According to an interview Dias did with NPR, the group has well exceeded their goal by collecting about four thousand books at last count. The drive ended at the beginning of February, but Dias told NPR she hopes to create a “black girl book club” and change the type of books that are assigned to students in school. Dias has said she was tired of reading books about white boys and their dogs, or both. She had read Where the Red Fern Grows and Shiloh, but longed for something more like her favorite book, Newbery Honor Book Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

According to a yearly analysis by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, less than 10 percent of children’s books published in 2015 had a black person as the main character, even less with a black female. And while campaigns such as We Need Diverse Books have brought the problem to the forefront, many schools collections are lagging in this area.

Here are some more titles that are perfect for school or public library collections.  Marley’s Top Five books, as told to NPR, are followed by an asterisk (*). What are some of your favorite #1000BlackGirlBooks?

Picture Books

1. Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen
2. I Can Do It Too! by Karen Baicker
3. Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang
4. Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron
5. Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
6. Wow! It Sure Is Good To Be You by Cynthia Jabar
7. The Color of Us by Karen Katz
8. Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee & Tonya Lewis Lee*
9. Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn
10. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
11. The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora
12. Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson
13. Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson

Chapter Books & Series

1. Ruby and the Booker Boys by Derrick Barnes
2. The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
3. Sassy series by Sharon M. Draper
4. Nikki and Deja series by Karen English
5. Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg & Deborah Underwood
6. The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe’s Very First Case by Alexander McCall Smith
7. Lulu and the Duck in the Park by Hilary McKay
8. Miss You, Mina by Denene Millner
9. Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes
10. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor*
11. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia*
12. President of the Whole Fifth Grade by Sherri Winston*
13. Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods

Teen

1. Something Like Hope by Shawn Goodman
2. The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson
3. Heaven by Angela Johnson
4. Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson
5. Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
6. This Side of Home by Renee Watson
7. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson*
8. Hush by Jacqueline Woodson
9. When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright

Historical Biographies

1. Fly High!: The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louis Borden & Mary Kay Kroeger
2. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
3. The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
4. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose
5. Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation by Andrea Davis Pinkney
6. When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan
7. Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder
8. Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter

Resources:

CBCC: Publishing Statistics on Children’s Books about People of Color and First/Native Nations and by People of Color and First/Native Nations

People: 11-Year-Old Girl Starts Social Movement Promoting Books with ‘Strong, Black Female’ Main Characters

NPR: Where’s The Color In Kids’ Lit? Ask The Girl With 1,000 Books (And Counting)

GrassROOTS Community Foundation

The post #1000BlackGirlBooks Campaign Exceeds Goal first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Janice Johnson Dias, Marley’s mother, challenged her daughter to do something about the issue. “I know there’s a lot of black girl books out there, I just haven’t read them,” the fifth grader laments. Marley launched her campaign in November 2015 with the goal to amass a thousand books featuring black girls as the main characters, instead of their typical placement as sidekicks, best friends, and other secondary characters. The drive ended on February 1; on March 11, she plans to deliver the books to a local school in her mother’s hometown in St. Mary, Jamaica,  as part of her work with her mother’s social justice organization, grassROOTS.[2]

Not only has the fifth grader exceeded her goal, she is also behind a trending hashtag, #1000blackgirlbooks. Even bookselling giant Barnes & Noble donated books to the drive, explaining that “some books introduce us to characters who are different from us, allowing us to see the world from a new perspective. But for children in the process of figuring out who they are, and who they want to be, it is just as important to also read stories about characters they can relate to, and see themselves in.”[3] Dias also appeared on the Ellen show, where she was given a laptop and a check from picture site Shutterfly.

Having surpassed her thousand-book goal for the Jamaican school, she hopes to continue taking in books to help other schools and other students of color experiencing the same frustrations.

As for Dias’ own favorite books? She mentions, among others, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (author of the award-winning book Speak).

References:

[1] Marley Dias. “Girl’s drive to find 1,000 ‘black girl books’ hits target with outpouring of donations” by Alison Flood, Guardian, February 9, 2016.

[2] Taryn Finley, “This 11-Year-Old Wants To Help Kids Discover Books They Can Relate To,” Huffington Post Black Voices, January 25, 2016.

[3] Barnes & Noble. “Girl’s drive to find 1,000 ‘black girl books’ hits target with outpouring of donations” by Alison Flood, Guardian, February 9, 2016.

The post A Thousand Books Strong first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries: How did you start writing and illustrating children’s books?

Duncan Tonatiuh: Well, it wasn’t something I necessarily planned. I always liked writing and drawing. When I was a kid. I made my own comic books, I was into Japanese anime, and I would make up my own characters. So it was always something I liked. And I’ve always liked books; since I was a kid I’ve liked reading a lot. In high school and college I took a lot of different art classes and I went to a design school. I studied illustration and writing, but I always thought more of doing stuff for adults or for a gallery.

For my senior thesis, I decided to make this short comic book about a friend of mine named Sergio, who was an undocumented worker. He’s Mixtec, which is an indigenous group from the south of Mexico. I created a project about him and that’s how I came up with my art style, by looking at Mixtec artwork. There’s all this great Mixtec codex from the fifteenth century, so I decided to do a modern day codex of Sergio.

One day a professor at Parsons came to critique our work, a woman named Julia Gorton. She had illustrated some books for Abrams and was good friends with this man named Howard Reeves, who’s an editor there. She asked me if she could show him my work and I said, “Sure, please!” I gave her some copies of my art. Howard liked them and said, “If we receive a manuscript that suits your style, we’d like to do a picture book with you.” I told him I liked writing too and he said, “Well if you write something send it to me.” He told me a few very basic things about picture books and some time later, I wrote my first manuscript.

I had an idea for my first book about two cousins—one who lives in a rural community in Mexico and one who lives in an urban center in the U.S. I wrote it and sent it to him. My first draft rhymed—and I’m really bad at rhyming—but he was really nice about it. He said, “I really like this concept, I want to publish this book, but no rhyming, please.”

I reworked the manuscript and that eventually became my first book. Since then I’ve done five books with Abrams. I have a sixth one coming out and they’ve all been edited by Howard.

I feel so lucky that writing is something I get to do, that the door opened to that whole world. I just really enjoy it. I get to talk about subjects that interest me and I think it’s a very creative field.

PL: Your books have tackled complex issues, like immigration and segregation, what are the challenges of communicating those issues into a children’s book?

DT: With Separate is Never Equal—which is about the civil rights case that desegregated schools in California, Mendez v. Westminster—the main challenge was to have enough information there. I think it was important to have dates, to have certain names, to have certain concepts like a trial. Things that might be a tiny bit complicated, that might not be exciting so to speak to a very young reader. But I thought it was important to have enough of those without making it too overwhelming—just finding the right balance of what to explain enough, what needed to be explained more, what to include, what not to include.

With that book, kids have been super-responsive, I think because it’s set in a school environment. Also because kids are very into what’s right and what’s wrong. I think they immediately connect to the story and don’t get discouraged by the fact that it has dates and names and things like that.

PL: You also capture the feelings she experienced. You interviewed Sylvia Mendez, correct?

DT: I definitely think making Sylvia the protagonist makes it more relatable to kids. I had a chance to meet her and hear her speak and do several informal interviews with her. It was great to hear her talk about that time, and that allowed me to try to capture some of the emotions and thoughts she had as a young girl.

PL: Posada is a fascinating artist because many people might be aware of his work and his style without necessarily knowing who is. How did you first learn about Posada?

I grew up in Mexico so I saw his images around all the time. There are thousands and thousands of reproductions of his work during the Day of the Dead, they’re just part of the pop culture. Posada is an unsung hero where people, like you said, have oftentimes seen his work and images but don’t know that much about his life. I just wanted to learn more about him.

A few years ago the hundredth anniversary of his death was celebrated. There were a couple of good books written about him in Mexico and there were some exhibits about him, so that also helped me find more information and more material. I visited the library at the University of Texas in Austin, which has an incredible collection of Latin American books, and they had a lot of information about him.

I didn’t know that much about him. I wanted to learn more. In the book I decided to include questions, because there were a lot of things I couldn’t quite find out because he wasn’t famous during his lifetime.

If you look up Diego Rivera or Pablo Picasso, a lot of people were writing about them while they were alive. There’s a lot of information about the paintings and art they were doing at a specific times of their lives. With Posada, he was unknown during his lifetime. People knew his images but he wasn’t famous by any means. So that’s why I decided to include a lot of questions, to try to give some context to things that I imagine may have happened.

PL: I really liked the questions, because it seems like you’re giving the reader the tools to think critically about art.

DT: I think the wonderful thing about Posada’s work—especially his calaveras—is that they’re so timeless. There are just a lot of interpretations one can make about them. A hundred years later we can look at his artwork and it’s still so relevant, even though it was done in a different time period.

PL: You’ve talked before about how you’ve been influenced by Ancient Mexican art, particularly the Mixtec codex. How did you first discover the Mixtec codex?

DT: I grew up in Mexico so often the cover of a textbook in elementary school will be a piece of Pre-Columbian art. Or in San Miguel where I grew up there’s a craft market where sometimes you’ll find crafts that have a Pre-Columbian vibe, but that wasn’t what interested me as a kid or what got me interested in art. It was years later after I had lived in the U.S. and was interested in different types of art that I came back to that.

When it really clicked is when I did that project about my friend Sergio. There’s a large Mixtec community in New York and I just thought it was so interesting that he speaks his indigenous Mixtec dialect with his cousins and friends. I was blown away by that. Here he was, thousands and thousands of miles away from his native village, but still retaining some of his traditions and language in this totally foreign city. So I decided to do a project about that. One of the first things I did was look up Mixtec artwork at the library at Parsons. I saw these great reproductions of codex from the fifteenth century that are some of the few codex that were not destroyed during the Spanish conquest

I decided to draw in that style. I do my characters in profile, their ears look very stylized, a little bit like the number three. I started to adopt the same aesthetic. I tried to make it a little more relevant to kids and to people nowadays by using digital collage, where I use different textures and photographic elements. So hopefully it’s an interesting combination where it looks kind of ancient but also kind of contemporary

PL: One of the cool parts of Calaveras is you go through the mechanics of Posada’s process, where you explain how etching, lithography, and engraving work. Why was it important for you to include how Posada created his drawings in this book?

DT: It was an interest of mine. I had taken a few introductory courses in college, so I was a little bit familiar with those processes. It’s just so different from painting, the fact that he had to draw his images backward. I thought it would be interesting to kids nowadays, where we’re just so used to printing things on a printer. But a hundred years ago, things had to be done totally differently so you could have multiple copies of the same image.

I think that’s one thing that’s very important about Posada’s work is that his art was popular and for the masses. It was produced lots and lots of times. In order to do that he had to use these techniques. If he had done a painting, there’d just be one painting, but since he did lithographs and etchings and engravings, there were these copies. I think that’s very much a part of the artwork he created and the purpose it served.

PL: Who are the children’s books illustrators you admire?

DT: There’s a lot of great people out there. I definitely like Ezra Jack Keats. I got to do a project related to his work for the Akron Art Museum. I feel a lot of connection to his work because he also did collage and was very interested in multicultural works.

Some of the art that inspires me is definitely pre-Columbian art. I like naïve art and outsider art—art made by people who aren’t necessarily trained artists. There’s something very raw and expressive and imaginative about it. It was definitely an interest of mine before I started drawing in this Pre-Columbian style, and it definitely drew me more towards that because it allowed me to experiment and play even if it’s not realistic, per se.

As a kid, I was very much into anime and manga and comic books. My cousin and I collected Spider-Man and X-Men and I had a big collection of those kinds of books. Those were definitely my very first influences in trying to draw and make images.

PL: You mentioned that you’re working on something coming up in the fall. Can you talk about what’s next?

I have two books coming out in the fall. One I wrote and illustrated called The Princess and The Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes. It’s a myth set in Pre-Columbian times about the origin of these two volcanoes, Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, that are just outside Mexico City. The story of their origin has a lot of similarity to Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet. It was a very fun project to do.

The other book I did was written by a woman named Susan Wood and is called Esquivel: Space Age Sound Artist. It will be published by Charlesbridge and it’s a biography of the Mexican composer Esquivel, who’s considered the inventor of lounge music. It was a fun project because the illustrations are very groovy and swanky, and I did a lot of hand-drawn lettering for it. So the two books that I have coming out will look very different and are about very different subjects, so they were fun projects.

The post Ancient and Contemporary: A Conversation with Duncan Tonatiuh first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), in preparing an initiative to help young children get ready for school, asked: What better place for families to find exciting—and free—resources for early learning than at the public library? Indeed, where else could they ask the question? Bah doo bah doink!

Transforming Family Life

How can a library experience transform family life? Let’s look at two real-life examples that bubbled up in a Library Café discussion program. “It’s amazing how much I have learned about tractors!” said Lyndsay Edwards of Westminster, Maryland. “When my first son was only six months old, we began attending the Read and Play programs at the library. I loved spending time with him while librarians showed me how to read, sing, and play with my newborn. Now my son is four years old and his brother is one. We attend library activities regularly. I’ve learned how to pick out books that get my sons excited about reading, which is how I’ve become an expert on tractors. It’s always nice to get out of the house for an hour and spend time with other parents and their children. It is a social opportunity for both of us.”¹

Another mother told her library story, “Being homeless a few short years ago I got into the routine of bringing my children into the library each day. One day before we got to the library Miss Sue [from the check-out desk] was walking down the street on her lunch break. She greeted us, ‘Hello, how are you? Will we see you in the library later today?’ She talked to us as if we were any other family that goes to the library.” The mother smiled, continuing, “That conversation was a turning point in my life. I began to think of myself in a more optimistic and confident way. In time, I was able to get out of a troubled marriage and move into an apartment with my children.”²

As Edwards added, “The library has provided me with a safe place to take my two boys where they can learn and grow. We look forward to our visits where we can explore the train, play with the puppets, choose new books, participate in storytime, and make new friends. It is a weekly routine for us and something I will treasure for years to come.”³

The Maryland Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) partnered with MSDE to apply for and receive Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant funding. Two public library projects are featured in the grant and serve Title 1 neighborhoods: Library Family Cafés and Family Info Centers. These projects were designed to strengthen the ability of community partners to connect at-risk families to library services.

Library Family Cafés

Library Family Café discussion programs are loosely based on an engagement model used by Illinois’ Strengthening Families model (Love is Not Enough Parent Cafés), but they focus discussion on the excitement of learning—as opposed to more social work-type topics, such as how to discipline your child. They sometimes offer meals or snacks. Each library designs their café programs to fit their community needs. For example, some libraries set up activity play stations in the storytime room where parents and children go from station to station at their own pace. Librarians visit with families one on one during this active play time and enjoy informal conversation about learning and early literacy. Other libraries create informal discussion time during Every Child Ready to Read @ your library workshops with the goal to spark curiosity. One of the universal questions asked—no matter the format of the “café” —is: “What more can the library do for you and your family?” In this way, librarians can listen and respond to each family to help develop exceptional customer service, improve their relationship with the community, and tap its potential.

Library cafés invite parents for a deeper discussion about learning for themselves as adults and learning for their children. For example, parents can discuss the progression of how children develop writing skills. Babies enjoy squeezing playdough, which strengthens their fingers and hands as a first step toward the process of writing. Then it’s step-by-step—children begin to scribble, make letter- and number-like shapes, then advance to making letters and numbers. Parents have ah-ha moments in the informal and fun café atmosphere and are excited to share their observations and ideas. Parents are learning from librarians—and learning from each other.

Family Info Centers

Every library system has identified one or two or more branches to feature a Family Info Center or kiosk of information specific to early literacy, early learning, and community partner brochures. Local early childhood councils are eager to include their printed promotional handouts in the info center. These centers are usually a simple wall mount or table top brochure holder or literature display rack. Every Child Ready to Read @ your library toolkit offers ready-to-use parent brochures and handouts on early literacy that are ideal for the centers.

Engaging Families—Four Tenets

How can libraries partner more effectively with parents, schools, and others to help a community thrive, especially while treading the convoluted pathways of politics, bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, and naysayers? Like Benjamin Franklin’s Junto, a group of likeminded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who “formed . . . a club for mutual [self] improvement” to enhance their community,⁴ the library celebrates human creativity, curiosity, and courage.

Library staff members establish relationships with families (low needs and high needs) in order to offer services and opportunities to support family learning. A model of effective practices and guiding principles has emerged over the years and were encapsulated into four tenets within Maryland’s early literacy guidelines:

1. Parents are their child’s first teacher.
2. The public library is a family’s resource for learning—children and adults alike.
3. Library staff members strive to bring out their best as professionals and the best in all families—through dignity, respect, and creating opportunities as a jumping-off place for learning.
4. Libraries shine by serving children birth to five when in collaboration with parents and caregivers (high needs and low needs) and with other agencies and organizations.

One of the brilliant aspects of libraries engaging families is development of the caring, benevolent nature of the parent or caregiver as the child’s first teacher. Library activities nudge grown-ups to develop the interests of young children that can lead to skill development—peekaboo (nonlinear thinking), stacking (problem solving), banging (music), giggling (humor), jumping (self-assurance), frogs (science), and drawing (self-expression). Libraries in Maryland—and across North America—offer myriad opportunities for parents and children to enjoy lifelong learning. Librarians are developing effective practices to support parent enthusiasm for their child’s learning. They are training grown-ups to be attuned to their child’s play and conversations for clues to their interests.

Libraries Supporting Community Goals

Margaret Williams, executive director for the Maryland Family Network, said, “Our mission is to inspire parents to be their best each day. Library programs offer parents and children time together when library staff can model what parents might do at home. Librarians can teach parents how to share books and have fun with age-appropriate activities. They can demonstrate how children can become positive participants in groups through storytimes.”⁵

When librarians strive to listen to parents and caregivers, identify needs, and design services responsive to their individual community, a library is more likely to reinvent itself in ways to stay relevant. For example, many libraries offer play and learning opportunities to families through early literacy storytimes, special parent and child activity programs, interactive resources, café discussions, and large or small play spots inside and outside library buildings.

The Maryland Early Childhood Family Engagement Framework—based on a national Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework model—put forth seven common goals that all partners in the early childhood system can embrace to develop appropriate strategies.

Goal 1: Any initiative should promote family well-being.
Goal 2: Family engagement should promote positive parent-child relationships.
Goal 3: Community resources should support families as principal educators of their children.
Goal 4: Innovative strategies inspire the educational aspirations of parents and families.
Goal 5: Effective practices should support families through the care and educational transitions of early childhood.
Goal 6: Networks should connect families to their peers and to the community.
Goal 7: Through opportunities that engage and inspire parents, community partners support the development of families to become leaders and child advocates.

Williams added, “Libraries offer families—all ethnic and income groups—a place to go for tips on finding good books and how to read aloud. Librarians can assist parents in finding information on what they need or what interests them as lifelong learners—anything from job hunting to discipline for children to how to handle a death in the family. Storytimes and other programs create a safe atmosphere for families to have fun and socialize together.”⁶

Low-needs families support high-needs families through modeling and conversations during programs and café discussions. Library staff can create the proper atmosphere for this important work.

“Through programs and activities, such as Every Child Ready to Read, or in the library café discussions, we are offering a learning structure for parents to think about how to be their best. For example, we give tips to parents encouraging them to ask questions of their young children when they are in the grocery store (what is the name of this fruit) or driving in the car (let’s sing “the wheels on the bus” song),” explained Rachel Wright, the children’s services manager of the Cecil County (MD) Public Library.7

Librarians can also contribute to the family engagement effort by understanding that it can apply to children older than five. “Recently I was sitting in the Children’s Room watching a nine-year-old boy teach his grandmother how to play the online game Minecraft,” said Amanda Courie, youth services coordinator, Caroline County (MD) Library. “They were building a birchwood house together, and suddenly came across some squid! She was open and curious. I could see how much the grandson enjoyed being the expert and giving his grandmother a glimpse into a world in which he is right
at home.”⁸

“Seventy-seven parents and children showed up at our first library café,” said Barbara Graham, youth services coordinator, Wicomico County (MD) Library. “We partnered with the Judy Center, the early learning division at our local school system focused on Title 1 areas. Many of the families had not been to the library before. All staff were on deck including our library director, staff, and volunteers to meet and greet families, guiding them through the evening’s activities. Our volunteer coordinator happens to be a culinary arts school graduate and prepared a special array of refreshments. Every Child Ready to Read’s five practices were at the heart of our activities—activity stations were set up in the library with one take-home activity and one activity per practice (talk, sing, read, write, and play).

Our goal was to create a pleasant experience with the hope that parents would want to come back. We believe we’re moving in the right direction because we had several children who didn’t want to go home.”⁹

With a bit of grit, goodwill, and piggledybop, the family engagement concept can transform library services.

References and Notes

1. Remarks shared at Early Childhood Consortium Breakfast Celebration, Carroll County (MD), Apr. 30, 2013.
2. Remarks shared at Library Café program, Carroll County (MD) Public Library, Nov. 13, 2012.
3. Remarks shared at Early Childhood Consortium Breakfast Celebration, Carroll County (MD), Apr. 30, 2013.
4. Shaw, Peter, ed. The Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), 53.
5. Margaret Williams, phone interview with authors, May 27, 2014.
6. Ibid.
7. Remarks shared at Maryland Library Association conference program with Rachel Wright, May 9, 2014.
8. Amanda Courie, email interview with the authors, June 2, 2014.
9. Remarks shared at Maryland Library Association conference program with Barbara Graham, May 9, 2014.

The post Just Good Practice: Engaging Families with Young Children first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Benjamin, Ali. The Thing about Jellyfish (9/22)
Seventh grade narrator Suzy Swanson must come to terms with the death of her best friend after a drowning accident. When Suzy becomes convinced that Franny actually died from a rare jellyfish sting, she sets out to prove it—even if it means traveling the globe for answers. This is an imaginative and multi-layered story that will touch readers.

Cline, Ernest. Armada (7/14)
This follow-up to Cline’s popular debut, Ready Player One, will not disappoint fans. Zach Lightman trades his boring videogame existence to save the planet from an alien invasion. Here, readers will find not a realistic sci-fi plot, but a pop-culture infused coming-of-age adventure story that will unleash their the inner geek. Read on.

Hilton, Marilyn. Full Cicada Moon (9/8)
This historical novel may take place in 1969, but it is chock full of everything that has been happening in children/teen literature in the last few years. Written in verse (fans of Brown Girl Dreaming take note!), the story focuses on half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, recently relocated to Vermont. She encounters bigotry and sexism as she prefers shop class to home economics, and dreams about becoming an astronaut. Give this to spirited girls everywhere.

Hoose, Phillip. The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club (5/12)
Denmark didn’t resist German occupation at the beginning of WWII—this is the true story of a group of teenage political resistors who did. After many acts of sabotage, the boys were eventually imprisoned, but not before inspiring a true Danish resistance and becoming war heroes. Perfect for a non-fiction project.

Novak, Ali. The Heartbreakers (the Heartbreak Chronicles 8/4)
Stella will do anything for her sick sister, Cara, even though leukemia has overshadowed their lives for too long. When her siblings take Cara to see her favorite boy band, it’s Stella who meets the lead singer in Starbucks, and embarks on a relationship that leads them all to heartbreak, adventure, and self-discovery. It’s never too late for a summer romance…

Pearsall, Shelley. The Seventh Most Important Thing (9/8)
After Arthur’s father dies, Arthur loses it when he sees the neighborhood “Junk Man” wearing his father’s hat. Arthur throws a brick at him, earning Arthur court-imposed community service with the very man he assaulted. Inspired by real life artist James Hampton’s life and work, the story follows Arthur as he helps the Junk Man complete his creative masterpiece (collecting the seven most important things along the way) and also learn some life lessons in this coming-of-age novel.

Schlitz, Laura Amy. The Hired Girl (9/8)
Fans of period detail will enjoy Newbery award-winner Schlitz’ story of a farm girl in 1911, as she records her hopes and dreams for the future in her diary. When she is hired as the help to a wealthy Jewish family in Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Joan learns lessons about hate, love, and what it means to grow up.

Stead, Rebecca. Goodbye Stranger (8/4)
Newbery-winner Stead is back with a story of middle-school friendship unlike any you’ve read. With a cast of characters all navigating the awkwardness of being new teens, Stead perfectly captures the perils of love, change, and decision. Give this to a realistic fiction fan.

Check out these other recent titles for middle-schoolers:

Alender, Katie. The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall
Alifirenka, Caitlin & Martin Ganda. I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives
Caine, Rachel. Ink & Bone: The Great Library
Danticat, Edwidge. Untwine
Gaiman, Neil. The Sleeper and the Spindle
Holt, K.A. House Arrest
Johnson, Hal. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: 20 Chilling Tales from the Wilderness
Kinsella, Sophie. Finding Audrey
Martin, Darragh. The Keeper
Norris, Andrew. Friends for Life

The post The Latest and Greatest Middle School Reads first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Expectations:
I bought a cute little pink notebook to write down summaries of all the books so I would remember my thoughts. One of the women who had been on the committee before (yes, they were all women) laughed and said I wouldn’t need it. She was right. By the end, I was reading during every free moment–no time for note-taking. Said A, “I think that I didn’t realize just how much reading we would be doing though, and how disciplined I’d have to be!”

Reading Time:
We read approximately 105 books over about 9 months’ time. (We were supposed to read more but a few of us who work throughout the year whined enough over the lengthy summer list!)

I’m the person who always has a book in their car in case of emergencies, but this got a little ridiculous. I was reading everywhere, all the time. A said she was even reading while blow-drying her hair. One big help for many committee members was audiobooks in the car–and while cleaning, cooking, and… It did take up a lot of time, but B said that the benefits to reader’s advisory alone were worth it. She mentioned that she spends so much time selecting great picture books to read in storytime, but rarely has the chance to get as in-depth with older readers. A had a great tip and said she put all the titles into her Goodreads account so she could go back when making a recommendation to a patron.

Junior Readers:
We had two student readers on our committee–one boy and one girl. Everyone I talked to agreed that their input was valuable, though our students were on the quiet side. A suggested adding two more students, while B said, “I think that a lot of them feel intimidated being on the committee with a bunch of librarians.  Therefore, they tend not to speak up and speak their minds as much as they should (which I can totally understand).”

Our student members definitely helped to sway us when the group as a whole was on the fence about a title. I found that the students were better at telling us why they liked a title, as opposed to why they didn’t.

The Debate:
C said it best – “I enjoy every part of the process—the rich discussions, passionate debates, and the opportunity to ask the committee to reconsider a title (& the thrill when I have successfully swayed votes in a desired direction!).” There were many great debates over a few titles, though luckily no fist fights ensued. What I found to hold true was the old adage “the cream rises to the top.” Those special titles that are really good usually find a way onto everyone’s top lists. But then there are those that speak to each of us individually, and maybe not to everyone.

Said C, “I am not going to lie—it is nothing short of disheartening when a book I have placed in my “emphatically, yes!” column is casually tossed out by the group! (Or the opposite happens!) It has been a humbling reminder to respect my students’—and friends—differing opinions regarding genre, authors, & titles, and to fully support everyone’s right to not finish a book.” D said there were times when she looked at a book in a whole new way after hearing someone’s comments about it.

The Notes:
While my pink notebook was repurposed, I did write notes in the margins on my reading lists to bring to the meetings. Here are some of my favorite ones:

“Apocalyptic”

“Seems like it was created for the illustrator”

“He (author) has done better”

“Cover may limit readership”

“STRANGE”

“Don’t like cover, don’t like concept!”

The Controversies:
One title we all really enjoyed ended up with a split vote, simply because some of us thought it would do better on the Teen List. And in fact, the Teen committee did vote it through so that was a win-win situation! An issue I still have trouble deciding on has to do with books that are extremely popular before we choose them— maybe even a Newbery winner or honor book. I feel like that book is going to get enough readers on its own and that one of the ten slots should go to a less publicized book. But then someone makes the case that not everyone has read it, and if it’s that good, doesn’t it have as much right to be on the list? The jury is still out on that one.

Another issue arose when we really liked a title that was a sequel to another book. The first book was too old to be on the list, but we weren’t sure we should choose the sequel if the kids hadn’t read the first one. Ultimately the book was selected, because a few committee members who hadn’t read the first one said it could stand on its own.

The Vote & the Aftermath:
Our committee had to borrow five titles from our alternate list because some of our top choices were not available in paperback, which is one of the criteria. The titles we couldn’t end up including might be able to make it on the next year’s list depending on their publication date. Ultimately, six of my ‘Top 10’ titles made it to the official Top 10. Two more made it to the ‘Alternate 10’ list, and the last two were not voted through. Of course I made sure my library owns all the titles I liked, and am still taking every opportunity to push them on my young patrons!

When the final list came out, I had a friend who is a school librarian comment that there weren’t any sports books on the list. Like I told my friend, we really didn’t read many from the lists, and of the ones we did, we chose one book about a female soccer player. In the end, that book was cut because it wasn’t available in paperback. This forced me to look back at the list through a different lens, and I still stand by it. It may not have the requisite ‘sports book for boys’ but there are boys as the main or co-main character in at least half of the titles, and in the others, at least two have animal main characters.

So I say, if you have the chance to serve on a book award committee, do it. You will be infinitely glad in the end that you have read so many wonderful titles that you can recommend. Said A, “Library work can be very insular sometimes, and I wanted to join the committee to get to know how other libraries operate, and meet colleagues.”

And then there’s the happy dance you do when the list is announced and you get to tell your patrons that YOU helped choose that book.

Cover Image Credit: ProjectManhattan (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Some Words Stay the Same
There are certain genres of books that cross multiple reading levels and ages. Action books are in picture books, tween, and teen books. Humorous books are in learn-to-read, first chapter, chapter, tween, teen, and adult. SciFi and Fantasy start in chapter books then continue through tween, teen, and adult. Even more important than the words being the same is that the notations on the books remains the same. We have certain colors and images that denote particular genres. A young girl reading a SciFi book will know that the image that denotes a tween SciFi book will also be used to denote an adult SciFi book. A young boy can read a humorous Elephant and Piggie book from learn-to-read and a Captain Underpants book from the chapter book section. Then in a few years, he can read a book by Christopher Moore in the adult humorous section.

Some Words Change with Age
For younger children, we use the term “chiller” for scary books, but in teen and adult we use the word “horror.” For young children, “Seen on TV” is the genre where all the books that match television shows and movies reside. For adult books, the genre is “Movies & TV.”

Genres are Different Sizes at Different Reading Levels
We have discovered that not all genres appear to have the same level of popularity across all age groups. In fact, we’re not sure any genre maintains the same level of popularity! Some of that discrepancy has to do with what is popular in the community. For example, the tween section has a very sizable fantasy genre. It takes up a much larger proportion of the overall collection than the adult fantasy genre does when compared to the entire adult collection. In the adult section, mysteries represent a huge portion of the overall collection but in teen materials, it is a much smaller percentage. It doesn’t mean that the same genres shouldn’t be there, but it does mean that we can’t assume that the popularity is the same across the board.

For us, the idea for maintaining as many similar genres as possible was to help patrons of all ages easily browse for books they wanted. It also meant that as their reading abilities improved they could know that the same types of books they had enjoyed would always be there. While it doesn’t work perfectly every time, we have been surprised at how many people, particularly children, have appreciated the thought and effort we put into this.

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

The post Putting Your ENTIRE Fiction Collection into Genres first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

El Deafo Book Cover

Public Libraries: You’ve written and illustrated a number of picture books. But what made you want to write for older kids with your Newberry Honor book El Deafo?

Cece Bell: I really felt like a graphic novel was the perfect format for this particular story—a picture book would not have been able to show all I needed to tell. And the story I wanted to tell involved a lot of the same issues that middle grade kids are experiencing now, so it just made more sense to write this book with middle grade readers in mind.

PL: What was the best and hardest part of writing/illustrating this book?

CB: In general, the hardest part was just the sheer amount of work involved in making the book. So much drawing! So much figuring out! More specifically, the chapter about sign language was extremely difficult to write. I am not proud of the attitude I had about sign language when I was a kid, but I wanted to be honest about it in the book. I worked very hard in this chapter to balance my own negative feelings with the more positive facts about sign language that the sign language teacher shares with me during this chapter.

PL: Were you a library user when you were young? Do you use the library now?

CB: I definitely used the library when I was young. I was lucky because I could walk to our local library—it was just four blocks from home. I confess that I did a lot more looking at pictures than I did actual reading. I soaked up the picture books and disappeared into the enormous collection of Winsor McCay’s Sunday comic strip, Little Nemo in Wonderland, which was so big you weren’t allowed to check it out.

I use the library today as a quiet place to get some writing and illustrating done. I still love to soak up the pictures in the picture book section, too.

PL: What do you enjoy most about library and school visits?

CB: I really enjoy answering the kids’ questions, and then getting to spend a little bit of one-on-one time with them.

PL: If you weren’t a children’s book writer and illustrator, what would you like to be?

CB: There’s nothing else I’d rather be! But I occasionally wish that I was a jazz pianist. How cool would that be?

The post I Was Lucky Because I Could Walk to Our Local Library: A Conversation with Cece Bell first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

We Need Diverse Book logo

According to their website at weneeddiversebooks.org, the organization defines diversity as recognizing “all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIApartn, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.”

In the last year, the WNDB campaign has established itself as a tax-exempt public charity, partnered with School Library Journal and the Children’s Book Council in promoting their cause, established the Walter Dean Meyers book award, and among other things, created the popular #WNDB. Diversity panels have popped up at conferences everywhere from School Library Journal’s Day of Dialogue to the American Library Association to the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Part of what spurred Oh and Lo to take action was the all-white panel scheduled at last year’s Book Expo America (BEA) BookCon event. This year, BookCon and WNDB partnered for a panel entitled, “We Need Diverse Books: In Our World and Beyond.” Authors Sherman Alexie and Jacqueline Woodson were scheduled to be part of the event, but WNDB did point out that no authors of color were to be featured at the annual BEA children’s breakfast.

It seems the call for diverse books would begin with authors. In a recent interview, middle school teacher and first-time novelist Cindy Rodriguez talked about diversity in her new YA book, When Reason Breaks. While in the revision process, she took the time to add diversity to her novel.

Said Rodriguez, “Emily Delgado is Puerto Rican, Tommy Bowles is half-Mexican, Ms. Diaz is Latina, Kevin has two dads, and Sarah is black. The story, however, is not about being Latino or gay or black. It’s about teen depression, attempted suicide, and Emily Dickinson. When we talk about diversity in children’s literature, we often think about it in terms of books with an almost all minority cast of characters dealing with issues linked to race, culture, etc. I’ve read lots of those books, and I think we need more of them, for sure, but we also need more books with diverse characters tackling other issues. The characters’ culture, race, sexual orientation, etc. may play a part in the narrative because it’s important to who they are, but it shouldn’t always be the “problem.”

What’s next for WNDB? They recently developed an internship to help “diversify publishing from the inside out”, and will host the first Children’s Literature Diversity Festival in Washington D.C. in 2016.

Wondering what you as librarians can do at your libraries? Some advocates suggest not just buying books with diverse characters simply for that fact. They want you to buy books with diverse characters because they are good. For more tips, check out Marybeth Zeman’s two-part series on “Can Children See Themselves in the Books on Your Shelves?” here:

https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/07/can-children-see-themselves-in-the-books-on-your-shelves-part-i/

References:

https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/07/can-children-see-themselves-in-the-books-on-your-shelves-part-i/

http://weneeddiversebooks.org

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/03/people/movers-shakers-2015/we-need-diverse-books-movers-shakers-2015-change-agents/#_

The post “We Need Diverse Books” Campaign Gaining Momentum first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Previous years’ selections included Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie Harris (2012), Duck on a Bike by David Shannon (2013), and Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard (2014). The selections are based on the book being a great selection for the age group, its availability in English and Spanish, and the capability of the publisher to provide enough copies of the book with special information on the program, the website information for literacy tips, and sponsor logos printed in the book. Once a list of possibilities is created, librarians and educators vote to narrow it down. Then, the public votes for the winner.[2]

The One Book 4 Colorado website also provides childhood literacy tips for parents. Covering the important early literacy aspects of read, write, sing, talk, and play, they also give specific tips for parents based on their child’s age from birth to eight. One of the really neat things is that in most of the age groups, a video demonstrating one of the suggested parent-child activities is embedded.[3]

During the 2014 giveaway, the Library Research Service surveyed participants to delve into the impact of the program. Sixty-four percent of caregivers said they “spent more time reading with their child after receiving the book” and that “their child was more interested in books and reading.” Sixty-two percent said “their child talked more about books and reading.”[4]

As the manager for the children’s department of Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD), Colorado Springs, Colo., Nancy Maday had this to say about the program: “One Book 4 Colorado is a great way for the children of our state to have a book of their very own.  It also publicizes the value of reading to our children.  In Colorado Springs, the largest school district was inspired by One Book 4 Colorado to provide a book for the preschool children who are not 4, so that everyone at school gets a book.  Distributing the books through the public libraries and Reach Out and Read clinics makes the books accessible for all children and allows us to promote our library programs at the same time.”[5]

As an employee of PPLD, I’ve had the opportunity to give some of these books to children coming into the library. Having children visit and collect books they are excited to check out is always a fun experience to see. Being able to hand them another book that they get to take home and keep forever just adds to the joy of the job!

References

[1] Colorado State Library. One Book 4 Colorado Project History. n.d.

http://www.onebook4colorado.org/about/project-history/ (accessed April 15, 2015).

[2] —. One Book 4 Colorado FAQs. n.d. http://www.onebook4colorado.org/about/one-book-4-

colorado-faqs/ (accessed April 15, 2015).

[3] —. One Book 4 Colorado Make a Difference: Read to a Child. n.d. http://www.onebook4colorado.org/make-a-

difference-read-to-a-child/ (accessed April 15, 2015).

[4] Library Research Service. “Library Research Service.” More than 75,000 Books Given Away During One Book 4 Colorado in 2014. February 11, 2015. http://www.lrs.org/2015/02/11/75000-books-given-away-one-book-4-colorado-2013/ (accessed May 8, 2015).

[5] Maday, Nancy, interview by Becca Cruz. Manager of Children’s Services (April 15, 2015).

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You know the books we’re talking about. Thomas the Tank Engine, Scooby Doo, Spongebob, Spiderman, Martha, and all things Disney related. Originally the idea of grouping together all the books that were related to current television shows, movies, and direct to DVD releases was aimed at children. Bringing this genre to the forefront of some of our collections has been an interesting experience where we learned about circulation and reading development.

In the past few years, our library’s youngest readers have gravitated towards “TV tie-in books.” We’ve struggled with how to best keep this disparate collection together. Each book would be by a different author or have no author at all. On one hand, it would have been easier to not buy these books at all because they were flimsy and out of fashion as soon as the TV show or movie was no longer popular. But we found it was impossible to tell a small boy or girl that we didn’t have a book about their most favorite thing in the whole world: a popular television show on Sprout, PBS, Disney, or Nick Jr. We aren’t even going to mention the near small girl riot that occurred this summer when we had only one Frozen book in the building and three little girls all wanted it at the same time! Thankfully they took other Disney princess books in the short run!

In the end, the practicality of having what our youngest patrons wanted won out. We cataloged the books by their character, so all the John Deere books based on the direct to DVD releases were shelved under John Deere. And no one remembered the Rev. Awdry wrote the original Thomas stories, so the originals and the new television character-based stories all are shelved under Thomas. While some people remember that H.A. Rey wrote Curious George, all the books are shelved under Curious George.

However, a most interesting thing happened about a year ago when we went to genre grouping in all of our fiction collections. Several reading levels got a “Seen on TV” section, which ended up as one of the largest categories in the collection. The picture books have a huge “Seen on TV” section which includes Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, Barbie, Angelina Ballerina, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George, Iron Man, and all things Disney. But it was the Learn to Read collection where we put about 30% of the total collection into the “Seen on TV” section. Even more interesting, people are taking out huge handfuls of these books at a time.

Our circulation of “Seen on TV” books has gone up over the past year, and our emerging readers are happily taking piles of books that match their favorite movies and shows. It has been especially successful for parents who come in searching for their child “who doesn’t like to read.” Even though we must weed this section more aggressively for condition and popularity, it has definitely been worth the time and money we’ve put into it.

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

The post Seen on TV – A Popular Genre first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Everyone has their own style of doing reader’s advisory for children. In our library, one of the first questions we ask children is:”What do you like to do for fun?” The second question is “What do you like to watch on television?” For young children, that usually leads us to the genre that is based on the television or movie characters. However, once you reach “chapter book level” there aren’t as many of those types of books. Now what do we do?

For middle and upper elementary school children, we now ask straight out, “Do you like funny books?” Sometimes a child will mention having read one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books or that a friend of theirs has read one. That connection is frequently the hook we use to direct them to the Humorous section of books.

If we’re lucky the child will leave the library with a pile of books by some combination of authors including but not limited to Jeff Kinney, Lincoln Peirce, Jon Scieszka, Dav Pilkey, and Tom Angleberger. We encourage our reluctant readers to take at least three books, but we prefer four or five. If at all possible the books are all by different authors.

This push for variety is for different reasons. For the children, we want them to know that it’s okay to not like a book and to try another one. For the parents, we want them to feel comfortable with the idea that something will work. They shouldn’t have to make a “five minutes before the library closes because we need a book for school tomorrow” run because the one book they chose at the library the last time didn’t work. Fortunately for both parents and children, many authors write series of humorous stories. Therefore, if there turns out to be a book that a child likes, there may be several more that are similarly enjoyable. That ray of hope always brightens both groups.

We have an extensive collection of books for a variety of different age levels in the Humorous genres. We have books for the youngest readers through middle school — all of whom enjoy a good laugh. For children just learning to read, Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books are the mainstay of the section. In our chapter book area we have perennial favorites like Captain Underpants and the Time Warp Trio, along with a wide variety of authors all creating hilarious, enjoyable reads for our young patrons. Then we finish up with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and the many similar titles published since then for the middle and upper elementary school readers.

Share your humorous books for kids recommendations in the comments.

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

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