There's been a lot going on and so I bring you a list of random bits of update like things...

• One of my favorite children's books (chapter books, probably 5th-6th grade reading level) in the last couple of years is Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Yes, that Dave Barry, one of my favorite writers and humor columnist extraordinaire. (And Ridley Pearson is no slouch either). Basically it is a really imaginative and wonderful story about how Peter Pan became Peter Pan (got his powers, met Hook, Neverland and fairies are created, etc). I've had a copy of the sequel for a while and hadn't read it yet. I picked up the audiobook version (I'm a total audiobook freak) and it is read by Jim Dale! This is too much goodness. It is like my birthday and christmas and flag day all rolled into one. I'm 2/7ths of the way through and it is incredible.
  
• I had a cold that completely kicked my butt and stole my voice. Storytimes were various levels of disasters to somewhat okay as I used a microphone and software that read and animated books. My voice was mostly back by Friday - just pretty raspy after some school visits. Still felt pretty sore and stuffy on Saturday, but I feel almost totally better now.
  
• I'm working my little tushie off for this Junior League project. And I'm running it next year. Scared does not begin to cover it. I'll write more later in a locked post.
  
• We're still short staffed today so I'm all alone in the children's section.
  
• They're doing major construction on the basement of my library. All I hear everyday, all day long, is incredibly loud construction noise. Right now it is a drill or jack hammer of some sort. It will be great when done, but it is far from a "peaceful library environment" that everyone else thinks I work in.
  
• I turned in an application for a job in Anchorage (yes, Alaska) this weekend. No one (save my mother and sister) actually believe I will move to Alaska. But that idea has just really appealed to me (for no vague, undefined, and indescernable reasons) for years. We'll see what happens. Can't hurt to apply.
  
• Normally I love sweater weather, I relish it. I wait until I can pull out my sweaters and let myself be enveloped in them. But this year I seem to have developped this irrational aversion to my sweaters. They all feel too big and bulky to put on. I've been avoiding them, all but the thin ones. I don't understand. I love sweaters! I love sweater weather! What has happened to me?
  
• Hey it rained last night. That's good. We needed it, but not as badly as Georgia does. Seriously google "Georgia" and "drought". It's pretty scary.
  
• Thanksgiving is being held at my house this year. My parents' kitchen is being remodeled. We thought the demolition was starting two weeks ago so all the kitchen is packed up and was going to be completely unusable. The demolition isn't actually starting until next week (after Thanksgiving) but everything is packed up so we're going at my house. My parents plan to subsist on take-out, and what can be prepared with only a microwave, fridge, and electric skillet during the renovation.
  
• Dad and I went shopping to buy Thanksgiving supplies. Turkey is my cat's favorite people food (because my father once let her "help" de-bone the turkey when we lived with them). I swear I brought home the thanksgiving food and she jumped up on the counter and started sniffing and pawing at the frozen turkey. It's amazing, normally she completely ignores grocery bags (she knows they're not for her and she's not allowed to be on the counter).
  
• Yesterday I went to Emporia to hang out with various library school friends. They were "in state" for the holiday so we all kinda converged. It was great to see them. I miss the interactions we used to have during school weekends, but it is great to see them acheiving success in their walks of the library world.
  

Okay, I think that is it for now. There's more, but that is long enough.

J. K. Rowling just completed a new book, a book of fairy tales called “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” which is of course the volume that (WARNING SPOILER!) Dumbledore leaves Hermione in his will. (OKAY SPOILER OVER). Only seven copies have been made, one of which will be on sale in an auction house for charity.

Read the story

Sadly my library's entire book budget probably wouldn't buy it. We could pay the asking price, but not as high as it is likely to go. And I doubt my parents would get it for me if I put it on my Christmas list...


Also, Ms. Rowling is suing to block a publication from a “lexicon website” because she plans to publish her own HP Encyclopedia. So that is good news for all the die-hards out there. (Uhmmm... like me...)
That story

I see another party in my library's future… Or at least a massive trivia night.

I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but J. K. Rowling revealed more stuff in a recent talk...

Guess whose gay, and who Neville married...

That seemed an unnecessary revelation on her part, but I suppose many of the Conservative Christians already hated her.

September 11th is never going to be an easy day. Some people I heard have called it International Peace Day, on our calendar it is printed as Patriots Day. I like both of those. On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month I do a bookclub for 1st to 3rd graders (theoretically, we've got homeschoolers so some 5 year-olds sneak in there, if they read the book and participate, they're fine). This September 11th was a second Tuesday. Normally I choose a simple chapter book, occasionally a non-fiction book. They read it before book club, we do some discussion, a game/activity, and often a craft. Then over a snack, I read the first few pages of the next book and they take it home with them. When I realized my book club would fall on September 11th, I had two choices, ignore it or do something about it. I am me, so I chose do something about it.

I chose three books that dealt around the topics raised by 9/11, the children were encouraged to read any two of the three. The books I chose were September Roses by Jeanette Winter, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein, and The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter. The first book most completely talks about the 9/11 tragedy, but in a way a child can understand. The second book tells the story of how in the 1970s a tightrope walker walked and danced between the towers with a rememberance to the fallen towers at the end. And the final book tells the story of an Iraqi librarian who helped to save books from her library (which eventually burnt) during the war.

Some of the parents were nervous, one mother wanted her son to start book club, but decided to wait until after this session. I understand. I was nervous about it too. During the summer my numbers had dwindled to about 11 or 12 kids per session. This session I had 17! A lot of them were new, or this was only their second time. So it was really chaotic. We talked (very briefly) about 9/11. I let them volunteer what their parents/teachers/etc had told them, and summed it up as a "very sad day". (They said the towers fell down, it was a cop out, but it was fine.) Our introduction is always "your name, your age, some random fact". This week's random fact was when was the last time you did something nice for someone without being asked. Then I talked about how the events of that day six years ago made a lot of people think about how we could change our world for the better. And we talked a little bit of that. They all shared ideas about how doing little things in their area (pick up litter, etc) can help make the whole world more peaceful. Around the Gerstein book we talked about civil disobedience (it's a stretch, it's against the rules for the tightrope walker to go between the towers), and when it is okay to not follow the rules (Gandhi, Martin Luther King, jr., stressing that most of the time you should follow the rules). We were going to talk about remembering things and memorials, but we never got to it because we spent so much time on how we can be peace people and change our world.

Then we played a game around The Librarian of Basra. I held up a variety of books two at a time. In each hand there was a different book, and the children had a split second to decide if they could only save one, which one would they save. They ran to the side of the room to indicate their choice. It's fun, very visual to see how the group splits, and they loved it. The hardest choice for most of the kids was Harry Potter versus Magic Tree House. Next we made peace people out of pipe cleaners, ate snack (which sometimes relates to the book and this time was just yogurt in those little tubes kids like), and read from the next book (The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet by Tony Abbott). It was a crazy thing, but it went well. I don't think anyone would have minded had I ignored the holiday, but I think the parents felt that this handled the situation properly for a group of children who were toddlers when the towers fell.

It's funny because even with this plan, I let myself forget a little that it was 9/11. When I was in the car, with the radio on, and they were replaying some coverage of that day set to music, than I remembered. And I allowed myself to mourn again a bit for all those lost.

I wrote up in our library's email newsletter a little thing for parents about using books to help your children deal with tough events. I worked hard on the wording because I didn't want to be condescending (you MUST talk to your child about 9/11 and this is the ONLY way to do it). Read below if you would like...

( using books on tough times )

[x-posted to BornLibrarian]

For those of you who didn't find the ending satisfying with enough details, and you wanted to know more, here are some answers as to who is doing what. (Most of you probably have already seen these).

MSNBC interview transcript
Most of the career stuff for the characters is on page 4, but the whole interview is fairly interesting.

This interview covers a lot of points about why I dressed up like Hermione (besides having the hair). From the moment I read these books, ten odd years ago, I related to Hermione. She's smart (I did well in school, etc), but she's also very insecure. She tries to doubly and triply prove herself by being the best and smartest. It's clear from the moment she steps on the train in the first book that all her brainy bluster is covering a lot of fear and insecurity. I was a lot like that as a child/teen. I was rather a know-it-all too, and used my brains and book knowledge to cover my complete fear in social situations. Fortunately I made some good friends and relaxed (though I still never relax totally in social situations with people who are among a very select few and instead I "perform". But who you see now is a lot closer to the real me than you would have seen ten years ago, everyone performs in public to some extent and I don't think mine is too far off the average). Also Hermione is at heart a rule follower as am I . I don't even speed really (much to the consernation of my sister and Heather). Hermione is a geek with few friends - none before Harry and Ron a fact which leads her to cry in the bathroom getting attacked by the troll. I never had many friends either. I understand Hermione because in a lot of ways she is who I was in school. Fortunately both of us managed to grow into functional adults. I have a good social circle now, I'm able to realte fairly well to them, I'm happy and content with a career I love and I can prosper in, all a good ending for a geeky shy knowitall with no friends (well I'm not at my ending yet, but I'm at a great place).

Transcript of an oline chat with JKR by Bloomsbury, reproduced on Mugglenet
More info on whose doing what

( my favorite tidbits, spoiler warning )

And now I leave you with one of my all time favorite Harry Potter quotes (from Hermione in the first book).
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Thanks to the marvelous Stephanie, I now am sharing some photos with you all from our massive Harry Potter event.

( me dressed up )

I've been busy as every children's librarian is with summer reading stuff, but this is a special summer. And now our world is all about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We're planning a massive event. Currently I'm re-reading/listening to the books so I'll be all prepped for the new book. So the books are in my car talking to me (okay only one of them does that) and on bedside table, in my bag, etc. And of course I'm helping to plan this event for our library.
( read to see how huge this party will be, and understand why I'm so busy and obsessed lately )
My costume is pretty cool. I'm Hermione (kinda grownup). I've already got the hair afterall. Knee length gray skirt (had trouble ordering a school girl skirt), gray sweater vest, short sleeved white shirt, Gryffindor tie, black graduation robe. I'll try to post pictures.

It's going to be an amazing, incredible party. But it is also totally consuming my life and that of many of my coworkers. We've been planning for months. An event this size is so much to pull off, I had no idea. Our entire workroom is overflowing with party supplies as is the entryway to my house. It feels like every other word out of my mouth is HP related. There are huge standups counting down the days til the book all over our department. And of course it is all over the news. I'm going to see the movie on Thursday, all I'm reading are the books. It's like a new lifestyle, one that is all Harry Potter, all the time. It's insane, but it is also a ton of fun. This is truly a once in a life time event and we want to make it that special, wonderful, magical thing.

It's a testament to how much I love my job and this event that I'm not even a little burnt out yet. 10 days! (well to the book, 9 days to the event)

How many of you did Book-It as a child? I did, and I'm sure many of you did too. Simple concept, read some books, collect little stickers for your button and then eventually get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. Marvelous. Or not?

Critics Denounce Pizza Hut Reading Program

The criticims make sense at first, but let's break it down.

It is a corporate program and should schools be supporting a corporation? Well... In an ideal world, no, but that isn't the world we live in. Almost every school I know hosts a scholastic book fair and/or passes out those brochures for book orders. It happened when I was a kid, and it still happens. (Often parents bring those in and try to get the books through us and we don't have them for a variety of reasons). It makes money for the school and gets kids a chance to order books, but it also supports one specific corporation and publisher. Schools have partnered with corporations and accepted private support in a variety of ways throughout the year. This is not signifigantly different.

It encourages childhood obesity. Yes childhood obesity is a national epidemic. I'm not arguing that, no one is. The article specifically mentions schools getting rid of soda machines. Soda machines provide daily access to sugary pop. As I recall, you can get two pizzas at most per year. Two little pizzas a year do not make you obese. Nor are parents forced into going to pizza hut. One time, we traded in our coupons to make pizzas with dad. (Dad makes the most marvelous pizzas, he worked as a pizza chef in college). That was a ton of fun. Parents can offer there children an alternative award if they don't want to go to pizza hut.

When children read for a prize, it doesn't make them readers. Basically this is the idea that kids are going to choose the quickest book and just do the minimum they need to get through the program. Perhaps. Some kids will. And the ones who are already good readers don't need this program. But then there are the other kids, the in between ones. Those kids will do it because they want the pizza, and in the process might find that one book, the first book they ever liked to read, the first book they ever read cover to cover. Granted they might find it in a school based awards program, but you never know. Rewards motivate kids, and some kids need that motivation to discover that they might actually like reading. It certainly is better than AR type programs. I would rather reward the children for doing any reading at all than force them into one level. (But you really don't want me to get started on AR. If you don't know about it, thank your lucky stars and move on.)

And I work in a library where we solicit coupons for freebies from businesses to give away as prizes. Schools and libraries don't have enough money for incentives and I'm all about accepting the partnership and rewards from corporations. At the symposium I was just at, a librarian was talking about the presence of Coors as a sponser for an adult literacy program. They had to eventually reject them because too many adult learners have struggled with substance abuse in the past and it sent mixed messages. I understand nixing Coors, nor would I be in favor of letting a cigarette company sponser summer reading. But Pizza Hut? I have no problem with. I personally would be disappointed and saddened to see this program ended. There are some ALA members (though I do not believe the two are officially affiliated) on the board of this program and I would also be saddened to see the ALA make a rash decision to pull out and condemn this program.

Total side note: the photo on this article must be a stock photo. It shows a marine reading to a bunch of kids and has nothing to do with the specific Book-it program.

Cross posted to born librarian.

I suppose you've all heard, but the new HP book, the seventh one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published (released) on July 21st.

The list price is $34.99 (ouch) though Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders for the price of $18.99.

The last two I've preordered from Borders so I could pick them up day-of and still get a discount. Of course I didn't read the newest one for six months after I picked it up day-of. I'll probably pre-order this one, but I'll wait to see what Borders does for in store. Probably the similar thing since they partner with amazon. Of course just having it delivered is hugely appealing to me.

I'm still betting Harry dies at the end. I think it is the only way to truly vanquish Voldemort.

And a large part of me still wants to spell truly as truely.

Have you ever wondered who is the richest person on earth?
Forbes answers that anually.

Have you ever wondered who is the richest person in fiction?
Forbes answers that too.

The list and article from forbes.com

The news story from Reuters

Thanks to the lovely jvgymnast I have a great marching penguin icon from the wonderful little video I posted a while back. So cute!

This is the Friday Five, but I was out on Friday, so you get it now because I love this topic.

1. What book or books were special to you in your childhood?
The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder of course. I read constantly. I loved The Girl with the Silver Eyes, The Mysterious Tadpole and so many more. I am constantly picking up a book and saying, ooh, I loved that one. But the ones I remember really making an impact were the Little House.

2. What was particularly special or memorable about those books?
For me, the Little House books were my history. My ancestors homesteaded, I lived in Kansas, it all clicked. And when I grew up, I wrote my thesis on them.

3. Have you re-read any of them as an adult?
I'm a children's librarian, I've re-read many of them. Re-reading Little House books, especially The Long Winter, I was amazed by how much more I got out of them as an adult. They nearly starved to death and died that winter. I didn't realize as a child how desperate their situation was. Random trivia: the original title was The Hard Winter but that was too depressing for children. (Remember these books came out in the 1950s at a time when children were more coddled and childhood was more idealized than today.)

4. If so, were the books as good as you remembered them?
For the most part yes. And I am definitely leaving many off the list.

5. What do you think about movies being made out of children's classics (like the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings, etc.)?
Drives me batty when done poorly. Or when children are surprised that there is a book and don't realize the book came first, and then complain that the book isn't just like the movie. But when it is done well, it can be fabulous. I thought Narnia was beautiful. I take issue with this questions because LOTR is not a children's book series. The new movie, How to Eat Fried Worms based on the classic children's book by Thomas Rockwell looks pretty good though I haven't seen it yet. The thing I like is that they are focusing not on the gross out aspect of eating the worms, but on the bullying aspect. The story is a boy who stands up to bullies (in this case by downing worms), and that is the part that can really resonate with children. The previews have really emphasized that part and not the ick factor with the worms. Good for Hollywood (for once).

This entry may not be of a lot of interest to my male readers or to those that did not grow up reading Judy Blume's amazing books.

In Judy Blume's book, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, the title character gets her period for the first time and picks out a pink belt. Well, modern editions (in the last 10 years or so) have changed that to her buying maxi pads since no one uses the belts anymore. This became somewhat of a stir recently. I've got a couple of articles below about it. This is the amazing thing, Judy Blume was really the first author to mention menstruation at all really. The articles both draw a sharp line in the sand of women who grew up with Judy Blume and those who grew up without her, many of whom had no information about what was happening and were scared to death. Great articles, and I very much remember reading these books.

A salon.com article about the rewrite, the book, and Judy Blume's influence in general: (If you don't belong to Salon.com, just click and see the ad, and click past the ad to read the article)
God to Margaret: Always with Wings!

The salon.com article mentions this 1998 interview of Blume with the Boston Phoenix in which she talks about the rewrite among other things:
Judy Blume for President: Meet the woman who invented American adolescence

So what do y'all think? They changed the belt to maxis (though there are still the cool teen brand of pads and the less cool ones her mother uses) to reflect the times. Books are published with new, updated covers all the time. The belt was actually outdated shortly after 1970 when the book was published at first. This is just a few lines and three small passages and it makes it more accessible. Yet, many girls only hear about the belt (oh horrors, so glad I missed that by many years) through this book since for many of them even their mothers did not use it. Any thoughts?

Happy Birthday Ted Geisel!

And what does it say about my life that I remember Dr. Seuss' birthday long before I remember my friends? I suppose it says that I'm a children's librarian and fairly good at my job.

Tomorrow they will issue the first 39 cent stamps (postage went up as of yesterday). They will feature characters from Children's literature including Curious George (from Curious George), a Wild Thing (from Where the Wild Things Are), The Very Hungry Caterpilar (from the Eric Carle book), Wilbur the Pig (from Charlotte's Web), Fox in Socks (from the Dr. Seuss book), Maisy (from the Lucy Cousins' books), and Frederick (from the Leo Lionni books). I'm excited!

Read one of the articles

Similair stamps are also being issued by the Royal Mail of Britain.

Read the press release

I don't usually do much of these petitioning things. Mostly the email ones are frauds. Do you notice that they never ask you to send them to someone who might actually be able to do something? However, this one tugs at my heart strings. Most of you, like me, probably grew up watching the wonderful children's television show Reading Rainbow. With the intro, and the butterfly, it was wonderful. As a child, I always wanted to be one of the kids reviewing the books at the end of the segments. Anyway, it is in danger of being taken off the air. There's a website and a petition. Check it out and sign or not sign as you wish. But do you really want to take on LeVar Burton?

Save Reading Rainbow

Goodnight Moon is a classic children's book. Most of you probably know what I'm talking about. For the last fifty years, there has been a picture of the author and he's holding a cigarette. The latest printing of it the cigarette has been digitally removed. It is a change that I find an interesting commentary. Apparently Stalin used to do something similair with photos of political enemies. Sometimes history isn't pretty, but it is our history. I'm not sure we should go changing it all willy nilly. Reading Reptile which is an award winning children's independant bookstore here in Kansas City has put up a website about it. Goodnight Reality. (Okay and obviously the picture of the cow jumping the moon with a cigarette is their own little joke.

Also, I saw this on couac's journal a while ago but I will post it. No more Vanilla Coke I adore diet vanilla coke. I am allowed one soft drink a day, and that is typically what I choose. This upsets me. And Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke sounds unneccesarily complicated and disgusting.

Those of you who do not interact with children on a regular basis may not know about the princess craze. Disney has a princess line in which all their characters (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, all the pretty ones) do things together. There are books, maybe some videos, toys, costumes, millions of things you can buy (this is Disney after all). It is amazing how many little girls (ages 2 to 5) we get who want "a princess story". And they don't want a story like The Paperbag Princess which is a great children's book, they want a "pretty princess" story. Preferably disney, but sometimes that is negotiable. We were sent this article at work from the New York Times. I'll cut and paste it here because you have to register at the website to read it. Also the article mentions Gregory Maguire, and I'm reading his book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (or more precisely listening to it on CD in my car) and I'm loving it. I understand this whole princess craze, but it also rather drives me nuts. I had lots of little princesses in my storytime on Halloween. But every girl (almost every girl) likes to be pretty and sparkly, you just can't let the whole princess/royalty/spoiled/entitlement thing get out of hand.

( Cinderella Craze )

I was doing an unrelated search on Amazon to find a specific book for a patron and this one got pulled up. I don't know why. I think Amazon sometimes is grasping at straws. I know sometimes I am.

Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!

Regardless of politics, it doesn't look that well written. (Of course I really can't judge without reading it, and my library system doesn't own a copy.)

Yes, many children's stories contain politics. (For the record, I didn't think that Heather has two Mommies was quality children's lit either, many of the political books are not that well written since the writers have greater ideological credits than authorial.) May as well have it fair and balanced and own two copies, one on each side of the spectrum, right? Than everyone is equally mad or equally happy. Nonetheless, the cover and the title are pretty funny.


So do any of you have that book in your library system?

Also, on a mildly related note, a few weeks ago Jon Stewart did an "Evolution, Schmevolution" series on his Daily Show. During that he mentioned some children's books that talk about the dinosaurs in light of Christianity/Intelligent Design. This was useful because the next day I had a patron who wanted Christian Dinosaur books. I wonder if anyone else has used Jon Stewart as a source when working at the (children's) reference desk.

I know not all of you have the good fortune to be children's librarians, but you are probably aware of the rash of celebrities writing children's books. This article contains a interesting look at that, the effect it has on other children's authors, and a call to publishers.

Does 'Lotsa de Casha' for Madonna mean lessa for Other Children's Authors?

Food for thought. My library purchases these books because they are high in demand and our patrons want them. I do like the comment that they sell best at Wal-mart and Cosco.