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Category Archives: Events

Virtually yours

15 Apr

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Santa Monica, California is usually a hotbed of book activity during the YallWest Festival. It features a beautiful backdrop and beautiful authors sharing their beautiful books, but this year needs to be different. Thus, they’ve re-branded for their sixth year: YallStayHome. What does that mean? All of the content they were building toward will now be yours… virtually.

YALL stay home imageOn Saturday, April 25th and Sunday, April 26th, they will be putting on virtual panels, smackdowns, and keynotes that you can individually register for based on your interests and author obsessions. Likewise, as noted in the graphic, they will provide giveaways, special events, and share live content via Instagram so it is best to follow them on their social media platforms in addition to checking their website. They can be found on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram.

I have to admit that I’ve always loved the videos and photos that come out of an event that’s across the country that I’d probably never attend in person, so to be a part of it is a boon. Though I’ll also admit that I won’t be plugged in for the two-day event because I’ve already committed to the Dewey 24-hour readathon which I take very seriously.

Whether you’re going all in or just picking a few sessions, consider also sharing with the teens you serve (as I already have) the three contests that teens aged 13-19 can enter until April 19th. There’s one for fan art and two for writing.

When so many activities are at your fingertips while everyone is staying at home, choose this one because the content is rich and deep while bringing a much needed dose of happiness.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2020 in Authors, Blogging, Events, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

Monday inspiration

06 Apr

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Anyone else love a good bookish quote? I have an entire board of book and library quotes to inspire me, motivate me, or simply make me smile.

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In a few weeks, the Dewey 24-hour Readathon will be running it’s April event which for east coast Americans like myself begins at 8am on Saturday, April 25th and ends at 8am on Sunday, April 26th. I’ve done several of these and blogged about preparing for one and completing my first one (that was actually a reverse readathon) which lines up nicely with Dunham’s quote. How I truly would wish one extra day each week!

I’ve heard comments that it is hard to concentrate on reading with everything going on, but consider it a gift to be with other readers for one twenty-four hour period where they will root you on, talk books, and allow you to peek into the food and drink preferences of other bibliophiles. Sign up here. And let me know in the comments below if you’ll be joining whether it’s your fifth time or your first.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2020 in Blogging, Events, Miscellaneous, Quotes

 

Remember

09 Jan

Remember

I made an Instagram story yesterday evening. It was a picture from the back of the Photography II classroom of a dozen kids looking at Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pena, the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide that I blogged about in 2019 alluding to this collaboration. Above it I said “I f*ing love what I do” with a bouncing heart emoji over the Smartboard projector in the photo and a gif of a girl waving a book next to the words “school librarian”.

Because, I f*ing love my job as a school librarian and days like this remind me of that exponentially.

I’ve spent about a month in and out of this class working with the teacher and students to include the graphic novel into their identity unit that teaches them about portrait taking where they photograph six different portraits for the project.

Remember and remind yourself of days like these above on the days that I feel like this below:

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Posted by on January 9, 2020 in Authors, Events, Graphic novels, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

National Book Lovers Day

09 Aug

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I’m grateful to live in a world where there is no shortage of reading material to satisfy curiosity, escapism, and the beauty of the written world to evoke a range of emotions in readers.

Thank you to all authors for feeding the book lovers of the world.

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Posted by on August 9, 2019 in Events, Miscellaneous

 

Bringing it together

06 Aug

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I regularly contribute to a few other blogs in addition to this one. This has taken shape over the last several years and focuses on a different kind of audience though ultimately it still boils down to books, reading, teaching, and librarianship. So in an effort to share out some of the other posts that often don’t make it back to this one, here is a post to bring it all together.

  • YALSA’s The Hub
    • A division of the American Library Association the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) uses The Hub to share out current recommendations for some of their virtual committees. This year, I sit on the Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) 2020 committee. You’ll see several of my posts alongside other committee members’ and the other committees as well.
  • Times Union‘s Books Blog
  • Nerdy Book Club
    •  A national blog that celebrates a love of reading when it comes to children’s and young adult literature and is the brainchild of Colby Sharp, Donalyn Miller, Katherine Sokolowski, and Cindy Minnich.
 
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Posted by on August 6, 2019 in Blogging, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction

 

Ballet biographies and the real thing

20 Jul

This post originally appeared on the Times Union Books Blog. 

Confession: It took me three decades to see a ballet; I’ve never even seen The Nutcracker. But last night, I attended Coppelia at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center amid the humidity for their 8pm performance with my two elementary-aged boys and husband. 

I was better prepared for a few reasons: my Pilates instructor, a former ballerina, gave me a Cliffnotes version of what Coppelia was about. And second, I’m a book nerd and had read Misty Copeland’s biography Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.* Like my post about a beer class connecting to reading, I read to learn as much as I find experiences to learn from and both came together last night. 

The biography balances her personal and professional realms allowing amateurs to understand the world of classical ballet. Copeland had a roller coaster life moving often based on her mother’s new love interest and entered ballet later than most. She battled against prejudice while working hard to perfect her skills to access the elite schools and companies to showcase her talent. 

What I liked is that she name-dropped sparingly. When reading celebrity biographies there is nothing worse than reading pages and pages of names of people I could care less about: I’m reading their biography because I want to know about them. I also liked that she focused on being a black woman in art by finding her voice and also celebrating it dancing on stage with Prince at his concerts to bring ballet to a different audience. Her audience widened again when she did an Under Armour commercial showing off her grace and athleticism that I discovered online afterward. 

And that athleticism is on full display with the breathtaking cover as it is on the stage watching any ballet. I guess aside from looking at a performance like Coppelia as a wordless picture book (I am a librarian after all) that was my other takeaway. I am more astounded by the power and grace of their execution than I am about the moves themselves (or their actual French names). In the book, Copeland regularly shared how arduous the practices were alongside maintaining her body for peak performance. This was a culmination of that appreciation. 

Whether I’m reading books about dead bodies or animals, it’s apparent that I love learning through books. Copeland’s biography is an entry point for those who like me haven’t ever seen a ballet. So I ask you, have there been books that you’ve read that have prepared you for an experience or activity? Share in the comments below! 

 

*Young reader’s editions are adapted books for a teen or tween audience adjusted for both interest and reading level from the adult version. Many adult biographies have been adapted including Sonia Sotomayor, Trevor Noah, Malala Yousafzai, or Ibtihaj Muhammad. 

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2019 in Authors, Events, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

The joy of author visits

09 May

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I find myself writing a post yearly if not more after coming down from an author visit high. But as I walked with Dashka Slater to the car at the end of her visit with us at our high school, I said that my co-librarian and I know it’s a successful visit when we’ve teared up: over a student comment or powerful statistic or thoughtful interaction with a kid. Slater can check that box.

The New York Times writer, journalist, author of young adult narrative nonfiction and picture books just spent four days in our area visiting three local high schools and one elementary school. Programming looked different at each of our schools, but all were changed by her visit. At our school, programming was a visit to our alternative high school program, lunch with a book group, an open presentation for any interested students, then a teacher-focused after school session about a topic addressed in The 57 Bus: restorative justice. No one walked away without something to ponder. Plus her personable nature and presentation style endeared her to everyone “on stage” and off. How flexible and Swiss-Army is she that she can speak with a group of 2nd graders in a snail costume after discussing institutionalized racism or helping freshman understand the myriad of terms in the LBTQAI+ community the day before?

Do I wish more students and staff attended? Absolutely. Learning is never-ending and relationships are integral to a healthy society. When we bury ourselves in being busy/hectic educators and over-scheduled teenagers, we don’t see the opportunities that are right in front of us, myself included.

But what are the joys of an author visit? I will count the ways.

  1. Student response– everything from “I got to meet a real live author!” to “Man, you wrote that?” Or the doodler who shares his sketch of them while they’re speaking and they ask to keep it.
  2. Adding to school climate and culture– we want our students to love reading and we promote that every day and use author visits judiciously.
  3. Books! The authors wrote the books then readers get to read them.
  4. Seeing the culmination of planning and preparation– I’ve been thinking about this visit for a year. Others not so much. But as much as visits create sleepless nights and nervous energy, they bring so many groups together.
  5. Did I mention student response? It’s all about them whether they become “Insta famous” being on an author’s Instagram story or take a selfie because again, they met a real live author!

Then all that’s left are the emotions of the day, the pictures, and the personal, lasting memories.

 
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Posted by on May 9, 2019 in Authors, Events, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

My TLA experience

18 Apr

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I can see why my North North Texan colleague from Castleton Elementary School in New York, Stacey Rattner, loves Texas librarians and their conference. With less than twelve hours left before I head to the airport, I’m glowing with love for my profession from colleagues a time zone away.

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The Texas Library Association does it right. They bring everyone together for a positively enriching three-day experience. The learning, my God, the learning! Each session was like choosing a favorite child– it just could not be done. I even wished to attend a few sessions when I was presenting myself. There was certainly some fierce competition but I appreciate the Texas Association of School Librarians for accepting my proposal to present about print and web resources for research. Those in attendance walked away with a booklist of awesome books to kick-start an inquiry-based project, information about encouraging students to question, and mini-lessons to offer as librarians to create a comprehensive research plan in collaboration with teachers. You can check out the materials from my presentation on my website. 

When I was not sharing, I was listening in sessions about graphic novels (Texas– I hope you do a cosplay fashion show again! I know I was inspired to add it to our Free Comic Book Day celebration in just a few short weeks), writing historically, GSuite add-ons and apps, and hacking my school library.

Then there was the food. How much better can you get than to have recommendations by Texans? I was not disappointed. I even had a lovely intimate dinner with a publisher and favorite author of mine, Cat Winters, whose new book The Raven’s Tale about a young Edgar Allan Poe was just released.

With so much to see, do, and experience, I know I only scratched the surface. I appreciate the experience and hope to return. Which begs the question, what librarians conference are you attending soon? Haven’t been to one, consider ALA Annual in Washington, D.C. in June or start researching a conference that you’d like to attend. We can’t attend them all and be everywhere, but we can be strategic about our sharing and learning. Yet the first step is always the hardest. My first step was several years ago and my school is better for having me attend conferences because of the networking and ideas that come back with me.

My sincerest hope is that you take the opportunities to ASK to attend, even when you haven’t before, because librarians know how to put on a conference. And certainly I’ve learned that Texas specifically wows.

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2019 in Events

 

Getting involved is NOT overrated

30 Jan

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On my way back from the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference in Seattle yesterday, I was thinking about what my theme would be for the post-conference post. I wasn’t quite sure which is why it’s about 24 hours later. But on my way home from work today, I realized it had to be about getting involved. Honestly, it was kind of my theme for the conference itself.

Why was it my theme? Here’s what I did differently this time around.

  1. I volunteered at the YALSA booth for the first time. I told myself this year I would do it. Former committee members of mine had done it before and I thought I couldn’t do it because I didn’t know enough, but they set good examples of being involved. So I got involved. And it was delightful to chat up the organization and meet others volunteering as well.
  2. I made sure to connect with colleagues who I knew were attending from across the country because I realized at Annual last year, that if you didn’t make it a point, it wouldn’t happen serendipitously. So I reached out ahead of the conference and got involved in asking my colleagues what they were up to and when we could meet.
  3. I was on an award committee. Yeah, I know! It was a goal and I made it and it felt awesome and I’ll definitely do it again. In the meantime, I’m on selection committees to fill my need to read and share good books with the world.
  4. I book-talked at a publisher breakfast (and at 7:30am used taboo words but it was for the cause) to share my love for an upcoming book. Who better to hear from than colleagues (and kids when we can) about good books to read? Nevermind that yogurt squirt forth from the cup onto my dress a mere half hour before. My tip? Eat after you do your booktalk. So I got involved in sharing my love of books that publishers want us to love.
  5. I talked and smiled more. There were several people I met at activities then saw over and over again the rest of the conference. How nice to get out of our libraries and meet others and hear their opinions and perspectives and ask questions. So I got involved simply by being more open (but I still liked curling up in the hotel bed with cheesy TV at night).

If you haven’t been to a national conference, get to one soon. While none of this is groundbreaking, it does remind us all to use our talents and strengths and then share, share, share them with others.

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2019 in Events, Young Adult

 

A night at the library: 5 things

01 Dec

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Last night, my colleague and I hosted 92 high school students for our third annual library lock-in that we’ve re-branded Falcon Library After Dark. Our activities included pizza, three movie screens, computers, tabletop games, video games, double Dutch, corn hole, Legos, and an all-night activity if they chose to undertake it– a BINGO-like challenge that got them talking, investigating, and thinking. This was followed by a short dance party before running our nonfiction gauntlet and collecting their Blow Pop.

Students get to hang out and be themselves with their friends and make new friends. They enjoy the camaraderie and excitement and an opportunity to relax for an evening before heading into the weekend at home. And it got me thinking- what would I do if I were in the library all night? Here are five things:

  1. Sit down and just be. Our library is nothing if not active. If we have to close for a period or after school, which doesn’t happen often, it’s nearly impossible for anyone– students and staff alike– to believe it as they rattle the doors and stare in. Therefore, sitting down and just being in the library is a luxury. While most library’s aren’t shush zones, there is something beautiful about a silent library… sometimes.
  2. Make myself a cup of tea. I joke that I’d be opening up Pandora’s box if I started drinking tea at work because I drink enough outside of work, but on the rare days where I need to warm up, there is a stash in the office.
  3. Wander the shelves. I take pride in our collection. I turned into a nonfiction reader about a decade ago and haven’t looked back. I often read nonfiction during my lunch. I’m also just as obsessed with graphic novels and fiction, so no matter where you are in the library, there’s something fantastic to read at your fingertips. It would be lovely just to feel with my fingertips and scan with my eyes.
  4. Ignore my desk. Wouldn’t it be tempting if I were locked in the library all night to sit down and work? Of course, but this is not that kind of fantasy.
  5. Read. What did you think number five would be? After wandering the shelves, it would be nearly impossible not to have pulled some off the shelves and snuggle in for the rest of the night to read– in the comfy chairs, at the table, in between the stacks.

What would you do if you were in a library all night?

 
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Posted by on December 1, 2018 in Events, Miscellaneous

 
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