Check it Out!

LIBNET had a fun thread recently that is recapped here on the Colorado Libraries blog: Unique Check Outs. Libraries check out more than books and media! The list ranges from bones (for nurses to study) to puzzles to bikes to electronic devices.

What would you love to be able to check out to the families who use your branch? What resources could the library invest in and share the wealth to our patrons?

Rebuses

If you ever have a patron come in and say, "You know, I want one of those books where they have pictures instead of words?"

They have a word for that! They are called Rebuses and that's exactly how you can search for them in the catalog: a word or keyword search for Rebuses and Juvenile. Using picture clues to help decipher meaning is a legitimate step on the road to reading, so don't let anyone tell you these books are "cheating."

They are in a couple of places:



The Ready-to-Read series has several TV tie in books in the Easy Reader section.



Shirley Neitzel has a little niche on the Easy Picture shelves with her books. They aren't a series with a continuing character, but each has the same cumulative-tale rebus format.

There are one or two others (Smoky has another ER series) but this should get you started! Here's a list from Allen County that may help you scrape a few more titles together. If you know of any other searches or titles that will help with this question, please chime in!

Up

Here's a nice article from the LA Times connecting the Pixar movie Up with children's literature.

RPLD Summer Reading

I love my hometown library. They are small, just one location in a medium-sized Chicago suburb, but every time I get a newsletter it seems they are trying something new and cool.

For instance, their Teen Summer Reading program uses a ticket system to promote programs and services in addition to reading!

Teens who read for at least an hour every week earn a small prize and a ticket in a weekly drawing. But there are grand prizes at the end of the summer, too, and the more tickets you have in the pot, the better your chances of winning a prize!

Here's the other ways teens can earn tickets:

1 hour reading books, graphic novels, & magazines = 1 ticket
1 hour listening to audiobooks & playaways = 1 ticket
Teen program = 1 ticket
Write a book, movie, or game review = 1 ticket
Read-2-Gether VolunTEEN = 2 tickets
VolunTEEN (every 4 hrs) = 2 tickets

I love this system! What do you think? What other activities could be worth a ticket?

More About the Wild Things

Spike Jonze, the director of the new Wild Things movie that Alyson posted about yesterday, along with others on the movie team, have a blog going, We Love You So, as kind of a bulletin board where they tack up a bunch of items of interest: "This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality."

There's a lot of pretty random stuff, but also great pieces like Mr Rogers defending PBS funding in the midst of the Vietman War, artwork depicting children with imaginary friends, and quotes, interviews, and video clips of Maurice Sendak.

Another very cool WTWTA-related blog: Terrible Yellow Eyes, which showcases WTWTA-inspired artwork.

A fan site with lots of links to interviews and articles is Where the Wild Things Are.

There's also a 6-months-old Rolling Stone interview with Spike Jonze in which he touches on some of the adaptations he made, and states that Maurice Sendak likes the movie.

I can't wait until the discussion about the movie starts in earnest: how do you adapt a quintessential work from its original media to another? Just how problematic is it to try to stretch a picture book into a full-length feature? (Horton Hears a Who, Cat in the Hat, Jumanji...) What are people going to think about Dave Eggers' novelization/tie-in/inspired-by-the-movie novel, The Wild Things?

Where the Wild Things Are

Are you looking forward to the movie (out Oct 16th)? Or do you think it is a travesty to attempt such a thing? Check out the website to view the trailer, posters and images.

My first thought - the mood doesn't seem right. In the book Max is mad, terrified, smug, domineering and WILD; but never soulful and sad looking like the movie images. Colorado Ballet's photo matches the book more.

Where You Headed?

Have you seen the PSAs for the Library of Congress' Lifelong Literacy campaign?

If not, take a minute and go to Oz.