Dirty Game

I don’t like this book, but I can see the appeal for teens. A bit too much ebonics for me. It was just to negative. Tyrell was a positive street book even tho he had some hard topics to deal with, I think Tyrell was just a better read to me. I checked out the reviews on amazon so I could see how other people felt about it after I read it. I guess I’m not alone in not liking it but a few people loved it. Thats all I have to say, maybe I will read a different book by this author because I have heard good things.

1 comment May 3, 2008 karrisa

Tyrell

Living in the Bronx, unfortunately it is easy for teens to get caught up crime. Tyrell understands this, but is refusing to get involved in drug dealing. This makes for a great teen role model. I wonder how many teens can deal with the topics that this book brigs up, adolescence, relationships with family and friends, foster care system, homelessness, poverty, secrets, and struggling to stay in school. Im sure they can I should be asking how many adults can deal with these topics, teens are pretty resilient. I would of recommended this book to all of the teens at Tri-County because they had stories very similar to this. I also think that the students I worked with in Somers Ct would benefit from reading this book because it it just a good story. They may not be able to relate to it as much but they can still enjoy it.

1 comment May 3, 2008 karrisa

Behavioral Collection Development

            Tri-County Schools in Easthampton, Massachusetts is a behavioral special education school with about 120 students. That means the students that attend the school are labeled as behavioral problems. The student’s original school district pays anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000 a year for the student to attend Tri-County Schools. The ages range from 7 to 20 years old with the majority of the students attending the middle and high schools. The school is split into three wings for the Elementary, Middle and High schools. There is one library that services the three schools. It includes about 15 computers, a lot of bookshelves and a few tattered books. The majority of the books donated from surrounding schools and libraries. In the last few years the school has purchased quite a few book sets from Scholastic books. These are used for reading classes, so the whole class can be reading the same book at the same time. Scholastic books has also offered Tri-County Schools a grant to expand their library. For every book that Tri-County Schools buys Scholastic books will match that dollar for dollar. This is a great opportunity for the school to expand their library.

            For this collection development experiment I want to concentrate on the Middle and High schools section of the library but more specifically, I want to give the library a “behavioral section”. Currently the library has no order to it. It is not organized by Dewey or Cutter. It is alphabetized by author’s last name but there is no cataloging program. That means that the students can’t even check out a book. The current book borrowing policy is, a teacher can take their class to the library and the students can use the books in the library or take them back to the classroom but the teacher is responsible for the book. In other words no one knows where the books are and there is no way to track down a book if you need it or tell how long someone has had a book. Honestly it’s a stretch to call it a library. The book sets are on a sign out by teacher only so they have are easier to keep track of.

            I want to add a collection of books that these particular students would enjoy. These students are mostly foster children, or children who live in residential programs. They have been through more then most people can imagine. Sadly they think they are the only ones going through these tough times and feel there is no one to help them. Even though the teachers, counselors and other staff try to be there for the students as much as possible, there is such a high turn over rate for staff that it is hard for the students to become comfortable with the new people. My hope is having a collection of books that these students can relate to will help them through their hard times. This can provide an escape for the students. A while back the students were poled about what books they would be interested in reading. This is where the idea of behavioral books came from.

            I am not going to concentrate on the rest of the library because I think this is the most important section. This section currently does not exist so I am building it from scratch. 

Add comment May 2, 2008 karrisa

Book trailers

Recently I have seen two book trailers. One for James Paterson’s The Final Warning and another was for Sundays at Tiffanies by Nicolas Sparks. The marketing was pretty good I saw the James Paterson trailer during an episode of Law and Order. The Nicolas Sparks I stumbled on when I was flipping channels this afternoon. I think Charmed was on. So they know their audiences well enough to predict what TV shows they will watch. The Nicolas Sparks trailer was kind of sappy and girly but the James Paterson trailer looked very exciting and adventurous. I wonder if the books will sell more copies and how well these will work. Has any one else seen these or other book trailers on TV? I think that the James Paterson trailer must be targeting adults because I don”t think many teens watch Law and Order but I bet they watch a lot of Charmed!

1 comment May 2, 2008 karrisa

book blogs for teens?

I wonder if many libraries would organize a book blog for teens? I remember when I was a teen we used to fill out bookmarks saying what we liked about a book and the librarians would stick it in the book. I liked to read them and it did persuade me to read a few books (or to not read them). That is now old technology. Blogging is new technology. Teens love technology and computers as well as voicing their opinions. I bet some libraries do it I just don’t know of any. Here is a link with some more opinions.

http://www.yalibrarian.com/wordpress/2006/08/teen-book-discussion-blogs/

1 comment April 29, 2008 karrisa

boredom

I was bored so I googled teen and controversies. (our topic for the week) I found teen pregnancy, curfews, Elizabeth Smart, cosmetic surgery, addictions, Barbie, alcohol and a teen who hit a burglar with a bat along with many more topics. I can definitely see the controversy in these topics. Some of these topics are a bit more serious then others but not unexpected. I can imagine that a teen would have a good argument on either side of these controversial topics. Teens (and adults) love controversies and drama. These are great topics to read about. Teens also seem to be fascinated by urban lifestyles, maybe because they are so different then their own lives (or so similar). Or perhaps these lives are just interesting.

1 comment April 29, 2008 karrisa

I like books with pictures

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This book has very good comic relief even though it discuses difficult topics. Maybe this is what teens enjoy about it. I would think all of these negative topics would depress a teen (or anyone else for that matter) but apparently its popular so Im wrong. This is definitely a “boy book” with selective female appeal. With its dark cover adorned by toy cowboys and indians and the “taped in” comics that draw you to the book. I think a lot of guys would read it. I think the humor is appealing for guys too. This is refreshing tho because these qualities make the story more unique to the reader.

1 comment April 25, 2008 karrisa

Honest to Blog!

I liked Good Girls. It had a lot of emotion and characters who feel like real people. These characters are in every high school in america. They don’t preach just work hard at being the best they can be. A few things are annoying and I think noticeable by teens. You can tell that this book was written by an adult who is reflecting on their teen days. It also bothers me when a student’s phone rings the students shout “Phone!”. Ya kids don’t do that. The sex was pretty graphic this was disappointing for me and unnecessary for the author. You can tell about the deed and give a few details but that should be it. The characters are young and I know young kids do this stuff but its just discouraging to think about. Anyways I do appreciate the realistic way the author deals with the picture. Also Laura Ruby has guts to bringing up the topic of STDs and HPV. Another thing that bugs me is that not all teens are happy about their choices, especially when it comes to sex. Maybe she could of focused on that a bit more, make it a bigger deal to be with the one instead of just any one. Over all I think teens will like it and as for the sex there is worse out there.

1 comment April 18, 2008 karrisa

Someday this pain might be useful to you

I’m not sure about my feelings for this book. I liked it, but I’m not sure a teen would. (obviously I’m wrong because somehow it was nominated for these lists) The main character, James, seems older then 18 to me. Emotionally, James feels about 25 or older to me. I think the topics he is concerned with and his obsession with precise English make me feel he is older then 18. I’m not sure how teens would feel about this. I am also not sure if I would classify this as a “boy book” or a “girl book”. The cover picture isn’t that girly but it also doesn’t shout boy to me. I think boys and girls would pick it up. The main character is a boy. I think that would appeal to a lot of boys because not many fiction books for teens have male main characters (or at least not many I’m exposed to). I think a lot of girls like to read about girls, even tho some of the lesser characters in this book are female and interesting, I’m not sure if that’s enough. I recognize that some girls do like to read about boys and I am generalizing but this is a blog and blogs are for opinions right? So here is another …. This book might be too emotional for boys. Don’t get me wrong I liked this book (didn’t love it) but I’m not sure if a teen would, especially a male teen. I don’t know. I give up. I’m having an indecisive day.

1 comment April 11, 2008 karrisa

Book Signing

Last Friday my sister and I went to a Jodi Picoult book signing. It was in Providence Rode Island, at a local high school. There were about a hundred people there. Maybe 50% or so were women 20-40 years old. I would guess 20% were men 20- 40 years old (it looked like maybe 70% of the men were there with a wife or girlfriend, the other 30% appeared to be alone).  There were maybe 10% women older then 40. The remaining 20% were teens, an even split between men and women. The event was sponsored by the high school’s book club. Jodi meet with the teens before the event and they all had a front row seat for the event. Most of the questions that were asked were by the women 20-40 years old. One was asked by a man and a few were asked by teens. (I imagine the teens might of asked more questions if they hadn’t had a private Q&A prior) Unfortunately I Listened to all of the podcasts on Jodi’s website so I had heard most of the answers. I thought there would be more teens there but teens need adults for permission and rides so that may have something to do with the low numbers. It was clear that the teens that were there enjoyed the books, they hung on her every word. Most of the teens had brought a copy of 19 Minutes (mostly soft covers). The women had a variety of books (mostly hard covers). I saw a lot of Second Glance, The Pact, 19 Minutes and her new book Change of Heart. A few women had several books with them. Some of the men had books some did not. I didn’t notice a trend in the titles. My sister was the only one I saw with the comics. A few women had the hardcover bound version of the comics, but didn’t see any teens with it. I found that a bit odd, figuring that was the intended audience. Everyone appeared to enjoy the event and Jodi actually had to limit the number of questions because it was getting late. Here is some pics

1 comment April 7, 2008 karrisa