#LibFaves20, Reading Challenges, and Other Goings On

 It's a wonderful time of year - the time to celebrate all the amazing books that have come out over the past year and look forward to what next year's reading will bring. 

One thing that's been bringing me joy this past week is the annual LibFaves voting on Twitter. Follow the hashtag #LibFaves20 to see library workers' top 10 books of 2020. Since December 7, library workers have been shouting about one book a day with volunteer tabulators keeping tallies of the titles that have been mentioned. While it's centered on adult books, some folks are including YA and children's books, too. 

I'm eagerly following the hashtag because I have two Audible credits I need to use in the next month and I'm in need of great audiobooks to motivate my morning runs in the cold, so I'm keeping my eyes on what everyone is loving best this year. The fully tabulated list will be posted on EarlyWord when it's ready, so keep a look out for that! 

Another wonderful thing about this time of year is that the 2021 book challenges are starting to come out. I haven't participated in a book challenge in awhile and I doubt that 2021 will be the year for me. But I still love to see the prompts and challenges that others are undertaking. Do your patrons know about and participate in reading challenges? This might be a fun thing to share with them, especially this year when everyone's looking for socially distanced things to do. Challenges I love to spy on are: 

• Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge (I completed the Read Harder Challenge one year and one year only and I'm still proud of it)
• POPSUGAR's 2021 Reading Challenge (and I love their focus on tackling your To-Be-Read list!)

I have a January blog post for our staff blog devoted to highlighting some reading challenges because I think some of our patrons might enjoy them. Reading challenges might not be on their radars, so I like to spread the word. 

And it's not reeeeally a challenge (although it does have challenge elements this year!), but Everyday Reading's printable 2021 Reading Log was just released this week. If I could picture a place in my house where I could spread this out and color it (and if I could picture myself actually devoting time to keeping up with it), I would be ordering a large print of this gorgeous reading log. If you're in need of some stress relief coloring, I highly recommend checking it out! I'm almost convincing myself to give it a shot here. Maybe. 

Also not really a "challenge", but another exciting reading thing happening right now is all  the Mock Newbery discussions. I won't say I'm HAPPY about this because I hate the reasons behind it, but my favorite Mock Newbery run by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne is going virtual this year on Zoom. It's 4 hours away from me, so I wasn't going to make it in person this year, but once they pivoted to virtual, I signed myself up. I'm approaching it with excitement and anxiety - what will a Zoom book discussion look like?! I guess we'll find out! And will I be able to finish (and reread?) all the books before our meeting? I'm going to give it my very best shot. 

School Library Journal's Heavy Medal Blog is also going with full force this year. Now's the time to be reading those 2020 books to be prepared to make ALL THE COMMENTS during the Youth Media Awards webcast on Monday, January 25. 

Are you following any Mock Awards this year? Are there any 

Abby All Around the Interwebs

I know I haven't been here on this blog super frequently lately, but I have been working on some stuff around the internet, which I'd love for you to check out!

I'm in American Libraries, reminding librarians to think critically about providing holiday programming in your libraries. This is a conversation that has happened before and needs to keep happening! Never stop evaluating what you're offering and how it's really affecting your community.

 

In September, I had the honor of being a panelist for the SLJ/Permabound Webcast Better Together: Boosting Engagement by Pairing Fiction Series and Nonfiction. Click that link to view the webinar for free (you may have to still register for it).

 

If you subscribe to the free School Library Journal e-newsletter Be*Tween, you may have seen my Chapter Book Chat columns popping up on there over the past several months. It's been really fun to write and seek out amazing younger middle grade titles to share. If you're not subscribed, you're missing out, especially if you work with middle-graders. Here are the columns I've written for them:

• Frightfully Good Reads (scary books!)
• Gold Medal Reads (sports books!)
• I Fancy Fairy Tales
• Animal Antics (my inaugural column)

In the spring, I wrote up a Field Notes column for Library Journal on running STEM programs for preschoolers: Preschool STEM Lab.

Catch me if you can! I've been all around the interwebs lately and I hope you find these pieces valuable!

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been surfing this week:

The 2013 Comment Challenge has started! To bolster our sense of a book blogging community and strengthen our relationships as follow book-lovers, Pam of Mother Reader and Lee of I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? are challenging us to comment on five book blogs a day for the next 21 days. It's great fun, so please click through for more info! (Commenting on this post can get you off to a good start!)

Um, so last week CareerCast listed "librarian" as one of the ten least-stressful jobs of 2013. Rita of Screwy Decimal has one rebuttal and Ingrid of The Magpie Librarian has another. I really thought that was enough said, but then Annoyed Librarian did the thing that Annoyed Librarian does and Ingrid wrote a kick-butt post in response (as did Rita). And all this back and forth is kinda stressing me out, so on to the next...

If you're on the hunt for a library job, do check out the article Common Misconceptions About Library Job Search on Library Hat. There's some great advice there. Thanks to @wawoodworth for the link.

Do you have resources to help new and expectant parents in your community? Anne of so tomorrow has posted a great compilation of pregnancy and parenting resources for librarians. This would be some great stuff to add to your website or create a flier to give out.

At Nerdy Book Club, Alyson Beecher posted about ten awesome picture book biographies. I love, love, love picture book biographies, so this is a list not to be missed! (I might have to come up with a list of my own favorite picture book biographies soon.)

Andrea of rovingfiddlehead kidlit posted this super cute food chain prop that would be great for a preschool or early elementary science program. One of these days we're going to add Preschool Science to our mix of programs, so that's definitely a link I'm keeping on file. Great idea!

Speaking of science, Sarah at The Reading Zone has Jen Bryant talking about the STEM research behind her own writing. Definitely worth a read.

Have a great weekend!

Around the Interwebs

Let's try this again, shall we? It's been AWHILE since I got it together to post links to the awesome stuff I'm reading around the blogosphere, but I'm ready to give it another shot. (And since it's been so long, this is likely to be quite a long post. Please bear with me.) Look for these posts to come more regularly this year!

IF YOU ONLY READ ONE POST OR ARTICLE ABOUT THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS, MAKE IT THIS ONE! Sarah (of The Reading Zone)'s post is in response to alarmist articles that decry the Common Core Standards for "taking literature out of schools". She says:

There wasn’t a lot I could do, on a daily basis, about NCLB, Race to the Top, or other initiatives driven by lawmakers. But the Common Core? That I can drive with my own actions. We are the ones on the ground, in the trenches, and we will lead with our actions. We need to empower good teachers. Standards tell me where my kids should end up. I get to decide how we get there.

On The Brown Bookshelf you can find nominees for the NAACP Image Awards. If you're looking to read some diverse titles or find great titles, authors, and illustrators to share with your patrons you should know that the Image Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in TV, music, literature, and film.

Justin the Librarian shared information about several libraries offering post-holiday technology help for people who may have gotten new devices for the holidays. From in-house library programs to instructional YouTube videos, these libraries are planning ahead to help their patrons.

Speaking of technology, there was a little kerfuffle awhile ago about librarians' roles in curating technology and ebooks for young children. Marge of Tiny Tips for Library Fun has a nice roundup and response.

Looking for some new readalouds to include in your baby storytimes? Melissa of Mel's Desk shares some of the new titles she's excited to share with little ones this year. 

While you're looking for storytime materials, don't forget the poetry! Anne of so tomorrow shares poetry that's great for reading at storytime and she urges us to "think outside the picture book"!

Amy, The Show Me Librarian, is posting about how she includes STEAM elements in her library's traditional gingerbread house program. It's definitely got me thinking about how I can include STEAM elements in other programs we already offer...

One of my favorite new-to-me blogs this year is RA for All, an adult readers' advisory blog written by Becky of the Berwyn Public Library in Illinois. Although I don't do a lot of adult readers' advisory in my job, I have certainly found many suggestions for my own reading (and for family and friends) by checking out her blog. It's definitely helping me to meet my goal of reading more adult books this year!

Around the interwebs

Now that I am finally back on top of my Google Reader, I've got some lovely posts I want to point you to...

Have you signed up for the Seventh Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge?! Pam at MotherReader is bringing this wonderful event back for its seventh year. The weekend will be June 8-10 and if you've never participated before, be assured that it is great fun. I will definitely be joining in, although I may not be able to devote the entire weekend. That's okay! 

One of these days when I'm not super overwhelmed with all the things we're already offering at the library, I totally want to start having Preschool Dance Parties just like Adrienne (and many others who have done them!). 

Looking for programming ideas for middle schoolers? Look no farther. Drea at Book Blather has ya covered. 

Marge at Tiny Tips for Library Fun (are you reading her awesome blog? If not, you should be!) considers whether traditional Summer Reading Club school visits are actually worth it. There's definitely some food for thought there. 

What have YOU been reading around the interwebs? 

Around the Interwebs

Who's going to Dallas for the ALA Midwinter Meeting?! I'll be there and you can bet your boots (heh) I won't be missing the Great ALA Midwinter YA Blogger Meetup. Sunday, January 22 @ 6pm at The Iron Cactus (1520 Main Street). Hope to see you there! Thanks to Kelly of Stacked for organizing!

Marge of Tiny Tips for Library Fun turned me on to a fabulous storytime blog: Story Time Secrets. New and seasoned librarians alike won't want to miss Katie's Lessons Learned in a Year of Story Time.

And of course, don't miss Marge's own post about some of her favorite storytime stretchers. And Mel of Mel's Desk has posted a compilation of advice for new storytime providers.

Pam (MotherReader) and Lee are bringing back the Comment Challenge for 2012! Yay! Signups started Thursday, so get yourself over there (and start commenting!).

The end of the year is always filled with Best Of lists, but be sure not to miss Betsy's 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2011 at A Fuse #8 Production.

And speaking of book lists, ALSC has updated their list of Great Early Elementary Reads, a great resource for those looking for books for kids who are starting to read chapter books on their own.

I love Donalyn's post Mooning Over Book Lists at the Nerdy Book Club. It is so true. So very true. :)

And if you haven't checked out Nerdy Book Club, you are missing some great posts about reading and books. Make sure you catch the 2011 Nerdies Book Awards, as well.

Around the Interwebs

It's been a crazy week with the ILF Annual Conference on Tuesday & Wednesday, but it's about time I do another roundup of awesome stuff from around the web:

What happens when a school library goes digital and gets rid of most of their books? For Cushing Academy in Massachusetts, it was a positive change. Thanks to Eli for the link.

Summer's posting about Muslim teens in YA Lit over at The Hub and more are suggested in the comments. Got any more to add to her list?

Circulating iPads to young children... Yep, the Darien Library is doing it and Kiera has all the info over at the ALSC Blog.

Over at the YALSA Blog, Gretchen's got the scoop on doing NaNoWriMo programming for teens and adults at your library.

The Labnsdowne Public Library's going over the moon with Oreos - a great moon program to remember for next summer!

And if you're starting to think about next summer, don't miss the California Library Association's program ideas for Summer 2012, which were recently presented at the CLA Conference. Thanks to Eva for the link.

Flannel Friday's got a Winter/Holiday Extravaganza planned for December 2, so start thinking about your favorite winter/holiday flannels to share!

And speaking of flannelboards, haven't you always wanted to be a Puffy Paint Master?

Hunger Games Jeopardy? YES, PLEASE. Alicia's got great posts about her Hunger Games programs over at The LibrariYAn. File this away for when the movie comes out!

SPEAKING OF HUNGER GAMES (if you're viewing this in a blog reader, you may need to click through):



What do you think about the Hunger Games trailer? Me, I know some things are going to be different than I pictured but I'm trying really hard to let all that go and just enjoy.

Around the Interwebs

The happy-haps:

So, the National Book Award finalists were announced. Except, apparently they goofed up and announced Lauren Myracle's Shine as one of the finalists when it... wasn't. Twitter was not pleased. And Vanity Fair has an interview with Lauren about the whole fiasco. Also, read Lauren Myracle's article in the Huffington Post.

Dude, Jennie had the kids at her library make 1,000 cranes for Japan. AWESOME passive program idea!!

Someone I know just recently celebrated her library's birthday with an intense week of events. This idea is easier, but no less fantastic. Thanks to Travis for sharing this great project with the blogosphere!

Do you love creating book lists? Or hate it? Either way, you're going to want to check out the ALSC's Quicklists Consulting Committee. Betsy has the scoop!

This post at Not Just Cute is written about classrooms, but the points are applicable in libraries, as well. Do holidays have a place in the classroom (or library)?

If you, like me, have a soft spot for YA books about the performing arts, check out Stages on Pages, "young adult & middle grade authors touring America in support of the performing arts". Link via Kelly on The Hub.

Around the Interwebs

Short and sweet because that's the way I'm rolling this week...

Adrienne's throwing Preschool Dance Parties!

Rick Riordan's going to do a series about Norse gods! (via Betsy)

Flannel Friday is on Facebook!

Please go fill out the ALSC Blog survey and let us know what YOU would like to read about!

Also, please go nominate books for the Cybils! I won't stop bugging you about this. A great book CAN'T WIN if it's NOT NOMINATED. Nominations are open until October 15, so get thee to it! (Make sure you read the eligibility requirements...)

Around the Interwebs

It's Cybils time! They've been announcing panels all week over at the Cybils Blog and nominations open TOMORROW (Saturday, October 1). The Cybils are the Children's & YA Bloggers' Literary Awards, awards that strive to combine literary merit with kid appeal in a variety of categories.

The ALSC Blog has been on fire lately with awesome guest posts! If you're a library student or a potential library student, check out Library School for Kid-People for some great advice on deciding whether youth services is your forte.

If you have boundless energy and a dedication to your young library patrons, you might want to replicate what the Bettendorf (IA) Public Library has done with their Kids' Experience. (I will be honest with you - just the thought of a program like that currently makes me want to go lay down in a corner somewhere... but I applaud them for bringing an awesome experience to their patrons!)

If you're a storytime librarian, you should not be missing the weekly Flannel Friday roundups! Started by Melissa of Mel's Desk, Flannel Friday is a meme in which bloggers share their favorite flannel stories, patterns, rhymes, and more. Check out last week's roundup at Miss Mary Liberry. I rarely get my act together to participate, but I always appreciate all the inspiration!

Anne at so tomorrow has a great post up about her Collection Development procedures (complete with pictures of SPREADSHEETS, PEOPLE. She is not messing around here!). It's always interesting to see how another library does something and I'll be looking forward to more posts in this series! (I am much less organized with my own collection development methods...)

Over at The Hub, Maria Kramer is posting about five manga creators you should know. This is definitely helpful for me as I am a manga novice!

I love Katie's Banned Books Week display, which she posted about at Book Blather. I think putting the status of the challenge is a great conversation starter!

Around the Interwebs

Photo: gusdrinks

If you, like me (sadface), were unable to attend the inimitable KidLitCon in Seattle last weekend, maaaybe you can console yourself with excellent wrap-up posts from around the KidLitosphere.

Hey, it's National Hispanic Heritage Month and Kim Baccellia's posted a great list of books that portray Latinos in a positive way over at Diversity in YA. These would be great to display this month (or ANY month!).

Banned Books Week starts tomorrow!! Which means that, once again, it's time for me to bust out my awesome BBW bracelet.

What do you do when you're stuck in a rut at work? Marge Loch-Waters at Tiny Tips for Library Fun shares some ideas.

Malinda Lo has crunched the numbers on GLBT representation in YA Lit and she's got some interesting stats to share, including the number of titles broken down by publishing houses. Although the numbers of GLBT books published have continued to increase, she's found that less than 1% of YA books published in a year have GLBT characters. (According to a study by The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law, 4% of adult Americans identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. So we have some catching up to do.) Thanks to Megan for the link.

Which awesome illustrators have been overlooked for the Caldecott? Elizabeth Bluemle at PW's Shelftalker has a nice post featuring some very popular illustrators that have never won the medal proper. Thanks for Fuse for the link.

And this has nothing to do with anything, but it's fabulous, so:

Thanks to Sarah and Drea for the link!

Around the Interwebs

(Now that summer's over, I'm trying to get back into my posting routine and regularly posting link roundups on Fridays. Can you tell?)

What did Mrs. ReaderPants do to her school library to increase circulation by nearly 100%? She (with the help of many others) arranged her library by genre! Regrettably, I don't think this would work with my fairly large public library collection, but I think it's a great idea for a school library and I can see why the kids like it! In fact, I'm inspired to create some genre displays... if I can find some wall or end-shelf space around here somewhere... hmmm...

Speaking of displays, Anne at so tomorrow gives us a Year's Worth of Library Display Ideas and Display Ideas for Any Time. Also, don't forget about Kelly's Display This feature at Stacked for lots of great teen display ideas (and book lists!). And Katie at Book Blather often posts about her fabulously creative and artistic teen book displays (most recently a book-to-movie display). If you don't have tons of shelf space (like I don't) for book displays, check out what Mr. Schu's done with posters, book covers, and his library's walls. Here is a man who knows his way around a laminator.

Ahh, reading levels... If you work with elementary school kids, no doubt you've had requests from frustrated parents wishing you would just label the darn books with the reading levels already! If you're fighting the good fight against that, AASL has your back with their Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels. I'd add to this statement that for public libraries, it's impossible to include level stickers for every possible leveling system. Your books would be nothing but stickers! Thanks to Travis at 100 Scope Notes for the link.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a board book? What do you think of that?

And KidLitCon is going on RIGHT NOW!!! If you, like me, are not in fabulous Seattle kickin' it with all the amazing KidLit bloggers, be sure to follow the #kidlitcon hashtag and the @kidlitcon official feed. I AM SURE PEOPLE WILL BE TWEETING THE CON, RIGHT?

That's all for me this week... If you're at KidLitCon, I hope you're having an amazing time! I wish I was there with you! Hopefully I will be next year!

Around the Interwebs

Photo: existentist

Y'all, it's been way too long since I posted some links for you... Let's see what I have here... (Um. Some of these links are kind of old, but they're still awesome posts!)

I completely missed Laurie Halse Anderson's Write 15 Minutes a Day challenge in August this year, but that doesn't mean you can't go back and catch up on her posts. If you're looking for writing advice or inspiration, this is a series of posts you won't want to miss! I will definitely be digging into her posts for writing prompt ideas for my teen literary lounge programs this fall.

If you've ever had trouble convincing colleagues that Twitter is worth the effort (I know I have), just show 'em this awesome If you were on Twitter list by Scott McLeod. Link via the fabulous Buffy Hamilton.

Wanna know how to do an author visit right at your school? Just ask Mr. Schu. Seriously, his kids are so lucky to have him! (Authors and us librarians are lucky to have him, too.)

'Tis the season for schools that have field trip budgets to bring classes of kids to the library for tours. Marge at Tiny Tips for Library Fun has some ideas about how to jazz up library tours!

Speaking of the season, it's hard to believe, but really October is right around the corner and Halloween's coming right up. It's time to make sure your library's well-stocked on scary books and here's a fabulous list of YA/MG horror novels from Mrs. ReaderPants.


Maria Kramer over at The Hub shared "four commandments for making religion in teen books work". Religion is definitely an issue that teens are exploring. Awhile back, Kelly at Stacked posted a stellar list of teen books dealing with religion and spirituality.
Hey, did I mention that I'm Skyping into a panel at KidLitCon? I'm sad that I'm not able to actually attend the conference, but Skyping in is the next best thing, right? If you've attending, please come see our panel - Going Deep: The Hows and Whys of Blogging Critically. My fellow panelists are Kelly from Stacked, Julia from Spine Label, and Janssen from Everyday Reading. If you're not attending, we'll have links up to the handout/material, um, sometime. :)

Around the Interwebs

The blog's gonna be relatively quiet next week whilst I prepare for and attend the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans (are you going? Make sure you stop by the Emerging Leaders Poster Session to check out some seriously awesome projects, including mine!). So here's some reading material for ya...

Check out the first roundup of the Light and Round Project! This is a seriously awesome list of YA books that the opposite of dark and edgy (light and round, get it?). This project was created in response to that terrible WSJ article (you know the one I'm talkin' 'bout). Check it out and help spread the word!

Fourth of July's coming up... what to do for storytime? That is a TOUGH one, but Mel's got some great Fourth of July storytime ideas!

Over at Not Just Cute, Amanda shares some ideas for expanding some of her kids' favorite books. She shares some great ideas for parents reading aloud with kids and possibly for libraries, too/

Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page has a post up at PBS Parents with tips on encouraging your kids to read over the summer. I love to see this since I'm all about encouraging kids to read in the summer.

Don't forget that SYNC starts Thursday, June 23 with their first audiobook giveaways! Download one for your summer road trip or use this as an excuse to finally give audiobooks a try!

Around the Interwebs

Mary GrandPré

Scholastic is auctioning off original works by twelve awesome children's book illustrators to benefit Reading is Fundamental and Reach Out and Read! This is your chance to own original art by Mary GrandPré (illustrator of the Harry Potter series in the US), Norman Bridwell, David Shannon, Jeff Smith (author of the Bone series), and more! Visit Scholastic's Read Every Day site for more info or to bid.

Follow The Hunger Games on Facebook to get the latest updates on casting!

Do you have a teen non-fiction section? Check out what Katie of Book Blather did with hers to update it and increase the teen appeal! Fabulous!

Travis of 100 Scope Notes has a nice little preview of some great books coming out this summer! (Ahh, summer, when the school media folk and teachers have lots of time for reading and for pointing and laughing at us poor public librarians for whom it's crunch time. :) These are some books to make time for!) What books are you looking forward to this summer?

What have you been reading on the web this week?

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been reading around the interwebs (and I haven't done one of these in quite awhile, so I'm catching up on my links folder!)...

Eeee! Save the Date! Pam of MotherReader has set the date for the 6th Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge for June 3rd-5th, the first weekend in June. (How geeky is it to admit that I tend to plan my library programs so that I can keep these dates free? Very, I know.)

Amazon announced that they will launch Kindle Lending Library later this year, a feature that will allow Kindle users to borrow books from libraries that carry them. Jill of NerdGirlBlogging is a teen librarian who purchases ebooks for her system and she gives us the inside scoop on how library ebook purchasing works and what the Kindle announcement might mean.

There's a new Dr. Seuss book hitting shelves this fall: The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. Apparently these are cartoons that ran in magazines in the 1940s and 50s and they'll be republished in a 72-page book due out in September.

Here's my big secret about how to get along with kids: kids just want to be listened to. Seriously, start with that, with actually listening to kids and talking to them about the stuff they like, and you'll find it hard to go wrong. Amanda of Not Just Cute shares her top 10 tips for adults on being good listeners.

Renee Grassi wrote a guest post for the ALSC Blog on inclusive programming for kids with autism. This simple tips will help you provide great programs for children with autism.

Speaking of programming, Sarah of The GreenBean TeenQueen posted about her Teen Read-a-Thon program, something I am dying to try out.

Okay, this has nothing to do with books or libraries, but Alicia of The LibrariYAn shared this video and it is fabulous:



And on that note, I'm out. Have a great weekend!

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been reading around the interwebs lately: 

I was pulling books for our Women's History Month book display last week and trying to find books about women of color.  It was not the easiest catalog search, actually, so I'm really grateful to Doret of The HappyNappy Bookseller for creating this guest post on the KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month Blog: Women of Color Make Their Presence Known.  

Sarah Bean Thompson of The GreenBean TeenQueen posts about her library's teen Skype Book Club.  I mentioned this to one of my teens and she got so very excited - I think we'll try this out next year!  By the way, Sarah's running for the 2013 Printz Committee, so if you're a YALSA member (or if you're not), check out this post about Sarah's Top 5 Printz Books and vote for her in the ALA elections!!

Fellow Emerging Leader Alicia of The LibrariYAn is conducting a survey of school librarians for her group's EL project!  School media folk, please give her a moment of your time to help her out!!

Did ya catch Betsy's Penguin Young Readers' Group Spring Preview?  Those of you who know of my great love for bats will understand why I am jumping up and down about this title: 

If you're like me and you love a good storytime blog, don't miss Jennie Rothschild's new blog Library Noise.  Jennie also blogs book reviews at Biblio File and is running for the 2013 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award committee.  Jennie will do an awesome job, so vote for her!!  (That award name is way too long.  Anyone mind if I start calling it the ENYA?)

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention another good friend of mine running for the 2013 ENYA Award Committee (see what I did there?  It's gonna be a thing!): Angie Manifredi!  Angie blogs at Fat Girl Reading and she developed the Body Positivity & Fat Acceptance pre-conference at the 2010 YA Lit Symposium. 

IF YOU'RE GOING TO ALA THIS SUMMER, COME DANCE WITH US!!!  (Seriously, #ALA11 is going to be awesomesauce.  Are you going to be there?  Let me know in comments!  I want to see you!)

And that's what I've got for you this week.  Have a great weekend!!

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been surfing this week:

A clip of the new Wimpy Kid movie!!  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules will be in theaters Friday, March 25!



March is Women's History Month and the KidLitosphere is celebrating!  Check out Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month for a month-long extravaganza of guest posts about important women and kidlit. Margo of The Fourth Musketeer and Lisa of Shelf-Employed are the brilliant bloggers organizing this project. Cheers to both of them!

Are you a blogger drowning in ARCs and review copies?  Put those copies to good use (and clean out your bookshelves) by joining #ARCsFloatOn, a project run by Sarah of The Reading Zone.  #ARCsFloatOn pairs up bloggers with classroom teachers to find places for ARCs in classroom libraries.  Most classroom libraries are 100% funded out of the teachers' own pockets and while ARCs cannot be cataloged and put on library shelves, they can be used for classroom libraries.  Check out Sarah's post for more info on how you can help.

And speaking of Sarah, she's got the schedule for next week's Share a Story, Shape a Future Blog Tour!  Make sure you tune in to that next week.

Craig of 8bitlibrary.com posts about the future of libraries.  In a world where a computer can beat human Jeopardy contestants, how long 'til we're all replaced by Google?

Amanda of Not Just Cute discusses the balance between encouraging early literacy and developmentally appropriate practice.

And Jen of nerdgirlblogging shares her future wedding dress (she wishes!): a dress made entirely of Little Golden Books.  Voila:

The dress was designed and created by Ryan Novelline of Boston.  Click through to his site for more fantastic pictures. 

Around the Interwebs

Just a quick one because it is Saturday and I'm kinda dying to get back in bed and finish Wither.

Roger Sutton of Read Roger brought The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone to my attention.  It's been sitting on my shelf for awhile, though I haven't gotten to it yet.  What do you think it's about?  No, seriously, think about it before you read on.

I thought it was a modern-day story of friendship, growing up, and first boyfriends.  Um.  Yeah, no.  Would you believe it's historical fiction set in World War II?  Did they even make pink sneakers like that in 1941?  How important is historical accuracy on a book cover?  Roger says (in comments on his post)

"I think historical accuracy does matter in cover art, especially when the inaccuracy amounts to blatant and pandering misrepresentation, which I believe is the case here."

Although Best Books for Babies* is gone, Mel has kindly archived their annual lists of great books for little ones.  As she says, board books go out of print pretty quickly, but these lists give you a great idea of what to look for in good books for babies.  If you do baby storytime, check out these lists!

Your teens could help you win $3,000 for your library by making a video about "Why I Need My Library". Click through for details. 

I thought this post from Amanda of Not Just Cute was so interesting that I printed it out for all my staff members at our last department meeting: Praise Junkies Beware.  Basically, praise for kids is better when you're praising their effort, hard work, and accomplishments rather than innate traits ("You're so smart!").  Just something to keep in mind...

And Amanda's got another post that I starred, with Valentine's Day right around the corner.  Whether you love or hate V-Day, why not turn the holiday into a wonderful tradition of sharing books that you love with the people you love?

Speaking of Valentine's Day, check out this quiz at Teenreads.com to find out your ideal YA novel boyfriend.  My results were tied between Sam of Shiver and Daniel from Fallen, but since I do NOT do angels, I am going to have to go with Sam.  We'll just get some space heaters or something. :) 

What are you doing on May 2?  No plans?  Hold an Unconference at your library!  May 2, 2011 is National Library Unconference Day.  Check out that post on 8-bit Library for more details. 

If you've got a teen book display for Black History Month, check out this post on The Hub for books to add to it. 

And that's it for me.  Enjoy your Saturday!  Are you curling up with a good book this weekend?  What book?

*I did not know about Best Books for Babies and now it appears I have missed the boat.  Thank goodness for Mel!!!

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been surfing this week...

It's Black History Month!!  That means 28 Days Later is back at The Brown Bookshelf!  Check out this month-long celebration of black authors and illustrators.

Know what else is back?  The Battle of the Kids' Books.  Here are this year's contenders.  (Can I be completely honest?  I don't have visceral love for any of these titles, actually...)

Even though I am no longer in Illinois, I still pay attention when the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award nominees are announced (thanks to Becky of Libri Delectio!).  Know why?  Because they always have a fabulous list. (Someday I will get my act together and see if I can talk my way onto the Young Hoosier Book Award Committee...)

Dude, there was this big kerfuffle about Bitch Media's 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader.  Apparently, after some comments by readers, the list editors revisited a few of their choices and removed them from the list.  In acts of solidarity with the authors removed from the list, YA authors including Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, and Diana Peterfreund asked to be removed from the list.

My two cents?  If librarians had made this list, there would be no removals or substitutions because librarians would have thought critically about the books before publishing the list.  Librarians would have solid reasons for each and every book on that list and would fight for every title, even if some of their choices proved unpopular.  THIS IS WHY WE NEED LIBRARIANS.

In happier news, I hear from The Hub that YALSA's starting a Readers' Choice List.  Anybody can nominate titles in a number of genres and YALSA members will vote for winners in November.

Are you doing the One World, Many Stories summer reading theme this year?  Marge of Tiny Tips for Library Fun shares Surefire Storytelling Tips for One World, Many Stories.

For more library programming resources, I must insist that you check out Storytime Katie.  Katie posts awesome storytime plans and she has the cutest felts ever.  Seriously.  Katie, I need you to come down here and make about a million felt stories for me, okay?  :)

Rereading.  Do you do it?  Should you be doing it (especially if you're a reviewer)?  Steph Su's asking these questions over at her blog.  Go weigh in.

Have a great weekend!