Of Prep and Other Things

Give me ten minutes, and I can pull together a storytime for any of my regular crowds: babies, ones, toddlers, or pre-schoolers. (In fact, I was halfway through writing that sentence when I realized I did exactly that today – we had an overflow of preschoolers, so Coworker J and I tag-teamed with them. We switched off on songs and books, and I thought quickly and pulled out Jeremy Draws a Monster and The Monster Returns to read to them. Both short enough that I can read them back-to-back.)

But kindergarteners are a whole different matzah ball. They may only be a year older than preschoolers, but they’re in a different mental space. They’re schoolkids now. There are different expectations on them about sitting still and other behaviors, so doing storytime with them is a little different.

We do a regular storytime with a local school every other Monday, and I’ll be visiting them this week, so I had to pull together a few books and come up with a craft idea and another idea for fun. You’ll see after I do it – I never post my books and ideas beforehand, it’s bad luck! – but I think I may have come up with a plan that will suit their age group well.

This Sunday I’ll have time to prep two more storytimes (I know they’re coming, but can’t remember what they are off the top of my head).

Lotsa links:

Today’s top link: It is so important to narrow the (huge, disgusting, overly large) gap between the haves and have-nots. Books are the easiest way to do that. eBooks for all!

I got Puck, and so did Mama Bear!

Happy birthday, Nancy Drew!

AUSTEN AVENGERS WOWOWOW

My note to myself for this link was “omg no.”

Definitely some books to put on my TBR list.

A few photos of Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender in the, um, Scottish play.

From Coworker J:

Let’s take a nostalgic ramble with Judy Blume, shall we?

From Coworker L:

I particularly adore #12. Late for a date? I will fine you a quarter a minute. Just kidding. Maybe.

From Friend D:

A difficult challenge, and not nearly enough minority authors to make it doable.

This guy has a problem. I don’t have it. Do you?

D.E.A.R.! April was D.E.A.R. month, so this post is coming just a mite too late.

I don’t know what Brandcast is, but my Birthday Twin is involved, so: yay.

Did not expect this statistic, so: double yay!

From Library Friend D:

Many libraries – no matter their location – are a refuge for the homeless. (My library system calls them “people in a transitional housing situation.”) And despite this well-meant attempt at a euphemism, it doesn’t bring anyone any closer to humanizing them. But this project might.

Stolen from Friend R’s Facebook:

If I ever found a man who loves Our Jane like I love Our Jane, I might never let him go.

From Friend T:

The trailer (!) for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. (I tried a few times to get through the book. Maybe the miniseries will be the ticket.)

From Mama Bear:

Mama Bear always laughs at me about #13. I don’t like movie poster book covers, so there!

3D printers are ultra-cool. I have a little TARDIS on my desk.

This is a British list, which is why I didn’t recognize any of the titles except one, which I’m quite cranky about.

The Toast! I love the Toast! They nail it down.

You don’t think I would have been able to have a list of links without SOMETHING Harry Potter, did you?

You can watch it on your phone / You can watch it from your home.

Seriously, in case I haven’t mentioned it, like, five times, you absolutely cannot get a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s autobiography. Unless you want to pay through the nose. Then you can.

The New York Times reviews the HBO adaptation of The Casual Vacancy. Or you can skip the link and just know that Mama Bear no likey, which is really all you need.

Another review.

Philip Glass by the book. Big Baltimore shoutout!

From Sister A:

You may not know that I did my study abroad in Bath, so I have a deep sentimental attachment to that lovely little city. And Paris, well, who doesn’t love Paris? Check out this story.

More Judy Blume news. Sister A’s email’s subject line was “Because she’s awesome, obvs.” (Indeed.)

Clickbait books. Superclever.

In What’s Annabelle Reading, if you’ve ever been to Philadelphia, one of its hidden gems is the Mutter Museum in the College of Physicians. It is a fascinating collection of medical oddities, specimens, and junk. I highly recommend it between cheesesteaks. But who was Dr. Mutter? Learn about him in Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine. Fascinating man. Then, caught at home without a library book, I dipped into my own bookshelves and reread Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half in one sitting. I love it more every time I read it. After that, with a serious case of Royal Baby Fever (the baby’s due any day now!), I read The Little Princesses – again, for the billionth time. Still waiting for the one book I wanted to come in at the library, and wanting something light…er, I picked up Alex Garland’s The Beach, which always makes Thailand seem like a bad idea, though it generally isn’t.

Pajama Storytime, Wednesday, March 11

You may be asking yourselves, “Annabelle doesn’t do Pajama Storytime. What is this nonsense? Am I hallucinating?”

No, chickadees, you’re not hallucinating. Remember, I’m at Neighborhood Branch for the next six weeks, and they have a regular Wednesday night PJ storytime, which I have wanted to do FOR. EVER. It’s very exciting.

I’ll talk more about Neighborhood Branch (NB) in a minute, but first, let’s tackle storytime.

Even though I started here yesterday, some of my Main Branch (MB) coworkers had transferred to NB in previous months, and gave me a little heads-up about what to expect in terms of patrons, etc., but most helpfully in what my duties might be. Coworker S told me that I’d probably need to prepare for Wednesday Pajama Storytime and a Saturday Family Storytime, which the manager of NB confirmed when I met with her.

While PJ storytime is really a storytime in the evening, and doesn’t officially have to have anything to do with pajamas, I figured I would dress for the occasion – pajama pants, long-sleeved tee, and of course my Oscar the Grouch slippers, I’m no fool – and choose at least one bedtime-related book. I had only about seven attendees, since 7 p.m. is kind of a funky time for a storytime, but we had a lot of fun, it seemed.

Now, onto what it’s like at NB. Bear in mind, of course, that I’m only on day two of 42 days, and that I still have some things to learn, but I like it very much. I feel like I’m up and moving all the time – collecting used books, shelving books – but I like it. More is going on. We have a quiet time between lunch and school ending, and then once school gets out? BAM. Slammed.

Here in NB I’m working solely with children – not with teens, and not with adults. So that means birth – 12. Tweens are such a different breed from teens (Sister A works with tweens and is sending me smug “Now you know what I’m up against, in the trenches, every single damn day!” emails). The teens I’ve encountered in MB cause more malicious trouble – the swearing, coming in so high they can’t stand up, you know, more serious kinds of trouble. The tweens so far in MB seem to just be tweens, who are more mischevious than malicious: the afterschool freedom, being silly, a little too loud, trying to sneak food in and then getting caught and being all “aw, shucks” about it.

(They have yet to learn that I don’t take any crap, but I’m sure they’ll learn eventually.)

Lots of procedures are different here, such as how we process holds, either coming in or going out, but I’m a quick learner and it all seems straightforward enough. I’m excited to see how it all pans out!

Linkylinks:

In the top spot: The trailer for the new Gillian Flynn movie is out! It’s in French, but pretty self-explanatory, and NSFW. (Read all her books. Gone Girl was awesome, and it’s my least favorite of the three.)

If you’re artsy, make me one of these, okay?

Empowering books for little girls (or any girls).

Nine life lessons from children’s books.

Exit, pursued by a bear. 

Madeline’s obituary, from McSweeney’s. (The other ones are good, but this is my favorite, particularly the last line, natch.)

It’s the best book about museums, that’s for sure.

I hate to say this, but I can see the truth in it…

Some of these are freakin’ hard! (I was on Jeopardy! a few years ago, and I would have happily severed my own fingers for a lit category.)

What’s in Britain’s “most eccentric and original library”?

From Friend D:

This is the sexiest library ever. I’ve never been to Seattle, but want to go purely for the library.

From Mama Bear:

Alaska, naturally.

As someone who found her favorite British series from childhood on eBay as an adult, the answer is yes, yes it is.

Good for the daily non-reader, said Mama Bear (“read: non-us,” she said. We’re reading snobs in our family.)

A million of them. 

More better book titles.

Anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes from such a young age is okay by me.

Still spunky after all these years (although – was that really Harper Lee who wrote the note? #conspiracy)

From Sister A:

“I sincerely hope they do it justice,” she said in her email.

In What’s Annabelle Reading, prepare for my consumption of books to decline sharply while I’m at NB. Now that I have a much shorter commute (either by car, bus, or foot), rather than my standard 45-minute-plus commute, I won’t be inhaling books as quickly as I have in the past.

Anywho, as I was weeding last week, I picked up a book that I remember disturbed the hell out of me when it was read aloud in fourth grade, so I wanted to revisit it to see why. This time around, I found it mostly charming, and could see some traces of what would have scarred nine-year-old Annabelle.

The other book I read this weekend was so over-the-top ridiculous with its symbolism and its themes that I was like, OKAY I GET IT ENOUGH WITH THE DRUGS AND THE SEX WE GET IT IT’S ALL THE TITLE OF THE BOOK and now that’s two days of my life I’ll never get back. But I stuck with it because I thought it might get better. Spoiler alert: it did not.

Preschool and Ones Storytimes, Wednesday October 15 and Thursday, October 16

I love trying new things during storytimes. I’ve never before made a “lesson” out of my storytimes – the only group that would really work for would be my preschoolers, so I figured that I might as well try, especially if I could manage it without hitting them over the head with an idea.

So I brought in a flip paper board and asked the kids, “Where are we?” and was prepared for answers including the town, to “a building,” to “the storytime room,” and would whittle them down till I got “a library,” but every single child said, “a library” immediately.

Talk about hitting the nail on the head on the first try, hey? So I asked about the kinds of things people could do at the library, and it took a little coaxing, but I managed to get some good answers out of them:

(I did have one consistent hand-raiser and answer-shouter, who reminded me of me at that age, particularly because I used the “Can I hear some new voices?” question to see if I could get anyone else to answer, which teachers did on me.)

Then we read some books about libraries, all of which were winners:

They really loved The Midnight Library. I really liked the storytime, and maybe I’ll try it, revamped, with my toddler group, or the next time I do a kindergarten outreach.

On Thursday, I had my lovely little ones, and it was a HUGE group! Why so many, I wonder? But we had a great time, as always, with some old favorites.

No child ever shrinks from yelling “No!” throughout Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, and the parents always have a good laugh.

Here are some links now.

In the top spot: Sister A and I both have a thing for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, both the book and the movie. (It’s my fault; I read it first, so I got her into it, and the rest is history.) The movie, of course, isn’t as good as the book – what is? – but the movie will still make you bawl. 

This is a little dirty. Read at your own risk.

More dirty Potter.

Library Friend D gave me #10 on a shirt. It’s the best.

I haven’t watched Saturday Night Live in years, but this hit the nail on the head.

Spot on, I think.

If this is based on Marla Frazee’s book, it’ll be hilarious.

The Holmes flats! Hanukkah’s coming up…

I can’t wait to get this. (When I sent it to Mama Bear, she responded, “If he follows you home, can we keep him?”

One of my favorite chapter books ever ever ever, through the eyes of an adult.

From Coworker W: Keeping it real from Pooh Bear. 

From Friend L: In an email titled: “IT’S GONNA BE A TRILOGY!”

From Mama Bear: What do we really know about our favorite detective? (No, not Encyclopedia Brown…)

I didn’t read this until I was in library school, and I wish I’d read it earlier. Sadly, I think it’s really dated, but still valuable as the book that started it all…

A few weeks ago, Gilmore Girls became available for streaming on Netflix. Sister A is a huge fan, but I’d never watched it, and I finally started. I really like it, and now it’s something else for us sisters to obsess over! It also means that I understand this.

A Walter Dean Myers award!

Great nominees for the National Book Awards (Jacqueline Woodson!)

Of course they still apply. They always will.

Good choice for my home state.

NPH FTW.

Man Booker war Australian yawn.

Claudia FTW, obviously.

In What’s Annabelle Reading, sometimes a good book is like comfort food. I have comfort books – as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before – and one of my favorites, in my top five, easily, was shockingly NOT written by someone with a British accent or named Austen or Bronte. I know. Calm yourself. But The House of Mirth has always struck a chord with me. I read it in college in an English course about outsiders. I read it in my first round of grad school, twice, I think. And I have loved it since the first reading.  (The 2001 movie was surprisingly well done – worth a watch.)

The title, by the way?

Oh, and I also read The Fever. I’d been really excited to read that AND Conversion, and found, after reading both, I liked the latter much better. Maybe it was the YA writing, the dual points of view (from both a teenager and a teen present at the Salem witch trials)… either way, Conversion won Annabelle’s mysterious-illness-among-teenage-girls head-to-head challenge.

I also read Deborah Feldman’s Exodus, and I liked her first memoir better.

Not quite what Claudia Kincaid had in mind, but it’s close

One of my favorite books growing up was the story of Claudia and Jamie Kincaid running away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I learned a lot from that book – how to swipe coins from a fountain, what an Automat was, but mostly I was obsessed with the idea of living in a museum. Having it all to myself all night long, wandering the halls, exploring the exhibits, and maybe trying on a dress from the 1800s or eating off presidential china – that was my idea of paradise.

The only thing better than that, I remember thinking, would be living in a library. So I was pretty intrigued to find out about this story, about an NYU student doing exactly that: living inside the school’s library. How does he shower? Where does he eat? Where does he keep his clothes? The story answers all these questions and more – and makes me realize that this might not have been everything I dreamed it would be.

Here’s another link, too, courtesy of Mama Bear, of Flavorwire’s favorite pop culture librarians. Evie from The Mummy is still my favorite, but the other ones are pretty rockin’ too.

I’m also going to start a new feature on here: at the end of the post, I’ll share what book I’m reading at the moment. Right now, having just finished Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty series (thanks to Sister A for the recommendation), I’m still in a Victorian mood, and pulled To Marry an English Lord off the shelves, a non-fiction book about the marriages between rich American girls and titled, yet poor, Englishmen. Perhaps it’s time to rewatch Downton Abbey, too.