Originally published in 1986, Mary Downing Hahn’s classic horror story Wait Till Helen Comes has remained a favorite of children and librarians everywhere due to its deeply frightening, malevolent ghost and realistic family dynamics. The story of a troubled young girl named Heather, her concerned stepsister Molly, and an evil ghost named Helen bent on revenge, Wait Till Helen Comes‘ staying power is a testament to the primal fear it evokes in readers. Now Hollywood has come calling, with the announcement last month that Helen is being developed for film. Maria Bello is starring as the mother, while two actress sisters (Sophie and Isabelle Nelisse) will star as Molly and Heather. Isabelle was previously in the extremely frightening Mama, so her casting seems to indicate plans for a very scary movie, but producers say they’re aiming for a target audience of 8 and up. No release date has been announced, but…
Month: October 2014
Science Fair Fridays
This past summer was the first time my branch had been fully staffed in years. To celebrate, my branch head, Juanita Vega DeJoseph, and I decided that we were going to offer programs 5 days a week during summer reading. It was an ambitious goal, but we knew the neighborhood would appreciate it. We also knew that our staff was up to the challenge. Friday programming has always been a bit of a coin toss for me. A lot of children are in the area, but many leave to visit the shores of New Jersey with their families. I decided to create “Science Fair Fridays;” it would be hands-on science experiments, but because the audience would be smaller, I would have the opportunity to interact for longer time periods with each child. Once I had my programming idea, I had to find the experiments we would perform. Our summer reading…
Not SCARY Scary
Halloween is this week. Isn’t that nuts? I’ve had kids in my department for weeks, asking for Halloween books, for ghost stories, for scary stories. And then there are the kids that want something maybe creepy, maybe suspenseful but “not SCARY scary.” I love these kids. These kids are my kindred spirits because I hate being scared. I can’t watch a horror movie and I never read a Goosebumps book when i was younger. But I do enjoy suspense and a little gloom. Take a look at these books for your kids who want to have some Halloween reading but want to be able to sleep at night: The Theodosia Throckmorton series by R.L. LaFevers: Theodosia can see curses and get rid of them. This comes in handy as her parents work in a museum and there are artifacts with curses everywhere. This is a fantasy adventure and though there are…
A Book to Match Your Costume
Many schools require students to wear Halloween costumes that are book related. Some even ask children to bring along a book that matches his or her costume. This policy is a great way to promote reading and integrate Halloween into the curriculum, but it can also be a source of stress. What if a child wants to wear a Spider-man costume, but all of the Spider-man books have already been checked out to other patrons? You might try recommending a book about Marvel comics, arachnids, or even a biography about Tobey Maguire. To be prepared for the last minute rush to find books to match costumes, we created a list of “books to match your costume.” These titles are just a starting point. If you use your imagination, you can find a book to match just about any costume. So you want to be Minnie Mouse . . . In…
Bechtel Fellowship: Professional Experience of a Lifetime
Little did I realize when arriving at the Gainesville Airport the evening of January 31, 2007, that the next month would be the highlight of my professional career. In 2005, as I was glancing through my most recent issue of Children and Libraries, I noticed Leslie Barban’s article, “Evolution of Children’s Literature Getting Sidetracked–Delightfully–at the Baldwin Library.” As I read the article, I thought, if only I could have that same experience. Before becoming a children’s librarian, I had worked for six years in rare book shops, so having the opportunity to research and read about children’s books would be a dream experience for me. In 2005, when both of my children were in college, I decided to apply for the 2006 Bechtel Fellowship. As part of the application, I needed to decide on a topic. The most difficult part of the process was determining which area of the collection…
Can I borrow a Mac?
Our Youth Services department recently underwent a freshening up. After reconfiguring our floor space and thinking about how it is used we decided to purchase several MacBook PROs for afterschool use. We had been circulating e-readers and tablets so this was a natural next step for us. We made an initial purchase of eight laptops, and the kids went wild! We rolled out this new service a year ago and it has proven to be so popular that we had to invest in six more just to keep up with the demand. So, how does this work you wonder? First, the laptops can only be used by children in grades 6-12th in our Youth Services department, they never leave the library. All one needs is a library card in good standing, a valid student ID and they are ready to borrow one. We ask each child to read and sign…
Do you know about the MAE Award?
Many ALSC Members are also YALSA members. At the request of the Chair of the 2015 MAE Jury Award for Best Literature for Teens, here is information about an Award in which many of you might be interested. *********************************************************************** YALSA members who have run an exceptional reading or literature program in the 12 months leading up to Dec. 1, 2014 are eligible to apply for the 2015 MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens, which recognizes an outstanding reading or literature program for young adults. Do you run a spectacular teen book club that engages underserved audiences? Did your summer reading program or literature festival connect teens with literature in an innovative way? Is your Reader’s Advisory always three steps ahead of a trend? Have you connected teens to literature or helped them gain literacy skills via some other exciting means? Whether the program was large or small, if…
Come Write In: a Family Creative Writing Program
November is nearly upon us. That means fall leaves, wooly sweaters, gluttonous behavior on the fourth Thursday of the month, and, of course, National Novel Writing Month. Inaugurated in 1999 by the intrepid Chris Baty and a group of friends, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has become an international movement to inspire average joes like you and me to get off our duffs and write that novel we’ve always dreamed of penning. One month. One novel. It’s as simple as that. According to NaNoWriMo, 310,000 adults participated in the writing frenzy in 2013, and 89,500 youth participated in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program. Personally, I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years, and the experience has been so deeply fulfilling I decided that I, as a children’s librarian, needed to get on this Young Writers thing. What’s really grand about NaNoWriMo is that this non-profit organization provides you everything you…