By Jenna Goodall
My primary reason for attending ALA Midwinter was because my acceptance into the Bill Morris Seminar. Sponsored by ALSC, this bi-annual seminar focuses on book evaluation training, and its purpose is to train librarians to become critical evaluators of children’s materials. Hopefully, these librarians will someday serve on ALSC evaluation committees such as the Newbery and Caldecott. The seminar was an all-day event on the Friday before the conference. Throughout the day speakers described their experiences on evaluation committees and gave tips about how to evaluate and discuss books. Participation in small groups gave us practice in evaluating books using the ALSC award criteria. I left the seminar feeling inspired, more confident, and very excited about putting my new skills to use! For anyone interested in honing their children’s materials evaluation skills, I highly recommend From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Books by Kathleen T. Horning, required reading for all seminar participants.
During the rest of my conference, I divided my time between attending sessions, wandering the exhibit hall, and networking with other librarians. My favorite session was “Best Fiction for Young Adults Teen Feedback Session,†where actual teens gave their opinions about books being considered for the Best Fiction for Young Adults list. I was happy to hear love for GLBT titles Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle, Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, and Proxy by Alex London. See some of the teen comments over at The Hub ().
In the exhibit hall, I asked publishers of children’s and YA books for 2014 GLBTQ-focused books that should be on my radar. I was generally met with a lot of enthusiasm, and most of the publishers had at least one book to tell me about. Some of the titles I’m most looking forward to reading include Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (out now), Far From You by Tess Sharpe (4/8), One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva (5/27), My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter (6/3), Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters (6/10), Fan Art by Sarah Tregay (6/17), Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore (6/17), and Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis (6/17).
I’ll write more about these books later this year.
