Support Teen Literature Day, celebrated this year on April 16, is an initiative started by the Young Adult Library Services Association to "raise awareness among the general public that young adult literature is a vibrant, growing genre with much to offer today's teens." Rather than have one big national event, YALSA encourages STLD participants to make a grassroots effort to show their communities that YA literature is a pretty great thing. This year, YALSA has paired with the Readergirlz and Guys Lit Wire to host Operation Teen Book Drop, a project that will give teen books to hospitals all over the US on April 16. If you don't have books to donate, or can't get to a hospital, fret not! YALSA has established a Support Teen Literature Day wiki full of ways for you to promote teen literature. Regardless of the size of your budget or the amount of spare time you have, there's an idea in there you can implement. If you are able to donate books, hospitals are a great place to bring all those ARCs that are taking over your coffee table. You may also want to consider donating audiobooks, as many hospitalized teens have conditions that prevent them from holding a paper book. Audiobooks are a way for them to enjoy new stories from talented authors and actors who bring their words to life.

What's one of my favorite ways to support teen literature? Give an adult an outstanding teen book, especially if the book is aimed at older teens.

The sad truth is, teen literature doesn't get the support it needs. Not yet. Ask your average adult bookstore customer or library patron to talk about teen literature, and chances are they'll be able to name three YA books: Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, and Twilight. Ask them who Markus Zusak, Nancy Werlin, or John Green are, however, and you're likely to get a blank stare. I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who has heard conversations in bookstores in which a parent tells his or her teen, "You're too good a reader to read books from the teen section." I've also heard conversations between parents and their teen readers that include lines like, "We'll go over to the adult section and get you a good book," or "You're sixteen; aren't you too old to be reading teen books?" There is a misperception among many adults that if a book is written for teens it must be forgettable, full of nothing but sex and vampires, or fluffy. Adults don't always understand why teens might find those great required classics boring or be resistant to reading them, especially if the classic is one they enjoyed as a teen. If the book was great then, it must be great now, right? It might be, but that doesn't mean that modern teen literature is somehow less worthy of admiration. Teen literature is a place where any story can happen in just about any format. For an adult reader just starting to read teen literature, the selection can even be overwhelming. Enter the YA section of a bookstore or library and you'll be confronted with shelves of shiny, colorful covers picturing everything from beaches to tiaras.  Where to start?  

When recommending YA literature to adult readers, I always like to ask about some of the readers' favorite authors and genres. Literature trends cross the age divide, so no matter what adult offerings you like, there's a YA book to match your tastes. For example...
•    We all know that vampires are the new black, but according to an article in this week's Time, zombies are the new vampires. Everyone is clamoring for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Those who love their love stories with a spattering of the undead will fall head over brains for The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, in which a teen has to manage family, a love triangle, and a zombie apocalypse.  
•    Paranormal romances fly off shelves as though lifted by faerie wings.  Dark, sexy faerie wings, of course. Adults who love writers like Laurell K. Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon might also get swept away in the worlds of YA authors Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange) and Holly Black (Tithe, Valiant).  
•    Humor? Chick lit? YA has those, too. Jane Green may have found her match in author Grace Dent, whose Diary of a Chav series follows a teen who loves gold hoop earrings, cruising Claire's Boutique, and also finds that she's pretty good at this whole school thing.
•    What about the ever-elusive male market? With romance and the undead dominating the market, are there any good teen books for guys? Absolutely! One important man in my life who's read everything by Christopher Moore also loved Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill. The two books share the same sense of humor and interaction with the otherworldly. Other teen authors popular with guys include Barry Lyga, David Lubar, Scott Westerfeld, Neal Shusterman, and the aforementioned John Green.

After hearing feedback from readers, I like to use my own knowledge of the literature to recommend more titles, or I work with them using a reader's advisory tool like Novelist.

Regardless of reading interest, there's a teen book out there for everyone. Whether you're rocking the Drop or relaxing at home, make the effort to support teen literature on April 16...and every day after that.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the discovery of Kurt Cobain's body, news that rocked not just the music industry but millions of members of Generation X who made flannel shirts and Converse sneakers high fashion. Although today's kids might not care about Kurt Cobain, they cannot deny Nirvana's influence on popular music. Nirvana's peer, Pearl Jam, sells millions of albums to this day. Nirvana's drummer, Dave Grohl, went on to form the Grammy-winning Foo Fighters. Despite Cobain's distaste for fame, he became a sort of Jim Morrison for Generation X: artistic, dangerous, and elusive, clearly living in a world that most of us could never hope to understand. In an interview with VH1, Grohl said that "everything [Cobain] did was beautiful," and the only thing Grohl would ever change about his experience in Nirvana would be Cobain's death.

If today is a day for you to sit back and remember Kurt Cobain, pick up one or all of these books:

Cobain Unseen by Charles R. Cross (Little, Brown, 2008). This new biography includes previously unpublished memorabilia and photos, including three-dimensional, tactile replicas of Cobain's artwork. It takes the reader from Cobain's blue-collar beginnings to Nirvana's unexpected explosion to fame to the aftermath of Cobain's suicide.

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography by Charles R. Cross (Hyperion, 2001) has been the subject of debate and outrage, especially from fans who believed it to be incomplete and biased due to the inclusion of the author's opinion on Cobain's final days. Despite this controversy, it is also one of the most complete and detailed books on Cobain's life available today.

Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azzerrad (Main Street Books, 1993) is a fan's perspective on Nirvana and contains extensive interviews with the band members. Most of the book was written prior to April, 1994, but later editions were revised to include information about Cobain's death.

Nirvana: The Biography by Everett True (Da Capo Press, 1997). This is Cobain as told by everyone who ever knew him. After a thorough exploration of Cobain's life, True interviews his bandmates and adds his own opinions about Nirvana's popularity and influence.

Journals by Kurt Cobain (reprinted by Penguin, 2003). Originally a collection of over twenty notebooks, this is a must-read for every true Nirvana fan. Whether it's song lyrics or sketches, if Cobain thought it and wrote it down, it's in here.

Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music by Greg Prato (ECW Press, 2009) covers major Seattle bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam as well as lesser-known acts like Mudhoney. Not just a collective biography of grunge rock, this book also looks at the wider grunge scene and how it spread.

If it's a day to listen to music, download these albums and immerse yourself in the sound of the 1990s:

Nevermind by Nirvana (Geffen Records, 1991). From the quick chords of the iconic hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to the quiet "Something in the Way," this is the album that introduced the world to grunge music.

Dirt by Alice in Chains (Sony, 1992). Alice in Chains never achieved the huge following of Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but songs like "Rooster" and "Angry Chair" have endured as gritty anthems of the grunge generation.

Ten by Pearl Jam (Sony, 1991). Although Pearl Jam is sometimes derided as being nothing more than a pale imitation of Nirvana, the two were contemporaries. Ten is the source of alternative-rock staples "Even Flow," "Alive," and "Jeremy."

Superunknown by Soundgarden (A&M Records, 1994). If you listen to Soundgarden and think, "I've heard this voice before," it's because you might recognize their singer, Chris Cornell, who sang "You Know My Name" from the soundtrack to Casino Royale, and fronted hard rock band Audioslave.

Core by Stone Temple Pilots. (Sony, 1992) STP's hard guitar sound and grainy-voiced lead singer, Scott Weiland, made them major players in the grunge scene. Although STP hasn't made a new album in years, Weiland went on to sing for supergroup Velvet Revolver, and a solo career.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

Are some forms of reading inherently "better" than others?

When people start talking about an e-reader such as the Amazon Kindle2 or the Sony Reader, reaction seems to fall into two camps: "I want" versus "but that's not reading!"

I admit that I have techno-lust for an e-reader: they are so sleek! So shiny! So small! Think of how uncluttered my house would be if the books were all in this one small reader!

The other camp points to the physical aspects of the book: the feel of the pages, the weight of the book, the durability and lendability of an actual print book.

And I agree… I'd still want some of my books around. Books have memories; it’s not just owning The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, it's owning the one I read as a kid. It's being able to take it off my shelf, reread, lend it to someone with an "OMG you'll love this" that just cannot happen with an e-book.

Or can it happen? I don't have an e-reader; so I cannot say, firsthand, the differences in reading an e-book. But, wow….the size appeals to my desire to simplify my life by decluttering my living space. And then there are the trees that would be saved. Did I mention how cool they look?

A similar conversation about reading is going on concerning review copies for book review blogs; if you had a choice, would you review from an Advance Reader's Copy or a PDF? If you think bloggers are new and techy, think again. A surprising number say, "reading on the computer isn't the same. I want the book." Bloggers spend enough time on the computer; a book is a break from that.

The Kindle2's text-to-speech function has brought another issue into the "what is a book" argument. A synthetic, computer voice can read aloud the e-book. Understandably, the Author's Guild got a little worked up about this feature, fearing that it may negatively impact audiobooks.

I love audiobooks; I'm a "listen while I drive" person. While a bad narrator may make me stop the book, I don't abandon the book. Rather, I go back to the traditional print book. A good narrator, on the other hand, can make a book come alive. It also forces me to really listen to the words, rather than skim or skip a descriptive paragraph or two.

Because I'm an audiobook listener, I personally think the Author's Guild fears of a computer voice are unfounded. Honestly, audiobooks are superior; when readers have a choice, they will go for the book that is recorded, narrated, directed, and edited by professionals. Not all books are available in audiobook. The Kindle2 provides a nice option for those books, magazines, and blogs that don't have an audio version.

You know what would be cool for the next e-reader? Being able to download audiobooks to it. All my audiobooks and e-books on one device? Sweet!

So what does "reading" mean?

I want to say, "read any way!" People have different preferences; and what works for one person doesn't work for another. To say "listening to an audiobook doesn't count" (as I've heard teachers and book club members say) is a disservice to those who get more out of an audiobook than a print book. (It also is insulting to those whose only choice is an audiobook, in that it says their reading experiences will never count, but that, dear reader, is another topic). "It doesn't count" shows a surprisingly narrow world view; "if something doesn't work for me, it doesn't work for anyone." Ditto for e-books and reading, with people who believe, "I wouldn't want to read on a screen, so no one would."

It's good to stretch our ways of reading. I want to say, "read any way." I do say it. I listen to audiobooks during my commute; and find that sometimes I pay more attention to the story than if I was reading a book. I prefer children's books that I can finish in less than a week.  I've found that sometimes reading on a computer, where I can play with font size, is easier on my eyes than the small print of books. I'm open to an e-reader, and just found out that my iPod Touch has an e-book application that I'm going to try out. To truly respect the different ways people read, we should try them out.

And yet… I have to confess; I was recently asked to do the foreword for You Don’t Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creating Positive New Images in the Internet Age by Ruth Kneale. When asked, "do you want a galley or a PDF"—dear reader, I said a galley. I knew, to give the book a good reading, I needed the physical pages.

When it comes down to it—despite using other ways of reading—my own, personal preference is the old-fashioned book.  

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

This past year, I read a lot of Young Adult books. How many? I lost count. Any number would be a bit meaningless, because I read many of those books multiple times.

This wasn't just any reading; I was on the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award Committee. The Printz Award is awarded annually by the American Library Association; it is for "a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature."

I read fabulous books and worked with brilliant librarians; and this past January, we met in Denver during the ALA Midwinter Conference and discussed books in person and ended up picking one Award Winner, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, and four Honor Books, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart; Nation by Terry Pratchett; and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. After the Awards were announced, I returned home, took a deep breath, and - didn't read a thing for two weeks.

Being on the Printz Committee was awesome. A dream come true. But it was reading unlike any reading I've ever done before. The first and most important thing, it wasn't about me and what I liked or didn't like. The Printz is about literary excellence, not "Liz's Favorite Books". Now, a year later, I have the award criteria memorized; but at first, I didn't. So in addition to printing out the criteria, I had post-it notes with short reminders of what to look for when I read the books. Now? I have those paragraphs memorized.

Second, the book mattered. Yes, upon occasion I read an Advance Reader's Copy. Sometimes I just couldn't resist and didn't want to wait months for the final book! ARCs are not the final books; spelling and grammar may be corrected, passages rewritten or changed. The copy that was read and reread, with marked pages and highlighted passages? That was the final copy, not the ARC.

Third, my time was not my own. There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of YA books published last year. Every time I wasn't reading one of these books, I felt guilty. I ignored the new Nora Roberts; my issues of Vanity Fair piled up, without even a glance at the photographs. "Do I dust, or read a book?" The answer was - read a book.

Fourth, rereading is important. Luckily, I've never been the type of reader where knowing the ending "spoils" the book for me. I've been known to read the first chapter of a book, and then the last, and then the rest of the book. On the other hand, I don't usually reread books. Oh, sometimes I'll revisit a childhood favorite to see if it holds up; or see if a book I read in high school or college is different from an older perspective. Other than that, I'm not one of those people who will read Pride & Prejudice every year. This past year, that all changed. I'd read once for me. I'd read again for the criteria. I'd read again, using fellow committee members' input. And again, and again.

Finally, all books and no breaks makes Liz a tired reader. Don't get me wrong; I love YA books. The first book I read after my two week break? YA. But, given how intense my reading was, I found that I needed something to give my mind a break so that I could jump into each book, fresh and ready to appreciate the new story and writer. So what did I use? TV. Not just any TV; reality TV. Watching a little America's Next Top Model or House Hunters was the perfect minivacation for my brain.

Now I'm back to reading for me. Not for a committee. Not for an Award. I can read whatever I want, including adult literature or books written 20 years ago. As I read my first book, I realized that my Printz reading habits were still with me. I noticed how the book met the Printz criteria, marked passages to share, wondered how a reread would be. I thought that being on the committee would end after a year; but instead, the deeper reading experience continues.

So how was being on the committee? Tiring. Exhausting. Time consuming. And awesome.

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

The desire to pass on a favorite read to a friend has always been in vogue, but with the advent of the Internet, the number of ways to share one's passion for books seems boundless. There are online reading groups that focus on any subgenre you can imagine; Canadian authors, ancient Roman history, Dick Francis' horse racing mysteries, children's fantasy, etc. Love a particular book and you can discuss it with other ardent bibliophiles all over the world.

The beauty of all of these communal reading groups is that they fit anyone's schedule. There's no need to stray far from your favorite armchair (and your TBR bookshelf) to find amiable bookworm buddies to chat with and glean reading recommendations from when you can do so with your computer. With a side order of fuzzy slippers and a hot mug
of coffee or tea, this becomes even more seductive.

Here's a sampling of some other online book groups that I've noticed:

Book Talk - This free discussion group has fiction and non-fiction picks (voted on by registered members) for each two-month period and has a special book chat forum, where authors occasionally drop by to answer questions and otherwise enlighten Book Talk readers about their work.

African American Literature Book Club - Billed as the #1 site for readers of Black Literature, this popular site provides author profiles, a discussion board, book reviews and news, with fiction and non-fiction titles galore.

Books a Month - Together since 2000, this group votes on their monthly reading picks, a wide range of classic and contemporary fiction, with certain months designated for kiddie lit, mysteries and holiday reading.

Reading challenges provide a different format for sharing book lust. Instead of having participants focus on specific books, they offer themes which readers are "challenged" to read on their own, selecting their own authors and titles. There are many different sorts of reading challenges currently ongoing and starting up again with the turning of the calendar year. Some challenges offer book prizes, others involve mapping destinations one reads about, some focus on edification, while others are pure escapism. Here is a reading challenge sampler:

A Novel Challenge - The mother lode of information about reading challenges, both perpetual and with deadlines, with great links to all. Start with this site if you are shopping around for a reading challenge to suit your reading speed and fancies.

The Pulitzer Project - The challenge is to read all 81 novels which have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Deadline: None, thank goodness. Similar reading challenges involve reading all Booker and Orange Prize novels, Newbery novels, the oeuvre of Nobel Laureates in Literature, etc.

999 Challenge - Over at LibraryThing, a group of rabid readers are challenging themselves to read 9 books from 9 different categories over 9 months in 2009 (extra credit for completing the mission by 9/09/09.)

Caribbean Challenge - Six books by Caribbean authors or which focus on life in that part of the world are encouraged to be read during 2009.

I tried a reading challenge for the first time this year to stretch my normal diet of books about books, history, mysteries, and travel and culinary writing. I joined the Orbis Terrarum Challenge so that I could read out of my fiction comfort zone (primarily British, Canadian, and American authors) and read more widely from world literature. I have enjoyed the discipline of this reading challenge and found a few books and authors, like R.K. Narayan and
Mario Llosas Vargas, that I will dip into more.

In 2009 I hope to stretch my personal bibliography with either a classic fiction reading challenge or perhaps a nonfiction challenge. I find I am just too daunted by the Chunkster
Challenge (books of 450+ pages) though I love a good doorstop novel when I am on vacation or have the "luxury" of a bedridding illness. I'm just not in that stage of life right now.

Here's wishing a happy, healthy year of peace and good books to all throughout the holiday season and in the coming New Year.

Posted by: Rachel Jagareski

I’ve written for Shelf Space this month about the importance of giving kids the gift of reading, how the Cybils award process is working to get the word out about great new books, and creating a culture of reading. Today I’d like to focus on a specific benefit of reading as a child—a benefit that can’t be fully appreciated until adulthood.

The books that we love as children stay with us forever (at least the books that we love once we’re old enough to remember). We can always peek at them in our minds, and (if we’re lucky) pull them off of our shelves for yet another read. There’s nothing else quite like that warm feeling that you get when you re-read a much-loved book. You’re not just experiencing the book now—you’re also re-experiencing all of your positive feelings about the book from over the years. It’s like a portable time machine, to let you visit the self that first fell in love with the book, and the other selves that re-read the book along the way.

For me, reading a true favorite from my childhood can bring tears to my eyes—I’m just so happy to be back in the land of that book (most recently, The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key and Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright). Even seeing my childhood favorites on the shelf in a used bookstore gives me a little lift. I sometimes give them an approving pat on the spine as I walk by. These books are part of who I am. The characters live in my memory, and doubtless helped shape who I am today. I’m sure that Anne Shirley and Sara Crewe influenced my moral compass, and that Pippi and Ramona influenced my sense of fun. I still read mysteries because of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Great Brain, and Encyclopedia Brown. The fact that I can still go back and visit these characters whenever I want to—that is a tremendous gift. And I know that I’m not alone in feeling this way. (See 200 Cool Girls from Children’s Literature and 175 Cool Boys from Children’s Literature for many more examples of great characters, most suggested by readers of my blog.)

The settings from great children’s books stay in people’s memories, too. Charlotte from Charlotte’s Library recently mentioned a couple of her favorite fictional rooms. This inspired me to write about my Five Favorite Fictional Rooms, all from children’s books that I loved as a child. Within a few days that post had inspired more than 20 comments and posts in which people named their favorite fictional rooms (for example, here, here, here, and here). Think about the power that this demonstrates. For many of us, these are rooms that we first read about 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. One of my rooms (the shop from Maida’s Little Shop) is from a 99-year-old book that I probably first read when I was 9. And I can still close my eyes and picture it, and feel compelled to share it with other people. The power of a beloved children’s book is strong.

I wonder what fictional rooms today’s kids will remember as favorites 30 years from now. Surely they’ll remember the Gryffindor common room from Hogwarts, and Percy’s Poseidon cabin from Camp Half-Blood. I hope that they’ll remember the bookmobile from the Maggie Valley trilogy, the wonderful attic from White Sands, Red Menace, and the Penderwicks’ summer home at Arundel Hall, too. These locations have the chance to live forever in the memories of today’s 10-year-olds, just as the Gone-Away Lake, Mary Lennox’s secret garden, and Meg Murray’s attic room will live in mine. The amazing thing is that the luckiest of today’s kids can visit ALL of these locations. They can know characters from Tom Sawyer to Greg Heffley (aka the Wimpy Kid), and everyone in between. We just have to get the books into their hands.

My fellow adults, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make sure that when today’s kids look back on their childhoods, they have favorite rooms to revisit and favorite characters to remember. Because wouldn’t life be bleak without that?

Thanks for reading!

Posted by: Jen Robinson

In my first Shelf Space post, I mentioned that one way to give children the gift of reading is to “Demonstrate a culture that values reading, all types of reading.” There’s been a great response to the article, and especially to that sentence (see this post at Finding Wonderland, for example). So I thought that I would discuss the idea of creating a culture of reading in more detail.

Creating a culture of reading is about more than just setting an example for children (though that’s clearly something that I think is important). Creating a culture of reading is about deciding what kind of a world we want to be part of. Do we want to live in a society that values books and reading, or not? The alternative, living in a society in which libraries fall into disuse and reading is a marginalized activity, is unthinkable. If our culture values reading, then people and libraries will continue to buy books. Publishers will continue to publish them, and authors will continue to write them. We’ll continue to have great stories at our fingertips. We’ll also have an ongoing exchange of ideas. People will use books to learn about other cultures and other viewpoints. Literate, educated members of society will ask more of our leaders, and be less likely to leave poor decisions unchallenged. A culture of reading is a culture of imagination and understanding.

Even people who don’t read for pleasure themselves benefit from a culture that values books and reading. The movie and television industries have more great books to choose from. The kids who grow up loving books get more out of their educations, and are more likely to accomplish great things. There is even evidence to suggest that kids who are good readers are less likely to end up on the wrong side of the criminal justice system. If we invest in raising readers now, we’re likely to save later, by having to support fewer inmates. The rewards of a literate society are endless.

Our current society does place value on literacy, of course. Our medical schools, law schools, and business schools are filled with people who are proficient readers. But I believe that we have a long way to go here in creating a culture that truly values books and reading. Many other countries have even further to go. If you are so motivated, here are a few things that you can do to help.

If you want to create a culture of reading, you can …

Buy books for the holidays: There’s a cross-blog initiative going on right now, organized by Amy from My Friend Amy, encouraging people to buys books as holiday gifts this year. There’s a special Books for the Holidays Blog, which Amy describes as “a collaborative blog that will showcase books, serve as a central point where we can all report our progress, give bloggers a chance to showcase reviews by genre, help people find the perfect book for that difficult or challenging person on your list, announce internet or bookstore specials, and raise awareness of literacy charities to promote a culture of reading in the future.” I really do think that by giving the people in our lives books as gifts, we help to demonstrate a culture of reading within our own personal communities.

Prioritize reading in your life: Turn off the TV. Make time to visit the library. Keep a book with you for times when you’re stuck in traffic. Listen to audiobooks on road trips, or while you’re folding laundry or doing the dishes. Even those of us who are voracious readers are susceptible to the pull of other things, from blogging to errands to playing solitaire on the computer, and a million other things in between. But the truth is that if we really WANT to read, we can usually find some time for it, if we look hard enough.

Support an organization that puts books into needy people’s hands: If we truly want a world-wide culture of reading, then we must help more people to gain access to books, especially children. Here are just a few ideas:

•    Every December I donate books to the San Jose Mercury News Gift of Reading program. The program accepts donations of like-new books and distributes them to under-served children and to classroom libraries. Wherever you live, there’s bound to be some program like this. Or you can donate books to a library, school, Ronald McDonald house, or local hospital. (For a specific idea about donating books, see this post from Charlotte’s Library.)
•    There are many other wonderful programs that put books into people’s hands, including First Book, Reading is Fundamental, Reach Out and Read, Room to Read, and Cops ‘N Kids. (You can find a list of several others in the right-hand sidebar of my blog.) Most of these programs welcome donations of money or time (and sometimes books – you need to check with the individual program).
•    I especially wanted to mention the Ethiopia Reads program, which strives to “create a reading culture in Ethiopia by connecting children with books.” Program founder Yohannes Gebregeorgis is currently in the running for CNN hero of the year. It would certainly demonstrate that we have a culture of reading in the US if our hero of the year turned out to be the founder of a literacy program. (Voting, alas, ended November 20th). In general, bringing people like Gebregeorgis to the public’s attention is a way to support a culture of reading.

Work on raising the next generation of readers: I already talked about this in detail in my first Shelf Space post, but the general idea is worth repeating. Anything that you can do to help the children in your life to respect and appreciate books and to find reading fun will reap tremendous dividends.

What do you all think? What are other ways that we can encourage a culture of reading?

Special thanks to Tanita Davis for inspiring this article, through her words in support of a culture of reading.

Posted by: Jen Robinson

This is my third year as an organizer for the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (commonly known as the Cybils), and my first year as Literacy Evangelist. The Cybils are a series of book awards given in nine categories (Fiction Picture Books, Nonfiction Picture Books, Easy Readers, Middle Grade Fiction, Nonfiction: Middle Grade and Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction, Poetry, Graphic Novels, and Fantasy and Science Fiction). The Cybils were started by Anne Boles Levy and Kelly Herold, and now involve nearly 100 bloggers. The goal of the Cybils team is to highlight books that, in addition to being well-written, are kid-friendly and engaging.

The Cybils combine a democratic nomination process with a formal judging process. Anyone can nominate books, one title per person per category. Once the nominations are in, a teams of panelists reads all of the books, and comes up with short lists for each category. A second round of judging then takes place. The result is a winner for each category.

I believe that the Cybils have the potential to make a tremendous contribution to children’s literacy. Every year, thousands of new children’s books are published. While this variety is wonderful, the sheer magnitude of titles makes it difficult for parents and teachers, and even for librarians, to help kids choose books. And if we’re going to engage kids as readers, we have to offer them GREAT books. The books exist—but people don’t always have an easy way to find them. The Cybils, with their focus on literary quality and kid-appeal, give people a place to start. The long lists offer a smorgasbord of titles, handily grouped by age range and genre. They include everything from National Book Award nominees to self-published titles. This year, we have 841 eligible titles across the nine categories. Panelists are reading diligently to winnow this down to 50 or so short list titles by January 1st.

I believe that the Cybils short lists (5 to 7 titles per category) are an amazing resource. Great titles, vetted by people who, in many cases, read hundreds of children’s books each year. Books assessed with an eye to page-turner appeal, in addition to literary quality. I would like to see these short lists in the hands of parents, teachers, and librarians from around the world. My role in this year’s Cybils awards is to help spread the word about these awards beyond the circle of the bloggers and authors involved. That makes me a Literacy Evangelist. I’m a cheerleader for the Cybils, and for getting kids excited about reading. I’m the person jumping up and down (virtually, anyway) asking people to tell their friends and colleagues about the Cybils.

So far, this evangelism has been a success. Dozens and dozens of bloggers helped to spread the word about the Cybils nominations. People posted on discussion groups, and mentioned the Cybils in their newsletters, and asked their contacts outside of the immediate circle of children’s book blogs to do the same. People Twittered, made widgets, and started a Cybils group on Facebook. People offered to mention the Cybils at conferences, and passed out bookmarks. Far too many people helped for me to thank them all individually here, but I am grateful to everyone who has mentioned, and continues to mention, the Cybils. (We do have some media highlights on the Cybils blog, thanks to our Deputy Editor Sarah Stevenson.)

As a result of these efforts, despite the fact that the nominating period was shortened from six weeks to two weeks this year, we increased the number of nominations by nearly 50% (from 575 last year to 841 this year). And although I don’t have any formal statistics for this, I am certain that we received nominations from a more broad range of contributors. All of this is a testament to the power of grass root communication, by people who are passionate about children’s and young adult books. I’m planning a similar outreach campaign once the short lists are available, and I hope to get those lists into the hands of as many people as possible. Because that is what a Cybils Literacy Evangelist does—lets people know about pre-vetted, excellent children’s and young adult books, so that we together can help raise a new generation of readers. If you have suggestions, or you’d like to help, I would love to hear from you.

Posted by: Jen Robinson

Halloween is over, and the holiday lights will be up any day now. People are starting to think about what gifts to give to their children this year (a more difficult question than usual, in the presence of the struggling economy). I ask you to consider a gift for children that will benefit them for a lifetime: the gift of reading. I believe that a love of books is one of the most valuable gifts that adults can give to the children in their care. I’m talking about parents, teachers, librarians, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors – anyone who has children that they care about, whether related or not. If you interact with children, if you talk with them or teach them, if you buy them presents, if they look up to you in any way, then YOU have the power to give them the gift of reading.

I’m not talking about kids learning to read, so much, but about kids learning to love reading. Kids who enjoy reading will, naturally, spend more time at it. This in turn will help them to become better readers. They’ll improve their vocabularies, and they’ll learn, painlessly, about everything from writing to science. They’ll learn to read more quickly. They’ll test well. Their confidence will increase. Studies have even shown that kids who enjoy reading do better at math. Doctors and lawyers who have good reading comprehension skills have a huge advantage during their training. And so on.

Those are just the academic benefits. Kids who enjoy reading will spend time with characters from Pippi Longstocking to Percy Jackson. Their imaginations will soar. They’ll try out new interests, through books, and some of these will form lifelong passions. They’ll learn from Anne Shirley and Hermione Granger and Bilbo Baggins about friendship and loyalty and bravery. They’ll learn to entertain themselves, and to assimilate different viewpoints. All of history will be at their fingertips, and their futures will be limitless.

So what can you do, as an adult, to give this gift of reading to the children around you? Here are just a few suggestions. (For a much more comprehensive approach to the subject of encouraging young readers, I highly recommend The Read-Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease.)

1. Read aloud to your children or students. Keep reading aloud to them even after they are old enough to read themselves, and for as long as they’ll let you. By reading aloud to kids, you show them that reading is important, and more importantly, you show that reading is an enjoyable experience. You can also read them books that they aren’t ready for on their own, and you can discuss the books with them. You get quality time together, and you both get to experience wonderful books. Reading together is one of the greatest win-win experiences there is.

2. Let the children in your life see that reading is important to you. Mention it when you encounter something interesting in a book or a newspaper. Turn off the TV, and let kids see you reading for relaxation. Bring books for everyone when you travel on planes. Listen to audiobooks in your car on road trips. Clutter up your house with books and magazines and newspapers. Demonstrate a culture that values reading, all types of reading.

3. Read the books that your children read. Once your kids are reading on their own, an excellent way to show them how much you value their reading is for you to read some of their books on your own. This helps you to learn your children’s taste, and to recommend other titles for them. And it opens doors for discussion. I believe that if more parents could find the time to read their children’s books, there would be less of a drop-off in reading for pleasure as kids get older.

4. Whenever you can, give kids books and magazines. They don’t have to be new. If you can’t afford to buy them you can give the temporary gift of library books. But if you’re in a position to buy books, this tangible gift has several advantages. First, you again demonstrate that you think reading is important, by putting your money where your mouth is. Second, many kids derive pride from ownership. Also, when kids own books, they have the chance to read them over and over again. Re-reading beloved books is something that reinforces the enjoyment of reading. Then there’s sheer proximity. If there are plenty of books around, kids are more likely to pick them up.

5. Let kids read what they enjoy. A fundamental aspect of human nature is that people spend more time doing the things that they enjoy. The most important thing that you can do, if you want kids to like reading, is to make reading as enjoyable an experience as possible. Pushing kids to read books that are above their age range, or are about things that they aren’t interested in, is counter-productive. All types of reading for pleasure count. If your child likes graphic novels, or nonfiction, or sports magazines, you should encourage that. The important thing is that they enjoy what they read. This is a key part of Jon Scieszka’s platform as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. (Here we’re talking about reading for pleasure – of course other types of reading take place in schools.)

6. Start a children’s book blog, so that you can read and review children’s books, and talk about literacy, as much as you like.

OK, this last one isn’t for everyone, but it has been quite rewarding for me. But seriously, even if you don’t have children of your own, and you don’t have a blog, there are plenty of ways that you can give the gift of reading. I seize every opportunity to read aloud or talk books with my friends’ children. I buy our nieces books for every conceivable occasion, and I donate my extra review books so that they’ll end up in the hands of other kids. When children come to our house, the first thing they see is shelves upon shelves of books. And I model reading behavior every single time I’m on an airplane. I do whatever I can, because I think that encouraging young readers is important.

If you can help the kids in your life, in even a small way, to enjoy books and reading, you will give them a gift that will transform their lives, and continue to reward them forever.

Posted by: Jen Robinson

One summer evening, two young girls ran into my bookstore and thundered up the stairs. Pretty soon they began calling out dates. “1887,” cried one. “1876,” the other replied. I soon realized that they were playing a game—looking for the oldest book in the store. Now having two ten-year olds pulling fragile volumes off the shelves to check their dates is not my idea of a good Friday night. But I resisted the temptation to scold them (or their father, who arrived in the shop ten minutes later, coffee in hand). Here, after all, were two kids having fun in an antiquarian bookstore. They were interested in old books and already knew enough to spot nineteenth-century books, which we shelve right alongside modern editions in our literature section.

As I thought about what to do, something Chuck Rozanski wrote came to mind. Rozanski started out thirty-five years ago living in his car with his inventory of comic books. Today, his company, Mile High Comics, is the biggest dealer in comics in the world. Like book lovers, comics fans worry about the future of their hobby. Sales of comic books have declined and comic-book stores have closed perhaps even faster than bookstores. What I admire in Rozanski is his belief that the situation is not inevitable. He recently put the challenge to comics fans everywhere:

I would ask you to consider what you are personally doing to try to save the comics world. I realize that there is not a single one of us who can have any measure of a significant impact solving this kind of dilemma alone, but I do fervently believe that great numbers of people working toward a common goal can create an astonishing level of positive change. To be a bit more specific, I would ask what kind of outreach you have done of late to try to bring new readers into comics?

Change comics to books in the above statement and we have a challenge for every person concerned with the future of the book. Are we going to let the culture of the book dwindle in the face of video games, iPods, and reality TV? Or are we going to do something about it? To use the language of our current politics, are we, as passionate believers in books, going to knuckle-down and implement a book surge, or are we going to raise the white flag of surrender?

I'm not ready to give up, and as the girls’ footsteps thudded above my head, I grabbed the oldest book in the store, a 1563 edition of the ancient physician Galen. I went upstairs and handed it to one of the girls. I showed her how to open an old book carefully. Her eyes grew wide. Her sister leaned in. I showed them the date, written in Roman numerals, and the text printed in Greek. I took them downstairs and let them hold a leaf from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, which is the oldest item in the shop. Then it was time for them to go, and they dashed out of the store as fast as they came in, excitedly chattering about holding a piece of paper printed the year Columbus returned from the New World (a concept they only barely grasped, but they knew it was very old).

As the girls left, I wondered if either of them would become passionate readers? Maybe not, but it’s a lot more likely now than if I had shooed them out of the store. The future of the book comes down to a battle of hearts and minds, and in many cases, it's hand-to-hand combat, winning converts a person at a time.

Posted by: Scott Brown

We've probably all been cornered by someone enthusiastically waving a new book in our face, excitedly asking, "Have you read this?!" Our gut tells us we should just nod and lie, but instead we hand over the truth about the poorly written, uninspired, yet strangely popular book. With a shrug of our shoulders, we mumble, "Eh . . . I skimmed it." Inevitably, we get the "you skimmed it?" look. The look that lets us know we have violated an unwritten rule of reading—readers read; they don't skim.

We may be guilty of the violation, but should we feel guilty?

My answer, as a proud and unabashed skimmer, is a resounding, no.

In How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler outlined skimming as a method of reading through which we quickly and superficially glance over a text in order to glean important information. We then use that information to decide if we should continue with the text and move into more advanced, deeper levels of reading.

In today's technological environment of news feeds, blog feeds, feed readers, email updates, listservs, forums, message boards, life casting, twittering, and micro-blogging (to name just a few), this method of information screening through skimming has become invaluable. We often find ourselves inundated with information we could never realistically wholly digest, and much we probably needn't even taste. Skimming has given us a method through which we can quickly assess the mountain of information that makes its way into our various inboxes.

The most skilled skimmers can simply read a title/subject line, glance over the body of the text, read a few select lines, and make a solid judgment call as to whether the post/article/message warrants further reading. Without the well-developed skill of skimming, we would find ourselves unable to parcel out quality information and would instead be limited to what information arrived first, and how much of it we could actually read in a day. It is skimming that allows us to process the wide world of information and select the really important bits to read, assimilate, and conceptualize.

Now . . . lets get down to the nitty-gritty of skimming. After all, it isn't our skimming of blog posts and news articles that gets us the look; it's when we decide to give the skim treatment to an actual book . . . and worse yet, a popular or revered one. Skimming, for most of us, is a utilitarian tool; we use it when we need it, not as a practice. The fact is, we're busy people, and sometimes we just don't have the time to give a book the love and attention it deserves. Perhaps truer still, the new book du jour just doesn't interest us enough for a full reading. So rather than ditching the book altogether, we get a feel for it. We get the gist. We get the bare bones. We skim. Because . . . well . . . we like talking around the water cooler too.

On a professional note, a colleague of mine once had a wall hanging that read "Librarians who don't read should be sued for malpractice." I believe this. As a public librarian, it's my professional obligation to be well-read in in a wide range of genres and subjects. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to read all the books I should in order to become and stay proficient. It is in my attempts to read through the influx of new and core titles that I turn to skimming. Skimming the descriptions and reading the dialog in fiction, and reading the table of contents and select chapters in nonfiction is the only way I'm able to read through the massive pile of books I should be reading in order to be an effective public librarian. Skimming gives me a way to quickly read books I should be reading and more time to read the books I want to read.

I'm not suggesting you should skim the 75 page training manual you have to give a presentation on next week or the newest book by an author you love. On the contrary, there are certainly some texts which will always warrant deep reading, but there is also a ton of text out there we just need to give a good solid taste; 'cause sometimes it's apple pie, and sometimes it's mud pie and it's nice to know which before we take a big ol' bite.

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Though chances are, you just skimmed it.

Posted by: Sarah Lovato

Oh reader's advisory...reader's advisory...reader's advisory, why must you torture me so?

I'm not alone though in my torture, for many librarians working a public service desk, especially in a children's or teen department, there is no reference question with the potential to cause as much frustration as a simple reader's advisory inquiry. Why is this true in a world where in a day a librarian may be asked to find the obituary for "this guy who is totally haunting my house...his name is Phil or Bill or Jill...I can't really tell...he mumbles"? Well because at least the ghost-whisperer at the desk has some idea of what he needs. The 11-year old who just wants "a good book," on the other hand, usually has no real concept of what he wants and in worse case scenarios, he just needs something for the book report due tomorrow.

Those of us trained in the art of the reference interview, dig eagerly in, asking a series of questions in order to gage the reading interests, or in some cases, general interests of the patron. Sometimes though, in the case of children and teens, the reference interview will fall flat. The young patron is never really able to articulate any useful information that may be used to recommend appropriate books. At its worst, a reference interview will conclude with the child having answered all the librarian's pointed questions with, "I dunno."

It's at this point that we pull out the standard "what was the last book you read that you liked?" If we're lucky, and if the reader's advisory Gods are smiling down on us, the answer will be a book with enough prominence to generate read-alike lists.

Read-alikes are a of group books that share enough common literary characteristics that someone who enjoys one book from the group may also enjoy other books from the same read a-like group. Usually read a-likes are structured along the lines of "If you like 'Book A,' you might also enjoy 'Book B,''' or "If you like 'Author A,' you might also like 'Author B.'"

Read a-like lists are extremely helpful for young patrons who may have a difficult time explaining what elements they might enjoy in a book. It's much easier for a child to simply realize they "want something like Harry Potter" rather than analyze what they liked about the books. After a book from the past is identified, the truly skilled reference interviewer will continue the questions, trying to narrow down specific elements of the novel the child enjoyed. Though not the end-all for reader's advisory, read a-likes are a quick and easy way to narrow down possible recommendations to a manageable list of books.

Getting back into the spirit of The Bunless Librarian, below are links to popular children's and teen read a-like lists.

Captain Underpants Series by Dav Pilkey
Annapolis Valley Regional Libraries
St.Charles Public Library
Dakota County Libraries
Weber County Library

Gary Paulsen
Charles County Public Library
Jervis Public Library
St. Charles Public Library
Stanly County Library

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
American Library Association
Kansas City Public Library
Madison Public Library
Weber County Library

Junie B. Jones Series by Barbara Park
Ames Public Library
Bibliotheque Publique
Rockford Public Library
Weber County Library

Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne
Barrington Area Library
Charles County Public Library
Montgomery County

Redwall Series by Brian Jacques
Burlington Public Library
Derry Public Library
Edmonton Public Library
Finger Lakes Public Library

Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Allen County Public Library
Strathcona County Library
Wayland Free Public Library
Weber County Library

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
Arapahoe Public Library
Farmingdale Public Library
Liverpool Public Library
Santa Clara County Library

I wouldn't want to give adults the shaft when it comes to the read-alike bounty so visit the Waterboro Public Library for a huge list of adult resources.

—Happy Reading

Posted by: Sarah Lovato

Like many librarians, I grew up with an affinity for books. I won't go revisionist and claim to have been a bookworm; I wasn't. I was, what we in the biz' call, a "reluctant reader;" few and far between were books that drew me in and kept my attention until the final page. Despite this, in my young adulthood, I was drawn to libraries as a place of retreat. Often, I would visit my school or public library just to stand and move among the books, my fingers reaching out to touch the spines as I tilted my head to read their titles. As I browsed, I was humbled by the the knowledge and passion reflected in each book's pages and in awe of the dedication and talent it took to write them. I would pull titles from the shelves and flip through them slowly, the familiar scent of book wafting to my eager nose. There was great visceral comfort and pleasure in sitting among the stacks, surrounded by a universe of intellectualism and literary art.

As I entered adulthood, an unexpected aptitude for literary criticism, and a resulting education in literature studies turned me into a bona fide reader. I then started visiting libraries in search of specific titles, my trips becoming more utilitarian. Still, the physical space of libraries held an alluring power over me. I often found myself ending a long day of errands with an unplanned trip to the library. I subconsciously sought the rejuvenating peace I still found wandering through crammed stacks.

When I decided to become a librarian, my deep-rooted connection to libraries as a place and my newfound love of literature where driving forces behind my decision. Though I had no way to know or anticipate it at the time, my choice to build my career among my beloved stacks would result in an unexpected loss of a sanctuary. No longer do I wander aimlessly among library shelves, content to meander and browse. I now walk with purpose, with a clipboard, with a spreadsheet, assessing, evaluating, and weeding. My retreat now transformed into a place of work, study, and to-do lists.

Early on in my career, I attempted to recapture those lost moments of solace by visiting my own local library. Surely there, among books I had no professional obligation to select, buy, and, maintain, I would find my way back to that lost feeling of instinctual harmony. Each trip, I entered the library hopeful. I walked to a Dewey range of interest and nostalgically tilted my head to read the titles. Still though, I only noticed torn dust jackets, weak bindings, and soiled pages. My tongue actually clucked as I stumbled onto holes in subject coverage. The overall grandeur of the stacks had been replaced by a wall of professionalism that drove me to evaluate, not enjoy. I had utterly lost the ability to lose myself in library patronage and instead found myself ever the sweater-vest-wearing librarian of my work days.

Bookstores too had held a certain attraction in my young adulthood, though not on the scale of libraries; the taint of commerce muddying the nobility of the purveyance literature and knowledge. This space of retreat too has been lost to me. My trips to both local and large chain bookstores have now become exercises in frustration. Too often, I am faced with new or obscure titles I long to read, but refuse to pay for. I'm a librarian after all and spend my days surrounded by free books; to pay seems a betrayal of my trade. So I leave, frustrated, empty-handed, though hopeful a local library will own the coveted $7.00 paperback. Still though, something has been lost.

It's at this point in the post, I should segue into a solution to my quandary or in the tradition The Bunless Librarian, provide a list of links to solutions. Unfortunately, this loss of sanctuary is a drawback of librarianship I still struggle with. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade in my profession to get back my moments of contented browsing, but I long to find a balance between the fulfillment of librarianship and the simple serenity of patronage.

So the question remains:

How does this librarian leave her profession at the door and allow herself to reconnect with the uncomplicated, joyful refuge of the stacks?

Posted by: Sarah Lovato

As my readers, skimmers, and mark-as-read-ers can attest, The Bunless Librarian has never been my confessional, but this change in venue has brought with it a change in attitude. In that spirit, I confess, I am completely and totally addicted to my Google Reader (GR).

I started like most addiction-free GR users (for the cool kids, Bloglines). I carved out 10-15 minutes of my morning routine for browsing my GR, which was full of fantastic librarian and library-related posts. I read, skimmed, and starred items between sips of coffee. My addiction began to rear its consumptive little head when I started subscribing to feeds mentioned by other bloggers. Soon my subscriptions grew uncontrollably and my new items routinely hit the dreaded 1000+. Still, I stuck to my 10-15 minute morning routine (OK, it grew to 20-25). Slowly though, each of the ebbs between the flow of my daily work became consumed by obsessive 5 minute (OK, 10 minute) GR power browsing, my days (and nights) becoming littered with compulsive GR checks in an attempt to keep my inbox empty.

What, you may ask, does any of this have to do with the decision to give a blog the boot? Well, the root of my addiction is my compulsive need to read, skim, or scroll through everything that graces my GR. My theory is, limit the supply and the compulsive consumption will stop. Basically, I need to do some serious unsubscribing; booting some blogs from my GR is the only way my ebbs will return to the sighs, yawns, and stretches nature intended.

Now I can’t just go into my subscriptions and hack away willy-nilly. I wouldn’t be a librarian if I wasn’t more systematic than that (’cause we’re a systematic bunch). I need a plan. I need to know…When should you give a blog the boot?

I know what you might be thinking, “doesn’t GR have ’trends’ for that?” Yes…Yes it does. GR, bless its big, corporate heart tries to toss a life preserver to those of us treading frantically in an ocean of subscriptions. GR Trends produces a list of “inactive” subscriptions that haven’t published items in over a month. Unfortunately, that particular life preserver is one of the old moldy ones that’s been in the boat too long and it’s waterlogged and kinda smells like fish. I mean really, some of the most insightful blogs post less than regularly and conversely, some of the most prolific blogs post lots of…well, they post a lot. GR Trends is helpful for spotting a defunct blog, but in this case, frequency isn’t the best way to judge quality.

So what is a librarian 2.0 to do when technology fails? We get back to our roots…good ol’ analog librarianship. As a librarian, much of my time is spent weeding library collections, ultimately deciding which materials stay and which get booted (to the book sale).

In the ’90s, the Texas State Library developed a weeding procedure known as the CREW Method. One of its most recognizable features is the acronym, MUSTIE, which outlines criteria for tossing library materials. Though some of the MUSTIE criteria could surely be applied to weeding blogs, I felt the new media of webblog deserved its own handy weeding acronym. Meet SCROLL.

S = Superseded

C = Content

R = Reliable

O = Overproductive

L = Link Clickage

L = Leprechauns

Superseded: Are there other blogs that cover the same topics, but are more interesting, entertaining, thought-provoking, or informative? If a blog is at the bottom of a subject pile, give it the boot.

Content: Does the blog present content that is of personal or professional interest? Is the content well written and presented? If you find yourself dreading having to read or even skim the blog’s uninspired posts, give it the boot.

Reliable: Can you count on the blog for consistently compelling, interesting, or useful content? Is the information the blog gives you reliable, factual, and credible? If you find you have to wade through piles of unreliable filler posts before getting to one of substance, give it the boot.

Overproductive: Does this blog regularly flood your inbox with an unmanageable amount of posts? If you have a blog that sends you way too many posts in a day, give it the boot.

Link Clickage: How often do you actually click on the links the blog provides? If you have a blog with links you are rarely inspired enough to click and explore, give it the boot.

Leprechauns: Does the blog have leprechauns? No, not literally, but if you opened a post and found a big ol’ leprechaun smiling and waving to you, you’d probably be pretty surprised. How often does the blog surprise you? How often does it make you sit up and take notice? If you have a blog that never has any leprechauns, give it the boot.

If you find you have a blog in your subscription list that fits at least one SCROLL boot criteria, chances are you are just quickly scrolling through the posts anyway, so go ahead and give that blog the boot.

At this point, I suppose I owe GR Trends an apology. Trends does provide “read” stats that can be helpful for figuring out which blogs are overproductive and suck up lots of scrolling time. Trends isn’t really an old, moldy life preserver. It’s more like one of those old-timey ones from the Titanic. It’ll probably keep you afloat, but you’re still not quite sure if it’s really more prop than preserver.

SCROLL is my attempt to cope with subscription overload leading to GR addiction, but how about you?

When do YOU think you should give a blog the boot?

Posted by: Sarah Lovato

This is my last Shelf Space entry. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m sad to go – as it turns out the whole deadline every week thing isn’t really for me. It makes me a little crazy. Good thing I didn’t use that writing degree as a journalist.

You’ve patiently listened to me prater on about vaguely book- and blog-related topics for three weeks. For my final week, I thought I’d turn it over to a few friends of mine; people I met through this electronic medium and for whom blogging means more to them just rambling with an audience (like me). They are all published – or soon will be. Three of them are authors, the fourth an illustrator. They are all at different places in their publishing careers. Because of that, blogging isn’t something that they do just because they have big mouths and no social life (like me). Blogging for them, one would assume, must also contain at least a smidgen of self-promotion (that all blogging is self-promotion is an entirely different debate). I thought I’d ask what it’s like to blog from their end.

I roped Tanita S. Davis, Elizabeth Dulemba, Sarah Miller and Colleen Mondor into answering a handful of questions about what it’s like to be a creative professional – and a blogger. Here are their answers:

JP: Were you already published when you started your blog? How far along were you in your career? Did you have an agent?

SM: Sorta kinda. I started blogging publicly in late May and Miss Spitfire was released in July.

TD: I was published, but only in magazines and at a small house, and the two chapter books I’d written had already gone out of print! I had no agent, and was just finishing my MFA.

CM: I was published several years ago with some nonfic articles on Alaska aviation. I started the blog after Bookslut, , but I found my agent via the connections I had made there. I would say I was advanced in my career as far knowing my subject, but just starting out in terms of publication.

ED:I tried some experimental blogs before I was published, but didn’t really have the hang of it until after my first picture book came out.

Why did you start? Why do you continue?

SM: I’d been blogging privately on MySpace for a year or so, and more and more, my entries centered around my own personal book-news. By then, I was working with Little Willow to build a website, so the public blog was probably an offshoot of that. I figured there were people besides my 25 MySpace buds who might be interested in my literary goings-on. (My 93-year-old grandpa doesn’t have a MySpace profile, but he has been known to look at my Blogger page from time to time.)

ED: I thought it would be a good place to document my successes, visits and book signings, if for nobody else, then for myself. And that’s exactly what it has become. So, along with being a good resource for others, it’s also a great memory book for me. By labeling and bookmarking my posts, my blog has become a good resource for other budding illustrators; I get e-mails all the time thanking me for the information I share. I also link to particular posts from other areas of my site. For instance, most events on my calendar link to posts describing how the event went - hopefully it also shares good information for those looking to hire me for their own event.

CM: I was e-mailing with lots of bloggers and authors due to the Bookslut column and several urged me to start a blog of my own. Primarily I would thank Cecil Castellucci and Gwenda Bond for being supportive in the beginning. I did it to become part of the larger literary community that I had only scratched the surface with via the column. I continue because I have met so many friends and found so many good books via the lit blogosphere.

TD: Have to quote A. Fortis from our first post in 2005 on this one: “As writers we already have a natural tendency to want to foist our words on the unsuspecting public, so why not start a blog?” The blog was started – as a team blog. There were supposed to be five of us. It was launched as a means to keep in touch with our writing group – thus the tagline “the WritingYA Web Log.” The original group in WritingYA petered out after about a year, and the myriad people who had faithfully promised to be a part of the blog never materialized. It was down to A. Fortis and me, and we held on grimly for a while, and then less grimly, as time went on. After the first six or eight months, it got easier. We finally found the community – and discovered quite a few blogs who were already successfully doing what we wanted to do – the Greenlake Library Blog, Fuse #8, the kind of frighteningly smart Chasing Ray, Big A, little a, Book Buds, Paper Tigers, Chicken Spaghetti – a whole bunch of nice librarians, booksellers and readers who were communicating about a topic that was near and dear to us. We connected – and we still connect – and we have changed the way we think and talk and share about books. We’re much more confident about it now – we know all you other Word Nerds are out there.

SM: Now that I’m not a bookseller anymore, blogging makes me feel like I’m still in touch with the reading world, and that I still have a voice. I particularly enjoy having an outlet to spread buzz for books I like. It’s not as personal as hand selling to individual customers, but at least I can still hold up a great book and holler, “Lookit!” Plus, through blogging I’ve ’met’ some really nifty people -- Jackie, Miss Erin, Little Willow, Barbara O’Connor, Kirby Larson, to name a few -- and this lets me keep in touch with them, as well as a few old pals from my Halfway Down the Stairs days. There’s a cozy feeling of community in the kidlitosphere, and even though I don’t travel widely through cyberspace, I like my little neighborhood.

JP: Has your blog changed over time? How so?

CM: I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable talking about my personal writing then I was in the beginning and I get a lot more feedback now on many things I post about.

ED: My blog has evolved over time, and now I couldn’t imagine not having it, but I no longer worry about what I’m going to write about, as there seems to be an endless stream of subjects I can cover. Once you get on a roll with the theme of your blog, it would seem it starts to drive itself.

TD: Oh, definitely, yes. We neither of us were savvy with the links and the HTML, for one thing. And our topics were narrower – within the scope of our own opinions. We didn’t read other blogs as much and tended to stick to our little corner of opinion. Now we’re both fairly widely read about young adult literature and read reviews and interviews and discussions from newspapers, other blogs, scholarly journals, etc. Our opinions are broader, and our involvement within the blogging children’s literature community is much greater, and our blog topics reflect that involvement. And also? We can rock the HTML. We can make our lines scroll AND blink. (We be unutterably cool now.)

SM: At the very beginning, it was pretty much a festival of Miss-Spitfire-and-me. I was mostly blogging to keep my friends & family informed, but before long my audience expanded into strangers. Longabout August, I noticed *I* was getting tired of posting every piece of Spitfire-news that passed across my radar. It made me a little self-conscious, even. So I spread out, with more reviews, bookshop anecdotes, and The Week in Hand Sales feature -- stuff I hoped could be interesting even if you didn’t know me personally. Now that the bookstore’s gone, I’ve had to adjust and fine tune again. State of the TBR Pile took over the weekly hand selling totals, but I still miss being able to tell stories from the frontlines of bookselling. Folks seem to enjoy my WIP Progress Report sidebar, but I haven’t decided yet how much of the process itself I’m willing to share.

JP: I loved The Week in Hand Sales. I’ll miss that.

JP: What are you hoping to come from blogging?

SM: When you get right down to it, I like keeping my finger in the pie. Besides, it’s just plain fun to jabber about books.

ED: I hope to pay it forward a bit in my career, which is why I like to write about what I’ve learned. I also want to drive traffic to my site and my books. I’d like to have readers who know all my books, not just one!

CM: It’s mostly connections that I look for via the site - the chance to meet more people who enjoy literature and promoting literature like I do.

TD: The payoff for me in blogging is community connection and involvement. As a writer, this is crucial – simply because writing can be really isolating and lonely and devoid of a daily sense of accomplishment. By now, everyone is quoting the statistics that blogging is good for people’s health I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that blogging keeps me reading – and reading makes me a better, more thoughtful writer.

JP: How do you think blogging has affected your career? Has it?

SM: I’m not aware of many concrete effects. More people come to my website through my blog than any other source, but I don’t know if that translates or snowballs into any other measurable effects. I think it’s interesting that my blog-fans and book-fans are not necessarily the same group -- I’ve heard people say, “I love her blog, but I haven’t read her book yet.” That was unexpected -- I get a big kick out of it, and it’s also good to know blogging keeps readers aware of me even though I’ve been taking my dear sweet ever-loving time getting Book #2 out into the world.

ED: I have lots of subscribers and people who respond regularly to my posts, so my blog has definitely drawn attention - Especially since I started “Coloring Page Tuesdays,” hits to my site have increased exponentially. Many other bloggers now link to me, which I think also drives traffic my way. Of course, I don’t think I’ll ever know the full breadth of benefits, but there definitely seems to be momentum related to my blog.

CM: This is a tricky one as so many of the people I’ve met were through Bookslut first - I can never be sure how much of a component Chasing Ray has been in my career. I think the site mostly helps in that it is a way to reach out to people who are interested in my writing and that certainly is always a positive.

TD: I don’t know yet… I don’t feel like I can yet say that I have a “career.” I’ll get back to you next year at this time and let you know! In all seriousness, it gives me a thrill to know that there are people ready and eager to buy my books. I am tremendously grateful – and sort of elated and horrified and hope it’s good enough and- -- okay, enough of my neuroses. If there’s any way in which blogging has affected my career, it’s putting a face to some of my readers. Yay, and …yikes. On the other hand, I now know a whole lot of people who can’t review my book! Which is a potential negative, from some people’s point of view. I’m not worried about that, I’m just grateful for the friends I haven’t yet met who are nevertheless cheering me on. That means so much.

JP: Has your agent or any industry professionals (editors, art directors, etc) expressed any opinions about your blogging?

SM: My editor reads my blog, though I don’t know for sure how regularly. I think it’s a way of vicariously touching base. My agent doesn’t read my blog unless I send her a link to something newsworthy. Other than that, nada.

ED: From industry professionals, I get more responses to my e-newsletters than I do from my blog - but that’s another subject! One of my most recent posts covered the 1st Annual SCBWI Southern Breeze Children’s Book Illustrator’s Show (which I put together in my new role as Southern Breeze Illustrators’ Coordinator). The response from everybody involved has been tremendous. Where else would this event have been covered so thoroughly?

TD: My agent would love to talk about my blog – he’d love to be able to point people to it, but, it’s not just about me or my books, and so I kind of feel he’s a little confused as to why I bother. My agent HAS thought that some of my Summer Blog Blast Tour interviews and Under Radar Reads coverage has been nice – mainly because I actually highlighted another writer who is one of his clients. He was thrilled. But other than that, nope – the blog is my little semi-anonymous corner of the world, and I don’t think anyone particularly cares about it but me and my peeps.

CM: My agent is focused on my book(s) pretty much - she likes that I have a site and a column as they show me to be dedicated to spreading the word on my work. Beyond Michele though (Michele Rubin - agent), I have engaged in dozens of email exchanges with authors/illustrators/publicists and editors through mentions at my blog of different books I’m reviewing and also over the multi blog projects I’ve worked on (Summer & Winter Blog Blast Tours, Guys Lit Wire, One Shots, Recommendations Under the Radar, etc). Everyone seems to be very excited over the possibilities of organization they see in the blogosphere and through the work I’ve done in that vein, I’ve gotten a lot of support. Also, several editors have contacted me directly after they’ve read entries on my AK aviation memoir as well, and asked that I forward their info to my agent so she can be sure to send a manuscript to them.

CM: Basically, the blog helps a lot if you’re a writer, especially one just starting out. I will add though that it means nothing if you don’t reach out to the larger lit blogosphere community - you have to work at it if you want to be noticed.

Tanita S. Davis’ first book for teens, a la Carte is out on June 10th (I remember this because it’s my birthday).

Elizabeth Dulemba has beautifully illustrated a healthy handful of children’s books. Sarah Miller is finishing up her second novel, and Colleen Mondor should be turning in her final revision of her memoir this week, before turning her attention back to the other two writing projects she has going. All of them are far better, far more thoughtful bloggers than I am, so I hope you take a look at them if you aren’t already familiar.

Thank you ladies, and thank you ForeWord for hosting me!

Posted by: Jackie Parker

It’s funny what happens to your reading habits once you make them public. I started out blogging right after graduating from library school, and right before beginning my first professional position. I was wildly enthusiastic about teen literature and constantly feeling that teens didn’t get proper attention in libraries—but I had no outlet for my enthusiasm other than my mother (a school librarian) and the friends I had made at the library system at which I was a paraprofessional. Knowing that I was leaving the people I talked to books about, I wanted to be able to continue that dialog. So, I started a blog. I didn’t do it methodically. I wasn’t a blog reader. I didn’t know what people wrote about. I had no idea what I was doing.

At first, I peppered the blog with events, activities and happenings in my life unrelated to books—but my reading habits were always the cornerstone of my blogging. Then, a curious thing happened. People I didn’t know started reading my blog. People with whom I shared an interest.

And then I started reading more blogs. First the people who had commented on mine, then the ones who made interesting comments on theirs. Then I sought them out. Dialogs were created. I became influenced by what they were reading. I joined in on memes. I volunteered for the Cybils. I said yes when someone asked me to join in on one of those new-fangled blog tour things. Then Reader Girlz asked me to be a poster girl—someone who recommends books to them, primarily to go along with their monthly featured author.  Suddenly I found myself with lists of books to read. What used to be happenstance began to contain a certain level of obligation. And am I really a teen librarian/blogger worth my salt if I haven’t read the latest books buzzing around these communities?

I don’t want you to interpret this as complaining. Through those commitments and through that community I’ve found books that I might not have found. Books that I adore. Books that I hate. Books I can’t get worked up to feel much of anything about. But I do miss wandering the shelves on my own just discovering things. I don’t so much have time for that anymore. But without that wandering, that discovering, I might not have found authors I treasure today—Laurie Halse Anderson, Tamora Pierce, L.A. Meyer, Brett Hartinger, John Flanagan, Justina Chen Headley, and so, so many others. I read all of these authors because I just stumbled upon them while shelving or checking books in or out, or simply browsing. I found them merely by happenstance, without any premeditation, without anyone telling me that I should read them or I had to read them or I needed to vet them for this, that or someone else. I wonder what I’m missing these days.

So what have I been reading lately? What do I plan on reading?  However I found them, here’s what’s been on the menu lately:

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks by E. Lockhart
Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker
Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson
Life Sucks by Jessica Abel
Sovay by Celia Reese
Good Enough by Paula Yoo

What are you reading? What are you looking forward to? How has blogging or blogs affected your To Be Read pile?

Posted by: Jackie Parker

One of the questions that seems to pop up a lot when people talk about blogs is WHY bloggers blog. I know why I blog. Mostly. And I’ve talked about that before.

What I’m more interested is why YOU read blogs. I don’t consider myself an authority on anything. I might be able to scrape together an argument that I’m knowledgeable in my little field of libraries and teen lit, but I’m not any better than countless others. I’m just enthusiastic, or crazy enough to have one day decided to share my thoughts in a public way. So I’m not quite sure why you read me – or the others like me.

Why do you follow the blogs that you follow? What makes each one stand out to you? What makes some blogs stand out from others that have the same general subject matter? How is it that we begin to feel a connection with a person we’ve never seen, let alone met? Yes, if you frequent a blog, you probably share some interests with the blogger, like Leila’s Dr. Who and cheesy horror movies or Sarah Miller’s headcheese. But SOMETHING makes you return again and again.

I realize that I’m asking questions that might not always have clear or easily definable answers.* Perhaps it’s guerilla journalism for the arts & culture section starved - editorialized. Maybe we are just, at least with books, covering things that don’t get the attention they deserve in the mainstream. Perchance it is the decline of society’s need for authoritative sources (you must allow me that - I am a librarian after all)?

Is it our enthusiasm? Our earnestness? That we’re talking about books and issues we care about, and that excitement shines through? Is it that we seem like normal people who aren’t pretending to be anything other than what we are? Because we aren’t claiming to have the answers or the final word? It is the voyeurs that I’m especially interested in, those who read, but never comment. You know who you are. Now’s your chance. Talk to me. Add to a dialog. Tell me why you give us your time. How have we earned your attention?

I don’t know.

Anyone?

*(Ok. Sidebar on the conversation for a second. I’m writing this in a café and there’s a guy behind me who keeps sucking in his snot in snorts so loud I can hear him over my headphones. I really want to turn around and tell him, “Grown-ups use Kleenex.” But I just can’t. My mom wouldn’t approve. Back to the… um, whatever it is I’m writing.)

Posted by: Jackie Parker

Library patrons are a very diverse bunch. Stand any two next to each other, and nine times out of ten the only thing they will have in common is that they both patronize the library. The characteristic that varies the most is age—most libraries profess to serve infants, senior citizens, and every age group in between. In my time as a librarian, however, I have noticed that “Generation Y”, or people between the ages of 18 and 30, make up a very small amount of the people I serve every day.

It’s not that twenty-somethings aren’t using the library. In fact, some research suggests that they are more likely than the older generations to use library services to find solutions for problems they encounter in life. What concerns me is that, while they may drop by for help finding a job or to pick up tax forms, they aren’t using the library for its most basic service: access to free books.

As an eighties-baby myself, I see this in my personal life as well as my professional life. None of my friends get their reading material from the library. My own sisters, avid readers all, buy their books at chain stores and politely refuse when I offer to teach them to use Inter Library Loan! Not only that, but I am convinced that twenty-somethings who read for recreation are in the minority. This is probably because those who are in college view reading as a chore (I know I did), and those who are just entering the work force are too busy submitting resumes and worrying about paying off student loans to spend time on any luxuries, least of all cozying up with the latest NY Times Bestseller.

I like to argue that checking out books from the library not only saves the environment, but it also saves the library user a good chunk of change. I try to keep track of how much I read with GoodReads.com, and recently I thought it would be a fun experiment to add up all the books I had read in the last year and calculate the amount of many it would have cost me if I had bought them at Barnes & Noble instead of checking them out from the library. I would have spent about $1,300 on my reading habit last year alone. Yikes.

My husband thinks this a terrible argument; because as a librarian, I a) am required to read more than the average person, and b) as I work in a library, I have easy access to library services like interlibrary loan and am free of hassles like late fines. I simply have easier access and more incentive to read for fun than the average person my age. While I’ll admit he is right on that point, I won’t back down from my stance that my peers are simply not reading for fun, and when they do they are purchasing books with money that could be better spent elsewhere (i.e. those pesky student loans).

I think it is important for libraries to market more to the twenty-something crowd. Libraries tend to pay a lot of attention to the extremes—early literacy and services to senior citizens. All age groups both need and deserve a daily dose of free reading, and we need to find ways to convince Generation Y to take advantage of what their public library offers!  

Posted by: Eva Mays

In my last entry I addressed the rise of internet bookselling and its effect on brick and mortar used bookstores. This week I would like to look at the nature of the growing online used book marketplace.

What books are selling there? Certainly the same titles that are selling everywhere else. The paperbacks that were piled up at Cosco last month flood the internet today. These books will sell quickly and profitably online for a brief period, then their prices will rapidly drop to pennies a piece as the public finishes them, discards them, and moves on to the next new thing. Over 1,000 copies of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" are now available on Amazon.com, most at a price of under one dollar. Yet why would anyone want to pay even that when a call to one's aunt or a tour around the block is likely to yield a copy for free?  
      
The intelligent used bookseller soon learns to avoid yesterday's fads and focus instead on obscure and overlooked titles of the past. The surest sellers are books that never appealed to the masses, but remain persistently interesting to a few. Those few have often been searching and will happily purchase when they find.

I can look through my records and find a week last year when the following titles sold:

Alaska's Mushrooms
Forensic Entomology
Sex Toy Tricks
Weaving Contemporary Rag Rugs
Radical Street Performance
Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology
Stick Fighting: Techniques of Self-Defense
The Healthy Bird Cookbook

Some are out-of-print, some are otherwise difficult to acquire. (One, at least, might cause embarrassment at the register.) All are not what one would expect to find at the local Borders, and many were shipped to places where there is no local Borders. I often ship books to soldiers and prisoners, to rural areas and developing nations. These people and places make up a part of the growing market in used books--a market that previously had limited access to any extensive and affordable selection.

Interesting connections can now be made between books and readers that could rarely have happened before.  I recently sold a book on the history of Kentucky place names, acquired in Chicago, to a woman in northern California, and also a book on Chinese cinema, published in France, to a professor in Brazil. I believe that I have sold obscure biographies to the children of their subjects (although I didn't ask), and I know that I have sold signed copies of books to their authors, many years after the fact. Last week I found an interesting book in a basement: a hefty commemoration of the destruction of the Jewish population of the Polish town of Ostrowiec during WWII, that was written by the survivors and their descendants in the 1960s. I look forward to seeing where it will go. Most likely it will cross an ocean.

We cannot see these new connections being made, they are not framed by quaint bookshops, but they represent a change in access to material that affects many lives. Fifteen years ago, the transactions that I have described above would have been lengthy and costly for the customer, in many cases prohibitively so, and perhaps impossible. The customer may not have even known that the titles existed, but can now become aware of them through the many excellent online book databases with subject descriptions and reader reviews.

The future of this industry can, I think, only become more interesting. New online used-book marketplaces continue to develop in all parts of the world and are becoming increasingly interconnected. Every year more books surface on the internet as booksellers continue to list their inventories and as basements and closets are dredged by book scouts around the world. This brings the prices of books down (causing us dealers to grumble), but it also brings in new customers and new readers. It is difficult to predict what long term effects these changes will have on readership, as the advent of e-books and other digital information sources will likely overshadow most developments in used bookselling, but a globally accessible book marketplace is something the world has not yet seen, and is nothing to get depressed about.

Posted by: Adrienne Eaton

I’ve been privileged to visit ForeWord as a guest blogger this month. I’ve written two posts as a reviewer. I’ve written two posts as a librarian. But I haven’t addressed the roles that are nearest and dearest to my heart, the duo of roles that inspires my blog title. I am a Mother and I am a Reader.

Here’s one of my favorite MotherReader stories. When my oldest daughter was five, she asked me to play house. “I’ll be the mommy and you’ll be the little girl,” she said. I agreed and prepared myself for my role. Meanwhile, she sat down on the couch, opened a book to read, and looking over the top said, “Go play with your sister.”

Never have I felt so much angst and pride at the same time. Of course, my mother guilt kicked in. Did she think that all I did was read? Did she feel so neglected? What kind of mom was I? But at the same time, I felt proud of the lesson she had picked up from me, namely that Moms read and reading’s important.

As a mother of two (now) school-aged girls, I get asked occasionally how I find time to read. I can only pat the questioner on the head with an air of pity (well, mentally), and answer that one doesn’t find time to read, one makes time to read. Looking at reading as something that that’s done when everything else is finished, means that you’ll never even crack open a People magazine. (Not that I read this particular journal, understand.) And this goes double, maybe triple for mothers. Every minute I read, I’ve carved that time away from something else. Sometimes I don’t put the laundry away. Sometimes I don’t shower, but I make the time to read.

While I’m taking time for myself in a self-care, Oprah kind of way, I’m also conveying an important message to my kids. Moms read books for fun. I couldn’t talk to them about reading being important and then never open a book myself.  My actions speak louder than my words ever could, and believe me, I can make my words LOUD.

I’ve also been asked by parents that with today’s busy lifestyle, how I find time for my kids to read. For this question, I allow a quick wide-eyed expression of shock so the questioner realizes the very seriousness of the inquiry. For me, it’s as if they’ve asked how I find time for my children to eat dinner. In my family, reading is a necessary and vital part of our day. We formed the habit early, and rarely break it.

Since my daughters were babies, the last part of every evening has been given over to reading. When the girls were younger, my husband or I read to them. Then each child went through a stage where we would alternate fun picture books with the beginning readers series of the month. Now sometimes we read a book to them – a great picture book or chapters from a harder book – and sometimes we all read our own books. Often one daughter and I will recline on the couch, each leaning against the opposite side arms and our legs sharing the space in the middle. It’s comfy. It’s fun. The dishes can wait.

Want to raise a reader? Then read. Read to them, read with them, read beside them. Take it from a MotherReader.

Posted by: Pam Coughlan