Does the Newbery winner really help kids read?

The Washington Post wrote yesterday that the Newbery Medal winning books may dampen kids’ reading.

Now the literary world is debating the Newbery’s value, asking whether the books that have won recently are so complicated and inaccessible to most children that they are effectively turning off kids to reading. Of the 25 winners and runners-up chosen from 2000 to 2005, four of the books deal with death, six with the absence of one or both parents and four with such mental challenges as autism. Most of the rest deal with tough social issues.

The Newbery award is given according to literay merit and not popularity with kids.

(via EarlyWord)

post by Lorraine

track it

as someone who leaves a trail of books while traveling for the next vacationing reader, BookCrossing offers a way to track those books to see where their adventures take them (much like its monetary counterpart, Where’s George).  Bookcrossing is defined as “the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise” and was added to the “Concise Oxford English Dictionary” in 2004. i especially like the category of ‘Recently Released.’

(via lifehacker)

posting by marin

a little shake-up is in order

the practice of bookstore returns has never made much sense to me, but perhaps that’s guided by my philosophy of buy only what you need.  that works fairly well in the library model with circulation stats and prepublication hold queues, but in the money-making environment of bookstores, selectors overbuy with the idea that they’ll either luck out and sell everything or return  any unsold stock without paying any shipping charges, in turn reducing risk.

Borders just made a deal with HarperStudio, an imprint of HarperCollins, to purchase titles at a deeper discount with the agreement that returns wouldn’t be allowed.  given the current economy of flagging book sales and publishers cutting back in many ways, it might be an opportunity to shake up traditions and do business smarter.  will this be a new trend?

(via Smart Bitches with interesting comments)

posting by marin

Reading lists are where you find them.

Spring 2009 LIS701 Context Books, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

I‘m working my way through the books in this photo. I just finished Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front Line Employee by Alex Frankel, and Here Comes Everybody The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky is my pick for my best nonfiction book of 2008. I just started Born Digital and it looks fascinating as well.

I think it’s funny how hard I have to work sometimes to decide what to read, and then I come across a photo which provides me with weeks of reading through serendipity.

What’s your story of finding a new author or reading list through chance?

posting by jim

the enviro rumble of electronic vs. print

in a review of 3 studies comparing the environmental impact of print books and newspapers versus their electronic counterparts, grist. org summarizes the findings that e-books and newspapers “produce less CO2 emissions and use less water than conventional newspapers and books.”  now if only publishers would get to standardizing formats that would work for all readers…..  i laughed at the parenthetical aside complaining about the use of ‘e’ in front of common words to indicate their electronic versions, pet peeve much?

(via Smart Bitches)

posting by marin

the newbies

YALSA unveiled its shortlist for the first ever William C. Morris Award which honors a first-time author for young adults.

• “A Curse as Dark as Gold” by Elizabeth C. Bunce
• “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore
• “Absolute Brightness” by James Lecesne
• “Madapple” by Christine Meldrum
• “Me, the Missing, and the Dead” by Jenny Valentine

posting by marin

Libraries offer real relief in tough times

Brian Williams of NBC News produced this story on the value of libraries during tough times.  I’ve heard several people talking about this story in the office the past day or two.  In case you missed it, you can view it here.

Libraries offer relief in tough times

“Books open the world to anyone willing to open up the pages”

posting by jim

Punching In aka what’s it like to work at…

punching in by alex frankel

I’m nearly finished with Alex Frankel’s excellent, Punching In:  The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front Line Employee.  Frankel worked at several companies that are famous for customer service, or providing a good customer experience and tells what it’s like working your first day at UPS, Starbucks, The Apple Store, and GAP.

He talks a lot about corporate culture and how hard the companies work to instill a sense of culture that unifies each other which works in some places better than others.   For instance, Alex worked as a helper at UPS during the holiday rush.  He found the drivers to all be extremely bought in to the whole “what can brown do for you?” vibe.  He talks about the subtle differences in the UPS uniforms and how that grades out different drivers.  He really liked wearing the brown UPS uniform and found himself feeling the same esprit de corps as his fellow drivers almost from day one even though the work was exhausting (UPS drivers are expected to deliver up to 40 packages an hour) and the hours were long.

In contrast to UPS, he hated working at GAP.  In corporate speak it’s always GAP and never The GAP.  The work was mind numbingly boring and essentially all his days were spent folding clothes that customers handled or tried on, while listening to the same 12 songs for weeks on end.  At one point, he mentions that his shifts at GAP began to feel like time spent in a Soviet gulag, where he measured his shift in 90 second intervals to get through the day.

Definitely a fascinating perspective on what it’s like to work at those places that we bump into in our daily lives.

posting by jim

ebooks get a boost

Fresh on the news that the iPhone is the number one selling handset in the US over the razr, Random House and Stanza announced selected backlist titles will be available for free.  I installed the stanza app on my iphone recently and though I haven’t used it to read an ebook  cover to cover yet, I’ve been pleased with the look of  the reader.  Navigation is easy, and if I’m not yet a fan, I might be getting there especially if I could find the right book.  For now though, I do most of the reading I do on my phone is following RSS feeds for lifehacker and other library technology blogs.

from: Library Journal Random House Freebies for iPhone, iPod touch

Publisher Random House and imprint Ballantine announced December 8 that they are offering a handful of free ebooks for download to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices through Lexcycle Stanza, a popular ebook reader. Titles are from the backlists of such top authors as Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laura Notaro, Arthur Philips, and Simon Rich, and will include excerpts from new works coming in 2009.

posting by jim

enough with the trash talk

in catching up with the pile of Publisher’s Weekly on my desk, i was delighted to discover an editorial, read this b4 u publish , by a teen guy tired of hearing that his demographic doesn’t read (meaning doesn’t read fiction).  basically, it’s a vicious cycle: if publishers don’t publish the kind of books that teen guys want to read, then teen guys aren’t going to read.  books that attract this teen guy have modern language, action, great characters, humor, avoid preaching, more action (specifically of the vampire and gaming kind), and most importantly, don’t underestimate the reader.  nicely said.

posting by marin