The OLD Top Shelf

Wow! Things have been going fast and furious since we got back from TLA last week. I can’t believe how long it is taking me to get all of these sessions posted! Sorry for the delay…

Anyway, after the Smackdown, I went to have lunch with 2,000+ of my closest friends. We had some kind of grilled chicken salad and celebrated the with the winners of the Siddie Joe Johnson and Texas Bluebonnet awards. As always, seeing the student representatives and hearing their presentation of the Texas Bluebonnet Award are some of the most fun parts of the conference. After all, promoting good books for kids to read is one of the things we like to do best! Having them there reminds us why we spend time and effort promoting these books every year. The winning author, Lucy Nolan, told some great stories about the dogs she’s had in her life and how they have influenced her writing. Her book Down Girl and Sit: On the Road was a definite kid favorite, earning 19,000+ votes.

Dallas ISD librarians have created a list of 20 excellent bilingual (Spanish/English) and Spanish language books for students in grades Pre-K through 3, called Luminarias. They have graciously offered to share their list by posting it on their web site. This is a great list of titles to consider when ordering books for this population. It might also serve as an alternative to the MISD Mockingbird list for campuses with a high bilingual enrollment.

Region One ESC and the Region One Library Advisory Committee would like to invite you and your students to participate in the Tejas Star Book Award Program. The Tejas Star list includes bilingual English/Spanish books and books written in Spanish. The purpose of the award is to promote reading in general and for readers to discover the cognitive and economic benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism. Participation is free to all Texas schools this year.

The list of Tejas Star books is available at http://www.esc1.net/tejasstarbookaward . You will also find detailed information on how to participate and how to vote at the Tejas Star web site. Voting will take place during the month of March and the winner will be announced in April, 2008.

Here are the award winners from the ALA Midwinter conference 2008:

2008 John Newbery Medal
(for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature)

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

2008 Newbery Honor Books

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

and

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Randolph Caldecott Medal 2008
(for the most distinguished American picture book for children)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Caldecott Honor Books 2008

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

and

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

2008 Michael L. Printz Award
(for excellence in literature written for young adults)

The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean

2008 Coretta Scott King Award
(recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults)

Coretta Scott King Author Award

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

Let It Shine by Ashley Bryan

Pura Belpré Award
(honoring Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children’s books)

Pura Belpré Author Award

The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls

Pura Belpré Illustrator Award

Los Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Marisa Montes

2008 Robert F. Sibert Medal
(for most distinguished informational book for children)

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

For other award winners see the press release on ALA’s web site.

Last week, someone on TLC (the Texas librarians’ listserv) requested some ideas for book displays. Stella Gonzalez of San Antonio replied with a great and lengthy list of themes for book displays. Rita Wynn of Highland Park ISD posted some additional ideas geared specifically toward secondary libraries. I know that some of you have your student library workers create book displays each month. You might help them out and share these ideas with them. Do you have other displays that your readers enjoy? Post them in the comments!

Display Ideas:
Award winning books

Books build brains

Never judge a book by its movie — Books that have been made into movies

Bored? Read.

Caution: readers at work. – career books

Cookbooks with placemats, utensils, plates, pots, etc.

Craft & hobby books with items.

Don’t bug me, I’m reading — insects

Don’t drop the ball on books – sports books and balls

(also “A great book is always a slam dunk”)

Explore new frontiers—read! — explorers and explorations

Fee-fi-fo-fum – fairy tales

Get a clue – mystery books

Get wild and read – animal books

Get wrapped in reading – mummies

Go for the gold: Read! (during Olympics)

Joust read – medieval, Arthurian

Just read.

Library books and bytes – computer books & items

Libraries: linking tradition and technology

Read if you know what’s good for you – health books

Teacher’s photos of pets…pet books

Teacher’s photos of summer travel…country books & maps

Teacher silhouettes (use overhead)…holding favorite book

Teddy bears with books of bears (non-fiction and bear fiction)

“Transform yourselves” books & caterpillar/butterfly

Who’s Who – year beginning – pictures of admin & teachers.

Banned Books:

Books banned in Texas (from ACLU by year)

Books banned worldwide

Spring:

Books in Bloom: A Garden of Genres

Garden of reading, help your imagination grow

The Library: a garden for the mind

The Library: fertile ground for great ideas

Libraries grow good readers

Libraries: where ideas/readers bloom/blossom

He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing – Cicero

Spring into books

Summer:

Beat the heat—read!

Fall:

Fall into a good book

Fall under the spell of a good book

Good books are a harvest of good ideas

Welcome back (books plus school articles)

Give thanks for great books!

Winter:

Books are Cool – penguins, snowmen

Chill out and read

A reading wonderland

Christmas around the world

Halloween:

Treat yourself to a good book

Favorite literary characters made with pumpkins (real or paper)

Reading is a “monstrous” adventure

Scare up a good book

Valentine’s Day:

Books we love. Hearts with person’s pic and book title.

Love comes in many languages — hearts and language dictionaries

Patriotic:

Free to read

Biographies/Special Interest:

Make your mark in the world (varied bios)

Women’s History & Biographies of women

Native Americans

Hispanic Heritage Month

Black American Month

National Poetry Month (April)

Camouflaged non-fiction (Girl, Interrupted; Seabiscuit; Not Without my Daughter; In Cold Blood; James Herriott books, etc.)

Chick Lit

Adventure stories

Dragons

Oldies but Goodies

The ESC7 blog for librarians has a great post on an interesting way of introducing kids to books.

Does this excerpt peak your interest? Click the link to find out how it was selected.

“I tried to be helpful. ‘He did a split and couldn’t get up. I’m pretty sure he has a bad back.’
‘It’s not my back, it’s my crotch!’ he howled. His agonized eyes focused on me for the first time.”
– Born to Rock by Gordon Korman (Texas Lone Star Reading List 07-08). Hyperion, 2006.

Congrats to MK at Terry Middle School for registering her campus at the Teen Read Week site!

If you haven’t done this yet, there’s less than a week left before registration closes. Why should you register? YALSA is a non profit organization that depends on its members for support. By registering, you are letting them know that teen literacy is a concern and you are willing to do something about it! By registering, you are telling YALSA that this program is worthwhile, and they will continue to sponsor the week.

Once you have registered, these 13 steps will help you get the word out about your celebration.

Teen Read Week PR Checklist

1. There is a TRW display in my library.
2. TRW is featured on my library’s web site, blog and/or MySpace page
3. Information about TRW is in my library’s fall newsletter
4. I’ve posted announcements, fliers, and brochures all over my library: along shelves, at each checkout station, and bulletin boards. (Tip: Want a great, ready-made poster that you can easily print on any printer? Check out the Print PSAs on the Teen Read Week Web site’s Get Publicity page)
5. At my school, I asked to include TRW activities and information in the daily announcements.
6. All library staff are knowledgeable about my library’s TRW activities.
7. Relevant local organizations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities, such as the community center, 4-H club, area schools, parent organizations, etc.
8. Local VIPs such as town council members and/or state legislators, have been invited to attend any special TRW events.
9. Local media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations and TV stations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities via a press release (see the TRW Web site for samples). You can also ask your local newspaper to print one of YALSA’s PSAs (follow the directions at the Get Publicity page!)
10. My Teen Advisory Group (TAG) is involved in promoting TRW by writing letters to the editor, making a commercial for the public access channel, designing and posting flyers, creating and uploading a short informational video for YouTube, etc.
11. I or my TAG have asked my town council and/or state’s governor to declare Oct. 14-20th, 2007 Teen Read Week in my town or state (see a sample proclamation on the TRW Web site).
12. I have designated a member of my TAG or someone to be the photographer at my TRW events, and I will distribute the photos by posting them on the library’s web site or Flickr account, sending them to the local newspaper and sending them to American Libraries at americanlibraries@ala.org.
13. I went to the Teen Read Week wiki and shared my library’s plans so others can be inspired by my ideas and my celebration can be shared by ALA publications or the Public Information Office for promotional use.

If you’ve done all these things, I’d say you are more than ready! Share your plans in the comments.

Sci-Fi Lists gives us a statistical survey of the top 100 science fiction books of all time. Try posting this list and see what your science fiction readers have to say about it. This is a great discussion starter for a book club or blog.

(Found via Neat New Stuff)

Image citation:
Trev vG. “Alien.” Trev vG’s Photostream. 25 Oct 2005. 12 Sep 2007. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevorvangorp/55863412/>

Over on the Kids’ Wings web site, Suzy Red has some great links to go along with this year’s Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees.

Also, don’t forget about Tandem Library’s BookTalk site, where kids can read summaries of current Bluebonnet titles , get information about the authors, rate the books they have read, and get suggestions for read-alikes.

If you have other favorite Bluebonnet resources, please share in the Comments!

Now that the Harry Potter saga is complete, Stephen King (writing for Entertainment Weekly) has the last word on the series.