Category: Everything Else

Reader’s Advisory Challenge Redux

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December 4, 2012

7:00 am

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Ever since I saw the Reader’s Advisory Challenge for 2013 posted on Angelina41’s tumblr, I’ve been turning the idea over in my head. Reader’s Advisory is a tricky business, and those of us who’ve been around for a while can easily fall into the trap of recommending the same old books again and again. After all, Librarians can’t really spend our entire day reading (wouldn’t that be great, though?), and it’s so easy to fall behind in terms of new releases. It’s even easier to fall behind in those genres you’re I’m not drawn to.  And for Librarians brand-new to Youth Services (by choice or by chance), the sheer volume and variety of Children’s Literature can be… overwhelming.

I fell into Children’s Librarianship after spending my two years of Library School focused on the techie side of things, planning to become a Systems Librarian. Instead, I discovered how much I love working with kids, and just how rich Children’s Literature is. In 2008, I moved into a position where I work with Children’s Librarians at 10 other branches in addition to my responsibilities at my own branch. Not long after, my very large public library system went through several years of staff shake-ups, with early retirements, lay-offs, transfers to fill the vacancies left behind, and re-hires. Working with some of these new-to-Children’s Librarians, I’ve heard their questions about how to get up to speed.

I think something like the Reader’s Advisory Challenge is a great idea, and one that I can adapt into something that will work in a live group setting. The Children’s Librarians in my area already have a regularly scheduled meeting, and collection development is one of the topics we discuss. In 2013, I’m going to add a Booktalk Roundtable to our agenda, with a monthly theme for which each Librarian will pick a book to read before the meeting and booktalk to the group. We’ll all find out about new books, get to hear examples of booktalks, and practice our own booktalking skills. I’ll definitely be using some of the (sub-)genre’s from the original challenge, but some will be replaced.

Themes for 2013:

January – Past Newbery Winner
February – Fantasy
March – Funny
April – Novel in Verse
May – Sports
June – Science Fiction
July – Graphic Novel
August – Realistic / Contemporary
September – Mystery
October –  Scary
November – Historical Fiction

All books will be Children’s Books, which, for us, means written for kids roughly age 12 and younger. (There are some Newbery winners that we consider YA, so those would be exceptions for January.) Want to read along with us? I’ll post my reviews here, and I’d love to hear some suggestions of titles for the different themes!

Reader’s Advisory Challenge 2013

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November 21, 2012

12:07 pm

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Okay, I know I’ve been terrible at keeping up with my 2012 challenges. But I think the Reader’s Advisory Challenge for 2013 is a really fabulous idea. I think I’ll play along, but I’m going to read children’s books rather than YA, and I’m going to pull my titles from the collection at my branch.

Tentative List:

January – Horror – Goosebumps: Wanted: The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine
February – Science Fiction – Son by Lois Lowry
March – High Fantasy – Winterling by Sarah Prineas
April – Mystery – Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth by Jane O’Connor
May – Verse Novel –
June – Realistic / Contemporary –
July – Historical Fiction – City of Orphans by Avi
August – Graphic Novel or comic –
September – Romance –
October – Dystopian –
November – Steampunk –
December – Humor –

There are a lot of blank spots on that list. Looks like I’ve got some browsing to do!

Baby Storytime: Eggs

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September 12, 2012

8:00 am

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Since I get so much inspiration for storytimes from other blogs, I’d thought I’d start posting my own here.

I like to do themes for my Baby Storytimes (as well as my regular ones). The themes really just tie the books together, along with maybe a fingerplay or two. Most of the rhymes and songs are repeated every week, regardless of the theme.

Why eggs? Because September is National Chicken Month, of course. Our monthly Family Storytime will feature some chicken stories, so it seemed only fitting to have at least one Baby Storytime focus on eggs.

Here’s what we did:

Opening Song: “Hi, Hello, and How are You?”
Hi, Hello, and How are you?
How are you? How are you?
Hi, Hello, and How are you?
How are you today?

Book: Except If by Jim Averbeck

Action Rhyme: “These are Baby’s Fingers”
These are baby’s fingers
These are baby’s toes
This is baby’s belly button
Round and round it goes!

Action Rhyme: “This is My Right Hand”
This is my right hand, I hold it up high.
This is my left hand, I touch the sky.
Right hand, left hand, roll ’em around.
Left hand, right hand, pound, pound, pound!
(Repeat for feet)

Song: “Grand Old Duke of York”

Song: “Pop! Goes the Weasel”

Book: The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend

Flannel Song: “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (Flannel pieces from ArtFelt)

Song: “B-I-N-G-O”

Bouncing Rhyme: “This is the Way the Ladies Ride”
We go through this one twice. In our version, the last line on the first time through is, “This is the way the cowboys ride!” and on the second time through, it’s the cowgirls’ turn.

Flannel Song: “Do You Have a Red Feather?” (pattern from Storytime Magic by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker, made by me)

Fingerplay: “Five Eggs and Five Eggs”
Five eggs and five eggs
That makes ten.
Sitting on top
Is the Mother Hen.
Crack-crack-crack!
What do you see?
Ten little chicks,
Cute as can be!

Book: Roly-Poly Egg by Kali Stileman

Flannel Song: “I Love My Rooster” (variation of the song “I Had a Rooster” – I use “green leafy tree” in place of “yonder tree”, and I use the flannel pieces from the ArtFelt “Old MacDonald” set)

Song: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”

Song: “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider”

Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

Closing Rhyme: “This is Big Big Big” (Mel’s Desk)

Closing Song: “The More We Get Together”

Book Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales

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July 3, 2012

7:00 am

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There are only three types of kids who get summer jobs at Colonial Essex Village instead of just working at the mall, like the normal people do.

Past Perfect

Past Perfect by Leila Sales

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Chelsea Glaser has spent every summer since she was six years old acting the part of Elizabeth Connelly, Virginia colonist eternally stuck in 1774. This summer, all Chelsea wants is to get a job at an air conditioned shop at the mall, but her best friend talks her into another summer at Essex. Unfortunately for Chelsea, the boy who broke her heart has also joined up. A crush on a new guy would be the perfect distraction, if only she hadn’t fallen for someone she can’t be with. Chelsea soon realizes she is going to have to come to terms with her past or be doomed to keep reliving it.

Review:
From the first page of this contemporary teen romance, the reader is brought into Chelsea’s world. From her daily duties as a Colonial reenactor to her not-quite-comfortable leadership role in the battles with the Civil War reenactors across the road, little details bring the scenes to life. Her interactions with her parents are laugh-out-loud funny and oh-so-familiar. Her heartbreak is painfully apparent early on, although the facts of her recent relationship are left vague until well into the book. Sales works in some serious thoughts about memory, history, and “what really happened” in a way that feels completely natural. This is a sweet tale perfect for summer vacation.

Which is why I find the cover so completely odd. It has nothing at all to do with the book. And it looks like she’s trying to catch bits of chalk on her tongue, which just sets my teeth on edge.

Final Word:
Laugh-out-loud funny contemporary teen romance with a little bit of historical trivia tucked inside – a just about perfect summer read.

Source:
Checked out from my public library

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NetGalley Knockdown

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June 30, 2012

5:00 am

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… or, Just What I Need, Another Challenge.

Thanks to Katy over at BooksYALove, I just heard about the NetGalley Knockdown, which starts off tomorrow. Talk about timing!

I have a crazy backlog of NetGalley titles to read (surprise surprise), so this sounds like just the thing. Plus, it’ll give a little boost to a couple of other Reading Challenges that I signed up for back in the optimistic days of late December.

And, who knows, it might even mean some new reviews getting posted over here!

Book Review: Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

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May 7, 2012

7:00 am

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The Barovier family furnace / has molded glass on Murano
for nearly two hundred years, since 1291 / when the Venetian government
required that all furnaces move / to my island home.

Sisters of Glass

Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
When Maria was just an infant, her father declared that she would one day marry a nobleman, even though such a fate should rightfully belong to her elegant older sister, Giovanna. Maria would much rather learn to blow glass in the family fornicas, but that work is for men only, even after her father’s death and the onset of financial trouble for the family. Trapped by tradition at 15, can Maria simply ignore her feelings forever, especially the feelings she has for the orphaned young glassblower who has joined the family business?

Review:
Fifteenth-century Murano provides the historical backdrop for this story of two sisters caught between what they wish they could do and what they feel they must do. Hemphill’s prose poems are full of fine details, but they never capture the intensity of emotion Maria ought to feel. Rather than bringing the reader closer to Maria – as in Caroline Starr Rose’s May B. – the terse narrative leaves the reader distant from the action. The form works in May B. precisely because May is alone for most of the novel; the poems read as her thoughts rather than as formal writing, particularly because the reader knows May isn’t actually writing anything down. Maria, on the other hand, is surrounded by people, and her interactions with them lose immediacy as conversations are rendered
in short bursts
rather than as
meaningful discussion.

Despite this weakness, the unusual setting, the timeless themes of sibling rivalry and familial duty, and the star-crossed romance (with its slightly-too-convenient conclusion) are sure to appeal to more than a few tweens and teens looking for something light and lovely.

On shelves March 27, 2012.

Final Word:
A light and lovely novel-in-verse for t(w)een fans of historical romance.

Source:
E-ARC via NetGalley, provided by the publisher by request

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Book Review: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

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March 15, 2012

7:00 am

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Beth and Ryan were holding hands. It was enough to risk a formal citation for indecency, and they knew better, but I didn’t say anything.

 

Article 5 (Article 5, #1)

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
There was a war. It destroyed the major cities and left the United States of America under the control of the Federal Bureau of Reformation, its citizens policed by soldiers nicknamed the “Moral Militia”. The guiding laws of the country are the Moral Statutes, which demand compliance with the Church of America, strict gender roles, and an even stricter definition of family. At seventeen, Ember Miller has been caring for her rebellious single mother for years. She keeps quiet and gets what they need. But when Ember’s very existence is deemed “noncompliant” and her mother is arrested by a group of soldiers including the boy Ember once loved, her world is quickly turned upside-down.

Review
I went back-and-forth a bit in my feelings for this book. It started off strong, dropping the reader straight into a world reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale in its government-enforced religious beliefs. Since she is old enough to remember how things were before the war and the rise of the FBR, she can detail the changes with a minimum of awkward exposition. I found her wry humor endearing. And then came the line that never fails to yank me right out of a good immersion in a fictional world: “I felt as if I were in a science fiction story.” (45)

Well, yes, I can’t help but think, that’s because you are a character in a story. And then, just a couple paragraphs later, she looks in a mirror before describing herself for the reader. That particular cliche moment is a pet peeve ingrained from college fiction-writing workshops. There is also the fact that the news that so utterly shocks Ember toward the end of the book came as no surprise to me, but I think the reader was supposed to figure that bit of information out long before Ember does.

I kept on with the book, because I was intrigued by the world Simmons created, and I wanted to know what would happen next. The plot moves along at a thundering pace, carrying the reader right on past the fact that the backstory is really quite vague. Who exactly were the sides in the war? Why do the Statutes seem to be so unevenly enforced? Who are the players in power now? And why is Ember so clueless?

In the end, I enjoyed the book, and I’ll definitely be seeking out the sequel. There are (clearly) plenty of open questions to be addressed in the middle and final parts of the trilogy.

Final Word:
A decent debut in the crowded post-Apocalyptic teen genre.

Source:
Checked out from the public library

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Book Review: God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World by Cullen Murphy

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March 12, 2012

7:00 am

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In our imaginations, we offhandedly associate the term “inquisition” with the term “Dark Ages.” But consider what an inquisition – any inquisition – really is: a set of disciplinary procedures targeting specific groups, codified in law, organized systematically, enforced by surveillance, exemplified by severity, sustained over time, backed by institutional power, and justified by a vision of the one true path. considered that way, the Inquisition is more accurately viewed not as a relic but as a harbinger.

God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World
by Cullen Murphy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
From medieval France to sixteenth-century Spain and Portugal and their colonies half a world away to 1940s Germany to modern-day Guantanamo Bay, Murphy follows the “inquisitorial impulse” around the world and through the centuries. His research takes him to the Vatican archives, rural France, Berlin, and the National Archives, among other places, as he outlines the events and procedures of the Medieval Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and the Spanish Inquisition, as well as what he terms the current “Secular Inquisition”. His circuitous route through history sharply illustrates how the spirit of the Inquisition remains alive and well.

 

Review:
Murphy covers a lot of ground (metaphorically and literally), giving a tantalizing overview of the topic. This is not a deep scholarly work, which is a point in its favor. Murphy has an eye for descriptive details, and he distills what is clearly an enormous amount of research into a work that appeals to the non-expert in the topic. He moves around in time and place, introducing important people and events early on and reminding the reader about them later, drawing connections across centuries. The Inquisition, by its very nature, is not a pleasant topic, but Murphy creates a narrative that is enjoyable to read even as it leaves the reader with some disturbing ideas to ponder after closing the book.

 

Final Word:
A compelling look at a part of history that remains all too much with us in the present.

 

Source:
E-ARC via NetGalley, provided by the publisher by request.

 

 

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Book Review: Starters by Lissa Price

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March 8, 2012

7:00 am

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Hearing his words made it all too real. Creepy old Enders with arthritic limbs taking over this teen’s body for week, living inside his skin.

Starters (Starters, #1)
Starters by Lissa Price
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

Synopsis:
A year ago, Callie lived the life of an average teenager in Southern California. She lived in a house with her mom and her dad and her little brother, Tyler. Then the war that had been raging so far away hit home with the detonation of a Spore missile and the subsequent disease that killed almost everyone between the ages of 20 and 60. Without older living relatives to claim them, Callie and Tyler have been on the run from the authorities, squatting in abandoned buildings and fighting off dangerous Renegades. They are running out of resources, and Tyler is ill. But in Beverly Hills, there is a place called Prime Destinations, a company that will pay handsomely if she will do the nearly unthinkable: allow them to use her body as a rental for elderly “Enders” to experience being young again. Desperate, Callie signs on, only to learn that both Prime Destinations and her final renter have plans worse than she could have imagined.

 

Review:
A post-apocalyptic Los Angeles is the setting for this entry in the popular Dystopian YA genre. In Price’s version of the near future, the “sandwich generation” is gone, leaving a world populated by elderly “Enders” who now live well in their second century and under-20 “Starters”, who have no rights at all until they come of age at 19. The lucky ones are those with grandparents, great-grandparents, and other senior relatives to “claim” them. The unlucky ones are on the run, scrounging for food, hiding out in filthy squats, hoping to run out the clock to age 19 before getting picked up by the authorities and locked up in an Institution. Prime Destinations is strongly reminiscent of the eponymous location in Joss Whedon’s short-lived series Dollhouse, with the twist that the clients are actually inhabiting the “dolls”.

The interesting premise is undermined by some shaky world-building. With people living to 200, it seems like there would be more living grandparents, great-grandparents, great-aunts and -uncles, and other relatives available to claim kids like Callie and her brother. What happened to their own grandparents (and great-grandparents) is never explained. The only Enders and Claimed Minors Callie encounters are wealthy; what happened to the middle- and working-class kids who had living relatives to claim them? Finally, while it is clear that the post-war world is a huge change for Callie (and everyone else), life before the war was clearly different from what we know, but it is unclear how things got from here to there.

The characters populating this world are also problematic. Callie’s fierce determination makes her an appealing heroine. Unfortunately, she is the only character who really gets any development. After Tyler and Callie’s friend Michael are introduced early on, they spend most of the novel “off-screen”, as Callie is separated from them. Even secondary characters who are more involved in the plot are left static. Complicating this, of course, is the whole body-switching issue; after first meeting someone, he may be quite literally a different person the next time he appears! There are several supplementary stories slated to appear in addition to the sequel that look like they might explore the characters a bit more.

Despite the flaws, this is a promising debut novel. The plot is compelling enough to distract from the sorts of questions that make it impossible to suspend disbelief (at least, until putting it down), and a final twist keeps the reader on the hook for the forthcoming sequel. This is an enjoyable, entertaining read. Just try not to pick at the details.

On shelves March 13, 2012.

 

Final Word:
An intriguing premise and compelling plot compensate for some shaky world-building in this promising Dystopian YA debut.

 

Source:
e-ARC via NetGalley, provided by the publisher by request

 

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