A Librarian's Summer of Reading pep talk

Here in the city of Denver the Summer of Reading program gets underway today and I wanted to pause for a moment before the craziness starts (besides the increased numbers of folks at the branch and the adjustments made to schedules, one of our prizes is a ticket to Elitch Gardens and this can cause people to line up outside the library on the day we start distributing them).

With all that going on it's easy to lose sight of the reason for a summer reading program in the first place- to help combat the summer slide, to foster a love of reading etc etc so I have been searching for some vids, blogs and so forth that can be a source of hope and encouragement for librarians young and old for the inevitable low points this summer.

I love TED talks and I keep telling myself that I need to watch one of them a day and in some cases watch some every day in order to fully gleam what the talker is trying to convey. Check out these talks that accurately convey the importance of libraries- one of them talks about why books are like secret doors.

I love feel good stories about the library helping people. I follow this blog on tumblr and this story made me swell with pride. Sometimes it takes someone from a different country to help us see what we have here in North America.

A library without books?!?!  Yes! It has 3-d printers and powerful pcs and free access!  This is the future of libraries right here. The Denver Public Library's idealab already provides a space space for kids and teens.

Libraries are fun places to work most of the time but this town takes it a step further. I have always wanted a red car but I guess I may have to settle for a red library cart.  It sure beats the dull beige all our carts are painted.

Have a great summer!!

 

Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo by Brian Falkner

How would dinosaurs have affected the course of history assuming they had managed to survive and coexist with man. This is the premise of this great new YA novel by Brian Falkner set in early nineteenth century Europe.


Willem's dad was a magician who was well-known to general Napoleon but fell out of favor with him and the family was forced to flee. Willem now lives in a small, provincial town called Gaillemarde where he goes under an assumed name so no one will know of his family origin. The fruit does not fall far from the tree however and soon he begins to display magical gifts.

Word gets out about this powers and soon Willem finds himself with big decisions to make. His cousin Jean and friend Francois are all young, strong, brave lads but will they be able to fight against the entire French army with the might of gigantic weapons of war behind them?

This novel is not only about senseless violence and there many different themes covered including family love, small town politics and man's relationship with wild creatures. There is some blood and gore in the book so for this reason I will recommend it for ages 11+.

The Hero Two Doors Down by Sharon Robinson

This book is written by Robinson's daughter Sharon and is loosely based on a family friend's experiences with Jackie and his wife in Brooklyn, New York during the time when Jackie played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Told as one long flashback it recounts a year in a young Jewish boy called Steven's life when Jackie's family moved into the neighborhood.

At first there is some opposition to the Robinson family from the current residents, all of whom are Jewish. Steven is surprised when his best friend, a girl called Sena expresses some doubts as well. Thankfully his family, and his father in particular are reasonable adults and are determined not to see the lessons of history repeated.

For Steven however, getting to meet Jackie is perhaps the highlight of his life and their families quickly form a strong friendship and celebrate holidays together another way in which they end up sharing their own unique cultural celebrations.


Recent events in our country have shown that there is still a lot of prejudice and ignorance to combat and that if left unchecked there are people with nefarious intentions who will try to enact legislation to discriminate against any group they dislike. Hopefully through reading books such as this one young kids will see that discrimination in any form is wrong and that when faced with it the right thing to do is to stand up against it. I recommend this book for kids 8+.

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Most Americans probably don't even give the prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba a second thought. Why should they? Supposedly it's filled with enemy combatants, men who, even if they aren't guilty of plotting against the U.S. and its allies probably know something.  They deserve whatever they get don't they.

What if there are teens at that prison however.  Teens who are innocent and are being held there while their rights are being denied. This is the premise of  Anna Perera's teen novel Guantanamo Boy in which Khalid a fifteen year old second generation Pakistani immigrant living in Rochdale is taken to Cuba in the most bizarre circumstances.

As you would imagine, Khalid's journey is a rough one and it is heartbreaking reading to see what he endures during his time in confinement. Perera spares no detail so be warned if you are easily grossed out or are faint of heart. Confinement, even under the best conditions is a trying experience for any being and that is definitely the case here. Guantanamo prison is in many ways a sort of limbo place both due to its location and due to the often extreme measures required to capture the folks that are housed there.

I definitely recommend this book for teens looking to broaden their view of the world. This book would also be an excellent read in high school social studies and current affairs classes. A read alike to this book in the sense of covering topics that force teens to think about the wider world is The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson.

Liccle Bit by Alex Wheatle

Growing up as a fourteen year old is hard in any country. There are hormones, peer pressure and of course schoolwork to deal with. For Lemar his height is also a major disadvantage and he is sometimes called many nicknames (none of them complimentary) but the worst of them all is Liccle Bit ("liccle" being the Jamaican patois from of "little").

As if he didn't have enough problems, Lemar's older sister Elaine has just had a baby with Manjaro the baddest gangster around much to his parents' chagrin. Even though Lemar knows he shouldn't associate with Manjaro (his friends and family repeatedly warn him) he doesn't have the courage to say no when Manjaro asks him for a favor. That's when the trouble starts.

Wheatle's prose is razor sharp and Lemar's descriptions of his estate (known as housing projects here in the US) convey all the dreariness and hopelessness the residents feel. Lemar's friends to me served as both comedic foils and the differing sides of his conscience as they gave him advice on everything from family matters to matters of the heart.

I am going to be making many interlibrary loan requests for Wheatle's books (he's been writing for some time now) as they are a great perspective on  life outside North America and particularly on life for young people of color in London. I recommend this book for tween and teen readers worldwide as it shows how the power to choose rests within every individual.

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Kwame Alexander shot to fame with his book in verse The Crossover so when I saw this book on a list I decided to check it out. I confess that I am an über soccer fan so that influenced my decision as well. I was curious as to how Alexander would incorporate the soccer elements into the narrative.

This book is also in verse and features a middle schooler called Nick whose dad is a studious but loving man and whose mom loves horses as much as she loves people.  Nick loves soccer and he and his best pal Coby obsess about the game when they are not stressing about school work and other trials of middle school life.

Alexander loves to write about youths who have some sort of family issues going on and this book is no different. Nick however must learn to deal with his family turmoil as well as his issues at school.  I do wish however that he had explored the characters' diversity somewhat more instead of just briefly touching on it.

Perhaps my favorite character in the book is the cool librarian Mr Mack. As a former teacher myself if I had half of his cool factor I think I would have related better to my students. Mac for his part does his best to get the kids to read by being gentle but persistent, by meeting them where they are and by choosing things they might like to read about. This novel, Booked should be added to reading lists for the very same reason. I highly recommend it.

Show and Prove by Sofia Quintero

If you're like me you read the inside of the front and back covers of a book that looks interesting. This particular book, Show and Prove's  back cover says that the author, Sofia Quintero is an "Ivy League homegirl". That for me was more motivation for me to pick this book up.

Set in the South Bronx of the 1980s the book traces the events in one hot summer of two friends, Smiles and Nike. Both have family who came to the city from somewhere else and both share a love of hip-hop.  Like any good coming of age story their relationship morphs over the course of the book and there are some bumps along the way.

Though the two are best friends Smiles has been doing a lot of introspection and finds that his life should be more purposeful. What this purpose is he doesn't know. As for Nike, he has all the purpose he needs with his Nike sneakers, fresh clothes and boom box. During the summer they work together at a neighborhood center and the interactions they have with each other, with the kids and with two other counselors will forever impact their lives.

As a fan of break dancing I especially liked the battle scenes in the book but the political awakening of the characters is to me even more important. Often times I hear people say that Americans aren't aware of what's going on (or at least not as aware as they should be) and that to me is disheartening.  Quintero does a masterful job however of not being too preachy but still presenting her views in an accessible way. This book could be a good primer into a variety of urban issues such as race relations, urban decay, immigration, the working poor and neighborhood uplift. I highly recommend it for ages 13+.










As an added bonus, here is an interview with the author in which she talks a little about the creative process involved in writing this book.