The Best Books I Read in 2009

Behold my top eleven most enjoyable reading experiences of '09! Most of these books were published this year or last, but a few of them are oldies I just discovered.

In the order they occurred to me (which is not exactly in order of how much I liked them):

1. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2. Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty
3. The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristen Levine
4. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
5. The Canning Season by Polly Horvath
6. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
7. Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser
8. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
9. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
1o. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
11. Lush Life by Richard Price

Tell Me a Story

On King County Library System's story time website Tell Me A Story, you'll find scripts and videos of rhymes, songs, and fingerplays you can use to teach and entertain children, as well as links to other useful websites.

And if you're interested in what I'm doing at my story times at the Newport Way Library, Tell Me A Story is the place to go. Click on Newport Way Library to see my story time outlines, including the books we read and the songs and activities we did. For example, the complete plan for the Lunch Bunch Story Time held on June 23rd is available here.

Now, friends, if you've ever wondered how to perform "I'm a Little Teapot" or "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," you know where to go to find out.

Nannies Take Over Storytime

Check out this neat little radio story from NPR's Intern Edition. It's about the changing nature of children's story times in public libraries, specifically in one D.C. neighborhood.

LOLbooks

There has been some debate in the last year over whether the Newbery Medal-winning children's books of the last decade are really that great. They're just so...not fun. Do they scare kids off reading? Are they written more for adults than children? Perhpas. My solution is to break out the guaranteed laughs. So here are some of my favorite funny books for kids 8-12:

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

...and any book by Daniel Pinkwater or Roald Dahl (that pretty much goes for all of these authors, acutally).

Some of My Favorite Picture Books

Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss

Is there anything more fun to read aloud than Dr. Seuss? Horton is just one example of his genius, which was all the more remarkable for being accompanied by kindness and humor. In this book we learn that "after all, a person is a person, no matter how small" (which is a moral a little kid can really get behind).





The Cow That Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill and Russell Ayto

On a farm filled with special cows, Marjorie feels so blah until a Charlotte's Web-esque turn of events brings her fame (and scrutiny). This is a funny and colorful book that I love to use at story times. There are no biology lessons in here, just an underdog (undercow?) with a big heart.





Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag

Many great picture books, like great songs, have refrains that get pleasantly stuck in your head. In this book it's: "Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!" Millions of Cats brings you a sweet story with a catchy hook, and Wanda Gag's unique style.



Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak

To be fair, my love for these books comes from the television special Really Rosie. I used to check it out from the Burien Public Library all the time when I was a kid. It features Carole King as Rosie singing all of the great little stories in this collection: "Alligators All Around," "Pierre," "One was Johnny," and, of course, the beloved "Chicken Soup with Rice."








George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends by James Marshall

These stories are all very short, sort of like little absurd poems that illustrate the true nature of what it means to have a best bud. The hilarity, profundity, and absurdity are captured perfectly in James Marshall's illustrations. G&M will live in my heart forever.




Toot & Puddle by Holly Hobbie

The exquisitely illustrated Toot and Puddle are two very different little pigs. One goes off to see the world, while the other stays home, but their friendship endures through love and postcards. Totally adorable. Many sequels.





Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Vorst and Ray Cruz

This is the like the picture book version of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts." When you're having a hard day, you connect to it and you just feel better.




The Monster at the End of This Book

I have such clear memories of reading this book when I was a little kid. It always made me giggle. Grover begs the reader not to turn the pages because he's scared of the monster at the end of the book. (Even when I was a child I appreciated meta-fiction. Break down that fourth wall, Grover!)

Better Presentations, Please

I have heard/read so much great advice on how to give presentations that it baffles me when I see someone get up in front of a group and ignore all of it. Just the other day I sat through a long PowerPoint presentation where the presenter basically read out loud what was written on the slides. No! There is a better way!

For my own reference, and for yours, dear reader, here are some great resources about how to make your presentations sing. Trust me, your future audiences will be grateful if you take this advice:

HOWTO Give a Good Presentation (from Walking Paper)

Presentation Zen (from Garr Reynolds)

Presentation = Speech + Slides (from In the Library with the Lead Pipe)

4 Way to Spice Up Your Presentations (from iLibrarian)

And finally, if you have been the victim of bad presentations, this should make you laugh:

Shovers & Makers

I had just finished reading about Library Journal's Movers and Shakers when my friend Sarah alerted me to this: www.shoversandmakers.net

I think it's pretty funny (in and of itself, and the fact that some people get the tongue-in-cheek tone while others have earnestly written up their accomplishments).

Happy Friday!

Information Literacy Matters

Oh no. More bad news for school libraries.

This despite a great article I read just one month ago in the New York Times about a successful and innovative teacher-librarian (in the article they called her a "school librarian" and the job is often referred to as "school library media specialist" as well).

The NY Times article highlighted something that has been clear to librarians (and others) for many years: information literacy (i.e. what teacher-librarians teach) is a crucial skill that is too often neglected in basic education. Or, as one commenter put it, education should include four Rs: reading, writing, 'rithmetic, and research.

Here in Washington state, three moms from Spokane have taken it upon themselves to organize grassroots support for school libraries and information literacy instruction. They were moved to action when several school boards across the state (in particular Federal Way) decided to save money by eliminating teacher-librarian positions in their schools.

Why are our education leaders so quick to put library services on the chopping block? Well, the root of the problem is the cutting of school budgets in the first place (I could just as easily be arguing about the necessity of the arts in schools, which suffer right alongside libraries). When faced with shrinking budgets, administrators have no choice but to makes cuts, and if they don't understand the importance (the necessity!) of information literacy instruction (or arts, or sports...) they won't understand the impact their chosen cuts will have on students.

So, if we want to change things, our job is clear. We must make our leaders aware of the research (FYI, that link is a PDF) that shows how important libraries and teacher-librarians are to basic education and student success. We should strive to make it common knowledge that libraries are essential to education. Or, as my Grandma Billie (a public school employee for nearly 30 years) likes to say, "What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education."

A great method for teaching information literacy (and the method I was taught in graduate school) is the Big6 (though, ironically, for a website about info lit it's not designed very well). If you get a chance to look at the Big6 skills, you'll see that information literacy is not really about technology (though that's an important component). It's primarily a teachable method for tackling problems. It's a way to answer big questions through an organized and informed process. I'm tempted to say it's a way of life (or at least it should be).

The Engineering Library Blog

One of my goals in my current job at the University of Washington Engineering Library is to reach out to our patrons virtually. I started small by creating a Facebook page for us. Then, in part to add content to the Fb page, I created a blog. The blog posts are automatically imported to the Fb page as notes, so there's no need to follow both. The patron can choose whichever is most convenient.

For guidance in these endeavors I turned to many pro bloggers and Library 2.0ers. Here are some good examples of the advice that's out there for beginners:

• David Lee King's What can you do with a Facebook page?
• LibrarianInBlack's Ten Social Networking Tips for Libraries
• iLibrarian points to the Ultimate Blogger Writing Guide

It's also important to know if your work is paying off (that is, actually being used). Facebook makes it easy to follow that data with their "insights" feature, and for the blog I use Google Analytics.

Page Ahead

Page Ahead operates on one
simple and astounding fact:
being read to as a youngster is the
foremost predictor of academic
success in childhood.

A major factor in my decision to become a librarian was my belief in the importance of early literacy. So much depends on skills developed at a very young age. So much!

So I volunteer for Page Ahead, a wonderful non-profit organization that puts books in the hands of at-risk kids. If you shop online, you can help Page Ahead! You could, for example, buy this amazing book about the man who started the Harlem Children's Zone.

Harry Potter Alternatives

As a big Harry Potter fan, I put together a list of the books that I turned to once Harry was over.

Here are some other sites I like that have good post-Harry suggestions:

Baltimore County Public Library's After Harry Potter Page

Nancy Pearl's Harry Potter Alternatives

Reading Rocket's Beyond Harry Potter

Blogroll

I use Google Reader to follow my favorite blogs (you can see blog posts I like by clicking here, which takes you to a feed of my shared items).

And here's a list of the library-related blogs I follow and recommend:

ALSC Blog

In the Library with the Lead Pipe

King County Library System - Library *Talk*

Swiss Army Librarian

librarian.net

Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week

Shelf Talk

Push to Talk: A Blog For Teens

Welcome to my Tweendom

Library Stuff

Copyright Advisory Network

ALA TechSource Blog

Da Vinci Code Read Alikes

My grandma is gaga for Dan Brown, so I used Novelist, Fiction Connection, and an assortment of websites to put together this long list of alternatives for her.

I gave her the list several months ago and she's already plowing through it. Her favorite so far is Steve Berry's Knights Templar books.

GoodReads!

I keep track of everything I'm reading or want to read through a handy and FREE website called GoodReads. You can find my profile here. And you should totally join.

GLBTQ Books for Kids

The Rainbow List is an excellent source for kids' books that include gay characters.

I also created a simple pathfinder for one of my grad school classes that highlights some of my favorite picture books that have gay parents.