In a small office on Broadway…..

This is where I was yesterday after a ride on the T to Arlington….Vicky from Titcomb’s Bookshop & I travelled the T, met her niece, Molly, in Porter Square and proceeded to the New England Independent Booksellers Association in Arlington.  There, along with other bookstore type people we were introduced to Suzanne Collins, author of the Overlander series and the Hunger Games trilogy.  Reps from Scholastic were there, too.  What a treat, not only to meet Ms. Collins and have a chance to talk with her but to be in the offices and among independent booksellers.  Both are a unique breed. I find the Hunger Games Trilogy to be a powerful statement on war which, come to find out, Ms. Collins was intentional about.  Her father was in the Air Force and served in Vietnam.  The family had many a discussion on the subject (in an illuminating way not debating, but that may have happened, too.). The books came about because of Ms. (Mrs.) Collins ultimate reaction to the myth of the Minotaur and Theseus.  Now go ahead and look that up…think labyrinth.  I picked up some info on how books are produced,published, and distributed; how Suzanne got this amazing Mockingjay necklace she was wearing (dropped from a parachute at a school visit, hand crafted…talk about prepared to meet an author), and the new Hunger Games game available for free on the internet.  Suzanne has two children, ages 16 (boy) and 11 (girl).  Asked what age she believes the Trilogy is written in mind for, ages 12-18 are mentioned. She is a script writer originally and has just finished the first write of the movie version to be produced by Lionsgate.  Books into movies? Some are really good, some are really, really bad (Who did that awful conversion of The Dark is Rising?…tragedy if you ask me.). So, I hope that the market doesn’t override the powerful theme of the books, but that’s not my call.  It is a wonder to know that books are written by people with lives, families, challenges, senses of humor, favorite foods and opinions.  That’s what I like just as much as reading a good book now….who IS this person who wrote these words?  Not a question for everybody, of course, but something to think about.  In the meantime, your local library has 8 copies of Mockingjay. Yesterday was FUN and Boston is great, well, technically Arlington (visit Porter Square Books, an awesome indie book store) and the back of the truck ride return to Porter Square….priceless.

Ps:  If you are a collector building your book stash or don’t like to restrict your reading time to the confines of a library due date, Titcomb’s Bookshop has copies complete with signature stamp of Suzanne Collins. Deal.

YALSA’s List of Readalikes For ‘Mockingjay’

YALSA’s List of Readalikes For ‘Mockingjay’.

It’s a New Day, A New Year…..

Welcome back to September, the month that starts the daily rise and fall of studenthood.  It’s been a long time since I sent a student off the school though both of my daughters attended or are attending college, but it’s a moment we all recognize, adult, grandparent, child, teen…..and, well, here we are again.  September and the beginning of the school year.  So looking forward, I am going to revolve back to my daily mission – the library.  Our TAG team is working on making the services of your public library more obvious to you all.  Some of you DON’T know you do not have to get out of your pjs to use library services. Some you don’t know, your library will RESPOND to your input – sometimes it just takes a few words or sometimes it takes your involvement. The Teen Advisory Group is a place to put in a little extra time to help the Library do better by teens. This blog can be used for your input.  Or, you could just simply say, ‘I’ve got an extra hour each week and I’d like to volunteer in any way  the library.’ Craig Brubaker, the first recipient of the Richard Connor Award ($500), started that way.  The staff LOVES to write recommendations for our volunteers for their schools or employers.  But the big thing is, you (Teens) make the library a COMMUNITY SERVICE for all.  Your library is one of the few places where age is really a non-issue….anyone over the age of 6 can get a library card (up to that point, you get a free ride on someone else’s card), and the expiration date, NEVER! So heading into the new school year, USE the library services to TAKE A BREAK, GET SOME STUDYING DONE, FIND ONLINE RESOURCES THROUGH OUR EXCLUSIVE DATABASES, ENJOY SOME GOOD PLEASURE READING, PROGRAMMING THAT IS STILL TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION (and sometimes we do!), YADA YADA YADA.  You know what I mean.  We’re here if you need us.

THE WINNER, THE CUPCAKES, THE APPLES (2APPLES), THE MOCKINGJAY….

This was FUN…thank you to Kaitlin and Kourtney Meiss, Lana and Lili Henderson and Vicki Uminowicz (She brought the books!) for a great set-up and follow-through to our Bookies/Teen Volunteer/Mockingjay Release Event. Here’s some of the details and photos:

Winner of the 1st Annual Bookies: Lili Henderson, Aurelia

Kaitlin Meiss and Lili Henderson were also our first ever Library Summer Interns (thank you to the Sandwich Kiwanis Levreault Trust).  They received their internship remuneration and thanks for a job well done.  The internship was a much more focused and responsible position than just volunteering.  Over the summer, databases were tidied, programs planned and executed, library tasks learned and accomplished, and a deeper understanding of what library services entail was embedded, I think.  If the program can be repeated next year, students entering 11th-12th grades may apply for a position.  Our intent is to give a community opportunity to a teen to make a difference….these two certainly have and, I suspect, will continue to do just that (not just in the library either).  So thank you to Kaitlin and Lili.

Of course, we celebrated the Teen Volunteers….509 hours of service!  Some volunteers spent only a few hours in service, others tons…..what can we say, you made a HUGE difference in our summertime housekeeping. Here is a photo of the marvelous cake made by Sarabeth Gall as an edible homage to our TVs….

The Cake of Distinction for TVs

AND, let’s take a look at those cupcakes…which were raffled off ….how could you eat these?  I just loved looking at them.

On a rainy, stormy night the ‘haunted ‘ library was a great place to be.  We even had a family drive from Chatham – yes, Chatham – because nowhere else on the Cape was holding a Mockingjay release event.  Imagine that….so, we raffled off Mockingjay chachkies courtesy Titcomb’s, cupcakes, M buttons, t-shirts, a Titcomb’s gift card, and, of course, two copies of THE BOOK (Rachel & Tiana, are you happy now?). So I am hoping that this little event may encourage more participants to our Bookies Award next year, remember it is the 1st ANNUAL awards.  A huge thank you to all who came, the parents who drove them, and help with the setup and clean up of the evening.  I will leave this missive with a couple shots of the ohso popular game in progress…Apples2Apples.  TTFN.

HelloGoodby

Craig Brubaker, teen volunteer extraordinaire, is on his way to Curry College. Craig stopped by the Children’s Room to say hello/goodby (the goodby is not permanent) and we reminisced about Craig’s ‘time’ as a summer volunteer (and sometimes not in summer). Craig became an ‘alternate’ staff because of his willingness and wonderful attitude during his volunteer career at SPL.  As the recipient of the first Richard J. Connor Award ( a cash award devoted to the purchase of text resources for college), Craig is a wonderful representation of how volunteer work can pay off in the long run. He would accept any task, was a great ‘reader’s advisory’ point man and, later, began bringing his siblings into the library and we now have a steady stream (I think) of ‘Fabulous Brubaker’ readers and potential volunteers.  The very, very best to you, Craig (He was getting all sorts of advice from his Library aunties….) and it goes without saying, we will miss you BUT it’s time to be out there and make a difference in the larger world, too.  THANK YOU!!!!!

Grillin’ was extremely good that night….

Thank you to Robert Smith and all who adventured in grilling land.  It was delish!

Hungering for the Bookies….another change

The 1st Annual Bookies Awards has MOVED to a new time slot…..MONDAY, AUGUST 23rd,  10-Midnight …and ADDED  FEW WORDS…..AND TEEN VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION NIGHT AND BOOK RELEASE.  I have my reasons, mostly I’d like a few more ‘bookie’ attempts AND the Library really needs to say a BIG THANK YOU to our 2010 Summer Teen Volunteers who basically are Amazing and Invaluable for us during the busy summer.  Please come and have some fun, food, gaming, ‘bookie looking’ and get ready for THE RELEASE OF MOCKINGJAY, 3RD IN THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY. HMMM…..would you like to win a copy of that book?  come to the party…it’s for you!

 Bookies rules/entry form

SPORTS….NO ONE?

Scott Frye, a member of the New England Football League, taught me a lesson this past Thursday night without lifting a finger.  I had invited Scott to the book discussion of POP by Gordan Korman for two (well, actually three) reasons:  1.  He’s a guy, 2. He plays semi-pro football with the South Shore Outlaws, and 3.  He reads and read as a boy.  Since no one showed up to enjoy our company or a discussion of the book, I asked Scott, “Did you ever talk about the books you read (lots of Star Wars, Gary Paulsen and books he knows he liked and read but didn’t recall the title or author) with other guys?”…..Scott answered, “No, not really.  I read them, enjoyed them, but didn’t really go out of my way to talk about them.” LIGHT BULB MOMENT FOR MRS. JOHNSON!!! (She raised 2 girls.)….male readers are not necessarily going to come to a LIBRARY to DISCUSS, IN PUBLIC their opinions of a book just read….so, how do I as the YA Librarian, encourage idea sharing of books?  Maybe I don’t….maybe the books are just put out there, subtley, and allowed to roam freely among the male readers.  Or, how about getting a particularly popular guy author — my choice would be Gordon Korman for one — to come to Sandwich/Cape Cod expressly for guy readers.  I really don’t know, but I felt I learned a lot from Scott just talking with him about what he read and what it was like for him during his 4th grade-12th Sandwich schools tenure.  AND, I am now thinking about going to one of the NEFL games…sounds like good, hands on football play without the Janet Jackson hype…hate that stuff.  Hey, anymore guy/male/boy readers out there who can give insight into how to pedal books to you?  Well, please remember ‘books’ may include fiction/non-fiction/graphic/manga-anime/audio/ebook etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…And don’t think I don’t know you are reading.  The books have been flying off the shelves this summer….and flying back in most cases. A thank you to the reviewers who signed on for the Thk Grn Summer reading online program…take a look at the reviews at www.readsinma.org, click on S for Sandwich.

Sports, anyone?

Drop by Thursday from 6-7 pm to find out about great sports-related titles available to sport readers – boys and girls.  Refreshments, good lists and sharing the cause of reading about what you like….no pressure here.