This week at the library; or, It doesn't look like I'll be breathing this side of August

Remember last week? Wash, add more programs, plus staff meetings and meetings at City Hall, rinse, repeat.

Programs

• Monday evening, Tiny Tots - Miss P. was stuck up north and couldn't get back, had to cancel. Much sorrow but we survived.
• Tuesday morning, new staff member L did toddler storytime for Miss P. I am working on getting some  more staff comfortable with subbing - it's hard to work with a toddler group that doesn't know you, especially with the love for Miss P, but L did a good job for a first time!
• Tuesday afternoon, Fancy Nancy party. Oooooh what a party! To prep for this, it's mostly collecting stuff here and there, publicity, etc. It's the day of that's a real workout! It took us exactly an hour and a half to set up. 10 minutes before we started, I noticed a couple families were poking their heads in, so I shut the doors so we could finish setting up. Opened them 10 minutes later and there was about 100 people in the lobby! We counted 120 at one point but more came - we're going with a total of 135. We had two tables of fancy books and over half checked out. We had hundreds of butterfly masks with large sticks to tape them to, sparkles, gems, ribbons, feathers, stickers, buttons, crayons and markers. We had clips with fancy paper, ribbon, buttons, glue dots, clips, and clothespins. We had fancy fans with fancy paper and ribbons. At the last minute I decided to go with tissue paper flowers on pipe cleaners instead of beading. We had tons of glitter glue everywhere. We had mini pink cupcakes and frosting and sprinkles to decorate with along with pink lemonade. It was awesome. It took over two hours to clean up (with the help of my aide). But it was awesome!
• Wednesday morning, Preschool Interactive - good start back for the summer session. More people will come in July when the first session of summer school ends.
• Thursday morning (at the icky hour of 8am), pre-kindergarten storytime. Five groups of about 20 kids each, back to back elephant storytimes! My voice actually held out to the end, although I did get a bit growly.
• Thursday morning, baby storytime - Miss P.'s fans were happy to welcome her back!
• Thursday afternoon, Lego Club - Good thing we set up all the tables - 65 people came and I had to bring out more tables. Now I'm wondering if I got enough pots for Messy Art next week!
• Friday morning, toddler storytime - again, much excitement for Miss P's return. The new storytime room organization seems to be working well.

Stories of the week

• Adult svs librarian (via chat my morning off): "help! parent has child who wants scary stories at 1000+ lexile!" Me: "Tell them it's summer - read whatever scary stories they want."
• Aide called me right before we closed to view disturbing situation in juvenile series. Very oddly shelved and out of order. Was it the new aide? Did we not train her well? *panic* Er...no, it was a helpful little girl earlier that I had noticed was pushing all the books back (kids often like to do this and I don't really care) but I hadn't noticed her "tidying" the series. Once I took a second look it was clear what she'd done - she'd collected all the loose series and pushed them together so the shelves were exactly full, then put all the pink books together. Cute, but now we have to reshelve everything. Oh well.
• We acquired a fish tank last Saturday, courtesy of a local teen who has recently gotten into fish. He set up the acquarium, brought the fish, and is keeping a close eye on it. A few days ago, he noticed some kids were tapping on the filter and glass, so the tank now bears a handwritten sign reading "do not touch tank management". He came in Thursday to "make sure we're feeding the fish". 

More Notes

• As of Friday early afternoon, about 160 kids had returned the first week's bookmark. Last year 878 kids registered and 187 completed 10 hours of reading. We're very close to that "completion" number. I'm hoping to hit at least 300 participants this summer.
• As chaotic as this summer is, I had to look back at last summer to remember how much better this year is going. The summer reading program is much less labor-intensive, our system did a lot of printing for us which saved money, and I'm doing fewer programs. The intensive organization I put together this year doesn't hurt either!

Bramble and Maggie by Jessie Haas, illustrated by Alison Friend

On rare occasions I buy a book I have not read, reviewed, or thoroughly researched. It happens a bit more often now, since I have a little more money to spend and a rapidly increasing list of other duties in addition to collection development *sigh*.

This book came up on my new releases list from BWI Titletales (best vendor ever btw) and knowing we needed more easy readers and liking the cover, I added it to the list. When it showed up and I skimmed it, I took it home for a more intimate discussion.

Bramble has gotten bored going around and around the ring giving riding lessons. Maggie is picking out a horse all of her own. Is Bramble the right horse for her? As the riding instructor, Mrs. Blenkinsop says "Bramble has her little ways." Bramble and Maggie meet, negotiate, and finally settle down to a happy ending in four chapters. The writing is at the higher end of easy readers, about Arnold Lobel level, but still maintains the simple vocabulary and short sentences needed by beginning readers. Within the confines of the easy reader, Jessie Haas produces a story that is funny, touching and has a gentle underlying message - there's a place for everyone.

Alison Friend's pop-eyed characters are a delightful accompaniment. She perfectly fulfils the requirements of an easy reader illustrator, giving clues to the reader and adding dimension to the simple story. The combination of text and art adds even more humor to the story and children will be delighted to read and watch the growing friendship between Bramble and Maggie.

Verdict: I can't wait to put this out on the shelves and watch the kids grab it. It's not so specifically "girl+horse" that boys won't pick it up and both children and parents will enjoy the humorous story. This lucky pick was definitely lucky and I can see it becoming a beloved classic!

ISBN: 0763649554; Published March 2012 by Candlewick; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library

Juniper Berry by M. P. Kozlowsky

One of the interesting things about reviewing galleys a bit *cough* late is how rapidly trends change. I received this galley at ALA Midwinter 2011 and the big thing last year seemed to be fantasies based on Grimm. Lots of buzz around those stories...now, not so much. I'm seeing a lot more talking about realistic fiction and just plain fantasies.

Of course, that might just be me.

On to the book! Juniper Berry's parents are famous actors and she loves them very much. They've always had a wonderful life together, acting out her scripts, playing games together and being a marvelous, if somewhat eccentric family. But slowly that's all changed. Now her parents hardly notice her, fans are clamoring at the gate, and Juniper feels that she's slowly becoming invisible and forgotten. She's delighted when she meets Giles, a scrawny weakling of a boy who lives next door and has sneaked in to her estate. He has something to add to the mystery - his parents also have become strangely distant and increasingly odd but he's actually followed them and thinks the solution to the mystery can be found in an ancient tree in the forest.

Together, Juniper and Giles explore a world they never knew existed and, like their parents, face their own fears, desires, and decide what they truly want most in the world. As the subtitle says, this is "A tale of terror and temptation" and while readers will recognize several fairy tale and mythic elements and characters, the real heart of the story is choosing what you want out of life and what you're willing to sacrifice to get it.

The story has an atmosphere of horror and growing tension as Juniper discovers more and more oddities about her parents, culminating in several scenes of horror. Giles' story is more centered on his temptation to be what he isn't but desperately wants to be - accepted, strong, popular, normal. Juniper wants to go back to the way things were, Giles wants to move forward to the way things might be. There's never much doubt that Juniper will choose to save her parents; but will she be strong enough?

[Note - there was no art in the galley I reviewed, so I haven't commented on that aspect]

Verdict: This book is tautly plotted and skillfully written. It's an easy read for the average middle grade reader and will appeal to those who like creepy fantasy and atmospheric, haunting tales. If you have children who like stories that are a little more thoughtful and dark, this will be the book for them. My patrons lean more towards straight fantasy and contemporary, so this isn't for us, but it would definitely find an audience in a larger library.

ISBN: 9780061998690; Published April 2011 by Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins; ARC provided by publisher at ALA Midwinter 2011

Nonfiction Monday: 97 Things to do before you finish high school by Erika Stalder

If your library is infected with a large population of aimless teens, as is mine, this may just be the book for you. While there's nothing more determined than a teen who doesn't want to do anything (except annoy adults and bat condoms around like balloons - true story) the 97 fascinating, weird, exciting, and fun things to do just might inspire a few of them to get out there and actually experience life!

The ideas are organized into nine sections: Personal development, With/for friends, With/for family, For your body, To get to know the world around you, To express yourself, To benefit your community and environment, Because you should, and Because you're only young once.

The ideas are much more varied and far-ranging than the usual entertainment/weird pranks/grand adventures I've seen in similar books in the past. They range from trying a new hairstyle to making a budget, taking a dance class to volunteering, researching your family tree to learning a foreign language.

The introduction emphasizes that this is a browsing, try a few things and move on kind of book - you're not supposed to do everything in the whole volume. Some things require travel or extensive time, some you might have already done. The ideas are peppered with interesting facts and extensions of the projects, websites to visit, and more ideas to try. The color scheme is navy, orange and green which gives it a nice, casual feel. The book is small and compact, about six inches square, and some libraries might be a little concerned about the small paperback, but I've never had problems with Zest's paperback bindings.

Verdict: While this might be most useful as a present to a teen (specifically one of those unmotivated and prone to boredom individuals) it's also a fun book to leave out in your young adult area and wait for inspiration to strike some of the aimless teens milling about.

ISBN: 9780979017308; Published May 2008 by Zest; Review copy provided by the publisher; Purchased for the library

This week at the library; or, Hyperventilating my way into summer reading

Monday

• First day of new schedule, now working Monday evenings
• Clearing up of accumulated Monday morning work
• Training new summer aide
• Began plotting theft of colleague's summer intern. Waaaaaant!
• Another reading record crisis
• Panic
• Booked fall program with Kohl's Wild Theater
• Posted about upcoming Saturday programs on Facebook
• Patron found that some of the kids had rearranged our display Legos into...inappropriate positions.

Tuesday

• Last big school visit, 9am to 2pm
• Note to self - you cannot do a full elementary school visit on a piece of watermelon and a muffin. You will feel sick. Visit to grocery store.
• Sorting school visit books, new books, other libraries' books. Things have got confused.
• Drove over to next town to pick up the rest of the missing reading records
• also some mulch. I don't know if my ongoing war with the squirrels is increasing or decreasing my stress
• More sorting and beginning to clean and organize storyroom, which currently has my summer supplies lying in heaps all over the floor and tables.

Wednesday

• I came early to set up for the 80 fifth graders and teachers who visited from 9 to 10:30. I did a short tour, then a scavenger hunt, then book talking in the teen room. This went much better than I had expected! The kids were all reasonably well-behaved (I'm not counting the character whose question was "when are you going to stop talking?") and enthusiastic. The tour is kinda hard, b/c of the sheer numbers, but there's nothing I can do about that. One teacher suggested splitting the kids for scavenger hunt and booktalk and since it sounds like everyone would like to repeat this again next year, that's probably what we'll do.
• Major cleaning of storage room - head of circ very kindly took time out of her insane schedule to drive over to Lowes and get another giant metal shelf (she has a truck!) and then helped me put it together. More cleaning, organizing, etc. etc.
• Finally decided enough was enough and left around 5:45. Will continue tomorrow.

Thursday

• 2nd grade class from the elementary school came for a tour and storytime
• Was planning to get my June order finalized, but encountered a massive issue with Amazon (our fault, not theirs!) and spent about 2 hours fixing it.
• Finished cleaning and organizing storyroom.
• Went home a whole hour early!

Friday

• Took the morning off, went in to work at noon.
• Cleaned off desk.
• Finalized my June order
• Got most of my first storytime for June finished (I know, I'm late! It's all that sleeping in since there's no storytime, ha ha ha).

Saturday

• Summer reading kickoff. I was at the library at about 9:30, along with one of my aides, to get everything set up. New books, tables, displays, summer reading, the works.
• From 10:30 to 12 we had the Welty Environmental Center they were awesome!
• The local animal shelter brought some dogs by for a few hours
• The adults were doing things but I didn't pay much attention.
• One of the teens brought by a fish tank and set it up for us! We'll see how it goes - all the other fish I've tried have died, after first driving me crazy for weeks by looking dead, thus inspiring an endless series of "is the fishy dead? why does the fish look sick?" questions.

Roundup of School Visits:

Pigeon vs. Elephant and Piggie - Pigeon wins, hands down
Most requested beginning chapter book - Hooey Higgins (even the older kids want it)
Loudest yells - Star Wars party
Most frivolous request: Fashion Kitty (mostly by fifth grade boys)
Most requested book I did not have a good booktalk for: Adventures of Beanboy by Lisa Harkrader
Most asked for book that I wasn't 100% sure was appropriate for sixth graders: Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Gross science book of the summer: Exploding ants by Joanne Settel tied with Disgusting Hagfish by Meish Goldish, but the Disgusting Hagfish got a kid sent to the principal's office, so it wins the tie.
Personal favorite booktalks: Fangbone, Third Grade Barbarian and Fluffy Fluffy Cinnamoroll

Need a house? Call Ms. Mouse! by George Mendoza, illustrated by Doris Susan Smith

This isn't so much a review as a paean of joy to that special moment of rediscovery when you find a book you'd loved as a child.

Reading aloud was a huge deal in my family, at least for the older kids. One of my few memories of my grandmother who died when I was twelve is of her reading a Christmas story to us. My mom used to walk us to the library and bring back a wagonload of books. She read aloud to us as a family - as did my dad - until I was about eleven and figured out that I could read faster silently than my parents could read aloud, and promptly sneaked the current read aloud and finished them off on my own. Then I read aloud to my younger siblings. I also picked audiobooks for our longer commute. Some of them were appreciated, but I finally gave in and didn't make my brothers finish listening to Anne of Green Gables and the unabridged Robinson Crusoe gets pretty blah after he's rescued.

So I have a vast number of books lurking about in the back of my brain. Especially picture books from the 1980s when I was a child. Some of these are, to put it mildly, odd but I love them anyways. Like Jon Buller's Fanny and May, about two elephant sisters, one of whom just can't control her appetite...and eats their house. Which is made, naturally, of cake.

Or there's my beloved Tangle and the Firesticks by Benedict Blathwyt, which tells the story of a misfit miniature furry creature. The real draw of course, is all the tiny things in the illustrations...

The best moment in rediscovering a childhood book love is that moment when you pick up a book and suddenly realize you've read it before. And all the delight you felt reading it as a child floods in.

So, finally arriving at the focus title of the random meandering...I have no idea why Need a House? was on my to read list. I might have seen it on some blog...or it could have been a leftover from one of my many lists. In any case, I requested it from inter-library loan with no recollection of ever having seen it before. I looked at the cover and thought, "hmm, that looks kind of familiar" opened it up and...

ohhhhhhhhh, the love! I loved, loved, loved this book. It has two of the things I loved most in picture books as a child; small, detailed drawings and organization. Yes, a cataloger from my youth...Ms. Mouse, a brilliant career mouse, designs houses for all her friends. The text is pretty blah - and I don't really remember reading any of it. But the pictures...ohhhh, the pictures. Just looking at them makes me so happy. It's like a combination of Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge miniature books and Doris Burn's Andrew Henry's Meadow, with the houses designed for each child (both were also favorites of mine). Ms. Mouse not only builds a different style of house for her friends, many of them are also set in different cultures. So Cat has a Japanese-style house with sliding doors and an inner garden courtyard set high in the mountains, where he can lazily sun himself on the open terraces and fly his kite. Trout has a kind of formal French garden maze set with coral hedges. If I knew more about architecture I could probably identify the other places, but you don't need to be an expert to fall in love with this book.

Interestingly, when I was looking for some pictures, I found an old design blog with some of the interior illustrations. You can check them out here.

Alas, I must now return this gem to the library from whence it came, but I've had another lovely "oooohhh" moment and now have a new book to add to my childhood favorites wishlist.

Hooey Higgins and the Shark by Steve Voake, illustrated by Emma Dodson

Steve Voake, author of the charming beginning chapter series Daisy Dawson, has started a new series featuring the irresistible Hooey Higgins.

Hooey and his best friend Twig have fallen deeply in love - with a giant chocolate egg! Unfortunately, they have no money but they do have Hooey's big brother Will, a master of planning. Together, the three boys set off to capture a shark and set up a show with it to earn money.

Hooey is wackier and funnier than Daisy Dawson, but also much more British. Beginning readers may find unfamiliar British words but there's nothing wrong with a little new vocabulary! Just as Voake perfectly captured the character of daydreaming, animal-lover Daisy, he's got a great set of characters in Hooey, Twig, and Will. Kids will love their insane exchanges as they set up their shark-catching plans.

"He took a deep breath and put his head to one side, listening for any underwater swooshing noises that might give the shark's position away. "Can you see it?" called Twig. "Not yet," said Hooey. "Maybe it's swimming upside down so we can't see its fin," Twig suggested. "Cunning," said Will. "Very cunning.""

While the boys' shark-catching scheme doesn't work out quite the way they had expected, they still manage their hearts' desire, if not quite in the way they had hoped. Dodson's ink and wash illustrations have a splatter effect, which added to her wacky stick-like figures fits the story well, although I find the characters' eyes a little creepy.

Verdict: Beginning chapters books continue to grow rapidly in popularity at my library as more and more kids look for easy books but want to move on from easy readers. Both boys and girls will enjoy this new series. Recommend to kids who like funny stories and won't be put off by a few Britishisms. Kids who have seen their older siblings reading Wimpy Kid but aren't old enough to tackle it themselves will also snap this up. Recommended.

ISBN: 9780763657826; Published April 2012 by Candlewick; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library

Nonfiction Monday: Giant Squid: Searching for a sea monster by Mary M. Cerullo and Clyde F. E. Roper

Is it possible to have too many giant squid books? In my opinion, you can NEVER have too many!

This Smithsonian title published by Capstone is lavishly illustrated with striking black and white tentacles, photographs, and historical illustrations. It has an excellent layout, different colored pages highlighting different arcs of the plot from historical legends about the giant squid to current scientific research.

The text follows the ancient tales of the kraken up to present-day explorations of the giant squid's deep sea habitat, focusing on the lifelong studies of Clyde Roper. Beginning with his observations of snails, he moved on to study other mollusks and eventually became fascinated with the giant squid. With the help of other scientists, he was able to discover many unknown details about the squid's life. The book ends with the first live photos of the giant squid and talks about some of the aspects of this mysterious creature that are still unknown.

A glossary, index, and further reading are included.

Verdict: This is a great look at current research on the giant squid, written for a younger middle grade audience. There's plenty of gory dissection pictures as well as scientific photos to wow the readers. Pair this with H. P. Newquist's Here There Be Monsters for older kids and have a squid book for every reader! Highly recommended.

ISBN: 1429675411; Published by Capstone; Ebook provided by the publisher through Netgalley; Purchased for the library

This week at the library; or, Goodbye Spring, Hello School Visits!

This week officially started on Monday evening (yes, I know it was a holiday) when I went over to the library to get ready for my school visits, then took the library shopping list to Walmart for a couple hours. I didn't think I'd remember to get to work an hour or so early on Tuesday.

I didn't feel very enthused about summer visits this year. I wasn't well-prepared (other than buying a new little collapsible dolly instead of my usual massive bags) and with everything going on this year haven't been reading as much middle grade as I would hope, so many "booktalks" were just me reading from the jackets in an entertaining manner. However, once I had gotten started things smoothed out, the kids generally had a good time, I had a good time (aside from the normal sore throat). I hope all the school visits will be worth it and will pay off in increased summer reading participation!


Tuesday, 8:30am to 5pm. My first summer school visit was to the elementary school down the street, Jackson. This year the 5th graders are coming to the library on their own next week, so I only saw grades K-4. This visit was about three hours and I sort of accidentally got a kid sent to the principal's office, but he was exonerated and it was all ok...finished off the day with a staff meeting and other stuff. Wrote up the minutes after I got home.

Wednesday, 7:45am to 5:20pm My middle school visit, just sixth grade, groups ranging from 20 to 100 kids. The visit lasted from 8am to 1pm with several breaks. I didn't hand out anything this year. The kids are too divided between teen and kid to hand out the srp bookmarks I think. One was long enough that I could run some errands, give a break at the desk, and do a few things. Then I worked on the school visit lists, which go are published online and go to teachers and school librarians, and a couple hours on the desk. Then I set things up for my next school visit. Why no, kindly but ill-informed storytime patron I do not get to "sleep in" on days when there is no storytime. Break doth not equal vacation.

Thursday, 8:45am to 4:15pm I was on the desk from 9 to about 11:45. Then I went out to the second elementary school, Tibbets. I was there from about 12pm to 3:30. Usually I don't see kindergarten, which tends to be on field trips, but this year I missed the third graders although I left bookmarks for them. Then I came back and got my school visit for tomorrow ready. After I got home I edited the website (had completely forgotten to put on summer reading).


Friday, 8:00am to 6:00pm I decided to pass out summer session calendars instead of the bookmarks at our local Catholic school (partly because this is a smaller school and partly b/c I was so exhausted yesterday the thought of staying to print, cut, and count the bookmarks made me want to cry). This school has combined classes and this year they gave me their library times which meant...I got to see all the classes in order (no hopping back and forth from 5th to 1st grade) and I got to set up in the library! No lugging books from classroom to classroom! I love it! As I said, this is a small school so they have combined classes so I saw preschool through 2nd grade, then 3rd/4th and at the end 5th through 8th grade all came together. It's a little hard to pick books that aren't inappropriate for 5th grade but are still interesting to 8th grade! Nonfiction. Lots and lots of nonfiction. I have a nice format for this school where I talk about programs, booktalk, then they get to come lay hands on the books and argue over who gets to look at them and chat informally with me. Then back to the library to unload the car, off to the grocery store to grab some lunch and buy the last couple supplies for the Fancy Nancy party, wrote up my monthly report, discussed circulation statistics, repacked everything for next week's school visit, various other tasks, then three hours on the desk until closing. During those three hours the public copier crashed multiple times, several computers froze, the upstairs wifi stopped working, someone managed to hack from our opac to the internet and refused to leave, and a kid peed in the children's area.


Saturday, 9:45am to 12:45pm I stood outside our local grocery store for several hours, trying to get people to take summer calendars. I did this a few years before and it worked very well - lots of new, non-library users. It didn't go well this year, I doubt I got 20 people to take flyers. A. I was at the wrong side of the store (people exiting don't want to stop) B. there were hardly any kids (they were all at Bike Safety Day) C. last time I did it the store was having a "family fun day" this year it was just the 4-H kids at the brat hut. So, a few hours down the drain. Live and learn.

Letters to Leo by Amy Hest, illustrated by Julia Denos

One of the things I've learned from doing collection development over the past four years is that sometimes kids will love books I don't particularly care for. Profound, right?

One of the things I dislike, but that I've found kids often enthuse over, are books with what I think of as gimmicks - written in letters, written in verse, from an odd perspective, etc. Such is Letters to Leo, where we learn about fourth grade Annie Rossi through the letters she writes to her dog, Leo, and occasional notes to other characters.

However, one of the hallmarks of good collection development, which I like to think I have, is to be able to look at a book and think "I don't particularly like this, but I can think of these particular children who will." This might be actual, specific kids or maybe a subset of a population, like "girls who are intermediate readers and like dogs and school stories, but are discouraged by too much text" or "kids who like stories with heart" or "girls who like books written in epistolary style" and yes, that last one is a particular subset.

You'll notice I said girls, because I don't think many boys will pick up this title, even those who like more serious, emotional reads. Denos' illustrations are very sweet and cute and the little hearts on the front give this a kind of girly look. By fourth grade, boys are unfortunately genderized in their reading tastes and mostly prefer nonfiction, heroic fantasy, and wimpy kid books anyways. I've found more girls that are flexible about what they're willing to try.

Back to the book - Annie Rossi, whose mother died in the previous book Remembering Mrs. Rossi struggles to get along in school, having good days and bad days like any other kid. She works hard to make Leo behave, since her dad was reluctant to let her get a dog, and she worries about her dad being alone and tries to do a little matchmaking with her beloved teacher, Maggie Meadows. The book is decorated throughout with Julia Denos' black and white sketches and has a friendly and welcoming design, most of the text is written on lined notepaper, so they really look like letters and there are scraps of paper, notes, little maps, and pictures throughout.

Verdict: While this title wasn't to my taste, I can see that it's beautifully written and illustrated and also perfectly understanding of kids' ups and downs in school and life. Kids, mostly girls, will fall in love with it. Recommended!

ISBN: 9780763636951; Published March 2012 by Candlewick; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library