01-04-04 or 1304
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From: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults and
Children" <pubyac@prairienet.org>
To: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults and Children"
<pubyac@prairienet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 11:01 PM
Subject: PUBYAC digest 1304
Topics covered in this issue include: 1) rural programming by Terrill <trumpeter2@shaw.ca> 2) best 100 by Gloria Crotty <ggcrotty@yahoo.com> 3) PUBYAC: 1 Sci Fi recommendation by "Wanda Jones" <wjones98@hotmail.com> 4) Re: sf and fantasy by "S. Fichtelberg" <sfichtel@lmxac.org> 5) stumper by "Julia Mullen" <MullenJ@stls.org> 6) resources on racism in books by "Kapila Sankaran" <ksankaran@springfieldpubliclibrary.com> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Terrill <trumpeter2@shaw.ca> To: pubyac@prairienet.org Subject: rural programming Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:42:49 CST Cynde I live and work in a small rural community and programming is a challenge for the library and any organization. What we have found works, is to look at your avid library users and find what kind of programs would interest them. Look at what people leave the house for in other activities, and get something similarly different. We get people out for cultural/art type things in the library, or another popular draw is the travel/lecture/slideshow. And we publisice in whatever inexpensive way we can. One way is we hand out photocopied bookmarks for a couple weeks ahead to every patron that tells about the program. Paper, free radio "culture" spot ads .... that kind of thing. ONe really has to read their community and its demographics to get successful programs. Don't give up, keep trying! Terrill Scott Fraser Valley Regional Library British Columbia Canada "Let us read and let us dance, two amusements that will never do any harm to the world." - Voltaire ------------------------------ From: Gloria Crotty <ggcrotty@yahoo.com> To: pubyac@prairienet.org Subject: best 100 Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:53:41 CST I would like to recommend two websites for book lists: The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature: dawcl.com and the Cary Memorial Library: www:carylibrary.org has booklists under the Children's pulldown menu. good luck! ------------------------------ From: "Wanda Jones" <wjones98@hotmail.com> To: RAUSTIN@co.napa.ca.us, pubyac@prairienet.org Subject: PUBYAC: 1 Sci Fi recommendation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:53:56 CST Hi, I'm not big on Sci Fi or Fantasy (I haven't even read the Harry Potter series yet) but this book, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman really impressed me and Its my only reccomendation. Its a funny, funny book about Armageddon or rather the prevention of Armageddon by a demon and angel who became friends after Adam and Eve were evicted from paradise. I got this blurb from amazon.com: Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time... --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Wanda Jones Children's Librarian Georgetown Neighborhood Library Washington, DC 20007 wjones98@hotmail.com Don't pretend to be happy when you aren't. That only works in Hollywood.--Josiah, age 8 Children on Happiness by David Heller ------------------------------ From: "S. Fichtelberg" <sfichtel@lmxac.org> To: <pubyac@prairienet.org> Subject: Re: sf and fantasy MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:54:10 CST As an avid fantasy reader, who does indeed like science fiction as well, I would like to put a pitch in for separate labels. If the purpose of putting genre labels on the books is to help browsers find what they're looking for, we should put fantasy labels on fantasy. It helps fantasy readers find what they are looking for. It we say that it's too hard for us to figure out, put a sci/fi label on it and let the readers figure it out, we're not really helping them, are we? I hate it when we put sci/fi labels on fantasy, which is what we did in my library when I first came. Then, we started putting fantasy labels on children's books, and now they put them on adult books as well. And with the Harry Potter phenomena, I now have lots of readers who zoom in right to the fantasy books. It's true that it's hard to tell with some books, and some books are a mixture, but many are not. And it's our job to help young people find the books. Other genres can have blurry lines too, and we still put on labels. For example, historical fiction: is a book that takes place in the sixties historical fiction? Well, it is to the children, but it's not deliberately set 50 years ago (almost though). Is a book that was contemporary when it was written, but is historical now (like Little Women) historical fiction? (My understanding is that the author had to intend it be historical, but I know people who would label it as historical). These elements may make it harder to determine which books get the labels, but as professionals we make the decisions and label the books. The same should be true for science fiction and fantasy. Susan Susan Fichtelberg sfichtel@lmxac.org Woodbridge Public Library George Frederick Plaza Woodbridge, NJ 07095 732-634-4450 ext. 225 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bonita Kale" <Bonita.Kale@euclidlibrary.org> To: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults and Children" <pubyac@prairienet.org> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 7:14 PM Subject: sf and fantasy > > Wasn't there a saying once that if it had green on the > cover (trees, etc) it was fantasy and if didn't, it > was science fiction? :) > > Yeah, I kinda wish that we could just keep sf and fantasy together. They're > so often the same authors and appeal to the same readers. If you push a > button, it's sf; if you wave a wand, it's fantasy. The Diane Duane > children's fantasy books have worldgating and aliens and an intergalactic > terminal like an airport, but they also have talking rowan trees and magic > wands and spells. Someone mentioned Pern, which actually was hinting at > Terran origins from the first book, but a lot of people think a dragon makes > it fantasy. Darkover is sf with a definite fantasy "feel". Lump 'em > together I say, and let the readers sort 'em out. > > Bonita > > ------------------------------ From: "Julia Mullen" <MullenJ@stls.org> To: <pubyac@prairienet.org> Subject: stumper Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:54:25 CST Hi everybody! An elderly patron asked me to find out the name of this poem and author. He read it in a book of poetry in his school library 60 years ago... He is also interested in the rest of the poem. The part he remembers is not the beginning, but somewhere in the middle. It goes like this: "I had a yellow dog named Sport. I sic'd him on the cat. First thing that cat knowed... He didn't know where he was at!" Then the repeatable part of the poem is: "Right around Christmas, I was as good as I can be..." If this is familiar to anyone, please answer off the list. Thanks! Julie Mullen Horseheads Free Library Horseheads, NY mullenj@stls.org ------------------------------ From: "Kapila Sankaran" <ksankaran@springfieldpubliclibrary.com> To: <pubyac@prairienet.org> Subject: resources on racism in books MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:57:05 CST Dear Pubyac, Reading the reviews of the most recent edition of "The Little Black Sambo" has given me the motivation to begin what I hope will be a long-term study of racism, censorship and children's literature. As part of this endeavour, I would like to ask you if you can forward to me popular/academic works you know of or recommend which deal with racism in children's books. One book that I've just ILLed is titled, "African Images in Juvenile Literature: Commentaries on Neocolonialist Fiction," by Yulisa Amadu Maddy. Thanks for reading, thank you for your help. If there is interest, I will post a compilation. Cheers, Kapila ===================================== Kapila Sankaran, Youth Services Librarian Springfield Free Public Library 66 Mountain Ave. Springfield NJ 07081 tel: 973.376.4930 x.232 fax: 973.376.1334 email: ksankaran@springfieldpubliclibrary.com ===================================== ------------------------------ End of PUBYAC Digest 1304 *************************
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