What does it mean to be a hero?

How was the weekend? Hope it was a least a little bit relaxing.

This week (or should I say last night) I read another YA book that I wanted to chat with you about. Each Wednesday, I feel pretty accomplished because I have read a book before then, and I have something to write to you all about. Then its about that Sunday that I realize, have I started reading another book for THIS Wednesday? Some of the time the answer is yes, some of the time the answer is no. This week it was a no. But, what needs to get done gets done, so here we are at another book blurt.

This week I read Barry Lyga’s Hero Type. Lyga is the author of The Astonishing Adventures of FanBoy and Goth Girl, and Boy Toy. Both books have been highly acclaimed by the American Library Association and many other important places like the New York Times. I haven’t had a chance to read those books, but the synopsis of Hero Type really caught my eye, so I figured I’d read it.

The book starts just after our protagonist, Kevin Ross a.k.a Kross, is in the right place at the right time to save a girl from being raped. The entire town goes “Kevin Krazy” as he calls it. Everyone wants an interview, there are “Thank You, Kevin” signs in every store window, and the mayor wants to give him the key to the city. Then, just as quickly, Kevin is thrown from his pedestal by throwing some of the medals (some which said, “Support Our Troops”) away, with a reporter taking pictures of the whole thing. Now, the entire town is outraged! They can’t believe that their “hero” doesn’t support the troops!

So begins a roller coaster of Kross wrestling with what it actually means to support the troops, and trying to convince the other people in his school, and in his town, of what he finds out. Although this book wasn’t a light read, I had a great time with it. It brought up some very interesting points on the whole issue of freedom of speech, symbols, and thinking for yourself. It also brought up some interesting points about being popular and being patriotic.

While I enjoyed the book, I do have a couple words of caution. There is some swearing and some sexual references throughout the book. The uses weren’t gratuitous, and they were realistic for the characters and situations, but they are still in there. With any book, its important to look at the whole picture, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and ask why the author put the stuff in there. It is also important to know what you look for in a book, and if you are okay with that kind of content in the books you read.

Teen Marketing

Morning everybody! I’m often accused of being too happy in the morning, but I figure that’s a great problem to have.

Anyways, I first wanted to mention that I didn’t get a book blurt post out this week. I think I’ve mentioned it a few times, but my senior research class is quite a bit of work. I had a huge project due on Wednesday, and I dedicated the day to putting the finishing touches on it. I know, that is probably an excuse, and I’ll try not to let that happen again. I’ll definitely be back on Wednesday with an update on what I’ve been reading.

Last Friday, Alysun Sanders dropped in for a visit. She told us a little about her book, Talli's Tale, how she got published, and also about her new series she's writing, The Hollow Series. It was cool to actually meet her in person.

In other news, I feel pretty important. As I mentioned last week, the Idaho Commision for Libraries is doing a Fall Youth Services training, and they are having me present about teen marketing in Coeur d’ Alene and Moscow. As some of you know, I am a communication arts major at Lewis Clark State College, and public speaking is one of my passions. I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned about teen marketing with my fellow librarians.

But, then I have to ask myself, what have I learned about teen marketing? First of all, that it isn’t easy. Getting people to come to the library is difficult, and teens like a really good program. So I’ll keep working in that direction. Secondly, get the word out to as many people as possible through as many different means as possible; facebook, blog, twitter, youtube, flyers, and ridiculousness.

Thirdly, I think its taking one step at a time, and not being discouraged when a huge crowd doesn’t show up at your event. We’re making progress, slowly, but surely. I hope that anyone who reads this blog or has come to one of our teen programs has enjoyed themselves, and I hope to see them again as we keep working toward bigger and better teen programming.

So I’ll probably share that and a few other things to my colleagues at the trainings. In addition to the public speaking opportunity, I’m also getting to work with other librarians from the commission and another library, which is always a treat.

Making sure that my job isn’t normal, I got to help out at some second grade tours yesterday. Hayden Meadows sent three classes walking over to our building, and Miss Cassie and I had a great time showing them our different sections. The bookmobile garage was a huge hit!

Lastly, Airband Awesomeness is tonight at 7pm! Airband is pretty much the end of our October programs (other than turning in the pledge and project forms for Wrestlemania), and I’ve had a great time planning, promoting, and actually doing the programs. I’m excited to see any performers that show up tonight, and even if you don’t have a song, please come down and enjoy some great performances. Myself, a good friend of mine, and our library director, John Hartung (who himself played in a rock band in high school) are going to be the judging panel.

Hope to see you tonight, and if I don’t, I’ll be coming your way on Wednesday with a book blurt.

Authors and Reading Groups

For the past couple of weeks, I have been planning programs; sending emails, taking phone calls, making posters, and putting stuff in the courier. All of this planning is basically coming down to the next two weeks. You might ask why this would be the case. There are two reasons. First, I am striving to have one teen event and one tween event every month. This means that a lot of my time is spent planning for said once a month program. The other reason is that October 17-23 is the national Teen Read Week, and we are celebrating it with some programs!

Tonight I’m super excited to hear Alysun Sanders speak. The program is technically for grades 5-9, but anyone is welcome. I had a chance to talk to Alysun on Monday, and she is really looking forward to coming down. If you are interested in writing at all, or if you want to support a local author, then come on down tonight from 6:30-7:30.

Working backwards, I went to Bryan Elementary yesterday. One of the fifth grade teachers and I are starting a Guys Read group at the school. Guys Read is a website that was started by author Jon Scieszka. There are Guys Read groups all over the nation, and we are starting one here in town. Every two weeks we will be meeting to discuss books that other guys will also enjoy.

Back on Monday, I had my monthly Ka-Boom Science Experiments program. This is something I’ll be doing every month on the second Monday from 4-5pm. This month, we did water experiments. Since our Summer Reading theme were water related, I figured that a water experiments were appropriate to start the fall as well. We got a chance to talk about density, the freezing temperature of water, and how boats float.

For the rest of the week, I was working on a promotional video for our Airband Awesomeness competition on October 22 from 7-9pm. Last Friday, Karen, Cassie, Connie, Emily and I got together to do some filming. It took us about two hours, and we were having way too much fun! You can watch the video on Facebook here. Hope you like it, and I hope you’ll join us for Airband Awesomeness on the 22nd.

In November, there is going to be a youth services conference put on by the Idaho Commission for Libraires, and I’ve been asked to present! I’m supposed to talk about teen services and ways to promote it. Now, I’m still working on better ways to get the word out about my programs, and I don’t think that I’m ever going to be an expert on it. But, I’m really honored to be asked to share my ideas with other librarians.

Hope to see you tonight or next week. Take care!

Coliseums and Costumers

Imagine the gladiators of ancient Rome, fighting to the death in the Coliseum. Now imagine the Olympics: sponsors, competition from every area of the world. Now imagine a runway model show: make-up, costumers. Now imagine Dancing with the Stars: competitors, judges, audiences. Now imagine a mixture of all of these events where fights to the death are televised for all to see. Such is the world of Panem, the home of Katniss Everdeen.

Set many years in the future, Panem is located in what used to be called North America. The capitol keeps an iron grip on its population which is divided into 12 districts. Having crushed a rebellion many years in the past, the capitol is loath to crush another one. Striving to keep the districts in check, the capitol instituted the Hunger Games to show just how weak and powerless the districts were. Every year, two “tributes” from every district, one boy and one girl, are “reaped” to participate in the Hunger Games. These twenty-four young souls will fight to the death while the rest of Panem watches.

Katniss is a strong, self-sufficient teen who grows up in District 12. After her father died when she was ten, she has been the sole provider and defender of her mother and younger sister. At the reaping this year, she is shocked and dismayed when her younger sister is chosen to participate in the Hunger Games. Without thinking, driven by her love for her sister, Katnisss volunteers to go in her place. So starts Katniss’s adventures in the Hunger Games, which are everything but normal. Katniss started with something almost unheard of, volunteering to take the place of someone else, and she keeps knocking the socks off of the viewing audiences, and the Gamemakers.

The Hunger Games is the first in a trilogy of books by Suzanna Collins. The second book is Catching Fire, and the third book is called MockingJay. Throughout the book, Katniss struggles to find a way to show the capitol that she isn’t just a piece in their game; that she is a human being that they will have to deal with. She starts this trend in training, and continues it throughout the competition. This book is very exciting to read and keeps you interested in how Katniss will survive throughout the games. Twenty-four other competitors are out to kill her, not to mention the elements, wild animals, and anything else the Gamemakers want to throw at her.

As the subject matter implies, this book is pretty violent. It doesn’t get into too gory details, but the types of deaths of some twenty-two people are talked about and explained. Despite this factor, I devoured the book. What would a society look like that had to send their children to battle to their deaths? What would the process of training, competition, and elimination look like? Collins does an excellent job looking at the consequences and culture that would come from this kind of system. Collins also does an excellent job looking at our own fascination with competition, and applying that to the world of Panem. This book is expertly written, and it is no wonder that it is so popular. The only issue I have with it is the high violence content, but this story wouldn't be complete without this violence content. If you have a problem with violence this book most likely isn't for you. But, if you don't mind fantasy violence, then this is a very interesting story.

Library Awesomeness!

Sorry about being a couple days late. This weekend ran away from me. But, there is plenty to talk about, so here is your weekly update on Monday.

Last weekend I was chillin’ with my friends at Triple Play, and a little girl came up and gave me a bear hug. For a split second I was wondering who she could be, and then her mom gave me some context as she said something to the effect of “It must be library time.” This little girl had seen me at one of the library programs and decided to give me a hug even though we weren’t at the library. I love my job!

Another cool thing that happened this week was the Idaho Library Association’s Annual Conference. There were two amazing aspects to this conference for me. First, I got to attend a SPLAT unconference. SPLAT stands for Special Project Library Action Team. Many of the techno savvy librarians in Idaho are a part of this group, and I got to spend the morning and afternoon on Wednesday just gleaning from their knowledge and ideas. I now have plenty of websites and things to look up.

During lunch at the conference I got the pleasure of hearing Chris Crutcher speak. Chris is a well known author whose books often find themselves on banned book lists. Although I’m still wondering where I sit on having some kinds of questionable content in books, hearing Chris’s take on book banning was very interesting and worthwhile. He talked about finding the truth in a story, and bringing that across in his books. Chris was an excellent speaker, and hearing someone else’s take on intellectual freedom is always interesting.

Looking back over the week I’m realizing that I had an even busier week then I thought I did. On Thursday, I got the pleasure of going to Bryan Elementary and awarding kids their summer reading prizes. Bryan set up a special program called the Bear Necessities where kids could get prizes for reading books during the summer. The Hayden Library was one of the biggest sponsors for the program, so Bryan invited us to be a part of the award ceremony. Seeing kids get excited about a free book, and a room full of parents, teachers, and students cheering for reading was a very rewarding experience.

Lastly, the youth services staff and I filmed a promo video for our Airband Awesomeness competition, which is on October 22 from 7:00-9:00. We took “Vacation” by the Go-Gos, grabbed our blow up guitars and Curious George rulers and rocked for a good two hours! The video should be up soon, and it is going to be amazing!

Looking toward this Friday, Alysun Sanders will be joining us from 6:30-7:30. As I’ve mentioned before, she will be discussing writing, being an author, and getting published. Snacks will be provided, and Alysun is really excited to talk to all of you!

Hope you can join us on Friday, and I’ll talk to you guys later.

The Dark Side

Well your Young Adult Librarian has crossed over to the dark side [gasp]. What could I possibly mean? I have now read the first installment in the Twilight series.

Compared to the other books I’ve read, Twilight has the most hype, the most fans, and the probably the highest emotions and discussions attached to it. Is it wrong to read the book? What is so great about it? Should it be encouraged? All of these questions and many others went through my mind while I was reading it. I figure that you all know the general story of Bella, the awkward heroine, and her lovable and terrifying “vegetarian” vampire, Edward, so I won’t bore you with a plot summary. Instead I figure I’ll talk about some of the questions and some of the answers that I’ve come to about Twilight.

One of the questions that I couldn’t help but ask was what makes a good book? There are so many people that say Twilight is such a great book, and yet there isn’t something tangible to latch onto that statement. Is a great book something that keeps you on the edge of your seat? Something that you can identify with? Something that challenges you? Something that entertains you? Something that you can’t put down? Something that you want more of?

Having said all that, I don’t consider Twilight a good book. I read it, and I didn’t hate reading it. I didn’t want to throw up or throw the book at someone. But, if someone asked me if I liked the book I would probably say no. But, that doesn’t discount the fact that there are many people that greatly enjoy this book, and I don’t have a low opinion of you because you do like the book. But having said that, there were some things that I found disconcerting about the book and the series in general.

Basically it comes down to this question: Why do we like Twilight?

I want a book that has a message. I like when a book has a message I agree with, but I also enjoy a book with a message that challenges what I believe and makes me think. What is Twilight’s message? Is it ever nailed down? Do we know what the message is? Is the message of Twilight something we can get behind and encourage?

I’m not saying that everyone reading this book will become absorbed by it, and I’m not saying that it is an evil book. But I am saying that it is curious to me that the demon in the story, Edward, is painted as the angel. You might argue that Edward is really a good guy because he denies the monster that he is and doesn’t kill Bella when he easily could. That’s true. But, is true love being with someone because you can’t resist them, or is true love doing the best thing for the other person?

Overall, I think I have more questions after reading Twilight than when I went into it. What do I think about Twilight? I’m still trying to figure it out.

My Literacy Breaks

Welcome to October! How is school going for everybody?

Well there were no school librarian meetings or blood donations this week, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t having plenty of fun. Miss Cassie does a literacy playgroup every Friday from 10:30 to 12:00. Over the summer I had a chance to help out at the program. It was loads of fun; reading board books on the floor, playing with puppets, doing some crafts. Anyways, Miss Cassie had a meeting to get to last Friday, so I got to do part of literacy playgroup. Nothing like reading a big book and saying high to our youngest patrons for a little while.

Speaking of early literacy, I am also getting the chance to go to the Kinder Center once a month. Kinder Center is where most of the kindergarten kids from this area attend school, and we at the Hayden Library are working on partnering with them. We head into the library, the teachers bring their kids in, we do a quick storytime, and then the kids go back to their regular school day. But, it’s funny how things that you know you are going to do still sneak up on you. I knew that I was helping at Kinder Center, that it was the first Friday of every month, and that it started in October. For some reason, all of those facts didn’t add up to the fact that I was starting Kinder Center TODAY! Luckily for me, I have colleagues that remind me of things when I’m being ridiculous. Thanks Cassie and Karen!

Also speaking of younger kids, I’m getting a chance to help at Mountain States Early Head Start every month. They are starting a new program called Men and Kids. This program is targeted for fathers and their kiddos, and myself being the only male in the youth services staff, I get the opportunity to head over there. This past week we made applesauce and our own pizzas. Good stuff!

Moving into a little older group, one of the fifth grade teachers in our area approached me about helping with a reading club. Reading clubs are obviously fabulous, and having a partnership with a school will keep the program going, and help the kids as they learn. I love it when you are looking for community partners, and community partners are looking for you.

Well none of this stuff really pertains to young adults (except the fifth graders who are getting close to my targeted age group). But, it’s a part of my job that I wouldn’t give up. Most of my duties pertain to organizing, promoting, and running t(w)een programs, and I’m lovin’ it; but if that flow is interrupted by reading books or making applesauce with a toddler, I’m also lovin’ that!

If you have an opinion about the Twilight series, check out my book blurt this Wednesday. Catch you later.