You know you’re a children’s librarian when …
you contemplate tearing out your hair every time someone hands you a summer reading list that contains any of the following:
- books that are out of print (anyone still have a copy of The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk from 1987?)
- books with the incorrect author or title (anyone have The Hunger Games by James Dashner?!)
- nonfiction books paired with questions that only apply to fiction (“How would you change the ending?” Um, peace on earth would be a good start).
What are the best (worst) requests you’ve had this summer? And BTW, if you’ve got a spare copy of How to Eat Fried Worms, I could really use it! 😉
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Julie
How about an entire K-5 summer reading list for a city of 90,000 that hasn’t been updated in about 5 years (OK they stick the new Newbery and Caldecott on there sometimes) that fits on one side of an 8×11 sheet of paper?
Renee Perron
Or books that the state-wide library system only owns 1 or 2 copies of and a whole class is assigned to read that same title.
Lisa
Oh, I hate that!
Katherine
When you use “child speak” to talk to adults. Examples:
– you’re leaving early? do you have the sleepies?
– I wish my roommate would use her inside voice while speaking on the phone when I’m sleeping.
– Those people should use their walking feet in the mall.
Polly
Where I used to work, every year a certain school would issue a summer reading list, carefully checked with the library catalogue so that their students could get the books for sure. The only problem? They didn’t check the right library’s catalogue, they used another system’s, one that their students didn’t use! 🙁
Lisa
At least they were trying. 😉
Sarah
I was shown a 6th grade summer reading list, riddled with misspellings of both titles and authors’ last names. But the cream of the crop was the suggestion of “Blade Runner” by Phillip K. Dick. Well, Blade Runner is a movie, not a book. The short story is called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and last time I checked was not necessarily 6th grade fare.
Vicki Kouchnerkavich
It’s not just SRP lists. During the school year, I get asked by children about a book their teacher is reading aloud to the whole class (the child wants to read ahead). Many times it is something from 10-20 years ago. I know there are great titles from the time period, makes me wonder about classroom budgets that don’t include $$$ to update the books available in the classroom.