Who Knew That "Friday" Could be Better than "The Mall?"

Watch out, Robin Sparkles...



Rebecca Black is after your fan base.



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Library School: Hurts So Bad

Too much of this video - fixing paper jams, the idealism of library students (which I still maintain!), the lack of understanding from outsiders as to why on earth anyone would want to become a librarian - rings true for me not to post this...



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Sassy Get Friend takes on Children's Lit!

Several months ago, I first learned of the wonders of Sassy Gay Friend when a friend passed along the link to a YouTube video about Romeo and Juliet.  Then last night I came across Sassy Gay Friend: The Giving Tree.



And this morning, I was directed to an article about 10 children's book heroines in need of a Sassy Gay Friend.  Hilarity ensues.

The Old Spice Guy Loves Libraries, and So Should You!

Thanks to MotherReader for the link.

Challenges and Cover Changes and Librarian Songs, Oh My!

A bunch of random happenings learnt today:

Menifee Union School District in California has pulled copies of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (10th edition) from 4th and 5th grade classrooms in response to a parent complaint. Turns out there are certain words in that dictionary that are "sexually graphic." I always knew Webster was a perv out to corrupt our youth!

Little, Brown has announced they will be putting new covers on the The Mysterious Benedict Society book series (which, btw, my 6th graders LOVE) in response to complaints* of "whitewashing" the character Sticky. Sticky is described in the text as having "light brown skin" and is even shaded in internal illustrations, but appears white as ghost on the book covers. I'd make a "sticky situation" pun here, but SLJ beat me to it. Alas.

Now, to close-out with something fun, FlavorPill brings us Mixtape: 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians.

Awesome job, Leila for your activism on this issue!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Dancing With the Stars Dogs!

I know that I should probably use this blog to post YA lit reviews and news, but when dogs like this exist, and someone has taken the time to put videos of them up on the internets, I think posting funny animal videos takes precedence...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

At first I was giggling, and then I was speechless at how graceful this dog was in her dancing. And then I giggled again. Amazing. My dog is so talentless in comparison.

Thank you Mambo Dog for existing.
Thank you Telemundo for inviting Mambo Dog on your program.
Thank you College Humor for posting this video.
Thank you Best Week Ever for alerting me to the existence of this video.

'Tis the Season to Go Prom-ing (or Not)!

As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, teenagers across the country are thinking about one thing . . . summer vacation. But before they can get there, there's prom.

Back in the 90s, when yours truly was a senior in high school, I couldn't wait for prom. I wasn't in the popular crowd*, but my ragtag group of drama and band geeks, who, at the time were obsessed with Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (oh, who am I kidding, we still are!), successfully lobbied enough of the other geeks and nerds to vote Cindy Lauper's Time After Time as our prom theme. Prom would also be my first (and only) time that I attended a school dance with a boy NOT as "just friends." I bought a fantastic Cinderella-like baby blue gown and long white gloves. I got my hair and nails done. I danced the night away, and I had so much fun.

Of course, not everyone's prom goes that well. YA literature is full of hilarious prom mishaps like Mitch's peeing on his white tuxedo in Steven Goldman's Two Parties, One Tux and a Very Short Film About the Grapes of Wrath. And of course, no one ever had a worse prom than Stephen King's Carrie. Maybe that's why some folks - seemingly an increasing number - don't even go to prom. And for these reasons, John Green proposes that we get rid of prom.

Much ado is made about prom and love it or hate it, prom is something quintessentially American. In honor of prom, the YALSA blog brings us this fabulous post all about prom, with a little bit of history, a few links to help teens prepare to celebrate safely (whether attending the school-hosted party or an alternative prom), and of course, a list of YA novels about prom.

Of course, no prom post would be complete without movies! Afterall, what American girl hasn't seen Pretty in Pink and from that moment hoped for a guy like Blane and a friend like Duckie? There are tons of movies about prom. Elle brings you their top ten, while Gurl.com helps you find one to suit your mood.

And before I go, against my better judgement, but recognizing that you can't post about how you loved your prom and then not post any pictures. . .

It's the only one I could find on short notice, and I had to crop extensively to protect the innocent, but there I am. I have no idea where my gloves got off to, but those suckers came all the way to my elbows.

* Did you ever notice how no one ever claims to have been popular in high school? Somebody must've been popular, right? I assure you, it wasn't me.

Boys and Girls Action! Action! Action!

Finally, the wait is over. For years, it was an empty promise, but today it has become a reality. MTV is releasing the entire series of the sketch comedy show The State on DVD.

Back in high school, this was my favorite television show. I was one of the few people to own copies of the book State by State With the State and the Skits and Stickers VHS - both of which, sadly, my sister* lost and never returned after borrowing. I taped their CBS Halloween special, but it was eaten by a friend's* VCR. When I ran into Michael Showalter* and his mom at a Barnes & Noble in Princeton, he promised me that his friend Raph would send me a tape of all the episodes, but that never materialized.

All of my State-i-ness is gone. July 14th can't get here soon enough.

If you somehow missed The State, this trailer should set the tone...

The State - MTV Shows

My never ending thanks to Best Week Ever for notifying me of the scheduled DVD release, and making this truly one of the Best Week's EVER!

* Don't any of you think I've forgotten. Oh no. No. No. No.

Puzzle Party! (How Did I Miss This?)

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE board games and puzzles of all sorts. And so it comes as a shock to me that I somehow missed all the chatter going on in the kidlitblogosphere about Winston Breen's Puzzle Party*.

To celebrate the release of Eric Berlin's new book The Potato Chip Puzzles, a jim dandy of a puzzle contest is going on and there's a chance to win really awesome prizes!

The contest is pretty simple and straightforward:

Each day between April 16th and 22nd, a new puzzle will be posted on a different blog. Go to the blog, click on the puzzle link, solve the puzzle, and e-mail your answer to puzzleparty@gmail.com by midnight. Every day, one winner will be selected from the correct answers. That winner gets a signed copy of The Potato Chip Puzzles.

But it gets better! To answer the final puzzle on April 22nd, you'll need all of the daily answers. And the winner of the final puzzle will win not only a signed copy of The Potato Chip Puzzles, but two dozen other books from G.P. Putnam's Sons!

Today's puzzle is posted at Fuse #8, but be sure to go back and solve yesterday's puzzle over at A Patchwork of Books, and then head on over to Shelf Elf tomorrow, etc.

Yesterday's puzzle was easy, cheest, one, two, threesy, but today's is proving to be a bit more challenging. I've figured out most of it on my own, but I think it's time to call in the reinforcements.

*Note: I recognize that The Potato Chip Puzzles is a book for middle readers and not YAs, who doesn't love a contest with books as prizes and fun puzzles to solve along the way? Just participating is guaranteed to be fun!

Have Yourself a Tasty Little Tax Day!

And now for a post that has nothing to do with books or teens, but is fun, because you can get free and/or discounted food!

Here's some tax relief I think we can all get behind...


Whilst roaming the interwebs today I came across a bunch of really cool deals available today only. After you've made your last-minute tax preparations and have your return safely postmarked, be sure to swing by these retailers and take advantage of these deals. And if you hear of any additional ones, put 'em in the comments.

Chick-fil-A
Visit a participating restaurant and hang onto your receipt. The “Tax Relief Day Special” lets you return before April 30 to receive the same order for free.

Cinnabon
Stop by Cinnabon from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for free cinnamon-roll bites. Word on the street is that this freebie is in high demand and quantities are limited, so don't dally!

Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream and Treatery
Get one free scoop of ice cream.

PF Chang ’s China Bistro
Dine at one of P.F. Chang's restaurant locations, and save 15% on the total bill.

T.G.I. Friday’s
Receive a $5 gift card when you spend $15 to $25, or a $10 card for a purchase of more than $25.

There's also a deal at Taco Del Mar, but since I don't know what that is, I'll leave it to you to find the deal in the links below.

Thank you to Yahoo! Finance, AOL's Wallet Pop, and Main Street for alerting me to these tasty forms of tax relief!

Completely Off-Topic: Baghead Cat

This might just be one of the most hilarious YouTube videos I've ever seen.



Thank you to Best Week Ever for posting this gem and making my day.

That is all.

Parade of Awesome: Spring/Summer 2009

This spring and summer I will be embarking on an adventure which will henceforth be known as the "Parade of Awesome." It is a parade of exciting personal ventures (many of which are library related and will be blogged about, but some that will not) that will take me around the country and across the globe.

Just what might such a "Parade of Awesome" include? I'm glad you asked. In date order, I bring you the the calendar of events...

April 4-5: Conference for my summer position as Director of Workshops and Resources (one of the Operations Director roles) at Teach For America's Chicago Institute (actual conference is in Houston, TX)

April 5-11: Maxing and relaxing with my family-in-law on Hilton Head Island, SC

April 13: Day of shadowing at the middle school where I will work next year in Alexandria, VA

April 16-17: Koha (open source library software) Conference in Plano, TX

April 24-26: Conference for my summer position as Director of Workshops and Resources at Teach For America's Chicago Institute in Chicago, IL

April 27-29: NJLA Conference in Long Branch, NJ (I'm totally pumped to be attending both the pre-conference on Tween Services and GSBA Luncheon with John Green; my excitement for all of the terrific NJLA YA Section programs is a given)

May 3: Half-Marathon in Long Branch, NJ (goal is sub 2 hours)

May 4-18: Belated HONEYMOON in Italy!

May 19: Rutgers SCILS Convocation (though perhaps by then it'll be the SCI Convocation)

May 20-25: Wedding and festivities for friends in Denver, Co

May 29: BookExpo America in New York, NY (I can feel the Catching Fire ARC in my hands now!)

June 5: Little brother's Rock-n-Roll wedding at the Madison Hotel (pretty!)

June 9-July 29: Rockin' out in the resource room with leveled readers, manipulatives, teaching guides and new teachers at Teach For America's Chicago Institute at our host university, Illinois Institute of Technology. (the photo is of one of last summer's resource rooms)

And then, in August, I'll probably do a few little things, like buy a house and move to Virginia.

Let the parade begin!

Pump Up the Volume: It's a...Library Party!

I don't care if this is a children's song. It rocks my world.

Thanks to Fuse #8 for the link.

Everybody Else Is Doing It...

so why can't I? I planned to do this this morning, but then there were hairs to cut and miles to run and jobs to work. Alas! Without further ado, I bring to you...

The Facebook 100 YA Books Meme

From Karen Brooks-Reese

The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.Instructions:

Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "*" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!

1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
2. Kit's Wilderness / David Almond *
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie *
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson X+ (MOST favorite-ist book EVER!)
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson X
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews X (my FIRST adult book! I don’t count this as YA)
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher X
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway *
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block X
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor *
12. Forever / Judy Blume X
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell *
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth *
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares X
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray *
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot *
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus X+ (I was big into existentialism in high school)
19. Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card
20. Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers *
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky *
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie X (YA? Really?)
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn *
24. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan X
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer *
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins X+ (MOST favorite-ist book of 2008)
27. The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen *
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow X
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer *
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn *
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden *
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going *
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding *
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green X+
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse *
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen *
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton X+
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins *
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson *
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause *
47. Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee X
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan *
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart X+
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry X+
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry *
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar *
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch X (Boo and hiss! If I never read the name “Gigi Boudakien” again in my life, it will be a happy one)
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler *
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean *
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick *
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta X+
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer X+ (I confess.)
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock *
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers * (I tried once. It didn’t work out. I’ll try again.)
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini *
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer *
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman *
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X+
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling X+
80. Holes / Louis Sachar *
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger * (I tried once. It didn’t work out. I’ll try again.)
82. Push / Sapphire83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi X84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman *
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli *
87. Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas *
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien (Watching the movies was quite enough, thank you!)
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman *
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar X
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld X
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang X
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin *
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak X
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak X+


Alicia’s Total = 28

Kind of embarrassing, I suppose. Of course, there are at least 50-75 YA titles that I’ve read but aren’t on the list. Plus, I’ve only really been reading YA for the past year. So I guess it’s not so bad after all. There are definitely a lot of *s on the list. There is only so much time!

What titles would I add to the list?

Go Ask Alice/Anonymous (I hated it too, but it's quintessential YA)
Boy Toy/Barry Lyga
The Chocolate War/Robert Cormier
Pride and Prejudice/Jane Austen
Lovely Bones/Alice Siebold
Life of Pi/Yann Martel
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time/Mark Haddon

Others who have blogged their results:

Librarilly Blonde
Librarian By Day

Cult of (Blog) Personality

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't I? My Google Reader was full of blog entries about the Typealyzer, and who am I not to give into peer blog pressure?

Turns out my blog is a ISTP, also known as "The Mechanic." You know my blog, all independent and problem solving-like just like its mom*. This blog really does "enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people [or blogs] and often seek[s] fun and action both in [its] work and personal life." No wonder my blog and I get along so well. Of course, I'm a bit more extroverted than my blog.

P.S. If someone knows how to do that cool thing where you cross out text and can still see it, please share your secret.


*I'm a bit creeped out I just called myself a "mom," even if it was just mom to a blog.

Show Yourself!

So, word on the street (and by word on the street, I mean that I read on Kristi(e)'s blog Purple Polka) is that it is Delurking Week!

You might not know from the proliferation of posts, but I suffer from constant self-blog-doubt. So if you're reading this, let me know by leaving a comment. A moment of your time will make my day and give me the strength to keep on blogging.

Update: To make this more fun and purposeful, I'm going to take a page from Abby the Librarian's book and ask that you include in your comment the answer to this question: What was your favorite book of 2008? OR What book are you most looking forward to in 2009?