Here we go again...the Carnegie nominations 2014

I can't believe it is this time already, but the nominations were announced today!  I've highlighted those that I've already read:

Almond, David, Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (Walker Books)
Almond, David, The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas (Walker Books)
Barber, Elke, Is Daddy Coming Back in a Minute?: Explaining Sudden Death to Pre-School Children in Words They Can Understand (Elke Barber)
Beasley, Andrew, The Claws of Evil (Usborne Books)
Berry, Julie, All the Truth That's in Me (Templar)
Black, Holly, Doll Bones (Doubleday Children's Books)
Blackman, Malorie, Noble Conflict (Doubleday Children's Books) 
Bowler, Tim, Sea of Whispers (Oxford University Press)
Bradford, Chris, Bodyguard: Hostage (Puffin Books)
Brooks, Kevin, The Bunker Diary (Puffin Books) 
Bryce, Celia, Anthem for Jackson Dawes (Bloomsbury)
Campbell-Johnston, Rachel, The Child's Elephant (David Fickling Books)
Carthew, Natasha, Winter Damage (Bloomsbury)
Colfer, Eoin, The Reluctant Assassin (Puffin Books) 
Cooper, Susan, Ghost Hawk (Bodley Head Children's Books)
Cossanteli, Veronica, The Extincts (Chicken House)
Cousins, Dave, Waiting for Gonzo (Oxford University Press)
Creech, Sharon, The Great Unexpected (Andersen Press)
Crocket, S. D., One Crow Alone (Macmillan Children's Books)
Cross, Gillian, After Tomorrow (Oxford University Press)
Crossan, Sarah, Breathe (Bloomsbury) 
De Quidt, Jeremy, The Feathered Man (David Fickling Books)
Dennis, H.L., The Knights of Neustria (Hodder Children's Books)
Diamand, Emil, Ways to See a Ghost (Templar)
Dickinson, Peter, In the Palace of the Khans (Peter Dickinson Books)
Dockrill, Laura, Darcy Burdock (Corgi Children's Books)
Dowswell, Paul, Eleven Eleven (Bloomsbury)
Drewery, Kerry, A Dream of Lights (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Earle, Phil, Heroic (Puffin Books) 
Fine, Anne, Blood Family (Doubleday Children's Books)
Fisher, Catherine, The Obsidian Mirror (Hodder Children's Books)
Flood, C. J., Infinite Sky (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)
Gibbons, Alan, Raining Fire (Indigo)
Harris, Carol, Adventures of the Chickalloon: A Bird's Eye View of Earth (Pentre Publications)
Jarratt, Laura, By Any Other Name (Electric Monkey) 
Jones, Gareth P., Constable and Toop (Hot Key Books)
Jones, Rob Lloyd, Wild Boy (Walker Books)
Kessler, Liz, North of Nowhere (Orion Children's Books)
Kuehn, Stephanie, Charm and Strange (Electric Monkey)
Kurti, Richard, Monkey Wars (Walker Books)
LaFleur, Suzanne, Listening for Lucca (Puffin Books)
Lake, Nick, Hostage Three (Bloomsbury)
LaBan, Elizabeth, The Tragedy Paper (Doubleday Children's Books)
Mayhew Julie, Red Ink (Hot Key Books)
McCaughrean, Geraldine, The Positively Last Performance (Oxford University Press)
McDowell, Nigel, Tall Tales from Pitch End (Hot Key Books)
McFall, Claire, Ferryman (Templar)
McGowan, Anthony, Brock (Barrington Stoke)
McKay, Hilary, Binny For Short (Hodder Children's Books)
McNeal, Tom, Far Far Away (Jonathan Cape)
Morris, Jackie, East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
Mulligan, Andy, The Boy With Two Heads (David Fickling Books)
Murdoch, Emily, If You Find Me (Indigo)
Mussi, Sarah, Seige (Hodder Children's Books)
Pass, Emma, ACID (Corgi Children's Books)
Pitcher, Annabelle, Ketchup Clouds (Indigo)
Pratchett, Terry, Dodger (Doubleday Children's Books)
Prue, Sally, Song Hunter (Oxford University Press)
Robinson, Jon, Nowhere (Puffin Books)
Rundell, Katherine, Rooftoppers (Faber Children's Books)
Said, S. F., Phoenix (David Fickling Books)
Sepetys, Ruta, Out of the Easy (Puffin Books)
Shearer, Alex, The Cloud Hunters (Hot Key Books)
Smale, Holly, Geek Girl (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Stead, Rebecca, Liar and Spy (Andersen Press)
Stiefvater, Maggie, The Raven Boys (Scholastic)
Stroud, Jonathan, Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase (Doubleday Children's Books)
Sutcliffe, William, The Wall (Bloomsbury)
Syson, Lydia, A World Between Us (Hot Key Books)
Torday, Piers, The Last Wild (Quercus)
Watts, Helen, One Day in Oradour (A & C Black)
Wein, Elizabeth, Rose Under Fire (Electric Monkey)
Whyman, Matt, The Savages (Hot Key Books)
Wooding, Chris, Silver (Scholastic)
Yancey, Rick, The 5th Wave (Penguin Books)
Yangsze, Choo, The Ghost Bride (Hot Key Books)

So there are 76 books here, blimey!  I've already read 32 of them, not quite half, so that's my tbr pile out of the window :-)

I haven't read any that I really didn't like, but my top 8 (with the CKG criteria in mind) so far are:

Brooks, Kevin, The Bunker Diary (Puffin Books)

Cross, Gillian, After Tomorrow (Oxford University Press)

Diamand, Emil, Ways to See a Ghost (Templar)

Dowswell, Paul, Eleven Eleven (Bloomsbury)

Shearer, Alex, The Cloud Hunters (Hot Key Books)
Stead, Rebecca, Liar and Spy (Andersen Press)
Sutcliffe, William, The Wall (Bloomsbury)
Torday, Piers, The Last Wild (Quercus)

My favourite to win so far is:

addendum: confusingly, this year for the first time they've announced all the nominations but will make a longlist from them in February from which the shortlist will be chosen...why publish the nominations then?  Who knows...now I can't decide whether to bother reading them all or not

Image and Imagination at the YLG National Conference

Friday and Saturday of last week were the most intense days of my year!  Starting on Friday with a 4.30am alarm it was non-stop until 5.45pm on Saturday (apart from a small gap of about 7hours sleep).

Play by the Book has written a lovely blog post about all the fantastic authors, with some great pictures, so I just thought I'd write a little bit about the library-ish bits which were also fascinating, engaging and enthusing.

At the joint YLG/SLG/SLA conference in June last year I was a bit disappointed by the workshops that I went to, but I'm pleased to say this definitely wasn't the case this year.  I started with a session about ideas for shadowing the CKG awards, beyond reviewing on the shadowing site, during which I picked up some great ideas for planning really fun activities for reading groups that have (possibly a mildly tenuous) link to one of the books, an example from last year was making the kind of sandwiches the Bear in "A Boy and a Bear in a Boat" might have enjoyed.  My second was about graphic novels in the library.  There were no amazing revelations but the Peters book reviews, with notes of any potentially contentious content, were new to me so I look forward to checking them out.  Finally, I attended a session run by the lovely Emily Diamand (I only just realised it isn't 'Diamond'!) about running creative writing groups in libraries which left me really inspired to try something with pupils back at school.

The plenaries were all really interesting although I do sometimes feel that it is a case of "preaching to the converted" and that we really need to find a way to "get out of the echo chamber", but on the other hand it was these sessions that reminded me why I'm passionate about being a school librarian and getting pupils reading for pleasure, and we can use a lot of it as ammunition to defend our cause.  On Friday, Professor Teresa Cremin talked about the study she carried out on behalf of the Carnegie Trust into the CKG awards shadowing process, and gave us the executive summary, and the people behind the The Phoenix Comic gave an impassioned talk about the importance of comics in engaging and developing readers.  Saturday included Ian Dodds teaching us some visual literacy techniques (building on the fascinating history of the art of visual story telling that Professors Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles gave us on Friday) and the managing director of Barrington Stoke talking about reaching dyslexic and reluctant readers.

The more conferences I attend, and the more I veer towards the challenge of encouraging "reading for pleasure" in school, the more I enjoy the exhibition.  Reps from a variety of children's publishers are there, a number of whom I've now met on numerous occasions and who thrust books into my hands, eagerly telling me why I will love them.  A large suitcase is definitely required!

This year, as usual, I was on a book buying ban but was tempted too strongly by Marcus Sedgwick's new book "She is not Invisible" because of the fantastic detail of the number 354...

I spent the night with a friend who lives in Birmingham and then went to have a look at the new Library of Birmingham on Sunday.  It is amazing, a beautiful building and thousands of books, but for me it was an incredible disappointment because of the missed opportunity to engage teenagers.  Their books are right in the middle of the children's library, signposted simply as "fiction" with toddlers colouring at tables right next to them (I imagine it won't be long before a mother complains about her 5yr old picking up one of the "teen graphic novels").  Apparently there is a seating area for them near the music section, but there are no books there and nothing indicating that it is a teen space.

But, all in all a great weekend!

#cpd23 Thing 15

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events
I really enjoy attending events - author events organised by publicists/bookshops/librarians, skills training organised by CILIP or the SLA, networking events organised by CILIP YLG.
Money: Although a lot of them are a lot of money, especially for training, every month there are free events somewhere. Living in London makes it easier to find them, and being on the YLG London committee means I get invited to some fun things. In 2006 I applied for and got sponsorship by YLG London to attend the annual national conference so that's a good way for new professionals to get to these events if you keep your eye out for such things (although now I'm part of the London committee and know we can't afford to sponsor people any more). This year the joint SLA, SLG and YLG conference was during half term and on the off chance I asked my Headmaster whether the school could pay a contribution. He said as I was going in my own time (I'm term time only) the school would pay it all! I wasn't expecting that at all but if you don't ask you don't get! All companies/schools have funds for cpd for each employee so if you make a good enough argument for something you have a good chance of getting it.
Making the most: I don't think I can put anything better than the conference advice linked to in the #cpd23 blog - I did all these things for the joint conference apart from making time to visit the local area as I thought being away from home alone for the conference was long enough. I have very slowly got better at the networking aspect - finding people I 'knew' from twitter was a good start, as well as the YLG London committee members that came too of course! I've met a few of the publicists a few times now as well so it is nice to catch up with them, but this is only because I take advantage of as many free evening events around London as I am able to get to.
The idea of speaking at an event is slightly terrifiying, I'm fine talking in front of a group of pupils but talking in front of grownups is a completely different kettle of fish. It is definitely worth plucking up the courage though.
What to talk about: One of the things I've put in my PPDP is to do a session at one of the YLG London training days about the regular library lessons I've had with year 7s and how to fit them into any structure. I had a 10minute slot in a whole staff meeting at school last term and rushed through my presentation, a good number of the staff knew beforehand I was nervous, but it was really well received and boosted my confidence in public speaking. The purpose of the slot was to remind teachers of the role of the library in the school, how I can support them and how I need them to help me with promoting reading across the school.  I think it really had an impact.
Applying: As far as those two events are concerned, as part of the committee I can suggest it in a meeting, and at school it was through a line manager. For other organisations though, maybe one day! One of the break out sessions I attended at the last conference made me think 'I could do better than this' so who knows, as my confidence grows it'll be a future as a consultant perhaps ;-)
Presenting: I prefer to work from notes, in fact I have a terrible habit of writing exactly what I want to say and just reading it out, but I try to look up and do it from memory and glance at the script as a safety net.  I don't trust myself to remember everything I need to say, no matter how many times I rehearse it I will panic on the spot, and I'm pretty good at writing in the way I speak so it doesn't sound too much like I'm just reading an essay...hopefully! [After I wrote that I read Bethan's post about using a script - that is exactly what I do]  I did have a powerpoint for the staff meeting, no moving images or clipart, just some key statements and pictures. I reckoned if they're looking at the powerpoint they're not looking at me!   I always use Arial font because it was ingrained in me in public libraries that it is the most legible font so carrying it between operating systems should never be a problem.  I also had them rolling in the aisles with laughter, honestly!  I didn't want it to be serious and boring, I wanted them to pay attention all the way through, so I enjoyed putting my sarcastic self deprecating humour into the presentation.  I like Phil Bradley's closing paragraph to his post about public speaking:

"People won't remember what you said. They won't remember what you taught them. They remember how you made them feel. If you're enthusiastic, keen, interested and having fun, the chances are very high that they will as well"

All through this Thing I've talked about YLG Committee membership - but how else does one get experience in helping organise professional events? Saying that, at school I have organised a number of author events, the library's contribution to open evenings, and a couple of events in the library about reading for pleasure for adults associated with the school (parents/staff/governors). It hasn't been too terrible, as long as you keep on top of things, just make sure everyone that needs to know anything knows it with enough notice, and prepare the scene and props well! I'm sure the larger the event the more stressful the planning but just keep calm and carry on...

#cpd23 Things 5, 6 & 7!

So I've got miles behind on #cpd23 and we're only 1/4 of the way through!  The main reason is that I read Thing 5: Reflective Practice and thought 'I really need to dedicate a bit of time to that' but then never found the time!  I really do want to get into reflective practice, not least because it is an important tool in writing a Chartership portfolio (I've found a mentor so things are beginning!), but I don't want my lack of time lately to make me give up on cpd23 entirely so I've decided to skip the Thing for later.

Thing 6: Online networks
I'm not very good at networking, I find talking to people difficult unless I already know them (what a conundrum) and am especially quiet in large crowds.  That was why online networking appealed so much - hiding behind a screen.  In fact, at last weekend's Lighting the Future conference I was far more comfortable talking to people because, as well as a few I've met before, there were many I've corresponded with (my mum won't let me say 'talked to') online and I enjoyed seeing them in 'real life'.  Saying that though, I think there are far too many available so I'm very select about what I keep up with.

I created a LinkedIn account a long time ago because a friend invited me, but it didn't take me long to decide it wasn't going to have a big impact on my life and I couldn't be bothered maintaining the account.  In fact I made the decision so permanent that I deleted the account and have been deleting invites from other people ever since.  Every now and again I wonder whether to start it up again but haven't been persuaded.  I agree with the quote from Reid Hoffman at the end of the Thing 6 post on the cpd23 blog "Facebook is the backyard BBQ; LinkedIn is the office" and this is partly why I don't use it - I don't think LinkedIn will make a massive difference to my career.

I love Facebook.  I don't use any applications other than GoodReads and I keep my friend list down to 101 people because the number pleases me <ahem> so I only have people that I am really interested in in 'real' life.  I do 'like' a lot of library, YA lit, kid lit and literacy related things and regularly look at my newsfeed and update my status.  I keep it entirely personal though, only occasionally sharing the professional things that I think are important for non-librarians as well.
I'm not involved in LISNPN or LAT and although I have logged into the CILIP website and created a profile I don't really use the communities.  I am however on the School Librarian Network (SLN) which is a Yahoo group that I get e-mail digests from and read the posts that interest me and occasional contribute to.  I signed up to Google+ and then never looked at it again, and I don't have a pintrest account but I have looked at a few walls and really like the idea of quickly sharing such a variety of sources of entertainment and information.  GoodReads counts as another community as you have 'friends' and can nosy in one another's 'bookshelves' for inspiration.  I only really use it to record what I'm reading and a brief starred rating but occasionally read a blog post of an author or have a look at what's going on in a group.
Thing 7: real-life Networks
So you might already know, because I have mentioned a few times not least in this post about our conference, that I am a member of CILIP YLG, CILIP SLG and the SLA.  I am particularly interested in the YLG, being a member of the London Committee, because I love that it concentrates on enthusing children and young people to read for pleasure.  I think my involvement has made a massive difference in my career, and life in general.  Although it hasn't got me a well paid job (one day maybe) it has helped shape the kind of Librarian I am and given me confidence in my abilities and methods, yay!  It has found me colleagues that understand what I do all day, which teachers often don't, and friends that share common interests.  I can't recommend joining a committee enough.  Would I consider joining another network?  I am thinking about joining the CILIP CDG - Career Development Group - for the Chartership process, but other than that I can't say I can think of one that is worth dedicating precious time to...saying that, I keep meaning to contact the Guides association to volunteer as a Guider, that counts right!

Lighting the Future

The 2012 Joint YLG, SLG and SLA Conference

For those of you not in the know, this weekend was the joint conference of three bodies that care greatly about children and reading:

CILIP Youth Libraries Group

CILIP School Libraries Group

School Library Association

I am a member of all three, and on the London Committee of the YLG.  Each group usually holds their own annual conference, but for the first time since 2000 they decided to join forces for a mega conference and came up with a really packed programme.  Inspirational speakers from all sides of youth librarianship and literacy gave ringing war cries to promote our services 'outisde the echo chamber' and 'shout about' school libraries.  Authors, poets and storytellers entertained us with their creative minds and made clear their support for what we do (they judged their audience well for roaring rounds of applause!).  Enthusiastic publishers loaded us down with tonnes of proof copies and promotional materials for their Carnegie and Greenaway hopefuls of the future...it was non-stop, from checking in at noon on Friday to leaving at 2.30pm today.  I don't want to regurgitate everything I heard so if you're interested in detail it is worth searching #LTF12 on twitter or looking at the tweets collated by John Iona, taking out some of the more irreverent observations, on storify.  I just thought I'd share a few of my highlights:

I really enjoyed the panel discussion about reading and technology on Friday afternoon with three very eloquent and knowledgeable panelists.  Bev Humphrey talked about using new technologies to support literacy while Jonathan Douglas made the point that the Reading Agency's research into reading habits have shown a decline in reading in all formats, but that children are accessing story in new ways that still promote language and creativity.  Dave Coplin, from Microsoft, won the crowd over talking about how what he does should support what we do and that, if anything, the existence of the Internet makes a Librarian more important for curating and finding knowledge.  He said he doesn't see the point in teaching how to use particular software, but teaching children critical thinking and research skills is vital.

Storytelling over dinner capped off the evening wonderfully, I enjoyed listening to John Agard so much that I had to rush to the bookshop to buy a book of his poetry for him to sign.

Friday's haul of books, bags, posters,
mug, postcards and bookmarks

Saturday's intense but rousing panel discussion around 'Reading in the political spotlight' with a stellar panel was excellent.  My favourite quotes were from Aidan Chambers, who made it clear that he disagreed with government interference in the work of specialists, and that we must not confuse the profession of teacher with the act of teaching because as Librarians we can teach more!  Simon Mayo chaired the panel and made some great points himself about the tangible difference between a school which holds it's library at it's heart and one that doesn't have one.  Again, the after dinner entertainment was fantastic, with Morris Gleitzman keeping the room silent for an hour with his fascinating life story.

Saturday's many books...

Kevin Crossley-Holland, in his role as President of the SLA, gave a wonderful closing speech on Sunday, telling us he firmly believes that a well stocked, well-funded library should be the cornerstone of every school in the country and he is prepared to work hard for us during his presidency.

All of the whole delegate sessions were fantastic but, to be honest, I was disappointed by the workshops I was allocated. I decided not to tell you which ones I went to because others might have found them useful but I found that they were on matters that I have personally considered a lot already and, one in particular, I felt I could have presented a better session about myself! They hadn't been my first choices so hopefully most people didn't feel the same way as me.

The exhibition of publishers and library suppliers was great fun. Now that I've been on the London Committee for a few years I've talked to a number of the publicists and it was nice to be recognised and have books pushed into my hands almost immediately. Meeting up with Librarians I know well or only see at events, or even that I'd not met in person but have tweeted regularly, was excellent and I left with an awful lot to carry home!

Really impressed with Hot Key Books
efforts to save the environment by giving
memory sticks with their proofs on!

Of all the books I picked up I think the 3 I'm most excited about the Darren Shan, Elen Caldecott, and Sally Gardner.  I also picked up a nice little heap of non-fiction for school.

Teen Librarian Monthly, 6th anniversary issue!

Just wanted to quickly point you all in the direction of this month's Teen Librarian Monthly as it is it's 6th birthday, and I wrote an article about the CILIP Youth Libraries Group for it.  I'm sure you all signed up for the newsletter last time I linked to it, but if you didn't then DO IT NOW!