Library & Literary Miscellany

Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip

Adam Canfield likes to stay involved–he’s involved in sports, music (the baritone), sundry clubs and quiz bowls, the voluntary/mandatory class to prepare state exams (in which he learns critical skills such as sharpening number 2 pencils). Even though Adam is already quite possibly the most programmed kid ever to walk the halls of Harris Elementary/Middle School, he has agreed to yet another commitment. He has agreed to be co-editor of the Harris paper, the Slash (it doesn’t take much coaxing considering that he has a bit of a crush on the other editor, his friend Jennifer).

The Slash has a reputation as a quality school newspaper to uphold, and Adam and Jennifer work hard to print interesting, relevant, and candid articles for and about their community. To accomplish this, they include articles covering everything from an exposé on a seedy law banning “accessory structures” (which includes basketball hoops), to a missing wooden cow reward offer, to a dental smiling contest, to a feature on the school janitor, to a mysterious gift to the school left by a benefactor for “general improvements”.

While all of these articles contribute to the plot, it is the latter story that ends up driving much of the novel’s action and discourse regarding truth, journalistic ethics, local corruption, and the prevarications of the mass media. Adam explains some hard truths of journalism to a young protegé who admires his work: “It’s not your job to write what Phyllis wants…Our job as reporters is to tell the truth as we see it. It has to be backed by facts, but that’s what good newspapers do. That’s why people read newspapers. They trust reporters to be honest about what they see…you are the public’s eyes and ears…” Phyllis and a few of the other adults in the book would have the Slash full of lies. Even as Adam and Jennifer face adult wrath and potential expulsion, they make difficult decisions about truth and compromise.

Winerip does attempt to balance the number of treacherous, nasty adults with the number of truthful, helpful adults. For every Mrs. Marris of his story he includes a Mr. Brooks. Mrs. Marris, the principal, charges them to always be sure to print stories that help “propel the Good Ship Harris forward” and not the kind that “poke holes in our bow, so to speak–bad stories, unhelpful stories, negative stories.”As Adam begins to despair in the face of so much treachery and obfuscation of the truth, his Latin-spouting, World Domination game creating, history teacher Mr. Brooks tells him, “…history certainly teaches us that treachery lurks around every corner. And yet, against all odds, despite every form of human stupidity, we Homo Sapiens are still here.”

While many (nor most, I hope) middle school editors will not be faced with the daunting task of exposing their principals avarice, all editors face decisions about what facts belong in the story and what can be omitted without sacrificing its truth. Adam Canfield of the Slash champions truth. Along the way, Winerip also satirizes the overprogrammed lives of many young people today and the prescribed nature of standardized testing.

For those who are involved in their own school papers or for those who like stories about principled young kids who stand up to and overcome adult deceit, then Adam Canfield of the Slash is a solid choice. Also, for those who like Winerip’s first book, more of Adam’s adventures with the Slash are now available in Adam Canfield, Watch Your Back! (Adam Canfield of the Slash)(2007).

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Since today is Wednesday…

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (2007)

“Toads, beetles, bats.”

Let me tell you, The Wednesday Wars Schmidt depicts the life of a Shakespeare-reading, cross-country running seventh grade boy in the Vietnam Era about as well as it’s possible to depict any historical situation through fiction. Schmidt masterfully mixes Holling Hoodhood’s personal trials and rites of passage through seventh grade with the nation and the world’s trials. Holling’s life is full of tensions of all kinds–familial, school, cultural, and religious. It is due to Holling’s religious orientation–as a Presbyterian among a class of Catholic and Jewish students–that he finds himself alone in Mrs. Baker’s classroom every Wednesday afternoon when the other kids head off to attend to their religious studies.

Wednesdays with Mrs. Baker at first seem like cruel and unusual punishment. She sets him to tasks such as reading Shakespeare, carrying cream puffs, pounding dust out of chalky erasers, and cleaning the pet rats’ cages (the rats being named Sycorax and Caliban). Yet, while Holling does suggest more than once that Mrs. Baker most definitely hates his guts, he comes to realize that there’s more to her than her teacher exterior suggests. Mrs. Baker ends up teaching him not only about Shakespeare, diagramming sentences, and proper running form but also about cultural understanding and appreciation and about caring for others outside one’s own family.

Holling’s own family come across as rather cold and distant. His father cares mainly for his architectural contracts and his status as Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1967. His mother does a lot of cooking lima beans and submitting to his father’s mandates. His sister spends her time listening to the Beatle’s, joining campaigns, rebelling against her father’s expectations, and finding herself.

Holling’s friends, on the other hand, make sacrifices for him more than once and come through for him when he’s feeling down and out. Holling Hoodhood has an authentic seventh-grade narrative voice. At times, he appears extremely ignorant and at other times he seems wise beyond his years. The Wednesday Wars stands as a strong story about friendship, baseball, wartime, cultural differences, and the impact that caring teachers can have on the next generation. It’s a well-written book that many kids will enjoy reading…really.

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Wild About Books by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Marc Brown (2004)

Even though Wild About Books (published 2004) has been around the zoo a time or two, I wanted to highlight it as a fun picture book about the love of reading.

Plus, who can resist the book’s heroine, librarian Molly McGrew? Not I, said the librarian. Wild About Books opens with McGrew’s accidental appearance at the zoo with her bookmobile. Even though it was not her intended destination, it proves fortuitous as the animals embrace her books with an unprecedented passion, all stampeding to reading:

Forsaking their niches, their nests, and their nooks,
They went simply wild, about wonderful books

There’s a little reminder that librarians are here to serve “Molly filled their requests, always eager to please.” There’s a humorous lesson about treating books right “for the boa constrictor squeezed Crictor too tight.” There’s even a plug for authors as tasmanian devils found books so exciting that they soon “had given up fighting for writing.” What’s more, there’s the excitement of a new branch library opening up–the Zoobrary.

Wild About Books is dedicated to Dr. Seuss, and Sierra’s vivid, lively, improbable rhymes have traces of Seuss’s originality. Regardless of how outlandish Seuss’s premises were (a cat in a hat, green eggs and ham, a grinch who stole Christmas), he revolutionized beginning readers in attempts to make reading more palatable and engaging for children. Sierra’s premise (animals wild about reading) is equally outlandish but also wildly engaging and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Marc Brown’s bold paintings lend credence to the unprecedented happenings. On each full page spread, Brown masterfully mixes up colors, texture, and perspectives to provide a feel of the excitement and fun that goes along with reading.

Together, Judy Sierra and Marc Brown created a fun book for animal, book, poetry, humor, and library lovers alike. There’s something for every animal to enjoy at the Zoobrary, and there’s something for every reader to enjoy in Wild About Books. Scholastic developed a lesson plan with activities around Wild About Books. Random House provides a book synopsis as well as a listing of all of the awards the book has won.

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Ingo by Helen Dunmore (2006 US hardcover; 2008 US paperback)

“Ingo’s a place that has many names, ” says Granny Carne. “You can call it Mer, Mare, or Meor…Earth and Ingo don’t mix, even though we live side by side. Earth and Ingo aren’t always friends…”

Despite Granny Carne’s words, in Helen Dunmore’s fantastic fantasy Earth and Ingo do mix–with consequences. Ingo is set partially above ground in modern day Cornwall and partially below the surface of the water in Ingo.

Ingo features Sapphire Trewhella (also known as Saph or Sapphy). Sapphy takes after her father, Matthew Trewhella, in that she has always been drawn to the sea. She recalls, “Dad used to say that the sea doesn’t hate you and it doesn’t love you. It’s up to you to learn its ways and keep yourself safe.”

It’s “Dad used to say” because her father has disappeared. His boat, the Peggy Gordon, was found without him in it, and he is presumed drowned. Sapphy, however, suspects her father’s disappearance has something to do with Ingo. She recalls her father singing, “I wish I was away in Ingo; Far across the briny sea, Sailing over deepest waters; Where love nor care never trouble me…”

Her father’s disappearance certainly troubles her and causes trouble for her family. Her mother is forced to work all the time at her waitressing job and, consequently, her older brother Conor and Sapphy spend much time by themselves.

When one day Sapphy cannot find Conor, she fears that he has disappeared just like her father. She heads out to the cove to look for him, and she finds him talking to Elvira the mermaid. This leads to her encounter with Faro the merman who takes her on a journey under the sea. On this journey, she lets go of Earth completely and becomes a part of Ingo.

Sapphy and Conor are welcomed into Ingo because they each have a little Mer in them (long story that goes into family lore about the disappearance of a previous Matthew Trewhella), but Sapphy seems to have even a little more than her brother. Her draw to the sea becomes increasingly strong after she’s been a part of it. Not-too-subtle warning signals such as a new found taste for salting her water and consuming anchovies begin to alarm Conor while her mother appears largely ignorant of all goings on. With Conor’s help, Sapphy struggles to resist the pull of Ingo.

Yet, despite her resistance, Sapphy continues to find Ingo and Faro seductive. When she’s in Ingo, nothing else seems to matter–not time, not Conor, not Earth, not humanity in general. When she’s not in Ingo but back on Earth, she finds so many troubles weighing her down–she feels in her bones that her father is still alive but he’s made no attempt to contact her, her mother has given up on her father coming back and is becoming romantically involved with a diver named Roger (a diver who’s getting increasingly close to encroaching upon Ingo), and her mother is dead set against her getting a dog (when Sapphy already has the perfect one picked out!).

Ingo takes on the struggle between two worlds, between two types of people, between two ways of life. The struggle between Ingo and Earth has its parallel struggle within Sapphy’s family where the impetuousness of Sapphy and her father frequently clashes with the practical nature of Conor and her mother. This struggle comes to the fore in the latter part of Ingo when Roger decides he wants to dive in areas where, unbeknownst to him, he is not welcomed.

Dunmore’s characters are flawed yet still developing and changing just as the world is flawed yet still developing and changing (the latter we have the privilege to participate in changing). Ingo is top-notch fantasy while also speaking to family dynamics, individual choices, willpower, self-discovery, and imagination.

Ingo–with its tagline “In a world without air all you breathe is adventure”–will likely be popular with middle grade fantasy fans of both genders. Ingo is Book One in a planned tetralogy–Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, and The Crossing of Ingo (the final two are more difficult to attain from within the US since HarperCollins just published the US edition of The Tide Knot in January 2008). For more on the series immediately, visit Helen Dunmore’s site or Harper Collin’s Ingo site (including a video book trailer). The pull of Ingo is strong, who can resist?

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Library & Literary Miscellany links, links, links…

Library

Gearing Up for All Together Now post by Michael at Tame the Web announcing the All Together Now: A 2.0 Learning Experience. This learning experience opportunity looks to be somewhat akin to the Library 2.0 experiences previously offered by the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County, so if you didn’t get in on those, you might want to check it out.

Libraries are Going to Make it After All video at You Tube (thanks to American Libraries Direct this week for the link)

Library Application Program Interfaces (APIs) post by Roy Tennant providing a FYI list of generally useful library-related APIs

Library Day in the Life Wiki: wiki enabling librarians to share experiences of being a librarian; check it out to see how the experiences of your day compare with others in the same or different area of librarianship (thanks to American Libraries Direct this week for the link)

Web Services and Tech Training presentations post by LibrarianinBlack, Sarah Houghton-Jan including I Wanna Be 2.0 Too!: Web Services for Smaller Underfunded Libraries and Technology Training and Competencies

Literary

Books featuring Child Geniuses post over at the Children’s Literature Book Club listing some titles along with discussion of how the kids starring in these books view the world

If You Like Captain Underpants: Related Books for Students (BOOKLIST) article in Choice Literacy by Franki Sibberson from A Year of Reading with apt suggestions such as Roscoe Riley Rules

Get Ready to Stand on Your Soapbox by Chasing Ray reminding members of the kidlitosphere that next week will be as good a time as any to pontificate eloquently about issues today with the publishing world

Lost Book Club at ABC.com offers a roundup and place for discussion of all the books mentioned throughout the LOST episodes (thanks to Jen Robinson’s Growing Bookworms Newsletter for the link)

No Rich Kids Need Apply by Liz B at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy digs into issues of class in YA lit

Savvy for Free post at Kids Lit providing links to the e-book of Ingrid Law’s Savvy.

The Publication History of Stuart Little: Fusenews: Anne Carroll Moore Does Not Love Stuart Little* and The Monkey Speaks: Where modern children’s literature (and librarianship) came from and The Shifted Librarian: Corrupting Young Minds (with Books) in the Library (these discussions point to and discuss an article in the New Yorker article The Lion and the Mouse: The battle that reshaped children’s literature by Jill Lepore)

This Week’s Rundown Draft at the Reader’s Advisor Online Blog points to interesting lists such as August’s Indie Next

Miscellany

17+ Things to Do with your Online Photos by iLibrarian includes ideas such as create an Animoto music video or a LetterPop Newsletter

A Look at the iPhone 3G by Elyssa at iLibrarian

Another Article About Those Darn Bloggers by Liz B. at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy pointing to and discussing the article debating print vs. online reviewing Is it curtains for critics? from The Observer

Google Docs has templates (thanks to Nicole at What I Learned Today for the heads up)

The Free Dictionary: a word lover’s delight by Jane over at infodoodads points to a potentially useful reference tool for fielding language and pronunciation questions called The Free Dictionary

How To Handle A Blog Attack at ACRL Log

Five Best File Syncing Tools compiled in a Lifehacker Hive Five post

JibJab Debuts its Election Video Carnival for 2008 embedded by Paul Glazowski with commentary over at Mashable

MMO Games for Change? over at Mission to Learn offers links to a past post about games promoting social change and more commentary on the same

Outlook vs. Gmail The Definitive Comparison in a Lifehacker Faceoff

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Here’s the Library & Literary Miscellany Links for the Week…

Library

5 Things You Should Read about Copyright and Sharing Instructional Materials post by the Distant Librarian summarizing the first of ACRL’s Five Things You Should Read About… series (the first being 5 Things You Should Read about Copyright and Sharing Instructional Materials)

Build the Open Shelves Classification by Tim Spalding over at Thingology stirring up discussion regarding library classification systems and the future

Gaming Gone Wild by Jenny Levine over at the Shifted Librarian compiles a library-related gaming round-up with links to many wild resources

How much longer will libraries need librarians? by Walter Minkel over at The Monkey Speaks. Here’s a brief excerpt: “We need to be offering programming that pulls literacy together with the materials in our collections. Youth librarians need to be offering “literacy counseling” to parents who come in and ask us questions about the best materials for their children. We need to be more than the greeters that some public libraries seem to be moving their staff toward. ”

LA: Essentials of Listening Advisory by Joyce Saricks over at Booklist Online discussing the similarities and differences (and importance) of providing RA with audiobooks

Ten Years of Learned Helplessness Coming to an End by Lori Ayre over at Tech Essence exhorting librarians to jump in and help improve open source ILS systems

What Librarians Can Learn from Starbucks Fall by Designing Better Libraries reiterates the importance of the personal touch and identifying/maintaining/bolstering core services

Literary

2008 Notable Books for a Global Society Booklist sponsored by the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group, International Reading Association (thanks to Jen Robinson’s Growing Bookworms Newsletter for the link)

Book Review: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by the A.V.Club rockets this one to near the top of my reading pile (and then I may not even need to review it myself since Donna Bowman did such a brilliant job)

Booker Talk: BBC’s How Do You Win a Booker Prize followed up by Rushdie Wins Best of Booker Prize

British Book News by Tasha Saecker over at Kids Lit providing links to some articles in The Telegraph that cover children’s literature

Did Fleming Rescue Churchill? over at Literate Lives discussing a new book that may prove to be a useful and more interesting way to introduce youngsters to the research process

Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and Vice Versa by Kier Graf at Booklist Online’s Book Blog with links to and discussion of, well, some bad news and good news for booksellers and book lovers

Carry-On Books To Take You Up, Up And Away by Nancy Pearl over at The Morning Edition suggesting books for your in-flight reading pleasure

The ‘New Classics’ post by Nora Rawlinson over at Early Word points out the book display potential inherent in Entertainment Weekly’s lists such as the selection of the 100 “New Book Classics” and the 25 New Classic Book covers

Stephenie Meyer: Inside the ‘Twilight’ Saga by Karen Valby at Entertainment Weekly provides an inside scoop on the making of the Twilight vampire empire

Upcoming Movies Based on Kids/Teen Books By Tasha Saecker includes some screenshots and links to the IMDB entry

Miscellany

Virtual Worlds: 20+ Tools for Creating 3D Graphics and Environments: suggestions from Sean P. Aune over at Mashable

57 Useful Google Tools You’ve Never Heard Of by College @Home pointing to some familiar resources such as Google Docs, Google Scholar, and Google Book Search and some less well-known tools such as Goog-411, Cooking with Google, and GrandCentral

Dictionary adds new batch of words at CNN.com-including pescatarian, mondegreen, and more (I find mondegreen to be particularly enjoyable as I’ve experienced more than a few of these in my time)

Free Sounds to Relax Your Brain Or Improve Concentration Levels post about I Dose Sounds that are available for various purposes by Digital Inspiration

Getting Started with Social Media - A Guide and Resource List a how-to posted over at Technotheory (thanks to iLibrarian for the link)

Google Launches Lively to Create a Virtual World Across Social Networks Mashable’s take on Google’s new virtual world offering

And, yes, I realize the new iPhone 3G was released this week, but you can read news about that from a plethora of other sites should you so choose…

Enjoy the day!

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Hoorah, hooray for holiday weekends and for freedom itself! I hope everyone enjoyed the day yesterday and that you find some of the following Links of the Week stimulating, useful, or at least worth looking at:

Library

Dot-Mania: ICANN Opens the Domain Door by Barbara Quint at InfoToday (thanks to Librarian in Black with her dot-library or dot-lib…which do you like better? post for the link)

Keeping Your Computers Running Session posted at the LITA blog summarizing an ALA session on a topic near and dear to all our hearts (by necessity, if not by nature, anyway)-technology maintenance and troubleshooting

LibGig Your Career Your Community is a networking site for librarians and includes sections for careers, schools, and community with a bit of fun on the side such as the recent 6 Books we’d recommend to Batman post (thanks to the post at OPL Plus (not just OPLs anymore) for the heads up)

Mashing Up the Library by Beth Gallaway provides a summary of OCLC’s Library Mashups session

Thoughts on EBSCO 2.0 by The Krafty Librarian…like it or not, EBSCO 2.0’s coming soon and The Krafty Librarian discusses some of the features

Top Technology Trends for Libraries to Note: Sarah’s Top Technology Trends - Virtual Presentation for ALA 2008 by Sarah Houghton-Jan at Librarian in Black and Virtual Karen’s Top Tech Trends by Karen Coombs at the LITA blog; pointing to issues such as APIs, mobile devices, open access, and more

Literary

Comprehension is Not a Commodity presentation by Angela Maiers discussing reading comprehension and the importance of creating a deeper appreciation for reading (as in beyond extrinsic rewards); Maiers has made available other reading-related presentations on Slideshare as well

The Books That Changed Your Lives compilation of opinions over at Lifehacker (list includes the Bible, works from Ayn Rand, Douglas Adams, and many more…also many more opinions are proffered in the comments)

Ancient Plots: the Mystery in History (Part I) and Dark Age Detection: Historical Mysteries (Part II) by Sarah Weinman whose regular blog is Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind; this multi-part series is a fun and informative read for all who enjoy historical mysteries (which I do )

Ultimate Teen Reading List at Teenreads.com has been recently expanded and updated

Miscellany

10 Essential Sites for Tips and How-To’s recommended by Palin Ningthoujam at Mashable

10 Great Software Programs You Can Get Gratis by Peter Grad over at TechNewsWorld lists software recommendations such as OpenOffice and 7-Zip (thanks to iLibrarian for the link)

Common Craft Video: LinkedIn In Simple English embedded in a post over at Digital Inspiration (or view at the Common Craft site)

Keep Rocking: 30+ Sites for Free & Legal Musicby Sean P. Aune overat Mashable

Once Nearly Invisible To Search Engines, Flash Files Can Now Be Found And Indexed: Washington Post Article by Erik Shonfeld from Tech Crunch discussing how swf files have been made search-engine readable

Thing 63: PDF Form-topia PDF Form-filler Freeware by Learning 2.1: Explore…Discover…Play explores the use of Fox-It Reader as “a tool to add to your PDF arsenal” for filling in non-editable PDF forms

The Ultimate Guide to Special Needs Teaching from Teaching Tips offers more than 100+ resources and links pertaining to various special learning needs

What They Play–video game information for the rest of us over at Infodoodads points us to resources to help us move beyond our n00bs status

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Here’s what caught my eye on the Web this week…

Library

• Discovery Skills Versus Evaluation Skills by Librarians Matter: discusses whether we are focusing too much on teaching discovery of information resources to the detriment of providing instruction on strategies for evaluating said resources
• ALSC’s Kids @ Your Library Public Awareness Campaign: see especially the tool kit which includes sample materials and activity suggestions
• Recent Library Presentations compiled by iLibrarian: provides links to myriad recent presentations from notable presenters such as Steven Abram, Sarah Houghton-Jan, David Lee King, and more
• Reference Question of the Week by Swiss Army Librarian is not actually a reference question from the week like it usually is; instead, it’s a compilation of links pointing to other places where reference questions are archived

Literary

• Booklist Online: Top 10 Biographies for Youth
• Futuristic, Speculative, Science Fiction and Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page is a thorough list to which many contributed, making it diverse list with a lot of substance
• June carnival of Children’s Literature - Fathers in Children’s books: from Susan Taylor Brown at Susan Writes offers a meaty overview of contributors’ posts discussing, well, fathers in children’s books
• June edition of the Edge of the Forest (after June, you’ll want to check the archives to view this edition; you may want to check the archives anyway to view past editions); as per usual, it is full of interesting interviews and reviews making it a sound destination for maintaining current awareness of kidlit world happenings
• Times Online: Critics choose their most-loathed book (thanks to Fuse #8 for the link)
• Summer Books Season at Worth Reading includes links to a plethora of booklists (USA Today, the Telegraph, Library Journal, Wall Street Journal, Salon, etc.) for your summer reading pleasure (the USA Interactive is particularly fun if you’re looking for an interactive means of choosing adult fiction or nonfiction for your summer reading)
• Last week I pointed to Fuse 8 Production’s Newbery/Caldecott predictions. A couple more I found this week (although they aren’t from this week) are from Literate Lives: Newbery/Caldecott Short Lists and Anokaberry: Anokaberry 2009 Short List
• Still More Booklists over at Semicolon provides links to a variety of timely summer booklists that provide reading suggestions for fiction, nonfiction, writers of faith, etc.

Miscellany

• 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes by Deke McClelland (thanks to Digital Inspiration for the link); if not perhaps useful in the sense that much of it is likely to be retained, it’s entertaining nonetheless
• Library Thing: Member Home Pages: Tim Spalding writes, “The basic idea was to give members a ‘center’ from which to visit the rest of the site.” Library Thing just keeps getting better and better!
• Tech’s 15 Turning Points by Neil McAllister at InfoWorld (not technically from this week either, but it was in American Libraries Direct this week)

And to all those who are fortunate to be at ALA this week, have a blast!

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The Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) chose Catch the Reading Bug (kids) and Metamorphosis@Your Library (teens) as the 2008 theme, and it’s now in full-swing (it almost being July after all). A couple of recent posts I particularly enjoyed relating to the CSLP are By the Cover: June Bugs at Proper Noun (which also links to a longer insects booklist at Mindy’s Book Lists wiki) and Speaking of Crafts and Bugs at Library Voice (includes multiple images of some really fun looking bug crafts and displays).

A few sites offering related resources include:

• A to Z Kids Stuff: Bugs–songs, crafts, snack ideas mainly for bees, ladybugs, and caterpillars/butterflies
• Librarian’s Internet Index–Insects and Arachnids links
• LibraryPalooza–this is the site that I was led to the link to download the 2008 theme song that you hear in the videos by Billy Gorilly
• NetState.com’s Official State Insects list
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s 2008 SLP Training Workshop–includes display ideas , myriad downloadable breakout session handouts, and more

So you can see that there’s a plethora of buggy fun and/or information out there, but I thought I’d add a couple of 30 second promotional videos in case anyone needs any more ideas. I created them using Animoto just like my previous Mysteries at Your library video.

Animoto’s simple and it’s fun, although the Animoto shorts don’t allow for quite as many pictures as I’d like. But for the cost of free, it’s a great resource to spark creativity and create content for a variety of purposes.

Enjoy and feel free to remix, embed, or create your own (Video Production: Animoto; Songs: Billy Gorilly). Also feel free to leave comments if you have any feedback and/or resources to share relating to enticing people of all ages towards libraries and summer reading. Without further ado, here are the video shorts for kids and teens respectively (you’ll notice that I chose the instrumental version for the teens video : ))…

Catching the Reading Bug

Metamorphosis @ Your Library

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Here we go again with Library & Literary Miscellany links from this week…

Library

• The Actionable Blog by David Lee King speaks to the idea of intentionally creating content enabling/requiring action (his example of an actionable blog that requires action is his library’s posts titled “What’s in Your Top 5?” where the library begins the conversation and then patrons add their own ideas)
• Information Overload: the Problem (Part 1) and Information Overload: What Can We Do (Part 2) by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb
• More libraries using delicious by mélange: Angela has added to her libraries using del.icio.us list; the list links to numerous library-created Del.icio.us accounts, thus, providing examples of ways Del.icio.us has been used (and perhaps stimulating ideas for how it can be used in the future) in a library setting to enhance library services and guides
• On the Information Experience: An ALA TechSource Conversation with John Blyberg by Michael Stephens: discusses Blyberg’s Library 2.0 Debased article from months back and delves further into these ideas (particularly interesting is the notion of hiring 51% employees–49 % skills, 51% intrinsic desire to serve and to create fulfilling customer experiences)

Literary

• 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature: announced June 18, 2008 for the categories of Fiction and Poetry (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney), Picture Book (At Night by Jonathan Bean), Nonfiction (The Wall by Peter Sís), with a Special Citation (The Arrival by Shaun Tan); click the link to view the honor books as well
• 2009 Newbery and Caldecott Predictions - Halfway Mark by Fuse News where Elizabeth Bird moves beyond 2008 awards to offer her ideas regarding the best Newbery & Caldecott eligible titles of the year so far (from all that I’ve heard The Underneath by Kathi Appelt must have quite a shot at the Newbery. I’m quite looking forward to reading it)
• 12th Bookworms Carnival: posted over at Things Mean a Lot this is a wonderful summation of a bunch of posts about the month’s theme–fairy tales (the next theme is relationships for those who are interested in submitting posts to be included submit posts via her contact page by July 11 to Jenn at Mixed Metaphor)
• Great Early Elementary Reads: The Association for Library to Children (ALSC) bibliography Great Early Elementary Reads, features recommended book titles for children who are just learning to read and beginning to read on their own (featured in American Libraries Direct this week)
• What’s the Deal with all these mice? by Library Voice with a follow-up over at Lisa Chellman’s blog with a post entitled Mice Are Nice: these are library and literary really since they pertain to patron interaction and children’s literature; you may find yourself able to relate to the first post and you may also find some nice mice reading recommendations in the latter post
• YA is Awesome: post over at YA Fabulous! with links to a great many recent  reviews of YA books from across the kidlit blogosphere

Miscellany

• 4+ Ways to Quickly Create Excellent Presentations Online by Corvida over at ReadWriteWeb; the post discusses Zoho Show, Google Docs, 280 Slides, and SlideRocket (with brief mention of reZentit, Empressr, and Preezo).
• Boston Globe: How to Nap (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• Totlol: provides access to the kid-friendly YouTube content while omitting the rest (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• College@home: 57 Useful Google Tools You’ve Never Heard Of and 100 Useful Niche Search Engines You’ve Never Heard Of
• Thing 62: PDF Form-Topia: PDFEscape.com at Learning 2.1: Explore…Discover…Play–discusses PDFEscape as a useful tool for filling out locked PDFs (e.g., for a job applicaton)
• Zoomii.com - The “Real” Online Bookstore: Zoomii presents Amazon books on shelves as if viewing books in a real bookstore. The mouse zooms in/out and left/right to peruse different shelves.

Does anyone have any thoughts on any of the above or anything else you’d like to share that you found to be useful/interesting/worth passing on this week?

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