Student comes in holding Shiloh and asking if we have books that are similar. A short walk to the bookshelves and I had a basic understanding of why she liked the book and a fairly clear idea of the kind of reader she is.

A quick catalog search showed me that two books that automatically came to mind wouldn’t work because she wanted a physical book and we only had digital versions of the others.

We proceeded to walk the shelves where I’d pull a book up from the shelf, set it on top, talk about it for a minute, and then continue to walk again, repeating the process and reading her facial expressions. I usually get to a point where I stop and ask them if they want me to continue or if they’ve had enough. Depending on their answer, I’ll keep shelf talking or I’ll tell them that I’ll leave them alone to choose and to bring whatever they want to take up to the desk to check out.

Do I secretly celebrate when they bring something up to the desk? Of course. Do I do a virtual backflip if it’s one of the ones that I recommended? Heck yes. Did she? Totally.

And it’s THE reason I love being a school librarian. I do it for the shelf talking.