Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading, and daydreaming

On Monday author Neil Gaiman made a speech to the Reading Agency in London.  Since then, the speech has been transcribed and shared all around the Internet.  It's actually a beautiful speech, and it explains quite well why reading, and especially why reading for pleasure, is so important for children.  The speech is a bit long, but it's definitely worth it.  Enjoy!

Sheboygan Children's Book Festival - M.T. Anderson

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Sheboygan Children's Book Festival. This wonderful festival is in its second year, and I was quite happy with this year's programs. A number of authors and illustrators are invited to attend the event where they give a series of special presentations to anyone interested in hearing about these authors' books, lives, and influences. Younger children are also invited to interact with illustrators, creating world of art in studio workshops. Best of all, these wonderful authors all took the time to meet individually with those attending the festival to sign autographs.

There were a number of really wonderful moments that I was able to experience this weekend. But one of my favorite moments came from a presentation by M.T. Anderson, author of such books as Whales on Stilts, Feed, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.

First of all, you have to understand that M.T. Anderson is really, really funny. Admittedly not all of Anderson's books are funny. But now I can see exactly where a book like Whales on Stilts gets its absurd humor. The presentation I attended was all about how Anderson once wanted to write books about exotic locations, having been influenced by such books as a child. In particular he referenced the old comic Conan the Barbarian as one of his influences.


Andersen then proceeded to describe how he had mentioned this at a previous presentation and someone in the audience had misheard him, instead hearing "Conan the Librarian." He thought that was a great image - the butt-kicking librarian. And you all know how I feel about that idea.


Love it!

Honestly, the rest of M.T. Anderson's presentation was just as awesome, with stories about his hilariously failed attempts as speaking French and eating foreign food. This failure at world travel inspired Anderson to instead write stories about exotic places in the United States. Places like Delaware. Don't think that this petite state is really exotic? Check out Anderson's Tourist's Guide to Delaware to get the real story about this exciting state. Even better, check out his book Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware (part of the Pals in Peril series).

Brian Jacques

Everyone has a book that defines their childhood. Not just a favorite book, one that you really enjoyed. Instead, this is a book that sets the tone for the rest of your reading life, that influences you in some kind of profound way. Maybe you don't realize how much this book affects you at the time, but I have to believe that every child who reads encounters a book like this at least once in their lifetime.

For me, that book was Redwall by Brian Jacques. I first read this book when I was 12 years old after one of my cousins gave the book a glowing review. Now, I didn't exactly run straight to the library and search for this book. I didn't even have active intentions of finding the book at all. But on a later visit to the library I did happen to come across it and, remembering my cousin's love for the book and intrigued by the idea of warrior mice, decided to give it a shot.

Let me tell you, whatever whim of fancy convinced me to take Redwall home with me changed my reading life forever.

At 352 pages long this was at the time the longest book I had ever read. Yet I was not at all intimidated by the small-ish type of the book's thickness. I read the book with great relish as its vivid descriptions, harrowing adventures, and sharp characters sucked me into the story. I was hooked.

As soon as I was finished I immediately set out to track down the rest of the series. For a solid 2-3 year period Redwall books were just about all that I read as I dove into each novel over and over again, reliving the adventures of Mossflower's woodland creatures with as much enthusiasm as I had the first time around. In time I would branch out to other authors and genres, but my favorites are often books that remind me on some level of Redwall. More importantly, these books taught me how to appreciate good writing. No one can describe a scene, an action sequence, or a feast like Brian Jacques.

Fast forward to February 2011. I'm now an adult and working as a children's librarian. And sadly I learned that Brian Jacques had passed away thanks to a sudden heart attack. I mourned the passing of this beloved author. I also mourned a little bit for my childhood.

Fast forward again to early April 2011, when I had the most surreal experience. Before his death, Brian Jacques had finished work on the latest - and now final - book in the series. Titled The Rogue Crew, the premise of the book sounds somewhat familiar but promises to bring out all of the elements that Jacques' fans love:

Redwall Abbey has never seen a creature more evil or more hideous than Razzid Wearat. Captain of the Greenshroud, a ship with wheels that can sail through water as well as the forest, this beast is a terror of both land and sea, traveling Mossflower Country, killing nearly everything-and everyone- in his path. And his goal? To conquer Redwall Abbey.

From Salamandastron to the High North Coast, the brave hares of the Long Patrol team up with the fearless sea otters of the Rogue Crew to form a pack so tough, so rough, only they can defend the abbey and defeat Razzid Wearat once and for all.

So even though Redwall was first published in 1986, and even though I only started reading these books during the late 1990s, and even though the author died during my first year of librarianship I still got to order one of the Redwall books for the library's collection.

I kind of feel like I've come full circle.



For those interested, here is a link to Brian Jacques' website, full of more information about the author and his books. And here is another link to a lovely obituary published on School Library Journal's website.

Dr. Seuss Party

Dr. Seuss is one of the most recognizable names in the children's book world, even 40+ years after the publication of some of his best-known books. Schools and libraries across America celebrated this beloved author's birthday this week as a part of the NEA's Read Across America initiative.

We decided to throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss at the library. We started off by watching the animated version of Dr. Seuss' environmental story, The Lorax. This film was about 25 minutes long and was a good way to occupy our party guests while staff set up the rest of the party. NOTE: My library has a movie license which allows us to show films like this to the public. Don't try this in your library without a license!

After the movie families were invited to participate in a number of fun activities. We had lot of birthday cake and juice to enjoy:



Doesn't it look yummy? And only two cake spills on the floor all night. Huzzah!

There was a craft project for kids to work on as well. We made clovers out of pom-poms and pipe cleaners with a speck for the Whos to live on, as seen in Horton Hears a Who. This was a fairly simple craft - no cutting, no drawing, just two drops of glue. We did use tacky glue for its extra strength which required some grown-up help to keep the glue under control. We also put out several coloring and activity sheets, all of which were found at the official Dr. Seuss website. Seussville.com is a great resource for anyone planning a special Dr. Seuss event, and has lots of online games and activities for anyone who simply wants to have fun exploring the world of Dr. Seuss.

We planned three party games for kids to enjoy too. First was a fishing game based on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I made eight fish out of paper, two each to represent the titular fish, and attached a magnet to each. We put the fish in a "pond" (in this case, a large plastic bin) and then let the kids go fishing. We made a pole out of a wooden dowel, duct tape for the handle, some yarn, and another magnet. One pleasant surprise of the evening came when one of the older kids, who was having a blast with the fishing game, took the time to teach one of the younger kids how to properly hold the fishing pole with the tip in the air so that the string would hang down. He was very patient and the whole incident was so sweet.

The next game was perfect for the youngest kids in attendance - the Yertle the Turtle stacking game! Based on the book of the same name, this game recreates the story of how Yertle forced all of the turtles to stand on each other's backs while he sat on top, king of all that he could see. We covered four boxes of different sizes in colored paper, and then attached images of the turtles from the story to each box. Kids could then try to stack all of the boxes on top of each other. They seemed to have a lot of fun making towers of turtles and then taking the tower apart again. Amazingly enough, we didn't have a single incident where the tower was knocked over in a violent fashion!

Our last game, which came from the Seussville website, was a big hit as well. We played a version of pin the tail on the donkey based on Green Eggs and Ham. We printed and enlarged the image of the platter with ham, and then laminated the poster. Next I made some green eggs out of construction paper. These were also laminated. We then blindfolded the kids, spun them around, and they tried to stick the green eggs on the platter. The laminate meant that would could keep putting reuse the eggs and the poster since the tape would easily peel off of the pieces without damaging them.

Of course, none of the fun and games happen if it weren't for Dr. Seuss' books. I set aside a few of his books just for this party and put them out on a table for everyone to enjoy.



All in all, the party was a great success! We had lots of activities for the kids to do, but none of them were terribly difficult to create. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and I'd love to do a party like this again next year.

At the party there were several moments where I was reminded why we plan programs like this for families. There was the moment described above where the older child mentored a younger child at the fishing game. There were lots of sweet moments where parents had kids in their laps as they curled up with a Dr. Seuss book. (Book appreciation! A literacy skill!) And there was the time when I overheard a parent comment to another that they had never been to the library before and would maybe have to start coming back. There are so many good reasons to plan awesome program like this. There is only one question left to answer: What do I plan next?

Awesome Quote

At work it sometimes take a few months for one of the journals that we use to help us select books to make its way to me. After all, I tragically don't get to actually do much ordering. But that's a sad tale for another day. The point is that as I was reading the January 2010 issue of School Library Journal, the cover story by YA author John Green (delightful author of, amongst other things, An Abundance of Katherines) had the most ridiculously cool quote about children's librarians:

Adult librarians are like lazy bakers: their patrons want a jelly doughnut, so they give them a jelly doughnut. Children's librarians are ambitious bakers: You like the jelly doughnut? I'll get you a jelly doughnut. But you should try my cruller, too. My cruller is gonna blow your mind, kid.

Awesome. And now I want to eat some form of pastry.

In the spirit of this quote, I'd like to encourage everyone to go out and read something new. Something you wouldn't normally think to try. Need help coming up with something? Ask your librarian for a suggestion. He or she is probably awesome.