Children's Services Meeting

I attended a Children's Services Meeting at the Douglas-Truth branch on Thursday. The first part was an author panel. Panelists included:
Nina Laden - author and illustrator, "Romeow & Drooliet"
Cathy Spagnoli - author and storyteller, "Nine-in-One", "Simple Wonders", "Priya's Day"
Bonny Becker - author, "An Ant's Day Off"
Anjali Banerjee - author, "Maya Running"
Kirby Larson- author, "Hattie Big Sky"

A facilitator asked questions including:

Q:What advice would you give kids who want to be writers?
A:Keep a journal! Tell stories as well as writing them. Know that this is a possible dream for you. Learn from imitation. Read! Keep a secret journal where nobody can judge your writing. Be forgiving if you don't journal. Finish what you begin. Write stories from your life - no one else can tell your story. Don't give up!

Q:What do you wish you had known about the business before you got into it?
A:You have to do a lot of self promotion. You have to speak in public. There is a steep technology curve. It's a big/global business. It takes a long time to get published. Not a lot of money in it. Can't work in isolation. The importance of the book cover. It's OK to make mistakes and ask for help. It's really hard, but if you keep at it you'll get where you want to go.

Q:What does your editor do to help/hinder?
A:Editors can be frustrating when they don't answer your calls but you have to keep writing and not wait for them. Sometimes you work with lots of publishers/editors. Sometimes they help by seeing a different version of the book that you want to do, other times they don't help because they want to do a different book entirely. They help you see what you could never see yourself, like asking, "what does this character add to the story?"

Q:Where do your ideas come from?
A:From life - they're all around you! Unlikely heroes. Asking, "What if somebody wanted to do this and it was considered taboo or unlikely that they could do it?" Creating stories is like putting together puzzles.

Game Night
Erica Sternin, the new Youth Services manager at SPL, asked if anybody was interested in game nights at their branches. They had DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and Wii video games. Some suggestion were to have snacks and board games for the kids who weren't playing the games. Even though DDR is fun too watch, it's a good idea to have something for other kids to do. Discussed strategies for crowd control - perhaps pairing up with another branch to get more librarians per kid.

New Book Presentation
About a dozen librarians were assigned books to review - some a longer chapter book and others a mixed bag of picture books and a chapter book. It was good to see the different styles of booktalking. The general format of the booktalks included a rating of what the librarian thought of the book, what professional journals thought of the book, and a plot summary. Some of the book titles reviewed were:
Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars (poetry)
How Do Dinosaurs Go To School
Grumpy Bird
Into the Woods
Bow Wow Bugs a Bug (wordless picture book)
Fred Stays with Me (sorting out things in Divorce - highly recommended)
Skinny Brown Dog
Wet Dog
Shield Stars (chapter book - recommended)
Summer Beat
The Traitor's Gate (Avi)
Lissy's Friends (origami book/story)
Ginger and Petunia
Kami and the Yaks (longer picture book)
Badger's Fancy Meal
Please Write in This Book