Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz Awards Announced 2013

The American Library Association has just announced the winners of the Randolph Caldecott, John Newbery, and Michael L. Printz awards for excellence in children’s illustration, children’s literature, and youth literature respectively.  Here is a link to the PR Newsire story for more information and other award announcements.

 CALDECOTT WINNER                                                                                                      

 Klassen, J. This is Not My Hat.                                                    

                                                    

NEWBERY WINNER

Applegate, Katherine. The One and Only Ivan.

                         

  PRINTZ WINNER

 Lake, Nick. In Darkness.

        

Cursive writing books

jokes & riddles

inspriing quotes

We have added  two new books on cursive writing to the collection and they are headed to community libraries soon. The titles are Cursive writing practice: inspiring quotes by Jane Lierman and Cursive writing practice: jokes & riddles by Violet Findley  They appear to be activity books (lots of blank spaces for practice), but are meant for teachers (and homeschoolers) to make copies of the practice sheets.  They are marked as reproducible, meaning that they are intended for copying.

The new books are replacing Cursive writing made easy & fun : 101 quick, creative activities & reproducibles that help kids of all learning styles master cursive writing,  by Kama Einhorn.  The Einhorn book is out of print and could not be replaced; the title had many holds and had circulated many times before being purged for condition.

Cursive writing is a hot topic now because many schools are no longer teaching it.  Lorraine and I have searched for books on this subject in an attempt to meet demand; the titles purchase are the most useful we can find.

Posted by Becky

Mo Yan awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

The Swedish Academy announced this morning that it has awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature to Chinese novelist Mo Yan.  In announcing the award, the Academy noted that Mo’s work uses “hallucinatory realism” to merge “folk tales, history, and the contemporary.”  Mo is not well-known in the west, probably most familiar as the author whose novel Red Sorghum was adapted to film.  We own a few translations of Mo’s works; a quick search of one of our vendor’s websites this morning showed few titles available to purchase.  I expect this to change soon.

RECALL : The Jefferson Lies by David Barton

Here we go again.  Publisher Thomas Nelson, owned now by HarperCollins, has recalled all copies of The Jefferson Lies : Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed about Thomas Jefferson by David Barton, for inaccuracies and “misinterpretations.”  Here is the story from PW.

All copies have been made unholdable and non-floating. When they land at your branch, please send to Service Center and put in Review status.  Again emails will be going out to customers who were on the holds queue.  Fortunately, this time there were only five copies and 9 holds on one print edition. Again the PAC will show no available copies.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Posted by Darren

Magazine issues

The May 1 issue of Library Journal includes their annual review of the ten best magazines of the previous year.  Although there are some interesting titles, to me the best feature is the overview of the magazine publishing industry.  This information is timely:  we’re starting to work on the system’s magazine renewal for 2013 and considering the purchase of Zinio for the coming year.

I’ll head off the SINCs now:  appealing as the title is, we won’t be adding Toad Suck Review to the collection.

posted by Nancy

It’s coming…

J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, has been announced with publication date set for September 27.  We will place an order in June, three months prior to publication.  We purchase only three months in advance of publication for three reasons:  it helps us better manage our hold queue length prior to receipt of material (and thus fill holds faster); it helps us better manage our materials budget; and it helps ensure that the book will actually be published (yes, popular authors’ works sometimes do get delayed).  In the meantime (until June), we will be returning RINCs to customers with the reason that their request is made too far in advance of publication.  

Here’s the publisher’s annotation:

“When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.  Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.  And the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.”

posted by Nancy

Evil Empire or Excellent Enterprise?

The Seattle Times winds up a four-part series today about Amazon, local business made good.  An emphasis on excellent customer service can overshadow the toll taken on staff and publishers.  

Sno-Isle uses the Amazon marketplace to purchase out-of-print titles that have repeated demand from customers, especially to fill in series fiction.  With very few exceptions, we purchase from marketplace only when the sales price for the used copy does not exceed the list price for the original edition.

posted by Nancy

2012 barcodes arrive

We have finally exhausted our supply of barcodes dated for 2011! Beginning today, all new materials will have the new and improved 2012 barcodes attached. Here’s a sample:

Brilliance to cease offering audiobooks as downloads

OverDrive announced in an email to library partners  last week that Brilliance Audio is suspending availability of its audiobooks for purchase as downloads across all vendors.  Here’s their official statement:

For U.S. libraries only at this time. 

 

Changes to BrillianceAudio library lending
Effective January 31, 2012, as instructed by the publisher, BrillianceAudio will suspend the availability of all download audiobook titles for library purchase across all vendors. This change does not affect any titles currently in your library’s catalog. You will not, however, be able to add any additional copies.
If you have questions or comments, you can reach BrillianceAudio directly at AskSales@brillianceaudio.com or 800.648.2312.

Gary Price at INFOdocket  noted connections with Amazon that may indicate this isn’t a brinkmanship move by Brilliance Audio that might end in a compromise solution as the Penguin Group ebook did in November.

Price notes that:

“Brilliance Audio was acquired by Amazon.com in May, 2007. Amazon also owns Audible.com, the popular audiobook download service.

A Few of the Many Possibilities That Quickly Come to Mind

• Brilliance Sells Access to Titles via Audible, No Need To Lend
• Amazon Will Add Some/All Brilliance Titles to the Their Amazon Prime Program”

Practicalities — what does this mean for the library today?

1. Brilliance Audio talking books on CD aren’t affected by this development.
2. Fewer audiobook offerings by popular authors such as Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz and others.
3. Our current Brilliance Audio download titles will remain in the collection.
4. We may have difficulty maintaining our holds to copy ratio of 5 to 1 for Brilliance Audio downloads.

Let’s hope this doesn’t become a trend.

posted by jim

New Adult Non-Fiction

December 22, 2011

Annotations from Baker & Taylor or Ingram

 

The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics

Edsall, Thomas

A political observer and editor atThe Huffington Postprovides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years–and how citizens might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles.

 

Best Food Writing [2011]

Hughes, Holly (EDT)

The latest edition of the food-writing series, edited by former Fodor’s Travel Publications executive editor Hughes. The collection is light on celebrity-chef profiles and restaurant reviews, offering instead wide-ranging essays on topics ranging from how we find solace in food (David Leite’s “When Food Doesn’t Heal”) to cross-cultural disorientation (Chang-Rae Lee’s “Magical Dinners

 

Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down

Fitzpatrick, Robert / Land, Jon

A poor kid from the slums, Robert Fitzpatrick grew up to become a stellar FBI agent and challenge the country’s deadliest gangsters. Relentless in his desire to catch, prosecute, and convict Whitey Bulger, Fitzpatrick fought the nation’s most determined cop-gangster battle since Melvin Purvis hunted, confronted, and killed John Dillinger.

 

Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats

Rosenblatt, Roger

A poignant meditation on the stages of grief by the award-winning author ofMaking Toastdocuments the period after the wrenching death of his adult daughter and describes a kayak journey he took years later that metaphorically represented his journey of loss and healing.

 

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers

Ussery, Harvey

Whether prompted by the economy, a do-it-yourself philosophy, or a concern for the good earth, more Americans are contemplating, when codes and ordinances permit, raising fowl.  Appended material covers making trap nests, a dustbox, and a mobile A-frame shelter; duck confit; a feed-formulation spreadsheet and spreadsheets for tracking egg and broiler costs and profits; and a comparison of natural and industrial eggs.

 

Small-Space Container Gardens: Transform Your Balcony, Porch, or Patio With Fruits, Flowers, Foliage and Herbs

Richardson, Fern

Chances are your balcony, porch, or patio could use a major makeover. Fern Richardson, charismatic creator of the blog Life on the Balcony, is here to walk you through the process of beautifying a small space even when your budget is just as small.

 

A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

Krauss, Lawrence

The internationally renowned cosmologist and author of the best-sellingThe Physics ofStar Trek shares provocative and revelatory answers to such philosophical conundrums as the origins of the universe and how everything is going to end, offering scientific explanations about the immense process through which life evolved.

 

Vertical Vegetables & Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces

Hart, Rhonda Massingham

Vertical Vegetables & Fruit shows how easy and fun small-footprint food gardening can be. Low maintenance and big harvests are just two of the benefits of using teepees, trellises, cages, hanging baskets, wall pockets, stacking pots, and multilevel raised beds to grow vegetables and fruit.

 

Vintage Weddings: One Hundred Years of Bridal Fashion and Style

Fogg, Marnie

With more than 250 photographs, a visual history takes readers on a dazzling tour of the past hundred years of bridal fashion, detailing the periods, styles, iconic designers, noteworthy ceremonies, cultural influences and key looks.

Posted by Jenifer Brown