“Clean” Reads for Teens

When creating the “Just the Good Stuff” booklist for teens, I used a variety of sources. I surveyed the YALSA-BK listserv, asked co-workers and friends, scoured the web for similar booklists and found some good resources. Two blogs that I now subscribe to are devoted to reviewing and rating the “cleanliness” of books. They are Homespun Light and Good Clean Reads. Since I am not used to reviewing books based on “cleanliness” I found both of these blogs to be excellent resources to get an idea of which books they were recommending for teens. (I should mention that these blogs don’t just review books, but also include tidbits from their lives. But you can easily search for the book reviews.) Another resource that a FVRL coworker recommended was Common Sense Media. If you have patrons looking for reviews of movies, video games, websites, books, tv and music for kids, this may be a good site to point them to.

Read it b4 you see it!

There’s a new feature up on the kid’s page, Read it b4 you see it.  It’s a list of current and forthcoming movies based on children’s books with links to the books and to other books in the series.

2009 YRCA Discussion Guides

Multnomah County Library has just posted their Talk it up! book discussion guides for the 2009 YRCA nominees.  This is a great resource if you’re leading a book group reading these titles or know someone who is.

Coming soon to a library near you…

I just got back from rummaging around the new books trucks out in the annex garage and we have some good stuff headed your way!

Where’s My Mummy by Carolyn Crimi:  A baby mummy and his mummy mummy play a game of hide and shriek before bed.  While looking for his mummy, he runs into several scary monsters…but he’s not afraid of any of them…he’s afraid of the mouse!  I’d love to pair this story with Big Bad Bunny by Billingsley for a fun, “scary” storytime.

Everybody is getting a copy of If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Numeroff.  It’s sure to get as many laughs as the previous books in the series.

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles #2: A Giant Problem has 14 holds on it, so you probably won’t see it on your shelves for awhile.

Olympic National Park by Jankowski includes photos and information on Olympic National Park as well as a password to log on to the website, myreportlinks.com, which lists helpful web links on the topic.

Patron with a biography assignment?  Hand them (esp reluctant reading boys,) Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka.  At just over 100 pages, I think it’s the perfect length for the biography assignment.  School Library Journal gave it a starred review and said, “
Just try to keep kids away from this collection. Entertaining and fast-moving, silly and sweet, this homage to family life is not to be missed.”

Are elephants really afraid of mice?  Does lightning ever strike twice?  Find the answers to these and many more myths, mistakes, and misconceptions in, Actually, Factually by Guy Campbell.

A few weeks ago I was talking about the Noel Streatfeild books, Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes, etc., and their continuing popularity.  Well I just noticed that we have several copies of the BBC’s Ballet Shoes DVD waiting for processing.  This is the 2007 version with Emma Watson, (of Harry Potter fame,) and is sure to be a hit.  Try and make a connection with the books through display or discussion!

New book trailer

I added a book trailer for Roland Smith’s new book, I, Q to the book trailer page.  (I embedded the video right into the page, not sure if that is preferable to clicking a link.)  The trailer is silly, but noteworthy because it is recognizably filmed in Portland.  This is the first book in a series and it  has an interactive website with games, character information, a message board, etc.

Back-to-School

The Olympics feature on the kids page has been replaced with a back-to-school page.  Check out the book and website recommendations for heading back to school here:  http://www.fvrl.org/kids/feature.cfm