineered living beast, sort of like a flying whale. In this world, genetic engineering is common and the "Darwinists" have created many such useful creatures. The other main character is Alek, a young Austrian prince. Alek and his people are "Clankers," or people who believe in machine technology rather than genetic tinkering. As the world teeters on the edge of war, Deryn and Alek become key players in the political maneuvering of forces they don't understand.

Reading Leviathan you'll find action aplenty, interestingly flawed characters, and lots of thought-provoking ideas, especially when the Clankers and Darwinists collide. I look forward to the next book in the series, Behemoth, but I'll have to wait. According to Westerfeld's website, it won't be out until October of 2010.

The up side of being laid low

2009-12-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I took some time off. But then my back went out. I found one recliner in my basement that made the pain go away and so that's where I stayed. I brought down my brand-new laptop, Chapstick, water, and assorted snacks. I had the last two discs of season two of The Big Bang Theory, the tv and DVD remotes, and, of course, a pile of books. In between snoozing, munching, popping ibuprofen, channel surfing, and web surfing, I actually got some reading done--real reading. You know, when you dig in to the big, fat, intimidating books that you're sometimes too tired to even lift when the day winds down. And I discovered a new favorite. So that was the up side of being laid low.

My favorite present

2009-12-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

I just put together a list of good books to give teens and that got me thinking about books I've received as gifts, especially when I was a teenager myself. One Christmas a few years after we'd moved from New Jersey to Illinois, my brother gave me a boxed set of four books by J.R.R. Tolkien. The set included The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The books had covers just like the one shown to the left, and there was gold on the box and on the edges of the pages of the four books. Very cool. I had never read any Tolkien before, and I soon became immersed in the world of Middle-earth, falling in love with Bilbo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and Gandalf the Grey. I've read those books multiple times and after I grew up, I read them aloud to my own children. This was a present I treasured.

It's rare that any of us manage to get just the right book for just the right person, but don't give up trying. Because when you get it right, you've given something priceless.

35,974 words short

2009-11-16T08:47:00.001-08:00

I know November's not over, but I've given up. I am officially declaring myself a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) failure. I struggled and actually kept up for the first 8 days and then ... Sharon Flake came and my top priority was escorting her to the middle schools and I got stressed out and my daughter (aka the NaNoWriMo nagging queen) was totally frantic with college application essays and hard senior classes and major life decisions so she couldn't keep up either, meaning she couldn't nag me to keep up so... we've both stopped.

It is especially bad that we stopped this year, first of all because we co-taught a class about the creative joys of NaNoWritMo and urged the four girls attending to shoot for the stars. Then I wrote my oh-so-inspiring blog entry about daring to dream and writing that novel you've always wished you could.

But to tell you the truth, I feel like a huge rock has been lifted off my shoulders. I don't have to wake up at 6am to try and write a couple hundred words. I don't have to rush home at lunch and try to type while shoving in food with a nosy cat on my lap. I don't have to dread going home after a long day at work, knowing I still have 1000 plus words to write before I can go to bed guilt-free.

I saved the 14,026 words I wrote and I'm thinking that for this year, that's enough. Now, next year? Maybe next year I'll make it through.

The Cost of Closing

2009-11-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

The library was closed to the public last Wednesday for a day of training for the staff. We learned about the power of positive thinking and the cool stuff being done by librarians in Oak Park as well as attending some technology sessions and some talks about books. It was a good day.

But then the library re-opened and I was the one placed on the Information Desk when the the doors were unlocked. It wasn't pretty. We did okay from 9-11am but the 11am-1pm shift was brutal. We had backed-up emails, complicated questions, and phones ringing off the hook in addition to a larger than usual mob of folks, trying to hide their anger that the library hadn't been open the day before.

So, while I'm not advocating that the library never close, I do hope the next time we re-open, someone besides me is braving the front lines. Just to share the valuable experience, of course.

The Awesomeness that is Sharon Flake

2009-11-15T13:46:00.001-08:00

Having authors come to town is nerve-racking in multiple ways.

1. You have to contact a famous person.
2. You have to book travel and hotel reservations for him or her.
3. You have to chauffeur them around town, meaning
a. your car needs to be clean, &
b. you can't get lost.
4. You have to offer to take the author out to eat, meaning
a. you have to chit chat with them,
b. you have to be an expert on "classy" local restaurants, &
c. you may have to eat weird, scary food.

My list could go on and on. So last week, when I was getting ready to pick up author Sharon Flake from Willard Airport, I was nervous. But I needn't have been.

If you ever want to be inspired by an author, take Sharon Flake to a middle school and then sit back and watch. As soon as we entered the front door, she began going up to students, shaking their hands, introducing herself, asking them what they were good at, and really listening to their responses. No quiet hiding in a back room waiting for the "lecture" to begin. This energetic woman climbed up and down bleachers to chat with students. She gave out hugs. She signed books, paper scraps, bookmarks, arms, and t-shirts not with just her name but with an added personalized message. She talked enthusiastically about having the greatest job in the world, and she told students how much money she made on each book. She was genuinely interested in encouraging teenagers to reach their potential, and the teenagers she was in contact with ate it up. She was serenaded three times during the two days she was in town, and she cried twice. She was the most open, friendly, honest person I've ever met and she made my job as a host fun.

I'm gushing but I won't apologize. I am making myself the unofficial president of the world-wide I-love-Sharon-Flake fan club. You're welcome to join.

One month, one novel

2009-11-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

Well, it's November. And while to some that may mean cooler temperatures and shorter days, turkeys and thankfulness, there are others, admittedly stranger folks, to whom November means frantically writing 1,667 words every single day.

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as we in the know affectionately call it. According to their website, the first NaNoWriMo took place in 1999 in San Francisco with just 21 people participating. Those daring souls were surprised to find that in a single month they managed to write passable novels--nothing great but not totally terrible either. And they thought if they could do it, almost anyone else could, too.

Last year over 120,000 people participated, with 20,000 of us completing the goal: We wrote a novel in a month. This year will be my third try as a NaNoWriMo-er. I got roped into the whole thing because we used to have a writing club at the library and one of the library staff members had written novels during NaNoWriMo and agreed to talk to the club about it. My talented, extremely persistent daughter was part of the club at the time and got inspired at the meeting. She wanted to jump in and pulled me with her.

I'll be the first to admit writing 1667 words every single day is not an easy thing to do. In fact I already blew it one day and had 2667 seemingly impossible words to write the next day. Some days are exhilarating--the words flow and I feel brilliant. Most days, however, the words are dragged out painfully and I feel like scum. But there is something different and exciting about this venture. There's a sense of possibility--you're freeing yourself to try something goofy and hard and impractical and yet deep down inside it's also a thing you've always wondered if you could do.

I haven't had the nerve to go back to either of the two novels I've written. Someday I will. And I may discover that they really are as bad as I think. But I'll still be thankful to my daughter for pushing me into trying. Have you ever wondered if you could write a novel? Don't overthink it--just jump .

Read FIRE

2009-10-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a book review for a while, but it hasn't been because I stopped reading. I just hit a run of books that I didn't feel strongly about. Then I got one I'd been waiting for and it didn't disappoint: Fire by Kristin Cashore.

Fire is a companion to Cashore's first book, Graceling, another favorite of mine. Fire takes place about 30 years prior to Graceling and is set in the Dells, a place that's separated from Graceling's seven kingdoms by impenetrable mountains. There's one important character that appears in both books, but to be honest with you, when reading Fire, I didn't remember that the character had been in Graceling. Anyway, Fire is a book that can stand on its own. The book starts a little bit slowly, introducing you to Fire, the main character. Turns out that Fire is the last human-shaped monster in the Dells. She is irresistibly beautiful and humans who catch sight of her off-guard want to possess her or kill her--no lukewarm reactions. Fire is able to read the minds of others and she's also able to manipulate their thoughts, but she only uses her power when she's attacked. Fire's father was a sadistic monster who easily corrupted the king and tortured others when he got bored, but he's been dead for a few years. Fire lives far from the King's City with the people she considers family--a disgraced former commander and his son Archer, who's Fire's best friend.

The Dells are in upheaval due to the king's death and his wild shenanigans before he died. Two rivals have created armies and threaten to tear the Dells apart. The new king calls for Fire's unique help in questioning prisoners to gauge whether they're telling the truth and to uncover the strategy of the rival lords. Although she's initially unwilling to use her power to hurt others, Fire does agree to travel with Archer to the King's City, and then the plot picks up.

Although I got a little tired of reading about Fire's incredible, burdensome beauty (and, to be frank, her troubles when her monthly cycle came), I did really, really like reading about this world and the characters living in it. Pick up a copy of Fire or Graceling and let me know if you're a fan, too.

The "is it 5 o'clock yet?" blues

2009-10-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

Now you know I like middle school students. I wouldn't be a teen librarian if I didn't. But some days when I'm working down here in the TeenSpace and the place is packed and the noise is loud and I'm walking the never-ending circle, reminding students yet again that there's no eating in the TeenSpace; no choking others in the TeenSpace; no two people in a single chair; no banging repeatedly on the computer table; no running; no constant peeking out of the study room giggling; no using a study room if your sole purpose is to peek out of the room giggling at a table of cute girls; still no eating in the TeenSpace--it all adds up to an exhausting number of no's and I get tired.

But it's 5:00 and, if the next shift comes, life is good. In the meantime, I'll just go remind that young person once again that no, I'm not kidding. There really is no eating in the TeenSpace.