One for Your Bookmarks: Sex in the Library

It`s a common situation in a public library: an 11 or 12 year old is transitioning from kids books to teen, and mom is terrified her child will pick up a book with inappropriate things in it.  In other words, sex.  Said mom is convinced you have read every single book in your library and can tell her which ones have bad stuff in them.

Unless your superpowers are speed reading and mind reading (so you know exactly what Mom means by bad stuff), you`re going to have a little trouble answering this reference question.

Enter Sex in the Library, an awesome blog which will make you look like a library superhero.

There are many book review blogs out there, but I can`t think of many that have made it their mission to detail sexual content in YA novels.  Each review consists of a description of the plot, age recommendation and, very helpfully, a list of any violence and everything of even a remotely sexual nature.  In addition, each review is tagged with labels like `no cussing,` `nekkidness`and `homosexuality.`

The blog is meant for other librarians to help them decide if a book is right for their library or not, but it is very helpful when dealing with parents as well.  Because Sex in the Library reviews books with everything from a kiss to graphic sex, parents can find books that they are comfortable with their child reading.  And you can move on to helping the next patron.

Canadian Childrens Literature Award Winners

The Canadian Children's Book Centre just announced its annual awards, including a brand new one, the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. 


If you haven't visited the Canadian Children's Book Centre before, you should.  Use it to keep up to date on all Canadian children's and YA lit awards, find an author or illustrator to visit your school/library, and catch up on those back issues of the Canadian Children's Book News you missed.

4YA - Another One for Your Favourites Folder

One of my favourite go-to blogs for programming ideas is 4YA: Inspiration for Youth Advocates.  It's written by Andrea Graham, who describes it as a "one-stop-shop for youth culture + trend news."  If you are looking for cool craft ideas, want to keep up on the latest crazes and memes, or are looking for innovative outreach ideas, 4YA is the place to go.  There's a handy tag cloud, and each post ends with a list of other related blog posts, which makes it very easy to find what you're looking for. Check it out.

YALSA's New YouTube Channel

YALSA is one of my favourite teen services resources.  When I first started out, their annual booklists where a huge help in exploring YA literature, and I still look through their lists when I need something good to read.  YALSA isn't just about booklists, though.  They now have a cool new YouTube channel called YALSA Academy with all sorts of videos on teen services.  They cover everything from how to pick out books for teens to how to use twitter for your own professional development.  These videos are librarian produced, so if you want to make your own and get it added to YALSA Academy, check their webpage for more info.

Graphic Novel Reviews and websites

Interested in graphic novels but feeling a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start?  There are plenty of review blogs that will help keep you up to date on what's new and exciting.  The blog Youth Services Corner has posted a list of great online graphic novel resources to help you get started. 

Reading Rants! -- One for your favourites folder

One of my favourite blogs for keeping up with YA fiction is Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!  What makes this blog awesome are the booklists.  Every single review gets added to at least one of the booklists, which cover everything from Boy Meets Book to Word Up! (poetry).  There are annual top ten lists as well.  The reviews are written for teens, but Jen knows it's not just teens who read her reviews.  She's got a long list of book review blogs for teens, and an even longer list of kid & YA book review blogs for adults.  The newest reviews are all recently released or coming soon titles, but Reading Rants! has been around for over ten years, so there are plenty of older titles here.

Jen Hubert Swan, the author of the site, is a middle school librarian who also reviews books for Booklist and Kirkus.  She has a book out called Reading Rants: A Guide to Books That Rock!Unlike her blog, the book includes suggested audience, read-alikes, and other things of interest to library folk.

Hunger Games Program Ideas

Teen Librarian's Toolbox has a fabulous post up of resources for planning a Hunger Games program, including craft ideas and a Cornucopia game that sounds awesome.

http://teenlibrarianstoolbox.blogspot.com/2012/03/countdown-is-on-feed-their-hunger-for.html


Related Posts:  Hunger Games Read-alikes