Tales from a Loud Librarian

Today, Bookmarked, the high school book group had the opportunity to chat with YA author Cori McCarth y. She is delightful, and both the students and I were on the edge of our seats drinking in everything that she had to say. Though several of her books piqued our interest, we met today to talk about her contemporary novel,  You Were Here . This one she said is the most personal to her. She lost a classmate when she was in 8th grade right before the school year started. The adults told them that his death should not be discussed. All these years later, her emotional connection to this former classmate was the impetus to write the book.  This book is told in five voices. When she began writing, it was very difficult for her to put words on paper for the character who was mute for most of the story. She decided that his voice would work well in illustrations. She was able to convince her editor to hire an artist to turn his part of the story into a graphic novel...

Found displayed in the St. Tammany Public Library in Madisonville, LA On Saturday, I trekked north across Lake Pontchartrain to visit a friend. As a fellow library lover and user, she wanted to show me the brand new library that recently opened in Madisonville, LA in St. Tammany Parish. The library is a stunner. She had an agenda for our visit, but I mostly wanted to check out the teen section. I found this sign on display and knew that I had to do the same thing in my library. This sign that you see above was posted on a rack with books wrapped in tissue and paper hearts encircling the display. Adorable. Display that I created I decided to bring paper with me to school today to wrap some novels that I love and see if anyone takes the bait. I used plain paper but covered each package with heart and cupid stamps. In each package I slipped a paper that asks you to Rate Your Date. I forgot to see what the public library form looked like so I created my own. Form I created f...

I learned a couple of months ago that a group of young adult authors was going to be on tour together and that New Orleans and Octavia Books was one of only four stops on the tour.The authors are Veronica Rossi , Tahereh Mafi , Sophie Jordan , Kiersten White and Claudia Gray . I was hoping that at least one of them would be making a school visit then. Sadly, that was not going to happen. However, one of the owners of Octavia Books, Judith Lafitte, and I cooked up something that I think is going to be equally as exhilirating. Judith was asked to be the moderated for the group, but that is not a role that she enjoys. Together, we thought it might be exciting to have one of my students lead the discussion. Paris Evans, who is the head of the high school library book group, was thrilled when I broached her with the idea. She has taken home copies of the authors' books and plans to read as much as she can before the event on February 21st. I have offered to take her and some of he...

I love meeting authors. One of the reasons that I love attending ALA Annual so much is the opportunity to meet all the authors that I read and recommend to my students. I hate to admit it, but I am a true fangirl. Luckily, I can keep it in check and not gush when I actually come face to face with these remarkable writers. My ALA began on Friday night at Penguin Teen's rock star author dinner. Laurie Halse Anderson was there. She visited my school two years ago when  Forge  the sequel to  Chains  was published. She was kind enough to say that she remembered visiting PFTSTA, and I knew that she was telling me the truth when she described our cafeteria that was surrounded by windows. Her novel that is due out this fall does  not  have a one name title, and it takes on some dark, contemporary themes. My box of books of ALA arrived yesterday, and this one is on my to read list. I finally get a chance to meet Sarah Dessen I have been a big fan...

Here is a link to the  February 20th edition of  SLJTeen  with reviews  by three teen members of the high school book group, Bookmarked.  Open here to read the reviews

Cory Doctorow traveled straight from the airport to PFTSTA today to speak to the 135 members of the high school. I was thrilled to have an author who would be interesting to the boys. He has a wonderful talk that he has given at all the previous stops on his tour, but that did not deter him from letting the students see how passionate he is about technology, privacy, freedom of information access and a whole slew of Internet issues that weren't even in our consciousness twenty years ago. Some of the students said that he really didn't talk about his books. In essence he did. All the issues that are real to him including his stories of schools that issued laptops to students then spied on those students at home, companies that rented laptops then spied on their customers in compromising positions, and the US government prosecuting citizens who violate the computer fraud and abuse act are all included in his fictional novels about Marcus Yallow in some way. His books...

Ruta Sepetys spent an hour entertaining the juniors with stories of her life before she became an author and after when she spent years researching the historical background of her two novels, Between Shades of Gray and Out of the Easy . The students were an enrapt audience as she told each funny and harrowing tale that she experienced.  Initially, Ruta, wanted to sing opera, but found out early on that she was no good at it. So with her finance degree, she figured out a way to combine her love of music with management and build a career. She began her career in Hollywood as a music manager and spent 22 years as a manager.  We are so lucky that she finally ditched that job and chose to write. Her first book is based on her family's history in Lithuania. The students were riveted by how she applied the "method acting" that she experienced in Hollywood to her research. She spent hours locked in a train car that was used to transport Eastern Europeans to the Rus...

On August 15, the voting poll opened for the annual Teen's Top Ten (TTT). There are 25 nominated books . This book list is created by teens, and the teens have the final vote on which books are their top ten favorites of the year. The teens have one month to cast their votes. They can select their three fav titles from the list of 25. Only teens, 12-18 years of age, can vote. There are many other lists that librarians can help select.  I like to have the books front and center so the kids will remember to read and vote. I have some cards that you can copy and put in each book to help get the word out about TTT.  I did not create these cards. I found them online last year. I edited them to fit on the page and updated the URL and QR code to reflect the voting poll for 2012. I copied on cardstock and when cut the cards are about the size of a business card.  I hope that you can use these cards to advertise the books in your library.  Vote for me car...

It is Wednesday, so that means it is time again for a new edition of SLJ Teen. Bookmarked members have continued to show their excellent reviewing skills by writing more reviews of upcoming books. You can open this link and find their reviews here of A World Away by Nancy Grossman, Blind Spot by Laura Ellen and Son by Lois Lowry. Maybe you want to read more than the students' reviews. You can open this link to read the entire August 14th issue of SLJ Teen.

When I was at the AASL conference in October, I talked to a university professor who is on YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee. She explained to me that she reads a book a day. Wow! I did know that all members of the BFYA committee are expected to read over 300 books a year, but I just couldn't finish a book every day. I love to read. I love reading YA titles, but I just don't think that I have the time to read that much. I average 50 titles a year. I admit that some days I just don't feel like reading. Other days I read for several hours. I am going to start reviewing books for Library Media Connection and School Library Journal. I hope that I can meet their deadlines. This is the time of the year when everyone seems to be making best of and worst of lists. I tried to avoid it because I did not want to be cliche, but I like to reflect. Even though I probably mentioned some of these titles in this blog over the year, I want to give another plug to some of ...

On Thursday, October 13th the 7th graders, Ms. Bordelon and I  joined 1100 other schools to watch a live presentation by James Patterson from Palm Beach, FL. He was in the auditorium of his son's middle school with several hundred students in attendance. He was there to talk about his new book, Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life . The event took place during our lunch period, so all the students were munching during the presentation. Since Mr. Patterson could not see us or hear us, it was not an issue. His message about reading was right on target. He believes that all kids need to read and read well. Good readers will have more choices in life and end up with better careers. He said to read like your life depended on it. If you want to be a good writer, then you must READ! He said that kids need to find good books that will engage them. Besides his titles, he also recommended the Percy Jackson series, Warrior series, Book Thief , and The Invention of Hugo ...

This episode highlights the work of author, Heather Brewer. She is the author of the Vladimir Tod Chronicles and the Slayer Chronicles. Within this episode is an interview of the author during a visit that she made to PFTSTA on September 28, 2011.

The 8th and 9th graders were blown away when Heather Brewer began talking at 9:30AM, Wednesday the 28th. She called all the teens in the room her minions. She believes in "world domination." With world domination, she and her minions could change the world to be a more accepting place. A place where there would be no bullies and everyone is accepted for who they are whatever that may be. Heather Brewer knows bullies, as she was not treated well by her peers in school. One of the students said it was the best author visit ever, and two teachers said the talk was awesome because Heather was so real. She spoke with honesty from the heart, and the students could relate. There were many hugs when she arrived and even during her talk. One student couldn't contain herself when she found out that Green Day was one of Auntie Heather's fav bands. She ran up for some love, and Heather was extremely accommodating. The main character in the Vladimir Tod Chronicles  is ...

The halls are now quiet. It was an extremely busy day. I processed some new books, printed signs with passwords for each classroom, laminated for myself and other teachers, helped with lunch duty, read email, registered for a conference, had computer issues which had to be fixed, and so much more. The library still seems to be disorganized. I have stacks of ARCs sitting on tables waiting for students. My library book group, Bookmarked, lost many students at the end of the last school year. I have to rebuild the club quickly so students can start reviewing books for the YALSA's YA Galley program. Last year's club president is attending college locally, so she promised to be here for the first meeting. We have got to step up our game quickly. It is always good to get the first day out of the way.

While I have time, I am trying to create as many episodes of my digital booktalks, Get Reading, as possible. I know that at some point in the school year, I will just get too busy to be making movies. For now, I am having a lot of fun putting these together. Using a webcam, photos, Photostory and Moviemaker, I am able to quickly put together a short video. Statisitcs have shown me that there have not been too many views yet, but I have not had an opportunity to share these videos with my students. If you would like to see the third episode of Get Reading, open this link: http://vimeo.com/27692712 . The books highlighted in this epidsode are: The Cardturner by Louis Sacher and Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt. UPDATE on February 12, 2013: Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now was selected for NPR's Backseat Book Club On All Things Considered. Gary Schmidt will be answering your questions during his interview on NPR at the end of February. Open...