Book talk

Today's book talk to the 6th graders was lots of fun. I'm still so new at this, having been a Middle School Librarian for only a year, that I'm delightedly amazed that kids actually respond to a book talk by grabbing up the book or putting their name on the reserve list for it. Having said that, I did get a chuckle from the girl who asked me -- after I had talked up about twelve books -- "Do you have any good books you'd recommend for me?" Well, yes, all the ones I just talked about! But then I realized the emphasis was on "me," meaning, "What do you have just for me?" Luckily I'd been in enough therapy to turn the question back to her by asking "What books have you read lately that you liked?" Having that information helped me think of some similar titles to recommend and we were both very happy. I try hard to schedule my classes on the days when the part-time library aid is working so I can spend time talking with the students while they browse, rather than dealing just with checking the books out.

Three titles I loved that I haven't been able to keep on the shelves this year are Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, both by Susan Pfeffer and much-discussed in other blogs, and Laurie Anderson's Fever 1793. At least I got to read those titles; I've had no chance to read Margaret Haddix's Turnabout or Cynthia Kadohata's Cracker; the Best Dog in Vietnam since we received them in early September. I book talked them based on the jacket blurbs and reviews and they've been in circulation ever since.