Get ready to "Read for your Life"

Many have been buzzing about the changing of guards for the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for some time now (Fuse #8, Mother Reader and A Year of Reading among them). While some people leaked the information on the interwebz last night (I'm looking at you NYTimes!), Katherine Patterson was officially named the 2nd National Ambassador for Young People's Literature this morning.

First and foremost, congratulations! Not only to Ms. Patterson, but to everyone who had a hand in selecting her because you did a phenomenal job. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak at the Baker and Taylor CATS Publisher preview this past November and she was delightful and showed that she will do much more than step up to the plate.

Jon Scieszka spent his time as Ambassador promoting the love of reading and motivating reluctant readers to enjoy reading. What will Katherine Patterson do? She has already started her Ambassadorial duties declaring that "Read for your Life" is going to be her driving force. What this entails we will find out in more detail in the coming weeks. If her time prior to receiving this honor is anything to go by, it can only be good for young people's literature. Shelf Talker has written up a fabulous summary of Ms. Patterson's numerous qualifications for the post and links to the aforementioned NYTimes article that is definitely work checking out for a more detailed look at Ms. Patterson's accomplishments.

10 for 2010: Favorite Programs of 2009

Not one for end of the year lists, I thought I would instead come up with a few for the new year. For the very first list (not to mention my first post of the new year) I thought I would start off with a reflection of my favorite 2009 programs. I know what you're thinking, isn't that just an end of the year list a few days late? Probably, but I like thinking about what worked best last year when developing ideas for the coming year so to me it's a start of the year process.

Below are some of my favorites linking (if available) flyers with more information, and blogs that inspired the program or ones that contain similar information:

1. Bento Boxes! -- The teens ate this up (literally--yuck yuck yuck). I found Lunch in a Box to be so helpful that I even printed out the page on gap filling for the teens to take home.
2. Fashion Forward -- One of the ways I battled a depleted budget was to harass convince my friend Christina to talk about her time at Fashion Institute of Technology and her post-graduation job working with Ralph Lauren.
3. Jam Session -- Recycling records into bowls was a smash hit. Halfway through we started sending off the records by playing a track from the album on YouTube as it melted in the oven.
4. When Zombies Attack! -- This one was yet another product of harassing convincing my friends to help out the library. I harassed encouraged her to combine her love of zombies with her theater training to create a most excellent interactive presentation.
5. Gift Workshop * -- This was an epic two parter. At the first workshop we had three projects going on: 1) Everyone turned Delias catalog pages into star-shaped gift bows and then either 2) made duct tape wallets or 3) decoupage magazine pieces onto little boxes.
6. Gift Workshop (2) -- At the second gift workshop we converted old CD cases into frames.
7. TAG -- Working directly with my Teen Action Group has been some of the most rewarding time I spent this year. I blogged back in November detailing a fun activity we did.
8. Writing Festival -- More harassment (oh whatever, we all know it was harassment at this point) on my behalf where I gathered some of my favorite writers to host stations and go over manga, fan fiction and a really awesome haiku game I learned in high school.
9. Rock Band -- I inherited a fabulous gaming program at my library featuring head-to-head tournament play. It was nice taking a break from that and watching everyone just playing instruments.
10. Candy Sushi -- This summer my Teen Cafe regulars rolled out some Rice Kristipie treats and Swedish Fish to some delicious results. Definitely revisiting this one in the next few years.

Leave some of your best 2009 programs in the comments!

* Sorry for the head tilt! Towards the end of the year I switched to vertical signage to be able to advertise more programs. It prints lovely, but is a bit annoying when looking at on the screen.

Festivus for the rest of us

Actually, I lied. It's not Festivus anymore. I was really hoping to do this post yesterday, but work intervened (until about 1 AM). Don't get too mad though. Once you see the amount of awesome I unleashed on the world last night you will be okay with my abandoning you for working from home. See: AWESOME. I finished the header, html and color selection on the proposal for the SCLS Teen Blog last night. We will put it to an official vote once our YA Librarian Committee meets again in January, but I'm confident it will work out.

That said, it's not just yesterday--I've been bad for a few weeks. I needn't tell you how much of a time suck the end of the year can be. It is still not an excuse for missing out on my friend Alicia's Blogiversary over at the LibrariYAn. CONGRATS!!

I saw this ARC in our summer reading prizes earlier this year and ordered the book. I featured it in a display in the month of November. I have yet to read it ::hangs head in shame:: I think that librarian by day has finally pushed me into checking out Hold Still by Nina LaCour when I get back to the library on Saturday.

Youth Services Corner highlights all the books turned movie in the coming months with fabulous imagery to boot.

YALSA blog has been out-doing themselves lately. Their daily December postings of Dollars and Sense are beyond helpful. So helpful there are really no words for how helpful they are. I can't wait until the last one is done and a compilation* is created. I wanted to also share this inspirational story that Erin Daly wrote for YALSA about nerdfighting. It is a holiday, after all. It may be my inner nerdfighter, but this story was quite touching.

*Until such a compilation is created, instead look at their economy tag which is entirely comprised of Dollars and Sense postings now.

And that about does it today, folks! Time to get all clean and shiny to go to my mom's house and eat too much food before going to my grandma's house tomorrow to eat even more food. Happy holidays!

Thank you Internet, my Christmas present from you was fabulous!

Dear Internet,

It would have been enough for you to just give me this picture:

Little elven Alice? Rudolph Jacob? Taking a Christmas carol and placing it in hilarious context? It was too much to ask for. But the rest of the website upon which I found it? That was simply selfless of you! I can never repay you for such a gem. How ever would I have known that Santa might be a vampire? You're right, it IS kind of awesome.

No one takes Shakespeare up a notch quite the same way as McSweeneys. Previously, there was Hamlet Facebook Newsfeed. Now they bring you Shakespeare Police Blotters. Hat tip to Bib-Laura-graphy for the link!

I WANT THIS SO BAD!!!! It's no secret I'm an anglophile, but I want nothing more than to use a classic red phone box for a library. Boing Boing, you completed my life with this information. Thank you for your services.

Speaking of things I want... this dictionary + me = rapture:

(via this Super Punch post that also has a nifty steam punk lego curiosity cabinet)

Potential program ideas:

• Zipper rosette headbands
• Duct Tape no-sew fabric totes (too cute!)

Reviews that made me want to read the book yesterday:

• Dark Banquet by Bill Schutt reviewed on The YA YA YAs
• Ash by Malinda Lo reviewed on Librarian by Day

BONAS JONAS*: Super Punch has been linking a lot of fabulous art lately that you need to see. Click here. And here. Initial over here.

*I almost thought I was over these johnsons, but then I remembered how brilliant it is that someone living and breathing right now is dubbed Bonas Jonas.

New Blog Alert! 4YA

Ever since Andrea Graham posted a link to her blog 4YA on the ya-yaac list-serv a week or so ago I have been in love. When I log in to my Google Reader it is the first blog I look at these days. I must admit that a little smile pops up on my face every time I see the bold text indicating that she posted again.

Her tagline, "Inspiration for Youth Advocates" is truly accurate in more ways than one. 4YA inspired me to create Movie Mondays on the SCLS Teen Blog with a single post. Beyond that, the scope is so broad and spot on that it is difficult to put into a simple synopsis. You want craft ideas? Rather have video game suggestions? Well you are in luck because 4YA does this and more. Go. Now. Read it all! Her backlog begins in September so you have plenty to catch up on.

Here are two of her posts that have most definitely inspired happenings at my library in 2010:

Eco Fashion Craft -- Soda Tab Belt
Teen Cafe -- Percy Jackson Nectar Shake

P.s. Her blog design will knock your socks off, too.

Waiting on Wednesday: Two for the price of one!

Last week was my first WoW post and Marce of Tea with Marce left me a comment, leading me to her posting. This week I'm using the book she selected (Thaw) because now I'm waiting on it, too! It also made me think of this ARC I received at the Baker and Taylor Spring 2010 preview, so I decided to give you that one as well. Breaking the Spine is hosting the round-up.

Both of these books center on people going through difficult depression and their journey as they decide whether or not to commit suicide. As dedicated readers of Purple Polka know, my stepfather committed suicide in the beginning of December last year, so it seemed a timely post for this week's WoW. And on that somber note, the books!

Book One: Thaw (Fiona Robyn)

(description pulled from Fionarobyn.com)

Ruth is thirty two years old and doesn't know if

she wants to be thirty three. Her meticulously-ordered lonely life as a microbiologist is starved of pleasure and devoid of meaning. She decides to give herself three months to decide whether or not to end her life, and we read her daily diary as she struggles to make sense of her past and grapples with the pain of the present. "Thaw" explores what makes any of our lives worth living. Can Red, the

eccentric Russian artist Ruth commissions to paint her portrait, find a way to warm her frozen heart?

--

The neatest part about this book is that Fiona Robyn is publishing it on a blog in March in addition to hard printing. To help spread the word she's organizing a Blogsplash, where blogs (this one included!) are going to publish the first page of the book and a link to the blog.

She's aiming to get 1000 blogs involved--if you're interested in joining her email her at fiona@fionarobyn.com or find out more information here.

***

Book Two: By the Time You Read This, I'll be Dead (Julie Anne Peters)

(found on the back of the book--a plot description was found online, but this compelled me more so I opted to use this instead)

23 Days and counting

Dear

__mother

__father

__other

There was nothing you could do to stop me because:

__I'd already made up my mind

__I have been suffering my whole life

__you were too slow to notice

I offed myself because:

__my life sucks

__the world sucks

__you suck

Goodbye,

Daelyn

--

Author of two books burning a hole in my To Be Read pile (Rage and Between Mom and Jo, respectively) why shouldn't Julie Anne Peters add yet another title to the stack? I'm most excited for the count-down method, where we slowly find out more about our teenage protagonist and find out if she decides to pull the plug.