ALA Highlights

Well, it’s been a little over a week since I returned from the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in beautiful Anaheim, CA.  With the temperatures here in Charlotte in the low to mid 90’s and the humidity off the charts, the nice breezy CA weather was a wonderful change.  Once again I had a great time at the Conference.  I met great people, learned a lot, and of course, picked up lots of swag.

Here are a few of my highlights:

• Attended the panel discussion “YA Literature, Graphic Novels, and Books on Popular Culture: How Do They Attract Reluctant Readers?”  Authors Kazu Kibuishi, Barry Lyga, and Holly Black were very informative and highly entertaining while expounding on the value of comics, graphic novels, and popular culture for drawing in reluctant (and not-so-reluctant) YA readers.  I also went away with a long list of books I want to read now myself.
• Attended the session “Hey I Want to Do That, Too!: Gaming and the Elementary Age Child.”  I was particularly interested in this session because I’m co-leading a team in our library system dealing with technology for children.  Well-informed presenter Warren Buckleitner spoke about his Mediatech center and the best products for kids on the market right now.  I received a wealth of information from this session that I can’t wait to put into practice here at PLCMC.  More information about this session is on the ALSC Wiki here.
• Met up with former Charlotte resident and award-winning author Tracie Vaughn Zimmer at the Candlewick booth.  She was signing copies of her new book, The Floating Circus.  I’m looking forward to reading it very soon.
• Listened to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton speak at the ALSC President’s Program.  He’s done so much valuable work studying the development of babies through his institute and the Touchpoints Center.  I think many parents have him to thank for making it through their children’s early years with their sanity still intact.  Can you believe he’s ninety years old now?  One really cool thing about the program was hearing from several of his former patients, all grown up now.  Also, the nice folks at Perseus Books were giving out free, autographed copies of Touchpoints afterward at their booth as Dr. Brazelton greeted all his adoring fans.
• Caught a random performance by Lisa Loeb at the Baker & Taylor booth.  Loeb was there promoting her upcoming children’s album Camp Lisa.  She played a couple of tracks from that album, but also treated the crowd with a performance of her big hit “Stay.”  The Camp Lisa songs were fun and catchy, and I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.
• Snagged one of the conference’s most-coveted giveaways – a Twilight bag from Little, Brown, and Company.  I can’t wait to see which lucky teen ends up winning the bag at our Twilight party this fall. 
• Met the talented Lois Ehlert who was signing Waiting for Wings posters at the Demco booth.  She was so nice, wanting to talk to everyone in line.  Coincidentally, I had just done a butterfly program the week before and read Waiting for Wings to the group, and they loved it.
• Laughed out loud as Mo Willems accepted his Geisel Award for There Is a Bird on Your Head by giving an “Easy Reader” speech while wearing a bird on his head that he borrowed from the award committee.  Brilliant!

As I hope you can tell, I had another great conference, and I’m still bubbling with ideas for new things to try at my library and information to share with my coworkers and staff here.  I’m looking forward to Midwinter in Denver, if we don’t get snowed out!

Re:verse

Maybe it’s because I was psyched by National Poetry Month last month, I don’t know.  But I have read several works of fiction lately that were written in verse. 

I started with a young adult title – Ringside 1925 by Jen Bryant.  Ringside 1925 is a fictionalized account of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee.  The author tells the story of the trial through the points of view of several people living in Dayton at the time, a newspaper reporter covering the trial, and a curious young minister attending the trial to see his hero William Jennings Bryan.  I really liked this book.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Bryant managed to cover the key facts of the trial and give each character a distinctive voice, all while writing in poetic form.  This was a really fascinating work of historical fiction.

Next, my Kids’ Book Club read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.  I’ve read this book several times, and I just love it.  The book is written as a series of journal entries by young student Jack who only starts the journal as a class assignment.  As he continues to write he learns that maybe, despite his initial doubts, he does like poetry and might even be able to write some himself.  He also finds that writing poetry can be a good way to deal with difficult situations.  I think the story is one that many kids can relate to, and Creech manages to teach readers about poetry in a fun, new way through that story.

After Love That Dog, I really switched gears by reading an adult verse novel, Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow.  This story follows rival packs of werewolves living in LA.  Quite a departure from the sweet story of Love That Dog.  It was a little difficult to follow when I first started it, but once I got going I was sucked in and had to see how all the pieces of the puzzle were going to fit together.  This was a really unique, intriguing book – different from anything I’ve read before.

Next I picked up a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while now – Glass by Ellen Hopkins.  Glass is the sequel to the wonderful Crank.  These books follow teenager Kristina as she descends into crystal meth addiction.  The use of verse lends itself really well to relating the urgency of Kristina’s situation.  I found myself going through a range of emotions while reading these books – sad that Kristina was being swept up by addiction, angry that she was hurting her family so much, and hopeful that she would be able to overcome her demons.  Although dealing with a difficult subject, these books made great reads.

Finally, I rounded out my poetry reading with 42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer.  Until she moved back to her beloved Ohio a few months ago, we here in Charlotte were proud to call Zimmer a local author.  If you ever have the chance to host Zimmer for an author visit or book signing I would highly recommend her.  She spoke to a group of us children’s librarians while she was here in Charlotte, and I thought she was wonderful.  Anyway – back to the book.  42 Miles is about JoEllen, who’s lived most of her life shuttling back and forth between her mother’s home in Cincinatti and her father’s farmhouse 42 miles away.  She feels like she lives in two different worlds as she splits her time between her two parents.  On the verge of turning thirteen, JoEllen decides she is finally ready for those two worlds to meet.  This was a really touching story about the trials of being a child of divorce and learning to become your own person.  I enjoyed this story, and really loved Zimmer’s previous verse novel, Reaching for Sun.

So overall, I had a great month of reading in verse.  Hope you’ll take a look at some of these titles, too!