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Racism, Children's Classics and the World Today
This post has been in my heart and mind for a few days now and after seeing Grace Lin speak about this very issue on PBS NewsHour and in light of recent events, I think it’s an important subject that kids, parents, teachers, librarians and everyone in between should be…
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Importance of Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are one of my favorite genres to read, I love the magic, the mystery and the thought that these stories have been passed down through the generations. I love reading fractured fairy tales, different spins on old classics and modern re-tellings. I came across a few articles on…
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The Solar Eclipse Experience
At this point (especially if you work in a library), if you haven’t heard about the solar eclipse then I want to be you! We applied for the NASA grant and didn’t get it, so my children’s and teen programming librarians decided that we would offer a program anyway and…
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Director's Thoughts #12 – Office Space (or Mantras to Work By)
My office has some fairly hideous carpet – dark green border with a pale lilac faded interior color, which makes decorating my office extremely difficult, but what I did find were some of these absolutely adorable children’s book posters that I use as my director mantras (it also helps that…
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The Grown-Up Joys of Reading Children’s Books – WSJ Essay
After reading the title of this article, “The Grown-Up Joys of Reading Children’s Books” I was excited to see what the author had to say, specifically in regards to what I would expect to be addressed, the diversity of children’s literature in the 21st century and how relatable it can…
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Popular Trends & How to Incorporate Them into the Library
Popular trends happen in a blink of an eye – a book becomes popular after being a sleeper when it was published, a movie becomes the most quoted movie of the summer or a toy becomes the must-have of the holiday season. As libraries continue to fight for funding and…
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…And Now a Short Break
I’m taking a quick break today from my regularly scheduled blogging to blog-brag a little about the my partner’s amazing skills when it comes to photography and graphic design. I’m going to try really hard not to get too mushy, but he’s got some amazing skills and is brave enough…
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Books as Gifts
It’s no surprise that for every gift-giving event, I purchase books. Now, I don’t always buy everyone on my list a book, but there’s usually at least one book per holiday that is bought. For my nephew and a few other little ones in my life, I started before they…
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Library of Congress Opens Access
The Library of Congress recently made available 25 million digital records for materials published between 1968 and 2014. Before this occurred in May of this year, these records were only accessible through a paid subscription or individually. The Library is looking to researchers to use this information for, well, research…
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#OwnVoices
In 2015, Corinne Duyvis suggested on Twitter, “Glad important discussions are being had. Would love to be able to walk away with book recommendations. How about a hashtag? #ownvoices, to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.”This was the beginning of a new hashtag that…