August 14th

Booktalking to Teens
I asked Ballard's teen librarian for examples of non-fiction she might take to schools to booktalk for teens. She said she looks for books with captivating pictures/photos. For example there's a book called Demolition that shows the demolition of huge buildings like the Kingdome. She might booktalk it like "Have you ever wanted to be a builder or an architect? Well, there are some people that blow up buildings for a living." Her style of booktalking is to muse about why she thinks the book is interesting. She tells just enough to whet their appetite - she doesn't recite the plot or try to convince them they'll love it. With teens it's more effective to be low-key and let them decide what they're interested in. Her booktalks are about 30 seconds in length. With non-fiction she especially wants to promote the idea of browsing. Kids are so used to searching the internet. She wants to introduce them to the idea of searching books. A book is a place where alot of information is collected together - a web page is only one page:)

Other non-fiction titles for teen booktalks:
Generation T : 108 ways to transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay.
How to survive a robot uprising : tips on defending yourself against the coming rebellion by Daniel H. Wilson.
Graffiti world : street art from five continents by Nicholas Ganz ; edited by Tristan Manco

Let them talk...
She sees that in a classroom the teens are talked to all day. The first thing she does is asks the teens for ideas about good books to read. Her philosophy is that she's not the authority on the newest and greatest. Kids have thousands of ideas of good books. That's not to say she doesn't bring in books. She'll hold up a book and ask "Has anybody read this?" If somebody raises their hand she lets them talk about it! Sharing books is a cultural thing. We get the best book recommendations from talking to each other. She wants to get them thinking about books and talking about books with each other. It's a social opportunity to model booktalking to each other. Alot of great discussions are started with booktalking. It's not about the librarian - it's about the teen readers. She'll write down the names of kids and the books they like.

One of her objectives for school visits is to "Get their library cards right with the world." For example she'll hand out slips for fresh starts that will waive their fines. She wants them to be able to come to the library without library card problems.

Teen Programming
Every community has different needs. Respond to your community. For example, in Ballard there are few requests for homework help so they don't have a HH program. But Ballard's Teen Librarian does school visits. At Douglas-Truth the HH program is hugely popular but she doesn't get much response when she offers other types of programming. At the Central Library, Jennifer Bisson's huge programs draw huge crowds but she doesn't have as much demand for school visits. Each librarian has their own style and their own strengths.

Business Prospecting - Reference Resource of the Day
A man came to desk who said he needed to call companies during the day. He needed something with lists of companies and their presidents, etc. I took him to a Company Directory called "Inside Prospects: Business to Business Prospecting Directory" which includes the names of company owners, the number of employees, and addresses, etc. He was also wondering if there was a directory online he could use. Reference USA has a business interface where you can do customized searches with just the name of the company, etc.

Reader's Advisory - Mice and Fairies
A young girl came in looking for picture books featuring mice. (Mice- fiction, mouse-fiction) She had read Time stops for no mouse : a Hermux Tantamoq adventure by Michael Hoeye and just loved it. It turned out she had a 7th grade reading level but she just liked to read picture books for fun. We didn't have a lot of mice picture books checked in so she said she also liked fairies. We found the classic Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie on the shelf (Tinkerbell is a fairy!). She also mentioned that she liked to draw the pictures she found in picture books. We found The Care and Feeding of Sprites by Tony DeTerlizzi (also author of the Spiderwick Chronicles) which was a picture book with the sprites but with more text than a younger readers picture book.

Alligator Pajama Storytime
1st book - The Fantastic Mr. Wani by Kanako Usui
2nd book - Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile by Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert
Felt Board Story - Counting Crocodiles
3rd book - A Girl and Her Gator by Sean Bryan
4th book - I'd Really Like to Eat a Child by Sylviane Donnio
Activity - Alligator cut out: fold a piece of green construction paper in half long-ways. trace the outline of an alligator on the fold, plus a line for the mouth and three angled lines on its back. Cut out the lines. Fold back the cuts on its back to make scales. Voila! Your very own alligator! Supply markers to make extra decoration on gator.

The secret to Pamela's crafty ideas: Her kids attended a Montessori (?) school where she was very involved as an assistant. Also, her first position as a children's librarian had a craft for kids EVERY DAY after school. She got a lot of practice! Now she is always looking for ideas for easy, do-able crafts on a limited budget.

Extra books to check out:
An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni
Snip Snap What's That? by Mara Bergman
See You Later Alligator by Laura McGee Kvasnosky
Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen
What Time Mr. Crocodile? by Judy Sierra
Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra
Gator by Randy Cecil
Alligator Boy by Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode
Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombant
There's a Crocodile Under My Bed! by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert