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I have just a few minutes before the day starts to really roll, but I wanted to quickly share a quote from Ralph Fletcher’s book, Live Writing:  Breathing Life Into Your Words” We live in a world where many people just go out and buy whatever they want — a mountain bike, basketball shoes, even a [...]

This will be the cover page for the eight slice of life stories I wrote this past week. I’m going to be sharing them with my students so that they, too, can take part in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. (I’m going to discuss this during the News & Announcements Part [...]

My First Sunday Times in RI Originally uploaded by teachergal I slid my feet into my flip flops and grabbed my keys from the “Do Not Forget” Key Holder that is around my door knob. I didn’t bother to dead-bolt the door since I knew I’d be back in a couple of minutes. I walked to the [...]

Working on a Weekend Originally uploaded by teachergal It took a very special person to fill-in my Grandmother’s Speed Dial Spot on my cell phone after she passed away last year. In fact, I didn’t reassign the #9 spot until mid-summer. I finally gave it to Christina, my former colleague, co-author, and dear friend. So, this afternoon, I [...]

Learn more about it by going viewing this ten page “slide show.” Make a scrapbook - it’s easy! Click here for the nitty-gritty details about the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Then, sign up to take part in the March Challenge by leaving a comment on our Slice of Life Story Challenge Web Page. Remember: [...]

I decided to make “Jackie’s Coffee” this morning, which is named after one of my cousins who passed away a few years ago. Basically, Jackie’s Coffee is half a cup of coffee + half a cup of milk. I decided to get “fancy” and steam the milk with my Tassimo this morning: I figured [...]

I pumped the soap bottle and felt the dollop of soap fall onto my fingertips. I rubbed my hands together and got ready for the lather to be washed away. However, when I put my hands on the knob of faucet at Saint-Germain by Molecule nothing came out. I turned it both [...]

“Hiiiiiiiiiiaaaahhh!  Moooooommmmmmmm!”  The little voice greeted me as I opened the front door after work today.  (I just wish I could get the Doppler Effect to come out in my writing!)  The 27 pound blur whizzed through the foyer, leaped off the step into the living room, and without missing a beat, rounded the corner through [...]

Mr. Quirk, my high school driving instructor, told me that many accidents happen in parking lots since people aren’t paying attention. For that reason, I’ve always been sure to be extra-alert whenever I enter a parking lot since I’m assuming the other people aren’t as focused as I am. When I pulled into the parking [...]

I struggled with a children’s reference question yesterday.  A middle schooler and his mom were looking for a science project related to the aerodynamics of an arrow’s flight.  I searched our catalog, plus a couple of subscription databases, then decided to head to the reference section to consult our copy of Science Experiments for Young People.  Except I couldn’t find it.  It wasn’t just the book I couldn’t locate, though.  The whole reference section was missing.  Just about where the R500’s used to be I spotted a half-dozen Large Type Barbara Cartland books and realized that something was definitely not right.  Things had changed in the last month.   

Besides my full-time job, I’m also a substitute youth librarian with the Hillsboro Public Library, usually working a three hour shift every couple weeks, and the branch has just been remodeled.  Since I had worked at the other branch in early February, I hadn’t been back to this branch for four weeks.  And even though I received plenty of emails with updates on all of the changes, the one about the reference section relocation, which you’d think I would especially be alert to, didn’t stick. 

I thought about bluffing my way through it, telling them that I need to pause and further develop my search strategy, then pretend to ponder in a serious way while looking frantically out of the corner of my eye for any trace of the reference collection.  This branch is not that big…it must be around here somewhere!  But in the end I decided to come clean, and used the line that I have to rely on more than I wish:  “I actually only work here every few weeks, so let me go ask one of the regular librarians.”  And the librarian I asked very kindly showed me where the reference section is without making me feel like an idiot at all.

I’ve had other “learning experiences” as a substitute, though usually they’re more understandable.  I figured out that the non-fiction videos are interfiled with the books, and learned that cd/book combinations reside near the children’s dvd’s.  It was all covered in my training I’m sure, but you just can’t remember everything.  It’s a new feeling for me to not be the one who knows where everything is, but it’s probably healthy too.  Maybe it reminds me to look at things through the patrons’ eyes a little more.  And I have to admit that even though I’d much rather know exactly where to go and help kids as efficiently as possible, there is a certain bit of freedom in being able to say to myself:  “I need to know it all for 40 hours a week, but today I’ll just ask for help…”    

I like a good story, and appreciate eloquent writing, but the element that I seem to respond to most strongly in books is characterizations.  And I think many kids respond that way too.  In a year’s worth of children’s books, we get to meet so many very interesting people (and animals).  My favorite 2007 characters include a girl who chases chickens (The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Harrington) (I like Miss Hen a lot too), two boat-loving twins with a language of their own (Mokie and Bik by Wendy Orr), a girl who masters a Neil Diamond song on an organ (A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban), and a dog who serves in the Vietnam War (Cracker by Cynthia Kadohata).     

My favorite character of the year is nine year old Lenny, from Kate Banks’ Lenny’s Space.  On the outside, Lenny’s a disturbance in class, a minor trial to his mother, either made fun of or ignored by his classmates, and a challenge to his therapist.  But readers, and to some degree all of the others, get to know him better.  Banks does a marvelous job of getting us into Lenny’s head so we understand the thought process behind his behaviors, and it really rings true.  He gets in trouble for yelling at a library book when he’s supposed to know better.  But he yells because he’s angry at the red blood cells he’s reading about…the same kind of cells that are threatening the life of his best friend.  This is a marvelous book, and I think Lenny is a character they’ll find interesting and memorable, as I did.    

The only thing is, it’s a lot easier to describe plots than characters to kids who are looking for reading recommendations.  Lenny’s Space is about a misfit boy and the sad thing that happens to his friend, but there’s really so much more to it.  In some other books, the plot summary alone can capture most of the essence of the story in just a few words.   Phyllis Naylor’s “Boys vs. Girls” series is a breeze:  “A family of boys and a family of girls play practical jokes on each other” pretty much sells it.  On the other hand, I’ve had hardly any success in convincing kids to read Hilary McKay’s “Exiles” books.  I clearly remember trying to describe the scene in which Phoebe pretends to fish from a bucket, and why it’s so funny, and noting a polite, but increasingly baffled expression on the face of the eleven year old girl, who really just wanted a good story.  It just didn’t work; you needed to get to know Phoebe and her sisters for that scene to even make sense, let alone make you laugh.  I haven’t figured out yet how I might present Lenny’s Space to a potential reader, but it will be challenging.     

That’s okay, though.  Lenny will find readers.  After all, Hilary McKay’s readership has grown quite a bit in this country since The Exiles came out in the early 90’s.  Some of her books have shown up as state children’s choice award nominees.  Word of mouth among kids and adults must have helped.  And I also believe that youth librarians each play a small part in bringing excellent characters and worthy authors, every time we make that sometimes difficult attempt to introduce kids to unique characters, whether or not their story is instantly appealing.          

Today I had the first meeting of the Spring Session of Teen Team – a volunteer program for middle and high school students.  Much to my great joy, I had a lot of tweeners this time – usually Teen Team has more than its share of Juniors & Seniors due to the really stringent volunteering requirements that the local high schools implement in their accelerated program.  With older teens I’ve noticed that they get interested in the volunteering program when they see the advertisement – we try to put them in a variety of places, in their schools, here in our Teen Center, and also in our library newsletter.  The older teens fill out the forms themselves, call me with questions, and take on the responsibility of participating in the program.  However, this time we did a lot of press leading up to the start of the program in local newspapers and on the radio.  So, the majority of people calling up with questions and asking for more information were the interested parents of tweeners!  The parents saw the advertisements or heard them on the radio and relayed their excitement to their tween sons & daughters.  Thus, this session has a ton of 11- and 12-year old participants who are relatively new to middle school and new to the Teen section of the library!  Our volunteering program has been a great success – I’ve gotten to know a lot of teens in our area, but for the most part, they’ve been quick to move on since they have usually been 16- or 17-years old.  Getting to know tweeners that are civically minded is exciting because hopefully through this experience and getting to know library staff personally they will feel more comfortable not only in the teen room, but in the library as a whole!

Here is some information that will hopefully help you start up your own volunteering program for middle and high school students!

We run 3 eight-week sessions per year, based on the school year calendar. Each session consists of up to 15 teens or tweens all meeting for an hour each week.  The first session is an orientation where my assistant and I introduce ourselves and give them a tour of the library with a special emphasis on the Children’s Room and the Teen Center – the two areas they will be spending most of their time doing special projects for us.  We also go over the agreement that contains information on how they are expected to behave, dress, and our attendance policy. Many of our teens and tweens get community credit for volunteering so there is a sense of mutual benefit and job-training going on. The final session is a pizza party with games like charades etc, book and goodie giveaways!  That gives everyone something to look forward to!   

We work with the folks in our Processing department to allow up to five teens and tweens each week on a rotating basis to go to Processing to help with getting CDs, DVDs and books ready for Circulation!  That’s what all the teens and tweens have told me they look forward to the most!  We also assign them to do pick-up and shelf straightening as well as book cleaning, Storytime toy cleaning and special projects from co-workers from all departments of the Library. 

We keep a Teen Team binder, where each teen or tween signs in and out; we also keep a book cleaning log and a task sheet that shows a list of jobs that they’ve done in weeks past so we don’t keep assigning the same task to the same kid. 

Another thing to take into consideration is timing.  Here’s how we do it - we start the Fall session in late September and end a week or so before Thanksgiving. That way, kids can get settled into school and the program ends before the holidays start getting underway.  Spring session begins in mid-January and ends right before Spring Break. Kids get so busy after Spring Break that participation really drops off so we don’t do any special Teen/Tween programming between then and our Summer Reading Program. In addition to Spring and Fall, we also do a mini five-week program in the Summer. We mainly advertise in the local middle and high schools, our Teen Center and in our Library’s bi-monthly publication.  However, this time we did some extensive marketing through local newspapers and radio, which, as I mentioned, really brought out the tweens due to their parents seeing our information and passing it along.  We have a basic application process which the teen or tween must fill out – not their parents!  We really want them to want to be a part of our volunteering program; if their parents fill it out for them, we think that encourages the thought that the parents are also making them participate.  The only thing we need from parents or guardians is their signature if the participant is under 18.

All in all, Teen Team has been a great experience!  Just another great way of bring Tweens and Teens together @ your library!

For those of you interested in “under the hood” kinds of things, we’re going to offer a regular blog post from one of the ALSC office staffers about once a month. Last month, new Marketing Specialist Jenny Najduch introduced herself. This month, it’s my turn!
–Diane Foote, Executive Director
Q: How did you learn about ALSC?
A: As soon as I began working as a children’s books publicity assistant in 1991 , I quickly learned how important ALSC and ALA are in connecting good books with young readers.

Q: What are your job responsibilities?
A: Working with the ALSC Board to advance ALSC’s mission and strategic plan, interpreting ALSC policies and developing effective procedures, administering the ALSC budget, and supervising our hardworking staff.

Q: What questions do you answer most frequently?
A: It’s an impressive sign of ALSC’s standing that we are approached several times a month by other groups or companies wishing to “partner” with us. I put “partner” in quotes because often what’s wanted isn’t a true partnership, but rather a way to market the other group’s products or services to librarians. We work hard to make sure our efforts benefit OUR members first and foremost, so we try to be careful about the partnerships we pursue. The Candlewick Light the Way project, in which Candlewick Press raised money through a series of teas with Kate DiCamillo to benefit ALA member libraries conducting exemplary outreach to underserved populations, is an example of a recent exciting and successful partnership.

Q: How long have you been part of the ALSC team?
A: Officially, in this seat, since Midwinter 2006. But I was a member prior to that, and even before joining, I’ve always thought ALSC was cool. But what children’s books marketing director doesn’t?

Q: What are some of your favorite ALSC activities and/or initiatives?
A: That’s like asking a parent to pick a favorite child! Since my background is in children’s books, I confess I am very partial to our awards programs. I get as giddy as anyone waiting to hear the winners each year.

Q: Please share a childhood memory of a librarian and/or library.
A: I remember always wanting to check out too many books, and my mom finally said I could take out as many as my age. I think I was about 7 at the time. What joy when I turned 10! (and no, I don’t check out 40 at any one time these days…)

Q: What are some of your favorite children’s books/media?
A: Naturally, I think all of our selection committees’ choices are the best!

Q: What do you think is ALSC’s biggest challenge?
A: We as an association are very ambitious, which is good, except I think we are spread too thin across too many projects. ALSC staff and members have creative ideas for how to move many of our current initiatives forward, but too often time constraints prevent us from doing everything we’d like to do. We want to innovate and keep up with what our members need and expect from us, and sometimes that means making difficult choices about programs and services that may have been in place for a long time.

Q: When should ALSC members contact you?
A: Any time at all; especially, any time you cannot find an answer to a question you have by looking on the Web site, or, for those involved in ALSC committee work, by checking with your committee chair or priority group consultant. I work for YOU! Also, I encourage everyone to get involved by filling out a committee volunteer form on the ALSC Web site at http://www.ala.org/alsc and sending it to me. ALSC Vice President/President-Elect Pat Scales will begin the next round of appointments, which take effect at the close of Annual Conference 2008, in March.

A couple weeks ago I pulled out one of my all-time favorite picture books and shared it with a group:  Fortunately by Remy Charlip.  They seemed to enjoy it.  They laughed at the right places, had some good guesses when asked “what unfortunate thing do you think he’ll find in the water?” (“Sharks?  Pirates?  Oil Spill?”)  And when Ned finally arrived at his own surprise birthday party at the end, they seemed as satisfied as most kids are every time I read the book.  The difference, though, is that this was an audience of grown ups.

One of my favorite tasks of my job in the Early Childhood Outreach department is doing educational presentations for parents.  When a Head Start or a childcare center has a Parent Night (or Parent Day, or Parent whenever), we do our best to share information about why it’s so important to read to kids and offer tips and examples on how to make the experience especially fun and effective.  So I talk some about early literacy skills and child brain development and share some impressive statistics.  And these can all be pretty powerful.  But the part when I read a book is the most fun, and it some ways it’s every bit as important as the other stuff.

I’m lucky to work with Nell Colburn, a fabulous librarian, and she’s the one who really showed me how much powerful content you can get from reading a book to the parents.  Based on observing her, I start by encouraging the parents to pretend they’re preschoolers while they listen.  Some are a bit reluctant, some don’t play along at all, and some really get into it.  All responses are okay.  But I also tell them, as Nell does, to observe with a critical eye at the same time, noticing details about how I share the book with them.  So when the book is finished, we talk about what they noticed, and they almost always catch everything:  Asking questions; talking about the words and pictures; showing enthusiasm; being a bit silly….   It’s all very relaxed and fun.  Partly because the best children’s books really work for all ages.  Also, it’s an unexpected treat for many grownups to just sit and listen to a story, even one that’s meant for kids.  Few of us get the chance to do that often enough. 

But beyond the fun, though, that experience sets the stage for the information that follows.  It’s fine to say that talking about pictures helps develop vocabulary, but when you then remind them that many of their kids might not know the words “pitchfork,” “parachute,” or “fortunate,” and show how those can lead to conversations, things really start to click.  I’ll ask how many of them could probably retell most of that story by memory after just one listen, then relate that to the importance of narrative skills.  We talk about how the experience might be different for kids if they’re hearing the story a second, or third, or tenth time, and what they learn through that repetition.

I’ve always felt more comfortable presenting to kids, rather than adults, and probably always will.  And I admit that assuming the role of “presenter- of-early-literacy-research-to-parents” took me way out of my comfort zone for a while.  But I think I’m okay with parent presentations now, and the reason should have been obvious from the start:  when in doubt, whatever the audience, read a funny story.    

I just discovered a great new way to bring more tweens into my library – gaming!  I know, I know, video gaming in libraries has been around for awhile now, but last Thursday was my library’s first foray into the venture, even though I’ve been gaming at home for years!  Future Guitar Gods (most of them tweens) were born as I sat back and enjoyed the sounds of Nirvana, Heart, and Sonic Youth on a workday, no less!  Not only did they play video games, but they were amazed to see the library’s great collection of gaming magazines and books, including Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro.  They were also super excited to meet new gamers (which included me!)!  Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III were definitely the star games, and my mind was filled for the rest of the day with the guitar solos from Mississippi Queen and Bulls on Parade, the most popular songs to play by far.  Instead of tournament style, we played freestyle; not once did I have to chide anyone for hogging the games, and I only had to sit through Freebird, the longest song on the game, twice!  All the tweens and teens graciously gave up the guitars to those waiting when their song was over.  I was lucky to not have to rent or buy a lot of equipment for our first foray into the gaming world, and that made it easier to convince my library to sponsor this event.  I brought my Playstation 2, Guitar Hero II and my 2 personal guitars.  My very helpful volunteer, Billy, brought his Playstation 2 and his Nintendo Gamecube for those gamers not interested in Guitar Hero.  The Library graciously paid for Guitar Hero III, an extra guitar controller so that all four Guitar Hero players could have a guitar to play, and a few Gamecube games from Blockbuster.  For those of you looking to do a Guitar Hero gaming day – 1 word of advice:  make sure that you unlock all the songs and save your game to a memory card before the gaming day.  Lucky for my tweens and teens, my husband and I love playing Guitar Hero, so we “worked” really hard on our off time to make sure all the songs were unlocked and saved.  That way your tweens and teens can have access to all 30 or so songs, instead of the requisite 10 or so the game gives you if you don’t unlock any beforehand.  I was excited to meet new tweens and introduce them to their wonderful library; I’m hoping they will remember how much fun they had at this activity when they see advertisements for other tween/teen library programs or when I visit them at their school.  All in all, this was a fun and easy first attempt into the library gaming world that definitely brought the tweens and teens together…for next time I’m wishing for a Wii!

I made a rash purchase at our local Goodwill store the other day.  I bought a beaver puppet that I really have no use for, and that’s not a good sign.  When you use puppets a lot, you have to watch yourself.  It’s so tempting to just buy every cool one you see.  They seem so fun at the time, but not all puppets are practical.  Or affordable. 

When I first started telling stories with puppets, almost every new puppet I added was something I really needed.  I had to have a decent farm set, some zoo/jungle guys, a cat, a dog, a mouse…Plus a spider (for Anansi), a frog and a toad (for Frog and Toad), and an assortment of people.  But after a few years of adding new ones here and there, I had a pretty workable core collection.  Then I realized I had to be careful.  My new rule became “only buy it with plans to try it.”  Meaning I could purchase only puppets that I already planned to use in a specific story.  That got me a moose (for Morris and Boris), a snake (Crictor!), and a very cool mosquito (without which Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears would just be impossible).  At that point I was ready to slow down.  I’d still add a new one now and then, and gave fairly specific hints around birthdays, but I generally resisted temptation.  That amazing looking Llama that runs $40 or so?  No thanks, I don’t have a good llama story and it’s too big.  A fancy flamingo with a flexible neck?  Pretty, but not for me.  Things were under control. 

Then I started joining my wife on weekly runs to the local Goodwill stores.  She’s a serious bargain hunter, always on the lookout for baskets, tin containers, pants for our hard-to-fit-children, and the perfect rolltop desk for under $15.  She lives for the hunt.  I tag along sometimes and always drift over to the toys.  You’d think I’d feel a little strange picking up animal after animal and discreetly feeling for a possible hole in the bottom, but our fellow shoppers are a non-judgmental bunch:  what happens around the Goodwill bins stays around the Goodwill bins.  Usually I find no puppets at all, but when I do, they’re amazing bargains.  I got hooked when I spotted a giant frog in great condition ($45 online) for $3, and the chance of other exciting finds keeps me going back.

But now my own puppet bins, which take up a sizable portion of the laundry room, are getting a bit tight.  And I’ve been coming home with puppets I don’t really need, like that beaver, which is a fine beaver, but really no better than the beaver I already have, and don’t use that much anyway.  Or the large lion which was a terrific bargain, but exactly identical to the lion puppet I already had, and I don’t see those two ever sharing the stage together.  So I’ll probably re-donate those to the Goodwill and remind myself again that I don’t need every puppet in the world, and I especially don’t need two of every puppet.  But if someday I happen to spot just the right Ostrich puppet, with a scrunchable neck, I will not hesitate to snatch it up, knowing it will have a ready made role waiting for it as the star of How the Ostrich Got His Long Neck.

Thank you notes from kids are one of the secret fringe benefits we get in the children’s librarian world.  A class comes for a library tour, you do your usual thing, and then a couple days later a manila envelope shows up on your desk with 22 handmade thank you cards from a bunch of creative second graders.  Or maybe it’s one giant poster-size piece which each of the kids signed.  Sometimes they each say what they liked best about their visit (“the books!”  “the puppets!”  “the dead bugs in the light fixtures!”).  Or maybe one draws a picture of a giant monster strangling a child. (No, wait…I guess that’s actually a picture of me with a puppet on my hand.)  My favorite comment ever was from a sixth grader after I’d done some storytelling with puppets:  “You know, that’s quite an act you’ve got there.  You could really go somewhere with that act.”

These can make my day or even my week, and I ‘m truly grateful for the kids’ creativity and the teacher who took the time to guide them through it.  But what comes next?  I came to terms with discarding Christmas cards on December 26^th long ago, but somehow I feel these very nice creations deserve a longer life.  So where should I put them?

The actual surface of my desk is rarely visible, covered by semi-organized piles of papers, books, and miscellaneous items with nowhere else to go.  So no thank you notes there.  My file drawers are full…or if they’re not they will be as soon as I get around to filing some of those piles on my desk.  I may have a bit of wall space, but I’ve got artwork from my own kids there, and the tacks never stick very well anyway.  So that’s it.  There’s no room, they’ve served their purpose, I’ve been officially thanked…so toss them!  But not in the recycle bin.  Who knows where those might end up?  What if somehow a card I recycle somehow finds its way into the very hands of the child who created it?  It could happen!  So…the trash can.  But that means putting recyclable materials into a garbage can, triggering a whole other category of guilty feelings.  Plus it just feels wrong that these thank yous should go straight from the kids’ pencils to my garbage can.   

I’ve tried a few different strategies over the years.  For a while I pulled out the best two or three cards from each bunch, but that felt wrong…I didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the kids who made all the other cards. (I know, they would never find out, but still.)  Once I tried keeping a rotating stack on one section of my desk.  Every time I got a new batch, I would put it on top, then take the bottom-most batch and toss it.  But that took way more organizational consistency then I could ever manage.  So in the end, I usually stick them in a corner somewhere, then several months later, when I can’t exactly remember the specific event that inspired the cards, I toss them.  Somehow if they’re not “fresh,” it’s manageable.  This will have to do for now.  And I should probably be careful:  if I complain too much about it, those thank you cards might stop coming, and that’s the last thing I want to happen.

by Brenda F. Pruitt-Annisette

December is one of those times during the school year when the school library media specialist becomes the jack of all trades, the grinch who stole the holiday spirit, or the deer in the headlights. Here’s why.

The K-12 media specialist juggles cross curricular “fires” throughout the school year. In December it is a little more challenging for those of us who feel that our staff and students want us to be involved in every concert, play, reception, open house, etc., that takes place. Never knowing just how to say “no,” we over extend ourselves to the point that December is not too much fun.

For those veteran K-12 media specialists who have learned how to say “no,” we are then perceived as the Grinch who lacks the holiday spirit. We are more concerned with completing the introduction of the research strategies students will need in order to complete the science fair project looming large in January. So what if the bulletin board is full of books to read during fall foliage. Winter does not officially start until December 22, 2007! Until then, the autumn theme works!

Finally, for those new to school librarianship, the deer in the headlights syndrome is the theme of the month. Do not fret, we have all been there and worn that same holiday fare. With the amount of energy the students are exhibiting combined with the frantic urgency of the teachers to tie up all instructional loose ends for the semester, the month becomes a swirl of activity that is quite surreal. Yes, you are there, moving between the real and the surreal wondering, “Can it get anymore hectic than this?”

Oh, but yes it can! Wait until January when everyone returns, ready to delve into the next program, project, and curricular deadline.

The excitement never ends. It is so much fun!

About a year ago, I was hired into my very first Teen Librarian position. Technically, I was hired to serve tweens and teens. Unfortunately, tweens haven’t been frequenting my teen room or the programs I’ve offered. However, I had a breakthrough that I’d really been hoping for…I had two tweens make the big step from our 4^th through 6^th grade book club into my teen book club! I was so excited to have new members that I didn’t realize that I might have some new challenges in regards to discussion topics, books chosen, and the acceptance of younger members by the older book clubbers.

When I started my new job this past January, my book club was well established by my predecessor; it had a core group of teens who attended every month. They knew what they wanted to eat (natural snacks) and what kind of books they wanted to read every month if I’d let them (fantasy). The teens in my book club were and are pretty advanced in their reading; they had read a good mix of adult and young adult fiction. They are a great group of kids; they welcomed me with open arms when I took over even though I knew they had really loved the woman I replaced. So, when a few new kids signed up, I hoped that my clubbers would welcome them with open arms, as well – and they definitely did. I was so proud of them because I know cliques and friendships can be quite overwhelming during the teen years, but there wasn’t one second when they made the new members feel ostracized.

However, I realized that in order to fully incorporate tweens into the book club, certain things that “had always been” would need to change. First, I realized that what is considered “appropriate” reading for a 16- or 17-year-old isn’t necessarily considered “appropriate” for 12-year-olds, which was the age of my two newest members. In my book club, the members and I vote on what we’d like to read in the months to come. Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner were two of the books on our potential voting list. I felt I had to step in because there was a good chance that Fight Club was going to be our February selection based on discussion I heard from the group. I love the book Fight Club; I think I read it when it first came out when I was about 18 or so. I know the older book clubbers could handle it – I know we would’ve had a great discussion about it. Yet, looking at those two 12-year-old faces, I knew I had to get some kind of guidelines in place in order to ensure that the book club was offering reading material that was appropriate for all the ages in my group. I empathized with them, told them I knew the book was good, but since it wasn’t housed in the Teen Fiction area, we would have to pass. Same went for The Kite Runner. They complained – said they wanted to start reading books with more substance, books that would encourage big discussions. I suggested that we read the graphic novel Persepolis to show what it was like to live in a different country with different religious values and opinions. They couldn’t believe that a graphic novel would show that as succinctly as other, more “adult” books, but they were wrong – and happily admitted it at last month’s book club. And, I felt good knowing that all the members of my group could take our selection home and show it to their parents or guardians freely.

So far, book club has been going great with the teens and tweens. One of the 12-year-olds hasn’t been back lately; even with the most simple of books we get into really long winded, philosophical discussions that he didn’t seem to enjoy. But, the other 12-year-old comes almost every month. We had a great discussion about The Golden Compass that he was highly interested in. The discussion about Twilight was less interesting for him. But, I guess that’s how it would be for any member – some books you really want to discuss and others you don’t. No one is ever disrespectful about book choices of others and everyone has to read at least 40 pages to even participate in the discussion.

I’ve learned that reigning in isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I’ve learned to incorporate new mediums to keep everyone interested. This month we’re doing a special book & movie discussion on Watership Down. Due to my love of graphic novels, we’ve also started incorporating those into our book selections, which was met with weirdness at first, but now members are recommending graphic novels left and right. Tweens have been a welcome addition to my “Teen” book club and I hope that more continue the journey from Children’s Book Club to Teen Book Club.

I was looking at the excellent slide show of Children’s Rooms on the Pubyac website (http://www.pubyac.org) and started thinking about how different they all are.  I’m still waiting to find (and even better, work in) the perfect children’s area.  I’ve worked mostly in four different buildings, all with pros and cons, and here’s my personal list of a few favorite (and not favorite) features:  

Slanted shelving.  I still think the single best marketing tool for a children’s book is the cover, and I love to walk in and see tons of them.  I know they require constant replenishing, but it’s worth it.  Special display furniture is great too, but face out books within the stacks is even better.  I also think picture book bins are excellent, but those never seemed to catch on the way I thought they should.  One of those features that works great for kids, not so great for grown-ups (especially staff grown-ups), and I guess the grown-ups often win out on this one.   

Limited bulletin board space.  This is just my personal phobia.  The first library I worked at had vast stretches of flat empty walls, just waiting for a craft-y librarian to fill with clever themed decorations.  I was neither craft-y nor clever, so those walls were my enemy.  I actually do think bulletin boards can add a lot, though, and I’ve been lucky to work with other staff and volunteers who are great at that sort of thing.  But if it’s ever me on my own vs. a blank wall, I’m sunk. 

Reading places.  Lots of floor space and comfortable seating for kids and grownups to enjoy books.  But not story mountains (see below).  It seems like sometimes we’re so concerned with shelving capacity that we fill up all possible spaces with shelving.  

A workable children’s desk.  Which mostly means child-height, easy to move into and out of, and not blockaded by computer screens.  I get a little picky here, because my brain likes the philosophy of the child-height idea, but my long legs strongly disagree.  At one library I simply couldn’t fit my knees under the desk until we physically removed a pencil drawer.    

And here are some features I’ve been less than crazy about:  

Story Mountain:  This was a featured highlight of one new library I worked at:  a large pile of mostly unmovable pillows, something like a pyramid of futon.  When used properly, it was a great space for casually relaxing with books and a nice seating space for class tours and storytelling.  From the kid’s point of view, however, it served as indoor trampoline, landing spot for long jumps, high jumps, and flips, and multi-layered wrestling mat.   

Austerity:  I don’t necessarily need to see castles and dragons and rainbows in a children’s room, but you should at least know you’re walking into a kids’ place.  The best rooms I’ve seen have enough fun visuals to catch the eye of a four year old, but not enough to embarrass a twelve year old.     

High Shelves:  It’s hard enough for kids to figure out where books are; when they find them and can’t reach them it’s even worse.  At one library I once shifted an entire section of 400’s and 500’s just so the dinosaur books would wind up one shelf lower.   

Computer Central:  However many computers we have, and however heavy their use, I still want people to walk in and first see the books.   

And I’ll stop at four favorites and four not-so-good, because once I start thinking about this stuff I can go on and on…

I’m addicted to duct tape, and it is all the library’s fault. During Teen Read Week, I put together some duct-tape programs, and had so much fun looking at the amazing creations that teenagers came up with and making my first-ever duct-tape wallet. I also found out about CLEAR duct tape—and now, I am addicted.

With clear duct tape, you can tape over just about anything, and it shows through. Here’s an example. At our library book sales, I buy the 25 cent books that no-one else wants. The old Golden books with torn pages. The old school books featuring Tom, Betty, Susan, Flip, Bunny, and Pony (the Canadian version of Dick and Jane). Those old books have the most amazingly colourful illustrations in them. Fine literature they are not, but as far as children’s book kitsch goes, they are the best. So – close your ears, non book-alterers- I then cut out the pages, and cover them with clear duct tape, and I make cool things with them. Wallets. Purses. Bookmarks.

The best part though, is that this is exactly the kind of activity that I can do while listening to a book. This is my second year on the Notable Recordings for Children committee, and I’ve gotten creative in my listening times. I can’t just sit and listen—my hands have to be busy. Cutting pages from old books and covering them with clear duct-tape is just one of the many activities that keep me from falling asleep. Last year it was removing 8 layers of wallpaper from my 100-year old house (when I look at my now-smooth painted walls, I still remember Enchantress from the Stars, which I listened to for an entire layer). In the summer, it is weeding the garden and painting trim on aforementioned house. In winter, it tends to be crafts. Making tassels for bellydance costumes, sewing, baking, cleaning house—all are done with earphones firmly glued to head. My husband says I’m like a teenager—except I’m not listening to the latest hip-hop tunes, I’m jamming to baby jazz or Jim Dale’s dulcet tones.

I’m already starting to worry about what happens next year—when I’m no longer required to listen while awake—when I no longer get those massive boxes of books on CD and actually have to wait for them like the rest of the world. I’ll still be addicted to duct tape…and maybe then I can listen to that copy of The Golden Compass I have stashed on the audioshelf. Because it is hard to read a book with sticky tape in your hands.

I spent quite a bit of time during a children’s desk shift last Saturday helping just  one patron.  She was an eleven year old who would think up something that interested her (Bratz dolls….Disney World…guinea pigs), then ask me to show her books on the topics, which she would look at briefly, put down, then ask for something else.  She seemed sharp enough to learn how to do this herself, but was not at all interested when I offered to show her how.  She wanted me to do it all.  And even after a half dozen or so trips to the shelves, I was fine with that.  As reference librarians, I suppose this might be seen as a missed opportunity to empower a young patron with independent skills…to teach her to fish instead of catching the fish for her, as they say.  But when kids get us working for them like this, I think there’s more going on. 

Part of it is just the comfort of having a patient, non-judgmental adult who will listen to you, show some interest, and help.  Lots of kids don’t get much of that.  It’s hard to measure or prove, but I think we children’s librarians have a significant impact on some kids’ lives when we take that role.  At the same time, I think that these kids actually are learning to do research; they’re just doing it cautiously.  They’re fascinated with the idea that there is all this great stuff in the library, but also have some hesitation, and maybe lack of confidence, about their ability to take control of it on their own yet.  Those interactions they have with us, even when we’re doing the work that they might be doing, can be like trial runs.  After enough of these, they gradually feel confident that there’s someone who will help them find stuff and also treat them with respect and patience. When they’re ready to ask for more complex guidance as they experiment with their own research, they will. 

My favorite example of this is Julian, one of my favorite long-time patrons a few years ago.  He would drop by every afternoon to have us look up and place holds on videos (Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger) and/or hip hop cd’s (Ludacris and Nelly).  He would look at the screen while I did my searching, watching every minute, but never once trying on his own.  After a while he would tell me exactly what to type and offer alternate search strategies when he felt I wasn’t zeroing in quickly enough.  But still he always wanted me to do it.  Then at some point he stopped dropping by the desk every day.  I’d see him in the library still, though; I think he had simply decided he was ready to go it alone.  A while later I had to smile when I watched him in action at the catalog, enthusiastically explaining to a classmate the difference between keyword and browse searching.  Julian never let me teach him a thing directly, but he learned all he needed to in his own way…and then he showed someone else. 

Happy Thanksgiving fellow children’s librarians.  Hope that when you stuff yourself with turkey, surrounded by family and friends, you’ll reflect on all that you do for kids and their families.  You may not always get the feedback you deserve, but they will remember you.  One bright and sunny day in autumn, you’re paid a visit from a family you once served at another location (like I experienced this month), bearing gifts and the child you helped with reading–grown several inches more taller.  It’s especially rewarding to know that you are part of their lives when they wake up in the morning, eat breakfast or lunch and the child talks about you as if you’re part of their lives.  You’re not only the story time lady, but you are their teacher and their guide to life.  Through your lens, they see the world with wonder…

We all deserve a pat on our backs for all that we do.  This poem especially resonates our qualities as children’s librarians.  (Unfortunately, the authorship is still a mystery–linking to writings of Emerson, Stanley and Stevenson).

Success
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
    and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
    and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
    whether by a healthy child,
    a garden patch
    or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
    because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

So this Thanksgiving, I toast to you children’s librarians.  Thank you for all you do.  And I am a success too because I have “earned the respect of intelligent people” and I have won the ”affection of children” by making reading fun.  I say this more to remind myself because recent events–my father’s terminal cancer, and not having goals go the direction I want them to go–almost dragged me down.  Then I asked myself, “How can I be a failure when when I have “earned the respect of intelligent people” like the Federation of American Scientists and when I’ve “won the affection of children?”  My chubby toddlers always want to fly into my arms everytime I do “One, two, three, four, five–I caught a fish alive” during story time.  As children’s librarians we often don’t give ourselves enough credit.  So thank you Children’s Librarians.  And thank you God for my blessed life.  I am so thankful and grateful to be a children’s librarian. 

I was so excited when my article, “Discover Babylon: E-Learning Power on Second Life” came out in the November 2007 issue of School Library Journal, I couldn’t wait to share it with my mother.  My mother who is a non-native english speaker who immigrated from Taiwan and doesn’t have more than a 6th grade education in chinese was so proud of me but didn’t understand a word that was on the page.  I was really happy that my first magazine article would be celebrated by my mom but equally frustrated that the language and educational barriers prevented her from understanding the merits of the article. 

The second level of frustration comes from the fact that many of my colleagues do not understand what I have written despite the meticulous nature in which I approached the article with incessant phone calls to the Federation of American Scientists for clarification, consultation with a local psychologist I know and emailing to friends to verify that my writing could be understood at the most basic of levels.  And it is through no fault of my colleagues that the language to describe Second Life is still in its primordial stage, leaving a language and cultural barrier between those who have a presence in Second Life and those who don’t.

Communication:

The frustrations really underscore the “disconnect” between people who understand Second Life and those who’ve never even heard of it.  Not only are there divides between those who are educated and those who are not, but there are divides between those who are technically savvy and those who are not and the role-players and the real-lifers.  No wonder those who are denizens of Second Life are weary about teaching newbies the basics.   It’s analogous to helping a patron who comes into the library whose second language is english but has never touched a computer in her life, demanding to use Rosetta Stone fluently.  And the newbies are weary about taking lessons from avatars.  How do you take lessons seriously when the teacher standing before you looks like a dragon and lectures in a Carl Sagan voice? We tell ourselves it’s otherworldly–the stuff for “Star-Trek” fanatics and not for “normal” people.

Semantics:

You say first-life, I say real-life.  You say in-world, I say in-game.  Game, serious, world, platform–let’s call the whole thing off…

It’s very hard to even start an intelligent conversation about Second Life because at present, the discursive language is constantly being invented and reinvented.  The MacArthur Foundation in their conference talked about how innovations are happening at such a rapid pace between multiple disciplines in virtual planets eg: Second Life, that there hasn’t been time to describe what is happening.  The language can’t keep up.  And as you can plainly see from my above phrase, people are still in disagreement about the terms used to describe the transactions in Second Life.  For instance, I would distinguish the differences between the term first-life and real-life because my first-life was Asheron’s Call (MMORPG), before Second Life was invented and my real-life is my physical life that I live right now as a children’s librarian in the King County Library System.  Those in Second Life, whom have never touched a MUVE before Second Life, would equate their first lives with their real lives.  And no one outside of Second Life understands jargon like “grid, rez, prims and terraforming.”

Education and Non-profits:

 It’s important to have educators, librarians and public, non-profit entities in Second Life so that marketers and commercial companies don’t dominate and influence the education emanating from virtual planets.  It’s important to have virtual planets as a tool for kids that teaches innovation.  Innovative teaching is very hard to do in the traditional classroom.  Take a look at this video of What Are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds? which was a conference that took place at the University of Southern California on November 14th, 2007.  Put away all doubts that ALSC shouldn’t have a presence on Second Life.  600 librarians on Second Life couldn’t be wrong:  http://takeonedigital.blip.tv/file/488039/

 Being someone who is able to see both sides of the equation, having one foot in Second Life and the other Real Life, I am able to pinpoint the exact place where the real and second worlds collide.  For those staunchly rooted in real life, we have a hard time reconciling what’s tangible with the abstract, what’s theoretical and what’s already being practiced.  Furthermore, Second Life really tests our psyche and takes us to the limit of what is acceptable, unacceptable, sane and insane.  To our familiar mind, there’s something disturbing about shopping for eyeballs or taking classes from a furry wolf avatar.  We see with our lens of perception so ingrained by the society we’ve grown up in that it’s hard to be forgiving of avatars who are strange.  Consider the anti-furry avatar movement happening in Second Life which is blatant racist discrimination against avatars with furry characteristics–picketed demonstrations and islands that explicity state, no large non-human avatars allowed have been documented.

To those who’ve never touched an MUVE, it’s hard to see what’s so great about it.  They see it on a superficial level like the game, The SIMs.  Why would you want to play taking out the trash and washing the dishes when you can do that in real-life? For those in Second Life, the esoteric language, the thrill of the new technological frontier, social networking, explosion of creativity, the innovations are so amazing that it’s hard to fathom why people wouldn’t understand the importance of doing work on virtual planets.  From ignorance and misunderstanding prejudice is born.

Prejudices: 

 It’s important to go into Second Life with an open mind and not be afraid to have new experiences that are “alien” to us.  It’s important to take things at face-value and not project characteristics onto the avatars standing before you, not knowing the person in real-life.  In the short time I’ve been on Second Life, I’ve come a long ways from the vigilante attitude I carried into it as the “pillar of truth” to just taking it one day at a time and not assuming too much.  Maybe that avatar who bumped into you on Orientation Island wasn’t doing it to be spiteful but a vigilante himself.  He wants to rid the virtual planet of “zombies” or gold farmers who exploit a region for traffic.  Maybe that Harry Potter avatar who was speaking gibberish to you when you landed in Korea town was not trying to spook you but trying out a Linguiphile plug-in in Second Life chat to translate English into Korean.  Maybe throwing virtual stones like a zealot at the group called Babylonian Whores isn’t such a good idea because you take on the very griefer mentality you despise in other people.  And real-lifers, it’s important not to do the name-calling as described in Suzanne Delong’s article, “Nix the Name-Calling” from the October 2007 issue of American Libraries. 

If we take a good look at ourselves, we are all still people from the same human race–Baby-Boomers, Generation Xers, Millenials, Ys and Avatars.  Yes, let’s be polite and not call people “freaks” or “old fogies.”  It’s a misconception that older people are not on Second Life–after all, they have more time to spend on virtual planets than the average middle-aged person if they’re retired.  People playing Second Life are often told to get a life or named the ones who drunk from the “kool-aid.” It’s rude and uncalled for. Take it from someone who’ve drunk from the “koolaid.”  I’m still the person I was yesterday, performing story times for youngsters 1 to 2 years old at the library, except with that much more knowledge, enlightened by my virtual planet experience.

I just finished today’s blog entry at my middle school library’s literary blog site about today’s Library Literary Lab and now, using the exact same software (WordPress) and an identical interface, I am posting on ALSC’s blog, as a contributing blogger from the School Library field.  So, I guess it is fitting to just show everyone what I and my students have blogged in the last few months.

My own reading log is here: Fairrosa’s Reading Journal which I only recently started posting thoughts about literature on top of short notes on books I read.

At school, The Reading Nook is my literary blog, open to anyone in the Dalton community but is most often used as where my students post their finished assignments.  This year, the 7th graders are asked to post their Young Adult reading assignments directly on The Reading Nook.  Here’s a sample of their responses and my feedback.  If you’re interested, take a look at the actual YA genre assignment.

This fall, I am running a Monday afternoon Library Literary Lab for 6th graders who are interested in reading and sharing their reading experiences.  (Lab, at Dalton, is a period of time that students are responsible for their own academic and personal persuits.  Many use it to meet with teachers, study, or work on projects, but often they also come to the library to read or to check out books.)  We’ve had a few really exciting meetings, and they are all documented on the blog site as well.

I have yet to see a lot of commenting back and forth amongst students but will think of ways to encourage positive feedbacks for a future project.  Right now, I am just having a blast with this easy-to-use tool as a way to convey information to my students and to encourage them to write about their own literary experiences.  Hopefully, The Reading Nook will really be a corner in cyberspace where “the readers’ minds meet and enrich each other’s experiences.”