Time to recharge

I really should start recording the RifRaf meetings. Unlike other book clubs, this one doesn't pick a single book to read and discuss. Instead, a (supposed) theme is picked each week, and tends to run along the lines of "Characters who shouldn't have (or should have) died" and other such speculation. Today, folks seemed to be fascinated by the idea of popes and the supernatural (involving zombies and their ilk). I have no idea why. So next week's theme will delve into this mystery - for a good five minutes, anyway. A more concrete proposal emerged, perhaps inspired by NaNoWriMo, which was to collectively write a novel in a brand new mashup genre: "zombie pirate robot vampire alien French Pope romance." Can't wait to read the ARC.

It's conference season for me right now. Last week I attended the Illinois School Library Media Association annual conference in Springfield. Tomorrow I leave for the American Association of School Librarians National Conference. I'll be blogging for them, so this little corner of the blogosphere will be quiet until I get back next week, recharged and ready for more zombies.

So, who's playing this year?

The Online Gargoyle wonders if it can be called a "50K race in... writing?" Yes, it's time for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. We've had a pretty good record of participation in it, and this past September a few Uni students even garnered some nice mentions for their efforts in School Library Journal.

Here's the deal. Please let us know if you are participating this year and we'll put your name up on the "NaNoWriMo Hall of Fame" bulletin board outside the library. Easy.

We can't ever let them graduate

Because this might be what they look like when they come back -


Jeremy muttered something about "for Halloween," but I'm not buying it.

The many moods of Maurice Sendak

You'd have to be living under a rock not to be aware of the release of the movie version of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book, Where the Wild Things Are. So I was pleased to see the arrival of our copy of Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation, written by Gregory Maguire, author of New York Times bestseller Wicked. This lovely book is an ode to Sendak, almost a poem in and of itself. Maguire takes a look at Sendak's influences (from William Blake to Warner Brothers) and explores Sendak's deep understanding of children's emotions. There's lots of art in here I've never seen before, some quite "adult," all of it beautiful. The book closes with a riff on the last line of Wild Things, when Max returns to his room to find his dinner waiting: "And it was still hot." One illustration after another, each from a different book, each with that caption.

Here's Sendak's self-portrait with one of his influences:

Stuff librarians like

Here is a top-ten list from "Travis," an elementary school librarian blogger. Each item is accompanied by a "Fast Fact!", the veracity of which might be hard to determine. One - sensible lunches in brown paper bags - really resonated with me. Yesssss, food you can eat right out of the refrigerator. And the fast fact: Librarian Abner Tweed went 43 years without using an oven or microwave (1961-2004). How cool is that?

Travis notes that librarians who like cardigan sweaters come in two flavors: ironic and irony-free. "The former is typically middle aged or older and enjoys the warmth that a well-made sweater provides in the chilly library setting. The latter resides in the 20-35 year old age range and is seeking to project the nerdy hipster image." I imagine you can guess which type I am.

New fashion

Is fear of the H1N1 flu the new Y2K scare? Whether it's for real or not, we've got 87 students absent today, out of a student body of 300 or so. The latest "fad"? The always-chic disposable face mask.


Laura contemplates her new look.


Eleni just buckles down to business.

Game day

In celebration of this year's Teen Read Week, RifRaf (book club) held a game day. With a theme like "Read Beyond Reality," games and food and library all-in-one-place seemed like the right thing to do.



Watch out, guys. This all-girl table is planning a club takeover.

Next week's theme: imagine your favorite characters in a different book. Harry Potter and friends in Twilight, the gossip girls in any Jane Austen novel, the Narnia siblings in Oz or Wonderland or...