Partial transcript from a phone interview with
Elizabeth Bird,
Youth Materials Specialist at the New York Public Library; former
Newbery Committee member (2007); “School Library Journal” blogger for
its FUSE #8 Production blog channel;
professional reviewer for Kirkus, New York Times, and TimeOut Kids New
York; regular contributing author to “The Horn Book” and author of CHILDREN'S LITERATURE GEMS: CHOOSING AND
USING THEM IN YOUR LIBRARY CAREER (ALA Editions, 2009); and
author of the forthcoming children’s picture book GIANT DANCE PARTY
(HarperCollins).
From librarian to blogger, author and committee member, with
your active involvement in so many different facets of children’s
literature, how do you hope to make an impact or difference?
Elizabeth: My goal in life is to bring all the
different aspects of children’s literature together; booksellers,
academics, librarians, parents and bloggers. To do that I have to sort
of spread myself a little thin, but I’ve tried to touch into a bunch of
different areas to get good books and the books that I love publicized
as humanly possible in the hopes of getting them into the hands of as
many kids as possible. There are just so many different places for
people to look for and discover books. So, I sort of try to find every
place that a person might possibly go to find a children’s book and
tell them about the good ones there.
My position at the New York Public Library (NYPL) allows me to do that
in a very direct manner. My reviews on my blogs, Amazon and Goodreads
let me alert people to good books there. But a lot of librarians don’t
read blogs. They just read the professional reviews. That’s why I
review for the New York Times, which will also be seen by the general
public. What I’d really love to do would be to review or get a column
in a parenting magazine, because that’s another area where people are
really paying attention. I just want to reach as many people as
possible to tell them about what’s out there, what’s new, what’s great,
and what’s being overlooked in a given year.
What do you say
to parents or librarians to help them get reluctant readers or any
child or teen to take better advantage of all the good books that are
available?
Elizabeth: The librarian mantra is always “The right
book for the right child”. There was a great book that came out last
year called Miss Brooks loves Books (And I Don't).
It’s about a little girl who hates books until her librarian reads her
Shrek, which is so gross and disgusting and then the girl is like “THIS
IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!” That is my take on it. There is a book for
every kid. You just have to find that book, which can be tough,
especially for parents.
You have to find a resource that you can trust, that’s not going to
lead you astray, and that can consistently give you great books for
your kids. That’s tricky, unless they’re getting something like the
School Library Journal. So what they have to do is go to their local
librarian or local bookseller and consistently ask for recommendations.
You have to let parents know to a certain extent that a book for a
child does not have to be War and Peace. You can give children Captain
Underpants and it will not rot their brain. It may even make them want
to read another book. From there you can kind of move them into Diary
of a Wimpy Kid, to a book with slightly less pictures, and then into
longer novels. That is sort of a path that you can follow. There are a
bunch of different techniques for getting kids to read, but my favorite
is definitely parental involvement.
NYPL just came out with its latest 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2011.
Tell me a little about it’s history and how it comes about.
Elizabeth: The library has been doing the list for
100 years. It began in 1911 by Anne Carroll Moore, who was the great
children’s librarian of NYPL. She was also the person who started
Children’s Services within the library system. There weren’t
recommended lists like this back then or one-stop shopping places for
parents to go for recommend books. We think it’s tough today, but back
then, oh man, you couldn’t find them anywhere. So, the list originally
began sort of as a gift list that she would bring out before Christmas
every year.
Now the librarians meet through the entire year, reading
everything they can, debating, and winnowing it down to just 100 titles
out of all the books that are published in a given year. Generally
speaking it comes out before Christmas, although this year it came out
a little later. Still, it has consistently come out every single year
since 1911. So this year we had the 100th list of the 100 titles.
Tell me about your experience with the Newbery committee.
Elizabeth: My experience was strange because it’s
not how people typically get onto the committee. Usually you are either
appointed or you’re voted onto the committee long before the first
meeting in January and then you have a full year until the final
decisions are made the following January.
Around June of that year, I
was having dinner at a restaurant with my husband and my phone rang
with an area code that I didn’t’ recognize. It was the president of
ALSC, who said we had someone drop out of the committee, can you fill
in? I was like, “Oh, Yes. Yes. I will.” But I came in half
way through the year, which is not normal. And usually when someone
drops out, they pull somebody from the ALA Notable Committee. I’m not
sure why they didn’t do that that year, but I’m very grateful that I
was plucked up instead.
Do you have any predictions for this year’s Newbery?
This year
I’m going to make a weird prediction. All the talk has been about Gary
Schmidt’s Okay for Now. Often when people
are on committees and they get down to the wire with five books still
in front of them, their inclination is to disregard anything that they
can object to and make it an honor instead. People love Okay for Now,
but it has a problematic ending. The ending tears people apart. They
either think it’s fine or they hate it more than anything in the entire
world. So, I think Okay for Now is going to get an honor.
The book I think that is going to win is the one that I have not been
able to hear a single objection to and everybody loves, but no one has
seriously considered it because it’s non-fiction. I’m pretty sure Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming
could get away with the gold. That book is brilliant and there hasn’t
been a non-fiction winner since something like 1988 when Lincoln: A Photobiography won. She
has a really good shot. And if a Honor goes to The Trouble with May Amelia, then
this will be the year of the Amelias, which would be awesome.
Last question. Tell me what you enjoy most about being a
librarian?
Elizabeth: What it is, doesn’t even take
place when I’m in the library. But if I’m on the subway or somewhere
else, and I see a kid with a book that is a library book, it makes me
so happy. I really have a practical way of getting books into the hands
of kids. Right now it’s more direct than ever. I can get people to read
good books. I can really highlight good books. I can buy great books.
And that’s what I like best. I like to get books into the hands of
kids.
To get more children’s literature insights and advice from
Elizabeth Bird, visit her blog at http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production.
The New York Public Library first officially opened
its doors on May 24, 1911 on a two-block section of Fifth Avenue
between 40th and 42nd Streets. Today the Library has 90 locations, four
research centers, and a network of neighborhood libraries throughout
the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The library provides free and
open access to its physical and electronic collections and information,
as well as to its services for people of all ages, from toddlers to
teens to adults. For more information about the New York Public Library
visit http://www.nypl.org.
(This librarian booktalk was originally posted on January 12, 2012)
Copyright 2001-2019 by Ken Baker
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