All About the Books – 5 Bookish Podcasts to Keep You in the Know

Trying to stay on top of what is coming out in the world of books for teens can be a daunting task. Podcasts about books can be a great way to stay on top of things, and you can listen while multitasking. Listening to bookish podcasts not only has kept me more current with what is coming out, alerted me to movie adaptations, and grown my own TBR list, it has also improved my own booktalking game by hearing other folks’ enthusiasm and descriptions about titles.

Continue reading All About the Books – 5 Bookish Podcasts to Keep You in the Know

School Library Journal 2016 Day of Dialog Recap

SLJDOD2016_SLJHeader_900x250Each year, School Library Journal presents a Day of Dialog, which allows librarians, educators, and library students the chance to come together and learn the latest about childrens and teens publishing trends and upcoming releases.  This was the first time I have attended a Day of Dialog and I would definitely recommend future attendance to anyone who works with children and/or teens promoting books and reading. Check out my recap of the middle school/high school panels and speakers from the day! Continue reading School Library Journal 2016 Day of Dialog Recap

Best Of 2014 Lists: Selected Titles

FireworksHappy 2015!  Last year (yup) Geri Diorio posted a fantastic summary of the best young adult books lists from 2014 including Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. My New Year’s resolution was to annotate a title selected from each list and/or category. No, I didn’t hit every single genre (sorry poetry). But it was great fun and I conclude that 2014 was definitely  wonderful year for YA books!

Here are my selections, listed alphabetically by author’s last name.

From: Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Nonfiction, Family RomanovFemale Author

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

By Candace Fleming

An examination of the Romanovs (Russia’s last imperial family),  the country’s revolutions and political strife in the the years 1905-1917, and (in their own words) brutal accounts of what life was like for the common peasants of this time.   Explores the notion of the “chosen” class,  Russia’s last heir Alexei who was a sickly child affected by hemophilia (a secret closely held from the Russian people), and the mystery surrounding the children’s missing bodies from the grave discovered in Koptyaki Forest. Visual source materials also help portray this gripping account. Continue reading Best Of 2014 Lists: Selected Titles

How To Read: Step by Step Instructions to Pleasure Reading

reading

Reading for your own enjoyment takes practice. I know it sounds a little crazy– but folks practice their hobbies all the time and why should recreational reading be any different? It can be hard today to turn off distractions and just read. So here is a practical guide; follow it and you will soon find yourself enjoying reading. And for those of you reading this post who don’t need any help in this regard, I invite you to share your tips for happy reading.

Step 1: Pick book.

This is one of the hardest steps of the process. But fear not, you can handle it. There are so many ways to choose a book: pretty cover, friend recommendation, favorite author, saw the movie, library/book store display, read about it somewhere (twitter, instagram, facebook, tumblr, pinterest), heard about it somewhere, random browsing, librarian recommendation, teacher recommendation, it’s your favorite book and you want to read it for the tenth time darn it, read a review, literary awards, found it (in a rental vacation house and in the plane seat flap next to the barf bag perhaps), it’s a classic you’ve been meaning to read, and so on… Point being, any reason to pick a book is a good one if it works for you.  Some other resources that are helpful in finding books:

As you are selecting books, keep an open mind (even on books you did not like in the past.) Continue reading How To Read: Step by Step Instructions to Pleasure Reading