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Category Archives: Blogging

The 31 Days of December: Excellence in Nonfiction finalists announced

I’m a little biased because over the past year I’ve worked with a group of phenomenal librarians: Ginny, Laura, Laura, Yolanda, Jeana, Mike, Janet, and Rebecca. Together we make up the 2022 Excellence in Nonfiction Award Committee through YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), a division of the American Library Association. Our charge is to select the best written, researched, presented nonfiction writing targeted toward kids ages 12-18. We read through hundreds of books, nominate the special ones, debate their merits, whittle it down to five finalists, and then by next month, select the winner to be announced at the Youth Media Awards. It’s the most rewarding work. And here are our finalists:

Check out the full release with annotations on YALSA’s website. I’ll sign off so I can go pop a little bubbly that they’re out in the world!

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 17, 2021 in Blogging, Events, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: “Not my usual”

16 Dec

Our school library is always looking for a good collaboration. This collaboration came looking for us. Our local county’s crime victim case manager wanted to see if we could partner on a book study and information session about healthy relationships.

With a few starts and sputters, we got it off the ground with 22 students who were given the book (to keep)– Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios and a donut– and the job to read the book plus eat the donut, and we’d have a discussion and session in February.

The other day one of the boys came in and was ready to return the book saying that he had finished it already and was handing it back in. I reminded him that it’s his book to keep to which he was excited and I said “What did you think? Ready for the discussion in February?” His response was “It’s not my usual kind of reading, but I really liked it and yes, there’s a lot to talk about.” Maybe he’s discovered a new category of book to read or maybe it’s the social aspect of the reading that appealed to him, either way, I’d call that a win. I’m counting the days to February to make it a special and informative event for the students (with the added bonus that we might be able to Zoom-in Demetrios for an extra special experience).

Was there a book recently that you finished that you’d say the same thing about?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 16, 2021 in Blogging, Cover Love, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: Hosting interns

15 Dec

After close to fifteen years as a school librarian, I have hosted handfuls of student observers and interns interested in the field of school librarianship. Each has their own story whether it’s rolling into a Master’s program right after their Bachelor’s or making it a second career. Some will thrive as school librarians and others I recommended should consider public librarianship and in one case, the woman was barely there enough for me to have any idea what kind of school librarian she would make.

However, as a person in the profession, frankly any profession, you should be open to the idea of hosting people interested in your field regardless of how busy or overwhelmed you feel because we want any job to have more people in it– not for Hunger Games competition but to create diversity and a new crop so that there is someone to fill the retirements of those that come before and know what they’re doing when they step into those roles. It’s maddening to see positions (especially in schools) where a position and person has so much institutional knowledge and a system that when they announce their retirement, nothing is done to train the next person to do it and give them the resources to do it well.

Internships might become mentorships, friendships, or simply collegial relationships. So it makes sense to cultivate these up-and-comers. With a constant need to reinvent our practice with the changing times, I always welcome interns for what they bring– fresh perspectives, new ideas, and a positive attitude.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 15, 2021 in Blogging, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: The death of Anne Rice

14 Dec

I woke up to the news in my Instagram feed and was flooded from memories of my teenage years. There are certainly books I remember reading over and over again in elementary school but as I moved into middle school Anne Rice was the author woman for me.

I don’t remember which book I started with but I have a sneaking suspicion it was The Witching Hour because while her career was made famous through writing about vampires, her witches trilogy I remember being taken away with. But I did read every one of her books on vampires too. And I know I’ll have a few who agree and many who won’t, but I dare say that Interview with the Vampire was better on screen than it was in the pages of the book. It doesn’t diminish the worlds she created, the character development, sharing deep desires and longings, and what immortality could look like. She built them with skill and passion. She embodied her work. I’m sad to have never met her. But 80 is a fabulous life in which most knew her name and the work she produced.

Is it any wonder that a newer batch of writers like Holly Black and Cat Winters are among my favorites as well? Probably not because they both wrote messages of heartbreak over the loss.

While you’ll have to buy me a drink to get my best Anne Rice reading story, rest assured I owe my teenage reading life to the many checkouts at the local public library of the queen of vampires, Anne Rice.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 14, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Fiction

The 31 Days of December: The joy of cleaning and audiobooks

13 Dec

What did I do before audiobooks?

I’ve been a late convert to audiobooks. The combination of mobile technology and my insatiable need to ABR (always be reading), I became an audiobook lover several years ago and I haven’t been able to stop. And I thought today, during my usual Sunday morning routine of house cleaning, organizing, and laundry, what did I do before audiobooks? I can’t remember the before time. I think I might have listened a little music here or there or simply done it in silence. Not any more. For the most part whenever I’m engaged in this kind of work, I usually slide my phone into my Spi-Belt and get it done. It makes the time go by in a way that I feel like I’m cheating– being entertained and/or learning about a topic while actually enjoying housework.

How many of you audiobook while doing chores?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 13, 2021 in Audiobooks, Blogging, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: When one thing leads to another

12 Dec

You can agree that once a word, an item, a phrase is introduced to you or you learn about a topic, it then seems to be everywhere– but it’s about what’s in your consciousness. And I’m always entertained when it happens in my reading. I’ve explained that I’m a mood reader– I always have a mountainous stack of books at home so that I have a range of options to pick from. So when there is no real strategy, it’s delightful to make connections between books. Here is that tale in three books yesterday:

Book 1: I’m taking my time reading John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. It’s essentially a collection of short stories– his reviews. I’m entertained and enlightened by his stories, so I’m reading a few a day. The other day I read his review on the Lascaux Cave Paintings. I knew a little about what they were, but now I now more.

Book 2: Science Comics are cool. I’ll always pull one of them aside if I haven’t read it even if it’s not a topic I’m super interested in (though I don’t know if I’ve ever really felt that way about any of them thus far). One of the new ones that came into our library was Crows: Genius Birds by Kyla Vanderklugt. In the graphic novel between a dog and a crow, it’s mentioned that there’s a sketch of a crow in the Lascaux Cave. BINGO!

Book 3: Then ding, ding, ding! I wanted a quick transitional book in the afternoon, so I picked up Singer’s picture book illustrated by Fotheringham from a recent box delivered to my front door called A Raven Named Grip: How a Bird Inspired Two Famous Writers, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe. Crows and ravens– all part of the corvidae family.

From caves to crows… I love when one thing leads to another.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 12, 2021 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction

The 31 Days of December: The popularity of Junji Ito

11 Dec

Regardless of what level you work at in a school library, as a librarian part of your goal is to have books in the library that students want to read. Popularity is sometimes obvious, re: Dogman and sometimes it’s geographical or site-specific. This was evident several years ago when Karen McManus broke out on the scene for young adults with her murder mystery One Of Us Is Lying. Students should feel comfortable requesting the purchase of certain books. And sometimes they make it loud and clear.

Enter Junji Ito, the GOAT of horror manga since he entered the field in 1987. His popularity in our library is a confluence of one of our senior electives called Horror Fiction and Film, the large showing number of students who attend Anime Club (of which I’m the faculty advisor), and that manga regularly makes the top circulated items in our library.

Ito is the GOAT for a reason. They are dark, mind-bending, frightful, and intelligent horror stories and short stories. I’m drawn to them as so many of our students are. We recently started getting in our newest order which is adding more of Ito’s books to the collection and replacing well-worn books that have been in circulation for several years. He’s someone that we will likely always have on order.

First, read at least one of Ito’s books if not all of them. Second, remember to listen to your students when it comes to what’s on the shelves.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 11, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Fiction, Manga

The 31 Days of December: IYKYK

10 Dec

Yesterday I worked at my school library.

Then I left work and went to my local indie book store, The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, to pick up a book I ordered and fill a bag with $150 worth of books to gift for the holidays. Oh, and placed another order for a five-book series that wasn’t in-store.

But before going home I took one last detour to my public library who hosts a two-hour grab-and-go window for your interlibrary loan items to pick up two books that had come in.

IYKYK.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 10, 2021 in Blogging

The 31 Days of December: Brain break

09 Dec

The celebrity memoir.

I don’t seek them out, but often I add them to my audiobook TBR (particularly when they’re read by them) when I see multiple recommendations or reviews with favorable reviews. I find they are the perfect brain break from more robust nonfiction audiobooks and my general reading.

Currently I’m a half an hour away from finishing Seth Rogan’s Yearbook after seeing it on a “best of” list. I am a lover of the brief but shining series he was in called Freaks and Geeks. Interest piqued and audiobook added to my list.

Within a day of adding it to the my reserve, it was available and I took a detour from my previously available audiobook, a collected anthology, to listen to this shorter (6 hour) audiobook as a way to take a little break from the epic fantasy adventure I had just finished.

And what a fun detour it has been. Celebrity memoirs are usually no-holds-barred entertainment leaving little to the imagination whether that’s the publisher expectation or what the celebrity wants. I’ve listened to Mindy Kaling and Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Nick Offerman, Dolly Parton and Anthony Bourdain with an emphasis it seems on comedians.

The best kind of brain break and when I might learn a thing or two, it’s bonus material.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 9, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Nonfiction

The 31 Days of December: Excitable

08 Dec

A recent email exchange with a new teacher went something like this:

Me: I always get too excitable and talk to fast. It’s a problem when it comes to books and collaboration, so my apologies for the verbal onslaught.

Her: No, I loved it! I’m actually the same way, so it was very validating. Your excitement for learning is contagious!

Oxford Dictionary definition for excitable: “responding rather too readily to something new or stimulating; too easily excited.” Well, then call me excitable when a teacher walks into the library looking for books and ideas for collaboration.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 8, 2021 in Blogging