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When the World Give You Hate

 If you haven't read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas then stop right now. Do not read any further. Go to your local library and check it out. You maybe on a waiting list for the title since it has garnered much interest since it's debut. In fact it even caught the attention of Hollywood and will soon be in theaters as a motion picture. Now I am about to delve into a bit of a review and there might be a spoiler or two. So again, I urge you to stop reading this post and come back to my blog after you have read the book. For those who have read the book please proceed. Why has The Hate U Give  attracted so much attention? Honestly, because it is a fast-paced , moving storyline told from a side that is not often seen . The story is relatable to many who struggle with the same issues covered in the book. Synopsis: Starr is a 16 year-old girl living in the "hood" and going to a rich private school. It is hard enough to deal with the everyday drama of life, but then s
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Week 16 Prompt: Past, Present, and Future of Books

Reading has definitely changed since I was a child. I remember the first book I read by myself was a glow-in-the-dark book! It was so cool to be able to read the book in a closet at school. I was able to literally go in the coat closet and read my book. That was the coolest and newest thing back before everyone had tablets, mobile phones, or even computers in their home. Today all of those technologies that we rely on have a back light and thus glow, so to speak. I remember reading all the time as a child. My mother read a lot more than she watched television and so did I. We took weekly trips to the library and so did other families in our neighborhood.  Today it is more rare to see families engaged in reading that way. However, there are new ways to read books other than going to get a hard copy. One can simply download a file to their mobile device and have the book on the go and several others at the same time without carrying the weight of all of those titles. While reading has

Week 15 Prompt: Marketing Fiction

Marketing a fiction collection can be done in many ways in a library. Use of technology with social media, using library space/book displays, and interacting with patrons in person are the best ways to market a fiction collection. I will highlight these three forms of marketing. Technology Almost everyone nowadays has some type of social media account. As librarians we would be remiss to neglect social media, as it is the way that people tend to communicate now. Facebook posts about new books in the collection, especially new books by new authors which are less likely to be in demand could draw in users. Pinterest and Instagram highlight the crafty, catchy beautiful side of life and librarians can take advantage of this to bring in patrons who use the social media outlets. Making use of Good Reads to write reviews about some of the books in your collection and posting those review on other social media is yet another way to draw in patrons to peruse the fiction collection. The use

Week 14 Prompt: Separating Fiction

Prompt:  Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision. Feel free to use outside sources - this is a weighty question that is answered differently in a lot of different libraries. Response: I like to be on the side of forward thinking. Librarians have a duty to bring certain issues and in this mater types of fiction to the light. Placing GBLTQ and African American Fiction among the general fiction is almost like hiding it i

Urban Fiction Annotation

Tile: The Wife of a Hustler Author: Porscha Sterling 126 pages ISBN: 9781511476461 Synopsis: Vanessa is The Wife of a Hustler  and she is tired of the hustle. Or is she? Vanessa loves her husband Ty and would do anything to keep him, including kill. However, Vanessa is having a hard time trusting Ty with her heart since he has been making more and more frequent trips to see his son and his baby mama Trinity. Trinity would love nothing more than to be Ty's main focus. She would be his main focus if she could just get rid of Vanessa. Trouble finds Trinity just in time for Ty to help out and stay a while. All the trouble causes Vanessa to get into a bit of trouble on her own. Will Vanessa be able to help Ty keep his drug empire? Will she keep her man from being taking by the Trinity the Florida's princess of the drug game? Urban Fiction Appeal: Inner-city life/struggle: The character of Trinity and her brother Loon were abandoned as children and raised themselves in t

New Adult Annotation

Title; Truth or Dare Author: Adriana Hunter E-book ISBN: 9781310989278 Synopsis: Wendy Jackson is relatively new to the radio dj world so when the ad executives at her station decide that she has to host the Junior League Bachelor Auction she really can't say no. Just as Wendy settles into the idea of hosting the even she sees that one of the bachelor's is one of the city's most eligible bachelors, Michael Carter. Wendy is unsettled because Michael is her college crush. As always there is more to the story and Wendy's story is quite embarrassing. Being a full-figured teenager and young adult Wendy was always shy and never got the guy she wanted. The twist is that Michael now wants Wendy because of her sexy, sultry radio voice. Drama comes into play when Wendy realizes Michael doesn't remember her or her embarrassment from a few years back so she tells a white lie. Will Wendy be able to keep herself from falling too hard for Michael? If, not: Will Michael be

Week 13 Prompt: YA & Graph Novels

PROMPT: Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? RESPONSE: I am of the personal belief that as librarians we should not interfere with what people want to read. In any case, we should be glad that patrons want to read no matter what it is that they want to read. There are several things we can do as librarians to support adult readers who enjoy YA literature and/or graphic novels. Location, location, location. One of the key aspects of supporting adult readers is the location of adult or, in this case, young adult and graphic novel titles. If graphic