School Library Journal has an important piece on the Senate looking at improving the way that Head Start and libraries collaborate.  Here is the part that warmed my heart.  This Senator really gets it!

In February 2007, Sheketoff sent a letter to Representative Raul
Grijalva (D-AZ) saying that libraries play a crucial role in early
childhood literacy, which is a critical part of Head Start’s mission.
“By recognizing the important role that public libraries play in
improving literacy and school readiness in the Head Start
reauthorization bill, libraries across the country can continue to
develop new innovative programs to provide young children with the
tools they need to succeed in school and life,” the letter reads.

Yes! 

One of my favorite parts of being a children’s librarian in Cape Girardeau, Missouri was going out on a weekly basis to read to a Head Start class.  The incredible difference between the children who started each year and the children who completed Head Start!  I would start the year reading all of my most gimmicky books, trying to get them to sit still long enough to make it through my short pile.  At the end of the year, I was being begged to read more and amazing the teachers and myself with the books the children would not only sit through but enjoy.  I have yet to find anything as immediately rewarding as sharing books with those children. 

This Christian Science Monitor article is all about the new titles being included on high school reading lists.  Classics like Shakespeare and Hawthorne are being joined by Sandra Cisneros, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Yann Martel.  The article ends with a list of books from high school reading lists across the country.  I love the juxtaposition of the old and new, exactly what teens should be filling their minds with.

I found this article on the great diversity of teen literature right now.  I completely agree, it’s about time that we see books about teens of all colors, sexualities and faiths.  This allows all of the teens to see themselves in books in some way.  But I think the article understates the importance of this:

Seeing their faces on lead characters who overcome some of their
same issues is a bonus. Billingsley added that teens’ desire to see
themselves in print is no different from their wanting the same from
movies or TV shows.

“You need that variety,” she said. “That’s not to say you shouldn’t
read other books you can’t relate to either. There are kids who love
reading ‘Harry Potter’ books who can’t relate to him, but there needs
to be an option.”

The bold above is mine.  A bonus?  It’s a heck of a lot more important than a bonus feature of a book!  And I think that books have a lot more power than movies or TV, because they allow us to see deeply into a character beyond the skin.  So teens of all colors will see themselves in characters of all colors, in people they may not understand, and that is powerful.  But it is all the more powerful in a world that does not reflect them, does not understand them and frequently stereotypes and degrades them to see themselves in the pages of a book.  It turns what society does to them on a daily basis on its head.  Renews their understanding of themselves and allows them the power to themselves open a book where the face on the cover doesn’t resemble theirs, look beyond the surface, and discover a kinship.

But even more importantly, it offers that option to the majority as well.  But do we have the power, the grace and the interest to open those books?  Or are we caught in the whirlpool of our own whiteness where we can’t see beyond that.  Let’s make it a point to read books where the cover doesn’t reflect us back, where we have to stretch and grow just to understand it, because where else is our society going to heal?  It has to be done one character, one book at a time.  That is the “bonus” of the book.

Slate has recycled an article about how professional reviewers can review books so very quickly.  The article has a new intro on Harry Potter but is really about Bill Clinton’s My Life.  Part of what I love about blog reviews is that we post about books that we feel merit the mention.  I know that when I start reading glowing reviews they are being written because that blogger feels passionately about the book.  Not because it was assigned.

There is a sort of natural quality control that happens.  While I do accept free books from publishers, I only review a fraction of them on the blog.  Only the ones I love.  Or in the case of one special book about a stuffed rabbit, the ones that others love but I don’t.

Eco-Libris, a wonderful program where you can balance out the books you read by planting a tree, is offering a way to offset your purchase of the new Harry Potter.  Send them a picture of you posing with a copy of any of the HP books, and you will get a chance to have trees planted in your name.  The first fifty entries will get trees planted in their name:  seven trees, one for each book.  Then the best picture will get a free copy of the newest Harry Potter printed on 100% recycled paper. 

Caught this Morning Edition piece on NPR this morning.  It is a very interesting segment on the copyright pirates in China creating not only Harry Potter books in violation of copyright, but also making their own new Harry Potter stories and selling them.  Some of the titles and concepts are shocking, but being the strange person I am, I wish that I could just read one…

AfterElton, a blog that offers news and information for gay men, has a very nice article on the battle about children’s books with gay themes.  The article mentions And Tango Makes Three, King & King, and The Trouble with Babies.  As a public librarian, I especially appreciated the following quote from Arthur Levine:

“Ten percent of the children’s book readership, at least, will grow
up to be gay or lesbian,” he said to AfterElton.com. “Wouldn’t it be
nice if their first exposure to the idea that there are gay people in
the world isn’t when they’re teenagers — so when little Johnny falls in
love with that really cute, brainy boy in his computer class, he’s
grown up with the idea that it’s not unusual and there’s nothing wrong
with that.

“And an even higher percentage of picture book
readership will grow up to know and love somebody who’s gay or lesbian.
So when you think about it that way, a large percentage of your picture
book audience can really benefit from naturalizing the idea that there
are gay and lesbian people in the world. When you think about it that
way, it’s even more of a mystery why there aren’t more of these books.”

Hurrah!  I know that many librarians think they are serving only the straight in their community, but gay families, children who will realize they are gay, or families with gay loved ones all need to have a haven in their public library where their lives are mirrored and acceptable.

Nancy Pearl is back on NPR with a list of books with Great Opening Lines to Hook Young Readers. 

The books included are

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Lee.

Ragweed by Avi.

Fear by M.T. Anderson

Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes

Make sure you listen to the clip, because Nancy’s enthusiasm will completely sell you on the titles.

Amy Keroes is a mother who was searching for good reads for her children.  She wanted books that offered positive and believable characters for her son and daughter.  Out of her search came the Anti-Princess Reading List, a collection of picture books that feature strong girls in lead roles.  Her site also offers books that feature working mothers and book for babies.  If you are a working parent yourself, she also has lots of parent reads she recommends.