GreenBeanTeenQueen

Well, a years worth of reading and rereading and rereading some more is over. I spent the last week in Seattle as part of the Printz Committee and I loved every moment of it. It's so strange to not have to read something for committee and actually have free time again! Yes, it took a lot of time and was a lot of work, but it was amazing and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I loved our committee and the discussions we had-I want to keep talking books with them all! I've attended the Youth Media Awards before, but this year have even more special meaning to me. I knew I would be an emotional mess, and I was. I cried during our early morning phone calls to our authors and I cried as our titles were announced. Knowing that I was part of the group that chose these books is something so amazing I can't put into words what a thrill it was. I can't tell you about our discussions, but I will say that I am so happy and thrilled with our titles. I know it was a

I am very excited to be part of the Prodigy Blog Tour! I have an excerpt of the book and author Marie Lu's thoughts just for GreenBeanTeenQueen readers! PRODIGY Excerpt : Stretching out before us, peeking through the gaps between the military buildings, is a city: tall, shining skyscrapers reaching up through the low clouds and delicate snow, and each building illuminated by beautiful blue lights that pour from almost every window and every floor. Fighter jets line the skyscrapers’ rooftops. The entire landscape is aglow. – Day, page 282 Marie’s thoughts: It wasn’t a huge stretch for me to envision the world of Prodigy and Legend as our own world, and that in itself is a little disturbing. Everything dystopian in the books was pulled directly from reality: the Republic is not a far cry from North Korea’s regime, for example, and the plagues in Legend were inspired directly by the eugenics movement back in the early 20th century. When I first started writing Legend , in f

Since 2013 is the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, I decided to theme all of my Spring storytimes around Caldecott Medal winners and honor books. I themed week two around animals and pets. Theme: Animals/Pets Opening Song : I opened this week with Where is Thumbkin and Shake Your Sillies Out Literacy Skill : Tell Stories (all of our books and activities were about telling stories) Caldecott Talk: I asked the kids if they remembered the books we read last week and since about half the group was new, I explained the Caldecott Medal again and talked about how we were going to look at books that had great pictures in them. Book: Knuffle Bunny is always fun to read and is great for kids and parents alike.   Song: These Are My Glasses by Laurie Berkner   Book:   -The kids really loved this one, especially since they got to help call out all the animals rabbit was bringing in to help get the plane down. Song : Little Bunny Foo Foo-this was a big hi

Please welcome Alexandra Monir to GreenBeanTeenQueen to talk about her favorite teen reads. Alexandra Monir is the author of Timeless and the recently released sequel Timekeeper  My Favorite Teen Reads  by Alexandra Monir It’s no surprise to any of my childhood friends that I became an author, because reading was always my obsession! Every day I’d toss a new “just for fun” book in my backpack, and I’d race to finish school assignments and tests quickly so I could spend a few more minutes in the fictional world. The book series that captivated me from childhood into my teens, and that I love to revisit every several years, is the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Betsy-Tacy begins when the characters, protagonist Betsy Ray and her best friend Tacy Kelley, are only five years old in the year 1897, and it continues all the way till Betsy’s wedding and first year of marriage in her twenties. While the first few books are adorable and perfect for younger kids, I was abs

One of the things I love about the library world is that there is so much collaboration and sharing in the profession. I owe a HUGE thank you to two of my fellow librarians and bloggers: Amy at Show Me Librarian   and Marge at Tiny Tips of Library Fun . Because of these two lovely ladies, I got some great ideas for our storytime break. I work at the main branch of a large library district and my branch is very much a destination branch. Even though other branches have opened since my branch opened, it's the main branch, the largest, and it's a big draw for our community. Add in the fact that the business area around my library has really built up and we have a lot of traffic. A lot of our traffic is toddler and preschool and we get large crowds for our storytimes, especially in the summer. We do six storytimes a week and average around 12-25 kids per storytime. Sometimes it's a lot more, sometimes it's a lot less. So storytime breaks are something we value very much a

The ALA Youth Media Awards are coming up-the announcement is January 28th! My top three picks for Caldecott are: And I have two dark horse picks: I haven't read much middle grade this year, but my pick for Newbery is: and I have one dark horse Newbery pick: And of course, I can't make any Printz predictions this year!  What do you think will win? Any predictions for Caldecott, Newbery and Printz?

I was asked recently on the blog about how to read critically and I thought it was a great question! It's one I've felt lost with before. When I first became a librarian and when I especially started committee work, I felt like I had no idea what I was doing and that there was no way I could read critically. So first off, get that idea out of your head because you can do it! For anyone who is starting out as a reviewer or librarian, I recommend reading From Cover to Cover by Kathleen T. Horning.   This book is an invaluable resource when it comes to reviewing and is a great reference when you read critically. This is also most likely what most youth services librarians will tell you to start with and many committees recommend reading this book before you start your committee work because this resource is so valued in the profession. I would also suggest taking a look at some children's literature textbooks or reader's advisory guides. The textbook that we used in

Since 2013 is the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, I decided to theme all of my Spring storytimes around Caldecott Medal winners and honor books. Here's what we did for week one: Theme: Night Opening Song: Shake Your Sillies Out Racing to Read Skill (early literacy skill): Talk & Read Caldecott Talk -I spent time at the beginning of the storytime talking about the Caldecott Medal, how it is awarded by a group of librarians each January after reading lots and lots of books! The award has been around for 75 years and is given to the books that the committee thinks has the best illustrations and pictures of all the books that year. I also mentioned how you can find the Caldecott winners and honor books in our library (we have a special shelf of Caldecott winners) and I pointed out the nice shiny stickers the books get! Read : Blackout by John Rocco -this is a great book to use for the talk & read skill-we talked a lot about the pictures, what was happenin

Too Shy for Show and Tell by Beth Bracken, illustrated by Jennifer Bell About the Book : A young giraffe named Sam must overcome his shyness to share in show and tell. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:   Too Shy For Show and Tell is a must have in your picture book collection. The story and the artwork portray the feelings of being shy perfectly and children will relate to the story. Sam is afraid of speaking in class, but he's also very shy about opening up to those around him. The illustrator portrays this perfectly as you see Sam ducking his head and not being comfortable interacting with those around him. Slowly throughout the book he gains confidence and the illustrations reflect this as well. The text is simple and wonderful. It never talks down to the reader or makes them feel strange or bad about their shyness. I was painfully shy as a kid and was just like Sam and I could relate to this book so much. The story is very sweet and eases into the subject of being brave withou

I've come across some TV Tie-Ins that I've enjoyed so I thought I should share them with my fellow TV & book lovers! The Bro Code for Parents: What to Expect When You're Awesome by Barney Stinson Ok, so I was sold on this one because Neil Patrick Harris narrates the audiobook. Neil Patrick Harris really needs to narrate more because he is awesome. Thanks to Netflix, I've recently become a fan of How I Met Your Mother, which after a long marathon, I am caught up on. The book is written by Barney and narrated by Barney, so be prepared for lots of laughs and Barney-appropriate baby advice. It's sure to make you laugh and maybe roll your eyes, but it's all out of Barney love, right? He even has new versions of songs to sing with your kids, new bro-approved stories to tell, and lots of helpful bro advice like when is the best time to conceive your child so you don't miss the Game of Thrones premiere. A short, fun audiobook that would make a great g

As my committee work is coming to end later this month, I'm finding myself in the mood to branch out and read some palate cleansing books. I'm really in the mood to read some adult books, but I never read adult-I'm lucky if I read one or two adult titles a year. So I need your help. What are some adult books you recommend I read as a good palate cleanser? I'm up for anything! 

In Missouri, we have a state book award for fourth-sixth grade called the Mark Twain Award. This year my library has partnered with seven area elementary schools for a program we call Chat & Chew. Each month we meet with a group of fourth & fifth graders to talk about a selected book from the Mark Twain list (chat) while the kids eat lunch (chew). It's been a lot of fun and the kids have had lots of great feedback about the books we've read so far. I thought I'd share some real tween comments about the books we've read. You'll see the comments grow as we went on-the more Chat & Chew discussions we had, the more the kids wanted to talk about the books. Because of Mr. Terupt  by Rob Buyea my review -"There's a character in this book that everyone can relate to."  -"I want a teacher like Mr. Terupt." -"I liked the ending." (spoilers here, so I can't say much-but they all LOVED the ending! :) -"I h

The Comment Challenge is back! Lee Wind at I'm Here, I'm Queer, What Do I Read?  and Pam at Mother Reader  have brought back the comment challenge for 2013! The idea is to comment five times on blogs each day for 21 days to create a habit of commenting and creating a community in the blogging world. I'm hoping I can start reading my blog feed again this year-I've really lacked in that in 2012 due to all my committee reading. I love leaving comments for bloggers and I love participating in the comment challenge, so we'll see if I can keep up the challenge this year! You can find the sign up at I'm Here. I'm Queer. What Do I Read?  I hope you join in and comment away!!

On Saturday my library hosted our very first Mock Award Event. I decided to do a Mock Caldecott because I wanted to start everyone out with some lighter reading and picture books are always fun to talk about with all ages! I had flyers made up with our shortlist, spread the word to librarians and teachers, and told patrons as they came into the library about the event. I was also very lucky that a friend of mine who had served on the Caldecott Committee was able to come down and facilitate our discussion. I really was expecting a small crowd-I thought I'd be lucky with a turn out of five people. We'd never done a Mock Awards program and I wasn't sure if it would go over well. So imagine my surprise when we packed out the room with 41 people!!! We had all ages-kids, parents, college students, teachers, librarians-it was great. Hearing the feedback from everyone was awesome and the kids had such great things to say about each book! I gave the group a shortlist of 14 title

Penguin Teen has an awesome new promotion for Gayle Forman's latest book, Just One Day . Starting on Friday, January 11, you can read the book along with others and talk about it on Twitter, using the #JustOneDay hashtag. Then on Saturday, January 12, Gayle will be on Twitter to chat about the book from 7-8 EST. I'm a huge fan of Gayle Forman's previous books If I Stay and Where She Went and I can't wait to read Just One Day . I hope you're as excited as I am and can join the Twitter chat-there's nothing better than talking with other readers about books!

Tween Tuesday is a meme that highlights great reads for tweens! Join the fun and add your link below. Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Mystery Release Date: 8/7/2012 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Georges (the S is silent) and his family have had to downsize to an apartment. The day they move in, Georges and his father notice a sign that advertises a spy club meeting and Georges's father encourages Georges to join. Georges meets Safer and his younger sister Candy who live in the building and are spying on a mysterious occupant, Mr. X. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I wasn't a big fan of Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me , so I was a bit nervous about reading this book-I was really hoping I would like it. Happily I discovered a novel that I enjoyed. Liar & Spy has a mystery element to it, but it's also about friendship, family, bullying, and fear. Georges is picked on at school, his family is having some trouble, and he's had to move out of a hous

All throughout the past year, people have asked me how my reading and committee work has been going. Even though I expected it to be a lot of work, a lot of reading, and yes, some stress, those things still surprised me as they came. As my committee year is coming to a close-(make sure to watch the live Youth Media Awards Announcement on Monday January 28!) I thought I'd share some things I've learned throughout my year. A lot of these I knew going in, but I still had a learning process as I had to experience them for myself. It's one to hear from others what it will be like and another to experience for yourself! - It's a lot of work. Yes, that seems like a given, especially since you know going in it's going to be a lot of work. And it's what anyone who has served on a committee before will tell you. But you don't seem to realize it until your mailbox is overflowing, you're faced with a huge TBR pile, and a deadline on top of working full time. You

Here's a list of all the great books to movies coming out in 2013!! I'm stretching the list a bit to include comics (anyone else notice a rise in the interest in superheroes at their library each time a new superhero movie comes out? I notice this a lot, especially in the preschool and tween demographic) and some classics. I'll try to update as other release dates are added. January Struck by Lightning -OK, so this one was a movie first, and then a book, but still I'm counting it!-novel inspired by the movie February Beautiful Creatures - based on the novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl March Oz: The Great and Powerful - loosely inspired by the Oz Series by L. Frank Baum The Host -based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer April May Iron Man 3 -inspired by the Iron Man comics The Great Gatsby -based on the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald (not technically YA, but read in many high school English classes) Epic -loosely inspired by the picture book  The Leaf

You can find part one of this program post here. Each year the Missouri Library Association chooses a list of picture books to be the shortlist for the Building Block Picture Book Award. The books are chosen by librarians and are for ages birth-five. The purpose of the award is to encourage reading aloud, help develop pre-reading skills and introduce children, parents and caregivers to a variety of authors and titles. The books are voted on by kids. This year we had a large poster of all the nominees displayed in the department along with ballots for the kids to vote for their favorite. I also decided to host a voting party in December, the month all the votes are due. I set up our storyhour room with activities and stations as well as displayed all the nominated titles and encouraged patrons to come and go throughout the day, read the books, do some crafts, and vote on the book they liked most. It was lots of fun and I hope to repeat the program with next years list. Here

Each year the Missouri Library Association chooses a list of picture books to be the shortlist for the Building Block Picture Book Award. The books are chosen by librarians and are for ages birth-five. The purpose of the award is to encourage reading aloud, help develop pre-reading skills and introduce children, parents and caregivers to a variety of authors and titles. The books are voted on by kids. This year we had a large poster of all the nominees displayed in the department along with ballots for the kids to vote for their favorite. I also decided to host a voting party in December, the month all the votes are due. I set up our storyhour room with activities and stations as well as displayed all the nominated titles and encouraged patrons to come and go throughout the day, read the books, do some crafts, and vote on the book they liked most. It was lots of fun and I hope to repeat the program with next years list. Here's what I did for the 2012 list: Station 1: Mitch