Sandy's Picks 2012 - Teen

It's that time of year again! Time to look back on what I read in 2012 and pick out the titles that I think were the best of the best. I'm not simply looking for literary quality or books that are award-worthy as I make this list (though such qualities certainly don't hurt a book's chances as making the cut). I'm just looking back at the books that made me happiest when I read them, and the books that have stuck with me as the year progressed.

According to Goodreads.com, I have read a total of 109 books this year. Of course, this number is not entirely accurate. This count does not include a wide range of picture books and non-fiction that I paged through and didn't record, nor does it include each volume of several manga series that I plowed through this year, where I reviewed the series as a whole instead of each individual volume.

Today we'll start out by taking a look at Young Adult (Teen) novels.


Guitar Notes by Mary Amato
Tripp, who plays guitar only for himself, and Lyla, a cellist whose talent has already made her famous but not happy, form an unlikely friendship when they are forced to share a practice room at their high school. A plot where friendship, rather than romance, becomes the driving force for a plot involving characters of the opposite sex? We don't see it very often in teen lit, which makes this book all the more refreshing.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few more years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal.  But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at the Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. Anytime John Green has a new book out you know you are in for a real treat. This latest work is no exception, and is probably his best effort since An Abundance of Katherines. The erudite characters will make you laugh, cry, and think deep thoughts all at once.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Last year Roth stormed onto the scene with Divergent, an action-packed page-turner where everyone must choose a trait-driven faction to join, which quickly took its place as the successor to The Hunger Games. While I enjoyed Divergent well enough, I don't think the series truly grabbed me until I read this second book in the trilogy. The plot thickens and the setting is further developed and an interesting twist at the end has left me eagerly awaiting the final installment.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.  If you haven't read this book yet, please do.  It's simply amazing, powerful and completely absorbing, and it's arguably the best book that I have read in quite some time.  Code Name Verity is also my top pick to win this year's Printz Medal.

Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel
Running a small Kansas hotel at the side of her single mom, Callie LeRoux struggles with health problems from regional dust storms.  Then when her mother disappears, Callie meets a mysterious stranger who indicates that her estranged father might be something other than human.  It seems that an interesting historical setting was the trump card this year for creating a great book, and Dust Girl is no exception.  Coupling the Dust Bowl era with faerie/fantasy elements makes this book, first in what will be a trilogy, stand out from the crowd. 

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin
I discovered Zevin's "Birthright" trilogy a little late to the game earlier this year, and I just think that this series is a real winner.  The second book, Because It Is My Blood, was published this fall, and I am eagerly awaiting next year's final installment.  In a future where seemingly harmless things like chocolate and caffeine are illegal and other items like paper, water, and phone time are rationed, Anya Balanchine is the heir apparent to a New York mafia that deals in illegal chocolate.  She tries to protect her siblings by keeping out of the family business, but in the end it seems that Anya will not be able to escape the world of crime. 



 What were your favorite teen reads of 2012?  Share your favorites in the comments. 

Sandy's Picks 2012 - Chapter Books

It's that time of year again! Time to look back on what I read in 2012 and pick out the titles that I think were the best of the best. I'm not simply looking for literary quality or books that are award-worthy as I make this list (though such qualities certainly don't hurt a book's chances as making the cut). I'm just looking back at the books that made me happiest when I read them, and the books that have stuck with me as the year progressed.

According to Goodreads.com, I have read a total of 109 books this year. Of course, this number is not entirely accurate. This count does not include a wide range of picture books and non-fiction that I paged through and didn't record, nor does it include each volume of several manga series that I plowed through this year, where I reviewed the series as a whole instead of each individual volume.

Today we'll start out by taking a look at novels written for children, AKA Chapter Books.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall's exhibit, he decides that he must find her a better life. This book just melted my heart with lovely poetic writing and a powerful story based on real events.

One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale, who was an officer and spy for the American rebels during the Revolutionary War, shares his story, from his unlucky days at Yale to his later unlucky days as an officer, with a hangman and British officer. This graphic novel takes American history and makes it fascinating. There's lots of humor for sure, but also lots of great historical fact, lots of military history, and lots of great detail that tends to be eliminated or glossed over in typical study.  One Dead Spy is the first in what will be a series of books as Nathan Hale, the hangman, and the British soldier return to discuss different periods of American history.  It was published simultaneously with the second title, Big Bad Ironclad, which discusses naval warfare during the Civil War.

The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds
Luc, a boy born with one ear and raised by a drunken father in fifteenth-century France, finds a better home with fisherman Pons, his sister Mattie, and their ward Beatrice, the daughter of a disgraced knight. Even after being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa, he remains remarkably fortunate. This books stands out to me thanks to solid writing and a fascinating historical setting. While I've had trouble pinning down my top choice for this year's Newbery Medal, I think that my final vote has to go to The Unfortunate Son.

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration. But her friendship with Liz, a black girl who tries to pass for white at Marlee's school, helps her find her voice and fight against racism. Kristin Levine told a great story a few years ago dealing with racism and friendship with her first book The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, and her latest effort just just as powerful.

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin

Discovering that the moon has disappeared from the sky above a Chinese village where he works, runaway Rendi wonders about strange local behaviors until a mysterious storyteller arrives at the town's inn and astonishing transformations begin to happen.  Just as she did with her Newbery Honor-winning book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, author Grace Lin has masterfully reworked Chinese fairy tales to tell a moving story.  You do not have to have read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon to understand Starry River of the Sky as the two books stand completely on their own, but a few overlapping elements will be greatly appreciated by those who have read both.  Both books are well worth the effort. 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Born with a facial deformity that initially prevented his attendance at public school, Auggie Pullman enters the fifth grade at Beecher Prep and struggles with the dynamics of being both new and different. I will admit: I kept putting this one off because of all of its early hype. But I'm so glad that I finally read it! The story is both heartwarming and heartwrenching. Not only is it a great story centering around a medical condition, but it's also simply a great school story that explores interpersonal relationship in an upper elementary setting.

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker
A foster child named Angel and twelve-year-old Stella, who are living with Stella's great-aunt Louise on Cape Cod, secretly assume responsibility for the summer vacation rentals when Louise unexpectedly dies and the girls are afraid of being returned to the foster care system.  I loved this book so much.  It's got humor and heart and two girls who hide a dead body.  What else do you need?



What were your favorite children's novels of 2012?  Share your favorites in the comments.

Sandy's Picks 2012 - Picture Books

It's that time of year again!  Time to look back on what I read in 2012 and pick out the titles that I think were the best of the best.  I'm not simply looking for literary quality or books that are award-worthy as I make this list (though such qualities certainly don't hurt a book's chances as making the cut).  I'm just looking back at the books that made me happiest when I read them, and the books that have stuck with me as the year progressed. 

According to Goodreads.com, I have read a total of 109 books this year.  Of course, this number does is not entirely accurate.  This count does not include a wide range of picture books and non-fiction that I paged through and didn't record, nor does it include each volume of several manga series that I plowed through this year, where I reviewed the series as a whole instead of each individual volume. 

Today we'll start out by taking a look at picture books, plus one early reader.

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by John Klassen
Annabelle finds a box with yarn inside and decides to dress up her cold, colorless town by knitting herself a sweater. Then she knits one for her dog. Since the yarn seems to be never-ending, soon the entire town is covered with Annabelle's colorful creations. Then a wicket Archduke offers to buy the box of yarn, but when Annabelle refuses he tries to take matters into his own hands. I love the illustrations in this story. The way that the knitting pops off the page with its texture and color really makes this one stand out visually. Extra Yarn is my top hopeful for this year's Caldecott Medal.

Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
A boy and a robot meet and begin to play together.  But when Bot is accidentally switched off, Boy think that he is sick!  Boy takes Bot home and tries to care for his friend with applesauce and a story, but none of the usual remedies work.  After Boy tucks his friend in and goes to sleep his parents accidentally switch Bot back on.  When Bot sees that Boy is asleep he thinks that he is malfunctioning, he takes Boy back to his home and tries all of the usual robot remedies...  This is a super sweet friendship story and a fun robot story all rolled up into one, and I just love Yaccarino's appealing illustrations.

Oh, No! by Candace Flemming, illustrated by Eric Rohman
One by one several animals fall down a deep hole. Oh no! Will Tiger find himself an easy lunch, or will the trapped animals escape? This book would be a great read-aloud for storytime, and the illustrations are just lovely.

Penny and Her Song by Kevin Henkes
I love Kevin Henkes to bits, and I was thrilled when I learned that he was going to be making another mouse book.  Then I learned that this book was an early reader, and I was even more intrigued.  Then I learned that Penny was going to be featured in a whole series of books.  Even better!  In her first book, Penny has a song that she wants to share, but the babies are sleeping and her parents do not want Penny's song to wake them up.  But after dinner when she finally does share her song, it is wonderful and the whole family joins in. 

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Saliemeri
Dragons love tacos of all kinds, but they do not love spicy salsa. If a dragon accidentally eats spicy salsa at your taco party, you will find yourself in BIG trouble. This book came to my attention thanks to my lovely friend and it combines my favorite food with my favorite mythical creature. Add in some solid writing and fun illustrations and you can't loose!

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
Once upon a time there were three hungry dinosaurs.  One day for no particular reason they decided to tidy up their house, make their beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures.  Then they decided, for no particular reason, to go someplace else.  They were definitely NOT setting a trap for an unsupervised little girl.  This version of the classic story is laugh out loud funny.  It's also a blast looking for details illustrations.  Willems' Pigeon makes a few appearances, and even the endpapers are a favorite at my library.

Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff
A baby bear spends the day exploring the world with his mother and discovers a number of wonderful things:  Green leaves, brown trout, red strawberries.  Love the linoleum block illustrations and their clean lines and bold colors.  Love the sweetness of the storytelling. 



What were your favorite picture books of 2012?  Tell me your favorites in the comments. 

Fist Bump

Have you ever been asked by an 18-month-old girl for a fist bump?

Let me assure you, it's just about the cutest thing in the world. 

Just picture the tiny fist!  And imagine a little girl who can't really talk much yet putting forth the effort to make sounds like the words, "fist bump."  It's too precious for words.

Horses Make...

During storytime today I read several of my favorite read-aloud stories, including David Shannon's Duck on a Bike.  On each page Duck greets a different barnyard animal while riding his bike, and each animal responds with the appropriate animal noise.  As I read this book I usually prompt my audience to supply the animal sounds.

When we go to the page where Duck meets Horse, I asked the kids what sound a horse makes.  The crowd went "neigh," just as expected.  As the sound was dying down a little girl, four years old, sat up a little straighter and proudly announced:

"Horses make glue!"

All of the grown-ups in the room - myself included - had to try really hard to keep from cracking up.  

Trucks Storytime

Last week's storytime was all about trucks!  We talked about trucks of all kinds - trailer trucks, dump trucks, fire trucks, and even ice cream trucks!

Here are a few of the books we read:

I Love Trucks by Philemon Sturges
A little boy who loves trucks goes through a long list of different kinds of trucks.  The text is very brief, but I like to open with this story because we get to see lots of different kinds of vehicles pretty quickly.  With so many good truck books to choose from, I actually turned this book into a flannelboard by copying the pictures, laminating them, and sticking a magnet on the back.  I then read the text from the book and stuck the trucks up on my magnet board as we went.  With a cooperative group I also like to give the kids a change to help me place the trucks on the board.

Minerva Louise and the Red Truck by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Minerva Louise is a chicken with a big imagination.  She hitches a ride on her favorite red truck and gets to see all kinds of fun things on the road - including a crew of construction vehicles.

My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis
A dump truck hauling a great big load of bones gets stuck in a pothole.  Can a car get the truck un-stuck?  What about a moving van?  Or a Jeep?  Or a school bus?  And keep a close eye on the illustrations.  What is happening to all of the bones in the truck?

Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman
Follow Mr. Gilly as he collects all of the trash in Trashy Town and puts it in his garbage truck.  This book has great rhythm.  I also like to point out the bold words "Stop" and "No" on each page as we come to them.  It's a good way to smoothly incorporate a little print awareness into the telling of the story.


We also did an action song: 

Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Fire Truck

Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck.

Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck.
Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

Hurry, hurry, turn the corner…

Hurry, hurry, climb the ladder…
Hurry, hurry, squirt the water…
Slowly, slowly, back to the station…

Suit actions to words.

And an action rhyme:

Open the Truck Door

Open the truck door, climb inside,

I get to help my mommy drive.

Fasten the seat belt, shut the door,

Start the engine, hear it roar.

Turn the corner, step on the gas,

If the road’s clear then we may pass.

Suit actions to words.

For our craft project, we made trucks using colored paper cut into simple shapes.  We crumpled tissue paper and glued it at the top of the truck's trailer to be the truck's load:

I got the inspiration for this craft project here.  The kids loved crumpling up the tissue paper!  The kids also got some good gluing practice, and as a bonus the project lent itself well to talking about shapes and colors.

LEGO Christmas Ornaments

I wish that I could take credit for this idea, but unfortunately the real credit belongs to one of my dear co-workers who is in charge of our library's LEGO Club.  This week she asked the LEGO Club participants to each make a small figure that they could then turn into a Christmas ornament.  All it took to turn the figures into ornaments was a small loop of ribbon held between two interlocking bricks.  Voila!

Doesn't our tree look festive?

 

Santa Claus

Candle



This one looks a bit like a ghost, but you can
totally tell from the orange nose and the arms
that it's really a snowman.

Candy Cane.  Several kids made this shape!



Snowflake

Pictured here are some of my favorite creations and they're all showing a holiday/winter theme. But you could easily use any shape at all - a car, a small house, an animal - and hang that from your tree. The real trick here is to keep the figures small and lightweight. If they are too heavy the figures don't hang very well. 



The Unfortunate Son

Often Luc feels like he is incredibly unlucky.  After all, he was born with only one ear and his father seems to despise him.  But when he becomes an apprentice to a fisherman Luc feels that his luck might be changing.  It turns out that he has a real talent for life at sea, and soon his nets are full.  He develops strong bonds with Pons, the old fisherman, his sister Mattie, and Beatrice, the daughter of a disgraced knight whom Pons and Mattie care for.  Life as a fisherman is simple, but for the first time Luc is truly happy.  But Luc's luck changes again for the worst when he is kidnapped at sea and sold into slavery in Africa.  Luc's situation could certainly be worse - his master is a kind and respected man who gives Luc a wonderful education - but even under these favorable circumstances Luc is still a slave and fears that he may never be able to return to his home in France.  Meanwhile, Beatrice is determined that Luc be found and in so doing uncovers a secret about his origins that would change his life forever...if only they knew where Luc was. 

 

Set at the turn of the 16th Century primarily in France, author Constance Leeds has crafted a masterful piece of historical fiction in the form of The Unfortunate Son.  The writing is filled with so many little details about life in this time and place.  Each and every one of the characters is well-developed and likable.  The plot is filled with equal parts adventure and intrigue with a dash of subtle humor thrown in for good measure.  Most intriguing is the way that this book gets readers to think:  How does one deal with an unfortunate situation?  What does it really mean to be lucky or unlucky? 

 

This book remains on Elizabeth Bird's list of picks for the 2013 Newbery, and I'll agree that this book is certainly deserving.  Great writing, the setting, unique plotting, and interesting characters help this title stand out from the crowd and make it truly "distinguished."

 

Overall Grade:  A

Holds That Need Placing

My library is in the process of switching over to a new computer system.  This system hosts the library's catalog, allows us to check items in and out, keeps records of all of our patrons, allows us to add new items to the catalog, and of course, lets us place holds on items that are not currently available and/or that we need to get from other libraries.  Unfortunately, as we transition to the new system we have to temporarily give up certain tasks that we would normally do with the catalog to make the data transfer easier.  Three weeks ago we were forced to stop placing holds.

I didn't quite realize how much I relied on the ability to place holds until it was taken away.  In the meantime I have compiled a list of books that I desperately want to place on hold once we go live again:

My Truck Is Stuck by Kevin Lewis
I Love Trucks! by Philemon Sturges
I'm planning a truck-themed storytime that will happen only six days after go live, and I need these two books to read to my preschoolers.  Here's hoping that they arrive in time or I'll have to resort to my less-fun backups.

The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie
Another picture book that I'd like to use in an upcoming storytime.  It's one of my favorite storytime read-alouds.

Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket
I'm super excited whenever Lemony Snicket (pen name for the glorious Daniel Handler) has a new book out because I love his brand of smart humor.  I'm especially excited because this book is the first in a new series that will document the life of a young Lemony Snicket (the character, not the "author") before his involvement with the awesome "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz
This books is the sequel to A Tale Dark and Grimm. Probably won't win any awards, though it did find a place on the Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2012 list. Mostly I'm excited to read because of the fairy tale genre and because I liked the first book so much.

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Obed
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
These three books are what currently remains on my list of highly acclaimed and/or potentially award-worthy books that I need to read before the end of the year.  And the sooner the better - my library system does a Mock Newbery event and I'll want to have these read before we meet.

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
I mentioned both of these books in an earlier post detailing some YA titles I was dying to get my hands on. Should have placed my holds on these books then.

Reached by Ally Condie
I go back and forth on how excited I am about this final installment to the "Matched" trilogy.  But I should really get my name on the super-long hold list soon or I'll never get my hands on it.

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
This is next month's pick for my teen book club.  I need to place holds on about eight copies of the book so that I can give them to my teens. 

Looking for the Best of 2012?

I'm not the only one who's trying to decide what the best books published in 2012 were - lots of other names in the business are starting to produce their own lists.  If you're looking for the best in children's list be sure to peruse these websites:

Publisher's Weekly has a great list of book in lot of categories, both for adults and children.  Lots of great books to be found here, including a number of picture books that had slipped under my radar.

My children's lit blogging hero, Elizabeth Bird, recently posted her fall list of likely Newbery and Caldecott Medal contenders.  Betsy posts her picks three times each year - once in spring, once in summer, and again in fall - and it's interesting to see how her choices change as the year progresses.

On Goodreads, readers are invited to vote for their favorite books as part of the annual Goodreads Choice Awards.  Readers can vote in any of a number of categories for adults, teens, and children.  The nominated books for these awards are fascinating because they really take reader approval into account, not just the opinions of professional book critics.

Seen any other "Best of 2012" lists?  Please share your finds in the comments.  My own list of personal favorites will appear on this blog at the end of December.

Not a Biography

A woman came in today and asked if we had any books about Justin Bieber for her daughter.  Apparently she needed such a thing for a book report.  Unfortunately for her, the few books we have about the pop singer were checked out.  I asked:

"Can I help you find something else?  Does your daughter need a biography for her report?"
"No, she doesn't need a biography.  She needs a book about a famous person."

...

Oh boy.

Guitar Notes

Lyla seems to be perfect.  She gets perfect grades, has perfect friends, and plays the cello perfectly.  But despite how wonderful things seem, Lyla isn't happy with her life.  Tripp, on the other hand, is more of a loner with his own issues whose only comfort - his guitar - has been taken away by his mother in the hopes that he'll make some friends without the guitar crutch.  The two find themselves sharing a practice room at school, with Tripp using the room on odd days and Lyla on even days.  What begins as a few notes about practice room etiquette (please throw away your trash) soon evolves into an unlikely friendship as they bond over Tripp's borrowed guitar.  Lyla and Tripp share secrets with each other and challenge each other to write songs and to look at their music in different ways.  But circumstances and well-meaning parents threaten to end Tripp and Lyla's friendship just as it is starting to flourish. 

In Guitar Notes, author Mary Amatto has created a wonderful story of friendship.  It was great to get at the emotional core of both of these characters and see how two people who seem so different really do have much in common.  And how many teen books can you think of where friendship is the central, driving theme of the story?  Not many.  I greatly appreciate that Tripp and Lyla's relationship never evolves into romance so that we can focus on the frienship that both characters so desperately need.  The story is told in alternating viewpoints and includes Tripp and Lyla's notes, text messages, e-mails, and song lyrics.

Overall Grade:  B+

So Many Books...

As the end of the year is approaching, I've been trying desperately to read as many good books as I can in the hopes that I will a) be able to start fresh with 2013 titles when it comes time to flip the calendar, and b) have read a few award winners and won't have to play catch-up when awards are announced in January.  It's a tough but enjoyable process.  There are so many great books out there, and so little time to sit down and read!  Here are a few young adult titles that I'm hoping to sneak in very soon:

Shadow and Bone by Leign Badugo
The bones of the plot sounds a little familiar:  Ordinary girl discovers that she has mysterious powers.  Girl tries to learn to use said powers.  The plot thickens with intrigue and romance.  But predictable plots rarely get glowing starred reviews, so I'm looking forward to this one.  The Russian influences on the setting seem especially intriguing.

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Set in the 1920s, Evie finds herself living in New York City with her uncle, who is the curator for the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. Evie is soon helping to investigate some occult-based murders. Add in a dose of "mysterious power" and we have ourselves the the recipe for an intriguing story.

Call the Shots by Don Calame
I love Don Calame's books. He's my go-to author for boys looking for something funny and I've been looking forward to this book ever since last year's Beat the Band. This time the gang has decided to make their own low-budget horror film. Antics and hilarity ensue.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Samantha's life seems very safe and calm, while Jase's family next door is loud and boisterous.  Of course, the two teens fall hard for each other.  Then tragedy strikes.  Elements of this book sound a bit like Jo Knowles' See You At Harry's, which I loved, and probably adds to my draw to this novel.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
Last year's Daughter of Smoke and Bone blew my mind with a story that began with the words, "Once upon a time an angel and a devil fell in love.  It did not end well."  I've been on the edge of my seat waiting for the sequel ever since.  Karou is a highly likable heroine and I need to know what happens next in the angel/chimera war. 

Does anyone out there have any other must-read YA titles from 2012 to share?  I'm definitely interested in adding to this list...

See You At Harry's

Fern's family drives her crazy.  Her dad has a new plan to advertise his restaurant that involves using the whole family and he doesn't understand how this will ruin Fern's life. Her mother spends a lot of time meditating to find her inner peace.  Her sister is taking a year off between high school and college and is supposed to be helping at the restaurant, but is mostly looking to get out of doing any work.  Her older brother is in the closet and is having trouble both at home and at school as a result.  And Fern's younger brother Charlie is little and cute and seems to get away with everything, and no one else seems to see how annoying he is.  Fern loves her family, but with so much going on she often feels alone.  But when tragedy rocks the whole family's world, Fern feels more alone than ever as she wrestles with her grief and guilt. 

There isn't a way to talk about Jo Knowles' See You at Harry's without making it sound incredibly sad and tragic.  And I'll be honest - it's a heart-wrenching tear-jerker at times.  But what impresses me most about this novel are the more positive aspects.  Knowles does an amazing job of creating a realistic, nuanced portrait of a family.  The members of Fern's family all love each other, but they don't always get along perfectly.  The characters are what make this story powerful instead of saccharine, and it's great to see how the family comes together when they really need to.  This book is a bit of a page-turner and most readers will be able to get through it fairly quickly, but it is worth lingering a bit with these characters.

Overall Grade:  A-

Life As We Knew It

A major astronomical feat is about to take place:  A meteor will hit the moon.  At first, all 16-year-old Miranda thinks is that this event is giving her teachers an excuse to assign more homework.  But when it turns out that the asteroid is much denser than predicted, the impact actually knocks the moon out of its orbit and pushes it closer to the Earth.  As a result the Earth's climate changes drastically.  Tsunamis destroy coastlines around the world.  Volcanoes hidden beneath the Earth's surface erupt and ash clouds the sky.  Disease spreads quickly.  Crops are destroyed and food becomes scarce.  Electricity and heat become almost completely unavailable.  Suddenly homework is the last thing on Miranda's mind and she and her family struggle to survive in rural Pennsylvania. 

Told through Miranda's diary entries, Susan Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It is actually sometimes hard to read.  Not because the writing is poor - it's not - but because it becomes so easy to imagine that this disaster could really happen to us.  I personally found myself looking at the moon strangely and wondering if I had enough canned food in the house after I finished reading it.  The diary format works very well in this book because it allows readers to focus on Miranda's emotional response to the disaster rather than dwelling on the scientific whys.  Readers only know as much about what's happening in the rest of the world as Miranda does, and that honestly isn't much.  But this format makes it easy to get inside Miranda's head and connect with her situation on a personal level.

I read this book recently for a second time as it was this month's selection for my teen book club. It's just as powerful of a read the second time around!

Overall Grade:  A-

If you enjoyed Miranda's story there are two sequels to this book.  In The Dead and the Gone we learn about this same disaster from the perspective of a boy in New York City.  The conclusion to this trilogy, This World We Live In, brings Miranda's and Alex's stories together.

Pizza Storytime

This week's storytime was all about everyone's favorite food:  Pizza!  We started out by talking about what toppings we liked on our pizza.  I asked the kids to raise their hands if they liked a certain kind of topping to keep everyone from trying to talk at once, and this voting format worked really well.  Just about everyone agreed that cheese, pepperoni, and sausage were delicious, but we also talked about other toppings like olives and pineapple.  It was interesting to see what the kids thought of these toppings! 

As we read stories and did out other activities, I constantly was asking the kids about the steps that one has to go through to make a pizza.  One of the major goals of this storytime was to focus on this procedure.  What comes first when we make a pizza?  What goes on top of the sauce?  I mentioned to the parents that knowing the order of doing things, such as making a pizza, is very important not only for learning to follow directions, but also for building that important Narration pre-literacy skill.  After all, when we make a pizza we have to go through the steps in the right order or our pizza wouldn't make sense.  The same thing goes for telling a story:  If events aren't told in the right order, then the story won't make sense. 

Here are the books we read:

Pizza at Sally's by Monica Wellington
Sally owns a pizzeria.  Readers get to see how Sally makes the pizza that she serves to her customers.  I like to start with this story because it does a good job of showing the whole process of how a pizza is made in a fairly straightforward manner.  It's also a pretty good jumpstart for talking about how people eat pizza:  Have you ever been to a pizza restaurant?  Have you had a pizza delivered to your house?  At the end of the book there is a recipe that families can use to make a pizza of their own.

Hi, Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter, illustrated by Ponder Goembel
A little girl eagerly awaits for the arrival of the pizza delivery man.  As she waits her mother asks her how she will great him when he arrives.  Of course, the girl will say, "Hi, pizza man!"  But what if it's not a pizza man?  What if it's a pizza woman?  Or a pizza kitty?  Or a pizza dinosaur?  I love that the pictures in this book show all of the animals decked out in their best finery, adding an extra level of silliness to this already silly story.

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Amy Walrod
In the traditional story of The Little Red Hen, an industrious hen bakes a loaf of bread all by herself after her barnyard friends refuse to help.  This version follows the same format, but with pizza instead of bread.  There's also a cute twist at the end where the hen's friends agree to help with the dishes after sharing the pizza that they didn't help to make.  This is a longer story and can be a tough one to end on depending on the crowd's mood so I always have a back-up just in case...

Curious George and the Pizza by H. A. Rey
Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat visit a pizza parlor.  George gets into trouble when he tries to help make the pizza, but ends up saving the day in the end. 

We made our own pizza using flannelboard pieces (I made it myself!) and a rhyme that I adapted from a similar rhyme that I discovered on SurLaLune.  With my smaller afternoon storytime group I let each kid come up and place the next part of the pizza on the board so that everyone was involved.  I love having the kids help me with this step when it's possible since it gets them involved and keeps them a little more focused on what we're doing.

  Here is the rhyme that I used for this flannelboard story:

The Pizza That Sally Made

This is the crust that Sally made.

This is the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

This is the cheese, so gooey and chewy,

That went on the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

This is the pepperoni, that makes it Italian,

That went with the cheese, so gooey and chewy,

That went on the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

These are the olives, so black and so salty,

That went with the pepperoni, that makes it Italian,

That went with the cheese, so gooey and chewy,

That went on the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

These are the peppers, so green and so crunchy,

That went with the olives, so black and so salty,

That went with the pepperoni, that makes it Italian,

That went with the cheese, so gooey and chewy,

That went on the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

These are the kids, so hungry and lively,

That devoured the pizza,

Made with the peppers, so green and so crunchy,

That went with the olives, so black and so salty,

That went with the pepperoni, that makes it Italian,

That went with the cheese, so gooey and chewy,

That went on the sauce, so spicy and sweet,

That went on the crust that Sally made.

And that was the pizza that Sally made.

We also did an adapted version of the classic rhyme "Pat-A-Cake" that involved making a pizza, which I also found on SurLaLune's Storytime page.

To finish off our storytime we did a craft:  Paper Plate Pizzas!  This craft would allow the kids to make their own paper pizzas to take home and would reinforce the importance of doing all of the pizza-making steps in the right order.

The kids were each given a paper plate that would serve as the pizza crust.  They could use a red marker to draw sauce on top of their crust.  They were each also given  a baggie with the other pizza toppings:  Strips of yellow crepe paper for the cheese, and simple colored circles and rectangles to represent pepperoni, olives, ham, and green peppers.  All of these toppings just needed to be glued on top with a glue stick - cheese first, of course!

Yes, I could have made this craft a little easier by using fewer toppings.  But even though many kids stick to simple pepperoni or plain cheese when they eat pizza, I think it's good just to remind kids that there are lots of other good topping choices out there.  Besides, the pizza is a lot more colorful with more different kinds of toppings!

Giraffe Sounds

There is a small stuffed giraffe who lives on the Children's Reference Desk. His name is Butterscotch.

 

Today a boy, about 15 months old, came up to the desk, pointed at the giraffe and said, "mooo." Mom told me that according to her son every animal says moo. Super cute.

This brought to mind another incident that happened a few days ago with the giraffe. As they walked past the desk a mom asked her daughter, about 4 or 5 years old, what sound a giraffe makes as kind of a joke. The girl responded by sticking out her tongue. Apparently that's what giraffes do!

Summer of the Gypsy Moths

Nothing is going the way that Stella planned, and for a girl obsessed with keeping things in order this is a very bad thing. Stella's mother has gone off to "find herself" (again), and so she has been sent to live with her great-aunt Louise at the small Cape Cod resort that Louise runs. To complicate matters Louise has also taken in a foster child Stella's age, and unfortunately Stella and Angel do not get along very well. Things get even more troublesome when, just as school is ready to end for the summer, Louise suddenly dies. What are Stella and Angel to do? Neither of them has family that can take them in or anywhere else to go. The only option the two girls see is to bury Louise in the garden and hope that nobody notices...

Author Sara Pennypacker has made a name for herself with her early chapter books, especially the lovable "Clementine" series. Summer of the Gypsy Moths is her first foray into writing for somewhat older readers and it's a real gem. It's easy to see why this book has been generating a bit of buzz this year as the writing expertly blends humor and heart. It's just a delight watching Stella and Angel's relationship develop as their unusual circumstances throw them together. And who can resist a story where two girls hide a dead body? Pick this book up today. You'll be glad you did.

This book should appeal easily to fans of Suzanne LaFleur's Love, Aubrey and/or Jennifer Holm's Turtle in Paradise.

Overall Grade: A

Librarian's Purpose

The Children's Reference Desk sits in the children's area of the library, and there is always a staff person there ready to help patrons with whatever they need. Tonight I found myself at the desk as a young boy, about 5 years old, brought over a few books that we wanted to check out. I told him that I couldn't check out his books, but he could take them to the "Big Desk" (the Circulation Desk) just outside of the children's area. The boy looked at me, squinted in confusion, and asked:

"Then what are you there for?"

Fair question, my friend. I explained to the boy that I was there to answer any questions that someone might have and that I could help people find the books they were looking for. Since neither of these situations seemed to apply to him, this kid was severely unimpressed.

I can't decide if this whole exchange was hilarious or vaguely insulting to my career.

New Book Bribery

Right now there are too many New Young Adult books at the library. Actually, there are always too many books in this area - I really need additional shelf space so that I can keep books on the New shelf for more than 2.5 months. Unfortunately though, the New shelf is full to the point of overflowing right now. This is a slow time of year in terms of circulation as everyone is done with the Summer Reading Program but most have not yet fallen into their school-year routines, so the large number of books on the shelf isn't entirely surprising.

Of all the terrible problems to have, right?

The circulation department was getting a bit anxious about the lack of space on this shelf and asked me to do something about it. Since I can't magically make the New Books area larger it soon became clear that books needed to be taken off the shelf. I'd much prefer that this be done via checkouts rather than de-newing, so my supervisor and I have instituted a program encourage *coughbribecough* patrons to check out books from this part of the collection.

The program is simple: If someone checks out a book from the New Young Adult area and shows one of children's librarians which book(s) they will be taking home, then we will give them a "prize pack" as a reward. Easy!

These prize packs are made up of coupons that we had left over from our Summer Library Program anyway, so we did not have to spend any money at all on this program. I made up a few fliers to post in the library, bookmarks to stick inside each of the books in the New YA area, and posted a blurb about this promotion on our Facebook page. This promotion is available "for a limited time only" - basically until we either run out of prizes or the New YA Books situation is under control.


This picture was taken about four hours after we first advertised the program. Already there is more shelf space than there was before...but it's still not much. In a normal scenario the top shelf would be empty/mostly empty so that you can see the sign that labels this area as "New YA Fiction". In an ideal scenario, none of these shelves would be even close to filled and I'd be able to turn a couple of books face-out.


There is another benefit to this promotion: Teens have to come and talk to us to pick up their prize packs. We can use this opportunity to talk of upcoming Teen programs! I'm really hoping to recruit a few more people for my Teen Book Club though this effort.

And who knows, maybe a few teens will discover a new area of the library or a new favorite book through this promotion too!

Hunger Games Movie Event

I put a lot of effort into planning programs for my teens. But my most successful program of the year in terms of attendance required almost no effort from me! In case you hadn't heart, August 18 was the release day for the highly-anticipated movie "The Hunger Games" onto DVD and Blu-Ray. Since my library is lucky enough to have the licencing required to show movies to the public, I decided to invite the teens to the library to watch this movie.

We started advertising the movie event about three weeks in advance with posters.

Anticipating a large amount of interest, we decided that we would require everyone interested in attending to pick up a ticket in advance. There is a lot of benefit to ticketing for an event like this if you have concerns about there being too many people in the room. Tickets make it easy eager patrons to understand why only so many people are allowed in the room. They also can give librarians peace of mind knowing that the room will be filled past capacity. I made the tickets myself on the computer and printed them on golden paper:

Tickets were available on a first come, first served basis two weeks before the event. We gave away the last of the tickets about one week before we showed the movie.

Food is also essential for any sort of teen event and everyone knows that snacks are great to have during movies, so it seemed pretty important that I serve something to eat. I've had truly horrific experiences with serving popcorn in the past (it's easy to spill and is hard to clean off of carpet when it gets stepped on) and I had a little bit of money left in my summer budget, so I decided to order cupcakes. These cupcakes weren't super fancy - chocolate with orange-tinted buttercream, no fancy decorations. But the color scheme was very appropriate for the movie. You could almost imagine that the orange frosting was a flame. I also served juice to go with the cupcakes.




I hadn't expected everyone who had picked up a ticket to come to the program. There are always a couple of no-shows, and this program was no exception. But any program that has 60 people (mostly teens!) in attendance is a success in my book. Everyone really enjoyed seeing the movie - many for the second or third time, but some for the first.

Another unexpectedly cool aspect of this program was the intergenerational potential. I had targeted teens in the advertising for this event but decided to ultimately leave the program open to anyone who wished to attend. Yes, many teens came alone or with friends. But there were also a good number of teens at the program with Mom or Dad in tow. It was actually very cool to see families in the audience so that they could share the experience. "The Hunger Games" is one of those rare gems with appeal across all ages and I was happy that so many families took advantage of the opportunity to see it together.

Dear Librarian

I have one last Summer Reading story to share!

At my new library we don't just ask kids to read during the summer. We also give kids the option to do a number of other activities to supplement their summer experience ranging from riding their bikes to doing art projects to visiting a museum. One of the activities that kids had the option to do during the last week of the program was to write a letter to someone.

One of the kids (age 5) in the program decided that he wanted to write a letter to the librarians! He composed the letter and dictated it to his mother who did the writing, but he signed his own name. Here is the letter:


Aww, how sweet!

Dust Girl

Callie LeRoux seems to be stuck in Slow Run, Kansas helping her mother run a hotel that hasn't seen much business since the Dust Bowl's arrival. Even though Callie suffers from dust pneumonia her mother refuses to leave for a more prosperous climate, insisting that she needs to stay there until Callie's long-missing father returns for them. But when Callie's mother disappears in a dust storm Callie knows she has to take matters into her own hands. Soon Callie learns a few details of her past that she never would have imagined: Her estranged father was a fairy prince, and warring fae factions are all very interested in finding Callie one way or another. As Callie tries to escape these dangerous fairies and find her mother she teams up with Jack, a boy living as a hobo with a mysterious past of his own. The two attempt to make their way to California, where Callie thinks her mother might have been taken, but Kansas proves to have plenty of dangers for them to deal with first.

There is quite a bit to like in Sarah Zettel's Dust Girl, which is a unique take on faerie mythology. The Dust Bowl setting is certainly an interesting one, and it was fascinating to see how different elements from this region and time period were incorporated into the novel. Especially interesting was the way that music from the period was worked in, both as a way of enhancing the setting and as a part of this world's faerie lore as music turns out to be one of the faerie's sources of power. Callie was a fun character to follow and I appreciated the way that she struggled to make sense of her mixed background - both before and after she learns of her fae heritage.

Overall Grade: A

Dust Girl if the first book in the American Fairy Trilogy. No official word on when the next book will be published, but my money is on sometime during the summer of 2013.

Orange Curly Hair

Today a boy came to the library asking about a book. He didn't remember much about it at first, but we eventually tracked it down!

Here was the initial reference question:

"I'm looking for a book. I don't remember what it was called, but it's a biography about a girl with orange curly hair."

Hmm, not much to work with. So I prodded a little further to see if I could get some more information that would help us.

Do you remember what this person did that made them famous? "I think it was something about science."

Have you gotten this book from the library before? "No, my mom showed it to me when we were looking for a book about Davy Crockett."

Ah ha! This was actually a good clue. I knew exactly where to find books about Davy Crockett, and from this clue we could guess that the book came from a nearby shelf. I had a guess as to who our mystery person was at this point, but wanted to dig a little deeper just to be sure. We wandered over to the biography section to see what jumped out at us from this area. When we got there I asked one last question:

Is the person you're thinking of from today's time, or from a long time ago? "Definitely a long time ago."

Bingo! I was pretty sure that this boy was looking for a book about Marie Curie, the female scientist who did lots of work on the subject of radioactivity in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Curie and Crockett would be very near each other on the shelf, and we have lots of books to choose from about Curie so the odds seemed to be with us.

The one hiccup in this equation was that I didn't know what color Marie Curie's hair was. After all, every photograph I'd ever seen of the famous scientist was black and white. Fortunately, a Marie Curie biography jumped out at us with a colorfully-illustrated cover. The lighting in the cover picture made Curie's hair seem to glow a golden, vaguely orange, color. Part of the Giants of Science series, this biography was written by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Boris Kulikov, and it was exactly the book that this boy had remembered! Thank goodness it was on the shelf, because it might have been tough to sell him a non-orange, black and white Marie Curie biography.