Fat Girl Reviews Fat Kid Book

Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
There was a brief article about the author in School Library Journal and we had two of her books in. I chose the one that seemed the least depressing. Our library copy had all the "cuss words" underlined in the beginning by some enthusiast - until there were just too many to bother with, I guess - heh! But this book is about kids in New York City and leaving that out wouldn't be an accurate portrayal of these kids. The NYer in me laughs when Troy takes taxis everywhere. NYC is the walkin'est, public transportationist place I've ever lived. The only time he seems to have use for the subway is to attempt suicide (okay, and once he takes the subway with Curt to show how Curt can leap over the gates and ride for free).
That aside, I can't tell how accurate any of the other bits are as a) I am not a teen and b) I know nothing at all about the popular music scene. I do, however, know about being fat. I can't say I found the fatness totally convincing, but the story was pretty good. Parents might be appalled by this book, but it's a light read and teens will go for the angst.
Troy, or Big T, is a big guy: he's over 6' tall and almost 300 lbs. Rather than being shunned, one would think he'd be feared, but instead he is too good-natured to be a bully and so turns in on himself. For no good reason at all, he's conscripted by a homeless prescription drug addict to be in a band. Troy's younger brother has no respect for him and his father, retired Marine Corps, despairs of getting the boy in fighting trim. (Now, how can that be? How can a kid totally cowed by his father like Troy is, not be sent out to run laps?) The HPDA is apparently a guitar genius and magically recognizes something punk in Troy's soul and tries to develop it. Troy tries to sabotage himself every step of the way. Now, that rings true.



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Newbery Winner

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really like books that don't flash the answers right at you. If I were a kid reading this, some of it wouldn't be quite so obvious (Ms. Lupescu, f'rinstance). And while we didn't get beaten over the head with the answers, the clues were obvious to Ms. Smarty-Pants-Me.
Some unfortunate Harry Potter parallels come up (unfortunate in that some know-it-all like me would say there were Harry Potter parallels: 11 year epiphany meaning it is now time to go to school, family killed, prophecy of a child defeating some evil power, blah-blah, yadda-yaddah). All of this is unfortunate because no one sat around saying dismissively, "Oh that Harry Potter story sounds just like The lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones." Now any story with supernatural elements and a kid in it is going to sound like Harry Potter.

But this book is not like Harry Potter. It's a one-off story that takes Bod from toddler to adulthood. He is raised by kindly folk (for the most part) and we learn it takes a whole graveyard to raise a child - ho ho ho. I love the fiddly details, ghosts that are introduced by the inscriptions on their headstones: "Thomes Pennyworth here he lyes in the certainty of the moft glorious refurrection was already waiting." There is much to like about the book even though this isn't really my type of book. I actually burst into tears when I heard on NPR that Gaiman won the Newbery ... even though I'd already heard about it from the ALA feed into Second Life. In fact, I was pretty much crying over all the awards that day. That the audiobook for Terry Pratchett's Nation had won an award really tore me up.

I came to Neil Gaiman through reading Terry Pratchett. They collaborated on a book and I've slowly worked into some of the Gaiman oeuvre. There is a lot of creative work that I think is brilliant, but I don't have to read/watch again (the original "Alfie" comes to mind) and this book falls into that category. If you know a kid who needs a quality book - especially those hard-to-find-reading-material-for creatures, boys - this would be a prime candidate. (Most of them will appreciate the girl in the book being trundled off and her memory erased.) [Suddenly Marf remembers she has a great-neph who loves Goosebumps and is in need of reading material - heh heh!:]

Our library's copy of this book is in the teen area - which comprises Grade 6 and up. I'm not sure about placement of this book. I suppose because everyone is murdered in the first few pages someone decided this should be a teen book, but it's no worse than the Grimm's folktales of fingers being cut off and people rolled in barrels studded with nails. We're more sensitive these days to exposing kids to violence, even though it's offstage (the murders were done before the book starts although the murderer still has one more to kill). I imagine someone picked this up, read the first two pages and tossed it aside saying "Teen book!" and that was that. Pish and tosh, say I.

Also, let me say that I have nothing against serial books or comics and I think kids should have access to plenty of that but an occasional "meaty" book like this is nice to stretch them. Please, please, though don't denigrate trashy reading and force kids to read hard stuff all the time!


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Does My Head Look Big In This?

Instinctively I have picked up a book that fits in perfectly (almost) with my cross-cultural theme: Does My Head Look Big In This by Randa Abdel-Fattah. The owner of the titular head has made the decision to wear the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women, in the middle of a school year. She realizes that this will only serve to make her stand out even more in her elite prep school in Australia, but she was inspired by Rachel on the television program Friends, when that character showed the courage to wear a hideous bridesmaid's dress at a wedding. Yes, it was just that lame. She made a decision about her faith and culture based on a sit-com episode, but such is the way life works, dunnit?

Appearing to be a challenging read at 360 pages, Abdel-Fattah manages to make this story (Amal is described as "hilarious" but not all that funny to me) warm-hearted, thought-provoking, and quick to read. All manner of Muslims (well, at least a nice cross-section) are portrayed from the Must Assimilate At All Costs to the This Is What Being Muslim Meant In My Village 20 Years Ago. Amal, the titular headowner, can get a bit shrill about what it means to be a modern, Australian-born Muslim, but she is just sixteen and if she didn't scream about how unfair everything was, how believable would she be?

This book is a good fictional introduction to Islam for the Clueless Teen. See? Amal is just like you, obsessed with boys, make-up, clothes (which ones go with her hijab), her hair (even if you can't see it anymore), zits, school, and the magazine Cosmo. Yes, it's a chick book, despite some token sports. We're dealing with the extreme emotions of the teen here. Even Adam, her male friend interest, is willing to talk about his feelings (although he complains about it). The story references the World Trade Center attacks and the bombing of the club in Indonesia. We see Amal cope with the fallout of the latter in the news, which have made her a lightning rod for the hostilities.

More tragically, she watches one of her closest friends badgered by her mother to stop spending so much time on her studies and pick one of the men being constantly paraded in front of her for a husband, get married, and have children. The girl instead has dreams of becoming a doctor, which her mother finds shameful. Her homelife is further darkened by her brother, who is into drugs, alcohol, and fast women. My reaction came right out of "Earth Girls Are Easy": Leave home, kid! It was not that surprising that she did, after being dragged home from a restaurant dinner party in honor of her birthday.

Being "hilarious," everything works out at the end. Polly-Amal helps bring her crabby neighbor and son back together. Okay, it's not as blatant as that. But will her "fat" friend finds true love without having to become anorexic? Will Amal's debate team win? Should Australia become a republic? Will Leila be found beaten and dead or will she return to her repressive home ... and then be found beaten and dead? Does Adam like Amal? Is she leading him on? Will she ever get over her big head? Tune in!

Being teen oriented, there is no shortage of angst, conflict, and pop culture references. On the whole, though, it's an interesting book and another great springboard for discussions on diversity and tolerance.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

This was in my shelf-reading area (along with Bully-Be-Gone, see below) and looked interesting. The jacket blurb reminded me of David Sedaris's story of his foray into Shakespearean acting when he was a kid. As the title indicates, it is typical teen hyperbole where everything is about them and their own petty problems. There are no wars. Holling is just the only non-catechism student in his class, causing his teacher to find something to do with him on Wednesday afternoons. Because she tries giving him away, giving him icky chores, and finally caves in and forces him to read Shakespeare, he thinks she hates him.
Schmidt must be my age or a year or two younger. I remember all this Viet Nam angst and I certainly heard about generation clashes (which just didn't happen between me and my parents but I knew it must be going on because I saw it on television). There are some things, though, that I'm pretty sure did not happen, but I guess had to be written this way for the sake of the story. I am from New York and while we had air-raid drills my kindergarten year (none of the "duck-and-cover" nonsense from earlier in the Cold War), it was all over after then, so I doubt it continuing in 1968. Teachers were not delivered telegrams about the life or death status of their loved ones in the service in their classrooms. Any right-thinking administrator would call the teacher to the office to be given news in relative privacy with adult support ... if indeed the message goes there at all.
And one other thing bothered me.
Mrs. Baker and Holling read together "The Merchant of Venice" and have a fine discussion about it. They discuss what happens to Shylock and Mrs. Baker finishes by telling Holling that this is the reason this play is called a tragedy. I flipped to the back blurb about the author to confirm what I had read about him before. He is a college English teacher. Shylock's position in society and his losses at the end of the play notwithstanding, "The Merchant of Venice" was classified as a comedy at its first printing. Today we might refer to it as a "problem play," but the merchant of the title not only doesn't lose his pound of flesh, he gets the girl at the end. It might be a tragedy for Shylock, but the play itself is not called a tragedy.
This does not spoil the overall book, which is chock full of pathos that brought this reader to tears even as she resisted it. The book is not without humor as Holling relates how he suffers numerous "humiliations" such as playing Ariel, a fairy, in a scene from "The Tempest." I have to agree that playing a fairy, even in a Shakespeare play, would sink a teenage boy's macho rankings in the herd, much more so with tights and feathers on his bottom. (I also heartily disbelieve that any performance of any Shakespeare would move his peers to tears, but that's why they call it "fiction." I'm beginning to feel sorry for Mickey Mantle, by the way, because of how he's used in fiction to symbolize all idols with feet of clay. I know he was an alcoholic and hardly Mr. Nice Guy to his fans. It just seems to be kicking someone when they're down or dead or otherwise can't defend themselves. Feet of clay is an important lesson to learn, but I'm just sayin' ...) There is also the sole Vietnamese student who has to bear the hostility of some and the "noble" support of others.
I finished reading the book while working out at the club. I'd done my limit on the cardio machines and got to the end of the story by walking laps on the track. You know it's a good (if manipulative) read if I lose track of how much time I've spent exercising while reading! I'm willing to set aside my little quibbles (not without airing them to make me appear smarter - say, aren't those standard achievement tests called the Regents exams? My sister sweated those each year and had to go to summer school one year because she flunked them!) to call this a Good Book.

Digital Youth, Part II: Megan Deana

The second speaker in the morning was Megan Deana from Global Kids. Megan started out with a degree in computer science and then moseyed to education (presumably because she'd be making too much money in computer science) and got a job through LinkedIn that led her to the non-profit group, Global Kids, whose mission is to transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences. Ninety percent of their students graduate from high school. Digital media is just a part of this.
Megan works with the Online Leadership Program, a student-centered program, which leads the kids to things they need to know in order to be successful, collaborating with different kinds of people. They learn about global issues by building and playing socially conscious video games. They spend the 1/3 of the first semester discussing what topic they want to cover. They learn what goes into making a game by partnering with a game designer professional [Don't think our library can manage that].
One group created "Ayiti: The cost of life" where players help a Haitian family living in poverty make decisions in work, education, etc. to better their situation. [Far cry from the 1960s board game about living in a ghetto, eh? I remember going straight into prostitution on that game.]
Another program is the Virtual Video Project. They do a machinima video on a topic of they're interested in. They meet twice a week, lured in with subway tickets and snacks. They learn storyboarding, scriptwriting, character development, and set designing (digitally, of course, because this is machinima). Example is "A Child's War" - where they interviewed experts and put together a fictionalized account using Second Life. They learned presentation skills, pitching their ideas to Ashoka Youth Ventures.
Global Kids guides the kids, facilitating not teaching.
They learn how to create a "safe space" in which to interact, and decide their own rules on this, defining respect as no cursing, no put-downs, no weapons [well, duh!].
Use a technique called the human barometer, where spaces are set out (say, on different levels) for "for," "against," and "undecided." And they have to explain why they are moving from one level to another.
There is a Ning for educators interested at RezEd: the hub for learning and virtual worlds.

Digital Youth Conference Part I

BlueWings uses her voice chat to stream the audio from the Digital Youth summit into SL. I type notes madly trying to keep up.

If you don't want to bother with my notes, the podcast for this part of the summit is here.

Today I attended the Second Life (I know, I know) herniation of the Digital Youth summit at ImaginOn in Charlotte. The keynote speaker was Anastasia Goodstein. Goodstein is the author of Totally Wired: what teens and tweens are really doing online http://www.totallywiredbook.com/. Her blog, YPulse http://www.ypulse.com/, is a leading media, technology and youth development information source, and School Library Journal recently published Goodstein's article What Would Madison Avenue Do? Marketing to Teens. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555544.html

[Cribbed from Deborah Hotchkiss's promotional e-mail]

We had some technical hiccups to begin with, but then got the stream of Anastasia's speech fairly clearly. I took notes like mad, but I wasn't always able to keep up. Anastasia gave a presentation on Teens in the morning and one tailored more about Tweens in the afternoon. Also speaking in the morning was Megan Deana of Global Kids, a non-profit group working with urban youth and digital media.

Megan Deana of Global Kids

Anastasia began by describing SL to the attendees, who, if they were familiar with SL, would be listening to the conference in the comfort of their own homes wearing sweatpants and petting their kitties. Ahem. She was describing the Teen SL as a teaching tool. She went on to talk about social sites (such as MySpace and Facebook). Teens are too savvy to talk with creepy over 50s that could be either librarians [got me nailed there] or predators. They don't want to hang around authority figures of any sort. They want to interact with other teens, preferably ones they already know. But their lives are not constructed to hang out with friends, like our were. Teens lead highly structured lives where they have more lessons scheduled outside of school or sports activities. The places where they used to hang out, such as the malls, are becoming more restrictive. The bad behavior of a few teens has eliminated a real world space for them to meet. One of the few ways left to hang out with their peers is through social sites or mobile devices. And these are becoming increasingly popular.

Picture youself as a teen and recall the music you listened to. [I know I listened to the radio while doing my homework. There are certain songs that can whip me back to particular times of my life faster than an SL teleport ... when it's working.] Music is something very important to teens and young people. Choosing favorite songs and artists helps give them identity. MySpace started as a place for 20-somethings in the arts to display their wares. Teens are always interested in what the 20s are doing (the way that Tweens are interested in what the Teens have), and they were lured in by their favorite musicians. Then the Teens co-opted it for their own use, making contact with each other and displaying their individuality (personalizing their profiles).

Most teens (about 55%) use social sites like this. They are starting to migrate from MySpace to Facebook because of the rampant spamming and commercialism in the former (partially from being snapped up by Fox and forced to generate real revenue). Facebook started as a place for Harvard students to connect. Then they grudgingly opened it up to other Ivy League schools. It was meant for college students, but their teen siblings saw them using it and wanted in. Besides, authority-types (such as the police and parents) had cottoned on to the party bulletins that were sent out on MySpace. Many parties were being busted. Now even us common folk can join to make contact with old and new friends. Facebook tends to attract the more upwardly mobile, "college type" people while the Other Folk tend to stick to MySpace. Facebook was meant for people who already knew each other [although recently I've been receiving messages acquainting me with people I might know, based on the friends lists of people I do know whom I can add to my list of friends. That is still pending on their approval, though.] Despite the influx of teens, the over 40s are the largest growing segment of the population on these sites. Most teens have profiles on at least 2 sites.

Other social sites that are growing quickly: myyearbook.com, Beebo, skonex (??) tagged.com.

Teens are also all over the virtual worlds. Teen SL is one, but it's not the most popular and tends to be more for the nerdy types who enjoy scripting, etc. They are predominantly male and mostly have parents in the SL maingrid. Other, more popular worlds: gaia online, zwinktopia, hammahotel [don't quote me on this stuff - I didn't have a powerpoint in front of me], virtualhills (and MTV virtual world that eventually moved to gaia because that's where the teens were). The virtual worlds are the new chatrooms. MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft are too much crowded with content to be places to chat. You're busy helping your team achieve some goal to talk about the latest music. [And this is why Linden Labs and IBM have been working on allowing avatars to cross platforms, so that you can slay dragons in WoW and then cross into SL, which is rubbish for gaming apparently, to a bar and boast to your buddies, possibly bring the head of the victim with you.] 24% of children/teens will use virtual worlds monthly, making them not nearly as popular as the social sites.

Identity: It's all about who am I and how am I different from my wretched parents. And they have no taste, most of them, at this age. Their profiles are littered (or perhaps glittered) with these expressions of individuality. The way we had individualized our lockers [those of us who bothered - can't say I did], they find crazy fonts and widgets for their profiles and special ringtones and wallpaper for their mobile phones.

While some kids just use sites for socializing, others make them altars to their interests. They make mash-ups, and Anastasia used as an example the craze last year for making your own video for SoulJa Boy [video on this link explains it all]. If you go to YouTube, you'll find hundreds of versions where kids do the dance themselves or they set Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob video to the song. Crank that! [Apparently the new In Thing is to make a parody of Katie Perry's "I Kissed a Girl."]

Validation, Fame, and Fortune: Today's teens feel differently about privacy that we did and do now. Anastasia blames, I mean, traces this back to reality tv shows. They are used to seeing real people using the camera as a confessional. They share their most personal thoughts and feelings in blogs and on video. Using Paris Hilton and her sex tape as a paradigm, they feel such exposure only makes someone more famous, more notable, and they don't see it as the end of the world. Anastasia opines that if employers start eliminating hires based on their Facebook pages, they would soon run out of viable candidates. The emphasis today is on celebrity (Top Model, etc.) and not so much on how you achieve it. They seek instant validation, which the technology can provide. How many views on YouTube this past hour? [Erm, or who's looking at my blog through lijit.com.] She gave examples of teen entrepreneurs becoming famous behind the scenes, so it's not all just for notoriety.

Education and School: Nickelodeon proposed taking the internet away from kids for a week and asked what they missed most. They claimed they were unable to do their homework. [A likely story!] When the computers go down in offices, the Babyboomers say, "Go get a pencil and do some brainstorming," and the GenYer's say, "We can't do anything - let's go to Starbuck's." Teens are great at getting information, they just don't have the patience to sift through the first five hits. They're great finders, but not memorizers [Now they keep their memories outside of their skulls?]. They depend too much on Wikipedia without thinking about any editing going on there. Corporations can edit Wikipedia to suit themselves. This can be tracked on Wikiscanner. Teens don't realize they can be manipulated.

Anastasia considers the blocking of social sites at schools (and some public libraries) to be a travesty. This means that there is no way for teachers to show them how they can be used better, safer. Teens are on their own, like in Lord of the Flies.

Teens are media multi-taskers; they'll have everything going at once. Homework, four browser windows open, music playing, IM popping in and out. The tv networks are terrified. They still read what's left of the teen magazines. They want shorter, bite-sized entertainment, like the webisodes. Prom Queen was a story in segments less than one minute long. They are the most-marketed to generation. They totally "get" brands. They brand themselves.

Things to do:
1. Survey your teens. [We are told over and over and over to ask people what they want, but do we do it? No. We decide what they should have and then get all frustrated that they aren't grateful and don't show up in droves. Again and again this happens. We know this, we've been told this by experts, and we never never never ever do it!]
2. Teach them reputation management
3. Teach them to recognize ID product placement, when something is not a straight-forward ad, but is sneaked into content.
4. The trailblazers need to evangelize - reach out beyond your trailblazing peers.
5. Support efforts to unblock social media in schools (and public libraries where it occurs)

Questions:
We weren't able to hear the questions asked (next time let's instruct the speakers to repeat them because I'm sure even all the people on location were able to hear the questions). There was a question about inappropriate relationships with the teens. Anastasia suggests you be available to teens, but not friends. Have your own friends and professional contacts, not teen friends.
Webblogged [couldn't find] has lists of books on using social networks and tech for education, also extensive blogrolls for online reference.
Kids want more and better cellphones because they want the internet available on their cellsphones. [OMG]

The Lovely Teen

Pat Feehan came to do a program for our Staff Education Day on Services to Teens. Love Pat! She alluded to a book by Margaret E. Edwards, The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts. Teens are terrible, aren't they? Actually, I don't see enough of them in my dept. to say so. Having taught teenagers, though, I know they can be stroppy, but I understand that they are just trying to develop their own personalities separate from their parents. They want instant gratification, they make terrible judgment calls (that part of their brain won't be fully developed until after their early 20s), they react immediately and irrationally to an external stimulus ... but who doesn't?

More from Pat channeling Margaret E. Edwards:
Teens by age groups:
Ages 11-13, the "me bubble"
These teens are increasingly concerned about their appearance. Anyone remember those Villager clothes from the 60s? Bass Weejuns? (Note: Met Catherine Bass back when she retired to Hilton Head - nice lady.) They seek independence from the family, but they're too young to drive a car. Will need parking places for bikes, scooters, and skateboards ... plus signage forbidding use of same in the parking lot. They display rebellious or defiant behavior - which they're just trying on for size. In 25 years they'll be doing the exact same thing as their parents. The importance of friends increases, the use of same as a support system and for literature recommendations. So don't think they'll take the word of a 50+er on what makes a good book. Their ego dominates their view of all issues (like, whose doesn't?).
We need to exercise our empathy - remembering ourselves as teens. ... AGGGHHH!

Ages 14 - 16, Middle-Aged Teens
By this time they start to become slightly less self-absorbed. They'll have a driver's license and maybe even a job. They'll want to make decisions on their own (but, again, they don't have that crucial part of the brain fully developed so they'll think joining the armed forces or having a dozen children would be a good idea). They experiment with their self-image. Time for safety-pins poked through every part of the body and lots and lots of black so they'll look "different" from everyone else. They will take risks and see out "adventure." In the old days, they probably were just becoming sexually aware, but this seems to happen earlier and earlier these days (unlike the pre-industrial era - ha!). They are developing their sense of values/morality and are at their most malleable. Mwah-ha-haaaaaa! I remember the lovely manipulating job I did on my students at that age. If nothing else, they left my class with an ability to place "Set" (reg. tm.) and a suspicion that there is a conspiracy against the theory that there was one original language. Gawd, I love kids!

Ages 17 - 18
These kids allegedly view the world idealistically and become involved in the world outside of school or home. Time to make those picket signs and join the college students at the sit-in! Can't be left out! Their relationships stabilize. They see adults as equals (HA!). They seek to firmly establish their independence.

So, now we have to keep up with pop culture (just when I'd hoped I put that behind me) so we'll know what they'll be interested in. And the books they are interested in are the ones most likely to be challenged: violence, sex, drugs. Wow! All the stuff I generally try to avoid in my reading.
But they like boundaries. Otherwise there's nothing to push against. You can't rebel if there is nothing to rebel against.

Ideas for a Teen Area:
First of all, call it Teen because they hate Young Adult.
What does your area look like when you walk in? Is there a display of topical teen subjects (sex, drugs, STDs) so they don't have to embarrass themselves asking about it. "I'm, uhhh, doing a paper, yeah- that's it- on ... Gonorrhea ... and I need a book on the symptoms."
Programs: Ask them what they want. Set up a Teen Advisory Board (we used to have one, but I think the members grew out of it). Are you interested in [insert topic here]? Let's develop a program on it! (To help narrow it down.)
Have a game/internet treasure hunt with prizes.
Teen pick books for reading clubs and pick the films for movie nights.
Bring in speakers on colleges/careers/internships ... but let the teens decide, yadda-yaddah.

Pat teases us with PIE: Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation
Planning takes a long time. How does it fit in with your mission statement? What are your goals and objectives?
Implementation: don't just talk about it! Get off your butt! Start with manageable pieces.
Evaluation: It may take two years to get people in. Lots of times you won't make your goals. Don't give up. What's working? What isn't? Are you really doing what kids want? Keep slogging away. And remember that your community changes over time. What worked the past three years probably won't work the fourth.

The Golden Age of Teen Literature
There's a lot of cross-over from adult to teen and back. I know a lot of adults reading teen fiction because they love it. I love Terry Pratchett's Tiffany books. They don't seem much different from his adult Discworld stories, except they operate from a young girl's point of view. His series for boys, though ... phew! A bit basic! Or maybe they're aimed at even younger kids. Dunno. Anyway ... these books are frequently challenged because they contain truths teens can relate to. But adults find them too depressing or feel that the adults in these stories don't have enough authority. The identification of the reader with the protagonist is key.
Keep lists of teen series at the desk (like the Gregor the Overlander stories). Check good authors' websites for more goodies.
Tips on Booktalking:
Read everything about the author in reviews and the blurbs. Find a plot point or a unifying theme (what Pat calls a Hot Wire) to link with other books.

I've already started with my reading, some of which is reviewed in previous blogs.

All of this will become more important in the new library where there will finally be room for separate teen activities and materials. Right now they are crammed into the adult reading area, jerrymandering around Genealogy.

American Born Chinese

After the Staff Education Day on Young Adult Services Wednesday (I know, I haven't even finished going over the Children's Literature Conference), my thingie - resolve, whatever it was, was to read more YA materials, which I do a bit anyway. Whither my favorite authors go ... I was quite taken with the thought of American Born Chinese by Gene Yang. The other books mentioned sounded too much like the Serious Realistic Fiction That I Go Out of My Way to Avoid in the adult section. "Oh, it's so gooooood!" people tell me about this stuff, but I get enough realism in my own damn life and when I read a book, I want to be taken somewhere else other than, say Vietnam (where I spent my dinner hours growing up) or Nazi Germany (where I had relatives, thankyewverymuch, who may have turned in their Jewish neighbors but certainly suffered more in the war than my stateside family did (we have letters and our family sent clothes, etc. when the war was over). And I have no interest in drugs (okay - not a lot of interest, unless they are tasty frozen concoctions) because I lived through the 60s and 70s - suis allee la, fait cela, obtenu le tattoo.
I have read The Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (no surprise there - I'm a huge fan) and listened to the audio book read by Stephen Briggs, which is terrific. He reads many of the Pratchett books, adult and YA, and has wonderful characterizations. I even read one of his Johnny Maxwell books (more for boys), which ... was good but not as complex as the Tiffany stories. But then, it is for boys, innit? I love Diana Wynne Jones' children's books and so I have also trod into her YA. Hornbook often has recommendations for YA that pull me away from my usual concentration in Juvenile (and trashy adult mysteries) which led me to The Swan, a graphic novel by Ariyoshi Kyoko. Now, I knew that the Japanese manga were to be read back to front, but for some reason I forgot when I picked up this one, so I was a bit confused for a short while. "This doesn't quite make sense," I thought, "but I can see where it might if I ... Awwww, shhhhhugar!" And I had to start over ... from the back. I can see where teens might enjoy that book, but it wasn't my cup o' cha. It's disconcerting to see Japanese characters (the people kind) all wrapped up in something so european as ballet (but our teens could relate) and I'm not keen on romantic longing and angst (ew! ew! - but teens could relate). Probably won't read more of that, which I think is a series. I also read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel as a YA recommendation (very funny article in Hornbook where Martel is at a book-signing and a young teen comes up and gushes about how much he really liked the tiger in the boat. I don't wanna spoil anyone's read of this, [Stop reading here] but Pi made Mr. Parker up. [Safe to read again.]).

But I came here to bury Caesar, not to praise him, so on to American Born Chinese. Which I read yesterday.

This graphic novel weaves a story on several levels: Chinese folkloric background story, an only slightly exaggerated (loved the lips on the test animals!) realistic story of the titular American born Chinese kid, and the sit-com over-the-top (complete with laugh-track along the bottom of the frames) version with the character that looks like he stepped right out of Claire Bishop's "Five Chinese Brothers": Chin-kee. The story is touching, milk-out-the-nose-snortingly funny, and enlightening - I cannot say enough good things about it. I had only one teensy problem with one itsy-bitsy frame, but I won't go into it here or I can see a bit of trouble with my co-workers on this. Oh well, just call me "Mr. Partypooper." Other than that, this story is PERFECT as well as perfectly beautifully drawn.

Marketing on a Shoestring Workshop in Columbia

9 March 2007

Marketing on a Shoestring

with Padgett Lewis of the Richland County Public Library

which has 10 locations plus one book-not-mobile

that will soon be replaced by a storefront branch,

and a $16 million budget,

a Public Relations Department

with their own color printer for doing anything 1,000 or less.

Shoestring? Suuure.

Ms. Lewis is a journalism major who is part of a 4-person permanent public relations department at the RCPL. Their department consists of a PR manager (Ms. Lewis), a PR specialist, and two graphic designers. The RCPL does no paid advertising. That, apparently, is a slippery slope. If you pay once, they think you will pay again. They rely on building relationships with the media. Their PR is done by Staff, Media, and Community Partnerships.

Everyone wants to know how to get their message about, but the library has many messages. As it is easier to sell one on one, she recommends prioritizing. So, the overall goal is to prioritize. What is the most important message you want to get out? Whom are you trying to reach? Are you trying to increase usage of resources (which resources)? Are you trying to attract new users?

The RCPL has won national recognition, but Ms. Lewis says that national recognition means diddly-poo if one person at the grocery store doesn’t use the library. They started with a community survey to develop a true marketing campaign. They found out that while everyone had a favorable impression of the library, they still didn’t use it. (What? Doesn’t Google have everything? Okay, they have a lot, but they don’t have Personal Assistance. The main problem? The Library just isn’t “cool.”) They changed their domain name from the “rcpl.lib.sc.us” to something easy: myrcpl.com. RCPL needed to be a Brand, and they needed to be consistent with it. They wanted to make the library into a community gathering spot (develop community).

On Branding: can use graphic arts students to develop a logo. [We did this with the Born To Read sticker.]

Use every opportunity to showcase your resources. Tailor existing programming to events (Black History Month, Women’s History Month). Capitalize by seeing a need in the community at a certain time and telling the community, “We have something!” Identify Your Audience, and find the best way to reach them. [Example: Hispanic Community distrustful of things that smack of government and filling out forms. Reach them through their children at the schools, where the children are more familiar with the concepts of library and forms.]

They started a Teen Advisory Board (Dana and I were chuffed that we already had an active TAB). They asked the TAB what was the best way to contact them. They said e-mail. Okay, but if we e-mail you info on upcoming events, will you forward that info to all your friends? Yeah, but don’t make it longer than one line. Teens don’t like to read a lot of stuff. So, they send teens one line with a link. They like their pictures on things. They put photos of TAB members on their website (with signed releases). Do they like to be called “teens” or “young adults?” Ask ‘em. And let your signage reflect their preference. [Okay, okay, we’ll call you “teens,” but would you like to check out a YA book?] Use technology to reach teens. They love it. On cards given out at desk or programs put a “Yes, please send me info on programming by e-mail.” On a program evaluation form add that and “How did you learn about the programming?” and “your comments count.” RCPL uses the Excel database for e-mail addresses (need to tell people to okay the library’s e-mail address so that their notices won’t bounce back or go to the bulk files).

They asked the TAB what sort of programming they would like. They said a Teen Idol contest. [We’d need an auditorium and sound equipment for that.] Everyone from RCPL rolled their eyes and tried to weasel out of it. It sounded like a nightmare. But because it was their idea, the TAB took ownership of it (a tremendous pay-off), and even handed out fliers. RCPL found sponsorship for the prizes (an hour’s recording time in a studio and one got to sing the national anthem at a major venue … and kept getting asked back to do it). Attendants were quizzed on library usage. This will be their fourth year of Teen Idol.

RCPL was going to open a wi-fi coffee shop. Teens got a special preview night all to themselves.

Ms. Lewis says to tell county council how teen programs cut down on teen violence. [Hmm, we’d need statistics for that, wouldn’t we?]

Sure, you have lots of vegetables for teens (SAT test info), but try to balance notices about that sort of stuff with stuff they want (graphic novels? Cool programming?). Video game contest: rent the machinery. Carnival games. Henna tattoos [been there, done that as well]. They sent a bitchin’ info packet to the media (with a poster of a middle-aged librarian with tattoo photoshopped on) and the tv stations showed up.

Lowe’s and Target have grant applications on line. Don’t let the manager sniff that they only give to their own community (you are a part of their greater community). Just slip in, get the manager’s name from the front and fill out the form on line. Sneaky, sneaky.

You can get e-mail info from the state schools website to use for contacting media specialists, music teachers (Teen Idol), art teachers, etc. [This is true. I got e-mails for principals for mailings I did.] Communicate with the schools. They are used to communicating with parents. Communicate with Homeschoolers [We used to keep a list of them and their addresses.]. Blog. Conduct polls on line. Post book reviews. The media has blogs as well [they do? Must check the Index-Journal. Seems so unlikely.] The RCPL puts out 20 news releases a month.

RCPL has a very popular handout on “10 reasons to come to the library.” It “flies off the counter.” Ms. Lewis will e-mail that to us. We can use that any way we want and let patrons know they can use it any way they want (church newsletters, personal websites, etc.).

The RCPL raised Friends dues from $10 to $25 (because the dues didn’t even pay for the mailings). They lost people who couldn’t afford it, but gained money. [Yeah, but then your notices go to fewer people.] They had some fancy tote bags made. [These really were beautiful. They were capacious, black, with the trademark green printing. Must have cost a bundle.] Next time they will add the website.

They use local kids’ artwork on brochures and promotional materials. They just went to the art teachers and asked to look at some stuff. The ones they used they had framed and made a presentation at the school (with the brochures to go home with the kids). Very uplifting. And put that in the newsletter as well (photo of kid being presented framed art and story about art on brochure). [You know, this sounds like such a great idea if you have a huge printing budget with full-color brochures.] The booklet bibliographies have photos of local kids. A release is always signed. No names of children are ever printed. If media arrives, they are escorted (to “facilitate,” a euphemism) and must get signed releases. Yes, the library is a public area, but what people are reading is private. This is a written policy at RCPL.

[Note from other participant: “Don’t put a bathroom in the staff room. It’s disgusting.”]

If you have self-check-out with self-holds-pick-up, and the books are covered in paper (for privacy), use it for PR! Print info on it. It’s worth spending a little more money to tell them about more stuff they might be interested in.

Most important thing we learned: Bribe the media with food. Take them out to lunch. Or, here’s what they did for the Augusta Baker’s Dozen. It happens year after year. Media Person thinks: “Oh, here’s another news release about that d@mned story thing!” They got some Krispy Kreme donuts (no tax dollars were used) with colorful sprinkles, photographed the top and bottom, enlarged it, and used that for a cover for the press info. Then they ate the donuts. This was delivered with a dozen donuts (dough-nated) to local media (including radio stations that held the deliverer and made her talk on air … she was upset about this, but you can’t buy publicity like that).

If a vendor provides publicity materials and they are generic, ignore them. See if you can get them to tailor them to your library. Why just advertise them? Morningstar has a newsletter with “Library Notes.” The RCPL created some 10-minute on-line tutorials for their databases and that was written up.

The end of the workshop concentrated on one goal. Services to Hispanic Community was chosen.

Recruit from the community and engage them in dialogue. What do you need? [Queremos más gente de la comunidad hispánica venga a la bibioteca. ¿Qué podemos hacer? ¿Qué necesita la comunidad hispánica de la biblioteca? ¿De cuál modo podemos servirles?] Be a presence at latino festivals. RCPL has as much trouble as we do, actually.

In summation: prioritize. Pick one thing and hammer it.

For Children’s Services: programs, fliers, survey (hard copy or on website) asking for e-mail address. “Do you want to be part of …” nice wording. “We won’t share!” Cull out dead ones. To ensure delivery, add this address to your list (or it will turn into spam).

Hand out program info stuff when doing storytimes or other programming away from the library.

Every person in the library is Public Relations. You are library PR. No one should enter the Children’s Room without being greeted.

Start each program with “Who has a library card?” Tell them how many items they can check out. After a program, “Don’t you want to check out a book today?” And have some available.

At RCPL they pre-select books for the age group targeted (by the program) so that after a program, they can walk out with a stack. Of course, they have RFID (you can just set the stack on a thingie and the machinery reads the titles and checks them out to you), lucky so-and-sos.

They also have Library Pals, volunteers from the rising 3^rd grade to age 15 to help with puppet shows, simple shelving (easy and paperbacks), and pre-cutting crafts. There is a brochure with an application.

Coupon for “free” library card. Okay, we know it’s already free. Hand ‘em out anyway.

Who is your audience? Focus on something. Focus and prioritize.

So, what did I actually learn that I can use now?

For all programs:

Have some books on display.

Ask who has a library card.

Talk up the library card.

Encourage people to check out books after the program.

Not worry too much if the books aren’t on the program theme.

Approach members of the Hispanic community to see what they want/need from the library.

Keep an eye peeled for events (esp. in Hispanic community) that we can piggy- back on.

Work up press packages for local media and deliver them in person with food.

Example: press package for summer programs with Mystery theme accompanied by jelly donuts (surprise!). Of course, donuts will need some quality control … That’s radio stations, cable company … hmm, may need to bake cookies instead.

Revive Homeschoolers Mailing List and use it.