April is National Poetry Month, and I, too, like it! From picture books with poems to novels in verse for middle grade readers and fun activities, there are so many ways to involve poetry in library plans.
Tag: children’s literature
Attending the 2025 National Book Festival
On Saturday, September 6th, thousands of Book Lovers from across our nation’s capital lined up to hear from their favorite authors at the 25th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival. While some lined up for author book signings, others were excited to hear from what these artists had to say about their publications and the creation process. I was lucky enough to attend this year’s festival and below are the highlights of my experience!
Early Readers Series My Patrons Love!
Early Reader books are my absolute favorite when working with young patrons. It is a joy to see children get a grasp on reading and feel confident when they move up levels in different early readers series. In this post, I will share some Early Readers series my patrons love and how you can expand on Early Readers through programming and services.
Multiculturalism & Diversity: What and Why 2.0
Hello, ALSC Readers! I promise, I am not being lazy and recycling old posts, but last month’s refresher post on Collection Resources (check it out here) brought in a few suggestions of additional resources, both online and offline. In researching some of these resources, and a few others shared with me by a teacher, I noticed that some of the sites used the words “multicultural” and “diverse” interchangeably, when they should not be. In 2014, I authored my first guest blog post for ALSC entitled: “Multiculturalism & Diversity: What is the Difference, and Why it’s Important”. In the post I wrote about the difference between diversity and multiculturalism, and the important role authenticity plays in a story’s perspective. In citing works by both Rudine Sims Bishop and Jacqueline Woodson, I offered the following definition: Multicultural literature can be a mirror, a window, and a sliding glass door 1: it can be…
The Witches, Roald Dahl, and a Renewed Legacy of Harm
Recently, HBO adapted Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel The Witches into a film. This isn’t the first time the extremely popular novel has been adapted – it was first made into a film in 1990, and has also been turned into a radio play and an opera. It’s also a novel that’s built upon a framework of antisemitism. Dahl and Antisemitism A brief summary of The Witches, if, like me, you never read it as a child: a young boy discovers that his grandmother’s stories about witches are true. He stumbles upon a large gathering of them, lead by the Grand High Witch. So far, so fine. The problems begin when you examine the way Dahl describes these witches, and how they align with antisemitic stereotypes: The witches are described as powerful, extremely wealthy, and lurking in society, secretly passing as “normal” women. This is built upon the antisemitic, and completely…
Submit Your 2020 Mock Elections Results!
It’s almost that time of year again! The 2020 ALA Youth Media Awards are coming up on January 27, 2020 at 8 a.m. ET. The ALSC Blog has a “YMA Mock Elections” page dedicated to each award year and libraries, schools, bookstore, and book clubs are welcome to submit their mock election results based on the exciting and robust discussions they’ve had in their own groups. Check out the real 2019 recorded webcast and 2019 Mock Elections results page. The 2020 Mock Elections submission form is now open! We look forward to receiving and posting your mock results on the 2020 page. Please submit your results by January 17, 2020 to have them featured on the ALSC Blog.
Kid-Lit Tour of London
A serious whim recently turned into a 4-day trip to London, England. I had been drooling over the exhibit Harry Potter: A History of Magic at the British Library for some time. When my friend Kirsten suggested we go to London to see the Winnie the Pooh exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum, we began to plan in earnest. I bought tickets for the Harry Potter exhibit before I even got my flight booked. Tickets were selling fast and the exhibit did sell out, a first for the British Library. But I had two spots for the last day.
Youth Media Awards #alamw18
There are not many reasons to get up at 7 am on a Conference day when your first meeting isn’t until 10 am, but then, not every morning is the Youth Media Awards! For those of you not there… allow me to paint a picture. Denver is cold– and the streets remain a bit icy, but yet hoards of library people are up and about– you wouldn’t need to consult your Scheduler, just follow the herd of people to a packed room. The room was abuzz with people chatting about their favorite books of the year and the excitement over what books might win! I had to search for my friend and my saved seat, but it was nearly impossible with all of the excited people. Once I found her, we started discussing predictions and just general excitement over what was to come! Every year I read the results as they…