Busy Busy

I've been spending most of my blogging time on my work blog, The Wild Rumpus. Plus, I'm picking up some more programs at work. But I am slowly making it through the pile of ARCs from ALA and I'll try to at least comment on them as I go.

I just finished Another Faust by Daniel and Dina Nayeri. One of our teen volunteers read it before me and she recommended it. I found it a bit hard to get into and slow in parts. Attractive cover, but not really as suspenseful or as funny as I was hoping. Oh well.

Now I am working on Capt. Hook by J.V.. Hart. It's not a new release but somehow I missed it when it came out. Well, I'm loving it so far. It's my lunch time reading so it's going a bit slowly but it feels more like I'm savoring it than plodding through.

Oh and in the car I'm listening to Dairy Queen. Another amazing book I seemed to have missed. I am almost done and I've already got The Off Season on CD checked out. And I have the ARC for the third book. So I'll be posting more about that when I'm done.

Wow, I better get reading now!

More fun things to do with old books...

Another cool use for discarded books! At the library the teens will be making journals from the horrible fairy tale books I weeded last month. I want to make one and then I want this headboard.

Here a Blog, There a Blog...

I've been keeping busy at the library, working on a new blog for the youth services department: The Wild Rumpus. Check it out and please let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.

To fight the Monday blahs...

I learned how to score a final four bracket. Now I can actually keep score at work as we follow SLJ's Battle of the Books. So far I'm in the lead, though that is bound to change since Frankie is out of the running. I'm thinking I'll bake cupcakes for everyone at the end and the winner gets to take the extra cupcakes home. Unless it's me. I'm trying to do the whole healthy eating and exercising thing again after the long sluggish winter I've had. So no cupcakes for me!

SLJ's Battle of the Kid's Books

The battle has finally begun. Check it out over at School Library Journal's Battle of the Books blog. At work we've all filled out our brackets and I'm happy to say that I've predicted the first four winners correctly! Go me!

First week impressions...

The new job is going really well so far. Cherry Hill has such a beautiful library. It's huge and nice and new. The whole top floor is reserved for youth services and there's a giant story and craft room. Plus, I love that I get to do collection development again. I've really missed that part of being a librarian since my last job centralized the whole process. There's just something really fun about buying books.

Sometimes I miss Miami

But today I'm left shaking my head over the ongoing battle between the school board and the courts over Vamos a Cuba.

This article is interesting because it points out several of the passages that opponents of the book object to. Some of the points seem validly inaccurate. For example:

A page that describes paintings on rocks in a Cuban valley, which the book says were ''made by people who lived in Cuba about 1,000 years ago.'' Opponents said the paintings were made in the 1960s.

Others seem, well, nit picky.

A section on food mentions white rice as the most common food and arroz con pollo as a favorite dish, but does not discuss Cuba's shortages and strict rationing.

I'm ambivalent about the book's value. No, what worries me is something else. Do you know how much has been spent on this legal battle? Over $250,000!

I'm on the YALSA Intellectual Freedom committee. Our committee is presenting a program at ALA's Annual Conference in Chicago titled "Walk the Line: The Fine Line Between Selection and Censorship." So, I've been thinking a lot about the difference between selection and self-censorship and I think the thing about self-censorship is that it comes from a place of fear. And it's really easy to say that everyone should just be fearless and not worry but $250,000 is a lot of money to spend over one book. This has become a battle between organizations with major cash flow. Librarians still lose their jobs defending intellectual freedom. It does happen. There are scary groups out there with lots of money behind them. They can afford prolonged legal battles. So for me being on the IF committee is about all fighting that fear while at the same time making sure people are aware that there is reason to be afraid!

New Job!

All that finger crossing paid off because I got the job! Yay for being a full-time employed children's librarian!

2nd Interview

I made it through round two of the interview process for this youth services job. I think it went well but I am awful at judging how interviews went. Anyway, fingers are still crossed!

ALA Youth Media Awards

There were many great things about ALA midwinter but being in the room when they announced the Caldecott and Newbery was just the coolest experience. The link to all the award winners is here. I don't think there's much point in re-listing all the winners. I'll just stick to commenting about the ones I've read.

As far as the Newbery goes, I'm overjoyed that Neil Gaiman won The Graveyard Book. And it's not just because I love his work and treasure my signed copy of Coraline. I cried at the end of The Graveyard Book partially because it was a bitter sweet ending, but also because I didn't want it to end. I was a bit surprised that After Tupac & D Foster won a Newbery Honor. I thought that it had some major flaws. I did love the gay brother in that book though. He was such a compelling character that I was almost willing to overlook the fact that the book had no plot.

I actually have not read the Caldecott winner but I really enjoyed A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever and I'm glad Marla Frazee at least got an Honor award for it. It is a great example of a picture book where the illustrations are an integral part of the story.

The only award I tried to call ahead of time was the Prinz. I predicted Tender Morsels would take it. I personally would have picked the The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by my new favorite author, E. Lockhart, but I didn't think the committee would find it "literary" enough. Tender Morsels is definitely more "literary" but a much more difficult and in some ways "unlovable" book. Well, it turned out I was was pretty close. Frankie and Tender Morsels both came away with Honors and Jellicoe Road, a book I've yet to read, won the prize.

Someday maybe (in my dreams) I'll have the privilege of sitting on an awards committee but until then being this close to the action was pretty cool. And even if Denver was a freezing puddle of snow and slush, I'm really glad I went. I met some awesome people, worked on my committee (YALSA Intellectual Freedom!), and had a really good time!

Fingers Crossed

I had a job interview on Tuesday for a youth services librarian position. I'm not sure how the interview went. It was hard to tell if they liked me or not. The library is pretty awesome though so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and so should you!

It's just one of those days...

Unemployment is getting to me. Every time I start to feel bummed about not having the job I want, I remind myself that it could be worse. I am working. So I'm a nanny. It's a job. And I work at the library part time. So it's not a librarian position. At least that's something. But today that's just not helping me feel any better. I'm pissed. I don't want to be told to go work in an academic library (like it's so easy to get a job there!) or that there's some magical job out there will turn up. I was a good children's librarian. I want to keep being a children's librarian. I'm staying involved with ALA. I'm still reading reviews and professional literature. I'm doing all the things you're supposed to do to keep yourself competitive. But right now, given the fact that they're laying off staff and closing libraries, it all seems pretty useless. And I'm pissed because I feel like I'm doing all the right things for no reason.

I know I'm luckier than a lot of people and I'm thankful for the things I do have. But today, right now, I just want to have a pity party for thing I'm missing.

And back in literary land...

I finished The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and liked it so much I checked out and plowed through How to Be Bad. Yeah, I'm on an official E. Lockhart kick.

More Sesame Street Nerdiness

Check out Cookie Monster in the Library. I just spent way to much time this morning watching these videos.

Ohhh Pretty

This had given me a great idea for a craft project at the library this Saturday. Now I better start saving cardboard.

New Job

So this past week I started a part time job as a Saturday After School Leader at my neighborhood library branch. It looks like it's going to be a fun job that will keep me busy while I wait for a librarian position to come up, but there are a few draw backs. It means working every Saturday, which kind of kills my weekends. But I can deal with that because it's a short term thing. The other problem is that I find it depressing to work in a library and not be a librarian. I mean it's fun to work with the kids and I appreciate that the librarians at this branch have gone out of their way to help me get a job, but I want to be planning programs and making decisions. I miss that part of my old job. Sadly, with the economy the way it is it may be a while before I get to revisit my former role. I should use this time to catch up on my reading but I haven't even picked up a book in weeks. I think I'm in a funk. I have The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian on hold though so I should have something to read by next week.

Goodbye Arlington

We had a staff meeting today and at the end our Friends of the Library representative and his two darling daughters came in with cupcakes for the staff and a vase full of marigolds. The marigolds were the very same little seeds we planted months ago after our gardening story time. Sigh. The oldest daughter is four and my most dedicated story time participant and she is so sweet and sensitive. She's all sad that I'm leaving and I'm sad too! I'll miss her little pixie face peering up at me each week. Aw, I'll miss the whole story time crowd.

The New Yorker does something right

There was a link to this in my ALA newsletter. We like articles about children's librarians. Yay!

Helloooooo...elloooo...elloo...

I'm sorry. I know it's been a while and I'm wondering if there's anyone who still checks this blog. I'm debating the merits of continuing to blog as we get ready to move and I get more and more occupied with other things. But for now, we'll see how it goes. Speaking of moving, we now have an apartment. Yay! Now all we have to do if figure out how we are getting all our belongings from here to there. Fun times for sure.

Still no job though. I don't know what libraries up there are going through but if this area is a reflection of what's going on on a national scale, I'm worried!

I don't love moving!

So now that it's official that we are moving to Philadelphia in August, I can start obsessing about my hatred of moving. First off, moving involves change. And me, well, I don't do so well with change. Then there's all the organizing and packing and labeling which would be doable except that this will all have to be done while Josh is studying for the bar! And then there's the having to find a new job a process that I'm finding difficult to navigate due to the very different way that Philadelphia Free Library does their hiring. OY!

But at least Philly has Stella, my favorite child in the whole world. (Sorry to my darling story-time kids!) So there's the silver lining in this whole moving mess.