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Category Archives: Verse

Grab bag of books

28 Sep

These last few weeks have far and away been the hardest of my school librarian career but one thing has remained steady and that’s the challenge I gave myself once COVID closed the doors to our school building and that was to read at least a book a day. Yes, I’m back in school, but we’re teaching our kids virtually which is a blog post for another day. And I’ve still been able to maintain a book a day so far. Here were some of the books I’ve read recently:

  • Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 6
    • Pre-order and purchased in print because I will own every book in this series
  • The Bird Way audiobook
    • I’m a nut for nonfiction animal books
  • Hello, Neighbor!
    • I’ve been diving into the world of Fred Rogers and this picture book by Matthew Cordell was delightful
  • Every Body Looking
    • Verse novels are more commonplace formats but Iloh chose this format wisely for this heavily biographical story
  • Flyy Girls, books one and two
    • A series by Woodfolk that are neatly-packed and easily accessible titles with realistic characters who work through their problems with the help of friends
  • Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for their Lives and Warned a Nation
    • It’s as riveting as it is upsetting to read
 
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Posted by on September 28, 2020 in Childrens, Fiction, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

Needing it, like, yesterday

15 Jun

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Certain books are felt so deeply that it usually takes another day or two to find the words to adequately express coherent thoughts about them. Punching the Air, a collaboration of Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam is one of those books.

PunchingTheAirThanks for Edelweiss, I read a digital advanced copy and implore Balzer + Bray to fast track this book’s publication because I can’t possibly wait until September 1st to share Punching the Air with the teens (and staff) at our high school library. I think I have 12 copies on our order list and am debating whether to add more. Likewise, I’ve already mentioned it to a few art teachers about doing a collaboration using it.

With the combination of being told in verse and the powerhouse Zoboi penning it, the words are each tiny raindrops unleashing a torrential downpour of empathy. Amal is in lockup because the justice system is unfair. And the crudeness of his situation behind bars is exacerbated by his talent, thoughts, and loving relationship with his family that does not stop believing in him. That’s also where the book intersects with Salaam who, as one of the wrongfully convicted Central Park Five, uses the prejudice and injustices that transformed his life into a story that gives a mirror to so many black and brown boys.

I wrote down half a dozen lines that punched me in the gut (again from the advanced copy) to foster conversations about the school to prison pipeline.

“On the day of my conviction
I memorize
my inmate number
my crime
my time

On the day of my conviction
I forget
my school ID number
my top three colleges
my class schedule”

And it reminded me of the recent law that raised the age for teens convicted of crimes being punished through the adult legal system rather than a juvenile one in New York state, where I reside. Multiple passages were apropos of what I’m reading in the newspaper, seeing on the TV, scrolling through on social media.

My blog title says it all. I plead that Balzer + Bray push up the publication day because I can’t wait for September 1st. I need more people to read it so I can talk to them about it. I need it in the hands of my students. I can’t imagine that halfway through 2020, this book won’t get knocked off my top 10 for 2020.

 
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Posted by on June 15, 2020 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Quotes, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 

Dewey’s 24-hour readathon: Part II

26 Apr

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It’s so hard to say goodbye. Parting is such sweet sorrow. It’s not goodbye but see ya later. However you say it, the readathon is over for now. I’ll patiently await October and then if there’s a reverse readathon in the summer- I’m there. In the meantime, I’m celebrating my successes for the readathon and hope you’ll share yours if you participated too.

Here were my stats:

Time spent reading:

22 hours 38 minutes 02 seconds

Books read:

Junk Boy by Abbott (Digital)

Grown by Jackson (Digital)

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Krosoczka (Digital)

The Season of Styx Malone by Magoon (Audiobook)

Ginger Kid by Hofstetter (Print)

Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History by Chaline (Print)

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (Young Readers Edition) by Kilmeade & Yaeger (Print)

The Cool Bean by John (Digital)

My Neighbor Seki by Morishige (Print)

Chicken Every Sunday by Taylor (Print)

Part of Girls of Paper and Fire by Ngan (Print)

Almost all of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Callahan (Audiobook)

Snacks and food consumed:

Saturday kickoff breakfast: overnight oats and tea,

Snacks: homemade chai tea biscotti, Sour Patch Kids, copious amounts of tea, Stewart’s Shops’ limited release peanut butter cookie ice cream,

Saturday dinner: Pulled pork and cabbage slaw tacos, Amaretto and cranberry

Sunday celebratory breakfast: chocolate milk, biscotti, and tea

Locations for reading:

Couch

Kitchen table

On the patio

On a bike trail

By the fire outside

Bathtub

 

Thank you to all who put it together time after time. There will be a change in lineup for next time as Heather and Andi will both step back while Gaby and Kate take the reins. Au revoir and welcome all in the same breath.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2020 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 

Reading time capsule: Part II

04 Apr

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Yesterday’s post was what I would put into a reading time capsule outside of the actual books themselves. Today I tackle what books I would want in the time capsule. And like picking your favorite dress or favorite child, it’s just impossible, but I’m giving it my best shot… and how big is the capsule??!?

  • Saga graphic novel collection by Vaughan and Staples. I just spent the last nine days re-reading a volume a day and loving every minute of it
  • Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen is the first book I remember laughing out loud at while reading
  • Every Ruta Sepetys book written and I’m going to go sci-fi here and say that when she writes another, just virtually drop it in there because I know I’ll want to read those too
  • Deathwatch by Robb White was the first book I remember recommending to a student as a first year teacher where the kid came back to thank me for my awesome recommendation
  • Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle is a book I read several years ago and still bring up at least once a week in conversation. The number of Post-its sticking out of that book made it look ten times fatter
  • Crank by Ellen Hopkins. It’s verse style was somewhat revolutionary at the time and it’s loosely fictionalized version of her daughter’s experience brought so much out in the open. She became our first author visit at the high school that we hosted and we haven’t looked back in ten years
  • Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram because I was on the William C. Morris award committee that named it the 2019 winner
  • Mudbound by Hillary Jordan had a whole mood and is one of the most impactful book written for adults when I live in a world reading mostly YA
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson came out the year I graduated high school. I read it the following year in a YA lit class while I was studying English education and we met Anderson when she visited a local school district as a college class. Her depiction of high school brought back every sight, smell, and sound and who knew as a more than decades-old high school librarian that I would still be recommending it along with the graphic novel and companion Shout
  • You can’t not add a few classics: mine would be The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is another book that is full of big mood that skillfully and sinfully explores femalehood. I don’t have sisters, but I get the Lisbon girls and I remember connecting just as deeply to Sofia Coppola’s big screen adaptation (and buying the soundtrack)
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was the first book that I actually photocopied several pages out of to keep in a folder to go back and re-read whenever I wanted

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Do I have honorable mentions? Ones that I’d stuff in the crevices and crannies of the capsule. Here are a few of those that are less memories-driven but more emotionally-connected. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos, The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, every Jason Reynolds book published, Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, North of Beautiful by Justina Chen, Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, Rupi Kaur’s poetry, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, and A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly.

What are some of yours?

 
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Posted by on April 4, 2020 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Fiction, Graphic novels, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse, Young Adult

 

A roller coaster of emotions

20 Mar

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Whenever I’ve read something or a few somethings, I will usually throw up a sticky note on my computer, give it a working title for a future blog post and wait until the inspiration strikes to write it. I’m ready to write from my working title “emotional roller coasters” and talk about three titles I’d read recently that unequivocally fall under this heading: Nikki Grimes’ Ordinary Hazards, A.J. Dungo’s In Waves, and Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan’s Unpregnant.

First, the fictional Unpregnant. What more can you ask for than a book targeted toward teens talking about abortion. It isn’t often that we find books wholly centered on the topic. I think I remember Exit, Pursued by a Bear the first time that it felt really real in a contemporary YA book. And then there’s Girls on the Verge which I highly recommend. But what most people comment on after reading this book is that while it is a frustratingly painful circumstance that puts Veronica in this situation, there is a dark humor that provides the balance that not all hope is ever lost regardless of the choice made though the most memorable scene is one of sadness:

“And that was it. Dinner was no different from any other dinner we’d had. My brother went over every play he’d made in baseball that weekend. My mother shoveled more food onto our plates. My dad made noises at appropriate times to make it seem like he was participating in the conversation. They didn’t even bother to ask any more about my weekend. They weren’t interested. I was a known quantity. The good daughter. The hard worker. I should have been grateful. I was angry. They didn’t see me. If they did, they would have known something had happened. Instead they only saw the pieces I was made of. A question already answered.”

Then there’s Ordinary Hazards, Grimes’ memoir of a few years of her childhood struggling with her mother’s alcoholism and paranoid schizophrenia  and her father’s intermittent absence which led to a childhood in the foster care system. But the biggest takeaway is the strength of memoir as a genre. Grimes explains memoir and really helps readers turn themselves into writers by showcasing that everyone has a story however joyous or heartbreaking. In addition, her choice to use verse is a touchstone text on its exemplary use in form, function, and lyricism.

Then last, is a graphic novel (I didn’t mean to represent two genres and a format under one umbrella of emotional stories but this is why books are amazing). It’s In Waves. I read this on my lunch at work about a month ago and was glad I was eating alone. Because I cried. Dungo’s tribute to his partner before her passing and while she was undergoing treatment shines in his visual choices in line, color, and symbolism. He also effortlessly weaves in a more factual story of the history of surfing yet it never once takes away from the roller coaster of his relationship as it weathered the storm of illness.

As everyone’s emotions are on similar roller coasters all across the world, I thought I would share three books that provide mirrors to the same mountains and valleys we’re feeling.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2020 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

The top 15 of 2019 on the 15th

15 Dec

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Let’s make this a thing!

Last year I shared two lists: an adult and a YA/middle grade top 10 based on the books published in that calendar year. This year, absent from my list will be any fiction titles since I’m finishing up my term on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults blogging team. Our final list will be available soon and in the meantime you can see the titles we’ve all blogged about throughout the year.

Now onto my top 15 published today, December 15th for 2019.

Graphic novels (in no particular order)

  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell: The color palette and storyline is richly detailed with the internal romantic lives of teenagers, especially highlighting unrequited and abusive relationships in a powerful story.
  • Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen: A family-focused middle grade graphic novel with a vividly earthy color palette and a magical understanding of our natural world that has a message.
  • White Bird by R.J. Palacio: The historical graphic novel wrapped in a contemporary story that shows the power of technology and the need for youth to talk to their older relatives to reveal the secret stories that might never get told.
  • Maker Comics: Bake like a Pro! by Falynn Koch: I love baking, so this is my absolutely favorite maker comic to date. It’s so practical and useful wrapped in the goofy story of wizards honing their skills.
  • Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau: The same use of a smart color palette like Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, this romantic GLBTQ story in a bakery clearly has me gah-gah.
  • Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks: An endearing slow burning romance at a pumpkin patch where what you wish for isn’t always what you really need. The adventures were a humorous addition to a good ol’ fashioned romance in the fall. The setting is it’s own lovely character.
  • Kiss #8 by Colleen A.F. Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw: Ah, what more can be said about a girl figuring out relationships while the readers follow along.
  • Hephaistos: God of Fire by George O’Connor: I’m all about this graphic novel series that keeps mythology alive for us all.

A picture book

  • Liberty Arrives!: How America’s Grandest Statue Found Her Home by Robert Byrd: I read it and then immediately booked a trip to the Statue of Liberty with my family. Yes, we were one of the lucky 400 per day to head up to her crown on a chilly October morning. So you should read the book and take the trip too.

And those fabulously fascinating nonfiction titles (again, in no particular order):

  • The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller: It’s a shocking look at five babies born in 1934 that shouldn’t have survived but did, then were ripped from their parents and raised as an amusement park attraction whose visits per year rivaled Niagara Falls.
  • Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein: A truly spectacular behind the scenes look at Onwuachi’s rise to popular chef that mixes the personal and the professional (and includes recipes!)
  • Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty: We all know I’m obsessed with Doughty and this one didn’t disappoint by sharing funny, gross, and impossibly weird questions posed by kids and Doughty’s straightforward and quirky answers that are truthful and entertaining.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Making of America by Teri Kanefield: Her series always entertains and informs about those that built America. Kanefield never shies away from details that are less than stellar about these individuals and does the same with FDR.
  • Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson: I mean, Anderson powerful words in prose format? Yes, please. The story is meant to be uncomfortable but also powerful and uplifting. A true battlecry for a new era.
  • Rising Water: The Story of the Thai Cave Rescue by Marc Aronson: Whenever I’m talking about this book to teens, I’m always sharing how I knew what the outcome was and I was still sweating whether they were going to make it out alive! That is how capable Aronson is as a writer in manipulating our emotions.
 
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Posted by on December 15, 2019 in Adult, Authors, Cover Love, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

A week of booktalks

22 Sep

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I say it frequently, whether I’m tweeting about our readers’ reading habits in the library or animatedly talking about it with teacher colleagues, if I could do nothing other than booktalking as a high school librarian I would be even happier. It could be one-on-one or a whole class, but I can’t help but get excited about all of the books at our fingertips.

This past week, my co-librarian and I spent the week working with our ENL classes for orientations and booktalks and the majority of our 10th grade students booktalking for independent reading.

My favorite utterance was “can we check out more than one?” Ummmm, YES! We’ll continue over the next few weeks filling in here and there for more booktalks but the majority took place within this past week. While I’m exhausted and the library is in general loving disarray, I’m filled with love for authors, their books, and our students.

2019-09-16 16.00.47Here were some of my favorites to discuss:

  • Attack on Titan by Isayama
  • Proud by Muhammad
  • Long Way Down by Reynolds
  • Milk and Honey by Kaur
  • Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Smith
  • Ms. Marvel by Wilson
  • Black Enough edited by Zoboi
  • The Selection by Cass
  • Chasing King’s Killer by Swanson
  • Between Shades of Gray by Sepetys
 
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Posted by on September 22, 2019 in Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse, Young Adult

 

Breaking it up

03 Jun

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One of the discussions that occurs each time a readathon is on the horizon is about diversifying the book stack– not in terms of representation but format.

Do you have an audiobook so you can take a walk? A few short story or essay collections stacked alongside Harry Potter. For the basic reason that even though reading is exercise for the mind, our bodies need some if we sit too long reading and that reading the same thing might get a little boring. So add some stimulus with a graphic novel. Change the brain chemistry by switching from truth to fiction and back again.

So while I have a large committee commitment to read fiction– if I stuck solely to fiction for this entire year, my brain would explode or worse yet, seize up. I need change like the four seasons of upstate New York where I reside. I spend my lunch reading middle grade nonfiction or a sunny summerish day in the backyard with an adult biography.

Here were some recent non-YA fiction that I’ve read recently

  • The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
  • Liberty Arrives!: How America’s Grandest Statue Found Her Home by Robert Byrd
  • Caught!: Nabbing History’s Most Wanted by Georgia Bragg
  • High: Everything You Wanted to Know About Drugs, Alcohol, and Addiction by David and Nic Sheff
  • Sea Sirens by Amy Chu
  • A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on the Moon by Suzanne Slade

If you’re feeling like you’re in a rut, when was the last time you read something just for you? Or outside of your comfort zone? Or reliving the good old days and reading a picture book. Consider diversification to keep it fresh.

 
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Posted by on June 3, 2019 in Adult, Authors, Childrens, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Story, Verse

 

Top 10 of 2018: Young adult and middle grade edition

19 Dec

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I’ve been thinking making a list and checking it twice for my picks for the best YA and MG titles published in 2018 (in addition to my shout out below of the finalists for the 2018 William C. Morris Award Committee of which I was a part).  In alphabetical order- the books that I shouted from the rooftops about:

  1. Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol: This fun romp is a reminder that we were all awkward growing up and nervous about making friends. Special appearance by the local convenience store, Stewart’s, makes this an especially lovely local story!
  2. Chasing King’s Killer by James Swanson: I continue to be blown away by the quality of Swanson’s research and his aptitude to bring history to a younger audience. He truly makes history sexy.
  3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: Ironically this published at the beginning of 2018 and I’ve already read the ARC of The Wicked King and give that five stars too. Black knows how to create an intense atmosphere in a faerie land.
  4. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: Sign me up for more alternative history. This mixes zombies, the Civil War, and race relations and allows a kickass heroine to shine with her sassy attitude.
  5. Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka: A graphic novel memoir that began from Krosoczka’s TED talk about his childhood and allows our authors to be human and teaching empathy.
  6. The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee: I stayed up past my bedtime to finish Lee’s book in one sitting. This companion focuses on Monty’s sister Felicity with a penchant for medicine and no outlet to practice in a man’s world.
  7. Lu by Jason Reynolds: There is nothing sadder than the end of a beloved series. Reynold’s Track series was an instant hit and each story with their vivid covers and realistic characters shone like the North Star guiding young readers about right and wrong, healthy relationships, and the meaning of community.
  8. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang: The coloring of this graphic novel compliments the emotions and story of a prince who loves to wear dresses and his relationship with his dressmaker keeping the secret… until it’s not one anymore.
  9. Seafire by Natalie Parker: Every female empowerment anthem plays when I see the cover and remember my feelings reading this book that mixes the best of Lumberjanes with seafaring and the ultimate fight against evil. These ladies have my heart.
  10. The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown: I immediately finished this sequel and ordered both for my elementary-aged sons. This sentimental story about Roz, a robot now living on a family farm who longs for the freedom she once had on an island caring for a gosling. Heartfelt science fiction adventure at its best.

Top 10 of 2018_ Young Adult and Middle Grade Edition

In addition, January 2019 finishes my term as a member of the William C. Morris Award Committee through YALSA, which means I read a lot of debut novels besides my usual cache of books. With all of that reading, our committee came up with the five finalists announced last week and we will vote on the winner next month that will be announced at the Youth Media Awards in Seattle, Washington. Here were the finalists:

  • Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough
  • Check, Please! #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
  • What The Night Sings by Vesper Stamper

2019 Morris Award Finalists Feature Slide

Cheers to the reading you did in 2018 and all of the books to be read in 2019 and beyond!

 

 
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Posted by on December 19, 2018 in Authors, Blogging, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

#PresentationMode

18 May

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Yesterday was a good day. An early morning run, then a walk with the dog. A new dress for a presentation with a group of fabulous ladies: two school library system directors, one reading specialist and professor, and two school librarians (me included). It was a day designed to discuss books and empowering our readers at every level.

With a keynote that shared how our varying perspectives of how we interpret what we read and what we seek out is usually a very conscious decision. We bring an experience to any book we read that is different from the person sitting next to us and we should be conscious of that and respect the reader. And the message of her keynote led perfectly into my presentation that went next about young adult books since I chose to focus on names: who we are as individuals and striking up a conversation simply by getting to know someone by asking their name.

I covered names of my author crushes (James L. Swanson, Caitlin Doughty, Rae Carson to name a few), fabulous names for books (The Hate U Give, Dumplin’, Puddin’), moms (Allegedly, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter), dads (The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, My Brother’s Husband), girls (The Nowhere Girls, What Girls Are Made Of), boys (The Prince and the Dressmaker, Words on Bathroom Walls), and a whole lot of series, niche student readers, and popular titles with my students. Could I have talked the whole day away? Of course, but there were wonderful conversations interspersed in my my presentation about topics and challenges presented in books, getting books in the hands of readers using their subtopics as a way to diversify their options, and why series books are magic. You can find my presentation and the booklist here.

And once I was finished, the day was just warming up because then it moved on to middle grade titles and then elementary titles. But I’m at the high school, why would I need to hear about middle grade and elementary titles? Librarians should always know what’s new, popular, and discuss-able at every level in part because librarianship means finding the right book for the right reader or the reader’s needs. It might be a teenager wanting a book to read with their cousin, it could be a teacher wanting to use a picture book in their middle school classroom, and any host of possibilities in between.

It’s no secret that readers advisory is my favorite part of librarianship so a day like yesterday was just as good as spending the day booktalking. The next opportunity to share about books to professionals will be with the effervescent Stacey Rattner, my partner-in-crime aka The Leaping Librarian, in July and our theme is #getbooked.

 
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Posted by on May 18, 2018 in Authors, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Story, Verse, Young Adult

 
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