Filtering is a hard enough choice for a public library to make but Kids outsmarting Web filters make it that much harder. The article explains many of the ways that kids are getting around filters, so if you are filtering, you may want to be aware of these techniques.

VOYA’s 2006 list of recommended poetry books for teens Pure Poetry is their 8th annual list. There are some real drool-worthy titles on the list that I will have to take a look at. I’m not sure I’ve read any of them yet!

YALSA has a new booklist of Books for young adults who enjoy ‘Gossip Girls’ series:
Bauer, Joan. “Rules of the Road.” [and sequel: “Best Foot Forward”]
Brashares, Ann. “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” [and sequels]
Cohn, Rachel. “Gingerbread.” [and sequel: “Shrimp”]
Dessen, Sarah. “This Lullaby.” [and “The Truth About Forever,” same author]
Kantor, Melissa. “If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince?” [also: “Confessions of a Not It Girl,” same author]
Lockhart, E. “The Boyfriend List” (15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs,and me, Ruby Oliver)
Mackler, Carolyn. “The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things.”
Maxwell, Katie. “The Year My Life Went Down the Loo” [and subsequent titles]
McCafferty, Megan. “Sloppy Firsts” [and sequel: “Second Helpings”]
Rennison, Louise. “Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging” [and subsequent titles]

Scripps Howard News Service has a story on Robie H. Harris, the author of two of the most challenged books of 2005, It’s So Amazing and It’s Perfectly Normal. Harris is a former elementary teacher and offers the following quote:
“I have no problem with anyone objecting to these books,” Harris said during a telephone interview from her Cambridge, Mass., home. “What I do have a problem with is keeping these books away from kids whose parents want them to have this information.”

The CBC Books Section has Sharing the Love, an article on crossover titles from adult fiction to teens. The article covers how it happens, why and the fact that it is the teenage fans of certain adult novels who make the difference in marketing.

Ready for this one? The Slate article, The Little Men Who Love Little House – Why boys like girls books. By Emily Bazelon contains in its look at boys’ reading a full attack on librarians and their role in why boys don’t like reading! I kid you not!
“The blame partly lies with librarians. They are mostly women, they tend to love stories, and they also have a thing for books that teach moral lessons.”
“Librarians and teachers often look down on boy humor or nonfiction, and their disdain seeps through to the boys who crave those things.”
I find this entirely offensive. I definitely do not look down on boy-friendly titles. I have Captain Underpants, a nonfiction section filled with dinosaurs, snakes, and biographies, adventure fiction, and a great love of Harris and Me, which I consider one of the funniest books ever written. And I am not the exception when it comes to children’s librarians, I am the rule. There is no disdain here nor is there any need for a moral lesson in a book. Besides, shouldn’t the author of the article have looked as some books published in the last decade? If she had, maybe she would have actually visited a library and discovered that we aren’t all pinch-faced women with rulers all set to smack little boy hands.

The New York Times has a wonderful article about the new type of books for teen girls: Young Adult Fiction: Wild Things. Naomi Wolf critiques (justly and decisively) the Gossip Girl, A-List and Clique series. This is a must-read article for librarians who have these books in their collections. I am not saying that we should pull the books from our shelves, I certainly am not. But we should know what we are offering children and why their parents may have objections beyond the sexual content. That said, teens are reading and if they weren’t reading this type of trash then they would be reading adult trash novels. I definitely did as a teen.

OK, what librarian could pass up a bibliography like this?  Papertigers has a bibliography of children’s books about libraries and librarians.  Just scrolling down through the titles will show you many favorites and a wide range of librarians and libraries.  Enjoy!

“It’s Perfectly Normal” tops ALA’s 2005 list of most challenged books
Here are the top challenged books this last year:
“It’s Perfectly Normal” for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group;
“Forever” by Judy Blume for sexual content and offensive language;
“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group;
“The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content and offensive language;
“Whale Talk” by Chris Crutcher for racism and offensive language;
“Detour for Emmy” by Marilyn Reynolds for sexual content;
“What My Mother Doesn’t Know” by Sonya Sones for sexual content and being unsuited to age group;
Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence;
“Crazy Lady!” by Jane Leslie Conly for offensive language; and
“It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families” by Robie H. Harris for sex education and sexual content.
Boy, these folks need to read some new books! Some of these titles have been under attack for years and years. Let’s give them a break and find some new books to question.
Seriously, the good news is that some of the old guard have fallen off the list like Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, and the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.