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Category Archives: Events

One week ago: A conference reflection

26 Oct

One week ago, I was returning from the American Association of School Librarians conference in St. Louis, Missouri. And now I’m ready to share my takeaways.

School librarians are a warm group of people. I was stopped by people who knew me through other school librarians and I stopped people who I knew through their presence in the organization or online. However the conversation starts (standing in line, sitting in a conference session, at the counter of a restaurant) it always feels comfortable and welcoming.

See The Librarians documentary as soon as you can.

Books are the greatest and best bridge between people. Don’t ever forget it.

To be an author is to be a public figure and that takes a toll on anyone. Jason Reynolds was so eloquent in sharing the importance of his self-care routine especially as he gets older. It was also echoed in other sessions as well.

There are some neat tools out there and companies are eager to share them with school librarians. I was enthralled by the Sooth.fyi demonstration and excited to use it in my building with students.

Present! It’s a way to give back to your profession and meet others too. I was able to talk about teens and manga (a favorite discussion topic). And I was enriched by EVERY session I went to, too. Ideas that I will put into practice both sooner and later.

For as active as the conference is, it’s nice to sink into a soft bed in a hotel every night after a delicious meal and a hot cup of tea.

It’s always a bonus to travel to a city or state you’ve never been to.

 
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Posted by on October 26, 2025 in Authors, Events, Manga, Reflections

 

Will travel for turtles

23 Sep

A friend forwarded an email a few weeks back to make sure I knew that Sy Montgomery would be somewhat close by. There is a bookstore outside of my general area that has a second location the next state over that’s a scenic drive, but not too far. She knew I would travel for turtles.

For readers for youth, most will know the name Sy Montgomery. She’s written over 80 books about animals and those adventures have taken her all over the world. She’s written picture books, middle grade, and adult books about animals from octopuses to hummingbirds, turtles to tarantulas. I’m a big fan. The collaboration for her latest included illustrator Matt Patterson who would also be at the event as they promoted The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle featuring the real life adventure and misadventure of Fire Chief. But I also wanted the change to hear from Montgomery herself, plus get a bunch of books signed for my outdoorsy niece and nephews and one for myself.

If you haven’t read one of Montgomery’s books, you must. She provides depth, insight, and humor in and around the amazingness of animals. My favorites include: How to Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals and What the Chicken Knows.

And the animal adjacent biography of Temple Grandin.

The drive to Vermont from my city on the eastern edge of New York was magical as the leaves have already begun to change, and I even had a little extra time to stop at a few cemeteries (I am a taphophile after all). What a lovely afternoon to spend among author and illustrators and books learning about animals and from each other.

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2025 in Adult, Authors, Book Birthday, Childrens, Events, Illustrators, Nonfiction

 

It takes all kinds of labor

01 Sep

It’s not just the unofficial end to summer, but a day that is set aside to recognize the jobs that make the world go round so I thought I’d share a few favorites from over the years.

  • Terkel’s comprehensive interviews of what people do and how they think about their jobs in Working.
  • Montgomery highlights the life and work of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman (before the term existed) who revolutionized slaughterhouses in Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loves Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World.
  • Ottaviani and Wicks paired up to focus on three women scientists working with Primates: Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas in Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas.
  • The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives is Theresa Brown’s memoir as a nurse that I had the pleasure of Zooming with during the pandemic along with an Introduction to Medical Sciences class I collaborated with the teacher on to read the book and talk about nursing to high school students.
  • Melissa Sweet pays homage to writer E.B. White in Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White.
  • A riveting story of a woman who built a business as a cleaner called in by police, fire, and families after traumatic occurrences in The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster written by Krasnostein.
  • Recipes and business acumen are on display in the teen adaptation of Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef.
  • Want a nice overview of labor? Look no further than Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States by Mann.
  • And my love of cemeteries also means I love Catilin Doughty, the mortician talking about her work in the crematory and beyond in Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory.
 
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Posted by on September 1, 2025 in Adult, Authors, Events, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

What are you doing?

09 Aug

It’s National Book Lovers Day. What are you doing today?

So far I’ve visited my indie bookstore to buy a favorite picture book (Big Enough by Regina Linke), stopped at my local public library to pick up books for my son and me (he had a hold list of about twenty-five manga titles that he’s taking camping next week), and read (Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World by Stephen S. Hall).

I’ll also squeeze in time to stare at my bookshelves.

 
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Posted by on August 9, 2025 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Childrens, Cover Love, Events, Nonfiction

 

Kickoff done right

23 Jun

Our public library has faced adversity over the last few years. It will continue for the next few years while a new space is being rehabilitated for our permanent home. In the meantime, the director and staff have rolled up their sleeves and put in the hard work, with a smile on their faces, to make the temporary location as welcoming as it can be. This was evident during the summer reading kickoff that took place yesterday afternoon.

Amid the blistering humid heat (though luckily the sun wasn’t really out) in a park in another park of town there was a reptile show, a local ice cream shop dishing out scoops of the treat, a bounce house, crafts, bubbles, balloons and face painting, and giveaways to enhance the atmosphere of registering for summer reading. The statewide theme is Color Our World which is a beautiful nod to libraries and leads to copious ideas for programming and events.

What I liked most was the less is more approach– it was a two-hour event, it focused and did well to enhance the activity stations and events. My teenage boys had just as much fun as a five year old and I faced a fear by draping a rather large albino snake around me after the reptile show ended.

If you haven’t already checked out what activities are happening at your local public library, stop in or visit their social media. I guarantee there’s a kickoff looming if it hasn’t already happened and welcoming opportunities to connect and learn throughout the summer.

 
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Posted by on June 23, 2025 in Events, Miscellaneous

 

For the love of learning

10 May

Who doesn’t love a good quote?

I happened upon Kitt’s quote on social media a while back and immediately saved it both because I’m an avid cemetery walker, so the tombstone reference made me pause but also because as a human being (and likely ones of the reasons I love being a librarian) is that I get to learn every day. We should all strive to learn every day. It’s why librarians curate digital and print collections for others in order to share the joys of learning every day.

I trotted it out again yesterday after signing off on the first of four two-hour webinars I will attend this month. Within five minutes I was furiously taking notes and felt a warm, fuzzy feeling that lasted the entire two hours that this was money well-spent. The expert delivering the content was super knowledgeable and I was with like-minded individuals. The subject has been a hobby of mine for about a decade and I realize that the more I do it, the more I don’t know. So I sought out people who do know more to tell me what they know. And what’s more, she even provided additional materials on top of the wealth of resources she shared. I couldn’t have asked for a better use of my time and energy.

So, here is your permission if you need it to go out and learn something whether it’s free or costs money. Now more than ever, we need to find hobbies and interests that make us feel alive and challenged and connected to a community.

 
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Posted by on May 10, 2025 in Adult, Events, Miscellaneous, Reflections

 

Free Comic Book Day shenanigans are back at the library

07 May

Years back, our high school library celebrated the national Free Comic Book Day on the Monday following the nationally-celebrated first Saturday in May event.

It began when a comic nerd named Jay was interning with a social worker at our school and asked about helping kick one off and it slowly grew from there. Even after he was gone, he would return to help whether bringing tabletop games, and ideas to introducing me to people in the field who could also contribute. He’s about bringing people together over comics and he writes about it in magazines and on websites like this 2022 article called Why Buying Your Kids More Comic Books Can Benefit Their Mental Health for Inside Hook.

Then the pandemic hit and like many events, it fell by the wayside until this year. We were going to be hosting Steve Sheinkin as our author visit about a month before Free Comic Book Day and I wanted to make the connection between his award-winning Bomb being turned into a graphic novel and his Rabbi Harvey comics to comics in general whether our high schoolers were already fans or not. It’s as much about exposure for a new group of comics lovers as it is a place to connect for tried-and-true comics lovers.

Jay again stepped up when I reached out because I had mentioned wanting to do a panel or have experts on hands during our lunch shifts. Then we’d have passive activities (and a few active ones) surrounding the learning.

I worked with my Japanese Culture Club to design the activities and then invited classes from departments like art to take part. They heeded the call and brought down classes to learn from our panelists who ranged from a comics shop owner to an illustrator of several graphic novels who I was surprised to learn was local. The others were collectors since childhood, an independent publisher of comics, and contributors to the comics field in other capacities. But more than that, the students sat down and decoupaged a coaster from old comics, worked on a Marvel puzzle, and helped add pages to our pop-up zine.

We’re happy that these moments were captured by professionals in our district’s Communications department and shared with the school community. The smiling faces holding comics. The serious focus while creating their art. The intense language of a gaming tournament after school. Even though it was a long day setting up and breaking down, soaking up their enthusiasm is what keeps all of us in education young.

Now on to planning next year’s event…

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2025 in Articles, Authors, Comics, Events, Graphic novels, Illustrators

 

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National tea day

21 Apr

I see all of you tea drinkers out there on National Tea Day. I raise my big, hot black tea mug with a dash of milk and honey to you as I turn the next page of my book.

 
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Posted by on April 21, 2025 in Events

 

The good kind of exhausted

08 Apr

Spring break is around the corner for us here in upstate New York and it’s not that I’ve worked excessively hard these last few weeks, but it will still be nice to not have to show up to my day job for a week to rest and recalibrate (read: still do work for other job-y things but also find time to drink copious amounts of tea and tackle my TBR mountain). Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks:

Presented two full-day workshops back-to-back on new books with my presenter extraordinaire, Stacey, halfway across the state.

Had an author visit at our high school– fourteen years and running! It’s always stellar to walk away from the day knowing that students had new core memories created by making connections and learning a few things along the way.

Celebrating School Librarians Day by sending well-wishes to school librarian friends of mine near and far last Friday while gearing up to talk libraries for National Library Week this week.

Still trying to read all the books all the time. My Netgalley TBR is immense, I culled copies from my TBR shelves in my studio, and (unsurprisingly) a bevy of audio holds arrived from the public library all at once that I must address.

 
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Posted by on April 8, 2025 in Authors, Events

 

Love: Readers’ book personalities

26 Feb

For close to fifteen years, I have moderated a young adult book group for local educators through a collective. Many of those years were in person meetings at local school libraries based on who was attending the meeting and who volunteered to host. But the pandemic moved us online and then the convenience of the platform as well as the expansion of who attended meant that it was easier to sign up than dive forty minutes to an hour for some folks.

Over the years, librarians and educators have retired who were active members. Others have gotten busy with other activities and duties and have stopped coming. Other newer members have come regularly. And one thing stays true, that everyone has a book personality.

We do not have a set reading list. Participants talk about what they’ve read most recently and how it can be relevant to our school libraries and classrooms. That’s the beauty of the book group. Thus, we can count on certain genres or categories to be represented based on participants’ personal reading enjoyment. We have an Austen lover who finds every retelling to read and talk about. We had a woman whose parents were academics of English history and thus every historical fiction period piece featuring the reign of kings like Henry VIII would be shared. We had another who couldn’t bear to have an animal die in a book. Count on me to bring a dark or disturbing book.

I love getting to know everyone’s book personality. Of course we all read outside our comfort books, but it’s nice to know that my weakness is another’s strength.

 
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Posted by on February 26, 2025 in Events, Reflections

 
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