YALSA article on the Printz Award

Looking at all recipients to date, themes emerge. The books feature journeys, angst, romance and more. The authors also discuss the problem of identifying "best." Article, here.

Happy Valentine's Day!




Shortbread hearts, dipped in chocolate.

Searching

Two interesting articles on Google from the Washington Post point to the same thing: if Google seems to be offering you plenty of hits but few useful answers, content farms may be to blame. Google says it's trying to avoid this pitfall.

Michael Rosenwald uses an anecdote to show how Twitter got real, useful answers for a friend, while a Google search resulted in a list of unhelpful links. Story here.

Rob Pegoraro explains "content farms" here.

UPDATE 2/17: Chrome extension feature may help! Read more here. Note to self: download Chrome at new workplace.

Lace-Edged Sachet

It's a faux-vintage button, but actually vintage fabric. I pinned the lace very carefully, but forgot to take into account that it has a front and a back, and that I was sewing inside out and backward. . . So, I got to do that bit twice. The bigger heart used to be awesome 1940s curtains. They faded like crazy in my last Park Ave. apartment. I made Christmas stockings from them, too.

Covers, Judging Books by

This blog entry features a history of covers for the same book by Lois Lowry. I really like not only the eeek-that's-dated feel, I also like that her publisher seems to have done a nice job keeping up with the styles of the day. And remember, fashion can change fast for kids.

Yet, I am still shocked to find that books with terrible 1980s covers have checked out of my lib recently. I don't know if some kids are drawn to the old-fashioned covers, if they are blind to the datedness, or if some grown up made them get a book and the kid just grabbed the skinniest thing she saw.

See also:
Awful Library Books
Guys Lit Wire "Get Past this Cover!"
"Cover Stories" stories at Reader Girlz.

Buttermilk Biscuits

A 50ish woman working on an online college degree was shocked - shocked! - to hear that public libraries don't support college-level homework. K came out and eased her way into the event. Later, K mentioned that she's told that woman scores of time she needs a college library or to use our journal database. Sigh.

Just after her, an older man wanted "biographies of world leaders" -- as DVDs. Something about the way he put it -- and the fact that he knew he needed Clinton, Kennedy, and Idi Amin -- made me think he was taking a class, too. Whether this was background info he had missed these last few decades or his actual research, I can't say. Or maybe it is just for fun, or for date night or whatever. I thought of him as I read this.

I bought some different kinds of birdseed today. Maybe we'll get different kinds of birds. Maybe squirrels don't eat suet? Here's a little heart in the spilled seed.

Typical feeder birds this winter, more or less in order of commonness:

white-throated sparrow
house finch
junco
song sparrow
mourning dove
cardinal
chickadee
nuthatch

Blue jays pass through, as do hawks, and a great blue heron flew over the other day.

A nice primer on zombie books, at Guys Lit Wire.

Stash

While my recent projects are using (not using up) old odds and ends, I quickly found $20 worth of new fun stuff at the fabric and craft store the other day. And I really could use more trims and fringes. Like planting annuals generously, I think applying trim and extras is, for me, the difference between "Oh, that looks nice" and "Wow!"

This crafter pledges to work from Mt. Stashmore, only, for a year.