Colorado Blue Spruce YA Book Award

The Blue Spruce book award for 2009 was announced!

It's Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer!

The Blue Spruce is special, because unlike many other state youth readers' choice awards, adults neither nominate titles, nor vote for the winners. The whole process is in the hands of the teens from start to finish.

Want to see what teens choose when they're voting for the best books? Look at the list of past winners, or the 2010 nominees. Any surprises?

The Rainbow List

Right on the heels of the big ALA awards comes the announcement of the 2nd annual Rainbow List!

The Rainbow Project is a joint undertaking of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table and the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. The annual Rainbow List presents current well-written and/or well-illustrated books, with significant and authentic GLBTQ content, which are recommended for people from birth through eighteen years of age.

Check out the titles on the 2009 list here.

Uncle Bobby's Wedding is included in the picture book section, as expected, but I am most intrigued by 10,000 Dresses...which is a picture book about a transgendered child!

Stories about transgender individuals are rare enough for teens (or even adults) so a picture book is a real step forward for inclusive literature. Boulder Public Library has a couple of copies in process right now, so as soon as I can I will order it & have a look.

Take a look at the list--you'll be ready when someone asks for help with this topic.

The Rainbow List joins The Lambda Literary Awards as a way to formally recognize & celebrate LGBTQ literature. The Lambda Awards will be announced in May, and include a Children's/Young Adult category: check here for winners in all categories for the last few years.

Do you know about the ALD Storytellers?

After 10 years of bringing nationally known storytellers to ALD in October and sponsoring the Storytelling Festival (which became Storytelling Extravaganza), ALD decided to try a different emphasis. A few of the staff members who had attended the workshops over the years asked if they could continue meeting quarterly so they could keep their storytelling skills fresh, learn new things by exchanging ideas with each other, and be available in case there were calls from people in the community who were looking for storytellers to come to their assisted living center, their school, or their community event.
Because storytelling is basic to building imagination, comprehension, vocabulary, and is recognized as an excellent way to pass on historical and scientific facts, it is a natural way to continue the district's efforts to advance literacy. It complements skills introduced in the district's Early Literacy Storytimes.
The difference between Storytime and Storytelling is not well understood by some people.
Storytelling predates written history and includes the use of drama to inspire imaginations as the teller shares a remembered story appropriate to that audience.
Storytime is a program in which a trained person reads books to children in order to introduce them to language and reading.
You can help keep Storytelling alive in our library district by joining the storytellers, or by merely remembering as you work with the public that there is an active group available to serve our patrons in this way.
Email Virginia Brace vbrace@ald.lib.co.us if you hear that someone is interested in having a Storyteller. One of our group would love to entertain!

Coraline

Neil Gaiman's movie Coraline was released yesterday! Coraline was also released as a graphic novel...anybody read both and want to comment?

As you know, Neil Gaiman just won the Newbery for his new title The Graveyard Book, so interest is probably going to be high for his stuff for awhile now.

His books have a creepy but literary vibe...what have you been recommending to kids and teens who want more? Did you know he even has a couple of picture books?

The director of the movie is the guy who did Nightmare Before Christmas. Would Corpse Bride work for the Coraline crowd, or not? Who's seen it?

February is Phonological Awareness Month!

For ALD, at least!

Phonological Awareness includes hearing and playing with the smaller sounds of words and recognizing that words are made up of a number of different sounds.

Why is it important?

Because kids who can hear how words come apart will be more successful at "sounding out" words when they start to read. All the skills are important, but researchers have found that if kids are struggling to learn to read, this is usually the piece they are missing.

Fortunately, this is one of the easiest skills to "work on" in storytime, because it's all about rhymes and sounds.

What Can You Do?

• Sing, sing, sing! Or if you absolutely can't sing, chant, or play music CDs; most songs break words up into one syllable per note.


• Recite nursery rhymes and other rhymes or poems; rhymes depend upon ending sounds.


• Play with tongue twisters.


• Pick a sound for the day, and notice it at the beginning of words and at the end of words.


• Sing clapping songs (like B-I-N-G-0).


• Introduce different sounds to make and hear, for example: farm animal sounds that are part of the story, so kids can identify the animal and become a part of the story.

What do you like to do to include this skill in storytime? What tips do you like to give to the grownups?

How Not to Be A Great Reader's Advisor

Check out this blog post by Carlie Webber at Librarilly Blonde.

She's talking specifically about email RA--like when people ask their colleagues on a listserv for help with finding books for a patron, or when we get requests via services such our email reference. But the post also serves as a quick reminder of the types of questions we should be asking our walk-in or phone-in patrons when they need recommendations.

What are your favorite "fishing" questions that you use to find out more about the patron, or the patron's children, to help zone in on the books they might like? What bugs you about reader's advisory? What do you love about it?

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Have you been hearing about the proposed Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act? It is designed to provide higher protection levels to consumers from harmful products such as lead and phthalates. It would require all sorts of raw materials as well as finished products to be tested. As written, this included books. The ALA was one of the organizations lobbying to change or emend the act, since it would require every book in every library to be tested, and if the tested were not completed or the items to fail the test, it would require libraries to ban children 12 and under.

However, the School Library Journal reports that the law has been delayed a year. This is good news and gives everyone a breathing space to figure out just what should be included in this law and what the economic impact will be.

Read the SLJ article though to see what steps libraries are taking now with their teacher kits, summer reading prizes, and children's area toys! What steps, if any, do you think ALD should take?