Quick Saturday Links: March 29, 2014

March 29, 2014 |

I like to save links to roundup on a biweekly basis just because it’s easier for me time-wise, and it lets me read more stuff before I share it. But I had a few things that I wrote this week I wanted to share, and I saved a few things from other sources I really wanted to share sooner, rather than later. Thus, a quick links round up.

This week, I was alerted to this incredible video regarding the allegations of sexual abuse within the DFTBA community. But this is a video that’s about much more than that. It’s about consent, it’s about adult-teen relationships and the necessary boundaries and protections that should be in place, and it’s a plea to be a female and be heard within the male-led community. This is a lengthier video, but it’s worth every minute — I found it really chilling when it hit the 8 to 10 minute mark especially. The girl who made the video is 16, and she has been posting about her efforts to have her voice heard in the community at her tumblr (which is definitely worth checking out). Aside from what the video covers, watching this reminded me why making an effort to not just listen to, but amplify, the voices of girls is so important.

A number of really great conversations about race happened this week. Spend some time with this article from Rich in Color called Is Eleanor & Park Racist and Other Questions to Ask. Then go read Justina Ireland’s post about writing diverse characters and how to do it (which is relevant, of course, to those who read characters of other races because these same things apply when analyzing and discussing and thinking about the characters in a story).

To put the diversity discussion into even more context, Malinda Lo looks at diversity within the Publishers Weekly 2013 Young Adult Bestsellers, complete with pie charts.

At Book Riot, I wrote what might be my favorite thing I’ve written, which is a censored history of ladies in young adult fiction. I don’t tend to get worked up about comments a whole lot, but I found it fascinating how many of the comments thought I was writing an opinion about the history of women in YA fiction, rather than writing an actual history. This piece isn’t in the least discrediting the fine work men have done in YA; it’s instead saying that ladies have done really great work too. Their work has tended, though, to be the most readily challenged, censored, or overlooked. (Also, I heard from a lot of people they didn’t know S. E. Hinton was a woman — it wasn’t just one or two people, it was a pretty impressive number).

I’ve been having a lot of fun writing the Book Fetish posts every other week for Book Riot. I’m not a shopping person in the least, yet I think looking for really cool bookish things you can buy is a riot. Here’s this week’s round up, which includes comic book boots, a Dr. Seuss charm bracelet, a Library of Congress tote bag, and author pins you can wear.

Wilda Williams from Library Journal wrote up this really nice piece about the “new adult” fiction conversation starter Sophie Brookover and I put together at PLA earlier this month. Her summary makes me think we got across exactly what we wanted to.

This week in books, I read This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, which was a nice graphic novel though I think maybe better appreciated by adults than most teens (not all, though!) and Wildlife by Fiona Wood, which is out-of-this-world good contemporary realistic fiction coming out this fall.

Links of Note: March 22, 2014

March 22, 2014 |

Pictured above: the displays I did in our teen area for women’s history month. Rather than stick to historical novels about females, I thought it’d be more fun to do a display of books featuring great girl characters. When I went back the day after I took this picture, I saw it had been nicely picked at, which makes me so happy.

I promised that I’d do a roundup of links other people had written that fit into the “About the Girls” series, and I’m going to put those in this biweekly roundup. If I missed something, leave a comment and let me know. This is going to be long, so prepare a couple cups of coffee or tea and settle in. First, the general links of note:

There has been some interesting stuff coming out of the UK in relation to gender and marketing, particularly where it comes to books. The Guardian talks about how parents have been pushing back against gendered book marketing, and The Independent decided they will no longer review titles marketed exclusively to one gender. This reminds me of when Jackie pointed out the sexism and gendered approach Scholastic took in one of their series and how Scholastic responded.

This is a really thought-provoking post about how Divergent and The Hunger Games avoid real issues of racial and gender violence.

Anna has been working on the Everyday Diversity project for a while, which aims to promote diversity in kidlit, particularly in the library. Here’s what it is, and here’s how (and why) you can get involved.

So, the sexual abuse scandal rocking the vlog world? I don’t know enough about it to write about it with any sense of authority, but I have read a few things touching on aspects of what’s going on that have been thought provoking. First, Carrie Mesrobian touches on why the video Hank Green made about consent is problematic and then Liz Burns talked about power, policies, and ages in regards to this situation and in libraries more broadly. And actually, I lied: I did write a little bit about this on tumblr, mostly giving some more thoughts on what Carrie and Liz had to say.

Jeanne wrote a really thought-provoking post about the DFTBA scandal, too. Read this post, read the updated post she links to, and definitely read the comments.

Foz Meadows wrote a killer post in response to a New York Times piece about dystopias and YA authors that ran a few weeks back. What’s in here about gender is especially fantastic.

Curious about raw numbers when it comes to bestselling books? Here’s PW’s facts and figures for the bestselling 2013 books (which raises a lot of questions in my mind regarding the New York Times Bestsellers list now — why wasn’t Rick Yancey on there longer? Why wasn’t Sarah Dessen on there longer?).

I know I’ve shared this before but I’m sharing again because I love this series. Sarah Thompson’s still running her fantastic “So you want to read middle grade?” If you’re like me and know nothing about middle grade or if you’re a huge fan, this series of guest posts are excellent.

Speaking of book recommendations, Courtney Summers is doing this new series on her tumblr where her headcrab makes YA recommendations (“What’s a headcrab?” is a question answered there, too). She’s also giving away a copy of What Goes Around and an advanced copy of Amanda Maciel’s Tease, which looks really good. Three books with three tough-to-read-but-all-too-real teen girls.

Jennifer Rummel wrote a really excellent post for The Hub this week that traces British women’s history through YA fiction. Check it out.

Diversity in YA has a book list to 10 diverse YA historicals about girls.

I really liked this post and perspective: The Fault in the New York Times Bestsellers List.

I often forget what a wonderful resource Pinterest can be for readers. One of the best Pinterest accounts out there, Lee & Low’s, is one you have to have on your radar if you’re looking for diversity in your collections, in your reading, or in your reader’s advisory. This is a goldmine.

Matthew Jackson, who has written for us a few times, has an excellent column up at Blastr talking about 21 YA novels that pack a genre punch. This is especially for those readers — adults — who are skeptical about how well-written YA fiction can be.

So I’d made a call for people to feel free and write about girls in YA any time during our series and I’d round them up. I am going to miss some posts, so please, alert me to others if I have. And if you’re still so compelled to write on this topic, do let me know when you post, too, and I’ll try to include it in a future link round up.

Karen over at Teen Librarian Toolbox wrote about the problem of relationships and girls in YA fiction and talks about five of her favorite titles featuring girls.

Liz Burns on female friendship in YA fiction, including three books she loved about girl friendships and she asks for input on more (with suggestions in the comments).

Ellen Oh talks about the ongoing problem of sexism.

Over on her tumblr, Sarah Rees Brennan answers a reader question about female friendships and dives deep into unpacking what friendship portrayals in YA look like and more.

I had a teacher in touch with me about how she used two of last week’s posts about unlikable female characters to spark a discussion in her classroom as it related to the book they were currently reading. She was even kind enough to share with me the classroom verbatim, and this discussion — with teenagers — is so fascinating and exciting and I hope it elicits other similar conversations with teen readers.

Cait Spivey wrote this excellent post that asks and expands upon a simple question: “You know YA is about teenagers, right?“

Brandy, at Musings of a Bibliophile, talks about the unlikable female characters she loves.

Jenny Arch tackles characters, gender, and the age-old likability question.

This post by Adrienne Russell is fantastic: I’m not here to make friends. Those last couple of paragraphs in particular are outstanding.

Sarah Andersen is working on something with her students and their reaction/interaction with gender and reading and I cannot wait until she shares more about it. That feels like such a tease of a sentence, but she’s been polling her female students about their reading lives and experiences and influences to see what, how, and where gender and what they’ve been taught may impact them. This should be fascinating.

My posts elsewhere:

I was out of town when last week’s Book Fetish ran on Book Riot, but here it is. There’s something here for your Harry Potter fans and your fans of making cookies.

I rounded up the things I wrote in relation to being on the Printz ballot, including a new guest post at Abby the Librarian about more favorite Printz honor titles, over on my Tumblr.

Links of Note: March 8, 2014

March 8, 2014 |

Happy International Women’s Day!

I’m in denial that the Public Library Association conference is this week, as it doesn’t feel like March yet around here. If you’re going to be in Indianapolis for the event, you can come hear me speak on either “new adult” fiction or about effective, dynamic teen programming. I’m only sticking around for Thursday, so I hope if you’re going, I get the chance to bump into you.

Here’s a serving of links from the last couple of weeks. If you’ve read anything great lately, let me know in the comments:

Speaking of PLA presentations, in preparation, Sophie updated the resources page we have at the reader’s advisory chat blog. So if you want to know anything about “new adult” fiction, you’re covered here.

Liz Burns talks about the Rachel Canning case, and in doing so, she highlights YA books where teens have moved out of their homes.

A lot of recent talk about likability lately (and oh so much more to come) lead Jenny Arch to writing about the topic herself.

Have you been following the sexual violence in young adult project from Teen Librarian Toolbox? You should check it out. This week, there were two excellent posts from authors Christa Desir and Carrie Mesrobian on the topic of consent in YA that are well-worth reading. TLT’s Karen also wrote about consent in YA lit.

Are you a fan of the backlist? Simon & Schuster’s begun a new project all about backlist — and it’s not limited to their own titles. Check it out.

I have been really looking forward to reading danah boyd’s It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens and lucky me, it’s available as a free download. If you work with teens or care about their lives and interactions in the digital world, I suspect it’s a title you’ll want to check out, too.

Publishers Weekly last week wrote about the shifting and changing children’s book market, and it’s fascinating (and complex and a little conflated). The piece that fascinated me the most was that 78% of those who purchase YA are 18 and older — aside from the fact that it shows adults are buying YA books, it doesn’t tease out a lot of the factors here. Credit cards aren’t things teens have easy access to, and if they do, it’s a parent’s card. It doesn’t pull out the adults buying for teens. Take the numbers with a grain of salt, rather than as signifiers of something significant.

Dahlia Adler put together a compendium to QUILTBAG young adult and new adult. The first half leans a little more toward those who are seeking representation for their work, but the second half is a really worthwhile reading list of recent and forthcoming LGBTQ titles.

The seasonal children’s book preview is up for Fall 2014 at Publishers Weekly, if you want to jam your to-read lists a little more.

My friend Anne recently put together an unconference for children’s librarians in Michigan, and I love how she talks about coming up with the idea and putting the entire show together.

Here’s where else I’ve been lately:

At Book Riot, I talked about why the VIDA count matters and how women have always written great books . . . they just haven’t been recognized for it.

Also at Book Riot, it was my turn for book fetish, and I found not only an amazing $1600 “Archie” clutch, but I also found some really neat (and affordable) book luminaries.

Coming up:

Starting Monday and running through the end of next week is a series I’m so excited to put together and share. In honor of women’s history month, as well as in light of ongoing discussions of gender, representation, likability, and more, I thought it would be great to ask a host of female YA authors to weigh in on their favorite female YA authors, their favorite female YA characters, or any other topic relating to girls and YA.

We have 10 excellent, thoughtful, fun, and interesting guest posts lined up from Jennifer Brown, Elizabeth Scott, Sarah Stevenson, Morgan Matson, Sarah McCarry, Sarah Ockler, Corey Ann Haydu, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Justina Ireland, and Jessica Spotswood. Prepare to walk away with massive reading lists, as well as opportunities to dig in and talk more about girls and girl reading in YA.

Links of Note: February 22, 2014

February 22, 2014 |

Being better at taking pictures of my displays at work also means more pictures of my displays at work becoming images to lead off link roundups. This is how I decided to put together a black history month display; the sign in the back says to read books by and featuring black people/characters not just this month, but every month. I’ve been thrilled with seeing these books go out.

On to this week’s links. If I’ve missed something big or interesting, I’d love to know!

The Cybils awards were announced on Valentine’s Day, last Friday. Check out this year’s winners in every category, including speculative YA fiction, where Kimberly served as a judge.

Have you heard of the Tiptree awards? This annual award and list of honors is given to science fiction and fantasy novels that “expand or explore our understandings of gender.” This year’s list is pretty awesome, so check it out.

I can’t say I didn’t see this coming, though it still makes me sad and makes me wonder whether it’s time to consider an alternative eReader, but it looks like Barnes & Noble is discontinuing its Nook Touch. What happens if B&N gets out of the eReader business all together? Do all of those ebook purchases also just disappear when your device kicks it?

This discussion in the New York Times about whether or not we need “negative” book reviews is really interesting. I’m firmly on the side that yes, we do. Not just because it saves the time of readers, but many times, I will pick up a book because of a negative review (either there’s something I want to see for myself or I tend to disagree with the reviewer and their negative review suggests it might be the exact right book for me).

There is a really nice piece in the Boston Globe about Candlewick Press. I’ve loved so many of the books Candlewick has published, and this gave even more insight into how they choose their titles and how they have grown as a business.

For the librarians: collection development in four easy steps.

I love Laurel Snyder’s post over at Medium about boys and girls and reading and gender. Boys will be boys and girls will be accommodating.

How cool is Waterstone’s recreation of famous literary scenes in LEGOs? Very cool.

On the CBC Diversity tumblr, Aaron Hartzler wrote a really great post about religion in YA. More than worth the read and consideration in light of diversity.

Speaking of diversity, Cheryl Klein’s post about diversity and the challenges and complexities of publishing diverse titles is more than worth the read. Then go read Beth Revis’s post about diversity and why it matters, especially in the YA world.

What’s the current state of reader’s advisory? This is an interesting and enlightening read all around, but the part that stood out to me most was this: “Many librarians perceive that changes in the makeup of library staff are harming RA service. Many librarians now are not readers, their colleagues say, or at least don’t read widely enough to become expert readers’ advisors.”

You are all reading Molly Wetta’s blog, right? If you don’t, you should be. One reason is that she does a spectacular job of book roundups of new and forthcoming titles. Case in point: here’s a roundup of 2014 LGBTQ fiction.

One of my favorite non-book related blogs to read on the daily is Design Sponge. There’s a little bit of everything here, and I’m usually surprised by the fun things that pop up. For example, this interview with one of the Google Doodle designers is worth the read.

I’ve read a ton of blog posts highlighting YA books that tie into the winter Olympic sports, but I think the one over at Crunchings and Munchings is the most comprehensive. Check it out.

Here are this year’s SYNC audiobooks, which will be available for free each week during the summer. This program connects teens and audiobooks, though obviously anyone can download them. They’ve offered this program for a few years and their choices are a great mix of new titles and classics.

There is no such thing as a “real reader.” This post is perfect.

Malinda Lo broke down the diversity on this year’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list and compared it to years past. This is fascinating stuff.

My posts elsewhere:

I was resistant to Tumblr for a really long time, but it turns out I am really liking it for pulling together quicker thoughts between blog posts. Last week, I talked a bit about The New York Times‘s YA Bestsellers list and how there is only one female on it. It took off a little more than I expected and it’s driving home the point I need to look at the series list, as well as other lists.

At Book Riot, I rounded up a ton of the “best” of lists that tackle everything from adult genre fiction to picture books into one post, with descriptions of each list and links right to them. Enjoy.

Do you like fancy drinks while you read? My husband and I concocted 14 drinks to pair with 7 YA romance novels — 7 of them with booze and 7 of them without. It’s possible we have been working our way through those ourselves (the drinks and the books).

Apparently I’ve done a lot of writing at Book Riot in the last two weeks. Here’s my monthly installment of “Beyond the Bestsellers,” this month on what to read after you’ve read Marissa Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles” series. Retellings ahoy!

Adele, from Persnickety Snark, is back to blogging after a three year hiatus. One of the things she wanted to do was talk with different bloggers about how the blogging world has changed in that time, and she was kind enough to talk with me. So if you’re curious about the blogging world, how it’s changed and grown, how Kimberly and I have changed and grown, and you want some recs for great blogs to read, here you go! This is a series, and I’m eager to see what other bloggers will have to say about this.

Links of Note: February 8, 2014

February 8, 2014 |

I’ve been really good about photo documenting my displays in the teen area since starting this job in 2012. It’s helpful to me in not only thinking about what I’m doing, but it gives me a quick visual in what I might not be doing, too. The display above came out of an idea I had been wanting to do but never approached management about — and then when it came up in management notes that adult services would be doing a blind date with a book display, I asked if I could in teen too. Voila! I love it. Not only is it a fun way to entice readers, but visually, it just looks really nice too. I wrote really short but enticing descriptions of the books and I’m eager to see how it plays out with readers.

On to this week’s links! There’s a little bit of everything, I think. And as usual, if there’s something good I missed over the last couple of weeks (especially because it took me a week to fully recover from ALA), let me know in the comments.

Outstanding Books for the College Bound‘s list is finally live! I am so wildly proud of this list and love that it offers such a variety of books. I’m going to talk more in depth about many of the titles, as well as how to use and promote the list, in the coming weeks. But go! Dig in! There are 124 titles, 25 in each category (except for in social science, where we couldn’t choose a final title and decided to only pick 24).

Did you know this week was Dawn Schafer’s 40th birthday? I never thought book characters aged. This post over at Rather Be Reading about Dawn and her legacy with the Babysitter’s Club is fun.

Should books for children that contain profanity come with a warning label? While I feel like this topic is so old and overdone and doing nothing but spinning wheels right now, it might be of interest because there’s not only an initial post, but there’s a nice followup from the publisher on the specific book being called into question.

Every wonder what it might be like to serve on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA)? Edi, one of this year’s committee members, talks about her experience and it’s really interesting.

Speaking of BFYA, here’s a nice writeup about the teen feedback session at ALA.

A little more on BFYA — how about a look at the books which landed both on the BFYA list and on the Quick Picks list? Angela Frederick breaks down the overlap.

This isn’t a new post, but I found it while looking for book-inspired cookie cutters last weekend (if you don’t look around for really off-the-wall things once in a while, you’re probably lying). I’ve never quite understood or appreciated what a 3-D printer might be able to do, but when I saw that you could make cookie cutters on one, my perspective changed a little bit. Shakespeare cookie cutters! Made from a 3-D printer! This is really fun.

I can’t wrap my mind around how much money people are willing to pay to have an author at their book club. YES, pay the author to attend. But $750 for one book club appearance? I can’t imagine what their dinner bill for the club must look like.

Malinda Lo has a really valuable resource to YA and YA-friendly books about LGBTQ characters of color.

This is a longer read, but it’s certainly one to spend some time with: “First Times” in YA Lit.

Fan of figure skating? Jennifer Rummel wrote a nice roundup of YA books (and some movies) where ice skating plays a role in the story. Check it out.

Did you know February is women in horror month? Becky, over at RA for All (which I reiterate is a must-read blog for those who are reader’s advisors or who love learning about books and reading, period, especially adult fiction), talks about the celebration this month, her favorite female horror writers, and much more.

Adele is blogging again at Persnickety Snark! I used to read her blog when she updated it regularly, and so her coming back is super exciting. I’m not a huge podcast listener — I used to be able to listen to “Welcome to Night Vale” when it was warm enough to go for walks outside — but I dig Adele’s roundup of what she’s listening to. Maybe I’ll have to give them another shot.

These books have secrets. These books have secrets I REALLY love knowing.

So you probably know Judy Blume’s covers are getting new looks. But did you know that they’re being updated for middle grade readers, as well as young adult readers? Some books will get redesigns for one or the other and some will get dual redesigns. It’s interesting (and a little confusing). Here’s the scoop with the middle grade cover images. I’ll be honest and say I’m not in love with the YA redesigns. The tag lines are pretty bad, especially.

Women, own your accomplishments and be proud of your work.

Elsewhere for me:

I put together a timeline to black history in YA fiction over at Book Riot this week, and I think it might be one of my favorite — and most eye-opening — pieces I’ve done. Historical fiction is an area I’m fairly weak in, despite liking quite a bit of it, and I found my knowledge of black historical fiction to be even more lacking. But as it turns out, it’s not necessarily my own lacking. It’s just a genre REALLY lacking in YA fiction. I built a solid list, but thanks to the help of a bunch of awesome librarians, I was able to draw together some more. What’s disturbing, though, is how the books fall in history. There’s a lot in some areas and virtually nothing in others. WHERE are the books about teens living and making art during the Harlem Renaissance? What about the 80s and the era and birth of hip hop? We need more variety in black historical fiction. While we have some and it covers important ground, this needs to get better. Also bothersome is how little of this is recent.

I’m presenting with three other teen librarians next month at the Public Library Association’s conference, and we’re seeking input on what we should talk about. We want to make this the kind of presentation that’s useful to attendees who have questions and want answers, so we’re soliciting questions people might have about teen programming. Have one? We’d love to know.

I’m taking on partial responsibility for Book Fetish over at Book Riot, too. Here’s this week’s collection of bookish items and accessories you probably need in your life or need to give someone else in your life (a comic book dress!).

Earlier this week on my post about YA urban fiction, and we had a reader comment asking about urban fiction for YA readers featuring LGBTQ characters. So I pulled together a quick list at Tumblr — feel free to add more to this, if you know of others.

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