Sandy's Favorites 2014

It's been a pretty ridiculous year for me.  I had a baby, and they aren't kidding when they say that it changes everything.  My free time has diminished a bit, and I've found myself wanting to occupy this free time with new activities.

What all of this boils down to is the fact that I haven't read nearly as many books this year as I have in the past.  According to Goodreads, I've read 43 books, most of which are novels for children or teens.  Not included in this total are several works of adult nonfiction all about pregnancy, parenting, and making baby food that I didn't feel the need to review.

Forty books doesn't seem like much when you consider that in 2009  (a year post-grad school where I only worked part time) I read 175 books.  Even in 2013 I read 75 books, nearly double this year's total.  Still, 40 books is perfectly respectable.  Besides, I like to think that I've made up for the lack of quantity with the quality of the books that I have read since many of these books have completely blown me away.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Chapter Books

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
Molly and Kip are Irish siblings who don't seem to have parents to care for them.  Molly takes a job as a housekeeper to a formerly wealthy family that is down on its luck.  But it's not just the money that seems to be troubling this family.  The entire family seems sickly, and everyone seems to be getting treasures from a mysterious source.  There is also the Night Gardener who appears during the night, and though know one know exactly what his intentions are, they certainly do not seem to be good.  This bit of Gothic horror features fantastic storytelling, and I love how the horror elements mirror some of the other issue that the characters are dealing with.  Given the masterful writing, I think that this book has a shot at a Newbery Honor.

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
One evening, Ellie's mother comes home with a teenage boy in tow.  Strangely enough, her scientist grandfather seems to have uncovered a sort of fountain of youth and have given himself a young body.  Through a series of episodes, Ellie and her grandfather explore the wonders of science and discover what it really means to grow up and to grow older.  This book is an unusual blend of sci-fi and contemporary fiction that will appeal to fans of both Wendy Mass and Madeleine L'Engle.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Wilson
So much has already been said about Wilson's memoir told is verse, which recently won the National Book Award.  It's a bit of a patchwork dealing with Wilson's family, the era in which she lives, race, and other small details from her childhood.    This memoir seems to be this year's "it" book and is widely favored to win this year's Newbery Medal.  It's worthy of the hype.

Teen Reads

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Sinclair family is everything they are supposed to be:  Beautiful, athletic, and incredibly wealthy.  Every summer they vacation on a private island near Martha's Vineyard.  Cadance, the oldest grandchild, looks forward to spending these summers with her cousins and Gat, the nephew of her aunt's boyfriend.  But then one year Cadance has some sort of accident.  She can't remember what happened and no one seems terribly interested in telling her.  During her 17th summer on the island, Cadance tries to piece together bits of memory to figure out what happened.  What makes this story stand out is Cadance's narrative voice.  The way that this story unfolds and the fact that she is so unreliable make this book stand out in the crowd.

Six Feet Over It by Jennifer Longo
Leigh's father decides to uproot the family and operate a cemetery, and he does not seem particularly willing to look further than the kitchen table for ready employees.  Leigh finds herself working in the cemetery's office selling graves after school.  Meanwhile she has her own grief to deal with after being uprooted from her beloved home by the sea, the death of her best friend, and her sister's cancer treatments.  This book sounds very dark and while it certainly does have its morbid moments, Leigh's sarcasm and ready wit help to keep it from being depressing.  Leigh is a character that I grew to love as she developed over the course of this novel.  This is my favorite book of the year.

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
Victoria dreams of being an artist.  Unfortunately, as a woman in Edwardian England her options are fairly limited.  Getting into a proper art school will be next to impossible without some assistance, and her father absolutely refuses to pay her tuition.  The plot thickens with a sweet police constable / artistic muse, some periphery involvement in the suffragist movement, and a wealthy finance who might not be the easy solution Vicky was hoping for.  This book was a tad predictable in terms of plot, but this author definitely did her research about this era.  Readers will enjoy being pulled into this fascinating time period.

Lily Rose May

A little girl, 5 or 6 years old, came in to the library today looking for a book that she had checked out from the library before.  She told me that the name of the book was "Lily Rose May."  I looked this up in our catalog and nothing came up, so I assumed that she was misremembering the title of the book.  I asked if she could tell me what the story was about.  To paraphrase:

"It was the story of the Princess and the Pea, and there was a princess in the castle who didn't like peas but then she tried the peas and she liked them."

Hmm.

I turned to my handy friend NoveList to see if the database could help me solve this puzzle.  I decided to try searching for "Lily Rose May" first to see what came up since the girl seemed to remember that particular phrase very distinctly, even though I couldn't at all figure out how this phrase connected to the story.  Sure enough, the first title the came up in the results was the book she was looking for!

The book in question was, "The Princess and the Peas" by Caryl Hart.  In this story a girl named Lily-Rose May dislikes peas.  Her father takes her to the doctor who diagnoses her with princess-itus and sends her to live in a castle where she discovers that peas are the perfect princess food.  It seems that she eventually learns to like peas.  Turns out that the girl who was searching for the book has remembered the little girl character's very distinct name.  The fact that both the book's description and reviews of the book contain this name make finding this book a lot easier than I'd originally expected.

Wrapped Book Display

My Teen Advisory Group had a great idea for a book display this month.  We wrapped up books and set them out under a decorated Christmas tree.  I made up some stickers that listed the book's genre and affixed the stickers to the books.  People could then take one of the wrapped books and check them out with their library cards.  They wouldn't know anything about the book except for the genre until they took the book home and unwrapped it.

Since my library has RFID, checking out one of these wrapped books is super easy.  The wrapping paper doesn't get in the way of anything with RFID - just place the book on the pad and you're done.  Libraries that scan barcodes for checkout would need to take extra steps to either ensure that the books' barcodes remain visible or to write the barcode number on the wrapped book for manual entry.

December is a slow-ish month at the library with so much else going on, but the display has still been moderately successful.  The teens that I've spoken to who have checked out these books have all been intrigued by the mystery.

Just a little something...

Today I went to take a quick lunch break, leaving the Children's Desk unattended for a few minutes.  When I returned, this was waiting for me on the desk:

Awww!  Too sweet (even if we are missing an "r").

What Are You Thankful For?

November's teen passive program drew its inspiration directly from one of my favorite holidays:  Thanksgiving.  Bad news:  I neglected to take a picture of the display before taking it down.  You're stuck listening to me describe it instead.

Setting up this passive program was super easy.  I made a large sign on 17x11" paper with the question, "What are you thankful for?" written on it.  Then I put out some quarter sheets of colored paper and pens.  The teens could write their answers out and post them to the bulletin board.  Easy!

Most of the answers were very nice.

A few were a little bit more...interesting.

Teenagers:  Gotta love them!

I've also learned that when asking the teens to write something simple like this, a smaller piece of paper is best.  Even these quarter sheets were too large since the answers were so brief.  Next time I might use Post-Its, or perhaps cut these quarter sheets in half.

Teen Polls

For some time now I have been interested in trying different forms of passive programming in the teen area of the library.  Passive programming is great for library staff because it is (generally) much less time-consuming than traditional programming.  It's also great because your audience doesn't need to attend an event at a specific time to participate.  Staff just puts out the supplies needed and library patrons can do the activity whenever they are able to visit the library.  Everybody wins!  

During the month of October, I borrowed an idea that I had seen ages ago (so long ago that I can no longer site the article) in an issue of VOYA and put up three polls in the teen area.  The questions and the options that the teens had to choose from were each posted on a large 11" x 17" sheet of paper.  I also posted an envelope with stickers inside.  To vote, teens simply needed to take a sticker and stick it in the appropriate area to indicate their choice.  Easy!

I posted three questions in total, all of which were book-themed.  Click on the images below to get a closer look at my set-up and to better view the questions.

I wasn't sure what kind of response these polls would get, but we actually had a very good turnout for this passive program.  The number of votes for each poll ranged from 26-38 depending on the question - fantastic for one month's time if you ask me.  I could never get those kinds of numbers doing traditional "arrive at this time and do this activity" programs.  Even better, little things like this will help to give the teens a chance to express their opinions and get them engaged.

With the success of October's polls, I'm planning to roll out a new passive program each month during the school year in this area.  The specific activity will change from month to month.  Stay tuned for more!

Dog with Bunny Ears

Today a girl, five years old, came up to me and asked me to help her find a movie that she had once seen at the library.  She had never watched this movie before; she just remembered seeing it on the shelf at the library once and now wanted to check it out.  Naturally, she did not remember the title of the movie.  All she remembered was that the cover featured a picture of a dog with pink bunny ears.

??

A dog with pink bunny ears?  Doesn't that just sound ridiculous? Still, I am a professional, and I promised to do my best to help her figure out what the movie was.

I asked a few probing questions but, of course, since the girl had never actually seen the movie she couldn't tell me anything about the plot or the characters.  Her nearby father (not prone to being drawn to cute images of dogs in rabbit ears) was unable to offer any additional clues.  So I decided to take a leap and try searching for Easter DVDs.  I reasoned that Easter was the only real reason that a dog would have to wear pink bunny ears.  I turned to our catalog, did a search, and one particular movie's title jumped out at me:  "An Easter Bunny Puppy."  I was able to show the girl a picture of the movie's front cover and, sure enough, she instantly recognized this movie as the one she had seen.

I'm going to be prefectly honest with you:  This movie looks pretty bad.  It's gotten terrible reviews from viewers on Amazon and IMDB.  For the curious, here's a description of the plot according to IMDB:

"A Mystery writer is not thrilled when she's assigned to write a children's book, 'An Easter Bunny Puppy.' Out of ideas, she asks her daughter for help. Meanwhile, her dog, RUSS, the narrator of the story, digs up a priceless Faberge egg buried in the woods and takes it home with him, unaware that he's trailing a thief who stole the egg."

Still, even if the movie is bad it was exactly what this little girl wanted.  Most days it's impossible to track down a movie or book just based on a description of the cover and absolutely no other clues.  It felt kind of nice to uncover this mystery movie for a lucky library user. 

Star Wars Reads Day 2014

October 11 was Star Wars Reads Day, and for the second year I put together a program at the library to celebrate the event.  After getting some experience under my belt with this program last year, it was definitely easier to put everything together this time around.  Several of the activities that we did this year (the scavenger hunt, trivia contest, balloon lightsabers, and thumb doodle bookmarks) were reused or re-adapted from last year's program which made pulling things together a snap.  I did, however add a few activities to the mix to keep things interesting:

Activities Checklist

One thing that I had noticed at last year's program was that while we had lots of kids come into our main programming room to do our craft projects, many of the kids weren't visiting the Children's Room to look at the Star Wars book display.  This was a problem for me because in my mind, the book display was the main reason for having this event in the first place!  To encourage the kids to come into the Children's Room I did two things:  First, I put a few quieter activities in the Children's room to lure them in.  I also created a checklist of all of the activities (including checking out books!) that kids could try.  Kids who tried at least three activities could also drop off their checklists and be entered into a raffle for some Star Wars books.  This system seemed to work out really well.  Kids wandered around the library looking for different activities to try, and we had a lot more books get checked out compared to last year.

Fortune Wookies

A Fortune Wookie was featured in Tom Angelberger's third Origami Yoda book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookie.  This piece of origami is perhaps better known to most of us as a cootie catcher or fortune teller and in this case is styled to resemble the character Chewbacca.  Angelberger provides a printable template with instructions that kids can use to create their own Fortune Wookies.  I put these out along with some scissors and let the kids go to town.

Star Wars Stick Puppets

I found a PDF full of cute Star Wars printables here.  (Note:  When you follow this link, please scroll down to find the links to download the printables.  Don't use the big green "download here" button at the top of the page!  That's an add for something else entirely.)   One of my favorite activities, which I found in the first pack, was a set of printable, stylized Star Wars characters.  These characters could be cut out and then glued onto a craft stick to make an instant puppet.  I had been looking for another craft that would be preschool-friendly, and this project was a perfect fit since the puppets are very simple to make.  I also set up a table and wrapped it with a "skirt" (actually a couple of big black garbage bags) and encouraged kids to use the area as a stage and put on puppet shows once they were finished.  It took a little bit of prodding to get most of the kids to use the puppet stage, but once they warmed up to the idea it worked wonderfully.  It was super cute, and I like that it encouraged a bit of imaginative play and storytelling.

Star Wars Memory

Do you know how the game of Memory works?  Cards are laid face-down in a grid on a table.  Players take turns flipping over two of the cards.  If the cards match, then you get to keep the cards and take another turn.  If the cards do not match, then you flip the cards face-down again and it's the next person's turn.  Play continues until all cards are matched up, and the player with the most matches wins.

The pack of Star Wars printables that I mentioned earlier also contained the printouts needed for the Memory game.  Just print the sheets on cardstock and cut them apart to make your deck.  If you wanted to you could laminate the cards to make them extra durable, but I chose to skip this step and didn't have any problems.  Since I made two sets of cards, I put a different colored sticker on the back of each set to make things easier for me when they inevitably got mixed up.  I just put the cards out on the tables along with some basic instructions and let families go to town.  One thing that I especially liked about this activity was the way it got kids and parents to really interact with each other, rather than the parents just watching their kids have fun.

Star Wars Word Search

I wanted one more simple activity so I created a word search using this website.  There are lots of free online tools like this, but the thing that I especially liked about this one was that the "words" that I wanted to kids to search for could include spaces, allowing me to have the kids search for full character names like "Darth Vader" and "Han Solo."  I just came up with the words that I wanted included in the puzzle, plugged them into the website, and had it generate the word search for me.  I coppied their generated search onto a Publisher document and then added a few images, a heading, and of course the library's name.  Once I settled on this particular puzzle maker it took me all of about 10 minutes to create the word search.  Easy!


As always, Star Wars Reads Day was a great success.  Our total attendance was actually down slightly from last year, a fact that I attribute to the days' unseasonably warm and sunny weather.  Even if the numbers were down, however, we still had a solid turnout and the kids who did attend all had a great time.

Storytime: Silly Stories

Who doesn't love to laugh?  My goal with Silly Stories storytime was to get a few giggles from the crowd.  Mission accomplished.

Here are the books we read:

Bark, George by Jules Ffeifer
George is a puppy.  One day his mother says, "Bark, George."  But George does not bark.  Instead, he says "meow," "quack," "oink," and "moo."  So George's mother takes him to the vet, and the vet pulls out a host of animals from inside of him.  This book always makes the preschoolers crack up.  The little guys love it when they know something isn't quite right, and a dog making the sounds of another animal instead of going "arf" is a perfect example of this kind of silliness.

Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
"Silly Sally went to town, walking backwards upside down."  Silly is right in the title, so you know that this one just has to be good for a laugh.  I especially like the illustrations in this book, and the fact that it's goofy just for the sake of being goofy.

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
Four dust bunnies named Ned, Ed, Ted, and Bob always rhyme.  But when Ned, Ed, and Ted list off rhyming words, all Bob can say is, "Look out!"  This book is all about the delivery.  I read Bob's lines with a good sense of sudden panic, which usually inspires giggles.  This book is also a good segue into talking about phonological awareness if you like to incorporate early literacy into your storytimes. 

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewis
One day the cows find a typewrite in their barn.  They leave a note for Farmer brown demanding electric blankets.  So begins a silly bit of barnyard labor negotiation that will please kids and adults alike. 

Of course, we had to do some silly activities too.  First, we listened to Raffi's song, "Shake My Sillies Out" and wiggled our waggles away right along with him.

Later we sang and acted out the song, "Icky Sticky Bubble Gum":

Icky, icky, sticky, sticky bubble gum,
Bubble gum, bubble gum,
Icky, icky, sticky, sticky bubble gum,
Makes your hands stick to your face!
Then you stretch it, and yank it, and pull it away!

Put hands on your face.
Pretend hands are stuck, then pull them away from your body.
Repeat as many times as desired with different body parts.

I also like to frame this song with a bit of narrative, which not only helps to set the mood but also gets the kids back to their seats and ready to listen when the song is over.  We hold up an imaginary stick of bubble gum, unwrap it, throw away the wrapper, chew the gum, and blow big bubbles.  When the song is over we throw away our bubble gum, turn on the water at the sink, wash our hands with soap and water, turn off the water, and dry our hands on a towel.


Finally we finished off this storytime with a craft.  We made Dust Bunnies (a la Rhyming Dust Bunnies) out of yarn.

My version of this project was adapted from a blog post that I found here.  This craft definitely required some adult help, but it was totally worth a bit of fussiness.  To make the dust bunnies, you need to make a basic pom-pom.  I had the kids wrap the yarn around their own hands 50 times (an opportunity to practice counting big numbers was a nice bonus).  Then with a grown-up's help they would slide the yarn off of their hands, cut the yarn, and then wrap a new length of yarn around the middle of the loop they had just created.  A grown-up would help them tie a nice, tight knot and fluff out the pom-pom.  They then glued some googly eyes and a paper nose to the pom pom to give their dust bunny a face.

What letter is this?

I don't know exactly why this cracked me up so much, but it did:

Mom and her daughter (4-5 years old) were reading an alphabet book together.  Mom pointed to the big letter S on the page and asked her daughter, "What letter is that?"  Daughter's response:  "Two!"

I guess I can see how the letter S and the number 2 look pretty similar.  But numbers and letters are not the same thing...

Teen Program: Angy Birds LIVE

Traditionally, the last teen program of the summer is held after hours.  This allows us to use the library space in unique ways and, since the teens basically get the library all to themselves and can make as much noise as they want, it really makes the program special for the teens who attend.  This year I was inspired by a few other libraries' success stories to try out a program that had been on my radar for awhile:  Angry Birds LIVE.

Most people are familiar with the Angry Birds game, which is an video game made popular as an app on mobile devices (iOS, Android, etc.) which, thanks to its incredible popularity, is now also available on other platforms.  The premise of the game is simple:  Pigs are positioned in/on various structures.  The player's goal is to destroy the pigs by using a slingshot to fling a variety of wingless birds at the structure, hopefully knocking it and the pigs to the ground.

Creating a "live" version of the game was actually pretty simple.  Well in advance, I asked the library's administrative assistant to set aside boxes for me as we received deliveries at the library.  In one or two months' time I had collected 60 boxes, mostly Baker & Taylor boxes of uniform size, for this project.  We then used these boxes to build structures that mimicked the levels seen in the Angry Birds game.  I also purchased some small playground balls from Oriental Trading which came printed with birds' faces on them.  Not exactly trademarked Angry Birds materials, but it was close enough to give the general idea without being too terribly expensive.  I brought bath towels from home to use as rudimentary sling shots.  The only other supply that we used, which is strictly optional but helped to set the mood, was green balloons, which were taped to paper cups and set on our structures as the pigs.  My summer helper even decorated the balloons with pig faces - they were super cute!

I had seen a number of posts from other librarians online describing their versions of such a program.  Some of the most helpful ones that I used in planning can be found here:

Teen Librarian's Toolbox
The Show Me Librarian

I more or less followed these librarians' descriptions of how to put this program together in terms of what supplies to use and how to play the game.  I did make one major change, however.  Most of the program descriptions that I came across had this event taking place in a large program room, where participants were also responsible for designing the structures themselves and then knocking them over.  This is a very good way to do it, and I love that this kind of program is creative play at its best from start to finish.  However, I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were in the library after hours and I wanted to use as much of the library's space as I could.  My solution was to instead design six "levels" of the game in advance.  Each level was assigned a location in the library, and the teens could wander from level to level to try their hand at the game with a different structure, kind of like a game of mini golf.  This was a little more work for me, but it was the only solution that I could come up with that let us take advantage of the library's space.

 Because we were going to be spread out all over the library, I wanted to have someone present who could be in charge of each level.  I recruited six volunteers, one for each level, to help out with this program.  Each volunteer was assigned a level, given a diagram of how it was set up, and shown where his/her level was to be located.  It was the volunteer's job to be the person in charge of the level - to make sure that it was rebuilt after it was knocked over (though I also told them to make the participating teens help out with this), help chase down the balls when they went flying, and basically be the person in charge to made sure that the teens didn't do anything stupid.  Myself and another staff person were then able to wander around from station to station, mingling with the teens, taking pictures, replacing pigs as their balloons were popped, keeping track of the time, etc.

In the end, 25 teens attended this program.  They divided themselves into six groups, and each group was given about 8 minutes to try each level before I flexed my vocal chords by yelling really loudly for them to help reset the level and move on to the next one.  We were able to go through all six levels in about an hour's time.  Since destruction is always fun the teens generally were eager to try each level multiple times, which was good because it generally only took the teens about two minutes to successfully "complete" each level. 

I had created a scorecard for the teens to use, but didn't exactly expect that they would care enough to keep score.  And I was absolutely right about this - no one kept score, and they had a great time anyway.  The big thing that they did take from the scorecard was the set of optional rules printed on the back, which basically gave each color bird a different way that it could be used and launched.  I didn't even directly point this out the teens and figured that those teens who wanted to use these rules could, and those who preferred to play the game in its most straightforward manner could do that.  The groups were split about 50-50 when it came to using these optional rules.

The only hiccup that we came across was the fact that the small playground balls that I had purchased were actually almost too small and light to pack enough force to knock the large boxes over using the typical slingshot method.  We did find throwing the balls to be a more effective technique than using the slingshot, and slinging multiple balls at once also seemed to work well.  The teens, however, had no complaints about the balls that we used.  Part of me wonders if coming up with a solution to this problem was part of the appeal.  Smaller boxes, of course, would be easier to knock over but have the drawback of making each level smaller as a whole.

All in all, this program was a tremendous hit.  It was actually pretty easy and relatively inexpensive to plan - the balls were the only real expense, and I bet that a diligent shopper could find something fairly comparable to the balls that I used for cheaper.  Even still, now that the balls our purchased we have them at our disposal for future programs.  Most importantly, it was just so much fun to give the teens a chance to play.  Yes, you can make the argument that there's a science lesson to be found in this activity and that we're promoting teamwork, etc.  But the bottom line is that they had a good time just goofing off while playing a game.  Can't beat that.

Because this program was so successful (and because one six-year-old was practically in tears when we told him that this program was only for teens) we are planning to recreate the event on a smaller scale in our Community Room for kids of all ages in November.

Teen Program: Egg Drop

This summer was pretty crazy at the library.  Summer is always crazy with extra traffic, kids desperate to report their reading and earn prizes, and programs happening every day of the week.  For myself personally, it was also hectic because I was, through a series of convoluted events that I won't get into here, forced to come back from my maternity leave just in time for summer reading to begin.  Crazy!

Fortunately, I had done a ton of planning for this year's Teen Summer Reading Program well in advance.  Good thing to, because this year we had record numbers of teens signing up to participate in our special events.

Our best-attended program of the summer was our Egg Drop, which a whopping 28 teens participated in.  This program was based on a widely popular physics project done at many middle and high schools.  The idea is to challenge the participants to construct something that will protect an egg that is dropped from a great height and prevent it from breaking.  Teens need to use a little bit of ingenuity to figure out how to displace the force of the impact using a few basic supplies.

We set up several tables for the teens to work at with four chairs at each table.  Each table was given a single egg and the teens worked together to build an egg-protecting contraption.  This was great for encouraging the teens to be social and to promote teamwork and cooperation.  We set up a supply table with a variety of objects that the teens could use to construct their contraptions.  Supplies included:  Berry baskets, styrofoam, cardboard, plastic bags, string, toilet paper tubes, craft sticks, and of course, scissors and tape.  The teens were encouraged when they signed up for the program to think about designs in advance and bring any supplies from home that they might need, but most were happy to just use what we had on hand.

We basically told the teens what the goal was, showed them a few of the supplies at the supply table, and then just let them go to town.  We gave them about 40 minutes to build their contraptions, and much of this time was also filled with socializing and snacking.  I made a point of walking from group to group to ask them about their contraptions and many were eager to show off their ingenuity.

When time was up we went over to our drop point in the library.  My library has a fairly unique two-floor construction, with a main floor on ground level and an open basement below.  There is a large open space in the center of the main floor surrounded by a rail that looks down on the lower level.  We found a spot along this rail that didn't have much that could be disturbed below it, covered it in plastic tablecloths, and marked it off as the area where the eggs and their respective contraptions would be dropped.

The teens gathered on the lower level near the drop point to observe, and groups were called one at a time to go upstairs and drop their contraptions.  The group then had to come back downstairs to open up their contraption to see if their egg survived the fall.  All in all, the dropping portion of this program took a little over 20 minutes with (if I remember correctly) 9 groups.  Yes, we were a bit noisy out in the middle of the library.  But most of the other patrons in the area were actually really interested in what the teens were doing and came by to observe.  I also think that it was nice doing a program like this out in a public place so that other people could see the teens in action doing something positive at the library.

Generally this was a very successful program.  There is only one thing that I would change if we were to do this program again:  I wouldn't include so many packing supplies on the supply table.  I might even leave the styrofoam and bubble wrap out completely.  These materials are built specifically to protect the objects inside from impact, and I think that providing these materials made building successful contraptions a little too easy.  We didn't have a single egg casualty and I would say that at least six of the nine contraptions had more or less the same secure design.  While there is something to be said for such a high success rate, it could have been nice to see more variety and to encourage a little more creative thinking.

Book-to-Movie: Divergent

This week we showed the movie "Divergent" here at the library.  The books upon which this movie was based, written by Veronica Roth, have been hugely popular - so much so that the multiple copies of the book that my library owns are always checked out, with an incredibly long hold list that ensures that we won't be seeing the book anytime soon.  It's no surprise that, in a movie market that is happy to turn successful YA books into film, this series was quickly optioned and adapted to the big screen by Summit Entertainment.  The film was released in theaters in March 2014 and came out on DVD and BluRay on August 5.

Our showing of the film here at the library was quite successful.  Thirty people attended this program and, just as when we showed "The Hunger Games" back in 2012, I was impressed at the number of adults - several parents and a few stand-alone adults - who were interested in seeing this movie with the teens.  It is exciting to see more opportunities for intergenerational programming here at the library thanks to the growing cross-appeal of YA books and movies.

Clearly, the movie is popular.  But was it actually any good?

In my humble opinion, the answer to that question is highly debatable.

When it comes to the movie's ability to translate what happens in the book onto the big screen, I would say that it did quite well.  As I was watching the movie I could think of only one event from the book that was left out of the movie, and though this scene was powerful in the book, I completely understand why this cut was made (time, lack of lasting impact on the series).  As far as my memory is concerned, watching the movie was just like reading the book when it comes to plot. This should please most fans of the book immensely.

There is actually very little significantly wrong with the film.  Fights are well choreographed.  Kate Winslet is significantly villainous as Jeanine Mathews.  I truly enjoyed being able to see the different factions and how each one is symbolized by a different color scheme and sense of design.  Yet this movie just didn't "wow" me.  It was fine.  Maybe I'm just a bit tired of the genre, but I couldn't help but feel that I'd heard this story before, only told better.

My biggest complaint will probably spark some debate since most critics seem to feel differently than I did:  I just didn't care for Shailene Woodley as Tris.  In both the book and in the movie, Four comments that fear doesn't shut Tris down; it instead wakes her up.  I frankly never really saw Tris wake up in this movie.  I saw her jump off of trains and get into fights and go through all of the brave motions she is supposed to.  But I never saw that spark in her eyes, that moment of desperation that drives her to be brave and to enjoy her new freedom.

Still, even if the movie isn't perfect, it is reasonably entertaining.  And since it does such a good job of portraying the plot of the book I'm willing to bet that the majority of fans will be satisfied.

Overall Quality of the Film:  C+
Overall Faithfulness to the Book:  A

Don't Discount YA Literature, Part III: Books to Try

I've spent some time lately talking about books written for teens and the ways that adult readers might come to these books with some inherent prejudices.  In fact I've written two different posts on the subject (see links at the bottom of this post).

Having these sorts of inherent prejudices against books written for this age group is problematic.  There is no reason at all why Young Adult books would not be as well-written as those written for adults.  In fact, I would imagine that, when looked at by percentages, there are just as many amazing books for teens as there are for adults!

I like to think that those adults who have such low expectations of Young Adult books just have not yet stumbled upon that one amazing YA read that makes them want to explore more of the genre.  I strongly believe that just about any YA book can be enjoyed by just about any open-minded adult reader.  If you're an adult looking for the best of the best in the genre here are a few books that might get you hooked on YA:


The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Charlie is a high school freshman and he's not particularly popular.  As he writes letters to a "friend" describing his difficult life, he finds himself taken in by a few gregarious seniors and, with their help, navigates his way through a host of new experiences including sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A powerful novel that is deeper than the sum of its parts.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Mattie is a girl with big dreams of going to college, but given her farming family's needs and low expectations that typified 1906, she has little hope of seeing them come true.  Mattie is able to take a job at the Glenmore Hotel and hopes to set aside her earnings, but an unusual request from one of the hotel's patrons leads to a mystery that Mattie never expected.  A historic setting, a true crime murder mystery, lyrical writing, and solid characters come together to create an absorbing read.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
See what all the fuss is about by checking out this book about two teens with terminal illnesses who fall in love while trying to uncover the ending of one of their favorite books.  The book will make you laugh at cry at the same time.  Is the hold list too long for your liking?  I'd actually strongly recommend any book by this widely popular author, so try Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, or Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Bobby is your typical teenage boy in Harlem.  When his girlfriend announces that she is pregnant, the two of them suddenly find themselves faced with decisions that they never thought they'd need to make. Angela Johnson's writing is poetic and lovely to read and transforms this premise from obvious to amazing.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Sam is an unassuming young adult working a dead-end fast food job.  Then one evening Douglas, a creepy and violent necromancer, wanders into the restaurant and sees plenty of potential in Sam.  That's when things start to get interesting.  This supernatural story is full of both humor and gore, and while this genre is stereotypically enjoyed by teens, adult fans of the genre will find plenty to like here.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
The two title characters meet when they find themselves sitting together on the bus, and they soon bond - and eventually fall in love - over Park's comics.  But everyone knows that first love doesn't usually last, and soon Eleanor's troubled home life threatens to tear the two apart.  Author Rainbow Rowell's voice is like a breath of fresh air as you read.  I also highly recommend another of Rowell's books, Fangirl.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Karou, an art student in Prague with fantastic blue hair, fills her sketchbooks with incredible monsters.  Little does anyone know that these monsters are real.  Karou has grown up with these chimera and is a part of their lives, traveling the world on mysterious errands to retrieve teeth for Brimstone, the monster who fills the role of her father.  Yet Karou has always felt that something was missing from her life  When the magical doors that allow for her travel are suddenly destroyed and her chimera family is killed, Karou just might find the answers she is looking for from the beautiful angel Akiva.  This fantastic novel is one part globe-trotting modern fantasy and one part heart-pounding romance, written with a grace and maturity that will make this book plenty palatable to adult readers.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Verity is a spy who finds herself captured by the Gestapo and Nazi-occupied France.  Her captors present her with two options:  Tell them what her mission was, or suffer the consequences.  She composes her story on scraps of paper, telling an intricate tale of courage, hope and friendship.  Meanwhile her best friend Maddie, who was also the pilot of the plane whose crash lead to Verity's capture, hopes to rescue her friend before it is too late.  This is a powerful story that sneaks up on a reader slowly.

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
Matt and his sisters are deeply unhappy as they try to survive under the tyranny of their abusive mother.  Matt sees a glimmer of hope when their mother begins dating Murdoch, an upstanding man that Matt hopes can save them.  But will it be enough?  Or will Matt need to take a stand on his own?  Readers will find themselves rooting for Matt and his sisters as they try their best to pick up the pieces of their lives.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Narrated by Death himself, this book set in Nazi Germany tells the story of a girl, her foster family, a Jew, and a love of books.  The unique narration (Death as the comic relief in an otherwise heavy story) makes an otherwise awesome book truly stand out in the crowd.


See Also:  Don't Discount YA Literature
See also:  DDYL, Part II:  The Dos and Don'ts of Criticism

It's Been Awhile

Readers, it has been awhile.  I last posted to this blog way back in late February.  That's a little over five months ago.  Oops. 

I've been plenty busy during that time.  Namely, I went and had a baby.  She is, in my humble opinion, the greatest baby on the planet.  But she does keep me plenty busy, thus the lack of blog posts.  I have only returned to work full-time this week and I'm not going to lie:  Coming back to work has been very, very difficult.  It's a good thing I love my job or I'd be in some real trouble.

Lots of fun things have been happening around the library since my last post.  The Summer Library Program just drew to a close, and even though I was only a part-time librarian during this time I still have lots of fantastic stories to tell about our very successful program.  I'm optimistically hoping to have the time and the energy to go back and blog about a few of them, so watch this space for new posts soon.  In the meantime, please send me happy vibes and I balance to joys of motherhood with the joys of being an awesome librarian.

Bad Things

The other day a girl, maybe in the 4th grade or so, came up to me and asked for help:

Girl:  "Can you help me find a series?"
Me:  "Sure.  Was there a certain series that you wanted, or do you just need help finding something new to read?"
Girl:  "It was a series where bad things happen..."
Me:  "Oh, I know what you're looking for!"

Instantly I knew exactly which series of books this girl was looking for, possibly because this particular series has a very soft place in my heart.  The books in question were Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  Each book in this series describes the trials and tribulations of the recently orphaned Baudelaire children and their efforts to remain out of the clutches of their evil uncle, Count Olaf.

Admittedly, bad things happen is lots of children's books.  This girl's vague description could have described any of a number of books or book series.  But instinct told me to look for Lemony Snicket, and of course my instincts proved correct.

Don't Discount YA Literature, Part II: The Dos and Don'ts of Criticism

Last week I talked about a certain amount of prejudice that seems to exist in the minds of many adult readers when it comes to books written for teens.  My complaint is that many adult readers of YA novels seem to either expect that the book will be flawed, or will readily excuse any flaws in the novel because of the target audience.

I will admit that not every YA book is a masterpiece.  There will be books out there that do have their problems, and it's perfectly acceptable for a reader to voice their criticisms of the novel.  However, we can very rarely can we chalk these flaws up simply to the book's target audience.  It is important instead for readers to really think about and be able to define exactly what a book's problem's are when reviewing, discussing, or otherwise critiquing a YA (or any other) novel.  This way they will not fall into the trap of immediately placing blame for a book's inadequacies on the perceived target audience.

Here are a few common critiques that I have seen made of YA books by adult readers.  I will be attempting to define what is or is not productive about such comments and, if needed, explore alternative ways to more concretely express dissatisfaction with a novel:

"This book had its problems, but it's a YA novel so I kind of expected it."
Should you be making this comment:  I hope not!  I'm very sorry if you've had bad experiences with YA novels in the past, but please do not assume that all YA novels are poorly written.  They're not.
Better ways to deal with this reaction:  Unfortunately, there might not be a better way of expressing this type of reaction.  But exactly why is it that you have such low expectations for this kind of book?  If you find yourself making this comment frequently then it might be time for you to try some different YA novels.  More on that to come in a future post.

"I was willing to let a few things go with this novel because it's a YA book."
Should you be making this comment:  NO!  It's perfectly fine if you decide to let a few minor flaws go with a book.  Readers of all kinds - myself included - do this all the time.  What is not okay with this kind of comment is the implied assumption that all YA novels will have problems or that it's somehow more acceptable for books written for teens to have these problems.
Better ways to deal with this reaction:  "This book wasn't perfect, but I was willing to let the flaws go.  Here are the flaws.  Also, here are the things that I did like that really made this book work for me."

"Ugh, teenagers are so annoying.  I hated the characters."
Should you be making this comment:  NO!  Teenagers as a whole should not grate on your nerves because no two teens - or teen characters in novels - are alike.  This sort of broad generalization is a bit unfair to an entire demographic of very real people and fictional characters.  It's fine if you didn't like the characters in one particular book.  That happens.  What's not okay is blindly assuming that all teen book characters are terrible.
Better ways to deal with this reaction:  "I did not care for the characters in this book.  Here's why."

"This book was nothing but teen angst."
Should you be making this comment:  Probably not.  Do you know what "angst" really is?  It basically means that the character has an emotional situation that needs dealing with that is causing him/her some sort of duress, and it not exclusive to teenagers.  Conflicts like this exist in books written for all ages, not just YA novels, and these sorts of concerns are necessary to drive the plot and create an interesting book.  As with anything else there will be situations where angst is over or poorly used, but if you really try to put yourself in the character's shoes you'll see that most of the time their concerns have real foundation.
Better ways to deal with this reaction:  Just be careful not to throw the word "angst" out there too readily.  It's an apt word in some cases, but the phrase "teen angst" has such a negative connotation that it should not be used lightly.  Try to understand the source of the "angst" before you critique it too harshly - a little understanding can make a situation seem more like "conflict" than "angst."

"I'm not a teenager, so I couldn't identify with the characters/plot/setting of this YA novel."
Should you be making this comment:  I hope not!  The vast majority of the conflicts and issues that teen characters are dealing with in YA novels actually apply to the adult world too - relationship woes, conflicts with family, dissatisfaction with the society we live in, trying to find one's place int he world, bullying, violence...the list goes on.  Admittedly, a teenage character lacks the life experience that, say, a 40-year-old adult has when dealing with some of these problems, so they might go about it differently.  This is an opportunity for the reader to really put on their empathy shoes and try to explore something that is unfamiliar.  This should be exciting, not alienating.
Better ways to deal with this reaction:  Before responding this way to a book, reflect on the situation that you had trouble identifying with.  Really flex those empathy muscles and make an honest effort to try to understand whatever it is that initially seems so foreign to you.  If you still feel alienated, then that's fine.  It'll happen.  But please keep an open mind and be open to discussion with someone who was better able to identify with the book.

The moral of the story:  Be thoughtful.  Be empathetic.  Be open minded.  If you've done all of these things and still find yourself unsatisfied with a book then that's fine.  You don't have to like everything.  But please make a sincere effort to try.

See also:  Don't Discount YA Literature
See also:  DDYL, Part III:  Books to Try

Heart Stamping

This week for storytime we got ready to celebrate a special holiday - Valentine's Day.  We read some of my favorite Valentine's Day stories (outlined in this post from a few years ago) and did a sweet rhyme together:

I Have a Little Heart

 I have a little heart, 

             (place hand over heart)
And it goes thump, thump, thump,
             (pat chest three times)
It keeps right on beating,
when I jump, jump, jump
             (jump three times)
I get a special feeling,
when I look at you.
             (point to child)
It makes me want to give you,
A kiss or two.

             (blow kiss)

To finish off storytime, we did a special stamping craft.  I've seen the basic idea for this craft in several places online, but this is the blog post that I pinned to my Pinterest board and referenced as I was getting my supplies together.

For a few weeks before storytime I spent some time gathering toilet paper tubes.  Library staff brought some from home, and we also asked the library's cleaning staff to save any that they came across while cleaning our bathrooms, and we had a very good stock collected in only two weeks time.  Just as is described in the blog post linked to above, I flattened the tubes and shaped them into hearts, using a piece of tape to hold the curved pieces in place.  After storytime we gathered around our craft table and I set out the tubes and pans with four different colors of paint.  The kids could dip the heart-shaped tubes into the paint and use them as a stamp to make heart shapes on their paper.  

 The finished heart collages were all lovely, and the kids had a great time experimenting with the different colors of paint.  There was almost no mess with this project either - the kids were warned to be careful with the paint and adults were on hand to supervise, but I really think that most of the kids were so focused on the task of careful stamping that it never even occurred to them to try and make a mess.

Don't Discount YA Literature

One of my greatest pet peeves of all time is when an adult has read a Young Adult novel and makes a comment something to this effect:

"This book had its problems, but it was a YA book so I didn't mind."

Or alternatively:

"It's a YA book, so I expected this book to not be awesome."

I think that this attitude is a real problem.  It makes me sad that so many adults out there have lower expectations of books that are written and marketed for a teen audience than they do for book that are marketed for adults.  I can't even imagine what the cause of this prejudice might be.

Is it because at one point in the not-to-distant past a series of books about sparkly vampires (or who who knows what other topic) turned them off from the genre?  But it hardly seems fair to judge an entire body of literature based on a few bad experiences.  Do we discount novels written for adults because we once read a book that we didn't care for?  I don't think so.

Is it because people have lower expectations of teenagers, and therefore have lower expectations of books that are written and published with them in mind?  Let me answer that question with another question:  Have you spoken to a 14-year-old recently?  I have - it's my job, after all - and most teens that I've spoken to are able to define what they do and do not like about certain books.  Teens know what they want, and they know how to pick out the good books from the bad ones.  Teens, like their books, will certainly surprise you with what they are capable of doing an enjoying.  Besides, teens are very rarely the ones creating YA books; they are written and published by adults.  YA is not the market where B-list authors and publishers are banished to when they can't hack it in the adult market.  In fact, many authors will admit that they didn't quite realize that they had written a YA book until their publisher defined it as such.  These creators are incredibly talented people who work hard at their craft and who should be held to the same standards as the authors of adult materials.

Is it because when today's adults were teens, the market for YA books was vastly different than it is today?  Perhaps, but consider the realities of the changing publishing world.  Could you not find a good book to read at your library when you were a teenager?  Maybe not because when you were a teen the market for YA books was much, much smaller than it is today - perhaps even non-existent depending on your age - so it was less likely for there to be a book on the shelf that suited your particular tastes.  The market for YA books has grown vastly over the course of the past 15 years or so, and this means that the demand for quality material has also increased.  The creation of the Michael L. Printz award in 2000 also encouraged publishers to increase the quality of the YA books published, and they have certainly responded in kind.  Don't assume that because you were not happy with the available books during your teen days that today's readers will have a similar problem.

When it comes down to it, there are lots and lots of amazing books written for teens out there being published today.  Adults should take notice!  Don't feel guilty about picking up a novel with a YA sticker on it, because even though it's marketed for a younger audience it's probably awesome.

Admittedly, not every YA book is brilliant.  There are sub-par books out there.  But there are also lots of sub-par books out there written and marketed for an adult audience.  We really need to hold books written for both markets to the same standards and not make snap judgments about books written for teens because of whatever prejudices we may have.  Literature is literature no matter who the publisher's target audience might be.  Go out there and enjoy it.



I have more to say on this subject, but I think that I'll save these thoughts for another post.  Look for more soon!  In the meantime, check out this article, or this article, both of which also do a fantastic job of talking about the awesome YA lit that is out there and why adults should not automatically discount it.

See also:  DDYL, Part II: The Dos and Don'ts of Criticism
See also:  DDYL, Part III:  Books to Try

Divergent Trailer

Today I stumbled upon another trailer for the upcoming Divergent movie.  I was not thrilled with the first trailer, but this one is a lot more compelling:



What do you think?

Divergent will be released in theaters on March 21, 2014.

New Design

Hello everyone,

If you're reading this, than I'm sure that you've noticed that I have changed the design of this blog a bit.  The layout is more or less the same for now, but the design and color scheme is quite different.  I'm hoping that this design is a little easier on the eyes.

I'm hoping to make a few other minor tweaks soon to this blog in terms of the layout and design.  We'll see if that plan actually comes to fruition, because this librarian has a lot of other projects on her plate at the moment.

Thanks again for reading!

Mystery Book: Animals at the Market?

A father came in with his young son, about age 3-4.  Dad was looking for a picture book that they had read and enjoyed together before, but could not remember the title or the author.  I agreed to play detective to help him find this mystery favorite.  Here's what Dad told me:

"This book was about 7 or 8 different animals - actually, that might have been part of the title.  These animals all went to the market together and the cow drank all the milk, the little dog ate up all the bones...things like that."

The father was also able to show me that he had originally found this book in one of our browsing bins.  He even specifically remembered that it must have been one of three particular bins because they were in the area where his son likes to play.  Since our browsing bins are intended to be sorted roughly by the author's name, this gave me the hint that the author of the book likely had a last name that fell within the C-G range.

None of these clues rang any particular bells with me, so I turned to my friend Novelist K-8.  I started out by using two keywords that I had pulled directly from the father's description of the book:  "animals," and "market."  Typing these two keywords into Novelist's very smart database came back with several hundred possible matches, but after inspecting the first few search results I was able to quickly uncover the book that we were searching for.

The book in question was Eight Animals on the Town by Susan Middleton Elya.  Just as this parent described, this book tells of eight animals who go into town to find some dinner.  They visit the market and each animal finds something good to eat, followed by dancing and the animals' drive home.  What really stands out about this book - and was, interestingly enough, not at all mentioned by this bilingual father - is the way that Spanish words are seamlessly incorporated into the story, both in the text and the illustrations.

Dad was thrilled that I was able to track down the book, and his son was excited to see this favorite story again.  Success!

The Fault in Our Stars

The trailer for the movie "The Fault in Our Stars," based on the widely popular book by John Green, was recently released to the public.



Despite the fact that I feel that this trailer really focuses its attention on the more uplifting/romantic aspects of the story, it still makes be cry every time I watch it.  Perhaps the raging pregnancy hormones have something to do with that.  Hard to say for sure given the content - the book made me sob too.

The film will appear in theaters on June 6, 2014.

2014 Youth Media Awards

On Monday the American Library Association announced the winners of the 2014 Youth Media Awards.  These awards are given to the best of the best in children's literature in a variety of categories.  Today I'm going to focus on the two oldest and, arguably, most prestigious awards:  The Caldecott and Newbery Medals.  To see a full list of the awards and this year's winners, click here.

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children."  This year the award goes to a lovely piece of picture book nonfiction:  Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Flocca.  This book will transport readers back to the sepia-toned days of the old West, when travel by train was new and exciting.  Plenty of details about trains and train travel are provided.  For example, did you know that back in 1869 toilets on the train were nothing but a hole in the floor?  Even the text of this book is rendered beautifully, with certain words printed in a special typeface with a scale and color that really makes the text move along with the train.  This book was graced with another awards, the Sibert honor, for its roles as a great work of nonfiction for children.  Nonfiction does not often win other awards, so Locomotive's receipt of the Caldecott Medal is especially notable.

Three Caldecott Honor books were also named:

• Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
• Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
• Mr. Wuffles! written and illustrated by David Weisner

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is awarded each year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature."  This year the award goes to the book Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, written by past Newbery winner Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell.  This this unique novel, Flora is a cynical young girl who also happens to be a fan of the comic series Terrible Things Can Happen to You.  When her neighbor accidentally vacuums up an unsuspecting squirrel, Flora discovers that Ulysses has been born anew with powers worthy of the comics, including flight, super strength, and the ability to write poetry.  Flora takes Ulysses under her wing and with the help of her squirrel friend, her unusual yet kind-hearted neighbors, and her father, she learns to overcome her cynicism and once again feel hope and love.  This novel is written mostly in lovely prose, though periodic comic-style illustrations show readers the action from Ulysses' viewpoint.  This is a fantastic book for readers of all types.

Four Newbery Honor books were also named:

• Doll Bones, by Holly Black
• The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
• One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
• Paperboy by Vince Vawter

My Thoughts

This was a good year for picture books, and I know that I had an especially hard time predicting who the winner of the Caldecott Medal would be.  Despite this deep pool of talent I am not at all surprised to see most of the books that were granted Caldecott Medals or Honors on this list!  I'd expected Aaron Becker's Journey (which is a wordless story reminiscent of the classic Harold and the Purple Crayon but with tons of lush detail) to take the shiny gold medal, but Locomotive's charm makes it easy to accept the committee's final listing.  David Weisner's Mr. Wuffles! is also a delight, and it's definitely my favorite book from this outstanding author in quite some time.  The only real surprise for me on this list comes in the form of Flora and the Flamingo, which though certainly charming took me by surprise when it was named an honor book.  Still, it's sure to be a hit with young girls everywhere.

There were actually very few truly stand-out children's novels this year in my mind, so I was thrilled to see that my favorites from the year were all graced with awards of some kind.  I'd really expected the Medal to go to either Doll Bones or The Year of Billy Miller, both of which I found to be outstanding books.  Looking back on it, I can definitely see how Flora and Ulysses's style and charm won over the committee.  Its elegant prose, whimsical characters, and even the comic illustrations all work well together and make this novel stand out from the pack.  Time and energy permitting, reviews for these three great books may be forthcoming on this blog.  Authors Amy Timberlake and Kevin Henkes are both Wisconsin-born authors, and it's nice to see my home state represented so well at this year's awards.  Paperboy, however, was not even on my radar.  I'll need to explore this one on my own to discover what exactly it was that made this book a winner during what I felt was a off year for children's novels.