The next round of booktalk cards (realistic fiction: relationships & identity) are now available on the blog! This one took me awhile because there are a TON of them, this is one of our bigger genres. As w the others you are welcome to remix/reuse Enjoy! dontyoushushme.com/2024/03/04/rea…

Entertaining things to do on long hikes: - snacking - birdwatching - yapping - navigating - native plant identifying - carry madame zeroni up the mountain - backcountry camping

Anyway, here's the news: I'm one of this year's Library Journal Movers & Shakers. libraryjournal.com/story/kelly-je…

Hey there educator friends. You should not be talking with students - texting, social media, on the phone, on zoom, in person, etc - in non work related capacities. That is major boundary crossing. Even if u mean well, it opens you up to a host of consequences, incl being fired.

My students have checked out 206 books in the 7 days we’ve been in school so far this month. That is more than the total checked out in any month since I opened for circ in January. I am so happy to see new students coming into our library, and they are also telling friends!

Yep. I'd go one step further and say AI/genAI impedes *all* learning. It impedes critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, research, citation, writing, every single part of the learning process.

Friends who know manga: I inherited Seraph of the End and Vampire Knight when I took over my middle school library. They are both rated as Teen Plus, but I've seen some reviews say they're ok for 7th grade. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Friendly reminder to add the exclamation point when reading the word library, even if it is not physically on the sign itself.

From a trusted friend: now is the time to download resources before they might disappear 💔

That’s a wrap on year 1 as a teacher-librarian! This was an incredibly exhausting year, but it was 1000% worth it. I still have a lot of work to do…including creating better work/life balance…but for now: rest for me and the books.

100% will be opening with this on the first day of school in August 😂

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has gifted 241,652,906 books (and counting!) for free to kids all over the world 💛 The joy of books and access to books is how we will see literacy rates skyrocket. Thank you, Dolly Parton! ✨ 📸: Shawn Miller/ The Library of Congress

Agree with almost everything here. Please please please give me more actual MG novels. Give me <200 pages. Give me comedy. Give me no romance. Give me mysteries with no murder. Give me low intensity fantasy. And do it diversely!

I keep saying this, but the problem with MG fiction rn is the same problem with YA fiction. It aged up. YA is mostly skewed toward older teens and adult readers, so MG has aged up in content as well. I blame publishers who learned the wrong lessons from HP and Percy Jackson.

Y E S!!!! Also, PLEASE stop with the cutesy illustrated covers! My students won’t pick so many books up because of these covers and comment that they “are babyish.” Can this trend PLEASE stop?!?

Every time this comes up we get "yes this book is 325 pages but it's a quick read!" and what you need to know is that kids who are crunched for time and being pulled from reading will not even pick your book up to try it. We know because we've begged and begged. Please. Short.