Category Archives: Children’s services

Books, Children's services

2017 Teen Read Week

Big news in YALSA this week! The 2017 Teen Read Week site was launched earlier this week with the theme “Unleash Your Story.” Library staff, afterschool providers, and educators should attempt to leverage this theme to encourage teens to write, share and tell their own stories as well as find stories, biographies, autobiographies, folktales, and more in their local library!

YALSA also announced the Teens’ Top Ten nominations today! The stars of the upcoming movie Everything, Everything announced the titles in a video you can see here! Teens across the country can vote on their favorite titles between Aug. 15 and Teen Read Week, which will be celebrated Oct. 8-14. The winners will be announced the week after. You can view an annotated list of nominees here (pdf).

Taylor Crossley

Communications Assistant

Young Adult Library Service Association

50 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL 60611

tcrossley@ala.org

 

Children's services, Writing, Young Adults

Tech Resources for Poetry

April is National Poetry Month! Poetry can sometimes be intimidating to students, but there are fun ways to get them involved in appreciating and creating poetry.

This article from School Library Journal is packed with a ton of unique ideas for helping students uncover the delights of poetry. Some of these ideas include:

Plus, the article describes initiatives different libraries are taking to incorporate poetry into student activities. It’s always encouraging to see the cool things that happen in libraries across the country.

Happy Poetry Month!

 

 

Books, Children's services

Picture book suggestions for kids with disabilities

1 - Flickr - Pratham Books (6)
On a recent library listserve posting, a library person was asking for suggestions for a mom who wanted picture books to read with her daughter who has cerebral palsy and is using a walker. Several people chimed in with suggestions (library people are great at that!); so I thought you could use them in your own libraries, and am sharing them here.  If you have other suggestions, add them to the comments!
Let’s Talk about Extraordinary Friends, by Fred Rogers “How do you get to know someone in a wheelchair? Is it okay to ask questions when you see someone who is different from you?
Written for the child without special needs–the child with the questions–this book opens up a difficult subject to discussion. Mister Rogers challenges the stereotypes that often plague children with special needs and celebrates six children who are extraordinary friends. Share this book with all children–to spark communication, to attack the stigma, to bridge the gap between children with different abilities. Mister Rogers is the perfect person to write a book like this, with respect and the same gentleness that has characterized his television show for decades. “Rogers offers caring support and validation…Books that offer such honest reassurance are rare.”– Publishers Weekly”

Continue reading Picture book suggestions for kids with disabilities →

Children's services, Public, Research, School Media Specialist

Share your idea on pathways to youth library leadership!

Take the ALSC Emerging Leader Team Survey!

Complete the survey.

ALSC’s 2017 Emerging Leaders Team invites you to take a three minute survey to help them in studying the potential for new pathways to library leadership for youth and school librarians. Leadership for this survey is defined as the career roles of manager, director, supervisor, etc. The team will present its research and findings in a paper to be released in late June.

The survey submission deadline is April 7.

Complete the survey.

Children's services, Programs, Resources

Reader’s Advisory: Dial A Story!

Ericsson Dialog in green
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could just read you a story?

For kids, it’s an ultimate treat to get storytime! And now it’s even available while patrons are away from the library: Dial a Story! Kids love to use the phone anyway – letting them hear a story can be an additional fun activity.  Dial a Story programs are going strong in many libraries around the country!

The Broward County library offers one of them: “Convenient, quick and always available – that’s Broward County Library’s Dial-A-Story, a free storytime-by-phone service that’s available 24/7 to anyone with access to a telephone. Dial-A-Story features four different stories at a time, and the stories are changed every other week. Geared toward younger children, the stories are a mix of contemporary tales, timeless classics and favorite fairy and folk tales. Professionally recorded, the stories are easy to access and loads of fun. To hear the latest stories, just call 954-357-7777.”

Professional storytellers are in on this action as well! “The Dial-A-Story program is an outreach service of the Jackson County Library System and the Storytelling Guild for pre-school age children. Guild members record stories on the phone for children to listen to from home. Stories change every two weeks, or more, depending on the storyteller. Children call the library at 541-774-6439 and hear the stories.”

A few other libraries offering Dial a Story programs:

Have you provided a service like this? Have you recorded stories?? This could be a great way to provide some Reader’s Advisory services to patrons – sharing suggestions for some fun books kids would love!