In My Mailbox #19

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren!

I got a book in my mailbox this week:

An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin. Carolrhoda Books (Lerner Publishing Group), March 2010.

From the jacket flap:

Was an innocent man accused of murder? 

On April 26, 1913, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan planned to meet friends at a parade in Atlanta, Georgia. But first she stopped at the pencil factory where she worked to pick up her paycheck. Mary never left the building alive. 

A black watchman found Mary's body brutally beaten and raped. Police arrested the watchman, but they weren't satisfied that he was the killer. Then they paid a visit to Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent, who was both a northerner and a Jew. Spurred on by the media frenzy and prejudices of the time, the detectives made Frank their prime suspect, one whose conviction would soothe the city's anger over the death of a young white girl. 

The prosecution of Leo Frank was front-page news for two years, and Frank's lynching is still one of the most controversial incidents of the twentieth century. It marks a turning point in the history of racial and religious hatred in America, leading directly to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League and to the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan. Relying on primary source documents and painstaking research, award-winning novelist Elaine Alphin tells the true story of justice undone in America. 

And that's it for my mailbox this week! Did you get anything exciting in the mail or bookstore this week?

Around the interwebs

So, what's been happening around the interwebs this week?

Betsy at A Fuse #8 Production let us know that the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is accepting submissions for the Ezra Jack Keats Mini-Grant. If you work at a public library or public school, do check it out.

What fabulous YA books have not yet gotten the buzz they deserve? Kelly over at YAnnabe asked just that question and 73 bloggers chimed in. Check out her Unsung YA project to find out the top ten books you may have missed. Looks like she's considering making it an annual event and that's certainly one I'll look forward to! 

Remember when 2010 used to be the future? Thanks to @kidsilkhaze for the very amusing link.

Ohhhh, if only I lived in New York! Among other things, I COULD SEE BABYMOUSE: THE MUSICAL. Thanks to @randomhousekids for the link.

Imagine how nice it would be to look back and see a list of the books you read as a child. Or the books your children read. Over at Booklights, Susan encourages parents to start writing down the books your kids are reading. I don't have any kids, but I can add that keeping a list together could be a great activity to encourage early literacy skills or motivate your kids to practice their writing. (Which is one reason I have trepidation about libraries heading over into online-only summer reading club records... Just as reading over the summer helps kids retain their reading skills, writing down the book titles helps them practice their writing! But that is a rant for another day...)  

These are just awesome. Thanks to Fuse #8 for the link.

Travis of 100 Scope Notes gives us a peek at what he bought for his school library when he had $200.00 to spend.


In How to Complain About Your Publisher in Public, Editorial Anonymous talks about the Magic Under Glass cover fiasco and answers the question "Why wasn't the author the very first to object publicly to the cover?"

Have you checked out Fed Up: School Lunch Project yet? An anonymous teacher, concerned with the nutritional value of the lunches provided at her school, is eating (or at least buying and documenting) school lunch every day. It is gross, but kind of fascinating. And it's definitely got a lot of people thinking and talking about nutrition. Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

Martin Scorcese is going to direct the (live-action) movie adaptation of The Adventures of Hugo Cabret. Hmm. Thanks to J for the link.

And speaking of movies, they've released a trailer for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and it looks hilaaaarious! Do check it out. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the (first) link (I saw).

Catching up...

And here I am, catching up on my to-review pile with three short reviews of books I've picked up lately. 


Epitaph Road by David Patneaude. (Grades 5-8.) Egmont USA, March 2010. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.


In 2067 the virus came. Elisha's Bear. It only affected males and it was deadly. Almost every male on earth was wiped out. Now, thirty years later, Kellen is one of the few boys on earth. When Kellen hears that there might be another outbreak of Elisha's Bear near where his father lives, he knows he has to warn him... whatever the cost. But what he'll discover on his journey will change everything. 

It's an interesting premise and usually post-apocalyptic teen novels are right up my alley, but this one didn't do it for me. I liked the author's device of explaining the changes that brought about the current government through newspaper headlines. But it just took forever for the plot to get to where it was going. By the time Kellen undertook his journey and started figuring out the hidden truths, I had long lost patience. Plus, I understand from other Good Reads reviews that the premise has been done (and possibly done better) in The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper. 

Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed. (Grades 4-6.) Philomel Books, September 2009. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher. 


This is the story of Sam the Lion, a pedigreed dachshund with a rare Duuglitz tuft. Meant to be a show dog, he soon escapes the clutches of the overbearing Mrs. Nutbush and elects to follow an orphan named Heidy who is going to live with her uncle. But when Sam steals the attention away from the champion standard poodle Cassius, Cassius will get his revenge. What ensues is a wild and wacky adventure as the flawed dogs decide to claim what is rightfully theirs. 

Now, this one I didn't expect to like as much as I did, but once I started it I found myself getting into it. The book reads like an animated feature and I could really see everything happening as the story unfolded. Plus, the voice of Sam, the scrappy dachshund, is hilarious. I'm not totally sold on the kid appeal because I've had a hard time selling books with animal protagonists to middle-graders, but parts of the book might be a little disturbing to younger kids. This might make a good family or classroom readaloud, though. 

The Summer Before by Ann M. Martin. (Grades 2-5.) Scholastic Press, April 2010. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.  

Before there was the Baby-Sitters Club, there were four girls - Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey. This is the story of the summer before they got together to form the BSC. That summer they were all going through things. Kristy was missing her dad and rebelling against her mom's new boyfriend Watson. Mary Anne was struggling with her father's strict rules. Claudia was discovering boys and feeling much more mature than her two best friends, Kristy and Mary Anne. And Stacey was dealing with her former best friends who dumped her. 

The Summer Before is exactly what you'd expect from a Baby-Sitters Club prequel. It definitely matches the tone and writing of the series and fans will be glad to get some more insights into their favorite characters. I don't know that it will necessarily attract new fans to the series, though. What I loved about the BSC books is the friendship between the girls and their babysitting stories, both of which are somewhat scarce in this prequel. That said, it'll please current fans. And I guess I'll hold off on weeding out BSC books just yet... ;)

What I didn't learn in library school...

Awhile back, the ALSC blog ran a series on What I Wasn't Taught in Library School. It's a great series, but I've been thinking of some additions lately and that's what today's post is about.

What I didn't learn in library school...

You get better with practice. I guess that's probably obvious, but it wasn't obvious to me the week before I did my very first preschool storytime for my internship. I was so nervous I couldn't sleep! Now that I do storytime all the time, it seems silly, but that's the kind of ease that comes with practice, with familiarity. You won't know everything when you first start and that's okay. That's what more experienced librarians can help you with. And as you keep reading and doing programs, you'll get better at picking books that suit your audience and you'll learn from your mistakes, too. The best thing is when you have a more experienced librarian to mentor you, to bounce ideas off of... I know that not everyone has this. I recommend joining PUBYAC or a state or system listserv to find a supportive community of librarians. Or, if all else fails, you can bounce ideas off of me (though I have to say that I don't have that much experience - I've been a librarian for three years now). 

Even though you're better with practice, new things may still make you nervous. This is okay. You'll get better at them, too, with practice. I've been doing programs for various ages for three years now, but I was still nervous before my first Mother Goose on the Loose baby program last week. I got through it. It wasn't perfect (I forgot the words to "This Little Piggy", among other things), but that's okay! I'll do better next week. And the week after that. And the week after that. Until this program becomes as comfortable as the programs I've been doing for years. And then we'll start something new... ;) 

Attendance at programs can be cyclical. So, you planned an awesome program, you advertised it, you were certain you'd have a huge crowd... and you only got two kids, one of which is a coworker's son. Is it you? Maybe. But probably not. So many things can affect attendance at programs - the weather, kids' extracurricular schedules, holidays, fear of the swine flu... So don't take it personally if no one shows up to your awesome program. File it away and try it another time.

Librarians share programs ideas. Like, all the time. Okay, not all the time. But very frequently. It's what we do! We have a successful program and we want to share it. We don't mind when others recreate it. And we're often borrowing our program ideas from other librarians. This is one of the reasons for listservs, library journals, and blogs. Sure, you'll come up with some news ideas and try them out, but you don't have to worry about coming up with original programs from scratch every single time.

You do your programs your way and that is okay. Librarians get inspiration from each other. We share ideas. We read journals and blogs and listservs and decide to copy these fantastic programs at our library. But just because one librarian does it a certain way doesn't mean you have to. Put your own spin on it. Do what works for you and your patrons. There's no absolute right way to do a program or a storytime. That said, if you're open to new ways of doing things you'll probably stumble across some great ideas that make your programs work even better for you.

No one knows what you're doing if you don't advertise. (This, of course, is different in every community.) Maybe you're the person in charge of promoting your programs and maybe you're not, but one thing I've especially learned over the past few months at my new job is that you have to get the word out! My library does not have the resources to mail out a newsletter or program schedule to all patrons in our district. We make use of the local papers, write blurbs for our website, send emails to district teachers, create signs and flyers (which I hand out to community members at appropriate networking meetings), and send word to area homeschooling groups.

And how about you, librarians? What have you learned on the job that wasn't covered in library school? Put it in the comments!

Nonfiction Monday: Magic Tree House Research Guides

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Today I'd like to post about a nonfiction series that is quite popular at my library: The Magic Tree House Research Guides by Mary Pope Osborne and some of them with Will Osborne and some of them with Natalie Pope Boyce.

Each research guide is written to go along with one of the books in the Magic Tree House series. The guides use the characters of Jack and Annie to present information on the topics in the books. The guides are written in short chapters and include illustrations, just like the Magic Tree House books, making them accessible to curious young readers. The usage of beloved characters provides a jumping off point, making the Research Guides attractive to kids who may not otherwise think about picking up a nonfiction book about space, Ancient Greece, or penguins.

I looked at three books in the series: Space: A Nonfiction Companion to Midnight on the Moon, Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters: A Nonfiction Companion to High Tide in Hawaii, and Sea Monsters: A Nonfiction Companion to Dark Day in the Deep Sea.

Space starts with the history of space exploration. It provides information about the stars and planets and about space travel. While the book was published in 2002 and some facts may be out of date (according to the book the Very Large Telescope is still being built and Pluto is the smallest planet, although "Many astronomers today think Pluto shouldn't be called a planet at all!"), it's still a useful introduction.

Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters begins with information about the 2004 tsunami that hit several countries in the Pacific. Each chapter takes on a different type of natural disaster including tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, mudslides, and avalanches. The text touches on how scientists try to predict such disasters and what to do if you find yourself in the middle of one.

Sea Monsters presents information about many different kinds of animals that live in the sea, including squid, octopi, and creatures that live in the depths of the ocean. It also includes information on prehistoric animals that once swam and various myths and legends about sea monsters.

These books are perfect to pair with the Magic Tree House fiction series and they may inspire kids to do some of their own research on topics that interest them. I'd certainly add them to your library or classroom shelves if you don't have them already. They could also be great reading for families with Magic Tree House fans.

It's Nonfiction Monday, so check out the roundup over at Playing by the Book to see what nonfiction the KidLitosphere has been reading this week!

In My Mailbox #18

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren!

This week I got a few books from Charlesbridge Publishing!

Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw. February 2010. From jacket flap: Contrary to the brash images of tomb-raiding adventurers that Hollywood often creates, today's archaeologists are actually cutting-edge scientists. Their buried treasures are the remains of our hominin ancestors. Archaeologists and other scientists examine the evidence from each discovery in their laboratories, seeking answers about our history - clues that could offer insight into human behavior and culture. Every discovery adds a piece to the larger puzzle of our past, but sometimes the scientists disagree over how, or even if, the pieces fit together. Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw offer an engaging account of the discovery of four hominins - Turkana Boy, Lapedo Child, Kennewick Man, and Iceman - as well as the laboratory deductions that scientists made in learning more about them, and the controversial, often heated, debates that ensued over the scientists' differences of opinions.

I'm a science girl and this one sounds similar to Lucy Long Ago and parts of Secrets of a Civil War Submarine, both of which I loved.

Ocean Soup: Tide-Pool Poems by Stephen R. Swinburne, illustrated by Mary Peterson. February 2010. From jacket flap: From the low-down dirty lobster to the old, cold fish living under the pier, playful poems introduce some of the squishy, shelled, and spiny creatures that call the Atlantic and Pacific tide pools home.

This one looks very cute and will tie in well to the collaborative summer reading program that many libraries are doing this summer.

Older Than the Stars by Karen C. Fox, illustrated by Nancy Davis. February 2010. From the jacket: How old are you? Older than you think. The iron in your blood may have once been part of a volcano... the calcium in your bones may have been part of an ancient oyster shell... the oxygen in your lungs was once probably breathed by dinosaurs... and every little bit of you was once part of a star. In a way, you are as old as the universe itself.

A picture book about the Big Bang Theory. 'Nuff said.

That's it for my mailbox; did you get anything awesome in your mailbox this week?

Bobbing Along: A Float or Sink Storytime

What to read to a preschool class exploring things that float or sink? Here's what I did for storytime when they came last week.

Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley - Large, colorful illustrations make this fun for sharing with a group, but be sure to read it a couple times first because the rhymes don't always rhyme exactly and the rhythm gets wonky in some spots. Still, there's a perfect spread for Float or Sink - when the ducks plunge into the water and the faux duck (read: fox) sinks like a stone!


Five Little Ducks Went Out One Day - Song with duck stick puppets that we fashioned from construction paper and craft sticks. As you sing each verse, move your hands (holding the ducks) behind your back and leave one on the chair behind you. I always finish by having the kids quack louder and louder and then finally bringing back all five ducks.

Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood - Okay, fish don't really sink or float, I guess, but I love this one and it was perfect for the three-year-olds I was reading to. The bright, computer-generated illustrations really capture their attention. This one has great rhymes and I love that the last little fish doesn't end up all alone - soon another comes along and they start a fishy family.

Sailboats in the Water - This is an activity we made up! My lovely colleague T created 25 small felt sailboats in different colors. I gave one boat to each child and then sung this song (to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?"):

If you have a red sailboat, a red sailboat, a red sailboat
If you have a red sailboat, put it in the water!

As I said the different colors, the kids who had that color sailboat would come up and put their boat on the felt board (luckily, our felt board is blue so I told them to pretend it was water!). And see how simple these felt pieces are? I'll let you in on a librarian secret - felt pieces do not have to be elaborate or even beautiful to work for your storytime. Passing out felt pieces and allowing kids to come up to the board gives them something to do and engages them in your storytime.

After each color, we counted how many of that color we had. After every child had put their boat in the water, we counted them all together (another librarian secret - this is an easy way to keep track of how many kids are in your storytime!).

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle - This is a great book for floating. Based on a true story, ten rubber ducks are tossed out of a boat during a storm and as they float on and on each one meets a different creature. The text is a little wordy for sharing with young preschoolers, so I paraphrased and that worked quite well.This is a great book for vocabulary - the ducks meet a dolphin, flamingo, seagull, and many other marine animals.

Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham - When Mr. Gumpy takes his boat out, everyone seems to want a ride! But when they misbehave, the boat tips over, spilling everyone overboard. I like to tell this one with puppets, using a basket for the boat and then dumping out puppets all over the floor when the boat tips.

I admit that this storytime is heavy on the "float" and light on the "sink". Combine some of these books with a sink or float demonstration if you're not afraid to get a little wet.

How could... what's wrong with me?!

This morning's Around the Interwebs post covered news of awards, book covers, new imprints, and predictive searching, but HOW COULD I FORGET THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF ALL?!?!?!

John and Sarah Green made a person!!!!

Henry Green was born on Wednesday, January 20 and weighed (by all Twitter reports) 8 pounds and 9 ounces.

Congratulations, John! Congratulations, Yeti! And congratulations to Hank, who became an uncle:

Around the interwebs: Shiny awards edition

Oh, the shiny, shiny awards, they have been awarded. In addition to the ALA Youth Media Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, etc.), here are some others you'll be interested in. The American Indian Youth Literature Awards were announced as well as the Sydney Taylor Book Awards. And YALSA's just bursting at the seams with 2010 best-of lists including Amazing Audiobooks, Best Books for Young Adults*, and Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Betsy reminds us about the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction (link opens a PDF) and the Edgar nominees for juvenile fiction (there are also Edgar nominees for YA fiction).

Just days before The Day Glo Brothers was awarded a Sibert Honor, author Christ Barton's son had this to say. And in case you missed Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney on the Today Show (what, did you blink or something?)... Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

*And yes, BBYA is officially undergoing some changes. Marc Aronson has thoughts. Liz Burns is confused. And I, having just joined YALSA for the first time, have no opinion at this time, but you can be certain I'll be interested to see what happens.

In non-award-related news, Bloomsbury has stopped selling copies of Magic Under Glass and will be making copies available with a different cover shortly. They apologize for their mistake. Good work, kids, but I still echo Justine Larbalestier in saying that the way we're really going to fix this recurring problem (Mysterious Benedict Society, anyone?) is by putting our money where our mouths are. If you want to see more books about people of color published, if you want to see more book covers that feature people of color, start buying them and/or start reviewing them.

Sourcebooks has started a new teen imprint, Teen Fire. Interested high school students might also consider applying for Teen Fire's Teen Review Board.

Check out this post from the Swiss Army Librarian on Google's predictive searching. When I start a search for "Abby is...", I get "Abby is cool" and "Abby is queen" among other things. On the other hand, when I start a search for "Abby's..", I get "Abby's flying fairy school" and "Abby's farting hippo". Hmmm. How about you?

As you wait for the mid-February announcement of the 2009 Cybils winners, be thinking of any questions you have about the Cybils. Anne's updating the FAQs and needs you to send in your questions.

And last, but certainly not least, mark your calendars because The Brown Bookshelf's 28 Days Later feature is gearing up and will kick off February 1! Check out that stellar lineup and don't forget to tune in February 1 for the first of 28 great author and illustrator features. Thanks to @JensBookPage for the reminder.


Image: Success Way

The Best YA Books You Haven't Read

There are so many great YA books published each year that they can't all possibly get the buzz they deserve. Which is why Kelly of YAnnabe devised this one-day blog blitz to highlight our favorite YA titles that need a little more buzz. Check out her round-up of the Best YA You Haven't Read for bloggers' picks and lists of books that deserve a second look.

Let me paint you a picture:

The Hunger Games is entered in 3,943 Library Thing libraries and has over 29,000 ratings on Good Reads.

Twilight is entered in over 26,000 LT libraries and has over 265,000 ratings on Good Reads.

In comparison, each of the books I'm highlighting today appear in fewer than 500 LT libraries and have fewer than 1,000 ratings on Good Reads. I think they deserve a little extra buzz. If you're looking for a good book to read, do check out My Favorite YA Books You Haven't Read: 

Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones. Looking for a YA heroine who's not your typical YA heroine? If you're in the mood for something a little different, give Girl, Hero a try.

As You Wish by Jackson Pearce. This fun paranormal romance didn't get nearly the attention I think it deserved. I loved it! If you're in the mood for a feel-good romance with snappy writing, pick up As You Wish.

Good Enough by Paula Yoo. This was one of my favorite books of 2008. Fun and humorous with a lot of heart. If you're looking for a pick-me-up, grab Good Enough.


Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher. This was on our Cybils shortlist the year I was on the YA panel, but I still think it deserves more buzz. If you're looking for historical fiction that you can really sink your teeth into, try Ten Cents a Dance.

Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick. Jordan Sonnenblick always makes me laugh and his stories have a lot of heart. If you're looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud and cry buckets, pick up Notes from the Midnight Driver.

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier. Hidier's writing brings Dimple's Indian-American experience to live and it'll pull you right in to the story. If you're looking for a vibrant book, check out Born Confused.


Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger. This is a story about star-crossed love and finding yourself and your talents. If you're looking for a love story that's not a love story and if you love zines or if you've never heard of zines, try Hard Love.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff. I loved this book when I was a teen and the trilogy has recently been completed with True Believer and (finally!) This Full House. If you like novels in verse and are looking for a truly inspiring heroine, pick up Make Lemonade (and then the sequels!).

Donorboy by Brendan Halpin. An Alex-award-winning book about a girl going to live with her sperm donor father after her two moms are killed in an accident. If you're looking for something compelling and a little different, Donorboy, told through emails, transcripts, notes, etc. may be right up your alley.

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt. If you're looking to start a great fantasy series rife with political intrigue and a well-developed fantasy kingdom, pick up Jackaroo and start Cynthia Voigt's Kingdom novels.

And what are your favorite YA books that haven't gotten the buzz they deserve? Head over to Kelly's blog to join in the discussion or leave your picks in the comments!