Librarians are so not scary!

"You see, I don't believe libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians." ~~Monty Python

We thank Colette Eason, Librarian, Marsalis Elementary School, Dallas, Texas for the above quotation. It's beyond excellent!

Classmate Ellen Booraem, debut middle grade author of THE UNNAMEABLES, has a story about librarians who really know how to woo skittish library patrons.

My partner, Rob, was a childhood victim of one of the Old School of librarians, the ones with real-life “shushing action.” He and his peers called the guy Snagglepuss. Giggling in the stacks was strictly forbidden, and books were sent home with a long list of handling instructions. Heaven help you if brought one back late.

We moved to Brooklin, Maine, which has the world's warmest and loveliest library, with matching librarians. Rob, an avid reader, refused to pass the library’s doors. The then-librarian, Gretchen Volenik, met him frequently at the post office and general store, and did her best to persuade him that he could giggle in the stacks all he wanted. But he persisted in hunting for reading material at yard sales rather than borrowing it from the Evil Place. He wouldn’t even read library books I brought home for him, fearing that he would mistreat them in some way.

Then he became addicted to books on tape, which he played all day long as he painted (he’s an artist). The yard sales soon ran out of fodder. Gretchen saw her chance, and started sending me home with audiobooks she knew would interest him. Sometimes, she would send him donated tapes that hadn’t even been catalogued yet, with no scary due date at all.

Today, Rob’s in the library at least once a week, checking out audiobooks and faithfully returning them on time. A month or so ago, the current librarian, Stephanie Atwater, entrusted him with a box full of uncatalogued tapes and CDs, carrying on the tradition. Take that, Snagglepuss.

The lovely Stephanie Atwater, Librarian, Friend Memorial Public Library in Brooklin, Maine.



And now for some great quotations sent to us from librarians across the country.







From DaShannon Lovin, Library Media Specialist, Blanchester High School, Blanchester, Ohio:

"I really didn't realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group. They are subversive. You think they're just there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them. "~~Michael Moore

And from Angela Sanders, Librarian, Augusta Elementary School, Augusta, Arkansas:

"My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter." ~~Thomas Helm

"Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book." ~ ~Author Unknown

"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." ~~Paul Sweeney

Librarians touch our hearts

Classmate Lisa Schroeder, author of the Young Adult I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, shares this about her childhood library:

It's hard being the young child of divorced parents. My life was pretty chaotic for awhile. And that's probably why I loved going to the Salem Public Library in Salem, Oregon with my mom during the summer vacations of my elementary school years. As soon as I walked into the children's area, I instantly felt welcomed and at home. Everything was in its place, and just as it should be. What a comfort this was to me at the time, and I can't even describe how much I loved our bi-weekly trips to the library. When I walked in, I knew right where I could find my good friends Betsy and Star, Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and more.

I remember one summer, when they had a reading program going on, they had a detailed map on a big board sitting horizontally, and each child had a little marker he/she moved around the map. I can vividly remember sitting and admiring that map every time we visited, and it made me so happy to move my marker around as I read books that summer.

I'm so thankful to my mom for taking me to the library, and to the librarians at the Salem Public Library who did such an awesome job making the children's area a fun, welcoming, and friendly place.

And here's a little history from the Salem Public Library's website:

Salem Public Library was founded in 1904 by a group of determined volunteers from the Salem Women’s Club. The first library was housed in a corner of the City Council Chambers for the City of Salem . The library was operated by the Salem Women’s Club until it became a department of the City of Salem in 1912.


Erin Fitzpatrick-Bjorn, a librarian in Gresham, Oregan shares this about her middle school library:

A few years ago I was working on a poetry unit with fifth graders. They came into the library and we looked at great poets and poetry, and they did some of their own writing. Here's a favorite poem I have that a student wrote that year modeled after "i live in music" by Ntozake Shange.



I live in the library
By Kaylie

i live in the library
is this where you live
i live here in the library
i live on fairy tale street
my friend lives on mystery avenue
do you live here in the library
pages fall round me like snowflakes
on other folks
books touch my face
warm as fire and
cool like the winding air
thinking they waz fairy tales
i got fifteen chapter books where other
people got hips
and a thick book for both sides of my heart
i walk around in pages like somebody else be walkin’ on sand
i live in the library
i live in it
sleep in it
i could even hear it
i wear books on my fingers books
fall so fulla words ya cd make a river
where yr arm is and hold yrself
hold yrself in a book.

Librarians touch our hearts.

Merci beaucoup to librarians everywhere!

We're calling on one of our very own 2k8 classmates, Kristin O'Donnell Tubb, debut author of the middle grade historical AUTUMN WINIFRED OLIVER DOES THINGS DIFFERENT, to spill about her cool librarian story. Think wrinkles and clocks, dear blogger friends. Okay, taaaake it away, Kristin.


When I was in sixth grade at City Park Elementary in Athens, TN, our librarian, Sheila Rollins, held a school-wide reading competition. The prize? The winner got to interview Madeleine L’Engle by telephone! As soon as I heard that, I started flipping those pages, and sure enough, I won! I remember sitting in a tiny conference room that only the teachers were allowed to go into (hee-hee!), and a box the size of a Kleenex container sat in the middle of the table. It was a speaker phone, the first I’d ever seen, and I just knew that this was going to be a memorable day. But honestly, I forget most of what happened. The one thing I do remember, however, helped define my life. Toward the end of the interview, I told Ms. L’Engle that I wanted to be a writer. “Good for you!” she answered. “Keep reading and you can do it.” So thank you to Madeleine L’Engle (forever!) for the great advice, and thank you to Shelia Rollins, SuperLibrarian, who always knew what reading could achieve.

And here's another example of how librarians can affect a life. Thanks for sharing, Shelly Kraal, Librarian, Universal Academy, Flower Mound/Coppell.

I am the librarian at a K-12 charter school. Recently, there was a scheduling snafu and I had a class of 6th graders added to my schedule every day. This has created a magical moment for my kinders and 6th graders. On Mondays and Fridays they are book buddies. Only this past month I discovered just how cathartic that time is for one of my 6th graders. He lost his little brother (who would have been a kindergartener) over the summer. James' mother approached me and told me that the book buddy time is actually helping James to get over the loss of the little brother to whom he read on a daily basis. It just melted my heart to discover how my makeshift solution to having two classes at one time in the library met the needs of one young man who was really hurting inside.

Merci beaucoup to librarians everywhere!

Calling All Librarians!

We interrupt our Banned Book Week blog posts for this special announcement:

School librarians rock, and we know it! Help us spread the word about the Class of 2k8's new fall contest, just for some of our favorite people on Earth. It's easy to enter and fun!

School librarians can enter by sending us an anecdote about books, reading, or life in the school library, or a snappy quote about books and writing. We'll be posting our favorites on our Class blog during November, but winners will be chosen randomly from among all entries. In addition, if you pass this on to other school librarians and they mention the referral, you and your school will be entered in the drawing twice--double the chance to win!

Prizes include:
First Prize: Your choice of a full set of Class of 2k8 books OR a free author visit from a Class of 2k8 author in your region (if available)!

Two Second Prizes: A $50 gift certificate from Indie Bound (formerly BookSense) plus three books from the Class of 2k8 to add to your school library.

Three Third Prizes: Three books from the Class of 2k8 to add to your school library.

Anecdotes and quotes must be e-mailed to us at contests@classof2k8.com. Pleas bee sure to include your name and contact information at your school with your entry. Entries will be accepted from October 1- November 10, and the winners will be announced November 24.

We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Day 3: Jennifer's VIP

In getting to know Jennifer we've learned her husband has been a strong influence on her writing, but we wondered if there was a teacher or librarian along the way who set her on her path to publication. Here's her heartfelt answer....


I'm pretty sure the expectation for this question was that I'd talk about a teacher or librarian from my own schooling that influenced me. And I had some great ones—Gail Kirkland at Daviess County High School and Linda Tatum from Tamarack Elementary to name two—but the person who really got me started writing in the way I'm writing now is Cathy Belben.

Cathy is the librarian at the school where I taught for eight years, Burlington-Edison High. She was assigned as my mentor my first year, and I'm so lucky for it. Cathy is an amazing teacher, a passionate librarian, and absolutely one of the funniest people I know. But she is also a gifted writer. She's published hundreds of articles on all sorts of topics. From incorporating crafts in the library for professional magazines to her piece on donating her own remains to the body farm for Bust Magazine. She's published award winning fiction, spent a season living in Hollywood writing for Veronica Mars, and generally inspires everybody who comes into contact with her. She's the one who really got me hooked on great YA, and who invited me to join her writing group even though I didn't really write much at the time. She's just one of those people who make you want to join the party of words and story and craft, and we're so lucky to have her in our community.

She's also a great friend. Here we are on one of our homecoming dress up days at school. I think it was superhero day, and we came dressed as twin triathletes. Goggles, running pants, towel capes. We took our bike helmets off for the photo so we wouldn't, ahem, look dumb.

Here we come to saaave the day!

Cathy truly is a superhero. (But she might need to hire a new costumer.) Tomorrow we learn why some writing contests left Jennifer wondering if she'd ever get published.