It's July 31st! That means Summer Reading is ov----hmm? What's that? Oh? But...all my friends are done with Summer Reading at THEIR libraries? Oh. Oooooh. 24 more days? Well, I guess I can maybe..... ::thud::
HI THERE! 24 days to go here at my li-berry before we're through with Summer Reading! That's good, because I'm nowhere near my goal. I'm still about 150 shy of last year, but there are usually a lot of teens who come in for their prizes and sign up at the same time, so I'm not too worried. I also noticed that one branch didn't get the memo about 6th graders being teens this year (in past years we've offered them the choice. This year they were all supposed to be teens, unless they had some strong objection), which accounts for about 50 lost teens. Still, I'm at 480 right now, and for a library my size I think that's quite reasonable. If I can get to 600 I'll be happy.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Quick and Dirty Book Review #2
You guys, I need more people to read this book and discuss it with me. I'm not particularly sensitive to sexism in pop culture--in fact I've gotten into arguments where I'm siding WITH the appropriateness to sometimes have a movie or book where there isn't a strong female character. It's okay to have a buddy movie! Or a movie set in a men's prison! But this book definitely rattled me. I recognize what Andrew Smith is TRYING to do here. The main character definitely grows throughout the book--he starts off simply thinking every girl is super hot (even mustachioed ones, gee thanks) but completely ignores little things like personality. By the end he realizes that he really DOES like one girl for who she is, even if he totally keeps making out with another girl. So, he's a standard 14 year old boy. I get it. I just don't think it was well executed, and it took away from the whole book for me. It had promise--the comics are well drawn and I love a good boarding school novel, but it was just a little too much. Am I getting old and lame?
Really, I am usually pretty lax about getting riled up about books like this. I LOVE Swim the Fly, which is about a group of boys spending their summer trying to see a real live naked girl. THis one though...there's just something about this one.
It's "dont' have time to stop for a free slurpee" day!
Things are still going well over here! Programs left and right. On Tuesday I was at both branches for tie-dye programs. I did the same thing last year--I buy the dye but each teen brings something to dye. That ensures that they'll end up with something that fits, and also cuts the costs for me down significantly. I let them do two things, if they want. Most do shirts, but I had a couple of girls do shorts and 4-5 did pillow cases. I bought plastic tablecloths from GFS to protect the carpet, some Tulip brand dye kits, and I stole rubber bands from all of the assorted places we hide rubber bands around the library. The dye I use doesn't require that weird ash soak thing, you just get the item damp. I made kits ahead of time for each teen--a gallon sized ziplock bag with about 10 rubber bands, a pair of latex gloves, instructions on how to create a few different looks (photocopies of the instructions that come with the kit) and instructions for what to do after they get it home. Because of space issues and also "room full of teenagers holding permanent dye" issues, I only let 15 register for each building. Both filled up, and 13 showed up in each building---a great turnout! We only dyed the carpet a tiny bit---and it was in the building we're leaving within a year so I wasn't too horrified.
3.5 weeks in and we're at 352 teens registered for summer reading. 7 weeks to go!
3.5 weeks in and we're at 352 teens registered for summer reading. 7 weeks to go!
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