Best of...

The Best of 2010 lists are starting to come out. The variety of these lists are a really cool way for me to do some collection development. There are lots of diverse groups producing the lists... teachers, students, librarians, library organizations, award committees, publishing companies and that makes for interesting review reading. The first of the lists on my radar is the Kirkus Review's 2010 Best Books for Teens.

The others that I watch for are:

Cybils
Michael Printz Award
National Book Award
Booker Prize
Teen's Top Ten
Alex Awards

With the exception of the Alex Awards, I am often a bit skeptical of wholesale acceptance of award winning books. I know librarians are trained in most things book-ish and publishers do the book-ish thing for a living but I also know that these people are not teenagers (nor am I). I like recommendations from people who the books are intended for. That is why I am always also on the look out for teen reviewers.

If you want to be a reviewer for library books and you happen to fall between the ages of 13 and 19, email me and let me know! HNHS students and otherwise are welcome!

Amazing library post of the year!!!

Hello everyone! The HNHS librarian is back in action. After a lengthy hiatus, I am back with lots of interesting library-related links to share. Here's a couple of fun ones for starters:

Awful Library Books: this blog is dedicated to all the awful library books that we librarians remove diligently from the shelves. Haven't you seen that one about atomic war from the 1950's? What about those teen advice books with pictures of girls in plaid knee socks? Be gone! But first, take a photo of the cover and send it to this blog so that we may all chuckle at our past.

The Travelin' Librarian: this blog entertains with ridiculous cartoons about libraries and librarians (what high school student doesn't love those?). There are other interesting posts with snarky library videos and some informative stuff about what to do if you want to be a librarian.

If you are curious about what I do all day, a lot of what I do all day is read book reviews and blogs to figure out the best way to teach you about research and to find the BEST books for you to read. Some of the blogs I read for that are:

Brown Paper: this blog is written by an Southeast Asian Canadian person who reviews books written by people of color. She reviews books from a person of color perspective which I find extremely valuable.

Reading in Color: similarly, this blog author is a person of color AND she's a teenager. So her thoughts and opinions about books are especially extra cool. I seek these people out because they do a great job of helping me find books that reflect the incredible diversity here at HNHS. This is really important for me to do for you all. It's good to have variety.

Here are some other blogs I read regularly:

• Reviewer X: awesome international YA reviewer.
• Librarian in Black: technology in libraries... lots of links to new products and 2.0 things.
• Blue Skunk Blog: a blog specifically about school libraries.

The moral of the story: I read a lot!

Happy almost four-day weekend!
-Ms. Haverstock