So yesterday I was shelving in children's. There were two younger boys who decided it would be a good idea to start running around and playing tag, so I asked them to stop running. One of the boy's mothers promptly appeared and chastised her son for running ("Were you running? We don't run in the library!"), and made him stay with her for the rest of their visit. The other boy had no parent in sight.
I continued shelving, and every once in a while I'd hear rapid footsteps. At one point I peeked around a shelf, just in time to see him halt to a walk, and he said "I'm not running..." in that sing-songy mocking voice that just drives you crazy.
Then, I was at the dvds, and he came over to me. This is the conversation that ensued:
Boy: "So, what? Are you just doing some work?"
Me: "Yes, that's what I'm doing."
Boy: *Pauses* "Do you know who I am?" (in that tone of voice and hand gestures that insinuate that I should indeed know who he is because is all-mighty and important)
Me: "No, who are you?"
Boy: "I'm James, 3rd grade boy genius."
Me: *trying not to laugh* "3rd grade, huh? That's a good grade."
Boy: *nods and walks off*
I just about died. When this kid grows up... he's going to be terrible.
So I get an email every day from NPR called The Writer's Almanac. It gives a poem and then several "this day in history" type things. Today, it said that it was Shel Silverstein's birthday. That he was born on this day in 1932. So I was like, ooh, I like him, I need to do a blog post because he's an author (one of my favorites) to celebrate! Then I went to Wikipedia. And it said that his birthday was 9/25/1930. Uh... what? Further checking says that his birthday was indeed on 9/25, so I went to my Writer's Almanac from 9/25... and surprise! It was his birthday then, too! NPR fail. But... this means we should celebrate Shel Silverstein's birthday once a week apparently. :)
This is the biography NPR sent out today:
The award-winning cartoonist, poet, essayist, journalist, and composer Shel Silverstein (books by this author) was born on this day in Chicago, Illinois, in 1932. He is perhaps best known for The Giving Tree, a book that blurs the line between children's fantasy and adult philosophy, and the 1981 poetry collection A Light in the Attic, which held its place on the New York TimesBestsellers List for more than two years.
Silverstein grew up in a small Midwestern town where, by the age of 12 or 14, he was a lousy baseball player and a flop with girls, but good at drawing and writing. He would later declare that he had been lucky to be relatively unaware of other cartoonists and writers so that instead of copying he developed his own cockeyed style and view of the world. And it turned out to be fortunate that the girls did not want him, because art and writing became his focus, instead of the usual adolescent pursuits.
After high school, Silverstein studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then Roosevelt University but dropped out in 1953 to join the Army. He served at several American military bases overseas and began producing a series of military-themed cartoons that, following his return to Chicago, would be published as his first book, Take Ten.
Back in Chicago, Silverstein started submitting cartoons to various magazines, eventually attracting the attention of the editors of Playboy, who hired him in 1957 as one of their leading cartoonists and sent him to far-flung locations to produce Around the World, an illustrated travel journal that included trips to Japan, Russia, and Africa, as well as the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, the White Sox training camp, and a nudist colony.
Critics have referred to Shel Silverstein as a Renaissance man — a designation that seems rather appropriate when one considers a record of his work. Not only did he illustrate his own essays and poems, he also produced a large number of plays and comedic stage shows, played numerous instruments and composed dozens of pop and country-western songs, including most of the songs recorded by the rock band Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. He recorded numerous albums and performed on the Dr. Demento radio show. Silverstein composed Johnny Cash's Grammy-winning single "A Boy Named Sue" and in 2002 was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His book of children's poetry Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of all time.
Silverstein believed that written works needed to be read on paper, that there was a correct paper for every particular work, and would select the type, size, shape, color, and quality of paper for his books, refusing to authorize paperback editions for most on the grounds that the work would be diminished. In a 1963 interview in the humor magazine The Aardvark, Silverstein explained that "Craftsmanship is something that's really going out now. The young people have no patience with craftsmanship any more. They think, therefore they am [sic]. It's not enough. You don't think, therefore you are. You do, therefore you are, or else you aren't."
In celebration of his Un-Birthday... here are a few awesome things from Shel Silverstein:
My favorite cover of my favorite song of his:
Another awesome, well-known song he wrote:
And my favorite poem:
"Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony"
There was a girl named Abigail Who was taking a drive Through the country With her parents When she spied a beautiful sad-eyed Grey and white pony. And next to it was a sign That said, FOR SALE—CHEAP. “Oh,” said Abigail, “May I have that pony? May I please?” And her parents said, “No you may not.” And Abigail said, “But I MUST have that pony.” And her parents said, “Well, you can have a nice butter pecan Ice cream cone when we get home.” And Abigail said, “I don’t want a butter pecan Ice cream cone, I WANT THAT PONY— I MUST HAVE THAT PONY.” And her parents said, “Be quiet and stop nagging— You’re not getting that pony.” And Abigail began to cry and said, “If I don’t get that pony I’ll die.” And her parents said, “You won’t die. No child ever died yet from not getting a pony.” And Abigail felt so bad That when she got home she went to bed, And she couldn’t eat, And she couldn’t sleep, And her heart was broken, And she DID die— All because of a pony That her parents wouldn’t buy.
- A Light in the Attic
And, because it's worth mentioning... The Giving Tree is one of the best children's books ever written. What were your favorite Shel Silverstein works?
Things are back in swing at the library with school being back and the after school special has returned. Luckily, since today was Friday and we close at 3, most of the kids didn't show, but the other afternoons have been full of misbehaving and/or loud adolescents.
There have, of course, been a few cute kids that haven't fit into the above category. My favorite was yesterday. I was shelving in children's, and this little girl (maybe 7 or so) came up to me.
Girl: "So.... where do you guys keep the good chapter books here?" Me: "Well, that depends on what you mean by good." Girl: "Ummm.... books about butterflies. Or insects."
So, if you're looking for a good chapter book, pick one about butterflies or insects!
If you read the title of this post... you will see what I sat and listened to for about half an hour while shelving over in children's today. This little girl, who was probably 4 or 5, kept yelling "Mama! Mama! Mama" over and over and over. And over. In a shrill, little girl voice, with that upward inflection at the end. She was sitting at one of the KiddiMacs, and her little brother, who was probably about two, was sitting at a different one, pounding his fists away on the keyboard.
"Mama" was wandering around the children's section on her phone.
I was about three steps away from grabbing my supervisor to have her talk to them, when "Mama" finally went over to them to stop them from misbehaving. After dragging them away from the computers ("Mama-ing" and fussing the whole time) and trying to get them to sit down and read, they continued to be loud. It was just headache-inducing.
Apparently the answer for fixing misbehavior is bribery. With stickers. After a couple of minutes, my only male co-worker, and older gentleman, came over to the children's section. I gave him a grateful look, knowing that he was going to say something to them. He sat down at the little table with them, and gave them each a sticker. I'm not sure what he said, but it was probably you can have a sticker if you're quiet. Which, they were. Mostly. With
a lot of shushing from "Mama."
And while there was another screaming children family, there were a couple of kids and parents today that asked for my help, politely, so that was nice :)
And here's a random book I found while shelving a bit ago....
Hello lovely readers (if any of you are still with me)! Sorry to have been away so long!
I only have two short things to share with you all today, but I wanted to get a post out anyway.
Firstly, our Dummies books are coming home this Wednesday (August 3rd). Yay! They're having a reception/celebration at HQ, if any of you in the area want to come help us celebrate! We'll also be putting stickers in all of the books to mark that they were won in the contest, and so you can come help with that as well :) For more information, check out the fb event.
Secondly, we had the most ridiculous thing happen yesterday involving a Terry Goodkind fan/library patron. I walked behind the help desk and saw this huge stack of Terry Goodkind books, probably 8-9 tall. I made a comment to my supervisor along the lines of "Wow, somebody's a Terry Goodkind fan."
She replied, "Yeah, such a fan that she took all of the barcodes and RFID tags off. And she's had these since February."
Apparently, this woman came into the library, placed the stack of books on the counter, said that they were "lost" and that she had found them, and that she was in a hurry so to just "let her know" about charges and such. But she had taken off all of the barcodes and RFID tags off... meaning that there was no way to track the books. And, because both of those things are really stuck on, ripping them off pretty much ruins the books' appearance. Luckily, one of the books was covered in Mylar, and she didn't manage to get that barcode off, so she could be traced in the system and be charged appropriately (meaning she gets the maximum late fee charge on EVERY book). But seriously? Who does that?
I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but one of my favorite things about working over in the Children's Section so often is getting to find and read through some pretty awesome books. The artwork, the stories themselves, and the characters are just so interesting to me. So today, I wanted to share some of the more sweet-tastic ones I've found recently with you all.
The Crows of Pearblossom by Aldous Huxley - What first caught my eye about this book was the artwork on the cover. I love the style it's done in. Then I saw that it was written by Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World), which I thought was pretty awesome. I read through it, and in true older children's story fashion, it's very... blunt, and somewhat violent. Huxley wrote it in 1944 (it was the first of two children's stories he wrote) for his niece. You can read more about it here.
Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman - Another book that I was drawn to by the artwork on the cover. It's so unique, and very unlike any illustration style I had seen in a children's book before. The story itself is very out there, revolving around a man who has crazy hair (surprise!) and a young girl who wants to tame it, but is warned not to because of all of the things that live inside of it. It's wild, and I love it. (You might recognize Neil Gaiman... he wrote Coraline several other science-fiction novels.)
Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen by Nancy Wood - Alright, I'll admit it, when I first saw the title of this book, I was a little skeptical. But then, when I read through it, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the artwork beautiful, the message in the story is pretty great as well. Obviously, it leans more toward the creationist side of explaining how the universe/world came into existence, but it does so in a more progressive manner (taking into account geological estimates of the age of the earth and how long it would have taken for everything to come about). I thought it was very well done, and appreciated it's novelty.
Not much has been happening at work lately. Lots of bomb room work and shelving in children's because of the SRP. I have encountered some really adorable, and some really bratty, children lately though, which has made things fun. My favorite was this little girl from the other day who was probably about 9 or so. I was shelving, and I had a book that she wanted to see in my arms, so she said, "Excuse me, if you don't mind may I please see what that Great Illustrated Classic is?" So polite, I was pretty much blown away.
Another entertaining conversation I overheard was:
2 children asking for something and acting kind of hyper.
Adult says no.
2 children ask again.
Adult says "N. O. What does that spell?"
"No!" chorus the two children excitedly and they pretty much start behaving.
I just had to laugh... I can only wish that someday my children will be that excited about being told "no."
Also, another shout-out to everyone that's been participating in my Summer Reading Program! You are all awesome, keep reading! :)
So on Tuesday when I pulled into work, I noticed that our parking lot was rather full. Comparatively. I didn't really think anything of it, though. But when I walked into the back room, and looked up the hallway leading to the floor, there were about 3 full carts (2 of which were children's) that needed to be shelved, and when I glanced into the bomb room, one of my coworkers was tackling a huge pile of books and media.
So I went out onto the floor, pushing one of the childrens' carts over to the childrens' section, and lo and behold, there's already a half-full cart sitting there (composed of mostly Easy Non-fiction... woo!). So I push my full cart back across the library and park it back in the hallway and start heading back over, when I ran into Mr. B (a friend from high school who I hadn't seen in forever). Yay!
After we chatted for a bit, I went back over to children's to tackle the cart. The area was packed with kids and their parents, and it was a mess from kids just picking something off the shelf and leaving it elsewhere, be it on the floor, on top of the shelves, under the computers, etc.
Two hours later, I had finished that cart, helped a couple of kids find the books they were looking for, and finished half of another cart. Then I took my break, and when I finished I figured I'd check on the bomb room. At that moment, it was definitely very appropriately named, as it looked like a bomb had actually gone off. There were books piled on the counter. The crate holding the returns from the library lobby was completely full (actually more than full, I'm pretty sure there was a mountain of items bulging over the top of the crate) and about every 5 minutes, people would drop off more. I spent the last hour and a half trying to catch up, and when there were about 20 minutes until closing, this is what I had left to check in:
That huge tower is made up of cd books, and the one that's about half its size is dvds. Both of which have to be checked and made sure that every disk is accounted for. So at that point I finished checking in all the books, and went out to the helpline and asked if someone could please help me with the media? As the announcement was made that the library was closed, I had just finished with everything.
This was the result:
These are all carts lined up in the hallway of books that need to be shelved. There are about 5 and half completely full carts there (2.5 of which are more children's carts). Good thing we don't open until 1 on Wednesdays!
I'm not sure what caused the influx... and I haven't been back to work yet, so I'm not sure if it was just Tuesday or if this is how we're going to be over the summer. If it is, it's going to be crazy!
Also, yay for the people participating in the Summer Reading Program! You guys rock! :D
So it was announced on Tuesday that we have two people transferring from our branch. One of whom is B, my supervisor. :( I'm really bummed, things just aren't going to be the same without him there. But I am happy for him -he's leaving because he's been promoted to Assistant Branch Manager, which is really great. His last day is tomorrow, and luckily I'll be working. It's going to be a bittersweet day, I'm sure.
On Wednesday, we had a going away luncheon for him and the other girl who is leaving (she also got a promotion, yay!). I don't work on Wednesdays, but I went in anyway for the luncheon because I wanted to be there, and brought a pasta salad. When my co-worker who was in charge of putting the event together told me to bring a pasta salad I was like... "uh... I've never made one of those, but okay!" (I associate pasta salads with mayonnaise, which I can't stand.) So I checked my favorite recipe site and found a recipe for a "Sesame Pasta Chicken Salad." Here's the link to the original, but here it is with the alterations I made:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 (16 ounce) package bow tie pasta
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast meat
1/3 cup chopped green onion
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 cup julienne carrots
Directions:
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add sesame seeds, and cook stirring frequently until lightly toasted. Remove from heat, and set aside.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain pasta, and rinse under cold water until cool. Transfer to a large bowl.
In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seeds, ginger, and pepper. Shake well.
Pour sesame dressing over pasta, and toss to coat evenly. Gently mix in chicken and vegetables.
It was so good, and definitely gets better the longer it's refrigerated so the flavors can meld together.
I'm so looking forward to people's participation in the SRP now, especially after getting your comments on my last post! And 2 people have already filled out the form! Yay! I also got to fill it out for the first time, because I finished Charlaine Harris's latest, Dead Reckoning, today before work (review to follow soon)!
Work was rather bizarre today... the storms threw everyone off I think. We lost power briefly, and the lights kept flickering enough to shut the computers off a couple of times. It was crazy to watch out in the parking lot with the rain just pouring down and the trees been blown practically sideways. Someone also managed to drive their mini van up on the sidewalk when they were trying to leave. We had a leak inside the building.
And, when I was on my break and sitting in the breakroom, I noticed this woman walk slowly by the opening, but I couldn't see her very well at all so I just ignored it because she went into the staff bathroom. Then, as she was leaving, I got a better look at her and it was a mom with a walking toddler and a baby in a stroller. And it was a "huh, that's weird, she shouldn't be back here but maybe she was sent back here for some reason," moment, and then I heard one of my co-workers say, "Ma'am?" When she was confronted about it, she said she had seen the sign for the bathroom, when the sign clearly says "STAFF ONLY." And then she went on to just shrug it off and ask if she could check books out off the cart. T, my co-worker, said she was clearly not all there, and the first time she had seen her that night she was just hanging out on the floor next to our hold shelves. Go figure.
The last day of school is tomorrow! That means no more after school special. And, we're only open until 3 because it is a Friday, so it'll be a short one!
School is letting out, and that probably means it's time for Summer Reading Programs at a library near you. If you were like me, many of you will remember getting out stacks of books and keeping your log over the summer of books that you read, and then taking it in and getting prizes... stickers, certificates, bookmarks, books, etc. I was pretty bummed when I found out that the SRP didn't apply to anyone over teenage level (not that I really would have had time to participate while I was in college...).
But now I'm out of college, and surrounded by SRP fun at the library (we got to decorate after our staff meeting the other day!), so I've decided that I'm going to participate in my own Summer Reading Program... and I want you to participate with me!
First, set a goal for how many books you want to read over the summer (as many as possible counts :) ). Then, between today (May 23) and August 13th, read! I've created a form (you can access it below, or I'll be making a static page for easy access), and all you have to do is fill it out and I'll have a spreadsheet that logs what you've read! (Make sure to use the same name for yourself each time for easier tracking.)
And, in true SRP fashion, I'll have "stickers" and "bookmarks" for you to print out or put on your blog soon. And, you'll get a certificate for participating. :D
If you have any questions or comments, please comment below! I look forward to seeing what everyone's reading!
Happy Friday everyone! Here's a laugh to start your weekend :)
The following was found during the after school special (the magical time when the local high and middle school students swarm and hang out at the library) yesterday. In case you can't read it, I have provided a transcription for "easy" reading.
Happy Birthday Baby Face :)
Waddup Baby face
I remeber the 1st time we met was at your game
You was shy and you didn't even wanna give me a kiss instead you gave me candy LMAOO!!, but after that we became friends
I love you like a fat kid love cookies!!!
Better yet more than you love basketball!!! and we know that a lot.
Whenever I got some bad goin on I always talk to you about it. You never seem to fail me. I'm writting this b/c this is how I feel about from the bottom of my heart. You are so important to me like an heart and a liver :)
I love our silly convos and your goofy stories. It always cheers me up
I apprieciate God for [giving] me one of his best angles we[?]
It was officially announced a couple of days ago that GCPL did win the For Dummies contest, so we will be getting 1600 For Dummies books added to our collection (over 100 books per branch)! :) Thanks to those of you who helped us out!
Not much has been new at the library lately. We have a staff meeting on Wednesday, so maybe there will be some news then. I'm not sure what's going to be discussed, but I enjoy it when everyone who works at the branch is there at the same time. Maybe I'll make some cupcakes or cookies or something. Any ideas?
I just finished reading Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I really want to see the movie, but I have this mental block where most of the time I can't watch the movie unless I've read the book first. It's basically because while I don't mind going into a movie knowing what's going to happen, I'd rather not go into a book with the ending ruined. Especially when, in my opinion, books are generally better than their movie counterparts, so it's that much more of a disappointment.
But, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed Something Borrowed. Emily Giffin's a great writer, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her stuff when I can (i.e. when I get through the 6 million other books I have out at the moment). If you're into romance novels (the chick-flick kind, not the raunchy kind), then I suggest you read it. I give it a 4.5 (out of 5).
I first noticed Cassandra Clare's City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments Series,a few months ago when I started working at the library. When I see that a book is circulating a lot, I instantly take note of it, and when a copy finally comes through without a hold on it, I'll check it out. So that, coupled with B's suggestion that I read it, I figured pretty much meant I was going to like it. And I did!
The book starts when 15-year-old Clary heads out to a NYC Club with her best friend, Simon. Once there, she witnesses a murder committed by a group of teenagers with strange weapons and even stranger tattoos. Clary's prepared to call the police, but then the body just disappears into thin air and she discovers that the murderers can't be seen by anyone but her.
From this point on, Clary enters the world of the Shadowhunters, warriors who's life purpose is to rid the world of demons. Within 24 hours of the murder, Clary's life is turned upside down. Her mother disappears, she is attacked by a demon, and she meets Jace, a gorgeous Shadowhunter, but a class-A jerk.
But the question is why would demons be interested in mundanes like Clary and her mother at all? You'll just have to read it yourself and find out!
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't particularly moving, and there were moments that it was very information-heavy, but I still thought it was exciting and compelling, the characters were well-developed, and it was just a fun read. I can't wait to read the second book in the series, City of Ashes. I recommend City of Bones to anyone looking to start a new fantasy series. It is classified as a young adult fiction novel, so it's written at a somewhat younger level, but the writing is good, so I didn't really notice it that much. But I definitely give City of Bones 4.5 (out of 5) stars!
A fun side note... I'm pretty sure Cassandra Clare got her start writing Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fanfiction. I think that's pretty cool... going from fanfiction to published author.
So a short story from yesterday that made me smile...
I was shelving over in children's when a mother and her daughter (adorable, red-hair and freckles, about 8) approached me, asking if we had a copy of Nanny McPhee (the book). There was a novelization made of the book, and after looking where it should have been and not finding it, I went to the front desk and asked B to look to see if we had a copy of it. He looked, and found that it was indeed checked out, so I went back to tell the mom and daughter that we didn't have a copy in the branch, but they could request it. Mom was upset, because she had looked online ahead of time and it said it was in, and they needed it that day for some reason.. maybe for a project or something, I don't know. The daughter just looked upset.
They went to sit together and read Rumpelstiltskin, and I went back to shelving. Then I remembered that Nanny McPhee was based on The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda, by Christianna Brand. Luckily, we had a copy of that, so I hunted it down, and when they were finished reading, I brought it to them and explained, "These are the original books that Nanny McPhee was based on." The little girl smiled excitedly and thanked me, as did her mother, and they both thanked me again as they were leaving. So the rest of my shift I was just happy that I had done that something extra to help them have a positive library experience. Yeah... it's cheesy, but oh well :)
... I checked this out of the library today. I'm pretty excited! What's your favorite School House Rock song?
Today was another semi-busy day at the library. I spent my time in the bomb room and shelving in children's (no exciting customer interactions today though, unfortunately). I also had my 6 month review today (which woah, I can't believe I've already been at the library for 6 months...), and I did pretty well. Yay. :) I even got two 4s ("Sets the bar for others by going the extra mile") in "Processing Materials" and "Collection Appearance." J attributes the latter to my slight OCD... and the former mostly from my 35 minute cart the other day (turns out I don't have to do an hour test after all).
Also, thank you soo much to those of you who went and liked the GCPL For Dummies page!! We haven't heard officially from the For Dummies reps, but we're pretty sure we won! 1600 For Dummies books for our library system! That's over 100 per branch! Hooray! :D
I got to work today... one of my 5-hour shifts that happen on Fridays/Saturdays. I had to be in at 10... after getting home at 4:30 this morning (Yay for OPA and Rose Night and graduating Seniors!). So since I got about four hours of sleep, I made sure that went to McDonald's before work and got a large coffee. It didn't last very long, unfortunately, and I was definitely dragging.
But luckily, I spent the first hour checking in crates and the RPL, and the other four hours were essentially spent in the bomb room. Which worked for me, since, you know, I love working in the bomb room. One of the reasons I enjoy it is since I'm in there by myself, I can put on music. I'll just log into Grooveshark (if you haven't used Grooveshark, you should definitely check it out, it's pretty awesome), pull up a playlist, and rock out. And yes, I will sing along and/or dance around while putting the books on their carts because I'm awesome like that. My top ten songs of choice (at least for today)?
"Rolling in the Deep" - Adele
"Universe and U" - KT Tunstall
"Down by the Water" - The Decemberists
"My Moon My Man" - Feist
"Heartbreak Warfare" - John Mayer
"Dog Days are Over" - Florence and the Machine
"If I Die Young" - The Band Perry
"The Cave" - Mumford and Sons
"Smile" - Lily Allen
"Feeling Good" - Michael Buble
A few other random things:
I had a shelving timing quiz the other day... I had a children's cart that I was supposed to be able to shelve in 45 minutes. (I would have done an hour one, like my eventual test will be, but there wasn't enough material that had come in to make an hour cart, so instead we went with 45 minutes. And these tests are so... not realistic. I mean that because I am supposed to be able to shelve said cart in 45 minutes/an hour without any interruptions. So... no customers asking for help, no shelf-shifting (moving books around to make room), shelf-reading (making sure books are in order), or picking up stragglers that are in the wrong place. All of which I always do when I am shelving because it makes me crazy to have things looking/being disorganized. But I did it in 35 minutes anyway, and got a high-five from B (my supervisor whom I adore, he's fantastic) :)
About a week ago, I was shelving in the Juvenile section, and heard this man who was standing at the kids' check-out station start yelling, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" and snapping his fingers. I looked over at him (I was standing basically behind him) and saw that his kids had run off, so I figured he was calling for them. He continues yelling a couple more times, and then I hear one of my co-workers approach him and ask, "Excuse me, Sir, do you need help?" And he proceeded to reply that yes, yes he did, and that the check-out system wasn't working. I couldn't believe that he was yelling (1) in the library and (2) in order to get assistance from a staff member! Really?
GCPL is participating in a contest to win 16oo For Dummies books. Today's the last day to help us out, and all you have to do is go here on Facebook and like the page to help us win! We're in the lead, and want to stay that way, so please help us out!
A shout out to all of the lovely ladies who told me that they enjoy reading my blog yesterday! It made me feel so happy! (I.e. If you read this regularly, I'd love it if you left comments just to say hi or ask questions or share your thoughts!)
So I'm not sure if it's because I'm out of school, or because I'm around them now all the time, or some combination of the two... but my interest in reading non-fiction books is growing. Especially when they're about something having to do with Girls'/Women's studies. So when I heard about journalist Peggy Orenstein's new book Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, I was super excited and requested it right away. So while I'm not a mom, who I think Orenstein was targeting with this book, I was still interested because I can relate to girlie-girl culture. A lot of what Orenstein talks about started developing when we were around middle school age, such as the rise of the Disney Princess phenomenon.
Orenstein did a fantastic job with this book, of explaining girlie-girl culture and looking at the things that influence how girls grow up in today's world in both a serious and humorous way. The meat of it discusses how the sexualization of girlhood teaches girls that how they
look is more important than who they are as a person. Which, many of us growing up at the time we did, can relate to. And even if you can't personally relate to it, you've heard it covered in the media at some point.
I won't go into detail on everything that Orenstein covered because I could go on forever, so instead I'll give you a list of a few tidbits that I found especially interesting:
The term "tween" was coined in the mid-1980s as a "marketing contrivance," but "within ten years, it was considered a full-blown psychological, physical, and emotional phase, abetted, in no small part, by the classic marketing bible What Kids Buy and Why.
"Children weren't color-coded at all until the early twentieth century"... "When nursery colors were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy, and faithfulness, symbolized femininity."
"In the late nineteenth century, industrialization shifted to source of the family income outside the home. Without the need for free labor, middle-class couples no longer felt compelled to have more than one child [...] A few years later, however, President Theodore Roosevelt, who was obsessed with the waning birth rates among white Anglo-Saxon women, began waging a campaign against 'race suicide.' [...] Baby dolls were seen as a way to revive the flagging maternal instinct of white girls, to remind them of their patriotic duty to conceive; within a few years dolls were ubiquitous."
Also, I wanted to make sure to mention the following: "Around the time the Spice Girls broke, something called 'girlie feminism' was also on the rise. [...] It held that women's traditional roles and skills (whether scrubbing floors, nurturing relationships, or knitting) had intrinsic value; that sexual equality need not require gender neutrality; that painting your nails and wearing a PORN STAR t-shirt were, if not radical acts, at least a woman's right, a viable form of self expression and personal pleasure."
For those of you that know me, you may know that this is the form of feminism that I believe in. I do love clothes, makeup, dressing up, reading bridal and fashion magazines, Disney princesses, etc., but that doesn't make me any less of a feminist. It's your right as a woman (if you are in fact, female and reading this) to do those girly things, to want social and professional equality, but to at the same time embrace your femininity.
I loved this book. I thought it was fantastic, even if I wasn't the target audience. I definitely recommend that if you have any interest in girlie-girl culture, if you have a daughter or plan/hope to one day, or you're just woman wanting to understand the things that may have shaped you growing up, that you read Cinderella Ate My Daughter. I give it 5 (out of 5) stars!
So for those of you that somewhat know my reading tastes, you'll know that I'm into teen/young adult fiction. There's little difference, at least in my opinion, between the two, but they are shelved in different parts of the library. Essentially, the difference between them is the level of subject matter as it relates to sensitive issues (i.e. sex, violence, drug use, etc.), the young adult books (which are shelved in with the adult sections) being more mature than those placed in the teen section. So if you go into your local library (at least if it's a GCPL library), you'll find something like the Twilight seriesin the adult section, and the later books of the Harry Potter series in the teen section.
Anyhow, the real reason for this post is I wanted to put up my first book review post on the debut young adult novel by Daisy Whitney, The Mockingbirds. I just finished reading this book yesterday, and that I found it to be one of those books that I didn't want to put down - it was really very compelling.
The novel centers on high school junior Alex, who wakes up in the bed belonging to water polo-playing jock Carter, not remembering how she got there. She slowly remembers details of what happened, and comes to the realization that she was drunk and date-raped, twice, that night. However, Alex and Carter attend Themis, a prestigious academy where the faculty think their students can do no wrong, and therefore have basically no justice system in place and ignore the issues that happen at the school. So instead, Themis law is enforced by an underground student group called the Mockingbirds (yes, the name comes from To Kill a Mockingbird and there are clever references to the classic throughout the book). After some persuasion from her best friend and sister, Alex approaches the Mockingbirds for their help, and, as the novel unfolds, Alex remembers more and more of the details of what happened that night.
The novel was well-written, especially for the age-level it's targeted to. It was a good and interesting read, and offered a very blatant and honest look at the issue of date-rape. However, the one problem I really had with it is that I personally didn't feel emotionally connected with Alex. Especially near the end of the story and at its climax. I wanted to feel more, wanted to know what she was feeling, not just what she was thinking and why (which Whitney does do a good job of explaining). With a novel about a situation such as this one, I feel that the author needs to be extra concerned with connecting with the reader. Whitney herself was date-raped in college, so I have no doubt that she herself connected with the story, but I think she could have done better getting her reader to really understand.
Basically: The idea, plot, and characters were interesting and well-developed, but the level of emotional investment I had in them was lacking, so overall, I give The Mockingbirds 4 (out of 5) stars.
Hello dear readers. I apologize for my absence, but the library hasn't really been very busy or eventful lately. I'm working on a more interesting post, but in the meantime, here are more children's books written by famous people. Having shelved in children's a lot recently (I'm preparing for my 6-month evaluation, in which I'll have to shelve a children's cart in an hour... which I can do... when I don't look at all the books), I've seen a lot of books written by people that I recognize, even moreso than before.
Anyhow, here are 5 more!
Madonna (she also wrote a Juvenile book, I discovered today)
For those of you that don't know, this week is "Love Your Library" week. We've been "celebrating" it at our library, and we've had sheets of paper next to the check-out stations that ask "What do you love about your library?" My favorite answer so far went something like, "The [Library Name] people are the BEST people!!" :D So make sure to show some love to your library and librarians!
One of my favorite things about the days that I work over in the children's section is the wide selection of awesome books that I come across. Sometimes I'll come across one that was one of my favorites as a kid. Sometimes, I'll find one that is new that looks really fantastic, and I have to take a couple of minutes while shelving to read through it, or just check it out for later. And sometimes, and the theme behind this post, I'll come across a book that was written by a celebrity, and have a "Wait, what?" kind of moment.
So without further ado, here's a collection of children's books that have been written by people that you know (and may love):
Steve Martin
Tori Spelling
Cal Ripken Jr.
Weird Al Yankovic
I have to say that I love this book. It's fantastic, especially since it has the same fun language as many of his songs (written for children, of course).
Today was another pretty uneventful day, consisting of working in the bomb room, checking in the crates we received from the other branches (containing the books that people have requested), and working on the claims return list that I've had for the past week and a half.
The claims return list is made up of books that customers have said that they have turned in, but for some reason the book can't be found. Sometimes this is an error on our part (the books miss the check-in, they get discarded improperly, get shelved in the wrong place) or on the part of the customer (they only think they turned it in, have lost it, etc.). But basically when the book goes on this list, it stops accruing late fees and goes on a list that we in turn use to go hunting for the books. We do a branch one once a week, and at the beginning of the month we do an entire system-wide list. The list looks something like this:
And for some reason, this month the list was 14 pages long. So I have been working on half of it, and finally reached the last page today. And I managed to find 2 books (they're the only 2 that I have managed to find off the whole thing, it's ridiculous).
While I was looking for them, I was sitting on the rolling bench we use, and the cutest little boy came over and just stood next to me. He was probably about 2, and had blonde curly hair and dimples. Adorable. And he was like, "Hi!" to me and I just grinned and said hi back, and tried to ask him what his name was but he laughed and ran off instead of answering me. He came back a few minutes later and we repeated the routine, but I still didn't get a real answer from him. Oh well, he was still a cutie.
What I really wanted to share tonight was a book called The Wonderful Way that Babies are Made by Larry Christenson. Yes this is a real book. And it gets circulated way more than I think it should, which is a testament to the area that I live in. This book is essentially a childrens' book (although it's shelved in adult non-fiction) for parents to read to their children when asked the classic, "Where do babies come from?" question. It is an extremely Christian-centric book, some parts are written so they rhyme (at least for the younger children) and each page has a corresponding section that goes into more detail (for the older kids).
So after giving a long back story about creationism and Adam and Eve, it goes into talking about sex:
"When a sperm from the father comes together with an egg from the mother, a new baby starts to grow. God made a wonderful way for the father's sperm and the mother's egg to come together. It's something Father and Mother do that is called making love. When husbands and wives make love together, they kiss and tough and lie close to each other; for God made their bodies to fit together so the sperm from the father can swim into the mother. Making love was a wonderful part of God's plan when He made the very first woman and man. It's His beautiful gift just for husbands and wives to bring them happiness all of their lives."
And from the "older kids" section:
"Making love is one of the wonderful things God planned for husbands and wives." And "Intercourse is a very special and wonderful experience that a husband and wife share with each other. It gives them pleasurable feelings in their bodies and a sense of love and closeness to each other."
I suppose if this is your kind of thing, then this book is a pretty good resource to explain sex to younger kids. I take issue with it because of it's single-mindedness. The author makes a point of repeating over and over again that sex is between husband and wife, and condemns those who do not fit this standard, going so far as to say/imply that those who don't are terrible, horrible people. Granted, I'm aware that many people feel this way, but I don't. I like to subscribe to a more open-minded way of thinking, and I try not to judge others for their actions. Therefore, I just have to cringe when I see a book aimed at children that essentially teaches them to judge others for the things they do. There has to be a better way to get the author's message across that you should wait until you get married to make love than to say that all of those who don't are lesser and worse people than you.
P.S. Thanks for the idea for the title of this post, J! :)
Today was a rather uneventful day comprised of shelving, hunting for books, and working in the bomb room, so I decided to share a few childrens' books I've come across that I find amusing...
This is a board book based on a childrens' book called Underwear! I think it's slightly creepy that Zachary the Zebra looovvesss underwear. I have a feeling that Zachary is going to grow up having a couple of issues...
In case you can't read the little part in the corner... this gem is brought to you by the adventures of Marshall and Art. Clever.
Most of the time, one of the biggest reasons I enjoy my job is due to my interaction with the children that come to the library. For example, one of my favorite things is when I'm working in the bomb room, and a little kid will pull back the flaps covering the book drop and peek through to see where it is exactly that the books go. If I'm working back there and I see them, I'll usually smile and say hello. Sometimes they'll say hi back, or ask where the books go, but most of the time, the flaps drop back really quickly when they realize they've been caught peeking into what I assume they think of as a hidden, top-secret place.
The other day I got to show a little girl and her younger brother how to use their library cards to check out their books, they were so adorable and so excited, and another little boy got excited when I brought him a Batman book. Little kids' excitement over books is awesome to me and I love to see kids who are genuinely interested in reading. Like I said, it's these kids I enjoy and make me enjoy my job.
So that brings me to The Adventures of Monkey Boy. MB was probably about 3 years old. He came in one afternoon with a guy who's a regular at the library (the type of regular who comes in just about every day to use our computers). I have a feeling he had gotten roped into babysitting for this afternoon and wasn't really into it. So he comes in, and lets MB loose in the children's section while he sits at a computer somewhat nearby, but still pretty much out of sight of the majority of the children's section.
I was shelving books, and he was just kind of moseying around, being a kid, looking at books, etc. He was pretty cute and tame, so I didn't really have a problem keeping an eye on him. So I continued on shelving. A while later, I noticed he had sort of latched himself onto a family that was visiting. The mother had brought in her son and daughter, and was trying to sit the two of them down with her at a table for some reading time. Instead, MB was engaging the son, getting him to run around with him and climb on the furniture. I looked over and noticed the mom getting a tad exasperated, but she was still doing her best to keep her children to themselves.
Then MB decided that books = footballs. To prove this was so, he started picking books off the shelves and drop-kicking them. I glanced over at his "babysitter," who was sitting oblivious at his computer, then hurried over to MB and told him that we didn't treat books the way he was treating them. By this time, the mom was looking particularly annoyed, so I went to B (one of my supervisors) and told him what was going on. He came over and just watched for a bit to witness MB misbehavior himself, and when he started climbing on a chair, to the point that he was on the back of it, he went and got Mr. Oblivious, who took him back over to the computer where he was.
Mom was grateful, and the children's section was peaceful again.
Until a few minutes later when I looked over at the self-check in the children's section. MB had grabbed the bottle of hand sanitizer, and proceeded to use about half of it in 2 minutes. His hands were the cleanest little kid hands in the library, I'm sure, and about half of the counter and card reader was probably extra-sanitized, too, from the amount of hand sanitizer he had managed to get everywhere. I went to B again and told him what had happened (a/n: the reason I go to B instead of directly taking care of the kid myself is that that was what I had been told to do in the case of misbehaving children... let someone higher up than me take care of it). He came over to the station and cleaned up and spoke to MO again, who brought MB back to his computer, again.
I went back to shelving. And of course, MB reappeared, and started running through the children's section, and then decided that the the baskets for books (like the handheld one in the grocery store) are for sitting, standing, and jumping in. By this time, I think B and I were just like whatever, and he eventually tired himself out and passed out under the computer of MO an hour or so later.
But like I said. Kids are one of the reasons I love my job.
Hello everyone! I've been thinking about doing this for a while (starting a blog about my librarying and such) but I've finally decided to actually do it!
So here we are, at my first post...
For those of you who don't know, my official title at my job is a "library services assistant" (LSA). So technically I'm not an official librarian, but when you say you work at the library, that's what people's minds jump to, so it's just easier to go along. Officially, my first priority is to get materials back out to customers, i.e. I do a lot of shelving and checking books in (see picture below). I'd say that these tasks make up about 85% of my job, with random other tasks (shelf-reading, pulling books that have been requested, searching for "lost" books, helping customers with basic requests, etc.), thrown in sometimes.
Okay, so you're probably thinking by now how boring and unglamorous my job sounds. And it probably is, but I enjoy it. A lot. Sure, the work gets tedious sometimes, but I don't have a day where I don't see something amusing or learn something. And as I love to read, working in a place where I'm surrounded by books rocks. Plus, I work with [mostly] awesome people, and they make it enjoyable too.
So on this blog, I plan on posting a couple of things, the main thing being funny or random events that happen throughout my time at work, books that I find that are awesome or ridiculous, and maybe even some sharing as to what I've been reading lately. Enjoy, and please comment if you feel so inclined. I like feedback :)
*Also, a note about the picture above... it was taken in what is called the Bomb Room. It's a room in the back where the books go to when customers return them. When they drop the books into the crates that catch them (which are made of metal), it sounds like a bomb is going off. The walls are covered with things that have been left inside of books. A lot of which are hilarious. The picture was taken on Feb 5 after the Bomb Room had been unattended for too long, and I took all of the books and stacked them on the counter to see just how much I had to check in.
And so dear readers, I'll leave you with this, my favorite thing that I've ever found inside of a book:
Yes, that says, "I'm a bobey lady," and that is a picture of what you think it is. Oh kids...
This is a board book based on a childrens' book called Underwear! I think it's slightly creepy that Zachary the Zebra looovvesss underwear. I have a feeling that Zachary is going to grow up having a couple of issues...
In case you can't read the little part in the corner... this gem is brought to you by the adventures of Marshall and Art. Clever.
