How to use this Page

Classmate Lisa Schroeder, author of the Young Adult I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, shares this about her childhood library:

It's hard being the young child of divorced parents. My life was pretty chaotic for awhile. And that's probably why I loved going to the Salem Public Library in Salem, Oregon with my mom during the summer vacations of my elementary school years. As soon as I walked into the children's area, I instantly felt welcomed and at home. Everything was in its place, and just as it should be. What a comfort this was to me at the time, and I can't even describe how much I loved our bi-weekly trips to the library. When I walked in, I knew right where I could find my good friends Betsy and Star, Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and more.

I remember one summer, when they had a reading program going on, they had a detailed map on a big board sitting horizontally, and each child had a little marker he/she moved around the map. I can vividly remember sitting and admiring that map every time we visited, and it made me so happy to move my marker around as I read books that summer.

I'm so thankful to my mom for taking me to the library, and to the librarians at the Salem Public Library who did such an awesome job making the children's area a fun, welcoming, and friendly place.

And here's a little history from the Salem Public Library's website:

Salem Public Library was founded in 1904 by a group of determined volunteers from the Salem Women’s Club. The first library was housed in a corner of the City Council Chambers for the City of Salem . The library was operated by the Salem Women’s Club until it became a department of the City of Salem in 1912.


Erin Fitzpatrick-Bjorn, a librarian in Gresham, Oregan shares this about her middle school library:

A few years ago I was working on a poetry unit with fifth graders. They came into the library and we looked at great poets and poetry, and they did some of their own writing. Here's a favorite poem I have that a student wrote that year modeled after "i live in music" by Ntozake Shange.



I live in the library
By Kaylie

i live in the library
is this where you live
i live here in the library
i live on fairy tale street
my friend lives on mystery avenue
do you live here in the library
pages fall round me like snowflakes
on other folks
books touch my face
warm as fire and
cool like the winding air
thinking they waz fairy tales
i got fifteen chapter books where other
people got hips
and a thick book for both sides of my heart
i walk around in pages like somebody else be walkin’ on sand
i live in the library
i live in it
sleep in it
i could even hear it
i wear books on my fingers books
fall so fulla words ya cd make a river
where yr arm is and hold yrself
hold yrself in a book.

Librarians and libraries touch our hearts.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Last reviewer up in the hot seat, but the first (we think) to suggest a 2K8 debut authors reading challenge, Jocelyn Pearce of Teen Book Review fame!! Be sure to leave a comment by June 29th to be entered to win Lisa Schroeder's debut novel I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Winner for this and all the other Hot Seat giveaways will be announced on the 30th! Okay, Jocelyn, time to get in the seat and let's get quickly acquainted:


What's your handle? Jocelyn, mostly...I don't really use anything but my name, though some refer to me as "teen book reviewer."
What kind of books do you review? YA, or MG or Adult books that I think will appeal to teenagers. Or at least to this teenager :-) No specific genre.
Approx # of books reviewed? I have no idea. A lot. Several hundred.
Where can we find your reviews? http://teenbookreview.wordpress.com/
Reading turn-ons: Books that grab my attention right away. I have a short attention span. I also love a great, distinct voice.
Reading turn-offs: Books that are slow to start. Or that are required to read for school. Or that are so terribly written I visibly cringe.
Class of 2K8 books reviewed:
Alive and Well in Prague, New York
The Opposite of Invisible
I Heart You, You Haunt Me
A Curse As Dark As Gold

Excellent list! Okay, now right into the questions: We love the crazy handles book reviewers come up with—tell us how you came up with yours! A little bit about how you got into book reviewing would be cool too.

I usually just use my name, and my blog's name is Teen Book Review--not too creative. I obviously wasn't thinking too hard at the moment, and now it's kind of too late to change to something better! Although I do get lots of google search hits for general terms like "teen books," so that's cool. I don't really have a good story about how I got into reviewing. I saw some book reviews, and wanted to do it, too, because I read a lot and have opinions about what I read. My friends are always asking for recommendations, and they also tend to treat my bookshelves like a lending library!

You should probably make up fun ID cards for them to use as well! Hee hee. Okay, describe your grading system and how that translates to the reader?

I've stopped doing stars or numbers, because that just got too tricky and depended too much on my current mood. I just write what I think, and people can take that however they'd like to.

Sounds like a great plan. Speaking of plans, how do you pick the books you review? Or are they picked for you? Do you ever read books that wouldn't normally interest you—and if so have you ever been surprised by what you've read?

I try to read everything that is sent to me for review, but there's a big backlog there, always. I get more books than I can read! So generally, I just pick what to read for trivial reasons like a cool cover, or other things like an author I like, or a recommendation from someone whose opinion I trust. Whenever I get a new book, I read the first few pages, so if those are great, I'll read the rest of the book sooner. If not, well, then, it might have to wait awhile. I do read books I'm not sure I'll like, and sometimes it turns out wonderfully--sometimes, not so wonderfully.

You do know that Teen Book Review's initials are TBR (as in To Be Read pile) Interesting coincidence? Or carefully planned... eh, not sure where I was going with that, okay, what are the best ways to find new books? Any advice for authors about getting their book noticed by reviewers?

Well, of course, there's always book blogs and review sites! Just browsing can lead you to some pretty great things, too, at the library or bookstore. If authors want attention from reviewers, they should try to have a web presence (the Class of 2k8 does a great job of this!) of some sort, the best being something often updated like a blog (and don't just blog about book news--readers want to get to know you a little more, not just how your book sales are doing). But mostly, just ask us to review your book! We love to read new books. Especially before they're available to the public (meaning ARCs); it makes us feel special.

You are special! But what about those books that maybe are less so? If you really aren't feeling a book—will you make the ultimate sacrifice and finish it for the sake of the review?

Not generally, because that review would be very negative, and I'd rather recommend books to read instead of books not to read (though I do that as well sometimes). I also believe that there are so many great books in the world, and obviously I won't have time in my lifetime to read them all, even if I forgo things like showering, so why waste my time on something I'm not enjoying?

Let's not forgo showering. Yes, this is the Internet, but that doesn't make it okay. But what happens if you really love a book—will you read it again? If so—what are some of the books you just had to read more than once?

Yes, definitely! I have so many books I've reread. The entire Harry Potter series in one marathon five days. All of Tamora Pierce's books, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' books, Looking for Alaska...Really, I often get in a mood where I want to reread an old favorite, although there's less and less time for that.

But not less time for showering. Jocelyn, we're serious about this. As serious as we are about our book reviews. Do you have a basic philosophy on what should be included in a review—or does it depend on the book itself?

I don't have any specific rules. I like to include something about the plot of the book (but no spoilers!), and point out what's best about the book (great writing style, characters, suspense, etc.), and, if something stands out as being not so great, I'll point that out, too. Just your basic review. I usually try to touch on the voice, the characters, and the basic plot, but mostly it's just what I notice, for better or worse.

Let's chat about the "for better." Tell us about the last time your jaw dropped open, you laughed, or you cried while reading a book.

I'm not so easily moved to visible reactions like that, but I think it was probably Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. Absolutely brilliant. I think that's my new favorite book of all time. I had all those reactions, and much more, while reading it. I can't praise it highly enough.

That's so cool. Okay, more cool stuff...Is there any character in a book that you wish would come to life? Or any place you wish existed?

Sure, lots. When I was younger, I always wanted to go to Hogwarts. I would pull up weeds and mush them up with dirt and water and pretend it was magic potion, stuff like that. I had this plastic wand filled with glitter, and I'd take the dust jackets off of big hardcover books and pretend that they were spell books and I could do the spells with my wand. Basically, I spent as much time in "Hogwarts" as in the real world!

If we had a nickle for every time Hogwarts was the answer... speaking of getting mentioned over and over, what books do you find yourself recommending over and over and why?

Ophelia by Lisa Klein is one I haven't been able to stop recommending since I read it! I loved everything about it. Usually it's authors more than books that I can't stop recommending, though--Scott Westerfeld, Melina Marchetta, John Green, Garret Freymann-Weyr...These are people who have been consistently brilliant, even if there are few other consistencies in some of their books! I usually prefer to recommend authors because that gives someone lots more to read.

Excellent point! Okay, this is it folks, our very last time to ask the Extra Scandalous Question! I know, it's a moment. Let's have a pause.

Really bad reviews—do you ever fear giving them? Ever had an author get upset with you? (It's okay—you can tell us, just don't name names!) And what advice do you have for authors who get a bad review?

I only review books I finish, and I usually don't finish really bad books (although those I would put into that category are few in number). I've never had an author upset with me because of a completely bad review (to my knowledge), but I have had people who are really nitpicky, and even if I said some great things about their book but didn't like one small detail, they email me to tell me why I shouldn't have said what I did. Sometimes reasonably, sometimes less so. For authors who get a bad review--remember, it's just one person's opinion. There are books out there for everyone, but they're not the same books for every person. So keep that in mind, but also, remember it for next time if lots of people have the same criticisms of your work. If you get several reviews saying that your dialogue was awkward--try to make it less so in your next book. Stuff like that. Most bad reviews try to be constructive criticism rather than total bashing. Ignore total bashing.


Wonderful advice! Thanks for all the great answers! One last question: if they aren't scared off by all that bad review talks and an author would like you to review her book, what should she do?

You can email me here! Just please don't push me to review your book. I have people who email me after a week or two asking (sometimes rather impolitely) why I haven't published a review yet. That's not the way to a good (or at least unbiased) review, or even a review at all. Remember, we're busy people, we do this for free (I love it, but school and a paying job keep me busy, too).
Excellent point Jocelyn! Okay last chance to win one of the Class of 2K8 books to be given away this week. Read what Jocelyn Pearce had to say about I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder, then comment!:

"This is a lovely verse novel–haunting, a beautiful story, beautifully written. I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME is a powerful story of life, love, loss, grief, and moving on (but not forgetting)–of finding hope after a tragedy. " Teen Book Review

Display Comments Add a Comment

In keeping with yesterday's baby theme, we introduce you to the first book baby of Lisa Schroeder, author of the current YA sensation I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME.

My first book sale was in the spring of 2004. I had been seriously writing and submitting stories since 2001, and was about to surpass the 100 mark for total number of rejections. (Now that's persistence!)

I remember I was at work, trying not to fall asleep, because I had been up with a very sick child all night. My husband stayed home with that very sick child while I trudged into work.

Around 2:00, my husband called me and said, "an editor just called you! You're supposed to call her back!"

I grabbed my cell phone and ran outside, wondering if I was going to miss her since I was the West coast and she was on the East coast. When she answered, I said something like, "This is Lisa Schroeder, and I'm so glad you haven't left for the day." She said, "And miss telling you the exciting news? No way!"

She was calling to tell me that Sterling Publishing was interested in publishing my picture book story, BABY CAN'T SLEEP. It was one of my favorite picture book stories that I wrote, so of course I was thrilled.

Today, BABY CAN'T SLEEP is still available, in hard cover as well as a board book format, which makes me happy, since it's my first "baby" and all.

Awww. Don't we just love babies and happy endings? Tomorrow we're going to hear another story about persistence from Teri Brown.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Raising hand. Waving hand. Frantically. We have some Totally Important Posts!






Brooke Taylor's Undone and Lisa Schroeder's I Heart You, You Haunt Me have been nominated for ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers. Double congratulations!


What Shelf Elf has to say about Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold: "Highly recommended." And, Shelf Elf, thanks for posting the video too!

Others adoring fans (in alpha order) of A Curse Dark as Gold: Bookshelves of Doom, Bookwyrm Chrysalis, Miss Erin, Sarah Miller,


And Jennifer Bradbury's Shift is a Richie's pick.


Wow! Go Class of 2k8!

Display Comments Add a Comment

I love it when I book-talk a new selection for my classroom library and end up with a near-battle over who gets to sign it out first.  I know, I know, chaos is generally frowned upon in school, but I love to see kids ravenous about reading.  Here's the book that caused the commotion this week...



Dee got there first, so she's enjoying Lisa Schroeder's debut novel in verse tonight, probably up late with a flashlight under the covers even as I type this review. 

I read I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME in one weepy sitting over the weekend and savored lisa_schroeder's free verse poems that come together to tell a touching story of love, loss, and healing.  The book opens with the funeral of Ava's boyfriend Jackson -- a funeral for which she can't help but feel a sense of responsibility, given what happened.  This isn't a traditional tear-jerker, though -- because Jackson comes back.  As a ghost.  And Ava finds herself pulled in two directions, forced to choose between the love she lost and the life she still has.

Lisa Schroeder's poems are spare and beautiful -- the kind of poems that paint an amazing picture and then hit hard in the last lines.  This book will have huge appeal for fans of other verse novels.  Kids who love Sonya Sones, especially, are in for a treat.  Like Sones, Schroeder takes a realistic look at teenagers. Simon & Schuster recommends this title for grades 9 and up. There are some very mild references to sex, but nothing, in my opinion, that would make the book inappropriate for a 7th or 8th grade reader who has read Sones' work or other books that  deal with teen romance.

Ava and Jackson were so real to me during the hour I spent in their world,  I couldn't help being swept up in their drama.  Part of me was glad I read this one at home, so I didn't end up sobbing through sustained silent reading in front of twenty seventh graders.  But part of me thinks that would have been just fine, too.  Sometimes, an old-fashioned cry is a perfect reminder of  how transporting a great story can be.

Add a Comment

In This Show: A multimedia text set by Andrea Spann Jim Crow Laws The Civil Rights Movement Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls: The Collection of Arabella Grayson at the Anacostia Community Museum I am not my hair by India Arie I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley Thanks To: Andrea Spann for [...]

Add a Comment