Claudia Pinto of the Tennessean called several times this week for background information on Intellectual Freedom and book challenges. She had a copy of ALA’s 2009 list of the most challenged books and was writing an article. I was happy to answer her questions, send her links to this blog and connect her with one [...]

The blog was mostly silent this week because I was busy… working. Yes, those of you who are not school librarians may not realize that we do not walk out the door with teachers the last day of school and begin our vacations. Oh, no, many of us continue to "volunteer" our time completing tasks [...]

School’s out! I witnessed a bizarre event Thursday after escorting students by class to the bus (to prevent a rumored water balloon fight). The teachers stood at the curb, jumping up and down, waving vigorously and cheering as the horn-blowing buses loaded with waving children roared by. I have never witnessed such enthusiasm from my staff!  [...]

ALA’s American Libraries had an article Academic Libraries Become All the Rave on May 1, 2009. I had seen the footage on YouTube the weekend the students flash-mobbed the UT Chattanooga Library and had the typical 40+year-old’s response: <snort?, "how stupid!"  I’ve heard of students using blogs, Facebook, text messaging, and Twitter to coordinate “impromptu” flash [...]

Sometimes I’m simply frustrated with acts occurring around me. Take the article in the Tennessean today on "‘Salacious’ book list removed from school web sites." It seems one parent and board member objected to some of the titles on YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults list which was included in 2 schools’ Summer Reading Lists, [...]

I love Fortune’s Folly by Deva Fagan. I also love blogging because I can simply state that. Reviewers have to be more distant and try to write objectively, so you, the reader, can make your own decision. As a blogger, I don’t mind if you disagree with me. I’m simply telling you that I love [...]

I woke up shocked to discover I was envying the teen public librarians. I have never wanted to trade my job for theirs until a dream provided an answer to a problem I’ve been stewing about. We have only 3.5 days of school left and our library will be closed for most of those to [...]

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner. Random House, 2009. ISBN 9780375845635 $16.99 A post-apocalyptic fantasy that grabs you at the beginning, throws your preconceived ideas out the window, and leaves you asking "Just what happened?, how?, and why?" Blog reviews on the Reading Zone, Karin’s Book Nook, Fantasy Book Critic, MyFavoriteAuthor, Charlotte’s Library, and [...]

I didn’t set out to read all fantasy novels this week, but that’s what’s happened. They really aren’t comparable because each speaks to a different audience, need, type of fantasy, etc. Still, I’m going to look for some links.  I refuse to review some of them this far in advance because you’d just be frustrated. [...]

Yes, readers, I know that many of you spend less than one minute reading each blog post. Do you know how long it takes me to write these wacky, humorous, didactic, and irritating posts?! Couldn’t you spend at least one minute? Try taking just a few seconds longer and actually reading to the bottom of the [...]