Welcome to Litsy!

Anyone participating in this year‘s Hub Reading Challenge? The teen services division of the American Library Association, YALSA, has a reading challenge every year encouraging librarians (or teens or anyone interested) to read 25 of this year‘s award winners by June 30: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2019/02/12/2019-hub-reading-challenge-begins-tod...

I participated informally last year but I‘m going to really try this year #hubchallenge19

One of my goals in 2018 (my first whole year as a children‘s/teen librarian) was to read more of the books in my library‘s collection and improve my readers‘ advisory skills. I‘m very proud of these totals, although they give me a hopelessly inflated number for the year that I‘ll never reach again. I think I‘m going to keep tracking this information next year, though, and try to put less emphasis on the total number. #librariansoflitsy #2018wrapup

I found out about YALSA‘s #hubchallenge, a reading challenge where participants read award winners with YA/teen appeal from the previous year, from @Bkwrm7 . Today‘s the official end date and I didn‘t quite hit the goal of 25 (only 2 left!), but I found a lot of good stuff and really considered how I talk about/purchase books for teens. Plus I‘m going to finish the 2 I have currently in progress so I complete it for *myself* 😂

This fantastic YA book deserves all of its accolades. Jade badly wants to escape the poverty of her life in the North Portland neighborhood where she lives, but her rich private school and her mentoring program for black teens only seem to reinforce her sense of not belonging. This book doesn‘t have any easy answers for questions of race, class, and privilege, but it deals with them all smartly. #hubchallenge #ya #newberyhonor

This #audiobook took me a while to get into, but just over halfway, and I‘m hooked. This world is so deliciously twisted, and I‘m enjoying watching it fall apart at the seams. #hubchallenge #fantasy ✨

Picked this up through #Libby for the #hubchallenge, and I‘m so glad that I did. Lowery tells her firsthand account of marching and other protests in the Civil Rights Movement. A great introductory text for tweens and teens, and equally important for adults. My #audiobook didn‘t include the illustrations, but at only an hour long, it‘s still shorter than most of my podcasts! #kidlit

#audiobook #hubchallenge Sunday's father is dying of cancer, but she has a plan: she's recording his voice and conversations to include in the computer virus she's writing. Once she's released it into the world, he'll live on forever. The voice recording aspect of the story made the audiobook a perfect choice (although I wish they had gotten the rights to use the actual tunes to the Muppet songs the waif sings). A heartbreaking 2.5 hrs 💔

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon, so I'm sitting at the kitchen counter browsing this remarkably thorough book of sandwich facts and recipes while waiting for my raspberry cream cheese scones to cool.

I picked this up for YALSA's #hubchallenge (it's one of their quick picks), and it's well-illustrated and fun. I have noticed a couple of editorial mistakes and inconsistencies in the sandwich facts, though. 🥙