On Monday, August 12, I presented my new resource website https://www.outstandinglibrarian.org/ at the SLJ Leadership Basecamp. Thank you to everyone that has contributed and I hope you will continue to share your Outstanding stories to inspire others. I will continue to regularly add to this resource of ways to be inspired, plan and manage outreach, collaboration and partnerships.
Deborah Dutcher
Early Literacy Resources for Parents
Are you looking for some handouts to give to parents of young children? Check this resource from the Center for Early Literacy Learning for good activities that can be practiced by parents. You can create handouts from the different pdfs on the website. There are also early literacy resources for parents of children with disabilities at this website.
Blogs for the Busy Librarian
All of you are busy librarians, and I know you can’t spend much time online perusing blogs in search of practical information that would help you do your jobs more effectively. Today, I took some time and looked for blogs that offered some programming ideas and book reviews for children’s and teen librarians. Here is what I came up with:
Abby the Librarian–This site includes lots of children’s book reviews as well as a section on storytime themes.
ALSC Blog–I’ve written about this before, but the American Library Services for Children blog is definitely worth another reminder. Many children’s librarians contribute to this blog and offer good ideas about storytime as well as other aspects of youth services. Search for the entry “Another Year of Toddler Storytime” with some good tips about rules for behavior management. It will also point you to another good blog Miss Merry Liberry.
GreenBeanTeenQueen–This blog bills itself as “A Teen and Tween Librarian’s thoughts on books, reading and adventures in the library,” but it also offers ideas for younger children’s programming.
The Lupine Librarian–I think this blog will speak to many librarians in NH since it is written by a children’s librarian in a small town in Maine. It includes book reviews and programming ideas as well as other topics.
Mel’s Desk–This site has links to many storytime sites, many flannelboard postings and lots of content on early literacy programs.
Reading Nook–This is another blog I’ve mentioned previously, but it doesn’t hurt to plug it again, especially as it is written by a NH YA librarian. It includes lots of great YA book reviews.
Stacked–This is not specifically a youth services library blog, but it does offer many YA reviews as well as some children’s reviews. Reviews include other formats like audiobooks and graphic novels.
Storytime Land–Visit here for many ideas for storytime.
Youth Services Corner–This blog presents resources for librarians and others who work with tweens and teens. Look here for book reviews, box office previews and links of the week.
Please share any blogs you find useful!
What blogs do you follow?
I’ve been trying to identify some of the helpful blogs that review children’s and teen books (in addition to the wonderful YA review site Reading Nook that I previously mentioned). I know there are many such blogs out there, but here are a few that may be useful to check out. I welcome your suggestions of blogs that you follow regularly.
Nonfiction Monday identifies good, recently-published nonfiction titles for young readers. Hosted by Anastasia Suen, whose Booktalking blog is another good resource, Nonfiction Monday links to a nonfiction review on a different blog each week. This gives librarians a chance to not only read nonfiction reviews, but also discover new blogs.
Abby the Librarian, written by a youth services public librarian, offers regular reviews of children’s and teen books. In addition, this blog site covers many other topics of interest to children’s librarians: storytime, summer reading, crafts, and programming. Her book reviews are well-developed, and she helpfully includes read-alikes or links to other reviews of the title.
Originally begun when the blogger was 16, the Book Cellar reviews newly-published young adult literature as well as some adult books. This blog offers reviews nearly everyday and gives titles a rating. The reviewer prefers fantasy, and thus this genre dominates among the reviewed titles.
I looked at dozens of other blogs, but I will stop here and save some for another entry. So, which blogs do you follow?
Audiobooks–A Family Experience
If your library is part of the NH Downloadable Books Consortium, I hope you are promoting many of the children’s audiobooks in the collection. You may want to encourage families facing long car trips to check out this service. Books can be dowloaded to an MP3 or to an ipod (or both) depending on the particular title. Many cars have adapters that make it possible to plug in an MP3 device so that a family can listen to the audiobook together. Of course, some families may want to give individual children their own devices so that everyone can listen to a different book.
Here are some titles of interest to families of children in the early elementary grades (K-3):
Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan all by E.B. White
Cricket in Times Square by George Seldon
Judy Blume, Collection 1–Freckle Juice and The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo
Ralph S. Mouse Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary
Ramona Quimby Collection by Beverly Cleary
For upper grade elementary children (Grades 4-6), try these:
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Flush by Carl Hiassen
Gamer Changers Series (middle grade sports series by Mike Lupica)
Ghost Night by Cornelia Funke
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson
Another place to point parents to for free downloadable stories is Storynory, which offers original stories as well as some classics such as fairy tales and Alice in Wonderland.
Collection Development Help Online
Most youth librarians find it hard to keep up with discovering new publications and reading reviews. If you haven’t explored the online resources to aid in collection development, you may want to look at the following:
Any New Books? is a new book alert service that allows you to choose book categories in which you are interested. You then receive a weekly email with a list of new publications in that category. The site includes categories of interest for children’s and teen librarians.
Granite Media is a site I stumbled across in trying to find a website that offers reviews of children’s and/or teen nonfiction. A site developed by a school district, it has many resources for all youth services librarians. In addition to reviews of nonfiction for kids of all ages, don’t miss the many other reviews and booklists.
KidsReads.com offers monthly reviews of new children’s picture books and chapter books as well as many other resources such as information about books that are made into movies and recommended books for boys. The site also includes a “Coming Soon” section that lists books to keep an eye on that will be released in the next couple of months.
TeenReads includes many of the same resources that KidsReads.com features: new book reviews, alerts on books that will be released in the coming months and special features such as the “Ultimate Reading List” for teen readers.
Do you have a favorite site for book reviews or new book alerts? Let us know and leave a comment!
NH YA Book Blog
Thanks to one of your NH colleagues, you can read reviews of YA books and get suggestions for your own collections of teen fiction. Brittany Moore of the Hall Memorial Library in Northfield writes a blog called Reading Nook, and she posts reviews of many recent titles geared to teens. She also hosts giveaways and she shares book trailers. Check out her site!
A Website for NH Youth Librarians
If you have taken Homework Survival with me, you probably already know about Dewey Browse, a website created and maintained by Gail Grainger, a school library media specialist at Chesterfield School in Chesterfield, NH. An award-winning website, it’s one that all NH youth librarians should check out.
The website arranges material using the Dewey Decimal System. For kids who are learning how to find nonfiction in your physical library, this online library helps to reinforce the classification scheme they are finding on the shelves. So, if they know that animal books are in the 590s, they can find websites about animals in the 590s in Dewey Browse. Of course, Dewey Browse also includes a keyword search engine, so kids can type in their topic and get search results displayed. The search results page includes the Dewey number so kids can see the classification number along with a link to their topic.
Of special interest to NH librarians are the websites that link to NH-related topics: Famous NH people; Native American sites with a NH focus; and New England sports. Because Gail is a NH librarian, she includes material on topics that NH school children are studying and researching. The site also includes helpful resources for teachers and librarians.
Visit Dewey Browse and link to it on your library pages!