Reading Wildly: Series Fiction

This month, for our Reading Wildly staff reader's advisory training, we discussed series fiction books. We decided to tackle this topic because kids are asking for these books all the time and we realized that there were many that none of us had read. We challenged ourselves to choose books in the popular series that are frequently requested at our library.

To jump-start our discussion, we all read the article "Not the Newbery: Books That Make Readers" by Betty Carter (The Horn Book Magazine, July/August 2010). In this article, Carter talks about the importance of books that are popular with kids but might never win literary awards. Reading books that they enjoy is a leisure activity for kids, "one that requires them to move their eyes across print and thus strengthen their basic skills" (p53). And reading what their friends are reading helps create a "community of readers", kids reading and talking about the same books. I know when I was in middle school my group of friends was crazy about Goosebumps and we all wanted to read them to talk to our friends about them. Valuing what kids like to read helps librarians create a connection with kids and it helps kids see that they are valued members of our library and of our community.

And if we don't read some of the books ourselves, how will we talk with kids about them?!

Here are the books we read and booktalked at our meeting:

• The City of Ember (Ember #1) by Jeanne DuPrau
• Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road #1) by Kate Klise & Sarah Klise
• Fairest of All (Whatever After #1) by Sarah Mlynowski
• The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas (Sherlock Holmes & the Baker Street Irregulars #1) by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin
• I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 (I Survived #8) by Lauren Tarshis
• Into the Wild (Warriors #1) by Erin Hunter
• Jackie & Me (Baseball Card Adventures) by Dan Gutman
• The Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute (Lunch Lady #1) by Jarrett Krosoczka
• The Maze of Bones (39 Clues #1) by Rick Riordan
• One False Note (39 Clues #2) by Gordon Korman
• Rise of the Balloon Goons (Notebook of Doom #1) by Troy Cummings
• Troubles for Cecile (American Girl) by Denise Lewis Patrick
• Truth or Dare (You're Invited to a Creepover #1) by P.J. Night
• Wings of Fire (The Dragonet Prophecy #1) by Tui Sutherland

It was great to get a little booktalk and learn a little bit about a bunch of different series at our discussion. A lot of these series are quite popular with our kids; they're definitely creating communities of readers! 

Next month, our topic is sports. Although I know that boys AND girls can and do read about sports, the article I chose to go with our discussion is a chapter from Serving Boys Through Readers' Advisory by Michael Sullivan. We are reading the chapter called "Booktalking for Boys". 

What are some of your favorite sports books for kids? 

Guest Post: Sarah Bean Thompson for 2016 Caldecott

Today, it's my pleasure to host a post from a dear friend of mine. Sarah Bean Thompson is an awesome youth services librarian and on the ballot for the 2016 Caldecott. Voting opened last week for the ALA Elections, so make sure your voice is heard!

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When I think about award lists, I always think about which books on the list are my favorite. And having to pick favorites is so tough - each book is special in its own way, you hate to only list a few. But as much as I love so many of the winning books, there are always some that stand out and have a special place in my heart. So to make it easier, I decided to pick three of my favorite Caldecott titles from my childhood:

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood

Oh I don’t know how many times I read this as a child. This might have been one of my most frequently checked out library books. First, I loved the plot of a silly king would not get out of the bathtub (what child can’t relate to never wanting to get out of a bubble bath?) Then there was the silly cast of characters that try as they might, can’t get the king to leave the tub. But what I loved most were the illustrations. I would read this book and just pour over every page and soak in every detail. I was always amazed at all the little hidden gems I would find. The food the king was eating for lunch, the animals that appeared during his attempt at fishing, the elaborate masquerade costumes. I love the spread of everyone dancing and slipping in the tub, water splashed out over the side. Each time I look at that page, I can feel the water pouring out through the pages-it’s so detailed and realistic! And the hilarious ending-it’s just the icing on the cake. This is one I love to read over and over and each time I do I discover something new to love.

Tuesday by David Wiesner

Frogs that come out flying on a special Tuesday? This is a weird funny book that I loved as a child. I’m not sure what it was exactly that I was drawn to, but the idea of frogs flying secretly on lilypads through the night sky was just the sort of oddball humor that appealed to me. And again, the detailed illustrations drew me in. I guess I just have a thing for elaborate, detailed illustrations! I also loved that this one is wordless, leaving the reader to make up the story.

The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

The way this book is laid out is so creative and fits with the story and the humor so perfectly. The way the text falls down, the characters jump from page to page, and the uniqueness of each character make this a great package. The text and illustrations work so well together and the illustrations add to the humor of the story. The story and text wouldn’t be complete without the other. And the humor in this one is one that I laughed over again and again as a child.

What are some of your favorite Caldecott titles from childhood?

Sarah Bean Thompson is a Youth Services Manager and blogs at www.greenbeanteenqueen.com She has served on the 2013 Printz Committee, 2014 Cybils, and is on the ballot for the 2016 Caldecott Committee.

Preschool Storytime: Spring

Yesterday, I had a Head Start class visit the library for storytime. Since I've started doing preschool science programs, I hardly ever get to do a straight up preschool storytime anymore, so this was a real treat and we had lots of fun! I didn't realize until I started writing up this storytime how much STEM material I went over in this storytime without even realizing it! Here's what we did:

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello. When doing a new song with a new group, I'm careful to sing slowly and clearly to give the kids a chance to learn the words. They love to sing along and will try, so make it easier on them to hear what you are saying and learn the words. Singing is one of our five early literacy practices - it helps kids hear that words are made up of smaller sounds.

Book with Scarves: Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry (Candlewick, 2004). I was inspired by this post on Thrive Thursday: Using Scarves with Stories and decided to break out our colorful scarves for this one. I passed out the scarves to the kids (remember: you get what you get and you don't throw a fit) and then as I read the book, I asked the kids to wave their scarves when we got to their color. At the end, we all waved scarves together to make our own rainbow and then we scrunched them up and threw them into the air!

To put our props away, I called them up by color and let them put their scarf in the bag. This makes putting the scarves away part of our game!

This activity reinforced color knowledge and helped them practice listening and following instructions, both school readiness skills. The book Duckie's Rainbow is a short book, but contains lots of great vocabulary words like "poppy", "waddled", "hurried", "indigo" and more! Books are a great way to expose kids to words they may not hear in normal conversation, and it's easier for kids to learn to read words that they know!

Felt: Five Umbrellas
(Borrowed from Anne LaBoon's kindergarten class!)

Five umbrellas stood by the door,
The pink one went outside, then there were four.
Four umbrellas, pretty as could be,
The blue one went outside, then there were three.
Three umbrellas with nothing to do,
The green one went outside, then there were two.
Two umbrellas not having much fun,
The yellow one went outside, then there was one.
Just one umbrella alone in the hall,
The purple one went outside, and that was all.

We talked about the rain in the last book and the rain outside yesterday. I asked the kids what we need to take with us when it rains and they chorused, "UMBRELLAS!" and then we did this rhyme! Hearing rhyming words helps kids hear that words are made up of smaller sounds. In this rhyme, we also practiced counting down from five.

Book: Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001). I wanted to include a book that would show plants growing and this was a great choice. At the beginning, a boy plants ten seeds, but as they start to grow, things happen to our seeds. An ant carries one away, a mouse eats another, a slug destroys a seedling, a ball crushes a plant... until we're left with one flower! I like this book because you can see the seeds start to grow roots and then the plants growing on each page.

This is a great book for including some science information. Talking about science concepts helps increase vocabulary and expand kids' knowledge of the world around them. We talked about how the seeds were growing. We also talked about animals eating seeds - animals need food, too! And it's also a counting down book. I think this is a book that can be used on different levels depending on how old your audience is. For younger kids, I might just emphasize the counting down aspect, while for these older Pre-K kids, we had a conversation about how the seeds grow. (Yay STEM!)

Song: "Ten Little Flowers" (Tune: Ten Little Indians)
Borrowed from Storytime Katie!

One little, two little, three little flowers
Four little, five little, six little flowers
Seven little, eight little, nine little flowers
Ten flowers in the spring
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
So they'll grow up tall!

It was time to stand up and give the kids the chance to move a little bit and get some wiggles out, so we all stood up and did this song together. I went over the actions first (counting on fingers, fingers coming down for rain, arms above head for sunshine) and then we sang the song. We sang it twice since the kids were learning it the first time. Singing it again reinforces learning and gives the kids a chance to sing along with me.

This song not only gave the kids a chance to move around a bit, it also reinforces science knowledge - plants need water and sun to grow. Using their hands to make the movements helps develop fine motor skills.

 

Rhyme with prop: Three Kites

This is a prop that Miss T made. It uses magnets to hold and move the kites around. I believe she got the idea from a presentation by Susan Dailey.

Three kites up in the air,
Three kites in the air
One kite flew too close to a tree
And it got stuck there!

Repeat as you count down, ending with:

Three kites in a tree
Three kites in a tree
The wind blew hard and harder still
And the kites fell down to me! (Pull off the magnets at the end and let the kites fall!)

Again, we have rhyming words here and counting. After I said our rhyme, I turned the prop over to show the kids how it worked and we talked about how the magnets made the kites move. Just a little more sneaky STEM in this storytime. ;)

Book: Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2001). This book takes us through the life cycle of a butterfly, from tiny eggs sticking to plants through caterpillars and chrysalises to new butterflies... who also lay eggs. The rhyming text contains lots of great vocabulary words. This was also another opportunity to have a STEM conversation. The kids already knew a lot about butterflies and they were happy to share with me. Here's another chance to reinforce science knowledge and help kids learn about the world around them.

Felt Activity: Spring Things

This is an activity that we almost always include in our Toddler Time programs, and it works for the older kids, too. We have many different felt shapes that I pass out to the kids and then ask them to bring up and put on the board when their shape is called. This is another activity that helps kids practice listening and following instructions. When all the pieces are up on the board, I ask them to sit on their bottoms and help me count as I take the pieces off. (This not only reinforces counting skills, but it's a sneaky way for me to get my attendance numbers - bwa ha ha ha!)

Closing Song: Do You Know What Time It Is?

This is our typical closing song, to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" and one of the kids asked me afterward if I know the song "Do you Know the Muffin Man?".

We use a closing song to indicate to the kids when our storytime is over. They're familiar with the song if they've been to the library before and they know this is the end of our storytime routine. For a group visit, when we've sung our last song I tell them that now it's time to be good listeners and listen to their teachers who will tell them what to do next. This is not only closure for the kids, but it's closure for the teachers. They know that I am done with what I was doing and it's okay for them to take over and instruct the kids again.

This was a great group and we had a blast!

Guest Post: Kelly Jensen for 2016 Printz

Today, I'm handing over the mic to a dear friend of mine, Kelly Jensen. Kelly is one of the fantastic teen librarians behind the blog Stacked, and she also blogs about YA lit at Book Riot. If you've ever stopped by her blog or read her posts, you know that she is a thoughtful and critical reviewer and she is super knowledgeable about YA books. She is running for the 2016 Printz Committee, and I'm happy to say that she's got my vote! (Don't forget to cast your votes in the ALA Election!)

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Hello to the lovely readers of Abby’s blog! My name is Kelly Jensen, and I’m a blogger at Stacked, as well as Book Riot, and I’m running on the ballot for the 2016 Printz Committee. Abby was generous enough to let me talk a little bit about some of my favorite Printz titles in her space today.

But rather than talk about my favorite winners, I thought it’d be fun to talk about some of my favorite honor titles. So here are three awesome Printz honor titles that if you haven’t checked out, you should.

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

I know a lot of people look down at Rennison’s book as one that didn’t necessarily merit a Printz nod, but I beg to differ. While it’s not what we might consider high literary on the same level as a lot of other titles which have earned the nod over the years, the criteria for the Printz is simple: it’s the best book defined only in terms of literary merit.

You know what makes this book earn an honor? The humor.

Very few novels are able to sustain this level of funny throughout. It’s a much more commercial novel than many Printz titles, meaning only that it’s got a wider potential readership and that it’s got an easier/more sellable hook. That doesn’t mean that it lacks the same literary capacity as other titles do; it simply means that the angling is different.

Georgia Nicholson is that 14 year old, boy-crazy girl you know, and her voice is not only memorable, but it’s consistent throughout this book, as well as the rest of the series (which is not relevant to this book’s earning an honor, but it’s a point worth bringing up). This book skews toward the younger end of the YA readership, but it’s one that is timeless; it earned the honor in 2001 and it still holds up in 2014.

The literary merit here is less in how the words make music or how they create vivid, powerful images for the reader. The merit is through voice, through its consistency, and through the ability to maintain “funny” -- something surprisingly few books can do.

John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth by Elizabeth Partridge

While serving on the Outstanding Books for the College Bound committee in 2013, Partridge’s book was one that I had to read, since it had been on the prior incarnation of the list. I’m not a Beatles fanatic, so I didn’t think it would be a title that resonated as much with me as it did.

It’s interesting that there were more non-fiction titles that earned Printz honors before the development of YALSA’s Non-fiction award, the ENYA, but I think were this title published today, it would still be a top contender for the Printz. Partridge’s book is a photobiography of John Lennon which gives readers an in-depth look not only at his life, but at who he was beyond what it was that he did. The photos work with the text, rather than compete with it, and the insight into Lennon as someone with an ugly side made me appreciate the honest -- yet still respectful -- writing.

Where it could have been easy for this to turn into a biography that upheld Lennon’s status as a hero or a legend because of what he did and who he was as a Beatle, Partridge chooses not to pursue that; she goes deeper.

While appeal is not a factor for the Printz committee, this is a biography that has wide teen appeal, not just because of the topic at hand, but also because of the format. It’s a book that’s put together very well and the construction and consideration given into the presentation is clear.

Nothing by Janne Teller

This is a weird little book.

This is a weird, dark, twisted, confusing, and yet completely compelling little book.

Teller’s novel is an outstanding translation of a work originally written in Danish and it tells the story of Pierre Anthon, whose nihilism causes great concern, tension, and trauma on the part of his classmates. This is a book that’s about not just one student’s beliefs, but it’s about how that one set of beliefs can impact a larger group and how that group chooses to react and respond.

When I first read this book, back in 2010, I didn’t get it. But the longer I’m away from it, the more I’ve come to realize that not only do I “get” it, but it’s a book with tremendous staying power because it is so utterly hopeless. This is a story with no happy ending and it’s in that risky choice of storytelling that Nothing stands out.

Between the excellent writing -- again, a translation -- and the ability to tell a story that captures bleakness, herd mentality, and so much more in a relatively small amount of pages, it’s not a surprise why this earned a Printz honor.

(Not related to the book itself or its literary merit, but that cover is outstanding, isn’t it? It’s not only memorable, but I think I’d call it pretty iconic.)

Kelly Jensen has worked as a teen and youth librarian in Illinois and Wisconsin since 2009, which is when she began blogging about books and reading at stackedbooks.org. She also writes at Book Riot (www.bookriot.com), and she's had her writing featured in VOYA Magazine, The Horn Book Magazine, School Library Journal, BlogHer, as well as The Huffington Post. She has a degree in English, writing, and psychology from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and she earned her masters in information studies at the University of Texas in Austin. Her first book, The Real Deal: A VOYA Guide to Contemporary Fiction for Young Adult Readers will be published this summer by Voya Press.

Thanks so much to Kelly for stopping by and sharing some of her favorite Printz honor books with us. Don't forget to cast you votes in the ALA Elections!!

Tween Readers' Advisory and Programming at #PLA2014

Renata Sancken and I before presenting at PLA 2014!

Yesterday, at the PLA Conference in Indianapolis, my teen librarian Renata Sancken and I presented a session on tween readers' advisory and programming. It was a lot to cram into one session, but we had a great crowd with lots of great questions and it was all amazing and fun!

If you were there or if you were not there, you can access our handouts on the PLA Conference website: http://2014.placonference.org/programs/ Our session is titled Betwixt and Be-Tween and was presented on Thursday, March 13 at 4:15 (that should help you find it).

I live in massive fear that people will not actually go and download the handouts, which you SHOULD because our behind-the-scenes (i.e. home with tiny babies!) presenters, Kate Conklin and Sarah Bean Thompson (of GreenBeanTeenQueen), put together a MASSIVE readalikes handout with readalikes for tons of the series and books that are super popular with tweens right now. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Warriors, 39 Clues, I Survived... it's all there.

Thanks to everyone who came out! And please feel free to contact us (contact info..... on the handouts!!) any time. We'd love to hear from you!

The Storytime Training You Did or Did Not Receive

Photo by John Boyd, accessed through BiblioArchives

A couple of weeks ago, on the Flannel Friday Facebook page, a librarian asked the following question:

Question for those of you who are children's librarians: Did your library school offer a course that in some way addressed story time? Mine did not, but I am wondering if that is common, or if I am in the minority.

She got a bunch of responses, which ran the gamut from folks who were able to take programming classes and practicums to those who were not offered any classes that addressed storytime. General consensus seems to be that even for those of us who were able to take programming classes in grad school, on-the-job learning has really helped us develop most of our storytime skills. 

So, if you're in library school or if you're a new librarian or if you're transitioning to children's services from somewhere else, what's a person to do?

• If you're in library school, seek out any opportunities to take classes that will improve your skills. If no children's services classes are offered, or if storytime/programming material is limited, talk to an adviser about other options. Are there workshops being offered on another campus? Is there an online class you can take? Is there an online class through another university that would transfer to your program? CAN YOU DO AN INTERNSHIP OR PRACTICUM???
• Seek any opportunities to observe and participate in storytime. Befriend your local librarians! I would be very surprised to find any children's librarian who is unwilling to let a library student or new librarian observe a storytime. Approach librarians in neighboring libraries and ask to observe their storytimes. Everyone has a different style and we can ALL benefit from seeing how someone else does things. Read Marge's post about Roadtrip Continuing Education!
• Related: seek out opportunities to present storytimes to kids. Our Head Start preschool classes are always looking for volunteers to read with the children. You may also try other local preschools, your local school system, or afterschool programs. 
• Seek out opportunities to attend conferences and unconferences. Organize a Guerrilla Storytime! (You do not have to have all the answers to organize a Guerrilla Storytime... in fact, it's a GREAT way to network and get tons of great ideas!)
• Related: seek out opportunities to participate in workshops, webinars, online classes, etc. If you're not sure where those are happening in your area, ask a local librarian or contact your state library's youth services consultant! 
• Find your Personal Learning Network and don't be afraid to ask for suggestions and brainstorm solutions. Your PLN may include friends from grad school, local colleagues, online friends, your colleagues in great groups like Storytime Underground and Flannel Friday, and more!  

The more experience you can get observing and presenting storytimes, the more confident and marketable you'll be! I couldn't sleep for, like, a week before presenting my first storytime for my internship. And it really took me at least a year of regularly presenting storytime before I began to feel pretty comfortable with it. It gets easier as you build your "internal bookshelves" and get a better sense of what kind of books and activities work well for storytime. And the more experience you have in dealing with any kind of behavior issues, the better prepared you are to deal with them when they pop up during your programs. 

Did your MLS program include classes or workshops on storytime or programming? If not, how did you train yourself? What other resources should library school students or new grads be aware of for storytime training? 

Keeping Organized at the @ALSCBlog

Friends, I'm over at the ALSC Blog today talking about how I keep myself organized for program deadlines and staff meetings. Please click on over there and add your input!

Preschool Lab: Building

We're back from storytime break and I finally got to do another Preschool Lab! This week, we talked about building and construction, exploring the concept in a brief storytime (20 minutes) and then opening up for playtime with lots of different building materials.

Books on display and our take-home craft packets

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello

Book: Tip Tip, Dig Dig by Emma Garcia. This is a great book for audience participation. I had the kids dig, roll, lift, and push along with me as we read the text.

Song: Dump Truck. I found this song on Katie Salo's Storytime Katie blog. The kids loved it!

(Tune: Bumpin' Up and Down in my Little Red Wagon)
Bumpety-bumpety goes the dump truck!
Bumpety-bumpety goes the dump truck!
Bumpety-bumpety goes the dump truck!
Duuump out the load!

We sang it through once and then I asked what we should put in our dump truck. The kids suggested wood, sand, and concrete as we sang the song again several times.

Book: Construction Zone by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Richard Sobol. I wanted to use a book with actual pictures and this is a great one. The text is a little long for my preschool audience, so I paraphrased or just described what was happening in the pictures. As much as I could, I tried to relate the building in the book to our library building, pointing out our two floors, the fixtures in our story room, etc. Both of the books we read today have lots of great vocabulary words!

Rhyme:  Five Little Nails. I got this rhyme and prop idea from Melissa Depper at Mel's Desk, but we actually didn't use it today. I had it in my plan, but the kids were a little squirrelly after that longer book, so I decided to skip the rhyme and go right into our felt activity, which would give them a chance to get up from their seat.

Felt Board Activity: Color Machines. I passed out the machines and had each child bring their machine up to our "Construction Zone" as I called for it. (Our set of color machines includes one in each color that does not have a felt backing and has a label with the machine name on it, which makes it easier! This is a great activity for reinforcing some of the vocabulary words we'd heard in our books. Also, using activities where children approach the storyteller helps them get used to approaching adults outside their family (including, one day, their schoolteacher!).

Stations: Today we were all about building, which was lots of fun and pretty easy to put together (win-win). I had stations where the kids could build with Duplos, build with recycled materials, and play on the felt board with our color machines.

The kids had a BLAST building with all our recycled materials. For about 2 weeks before the program, I collected any clean boxes and egg cartons that our library staff was willing to bring in for me. We had cereal boxes, cake mix, crackers, paper clips, etc. I had volunteers tape up the open ends to give the boxes a little more structural integrity. 

This activity was cheap and pretty easy to put together. I especially wanted to try it to demonstrate to parents that you don't need to buy fancy toys to have fun. Probably everybody has some small cardboard boxes they can save up or solicit from friends who would otherwise be throwing them away. One of the parents commented that she had no idea how much fun small cardboard boxes could be and they will be trying this at home. Mission accomplished. :) 

ETA (3/3/14): The science comes in here as kids experiment with building with different materials. What happened when the piece they had didn't fit where they thought it would? How could they use different shapes? What happened when their buildings became top-heavy? How could they balance different "blocks" to create taller towers? How could they provide more support to create bridges and other structures? I saw kids experimenting and answering these questions for themselves as they played. 

As the kids built, I talked to them about what they were building, what pieces they needed, who lived in their castles, etc. 

We're planning to do a weekly storytime and building night this summer and we'll definitely be saving our recyclables again for this activity. 

I encouraged everyone to take a craft packet home. I had a handout with several extension ideas and a book list. In their packet, I included a half-sheet of construction paper and a bunch of shapes cut out from our paper scraps. The instructions encouraged children to build a "shape town" out of the shapes.

Reading Wildly: Realistic Fiction

This month for our Reading Wildly staff readers' advisory training, we discussed Realistic Fiction. This is a genre that some of our schools cover for book reports, and it can be one that's confusing to people (I've most often had it confused with Nonfiction by patrons). I define realistic fiction as a made up story that's based in reality; it could actually happen. No magic, no science fiction elements. Some might consider historical fiction a branch of realistic fiction, but for the purposes of our discussion, I asked my staff to stay away from historical fiction (a book set in a past historical time period or around a historical event).

We opened our discussion by talking about the article "Keeping It Real: How Realistic Does Realistic Fiction for Children Need to Be?" (link opens a PDF) by Barbara O'Connor (Language Arts, Vol. 87, No. 6, July 2010). The article discusses several elements of realistic fiction and how Barbara O'Connor deals with them as she's writing her books for young people. We talked about how fiction for young people needs to be a mirror and a window, both reflecting the life that children know and opening a window to how different lives are lived. We talked about the importance of realistic dialog and looking for dated language or dialog that doesn't seem natural. And we talked about the importance of finding the right book for the right child. Storylines in realistic fiction are as diverse as the children reading them, so it's important to find out what kind of reading experience a child is looking for.

As you can see, we had a diverse group of books to talk about this month, from funny to heart-wrenching and everywhere in between. These are the books my staff and I booktalked this month:

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
• The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Greg Kinney
• Fame and Glory in Feedom, Georgia by Barbara O'Connor
• Frindle by Andrew Clements
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
• Nicky Deuce, Welcome to the Family by Stephen Schirripa & Charles Fleming
• Runt by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
• Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

Next month, we'll be talking about books from popular series. You know the ones. The books that every kid is asking for but maybe you haven't read. Reading the books that kids are gravitating to will not only help you when performing readers' advisory, but it validates the choices kids are making. Yes, some of these popular series have more substance than others, but allowing kids a choice (and valuing their choices) is one way to help kids develop a love of reading.

What series are popular at your library? 

Getting Ready for Readalouds

Michelle Obama reads to children! Photo by Official U.S. Navy Imagery

As I was getting ready to go to this week's Afterschool visit, I started thinking about the things I do to get ready for storytime. My baby storytimes and preschool storytimes are almost always planned out weeks (or farther) in advance, while I pull my Afterschool books a bit more on the fly. Whether I'm planning in advance or day-of, there are some things I always do to get ready (and really regret when I skip!).

First, I read through all the books I'm planning to read, the scripts of any felt stories, and the text of any rhymes or songs. This may sound basic, but I make sure to read all the way through every book so that there are no surprise endings. My children's services professor in library school told a horror story of picking a dog book on the fly and realizing as she's in the middle of reading it to a group that the dog is not going to make it... Don't let that happen to you! This is also a great chance to make sure that you have all the props you need and put felt pieces in order for easy retrieval.

Especially for new-to-me readalouds, I will often read the book out loud before my program. If there are people in the office, I may make them listen. If I'm prepping at home, I will read to my cat (he is scared of my "wolf voice"). Reading the book out loud helps me catch any bits where the phrasing or emphasis matters. Reading the book out loud all the way through helps me remember where the story arc is going, which may call for a certain reading style. It also helps me determine whether I'll use voices and if I have voices in mind, it helps me solidify them. Of course, sometimes the voice that comes out when I read to a group is slightly different than what I've practiced (which is fine!).

A note on voices: if it works for you, do it. If it doesn't, don't. There are all kinds of ways to read a story and there's no reason to stress yourself out trying to force yourself into a style that's not you. Reading aloud, whether using voices or not, is great for modeling to parents. Both librarians and parents should read in a style they're comfortable with. But also, if you are interested in incorporating character voices, one great way to find inspiration is by listening to audio recordings of the stories. It's not cheating to copy the inflections of the actors or authors reading them!

When you're reading a book out loud before your program, you may discover words that you're not sure how to pronounce. This gives you the chance to look them up and practice before you perform. This is also a great opportunity to make sure you know what tricky words mean so that you can define them for your audience. Don't skip harder words! Defining them for your audience is a great way to increase their vocabulary (and maybe yours, parents', and teachers', as well!).

Putting together all my storytime elements before I perform it (even if it's only an hour before) allows me to figure out what my transitions between books will be or if there is any information I need to share with my kids before reading a book. I'll make an example of the book Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Dan Santat (Chronicle Books, 2013). I love this book and couldn't wait to share it with my Afterschool group, but it flopped a little bit because I hadn't taken the time to read it out loud before I went. I also discovered that many of the kids in my first group had no idea what a carnivore is, which is necessary to understanding the story. Lesson learned!

What are some ways you prep for storytime?