I'm keeping a running list of the books I want to read, either for myself or the rapidly approaching Summer Reading School visits {update: 6/26 - um, this is an old, unpublished post, so those visits are long over}, where we talk up the program to kids and their teachers (and sometimes their parents, too). By writing it here, I'm putting myself out there so I actually have to do it. And you know what? You are not allowed to say, "what, you haven't read that yet?" You can only be supportive of your kindly, procrastinating, super-busy, pop culture addled Children's Librarian. My blog, my rules.
Our theme this summer is "Make a Splash: Read!" I'm glad it doesn't continue the "@ your library" theme, which seemed to go on forever (Be Creative...@ your library, Get a Clue @ Your Library, Creature Feature @ your library), though I see that they are still using it for the Teen Summer Reading theme this year - Make Waves @ Your Library. I don't know that the teen-phobic librarians among us (not me!) would appreciate that slogan. (chuckle, chuckle, ha ha) I guess if the people who create these slogans have a short enough phrase, they'll just stick @ your library at the end. One good thing, though it's been done to death, the phrase does, in a small way, what libraries aren't always so good at doing: making ourselves known, remembered and recognized. "Remember, this isn't a Parks and Rec program, it's a library program! Yes, we can be cool and fun, too!" Poor libraries. We suffer from such low self-esteem and such a need to prove ourselves.
Enough! On to the books!
Summer Reading possibilities:
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia {Read it. Loved, loved, loved it. See 6/25 post}
Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (and books two and three in the Guild of Specialists series) {6/26 - changed my mind. No. Something makes me want to read them and then something always tears me away.}
True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi - yes, I've read this before, but I love it, and couldn't pass up an opportunity to booktalk it -- I mean come on, it takes place on a ship, and our theme is water this year. Plus it's got murder, mutiny, betrayal, adventure, and "dead" people reappearing. What's not to like?
Bloody Jack: Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer -- though I should disqualify it just because it's got that horrendously long title. I admit, I'd never read it because I felt that Charlotte Doyle was perfection, and anything else, just a copycat title. But I never gave it a chance, so I'll try. {Acck. Maybe not. Nothing is really enticing me to read this. I need to listen to my heart on this one and move on. -6/26}
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O'Connor {6/26 - Finally read it and though my booktalk for Summer Reading Visits was so good, it was sadly probably a little too good for the book. It's quirky and quiet, but won't deliver the mystery of the secret messages that I played up -- and the kids were really into the whole idea of Popeye and Elvis, though I told them it wasn't Popeye the Sailor Man nor Elvis Presley. I think the curiosity factor might sell this book. I already had a kid come pick it up. I hope she likes it. I hate to lose their trust so early. I take it as a point of pride when I match the right book to the right kid.
Books I just want to read:
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
(because I started it, and loved it, and never got around to finishing it.) :( sadness.
Prime Baby by Gene Luen Yang
(because I love, love, love me some GLY!)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
(This had to be the most talked about book of the year last year, and I must be the only librarian in the United States who still hasn't even cracked it's cover.) {6/26 - And still haven't.}
More later. I'm tired.
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