Are you a member of ALA?  Have you voted yet in our annual election?  It really couldn’t be simpler, they’ve already emailed us links to our ballots twice.  You can also just visit https://www.alavote.org/2011/ where you’ll find more info on how to vote.

The polls close this Friday and getting out the vote is just as hard for ALA as it is in the USA in general so I am guessing that some of you haven’t yet voted.  Luckily, that means this post can still be topical, because this is the post where I tell you who you should vote for!

ALA Council

• Vote for Wendy Steadman Stephens.  I’ve worked with Wendy through YALSA before and she is one of the most committed and intelligent librarians I have ever met.  She’s interested in teen literature, her students, and all aspects of libraries and technology.  She is currently a school librarian in Alabama working on her PhD in Information.  This is just one example of her  amazing ability to think across disciplines and look at the BIG picture, something I think is vital to being a successful, effective member of Council.
• Vote for Ed Garcia, JP Porcaro, and Jennifer Wann Walker.  Ed, JP, and Jenn were all ALA Emerging Leaders and Library Journal Movers and Shakers.  That’s the party line and it’s important to know! But I think you should vote for them because I know Jenn personally and I have seen, first-hand, the unbelievable work she has done for Mississippi libraries and librarians.   The Librarianship 101 and 201 institutes for paraprofessionals that she has spearheaded, programmed, and ran at the Mississippi Library Commission are innovative, empowering programs that give paraprofessionals the tools to be more effective librarians.  EVERY state, especially those with many rural libraries, should have a similar program in place.  When I speak with Librarianship 101 and 201 graduates, they practically glow when talking about everything they learned in the program and how much it’s helped them.  I don’t know as much about Ed and JP, though I have read pieces about and by them, but I know that if Jenn’s running with them, they must have the same kind of dedication and commitment to innovation that Jenn has.  I DO know that Jenn is inspiration, especially to anyone working in a state that struggles to make sure all its librarians are well-trained and confident in their professional abilities.  If she can do for the ALA Council what she does for Mississippi librarians and libraries, we’ll ALL be better off.

Are you ALSO a member of YALSA?  For YALSA offices, one of the big factors for me is a commitment to YALSA.  I honestly think you should “work your way up” as the saying goes.  So, for me, I look for people I know are committed to YALSA and have done a variety of work with/for them.

Nonfiction Award Committee

• Vote for Adela Peskorz and Angela Frederick.  I worked with Adela on the Morris and she’s just brilliant – one of the most incisive and critical readers I’ve ever worked with.  Sometimes I would read one of her emails and just sit back and say “Wow.”  I haven’t met Angela in person, but I follow her on Twitter and we’ve had some great conversations, I think she has a really sharp perspective on the field of YA lit and culture in general, so I think she’d be a good fit for this committee.
• ALSO  … I’d really like it if you’d vote for ME! Yes, I’m running for the Non-Fiction committee this year and I’d love your vote.  You can read my “official” bio at the voting site (another cool thing ALA does that gives you no reason not to vote and be informed – you can read up on all the candidates right there on the site!) but I will say here that I would love to be on the Non-Fiction committee.  Having just completed a term on the Morris, I feel like I’m prepared to be a rigorous, attentive committee member and I’m currently in love with and utterly excited by what’s being published in NF for young adults, so having a year to discuss and analyze it would be sheer heaven for me.

Printz Committee

• Vote for Sarah Bean Thompson! Sarah is one of the most dedicated and talented  bloggers I know/read.  She has a great grasp of the nuances and breadth of YAlit and she can stick to a schedule like no one I know!  In other words: she’s an ideal Printz candidate!  She generously agreed to answer some of my questions about YA lit, why she wanted to be on the Printz, and her involvement with YALSA.
  

After our teen group meeting, a group of boys split off and starting playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl and a group of teen volunteers came into the room and started eating leftover cake and ice cream.  It was a fun atmosphere.  One of the teen’s boyfriend arrived and looked around.  “Um,” he said slowly, pointing at the boys playing video games.  “Doesn’t this, like, go against the point of, um, book club or whatever?”

Another boy jumped in.  “No.  It’s not about – it’s like.  This is our big-party-fun-time.  It’s – this is where – we can – ” he couldn’t seem to get the right words out.  I tried to help.

“It’s that the library is about fun,” I supplied, smiling.  “You don’t have to think about school or homework or getting into college if you don’t want to.  You can just come and hang out and enjoy yourself. ”

The TAG kids nodded emphatically over the smashing sounds of Mario.  That’s it exactly.

Fun.  Remember that?  Enjoying yourself?  Remember that?  Last week, I returned to my alma mater for my favorite, hands-down my favorite, professional conference: Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.  Lots of amazing things, more amazing things than I could imagine, happened.  I had the chance to interview Gary Schmidt for half an hour for an article for VOYA and David Diaz gave me a packet of cherry Pez for blow-drying one of his paintings.  I also had the chance to hear Roger Sutton give the Ezra Jack Keats lecture.  The lecture was a lot about how Harry Potter changed the field of children’s publishing.  This part was fascinating, of course, and I can’t wait for The Horn Book article that’s sure to result.  BUT it was also a chance for Roger to speak up about the importance of pleasure reading, defending children and teen’s reading choices.  I don’t know how I managed to resist standing up and shouting AMEN!

I was tweeting throughout Roger’s lecture and here are some highlights from my notes:

• “Reluctant reader often means they are not reading what we want them to read.”
• “Kids have always fallen in love with terrible books, libraries need to have them too.”
• “In my dream library, no one ever says that’s not good enough.”
• “A librarian’s job is to get out of the way and let the reader choose.”

AH, ROGER, YOU’RE THE BEST!

This all reminded me of the recent flap about the The Independent‘s recent article about “The 50 Books Every Child Should Read.”  While this is a noble effort to be sure it’s also … frustrating and, well, silly.  There are no 50 books “every” child should read.  This is just as silly as that Facebook meme about the BBC’s list of books.  Why should you feel guilt about what you have and haven’t read?  Who came up with that list anyway?  Who is judging you?  When did reading become a chore or a competition or (shudder) a requirement?  Reading is supposed to be fun, remember?

And, with that in mind … here’s the GIVE AWAY part of the blog, huzzah!

A few months ago, Simon & Schuster offered me a chance to do a giveaway on my blog.  I told them heck yeah, because giveaways are awesome.  They’ve given me FIVE signed copies of Elixir by Hilary Duff to give away and I couldn’t be more excited.

Yes, Elixir by Hilary Duff.  Yes, that Hilary Duff.

Are you rolling your eyes yet?  Maybe you are.  But let me tell you – this book might not win the Printz but it’s a fun time.  It really is.  I read it in one sitting and I enjoyed the heck out of it.  It’s soapy and ridiculous and full of details about everything from rainforests to red carpets.  The story involves Clea, a socialite without a care in the world.  Everything changes when her father disappears in the rainforests of Brazil and she decides to go off and try to solve the mystery of what’s happened to him.  This is the first plot element I loved: Clea getting out there and doing something herself, a plot that kicks off without a boy pushing her along.  Hurrah!  (don’t worry, we get to the triangle later.  It’s my favorite kind, too: the best friend or the mysterious stranger.)   Once she gets to Brazil it gets all supernatural-y and there’s reincarnation and a mysterious stranger who Clea can’t help but be drawn to and adventures in the jungle. Now come on.  That’s a fun time, especially for teen readers.   The plot doesn’t quite all hang together and the reincarnation stuff gets a little confusing but, really, I wasn’t reading it for plot, I was reading for jungle adventures and longing looks and a female protagonist with a mind of her own.   This book delivered that in spades.  I wasn’t reading because I wanted to impress anyone (like the BBC) or because someone who doesn’t know anything about my life or my tastes was “requiring” me to.  I was reading for pleasure.  And you know?  That’s required reading to me.

So, thanks to the awesome folks at Simon & Schuster, YOU can win your own signed copy of Elixir.

You can keep it for yourself, add it to your library’s circulating collection, or use it as a prize giveaway.  This really would make a great teen giveaway:  this book was a fun time for me, but teen readers that gobble up paranormal-romances will like it EVEN MORE.  AND it’s signed.  My teens treat signed books like gold.  Better still, I have five of them to give away and the contest is open internationally.  All you have to do is leave a comment saying you want to be entered and, at the end of this week, I’ll do a random drawing and notify you if you’ve won a copy.

There are no books “everyone” should read, not every child, not every teenager, not every adult.  All of us, every single one, should read what we want.  And we should treat reading like what it IS: a big-party-fun-time.