Author: Hannah Gómez

Hannah Gómez is a former independent school librarian and now works remotely as a librarian consultant/teacher. She also teaches fitness and writes things. She is on Twitter @shgmclicious

Week in Review: October 2nd

Happy Friday! Add these links to your #fridayreads (or check them out over the weekend).

week in review

 

Books & Reading
Many librarians and former librarians, including Angie Manfredi and Kelly Jensen, discussed why “Banned Books” Week is a misnomer and why knowing the difference between banned and challenged is so important. Pair it with our post from Miriam Wallen on self-censorship.

Tired of defending your reading of children’s and YA literature? (You shouldn’t have to, but somehow you do anyway, right? Ugh.) This may make you feel better, and it will arm you with more comebacks to those people who say you’re not reading “real” books.

Curious about the most banned or challenged books of the year?

Check out these diverse magical fantasy books. Continue reading Week in Review: October 2nd

Tweets of the Week: August 28th

One more weekend before Labor Day! The end of summer goes fast. Here are some of the things that had people buzzing on Twitter this week. Wednesday was the anniversary of the amendment which gave women the right to vote. Two television reporters were killed by a domestic terrorist. Here’s what happened in the book, pop culture, and library worlds this week.

tweets of the week | the hub

Books/Reading/Authors

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: August 28th

Tweets of the Week: July 24th

In case you missed them, here are some of the tweets that people were buzzing about this week. Last minute additions late Thursday night could have been VidCon and yet another shooting, but I’m frankly too tired and upset to handle all that, so you are going to have to look that up on your own. These are all tweets on the lighter end of things.

tweets of the week | the hub

Books/Reading/Authors

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: July 24th

Tweets of the Week: June 19th

It’s Friday! If you weren’t on Twitter this week, here’s what you missed in the world of libraries and literature. Sadly, it was also quite a week for race-related and conflict-oriented news, so I added a current events section as well.

tweets of the week | the hub

Books/Reading/Authors

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: June 19th

The New Spinoff

SisterhoodEverlastingThe announcement of Netflix’s John Stamos-produced “Fuller House,” a spinoff or sequel series to the 1980s/1990s classic family sitcom, is one of many similar such announcements in the TV world these days. “The X-Files” will be back for a few weeks next January, and there are rumors of a second/fifth season of “Arrested Development” arriving to Netflix sometime soon. And let’s not forget the long-awaited “Veronica Mars” movie last year, which was entirely made up of winks and nudges to the series’ patient fans.

The literary world is following suit. In 2011, Francine Pascal dusted off her pen and caught us all up on the happenings in Sweet Valley, California, with a look at the famous blonde twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield ten years after graduation. Published under an adult imprint, Sweet Valley Confidential was a nostalgic gift to the 20-, 30-, and even 40-something original fans of the series. Ann Brashares gifted her now-adult Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2002 Best Books for Young Adults, 2009 Popular Paperbacks) readers with Sisterhood Everlasting in 2011 as well. And Meg Cabot will be following suit with a completion of her Princess Diaries (2001 Best Books for Young Adults, 2001 Quick Picks) series for adults, titled Royal Wedding.

But if all of these are gifts for former teens, what about current and future ones? Brashares presented 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows, about a younger generation of friends facing a summer separation, but it didn’t quite catch on. Is it possible to reignite a successful YA series with a younger version? Does it even make sense to think that a beloved teen character would interest a younger reader who doesn’t know the inside jokes? Or is it better to go adult? Should you just take minor characters and make them major? Does any of it work? Continue reading The New Spinoff

Tweets of the Week: April 10th

Happy Friday! Some things that happened this week: VIDA, an organization dedicated to supporting women in literature, published their count for 2014 – a great look at gender disparity in publishing. They focus on books for adults, but lately they have expanded to counting women in color and children’s literature, so take a look. We Need Diverse Books announced non-profit status; research was published about immigrant groups in the United States that will give you insight into the populations you might serve; and pre-conference buzz got going for BEA, YALLWEST, and Outlawed, so look for talk from conference attendees on publishing news, YA trends, and censorship this weekend.

tweets of the week | the hub

Books/Reading/Authors

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: April 10th

Double Cover Trouble

We all have our share of complaints about book covers – especially YA book covers. Dead-looking girls on covers, pretty dresses, white people, and almost-kisses abound. Lately, it looks like cover design has gotten better. It’s more focused on cool fonts, graphic design, symbolic representation. Slowly but surely, we’re seeing more people of color, and they’re less obscured by shadows, objects, or silhouettes. Happy as this makes me, I am a little worried about these upcoming titles and their ability to stand out in a crowd. A cover, whether we like it or not, directs a lot of a book’s interest and determines its circulation, and these are perhaps a bit too similar to other titles coming up. Make sure you study up now; you’re bound to have to clear up confusion for your patrons or yourselves when these almost-twins are released.

foreverforever
Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer and Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfried
In addition to similar-sounding titles, these covers feature similar fonts and shared curves, one with a film strip and one with cherries. Hillyer’s book, due out June 2, is about summer camp and second chances. One-time friends accidentally reunite and have the chance to recreate and perfect a summer – and figure out why their friendship ended. Gottfred’s book (July 7) is a romance, but it also deals with how forevers can be broken and it can be hard to pick up the pieces. Still, the plots should be different enough that you can figure out which one a patron is asking for – so long as you keep the titles straight. Continue reading Double Cover Trouble

Tweets of the Week: February 6th

Well, I was certainly jealous of you all Midwinter this week. I tried to remember that I had the California weather instead. ;-) Here’s what had everyone tweeting this week, Chicago and elsewhere. Outside of Midwinter, other big news was that BEA announced another mostly white lineup to their Con, proving that some people just don’t learn, lots of books had cover reveals, Black History Month started, and Harper Lee announced a prequel/original version of To Kill a Mockingbird, to be released soon.

tweets of the week | the hub

Midwinter

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: February 6th

Tweets of the Week: January 30th

In case you missed it, here’s what had people twittering this week. Hope all of you on the East Coast stayed warm – and hope my fellow West Coasters only rubbed in our good weather a little bit. ;-) Those of you at Midwinter, have a great time and keep the rest of us posted!

tweets of the week | the hub

Books/Reading/Authors

Continue reading Tweets of the Week: January 30th