Library Wisdom

Listed below is some of the mystic knowledge I've gained from working twelve years as a public librarian.

1) If your toddler goes missing at the library head straight for one of two places, the top floor of the elevator and the parking lot. Yep, there they are.

2) If you are one hundred percent, really, really, really, sure that you returned that overdue book back to the library and it hasn't shown up on the shelf yet, check under the passenger seat in your car. It has never failed for me. Freaky huh?

3) If you get a sudden fabulous idea to take your whole family to the library tonight, you can be certain that every other family in the city has received the exact same brilliant idea and they will all be there standing in the checkout line ahead of you. We call this psychic broadcasting.

4) If you want to make your librarian's day just walk up to the desk and ask them to recommend some good books. (Be fairly warned, however, that you might not be able to get them to shut up before closing time.)

5) Coming to the children's department to read your favorite childhood picture books with your significant other is not the unique date you might think it is. Proposing in a library, though a surprisingly popular method, is NEVER a good way to start out a future marriage commitment. Trust me on this one.

Amazing Animals

Animals are truly amazing. I had a busy day the other day and came home pretty late. I was really tired and just wanted to go right to bed, but still had to put my parrot to bed in his nighttime cage first. I usually play with him before I put him to bed, but that night I was in a hurry. When I tried to put him in the cage, he carefully took a hold of my sweater with one foot and wouldn’t let go. He didn’t fuss or threaten me or anything; he just looked me in the face and hung on—tight. I realized he was telling me he didn’t want to be put to bed yet. He didn’t know where I had been all day and wanted to spend time with me, even if it was late. He missed me all day and he didn’t want to let go. I was really touched by his quiet devotion.

I also recently had a mother and daughter come in to check out some items at the library. They had a service dog with them. When I asked them about it, they said that they bought the dog as a pet but it soon began alerting whenever their teenage daughter was about to have an epileptic seizure. The dog is now a licensed service dog and helps the girl to live a better life. Talk about pets changing their owner’s life!

Here of some examples of other amazing animals. Click on the links below to read their fascinating stories.

Nursing Home Cat:

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/doctors-book-profiles-furry-angel-of-death-oscar-the-cat/19339074

The Two Bobbies:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/29/two-animals-of-katrina-inseparable-ever-after/

Dolphin Saves Whales:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_motddvnQ

Dog Saves the Boy She Loves from Cougar:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/04/boy.cougar.attack/index.html

It makes you just want to go home and hug your pet doesn’t it?

One Lovely Book Award

My dear friend Karlene at Inksplasher has kindly given my blog a lovely award. Karlene has been one of my writer's group friends for years and is quite an author and blogger herself. Now that I have received this award, I am supposed to pass on the joy and nominate some of my own favorite blogs and list them here.

Many of my favorite blogs belong to friends who have personal blogs. Since most of them probably wouldn't want me to link up to those here on my public blog, I have decided to only list book blogs that I visit frequently in my work as a children's librarian. This list is huge, and trying to think of them all at once was very difficult, so I am sure I have forgotten some. I've put together a list of those I could remember--if yours is not on there, don't despair, I probably just ran out of brain power before I got to yours. Those who are listed for the award below, are now supposed to pass on this award to someone else.

Rebecca’s Book Blog: http://rebeccasbookblog.blogspot.com/ (What Rebecca doesn’t know about a book is not worth reading about.)

Two and a Half Book Lovers: http://twoandahalfbooklovers.blogspot.com/ (Blogging for the whole family! Also a great place to keep up with all the contests currently going on in the blogging community. My first official author interview was posted on this site. Check it out!)

Bookworming in the 21^st Century: http://www.bookworminginthe21stcentury.com/ (An invaluable resource for any children or teen librarian. Kristen always writes fair and honest reviews with great details. I find I tend to agree with her reviews a lot of the time.)

The Story Siren: http://www.thestorysiren.com/ (I stand in silent awe of The Story Siren’s knowledge of all things juvenile and teen fiction.)

Never Ending Shelf: http://www.theneverendingshelf.com/ (Just plain fabulous. Great reviews, contest info and all things book related. Pure heaven.)

The Blue Castle: http://thebluecastle.wordpress.com/ (If she loves The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery I trust her opinion of other books implicitly.)

Princess Bookie: http://www.princessbookie.com/2009/05/upcoming-books.html (I ADORE the pink cupcake theme. Books truly are as scrumptious as pink cupcakes, don’t you think?)

La Femme Readers: http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/ (Love the new layout, Eleni.)

Tales of the Ravenous Reader: http://lushbudgetproduction.blogspot.com/ (Got to love that title! The blog itself is even better.)

Mandy Can Read: http://mandycanread.blogspot.com/ (Mandy brings a fresh teenage perspective to all her reviews. Nice work.)

My Fluttering Heart: http://myflutteringheart.blogspot.com/ (She blogs about great books and about a whole lot of other extremely fascinating things besides. Check out that real Bilbo Baggins house some guy built for his family to live in! And if your next wedding isn’t steampunk you are so missing out.)

Tempting Persephone: http://persephonereads.wordpress.com/ (Just recently discovered this one. Nice header artwork. Wish I knew who the artist was. I want them to design the cover of my next book.)

A Good Addiction: http://agoodaddiction.blogspot.com/ (I love that she always posts pictures of her dog sitting with her books. Toby is so cute.)

Jack of All Trades: http://raincoyote.blogspot.com/

And for the younger crowd:

XOX Casey + Sammy Forever: http://cammylover.blogspot.com/ (Is there anything as delightful as a young fan who has finally discovered the perfect series of books? I think not. Fabulous job, Cammylover. Did you take all those cool photographs yourself?)

I'm sure there are many more but I don't want this post to take up too much space. Thank you to all the hardworking bloggers who provide me with such great blogs to read. I could not do my work as a well informed librarian without all of you.

Congrats to all!

One of My Favorite Authors

In case any of you out there haven’t caught it yet, I love the author, Wendelin Van Draanen’s writing. I’d give anything to be as great a writer as she is. Last year, when a friend and I were reading aloud one of the most recent Sammy Keyes book, we got to this part where Sammy has a fly up her nose and she’s trying to get it out. She describes the whole experience in depth with every last gory detail. My friend and I were laughing so hard, I was crying. I kept thinking to myself, here is a woman who has had a fly up her nose at some point in her life. Only the way Van Draanen writes about this experience, it becomes a comedic adventure worthy of the stage. As a writer, I despair of ever being even the smallest bit as entertaining as Wendelin, but I keep striving anyway.

Wendelin is having her book Flipped (another of my favorite books!) made into a movie this summer. (opening bout the same time my book will be released!) I found this blog entry on her site explaining how a book is transformed into a movie and how much work goes into such an undertaking. It was so fascinating I thought I’d include a link here for anyone who is curious about how these things work.

http://etrtr.blogspot.com/2009/09/thats-what-i-call-cosmic.html

After reading all of that, I'm not sure I'd want any book of mine made into a movie. So much work! If you have not read Flipped, run out and get yourself a copy as soon as possible—it is a fantastic story. And the book is always better than the movie.

And for those who are fans of Sammy Keyes, like I am, I’m including a link that talks about the publishing process an author has to go through in creating a book. If you have ever considered becoming an author, this is a realistic look at how much work goes into the creation of a story.

http://etrtr.blogspot.com/2009/09/thats-what-i-call-cosmic.html

Owl Visits the Library

Since I used to work at this library many years ago, I had to share this story and the amazing photos. Birds used to smack into those huge windows all the time when I worked at Orem Public Library, so I can tell you this is not a hoax. My old boss told me one of their workers noticed it one day when he came into work and it quickly became big news. Even the mayor got on a lift so he could examine it up close. My old boss said they never did find a body so they are hopeful the owl survived his mishap. You've got to see the pictures for yourself to believe it.

http://saltzworks.blogspot.com/2009/04/wowie-owl-imprint.html

Librarian's with Hidden Talents

Anyone who loves books knows that yesterday was the big day when the Caldecott and Newbery award winners were announced. The winner of the Newbery Award was When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead and the winner of the Caldecott Award was The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Every year, when the winner is announced, one of my librarian coworkers likes to create some fun treat to celebrate the winning book and share it with all of us. She's been doing this for years and the whole staff now looks forward to seeing what outrageously fantastic creation she will come up with next. Here is her masterpiece for this year.


















I really feel that my coworker has missed her true calling in life. She should devote her life only to making fantastic artwork out of cheese in the future. Just look at that adorable mouse!

I'm beginning to realize that most librarians harbor amazing secret talents that the world knows nothing about. They are like superheros hiding their greatness beneath a mild mannered librarian facade. But when no one is looking--watch out--their cheese lion and mouse collage will make your jaw drop. It tastes even better than it looks too.

One librarian on our staff recently created a book display featuring only books about monsters under the bed. She not only created a little bed, but sewed all the adorable furry monsters underneath the bed herself. This display is one of the ones we constantly have to wipe little fingerprints off of because it is so popular. And don't even get me started on the display featuring books about the upcoming winter Olympics. All the events in this display are being performed by very detailed little pipe cleaner people created by one of our MLS college student volunteers. Soon she will join the ranks of thousand of other librarian superheros ready to change the world of literature one pipe cleaner person at a time.

How Exciting!

My book has been purchased by the library I work at and today it was entered into the catalog and made available for holds. Best of all, someone actually put a hold on it today! My first hold. *sniff sniff* Excuse me a moment while I grab a tissue.