Update: This post is about reading programs for summer 2008.  If it's helpful, you might also enjoy my post about summer reading in 2009.

The school year is officially finished for me, and I am all signed up and ready to go for my local library's reading program: Catch the Reading Bug, which it turns out is part of the larger Collaborative Summer Library Program.  My goal for the summer is to read 22 books, which would catch me up by the end of August on my 4-a-month plan which I made in December.  Right now I've read less than 2 books a month; sad but true.  If you include magazines that ups my count by quite a bit, or books with recipes in them that I didn't read.  I don't feel comfortable listing those because I didn't really read the whole book, you know?

 If your library's reading program is lacking or if you just love to pile it on when it comes to reading, the internet is full of options for you.

 Reading Is Fundamental has a Summer Reading Guide.  You'll find crafts, booklists, and more.

 Harper Collins is sponsoring the Reading Warriors Summer Reading Challenge.  This challenge is targeted at 8 - 12 year olds and challenges them to read at least 10 books this summer.  The website is rich with content.  This challenge includes a rewards program.  For adults, there's a whole section on the site on being a reading mentor.  Promotional material like posters and bookmarks abound.  There's plenty there to explore!

 Over at Scholastic, they've got the Summer Reading Challenge going on.  Readers can register to log their reading and "feed the reader meter."  Much like at the Reading Warriors challenge, there's plenty of supplemental content for adults who want to encourage kids to read.

 If you're looking for specific recommendations of books to read, the web has a host of lists.

Little Willow is my favorite recommender of books.  You can find her summer reading list here.  Parents Magazine has a list here; Education World has one here.

 For tips on helping kids read this summer, see these articles:
Summer Reading Tips @ The Children's Book Review [via Jen Robinson's Book Page ]
Summer Reading @ The Post and Courier [via Jen Robinson's Book Page ]
How to Raise a Book Lover @ Parents [via The Children's Book Review ]
Hot Tips From Cool Authors @ Becky's Book Reviews

 What are your goals and plans for summer reading?  I'm going to catch up on old readergirlz issues and read some Buffy novels.

As I haven't collected any links this week, I don't have much for you today.

First: J. K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement My favorite thing about this speech is how many times she makes reference to her college Classics major, and the variety of quotes she uses from classical sources.  I was so fond of this, I sent it to my Latin teacher colleague, who has added it to her course website so her students can read it next year.  Our school did an event called May Fever, where 64 authors competed to be the school's favorite.  Students and faculty made predictions and voted; the championship was between J. K. Rowling and Shakespeare - a Classicist and a Latin teacher.  Yay!  (Shakespeare won, against my prediction but to my delight.)

Next: I'm a big fan of etsy, a site which enables artists to sell their handmade goods online rather easily.  So I popped in the search term "literary" and here are my favorites of the items it turned up:


 My severest critic hand embroidered tote bag, $27 from shinyprettythings

This bag immediately made me think of Lisa Yee.








 Leather Shakespeare Memento Bookmarks, $5.50 each by immortallongings If you can't get over to Shakespeare's Globe, you can at least have a souvenir.  immortallongings creates original artwork based on Shakespeare and is one of my favorite etsy sellers.  All of the art is in a vaguely Art Nouveau style.












 And of course, I would be remiss without mentioning this shirt from the kidlitosphere's own Leila of bookshelvesofdoom.  $19









That's all for today!

This question is for school and youth services librarians.

How much and in what ways do you get to interact with students/kids?

If you aren't a librarian yourself but you know one, I'd love for you to point them this way if they're willing to answer my question.

Thanks!

Go read Lee Wind’s post about his experience attempting to donate GLBTQ books to a junior high library, and then come back.  I’ll wait. 

Lee’s post got me thinking about the stigmas I fear, and the one I fear the most is the stigma on mental illness.  It was this part of his post that really spoke to me:

The choice is whether to be honest about how you feel inside.

But how you feel inside is your Identity.

How you feel inside, of course, includes if you are happy or sad, drained or energetic, hopeless, etc.  I don’t mean to diminish Lee’s point by pointing to these emotions; but mental illness - depression, bipolar disorder, and others - this is a part of your identity, I think.  And it can be scary to talk to people about it, because what will they say?  Will they call you crazy?  Will they be scared of you?  And then, what about any changes that may come from you trying to FIX the mental illness?  What if your meds make you gain weight?  And then people are calling you crazy AND fat.  Or if you used to be creative, and then when you got on meds maybe you didn’t want to kill yourself anymore, but you also couldn’t create anything?  Then people might think you’re dull, slow, stupid.

Talking about mental illness is not, I imagine, nearly as difficult as talking about sexuality.  (I don’t know for sure because I’ve never really had to talk about sexuality.)  And I would guess that donating books with main characters who have a mental illness - books like The Phoenix Dance, for example - would not present a problem at all like Lee found when he tried to donate the GLBTQ books.

But basically, Lee’s post made me think about how important it is for readers to see themselves in books, to know they are not alone.  Because what is a better moment than when you are reading a book and you say, “YES!  Someone understands me!"  

And every reader, every child, teenager, and adult, should be able to have that experience - readily available.

Guys Lit Wire is live!

Here's a blurb from the site:

Guys Lit Wire exists solely to bring literary news and reviews to the attention of teenage boys and the people who care about them. We are more than happy to welcome female readers - but our main goal is to bring the attention of good books to guys who might have missed them. The titles will be new or old and on every subject imaginable. We guarantee new posts every Monday through Friday and have a list of twenty-three individual scheduled contributors plus several additional occasional posters all of whom have different literary likes and dislikes. We hope to provide something for everyone and will strive to accomplish that goal.

I am one of the aforementioned "occasional posters."  I'm hoping to interview some of my educational colleagues and perhaps get some reviews from my students.

Where have I been? Where am I going?

Life gets in the way. Work makes me tired, and various projects capture my imagination at different times. And every once in a while, a book tricks me into thinking I don’t like reading.

So, my enthusiasm for the kid lit world has actually been dampened by attempt to keep a commitment to it. You see, I read this one book for The Edge of the Forest, and now owe Kelly a review, and I really liked that book. The book took me a while to get into, but after a little while I was really invested. So I thought, okay, I will move on to the next one of the books she sent me to review a year ago. (I am all kinds of slacker.)

Well, I’m on p. 130something, and I am just finding the book so dull. It’s not bad exactly; I just don’t care what happens to the characters. I thought, “Well I’ll get through and review it anyway,” but I thought, “What will I say about this book?” And quite honestly, were I to write a review it would go like this:

I thought this book was boring. I didn’t care what happened to the characters. I was never drawn into the world. I can’t even provide a reasonable explanation of what was wrong with it, as it was well-written enough. It wasn’t bad or anything. It just bored me.

I thought that wouldn’t be a very useful review; with books I don’t love I still try and figure out who would like them, for whom they’d be suited. But the fact of the matter is, if anyone was going to like this book, it was going to be me. It’s a fantasy set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. (Dragonlance, for those of you familiar with the series.) It’s about sisters, and the sisterly dynamic is a big part of the book. But it just can’t hold my attention.

So I said, “Self,” I said to myself, “you need to try a different book, and see if you like it better.”

So I picked up Tim Lott’s _Fearless, and that is a book I got into right away, and I will review it here at lectitans when I am done with it.

Thank goodness I still like reading.

Monday, May 19th
Adam Rex at Fuse #8
David Almond at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
R.L. LaFevers at Finding Wonderland
Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred
Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom
Laurie Halse Anderson at Writing & Ruminating
Susan Beth Pfeffer at Interactive Reader

Tuesday, May 20th
Ben Towle at Chasing Ray
Sean Qualls at Fuse #8
Susane Colasanti at Bildungsroman
Robin Brande at HipWriterMama
Susan Beth Pfeffer at The YA YA YAs
Debby Garfinkle at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
Jennifer Lynn Barnes at Writing & Ruminating

Wednesday, May 21st
Delia Sherman at Chasing Ray
Ingrid Law at Fuse #8
Polly Dunbar at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Tera Lynn Childs at Bildungsroman
Siena Cherson Siegel at Miss Erin
Barry Lyga at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Thursday, May 22nd
Elisha Cooper at Chasing Ray
Dar Williams at Fuse #8
Jennifer Bradbury at Bildungsroman
E. Lockhart at The YA YA YAs
Mary Hooper at Miss Erin
Charles R. Smith, Jr. at Writing & Ruminating
Mary E. Pearson at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Friday, May 23rd
Varian Johnson at Finding Wonderland
Jincy Willet at Shaken & Stirred
John Grandits at Writing & Ruminating
Meg Burden at Bookshelves of Doom
Gary D. Schmidt at Miss Erin
Javaka Steptoe at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Adam Rex at Fuse #8
David Almond at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
R.L. LaFevers at Finding Wonderland
Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred
Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom
Laurie Halse Anderson at Writing & Ruminating
Susan Beth Pfeffer at Interactive Reader