I don’t have one picture from the last two weeks of school and that’s a good thing. It’s been an energetic few weeks that included basic preparations for the beginning of the year, last-minute great ideas for opening day festivities, and getting down to business with classes by the end of the first week– all about books!
Between introducing freshman classes to the library with a mini-orientation and scavenger hunt to get to know the library, it was also about them getting to know the books. And it was also time to talk books with our tenth graders who have a persuasive book project to do for the first quarter.
With those two specific groups coming in over a week and a half, that means that the shelves were a hot mess and book checkout was through the roof.
Give me all the days where I can talk about the library and books with high schoolers.
As the summer draws to a close and most Northeast educators begin to look toward their classrooms and the return of students, I spent a day surrounded by book people. And it was lovely.
For the last several years, my presenter-in-crime Stacey Rattner and I have shared the best books of the year to our local area educators and I’ve looked forward to every one of them and am sad when it is done. However, within the last two years, we’ve been invited to present to other local cooperatives that coordinate librarian and teacher professional development to do the same during the school year– so the adrenaline rush of preparing for a presentation and delivering it lasts the whole year through now. I’m both grateful for the opportunity to meet other librarians and educators, read as many books as I can to be the most prepared I can be, and find entertaining and inspiring activities to break up the time that can be useful in their own practice.
I’ve written about it before and will reiterate it again, my passion for running professional development is directly related to the work I have to put in to deliver it. That’s deep learning for me. So preparation begins as soon as the date it booked. I often mull over the possible theme and organization for quite a while, writing down a note here or there and then leveling up to a brainstorm.
I’ll save a love letter to Stacey for another post and instead offer a toast to the wonderful librarians and educators who came out on one of the only sunny days our summer has offered (so much rain!) to be ready for the school year for their students and share their thoughts, opinions, and book love with one another.
What is your favorite kind of professional development? What is a lasting memory you have from a past event?
Summer has always been a nice balance of work and pleasure, which luckily for me go together like peanut butter and jelly as my pleasure activity is reading which includes the requisite organizing of TBR book piles, interlibrary loaning books, and scouring websites, webinars, and booklists for my next read. Yes I do have other hobbies, but we’re not talking about those here.
Every year I say I won’t join the public libraries adult summer reading program and every year I fall headlong into the discussion, posts, and reading anyway because I’m a sucker for summer reading!
My city’s public library is small so it revolves around documenting my reading and committing to a certain number of reading each day (no issues there!) this year. Last year, we were challenged using a BINGO board.
Then, the city library for the school district I work in is large with multiple branches and a committed group who run an online summer reading program for adults that features weekly themes and recommendations while encouraging participants to chat with one another online. So, read a certain number of books, get a tshirt. Well reader, I am in possession of that tshirt!
Either way, in the summer I’m reading… A LOT, so I might as well see what everyone else is reading and share it as a participating member of my local library and adopted library. Being curious about what other people read is what makes reading a community activity. And as the saying by Edmund Wilson goes “no two persons ever read the same book.” So asking questions and hearing about what they valued in a book helps deepen our connection with one another and provide opportunities for agreement and civilized disagreement.
Why do you participate in summer reading programs (or why don’t you)?
Jordi Lefebre and illustrator Clemence Sapin published Always Never in 2020 before Dark Horse Books published in in the States in 2022. It ended up on my radar as an Eisner nominee for best US edition of international material and I discovered Hoopla had it in their collection.
It’s a story told in rewind– the graphic novel starts on chapter 20 and works its way back to 1 as it unfurls a lifetime of connection between Ana and Zeno, now grey-haired linked arm and arm talking about a bridge with flirtation in their eyes and light teasing in their words. The story of these two begin with the end which is an enticing place to start as it sets up a slight mystery that can only truly be unraveled by getting to the beginning.
What took my breath away first was the style of the art from the layout of the panels on each page including the movement whether scene to scene or moment to moment. Selfishly, I also want Ana’s wardrobe, so any scene that included her in it, I was ogling her clothes and how she wore them in attitude and style.
Second, the emotional edge that Lefebre plays with is as universal as it is individual. Ana and Zeno will be judged but with they be sympathized with too?
Third, the secondary characters whether it be the three sisters that sit outside the bookstore to Giuseppe have a three-dimensionality as vivid as the two protagonists Ana and Zeno.
I could gush more, but it’s best just to savor it yourself. I’ll be sitting here drinking my tea, planning a trip to a botanical garden looking for a bridge to cross and setting aside time to set sail on the high seas in a power skirt suit complete with a scarf wrapped around my neck.
Just because I work primarily with teens doesn’t mean I read only young adult titles. Actually, my work is stronger because I read widely.
My own kids are now going to be freshmen in high school, so we’re well out of reading picture books at bedtime, but I still read children’s books to learn from and stare at beautiful illustrations.
I don’t work in a middle school, but I know that some high school students are reading below grade level and there’s quite a bit of hopefulness in middle grade novels to be valuable to read when I need to be uplifted.
Yes, I work with teens, so I’m always going to read YA. Plus, the value of YA provides an opportunity to bring me reflect back to my teen days, allow me to remember what it’s like (the further I get away from it) in continuing to work with teens, and also to recognize the creativity of YA authors in their storytelling for this audience.
I’m an adult and I haven’t always read novels for adults, but in addition to being on a committee currently that is about reading a bevy of adult novels, it’s good to remember I am one. And then I get to talk about it with other adults.
Within the last week, here has been my reading widely rainbow (minus the adult book because I can’t share!)
I am a manga reader more than an anime watcher, which is only half useful for understanding all of the references my students have in Japanese Culture Club, but that’s okay. Reading is my jam so it’s natural to lean on manga more than anime.
For several reasons since school let out for summer, it’s become manga summer. I’m still reading many books for my committee work and plenty for preparing for upcoming presentations, but also plenty of manga. Thank God for the public library– several intensely stocked libraries who I lean on for filling up my TBR queue.
Here are three things I have learned about manga from the thirty I’ve read so far this summer:
The sheer volume of manga publications means that just like any genre, subgenre, or type of book, there are the good, the bad, and the ugly. I won’t like them all and that’s okay.
It’s rare to find standalones, but when I do, there’s something a little special about them that I cherish more than the serialized manga.
Fa-SHUN. I basically want the closets of more than half of the characters in the stories.
We’ve all heard of wingmen and wingwomen, but really let’s talk about wingbooks.
Last night I accompanied my kids to an event that I thought I’d have time to sit and read at, so I packed three, sorry that’s a lie, four books in a bag along with my water and tea. Ultimately, I read one page and that was upon arrival to the location.
But, I knew they were there if and when I needed them. That’s the value of wingbooks.
Pulled from books read this month with one that hasn’t come out yet, how I think about the books in the context of Monday through Sunday.
Monday: Putting your best foot forward for the work week ahead on a Monday. Ann Lowe wanted to put her best foot forward the best dresses created by her hands every day. Only The Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe is a perfect Monday read to inspire you to tackle the week.
Tuesday: Well, did Monday run you or did you run Monday? It happens that the day doesn’t go well but instead of stewing in it for days on end, recognize it, put a rhyme to it, and move past it. Ode to a Bad Day helps you realize that it’s all temporary.
Wednesday: Hump day. Midweek. Squished, literally in the middle like Avery is squished in a family of seven kids without a room of her own. But you can be just as forceful but still sweet at she is to make it through.
Thursday: It’s the new Friday. It’s the comfort that tomorrow is Friday and you’ve made it through the week. The graphic novel adaptation of the original, the Fangirl volumes already released, one and two, are the adorably comfortable and vulnerable stories to keep you looking toward the weekend.
Friday: Friday Night Lights, synonymous with football. Greenwald hasn’t shied away from the dangers of football and in his newest, Dinged, he does it again. It’s entertainment and pride, but it’s also health and wellness. A good thought to keep in mind with the overindulgences of the weekend!
Saturday: The weekend is here and it’s all about fun and games like Jennifer Lynn Barnes skillfully does in the Hawthorne Legacy series ending with The Final Gambit. Winner does take all.
Sunday: When you need the umph to get fired up for the week, turn to characters like Perry in Warrior Girl Unearthed— she knows who she is and what she wants. Her sights are set on a way forward even if it means stepping into danger. But her internalized stickwithitness is a solid feeling to have that we can all make it!
Last week was spring break. Naturally I planned a lot of reading time into each day along with other relaxing activities, plus housework and to-do list items. There are the quick reads, the fast-paced reads, the slower reads, the savory reads, the brain breaks, and the in-betweens. Based on my interest level or mood, I can tell pretty quickly what kind of book it’ll be.
I had been sent a galley copy of Ali Hazelwood’s YA due out this November called Check & Mate. This is where I confess that while I’ve seen Hazelwood’s books for adults everywhere, I haven’t read one yet, but a YA, now that was music to my high school librarian ears. And it’s punny chess title was also a bonus. Another confession- I’m not an avid chess player, I can rarely hold my own against my teenage sons, but I do play a little. I also watched The Queen’s Gambit. And I have joyously celebrated the return of raucous chess matches in our library (years ago that’s all our teens did was play chess, we had 5-6 that went out per period, then there was a die-off, but now it’s back again).
Back to the book. I picked it up off the pile and thought it would be an enjoyable stopover before the next book. What I got was an intense sprint/marathon battle for the next several hours. I literally wanted to sprint through it to know how it all ends (of course I knew how it HAD to end, but just in case). And I literally wanted to pace myself too because I didn’t want to it to end because if it ended it would be over and I couldn’t go back again.
I loved the prevalence of chess in the story– not too much, not too little. I fell in love with Mallory and her family, especially her littlest sister and the indifference when readers meet Mallory at the beginning of the story. Cue Nolan. Then came the witty banter, the sly hints about the past, the tournaments amplifying the pressure. It was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I needed. And when I found out I would have to stay up WAY past my bedtime to pick up my sons returning from a trip, I continued to sip my tea and read. I brought it in the car as I waited in the parking lot. I was thisclose to the end. The boys were back home and it was close to midnight. Do I wait until morning to finish it just so I can extend it a few more hours?
No. I must finish it.
And that I did. I fell into bed tired and book drunk. Is that a thing? It needs to be. The enemies to lovers trope won’t ever get tired in the capable hands of Hazelwood. Nor will romance ever be dead. The last thing that I want to give credit for is the topic of sex in the book, from the humorous scenes to the serious ones. It’s an age relevant topic and I want more of this in YA.
It’s not out until November, so you have plenty of time to sign up for publisher giveaways and preorder it, but put it on your list.
Last week I posted about Of sleepless nights and grey hairs about our upcoming author visit. That even though we’ve been doing them for a decade, it’s still stressful each time. However, like childbirth, you forget the pain and realize that you’d be willing to do it all again. I was certainly frustrated in the days beforehand because our school is currently experiencing a spate of pulled fire alarms, the business office surprised me with additional paperwork that put the visit in jeopardy, and while advertisements were everywhere, students were still surprised when I talked to them about the visit. The Zits comic from about a week prior sums it up:
While some are expected, like the fact that most people wait until the last minute to do anything, so signs ups were fast and furious up until literally minutes before the events started, others were unpredictable. I had prepped Candace Fleming ahead of time of the possibility of a fire alarm and announced the protocols for students during the visit that when it did not actually happen, she was a little disappointed. But I’d rather lower my expectations and be pleasantly surprised than caught off guard.
Ultimately the three presentations went swimmingly. Not only were students fascinated by her topics and pictures and stories, they spent time afterward hanging around her to get their books signed, chat, and take selfies. With a small break after the first presentation, I organized a small lunch with a few female students under the umbrella of finishing Women’s History Month with our female author with female power players in our school (one from our literary magazine, one the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, and one that belonged to the Women’s Empowerment club). It came together with donations from community organizations and a little money from the school and prep work with teachers to engage the students in their classes, particularly from our science department and of course, true crime fans since Candace Fleming’s newest book is the YA Murder Among Friends about the infamous murder of a fourteen year old boy by two eighteen year olds, Leopold and Loeb.
But in the end, the impact of the visits for how few or how many students come is often unseen. I’ll use this example, serendipitously about a month ago, I received an email from a student who graduated ten years ago. He was writing to seek out the librarian to tell her about the impact an author visit at the school had on him because of the turmoil in his life that he was able to meet this author, was gifted a book to have signed by the author, and to share that the library in general was a safe place for him. He wanted to thank that librarian. To borrow a Taylor Swift line, “Hi, it’s me.” This email came a decade later.
Then, there might be the immediate results of the impact. My favorite image is one we shared on our social media after her last session wrapped up. These boys stayed after to have her sign their phone cases and take pictures and were beaming about the connection. It was unexpected. Yet, a joyous reminder that books and human connections are what we all need.
I’ll add, if you’re looking for a visit worth your while, consider Candace Fleming. Her range of picture books through YA meant that when I booked her, several other local librarians jumped on board. In three days, she went to one elementary school, one middle school, and our high school. And the majority of her work is nonfiction, which is what resonated with our students. As she said, she doesn’t have a person light a cigarette in her book, unless she knew it to be true in her research. As an obsessive reader of nonfiction, I love her attention to detail and the stories she chooses to share. She’s also a fabulous human being. We need more Candace Flemings in front of our kids sharing about curiosity and facts. She nor I will likely ever know, but I do hope one or two teens were impacted by her visit and the things she shared.
Readers Be Advised 