I have a confession to make. I am an addict, a junkie… I am a sucker. You see the problem all began when I read Bridge to Terabithia at the age of 10. That was it for me, only grade 5, and I was hooked… and ever since, well, it’s just been a slippery slope.
I tried to resist…. I taught High School Drama, Middle School English, even 5th grade for a while, but in the end, once an addict, always an addict. Two years, five months and 15 days ago, I finally succumbed to my addiction; I caved, I succumbed and I became a librarian.
Now, I am surrounded by my addiction. Everywhere I look, books, more books, picture books, poetry books, non-fiction and fiction, graphic novels and biographies, you name it, I’ve got it. I go to sleep thinking about them, I dream about them, and I wake up thinking about them, and then, the best part… I get to look at them all.day.LONG!
My favorite part of the year is the month of January, and that is saying something, because nearly every day is a wonderful day in my job, but the best, absolute, COOLEST part of being a librarian is the month before the American Library Association Awards are announced.
All year long I follow incredible blogs like this one, For Those About to Mock, and these ones, School Library Journal’s 100 Scope Notes and AFuse8Production, as well as keeping my eye on lists like this one on Goodreads and the delicious Calling Caldecott from The Horn Book.
Towards the end of the year, I salivate over lists like these from the New York Times and School Library Journal. I plow through twitter and instagram following librarians and authors and seeing what they like and why, and generally, just start seeing what is buzz buzz buzzing around everywhere…
As always, I am totally in awe of the picture books produced by incredibly talented authors and illustrators this year; wordless picture books have again played a huge part in re-defining the library read aloud. After an unprecedented three winning honors for last years Caldecott Medal, (Flora the Flamingo, Journey and Mr. Wuffles… I wondered if we’d seen the peak of their success, however with gems like Draw and The Farmer and The Clown being considered this year, I’m thrilled this genre is still riding the wave.
However as well as books with no words, we got to enjoy Novak’s gem this year, The Book with No Pictures… wasn’t that a lot of fun, and whether you believe it is a contender of not, it’s certainly earned its place in the sun along with some of my favorites this year such as The Jacket and A Perfectly Messed Up Story, which you can read about here. I also loved Gaston and of course Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by two of my ‘librarian crushes’, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. As for Baby Tree… LOVE IT!
So over the next few weeks, the aim is to share as many of these treasures, and all the delightful Newbery contenders I’ll write about soon, with as many students as possible, allowing them to read all they can before having their own mock Caldecott vote the week before the announcement on February 2nd.
the barefoot librarian 