Book Review: Sit-In

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. (Grades 2-5.) Little Brown, 2010. Copy purchased from a lovely indie in Georgia: Little Shop of Stories.

This title has been nominated for the Cybils Award in Nonfiction Picture Books.  This review reflects my opinion, not necessarily the opinion of the nominating panel.

It was February 1, 1960 and the sign said WHITES ONLY, but four friends were tired of WHITES ONLY. Four friends decided to take a stand. They took a stand by sitting down at the Woolworth's lunch counter. David, Joseph, Franklin, and Ezell sat at the counter and asked to be served. And when they weren't served, they sat. Peacefully. Following the word of Dr. Martin Luther King who urged people to rise up in peaceful protest to fight for civil rights.

With lyrical prose and bright illustrations, husband-and-wife team Andrea and Brian Pinkney present the story of the Greensboro, NC sit-ins and all the sit-ins that happened across the nation until segregation was overturned and blacks and whites could sit at Woolworth's and eat lunch together.

This is an inspiring story with an uplifting tone - even in the face of hate, the students who sat at lunch counters were peaceful. They didn't fight back when protesters hurled angry words and coffee at them. These students, both black and white, concentrated on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King which are sprinkled throughout the text.

This is an important story and it's told in an accessible way, great for sharing with elementary students. Sections in the back of the book give additional information about Civil Rights and the sit-ins. A Civil Rights Timeline lays out events from 1954's Brown vs. Board of Education ruling to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And another spread at the end of the book gives additional facts about the sit-ins, including a photograph of some of the friends who started them.

The illustrations match really well with the tone of the book. The bright yellows, blues, and greens exude a hopeful feeling, just like the text of the book.

All in all, it's a beautiful book that'll add much to studies of Civil Rights and history. This is an important story that we should share with kids and Sit-In provides an accessible way to do so.

Check out this video of Andrea and Brian Pinkney talking about their book:

Read more reviews at Carol's Corner and Shelf Awareness.

Sit-In is on shelves now!

It's Nonfiction Monday! Head on over to Picture Book of the Day for the roundup!

In My Mailbox #32

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren. Head on over there to see what books showed up in bloggers' mailboxes this week!

Here's what my mailbox held for me this week:

The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, May 2010). I loved Tracking Trash, so I've been looking forward to this one for awhile.

How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, May 2010).

Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country) by Kathleen Krull & Paul Brewer (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, April 2010).

Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold (Houghton Mifflin, April 2010).

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Houghton Mifflin, April 2010).

The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, April, 2010).

Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado (Putnam, April 2010).


For the Win by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen, May 2010).

And that was my mailbox! Did you get anything awesome in your mailbox?

Around the interwebs

So, there was this article in the Huffington Post: Faking Nice in the Blogosphere: Women and Book Reviews. And Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy has a response and a good collection of response posts from around the blogosphere. I don't really have anything to say about it except that it's my frakkin' blog, no one pays me to do it, and I'll write what I want. And, in fact, one of the reasons that I do not review books professionally is that I prefer to concentrate on buzz for good books rather than critical reviews of bad books. (Who wants to finish a bad book anyway? I mostly put them down...) And I don't give a hoot what Sarah McCarry thinks about that.

Who else is in the midst of Summer Reading Club visits to schools? Empathize or share ideas at the YALSA Blog (Summer Reading School Visits) and the ALSC Blog (Count Down to Summer Reading: School Visits). All I'm gonna say is that as of the time of this posting, we've got 3 down, 12 to go.

Travis of 100 Scope Notes pointed me to a post about dangerous statements for librarians to make. It's aimed at school media folk, but ALL librarians should take a look. Check it out. If you find yourself making any of the statements on the list, it might be time for a priority shift. We librarians (and probably most people reading this blog) know exactly why everyone should use the library and budgets should not be cut. The rest of the world has to be convinced.

Speaking of Travis, he's challenging us to post nontraditional book reviews for the Nonfiction Monday he's hosting on May 24. My thinking cap is officially on!

And that's all I've got for you this week - happy weekend!

Serving Homeschoolers: Join the Listservs!

Want a free and easy way to connect with homeschoolers in your area, promote your programs, and get ideas for collection development? Join your local homeschooler listservs.

There is a large population of homeschooling families in my community and we've started to build up our services for them. We've started offering programming for them and I'm adding more homeschooling materials to our Parent/Teacher Shelves.One thing that has been extremely valuable to me in terms of helping me serve this population: homeschooler listservs.

I subscribed to the Indiana Homeschoolers Yahoo! Group and the more localized Hoosier Homeschool Network originally so I could promote our programs on their listservs. But I've found many unexpected benefits to keeping up with these listservs as well...

First of all, it makes me a part of their community. They're hearing from me at least once or twice a month when I post about our monthly homeschooler program. In my emails to the listserv, I always include my contact information and try to encourage parents to contact me with any questions they have. And it allows me to be part of their conversation. If I see a question about resources on a certain topic, I can chime in and let them know what the library has to offer.

What I'm hoping is that this makes me a "real person" to them, as opposed to THE LIBRARY, this faceless (possibly intimidating) building. You might feel uncomfortable going to THE LIBRARY to ask a question when you've never been there and don't quite know what you're doing. But hey, I'm not THE LIBRARY. I'm your friend Abby and I'm happy to help you.

Keeping an eye on the listservs also helps me stay on top of what programs other libraries and organizations are offering for homeschoolers. I might get some ideas for programs I want to offer at my library! Or if I want to connect with other librarians offering services for homeschoolers (to ask questions, to collaborate on something, etc.), I now have some contacts.

And these emails help me with collection development, as well. Often, parents who have newly decided to homeschool will ask for help and other families chime in with their favorite guides, books, and more. If I see a book recommendation come across on the listservs, I'll check it out and see if I want to add it to our collection.

Now, I don't always have time to pore over every single email from the listservs, but I at least skim the message topics (I get the listservs in a digest format, so just one email a day). And I try to read the full messages as often as I can.

Why not? It's a free and easy way to connect with homeschoolers (who are, in many cases, heavy library users!). You can find many local homeschool groups on Local Homeschool.com and About.com: Homeschooling. Go sign up today!

PS: It is a really good idea to at least be aware of the homeschooling support groups in your area so you have information to give parents who may be considering homeschooling and might need some information.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quacktaculous/ / CC BY 2.0

Will Grayson made me do it

I wasn't kidding when I said that reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson made me put a bunch of David Levithan's books on hold at the library. I respectfully submit this afternoon's library haul as evidence:

Pictured:
21 Proms by many authors, including David Levithan (and John Green)
How They Met: And Other Stories
Wide Awake
Love is the Higher Law
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

(I've already read Boy Meets Boy.)

Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. (Grades 9+) Dutton, April 2010. Copy purchased from my favorite local indie bookstore - Carmichael's. 

Will Grayson is a small nondescript planet orbiting around the sun of his best friend, Tiny Cooper, a 300-pound gay football player. Will has two rules by which he lives his life: 1) don't care too much and 2) shut up. Will thinks he can get by as long as he follows his rules. The problem? It's not much of a life Will's leading... Maybe the rules need to be changed...

will grayson is depressed. his only "friend" is a somewhat annoying girl named maura who wants to hook up with him, but... will's gay. he can't tell her that, so he keeps on swallowing his pills, complaining about the world, and waiting for isaac to come online each night so he can come alive. isaac is the light in will's world. they've never met, but will lives for their online conversations. when isaac suggests that they meet, will is thrilled... but things don't turn out like will had planned.

One fateful night in the city of Chicago, everything having gone wrong for both Will Graysons, the two of them will meet. And nothing will ever be the same.

Internet, can I tell you a confession?

I like John Green the person more than I like John Green's actual books. And, though I continue to read his books because he is adorable, I'm just not that into them. There are notable exceptions, though, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson is one of those exceptions.

Internet, I loved it!

With two YA powerhouses at the helm, it's hard to see how they could have gone off course. The book's compulsively readable and both Will Graysons undergo a great deal of character development. In fact, each Will Grayson is getting to know himself, something that most teens can identify with. And now that I think about it, I think both Will Graysons are learning some of the same things - learning to stand up for himself, learning to take risks, learning to define himself in the context of friendships, and learning not to blame the world for not meeting his own expectations. They're both learning all of these things, but in different ways, on different paths.

I guess I wish that Green's Will Grayson had been a little more fleshed out. I kept waiting to find out what had happened that was so terrible that he forced himself not to become attached to anyone. But maybe that's not the point. Maybe it wasn't something terrible that happened, but just all the little disappointments that pave one's life and really get to you when you're prone to angst (as some teens people are).

It's a book that I didn't want to put down, a book that I couldn't wait to pick up again (when I had to put it down... y'know, like to go to work and stuff). And that's pretty much all I ask for in a book. Will Green and Levithan team up again? One can only hope...

(Oh, and it's worth mentioning that I liked Levithan's part so much that I immediately requested 4 of Levithan's books from my local library. I have read some of his, but I need to get caught up!)

(It is also worth mentioning that if Hold Me Closer was an actual musical, I would so go see it.)

More reviews: Libri Delectio, Voracious YAppetite, and Stacked (among others). 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is on shelves now!

Book Review: Eco Mazes

EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures by Roxie Munro. (Grades 1-5.) Sterling Press, April 2010. Review copy provided by publisher.

One thing you learn quickly when you're a children's librarian: kids love to search for things. I defy you to keep I Spy books on the shelves (actually, I will tell you how to do that: hide them in the 700s). So EcoMazes, with a maze for each biome and the challenge to find animals of that habitat hidden in each spread, has built-in kid appeal. While it doesn't include a TON of information on these biomes, it will spice up the topic. EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures is a great book to have in classroom libraries if you do a unit on biomes.

The following biomes are covered: tropical rainforest, desert, coral reef, alpine high mountain, arctic polar, wetlands, tundra, grasslands, antarctic polar, savanna, conifer forest, and temperate forest. Each biome gets a spread with a maze and several animals to seek and find. The second half of the book revisits each spread with the answers to the maze and search and a couple of paragraphs of information about the habitat.

The book gets points for kid-appeal and for the variety of biomes included, but I am not a huge fan of the layout. For one thing, on the spreads where you're searching for animals, there are no identifying pictures included in the list of what you're looking for. You can tell me to look for a caiman, but if I have no idea what a caiman is, how can I find it?

Another problem is that the bulk of the actual information is included in the second half of the book with the answer keys. I don't see many kids pausing to read through those hidden paragraphs. I wish the information had been integrated with the mazes in some way. I also wish that maps had been included showing me where in the world these biomes can be found.

When combined with other books in a unit on biomes, these flaws may be less of an issue.

Read more reviews at Sage and Savvy and Booking Mama.

EcoMazes is on shelves now!

And today's Nonfiction Monday! Bookends has the round-up. Make sure you check it out.

In My Mailbox #31

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Head on over there to see what bloggers got in their mailboxes this week!

And here's what I got this week:

This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, May 2010).
Summary from ARC:

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Peters is over the moon when her literary idol, the celebrated novelist and much-adored local priest Mark D. Brendan, agrees to act as her personal mentor. But when Father Mark's enthusiasm for Olivia's writing develops into something more, Olivia's emotions quickly shift from wonder to confusion to despair. Exactly what game is Father Mark playing, and how on earth can Olivia get out of it? 

And that's it! Just the one book this week and it looks like a good one. Kelly at Stacked already read it and said that it's a story she won't forget. 

Did you get anything special in the mail this week?

AudioSynced - April Roundup!

Don't miss the April AudioSynced Roundup over at Stacked! Kelly's collected some fabulous audiobook news and reviews this month. Didn't review an audiobook in April? Don't worry - I'll have another round-up right here on June 1.

Now available: Dark Life

Hey guys, remember how much I loved Dark Life by Kat Falls? Well, it comes out today, so get thee to a bookseller (or a library, of course)!

Intricate speculative world, nonstop action, great characters... what more could you want?

And check out this interview with Ms. Falls on Scholastic's blog: