Tales from a Loud Librarian

Okay, I may have already neglected to fulfill my goal to post daily about the nominated books for Teen's Top Ten. However, since I have posted everyday, I am not going to chastise myself. I am going to soldier on and post as often as I can about one of the nominated books. Today, I want to spread the news about Divergent by Veronica Roth. There were a slew of really great dystopian novels published last year. This was one of my favorites. I even created a digital book talk in my Get Reading series about this title. You can find out all about this wonderful book right here:   Get Reading 10 from Elizabeth Kahn on Vimeo . I was also a big fan of Delirium by Lauren Oliver that I discuss on this episode of Get Reading. Too bad that title didn't make it into the list of nominated books. When the second title in Roth's trilogy was published this past spring, I was so excited to purchase it. I started Insurgent . I really wanted to like Insurgent , but I did...

In this episode of my digital book talks, Get Reading, I review Where She Went by Gayle Forman and the Sweet Hereafter by Angela Johnson. I talk about companion books which share characters or setting.

I am having the best time writing and creating Get Reading: digital book talks for teens who love to read . I still want to figure out a way to use something other than Photostory and Moviemaker for these creations. Right now these tools do what I want with the audio and video. If I did not want a narration track without music, then I could use other tools that are available. I played around with Stupeflix this afternoon, and I loved what it did with the photos. I could add narration, but then it talked over the video piece. I needed the sounds to be separate. It is not possible with this tool. This week's episode focuses on two stories set during the winter holidays, one is in New York: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan ; and the other in Paris: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly . Every book that I talk up on Get Reading is one that I recommend. Here is a link to Get Reading 6: http://vimeo.com/28631905 . Check it out!!

I was walking the dog with my husband the other night and thinking. Usually, we use this time for conversation and talking about each other's day. On this particular night, I was lost in thought. It occurred to me that I should begin creating digital book talks, and I was going to entitle them: Get Reading. So over the last couple of days, I selected three titles that I read this summer, wrote the script, set up the webcam and made some short movies. Using Movie Maker, I put together the videos, added pics of the book covers as well as some music over the title and credits. I am pleased with the results of Get Reading 1, though I have some ideas on how to make some improvements for the next edition. On this episode you will hear about the following titles: False Princess by Eilis O'Neal, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.