The Parenting Collection

In my heart, it's still called "Tough Topics." We've moved this around a lot, tried different labels, re-cataloged it, added learning aides (which will eventually be listed on my Read 'n' Play blog) and this year, since I finally went through the juvenile nonfiction and found things that should have been moved before and since I had money put aside, I decided it was time to tackle the section.

We decided to redo the labels, formerly in Dewey which was cumbersome, into simple subject headings. Our headings right now are:

• Adoption
• Bullying
• Death
• Divorce
• Emotions
• Illness
• Family
• Puberty
• Safety
• Special Needs
• Autism

This is how I decide what items go into Parenting and what goes into the picture book neighborhoods

The parenting section includes materials meant to be used with preschool and school-age children. It includes issues parents will want to introduce themselves (death, puberty, divorce), specific issues (special needs, adoption, emotion, bullying) and tough topics like safety (sexual abuse) and illness. These books are intended to teach; if you have a book that teaches you about asthma, it will be in the parenting section. If you have a book that happens to have a character with asthma who plays soccer, it will be in the sports neighborhood. Another example; Goyangi means cat by Christine McDonnell is a lovely book about family and home that features an international adoption. This book is in the family section of the picture book neighborhoods. On the other hand, Mr. Rogers' Let's talk about it: Adoption (yes, it's ancient) is in Parenting.

General growing up titles - potty training, learning to share, sleeping in your own bed, families (traditional and non-traditional), the five senses, books about your body that are strictly anatomical - all these are in the Ourselves neighborhood. This has three subheadings: Family, Feelings, Growing Up.

Materials aimed at parents like "how to potty train your child in ten days or less" and "how to deal with kids when they drive you crazy and have them do all your chores for you in five days or less" are in the adult nonfiction.

I am currently building a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the items in this collection. It was requested by the school; I'm previously provided a list of sex ed and puberty books for them. You can view it here (please note it is under construction as well as waiting for new materials later this fall).

I also have two reading lists:

• Picture Books about Divorce and Blended Families
• Is there a book about... (this list is primarily picture books that are in the Neighborhoods)

This week at the library; or, Fall begins!

What's going on in my head and at the library

• Monday - Closed for holiday
• Tuesday
• Toddlers 'n' Books (2 sessions) (Pattie)
• Bookaneers
• The 3-D printer is back. I find the sound...distracting. A nice, relatively peaceful start to the week. Miserable weather outside but for once it's nice and cool inside. First day back at school, so still setting up field trips, outreach, etc.
• I want to start a middle school book club, primarily sixth grade, that's all nonfiction and comics. (I didn't say I was going to, I said I want to)
• Wednesday
• No programs. This left me free to begin crisis weeding in the YA and clean out some more Maker Kits, among other things.
• Thursday
• Books 'n' Babies (Pattie)
• Lego Club
• I was a little disappointed by the turn out for Lego Club, but reminded myself we usually start a week later in the fall and it will take time to get going. It was a long day.
• Friday
• I finished the Parenting reorganization. I looked at my desk. There is a lot of stuff on my desk. I left.
• Saturday
• Mammoth Hunt with the Ice Age Trail Alliance
• I want to make slideshows for these. It was very cute and the kids had fun. We had to do it all indoors, since the weather was rainy. Of course it cleared up after we finished. Typical. Juuuuust typical.

Projects

• Updating (and cleaning) maker kits
• Crisis weeding of the YA fiction
• Finishing reorganization of Parenting - blog post tomorrow

What the kids are reading: A selection

• How to eat fried worms
• Finding Dory book
• 39 Clues
• Flat Stanley
• Arthur chapter books
• Easy reader suggestions
• Yes, I do need more copies of Chronicles of Narnia
• Discussion of movies for younger children. I'm always happy when I can recommend my favorites!
• Mr. Ball
• Timely. As I'm updating the parenting books a parent asked for some!
• craft and cooking books

Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig by Polly Faber, illustrated by Clara Vulliamy

Bambang forever! I don't care about anything else, IT'S A TAPIR. And they are not pigs!

Mango Allsorts is a girl with many abilities, not least the ability to keep working at things that are hard. One day, coming back from her karate lesson, she sees a strange lump in the road. A lump which turns out to be a very frightened creature called Bambang, who does NOT like tigers. Bambang is not a pig - he is a tapir. Together they have lots of adventures. There's the time Bambang tries on hats and gets into trouble with Dr. Cynthia Prickle-Posset, the adventure of finding a just-right swimming pool, meeting George, and finally the story of the tapir's song.

Vulliamy's purple, black and white illustrations are an exquisite accompaniment to this most delightful of British tales. Mango is pert and charming, with determination and character. Bambang is just the kind of tapir everyone would want to be friends with - a little lumpish at times, but always adorable and eager to be friends.

Verdict: Sometimes British books like this are too British to appeal to American audiences, but I really don't care on this one. It's a tapir! It's funny and adorable and sweet. A great read-aloud to younger children and a fun choice for beginning chapter readers who like quirky books. Mango is also a strong female character, which I love. Recommended.

ISBN: 9780763682262; Published 2016 by Candlewick; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library

Song of the deep by Brian Hastings

This is another book where an author wanted an example of a "strong girl" for their daughter. However, I feel a little more happy with this one - for one thing, there's not the "there were no books so I wrote one" thing which I find annoying, for another it's actually a tie-in for a video game which does sound super cool.

Merryn lives a lonely but peaceful life with her father on the edge of the sea. When he disappears one day, she sets out in a golden submarine to find him and discovers a whole mysterious world beneath the ocean. There she finds both danger and wonder as she follows clues and finds the truth behind the stories her father used to tell her.

The writing is more descriptive than anything else and although there are moments of peril and wonder, the story is generally slow-paced and feels more like a script than a story. There are illustrations, but I couldn't get a good sense of them from the drafts in the arc.

Verdict: I didn't think this was particularly well-written for a novel, but it definitely intrigued me and I think the game sounds wonderful. I probably won't purchase the book, but I'm looking forward to purchasing the game for the library.

ISBN: 9781454920960; Published 2016 by Insomniac Games/Sterling; ARC provided by publisher at BEA

Read, Read, Read said the Baby: Alphaprints: ABC by Sarah Powell and Jo Ryan

[Digging through the archives...]

This is a super-cute ABC book with a twist. All the letters are represented by animals and each animal is a thumbprint. There's half of a rhyming couplet for each picture "M is for Monkey, Very silly and fun./N is for Newt, The quiet, sneaky one."

The text is simple and could be skipped or adapted, depending on the age of the child. The pictures are, as they should be in a board book, the best part. The finger prints are combined with collage and bits of art to create fun animals with lots of different parts to point out and identify. For example, "J is for Jellyfish" shows a large blue finger print with two black dots for eyes and a black squiggle drawn as a mouth, little blue...fins? sticking out the side, and what looks like sour gummy worms for tentacles. "I is for Iguana" has an iguana whose body is a fingerprint, legs from twisty straws, and spines are the pointy tops of crayons. The pictures are on stark white backgrounds. The letter text (H is for etc.) match the general color of the animal, while the text below the picture is black, in a smaller font.

The book is on the large side, 8x9, with a cute little string of animals along the spine. It's about an inch thick and the spine feels a little wobbly to me, but that's generally true of these bigger board books with actual covers. The fingerprints are all slightly raised, so you can feel the lines as small bumps.

Verdict: Another winner! The simple text is easily adaptable for a range of ages, the brightly colored illustrations are equally workable with a variety of audiences. The textured art, different shapes and items in the collage art, bold print, and recognizable animals make this a board book that will work with pretty much every audience from the youngest baby to toddlers getting ready to transition to picture books.

Revisited: I purchased this and other Alphaprints for our board book collection and they are quite popular. They did eventually disintegrate, but held together longer than I had expected. I still strongly recommend this series.

ISBN: 9780312516468; Published 2013 by Priddy Books/St. Martin's Press; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library

Hey, That's MY Monster! by Amanda Noll, illustrated by Howard McWilliam

I need my monster was a surprise hit for me, and many others, and several years later the author revisits the delightful story.

When Ethan checks under the bed for his monster, as usual, he's shocked to find a note and a missing monster. How could anybody else need his monster more than him? Well, it turns out his annoying little sister Emma just can't stay in her bed - and she needs a monster to keep her there. But is Ethan's monster the right choice?

As different monsters try to scare naughty Emma into bed, kids will giggle along with the joke and gasp at each scary monster as they turn out to be not-so-scary after all. Will Emma ever find HER monster?

McWilliam's digital art is just as glowing, fun and cinematic as in the original book. The silly monsters are both fuzzy and terrifying, with lots of horns, scales, claws and drool as well as grouchy and annoyed expressions when Emma doesn't find them scary!

Verdict: A delightful sequel, perfect for kids who are worried about the monster under the bed or who have siblings. Or just for fun! Recommended.

ISBN: 9781936261379; Published 2016 by Flashlight Press; Review copy provided by publisher; Purchased for the library

Nonfiction Monday: Radioactive! How Irene Curie and Lisa Meitner revolutionized science and changed the world by Winifred Conkling

Conkling tells the complex and mostly forgotten story of two famous scientists who were also women. Irene Curie, the daughter of more famous Marie Curie, was a brilliant scientist in her own right but was denied recognition by the male scientists of the day. However, she continued to research despite discouragements and survived the both world wars. Largely overshadowed today by her more famous mother, her own accomplishments should be more than enough to give her standing in her famous family.

Lise Meitner has a much more tragic story; denied entry into the masculine world of science, she nevertheless carved out a niche for herself and eventually came to earn a measure of success and even some slight acceptance. All of that ended with Hitler's rise to power and Meitner's accomplishments were overshadowed and deliberately erased by her long-time colleagues and by the upset and destruction of war.

The discoveries of Curie and Meitner led to the creation of the atom bomb, although both refused to be involved in using their discoveries for war. It's interesting to contrast the lives of these women, who both stayed true to their principles in different ways, with the scientists who became involved in the use of atomic power for weapons.

The science in the book is explained along the way as needed and even I could follow along (I somehow missed out on physics in both high school and college. Oops.) Conkling's research into science, history, and the politics of the time period is shown in the careful writing style, which frequently refers to original documents and takes the time to explain the context of actions and behavior of the many protagonists.

Verdict: This is not a fast-paced adventure story; Although there are moments of peril and danger, it's mostly a thoughtful discussion of the role Irene Curie and Lise Meitner played not only in the development of scientific discoveries but also in the involvement of women in science. It will take a little additional booktalking to get kids used to constant action to read this, but older, more mature middle grade and teen readers will be intrigued and enlightened by this dual biography. It's going to be available in paperback next year and I will certainly be adding it to my nonfiction section then.

ISBN: 9781616204150; Published 2016 by Algonquin; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

Two weeks at the library; or, Plan all the things

What's happening in my head and at the library

• No programs these two weeks. Staff meetings, planning programs, writing reports, working on the toy bags, spreadsheets, meetings, and way, way too many emails.
• More emails
• Setting up outreach plans, why does part of the juvenile fiction smell like stinky feet? especially after I have finally located all the pee-scented toy bags! tracking down missing items, thankfully sending other people out to take all the marketing around, how can we need to look at the staff schedule again already?
• Shifting and shifting and signage. Thankfully Jess is doing the signage. She is very good at it.
• Reports, reports, reports, Augh! Can't sit still any longer! Going to shift something. Oversize will do. Aides are very excited about getting to shift things too. Really. Nonfiction orders. More spreadsheets.
• Meetings, planning, planning, all the spreadsheets for processing the nonfiction order are finally completed.
• I would just like to point out that the last time I broke the laminator was in 2014, so this one has survived me for quite a while.
• Everyone is tired and crotchety. A three-day weekend will get us all rested and refreshed for the start of programs on Tuesday!

Small Readers: Jack and the box by Art Spiegelman

Digging through my archives... this is one of the first Toon books and the first I reviewed.

I don't know who first said it, although I'm sure I read it on a blog somewhere, but "surreal" is definitely the word for this book.

Jack gets a toy. It is a very silly toy. It is a very creepy toy. It has scary eyes. It has a big red nose. It has teeth that stick out. It jumps at you.

Yeah. So.

Spiegelman's art is layered and intense; the color scheme changes with the mood of the story from reds and oranges to blues and greens. Jack, the bunny, has a range of reactions from fear and anxiety to trying to ignore or lighten the mood with his crazy toy. The simple panels are generally set in three, one large, two slightly smaller, making it easy for beginning readers to follow the story.

We went back and forth on putting this in juvenile graphic novels? Because it's a comic with panels. Or in easy readers? Because the reading level is definitely easy. We finally put it in easy readers because it felt like it fit more with Elephant and Piggie than Babymouse. Thus are momentous decisions made.

Verdict: Toon Books are a great idea, but I'm a little doubtful about the appeal of this particularly title.

Revisited: This is pretty much how I still feel about Toon books. This particular title has not been popular, although more mainstream titles like Silly Lilly have circulated well. I feel that sometimes Toon sacrifices readability and child appeal to artistic sensibility and this is definitely true in this surreal story.

ISBN: 978-0979923838; Published October 2008 by Toon Books; Purchased for the library

Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

This was promoted at BEA as a similar to Beverly Cleary and is a debut novel. I'm going to say upfront that it was well done, but it's not all that.

Gertie has a mission. In fact, she always has missions, but this is a special one. She is going to be the greatest fifth grader ever, starting with making the best after-summer speech, then she is going to visit her estranged mother and make her realize how foolish she's been in throwing away her chance to be in the life of someone so awesome as Gertie. She's not quite sure what will happen after that, but she'll deal with that when it happens. Of course, things go wrong right away when new girl Mary Sue shows up and is instantly the focus of attention, being that she's from Hollywood and everything. Things go from bad to worse as Gertie manages to alienate her smart friend Jean, anxious follower Junior Junior, and even little Audrey, the girl her great Aunt Rae babysits, who is like her little sister. Then the whole school turns against Gertie when Mary Sue's mother, who is a an environmental lobbyist, says horrible things about Gertie's dad, who works on an offshore oil rig. Will Gertie ever prove she's awesome or will she end up the most vilified fifth grader in history?

The writing is smooth and enjoyable, Gertie's trials and travails are dramatic and humorous, and readers will sympathize as everything seems to go wrong when she has such good intentions. There is a lot of positive buzz on this title from blurbs by well-known, award-winning authors to positive reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Jillian Tamaki's illustrations give it a classic, Ramona feel. However, I didn't care for it much and unless it wins a major award won't be purchasing it. Why not?

The historical setting of the book confused me. Various details seem to set this story in the late 1950s or early 1960s. However, some are contradictory (and that may well be that I simply don't know this time period well - feel free to let me know in the comments!). Audrey is obsessed with the Waltons, Gertrude was still a "normal" name during this time period. However, Gertie's teacher, Ms. Simms, is African-American as is her best friend Jean and Alabama's schools were not desegregated until the early 1960s. I find it hard to believe that nobody commented or had any issues with Ms Simms (or hired her in the first place) in a small town in Alabama. Gertie is shown wearing shorts and I'm pretty sure girls simply didn't wear shorts in the 1960s in small towns in the south (or anywhere, as far as I know). Offshore drilling seems to have also started being used more around this time but environmental concerns seem to be a later development. Gertie's friend Junior Junior shows up with a mohawk hairstyle, which wasn't widely seen until the 1970s. The whole book felt like it was trying to be modern, and yet was also historical which was odd.

However, my main reason is just that most kids won't be interested in this book. Yet another white protagonist with friends of color (personally I was much more interested in how Jean, a smart African-American girl, fared in a small coastal Alabama town in the 1960s), a brash, spunky Southern girl with mother issues (I'm from the south, sort of, and I assure you that all our mothers are not dead or absent, though you wouldn't know it from middle grade literature) and a story set during the 1960s, which is a time period my readers can hardly picture, let alone drum up interest in. Teachers and librarians who date from this time period may fall on this with cries of joy, but there are plenty of similar books out there and, no matter how well-written this one is, it's just not unique.

Verdict: If you have lots of fans of Clementine, Kate DiCamillo, or Susan Patron this will be a popular choice for your library. Otherwise I'd call this an additional purchase.

ISBN: 9780374302610; Published October 2016 by Farrar Straus Giroux; ARC provided by publisher at BEA