This year, the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP), used by many libraries as their source of inspiration and artwork and for annual summer reading programs around the county is centered around the them of night time.

For teens, the slogan is “Own the Night,” which allows for us to incorporate books about dreams, nocturnal creatures, space, supernatural creatures and more. As a result, I have compiled a themed graphic novel reading list.

What would you add to the list?

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Kibuishi, Kazu. Amulet. Graphix, 2008-present. 4 volumes, ongoing.

Siblings Emily and Navin’s move with their family into their great-grandfather’s house after their father dies and discover a mysterious door to an alternative earth full of fantastic creatures and a world full of surprises.

Smith, Jeff. Bone. Cartoon Books, 1991-2004. Reprinted in color by Graphix. 2005-2009. 9 volumes.

The series centers on three cousins, their expulsion form Bonevillle and their exodus and experiences in The Valley. Smith’s art and fantasy-based storytelling provides the books with a dream-like quality not to be missed.

Varon, Sara. Robot Dreams. First Second, 2007. 205 pl. 9780329642204.

Best friends, Dog and Robot are separated after an ill-fated trip to the beach leaves Robot awake but rusted and stranded after Dog is forced to abandon Robot; who then embarks on a series of unsatisfactory friendships. Varon’s muted palette reinforces the sweet sadness over lost friendship. 

HIGH SCHOOL

Brosgol, Vera. Anya’s Ghost. First Second, 2011. 224 p. 9781596535526.

Anya is dealing with the typical pitfalls of an awkward teenager when she encounters and is befriended by a ghost, Emily. Too bad Emily isn’t harboring the best of intentions. Anya’s Ghost is visually stunning page-turner full of emotive artwork.

Hino, Matsuri. Vampire Knight. Viz Media, 2007-present. 13 volumes, ongoing.

This shojo manga centers on Yuuki Cross as she serves as a Guardian at the elite Cross Academy; where students are divided into Day Classes and Night Classes. There she struggles to bring peace to the war between humans and vampires. Perfect summer reading for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in your library.

Miller, Frank. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 2002 (orig. 1987). 224 p. 9781563893414.

This now classic Batman tale centers on a Gotham run amok by criminals in the decade-long wake of a massive superhero retirement with the sole exception of Superman. But Bruce Wayne has had enough of when Harvey “Two-Face” Dent returns to town and he resumes his Batman identity to fight crime, which draws both The Joker and Superman into Batman’s latest battle.

Thompson, Craig. Blankets. Top Shelf Productions, 2011 (orig. 2003). 592 p. 9781603090964.

This gorgeous semi-autobiographical, coming of age tale centers on the author’s Midwest childhood and his first love as he struggles to reconcile his parent’s strict Christian beliefs, their harsh physical treatment of him and his brother and his own religious beliefs and philosophies. 

OLDER TEEN &  ADULT

Bechdel, Allison. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 304 p. 9780618982509.

Bechdel’s brilliant follow-up to her 2006 masterpiece Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (9780618871711) follows multiple narrative threads about dreams, therapy and the complex relationship between mother and daughter as she sifts through her memories and feelings from her childhood.

Gaiman, Neil (auth.) and various illustrators. The Sandman. DC/Vertigo, 1991-1997. 10 volumes.

Gaiman’s landmark series about Morpheus, the King of Dreams, who must rebuild his kingdom after a long imprisonment. The art is gorgeous and the storytelling is unique while also featuring Gaiman’s signature themes of religion and myth. If you only read one series on this list, it’s The Sandman.

Kirkman, Robert (auth.), Charlie Adlard (illus.) and Tony Moore. The Walking Dead. Image Comics, 2006-present. 16 volumes, ongoing.

The Walking Dead follows a group of survivors as they struggle to find and maintain basic necessities such as food and shelter in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in the American South. The stories are character-driven, the artwork is haunting and violence is high.

Moore, Alan (auth.) and Dave Gibbons (illus.). Watchmen. DC Comics, 1995. 408 p. 9780930289232.

Moore’s critically acclaimed masterpiece is also a fan favorite that opens with the death of a superhero, The Comedian. Now his disbanded associates must band together to determine his murderer and how his murder plays into a larger plot of world domination and destruction; all while revealing previously unknown motivations and back stories for a myriad of characters.

In keeping with our mission to promote professional involvement for its members, the Bay Area Young Adult Librarians professional group (BAYA) is offering two 2012 conference scholarships for 2012, allowing one BAYA member to attend the California Library Association Conference and one BAYA member to attend the California School Library Association Conference. BAYA will pay early bird conference registration for each of the scholarship winners. Through these scholarships, BAYA aims to help young adult librarians attend workshops directly related for their professional growth, expand their networking skills, and become more a part of the California library community through conference attendance.

ALL members of BAYA are eligible for these scholarships, as long as they are first-time conference attendees whose institutions will not cover the cost of conference attendance for them.  If you are not a member of BAYA but would like to apply for the scholarship, you can join today for the low price of $15 a year!  That’s the best deal for a professional organization anywhere!  You can find our membership form here: http://x.baya.org/BAYAMembership.pdf.

The scholarship application is offered in a digital, online format only, and may be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bayascholar-2012.

Applications need to be received no later than midnight, June 20, 2012. The criteria for who may apply is as follows:

1. Must be member in good standing (dues paid for 2012) - DUES ARE ONLY $15!!!!!
2. Must be attending conference for first time
3. Be in need of financial aid – no institutional support or unemployed
4. Winners will be expected write a short report after conference about their experience to share with members of the BAYA librarian community.

Back in February I realized that I had to come up with a plan for Teen Tech Week.

At the February TAG meeting I presented the idea of having each TAG member pick a favorite book, write why they liked it and then create QR codes to put under an image of the book cover. Everyone thought that was a great idea, but somehow I ended up making all the QR codes (fortunately it is fast, easy and free). I hung the QR code book review posters in the teen area for the month of March.

Once I realized how simple it was to create a QR code I thought that it would be fun to have a QR code scavenger hunt. I created an easy scavenger hunt that would lead teens around the library so that they knew the general layout of the children’s, teen and adult collections as well as the subscription databases. I advised the reference librarians to help anyone who asked because the hunt was more a tour of the library and not meant to be a difficult puzzle to decipher. I got some decent prizes, new books, gift card etc. Unfortunately not one person did the scavenger hunt during teen tech week. Since I went through the trouble of setting everything up I decided to run the scavenger hunt for the whole month of March. I figured that I would at least be able to get 5 – 10 people in TAG to participate.

I presented the contest to my TAG group at the March meeting and the general response was “what’s a QR code?” and “I don’t have a smart phone” and “how do I download the scanner to my phone” (at least I had anticipated this question and had instruction on how to in the teen area where the hunt began). Remember the month before I had explained QR codes to them when we worked on the QR code book display.

This was one of those moments I get from time to time, the moment when I am reminded that teenagers think completely differently than I do. What I think is cool or exciting may well leave them underwhelmed if not completely uninterested. That the part of the QR code display they were excited about was creating short and mostly funny (many were quite hilarious) reviews about books that they liked, not the technology of the QR code. They only paid attention the QR code part with half an ear if that.

In the end I managed to con two people to do the scavenger hunt, so 100% of the people that participated won. What odds! Now I am on the fence about the QR codes, while I am not sure how many people actually bother to scan QR codes but they are really easy to create. The other problem is that a fair amount of teens (I would say about ¾ of my TAG group) still do not have smart phones.

To QR code or not to QR code that is the question!

No I don’t have the answer.

Carla Avitabile, Teen Librarian, Novato Library

The topic for this meeting is Teen Advisory Groups.  If you have any burning questions that you have been dying to ask some honest-to-goodness Teen Advisors, e-mail them to brandi.bette.smead [at] ci.benicia.ca.us!

Bay Area Young Adult Librarians (BAYA)

Meeting Agenda

May 22, 2012

Benicia Public Library - http://www.benicialibrary.org/

150 East L St

Benicia, CA 94510 – Map

707-746-4343

PARKING:

Just park in the library lot and head to the front doors. 

The front doors to the library should be open, walk right in!  There will be signs once you get through the first set of doors. But basically, come in the front doors and go through a second set of doors. There is only one way to go! You can’t miss it!

AGENDA

9 - 9:30am:          Arrival; Meet and Greet

9:30 - 10:00am: Book Sharing and Reviews

10:00 - 11am:     Discussion - Teen Advisory Groups

11 - 11:15am:     BREAK!

11:15am – Noon: BAYA Business

Lunch:                   Potluck at Brandi Bette’s House!

Intuitive Heuristics, Expertise, and the Numbers

Back in 2003, I was charged with starting up teen programming at my library
branch. I had no experience, no successful track record, it just fell into
my lap. There was no programming in place so I was starting from scratch.
Creating and implementing successful teen programming for me back then
involved intensive community outreach, learning from the expertise of teen
librarians (many were members of BAYA) and the support of that library
system’s YA specialist. As for numbers, I consulted census data for
demographics and a show of interest survey in the middle schools and
incoming 5th graders.

My next assignment in a different community went a lot more smoothly
because of the experience already gained. And I think all teen librarians
develop an intuition over time about what works and what just doesn’t fly
at all in their specific community.

This expertise, this intuition, is constantly put to the test. We’re
constantly customizing boilerplate programs (e.g. Summer Reading) to
maximize the experience and participation of our teens.

So here’s my question – what roles do expert intuition, subjectivity and
numbers play in successful programming for teens?

elsie

Inspired by reading *Thinking Fast and Slow* by Daniel Kahneman

As I sit idly in my kitchen at 2:17am waiting for the ghost of Hunter Thompson to impale the right hemisphere of my brain with a lightning bolt of creativity, I find myself at a loss for words.

Fifteen minutes have passed since my fingers ceased clicking the keyboard and still I have no clue what to write for this blog. The more I try to concentrate and reflect, the more my mind drifts aimlessly through the thick bouillabaisse of daily life: taxes, food, hockey playoffs, whatever……

I finally tire of flipping between this Word document and YouTube and find myself heading towards the back bedroom. Nearing 3am, I notice myself feeling not as tired as I am agitated; knowing full well I still need something to write about. All I need is some inspiration, and I think I know just where to find it. I kneel down onto the hardwood floor and reach under my bed. After some rummaging, my outstretched fingers finally hit pay dirt. I get to my feet and head back through the unlit hallway towards the kitchen.

A nervous energy surges through my body, the same way it does every time I go to remove the lid on the old Adidas shoebox. Inside lies a carnival of emotions. Happiness. Thankfulness. Sadness. Excitement. Love. Loss. A little something for everyone. My fingers tingle as I sift through a jumble of holiday and birthday cards, wedding announcements, obituary clippings, and personal letters from people whom I’ve had the pleasure of crossing paths with in life. It takes a while but I finally get to the one letter I was looking for. The envelope is addressed to a Homer J. Lorenzo(á la the brilliance of Matt Groening), but the moment I plucked it from my mailbox six long years ago I knew exactly who it was meant for.

Read More

There is a really great article about Teen Zines and writing workshops in the April 2012 issue of VOYA. And the best part is that a former BAYA member and the former Teen Librarian from the Benicia Public Library cowrote it! Congrats to Erica Cuyugan, Teen Services Librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library, for publishing a great article in VOYA. Click here for the full article!

Totally unexpected
Exotic “ecosystem”
Energetic environment
Never a dull moment!

Ludicrous life
Insane ideas
Being.
Radical role-model
Absolutely awesome
Rip-roaring
Idiotic - sometimes ;-)
Another amazing adventure
Never a dull moment!

— by Brandi Bette

Our next BAYA Meeting will be at the Milpitas Library next Tuesday, March 27^th.  We’ll be hearing from YALSA President Sarah Flowers on getting yourself published and staying involved with ALA.  We also will continue to plan for our ongoing projects (QR Codes, CLA Scholarship, Get-Togethers, etc.) and share our stories of success from our Hunger Games Programs!  A packed meeting to be sure!!  Hope to see you all there!

Next Meeting:

Tuesday March 27^th
Milpitas Library
160 North Main Street
Milpitas, California, 95035  Map

408-262-1171

AGENDA

• 9:00-9:30 - Arrival and Networking
• 9:30-10:00 - Book and Program Sharing
• 10:00-11:00 – Sarah Flowers: YALSA and Publishing
• 11:00-11:15 - Break
• 11:15-12:00 - BAYA Business

A no-host lunch will follow the meeting at Baja Cactus Restaurant

Baya’s President, Jack Baur and School Libray Liason, Jessica Lee; discuss their awesome Comix Club, a joint collaboration between Berkeley Public Library and Willard Middle School. The article, the first in a series, includes discussion questions for Persepolis, Smile and American Born Chinese. Check it out: http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/talking-comics-graphic-novel-discussion-questions-feature-stories.

Hi Folks!  Remember that our first meeting for the year is at the Richmond Public Library next Tuesday, January 24th.  The library is at 325 Civic Center Plaza in Richmond. 

The meeting topic will be program sharing, with an emphasis on programs around the upcoming release of the Hunger Games movie!  We’re gonna try to brainstorm some killer Hunger Games events to stage at our libraries, as well as just generally talk about the great things we all do.  PLEASE BRING FLYERS FOR YOUR SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS TO SHARE WITH THE GROUP!

Also, to prep us all for Hunger Games madness, we have a little project to start us off that we’d like your help with.  Please go to Facebook, friend BAYA and respond to my post asking about Hunger Games read-alikes.  We want to amass a list of read-alikes to serve as the basis for a set of online readers advisory tools we’ll be developing over the course of the year.  More info at the meeting!

The BAYA Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/223915239380/.

See you on Tuesday, and may the odds be ever in your favor,
Jack Baur
Teen Services Librarian, Berkeley Public Library
President, BAYA: The Bay Area Young Adult Librarians

Please join me in welcoming the new Leadership Team for BAYA! They are:

• Jack Baur – President
• Matthew Lorenzo – Vice President
• Brandi Bette-Smead/Nichole King – Co-Secretaries
• Beth Wrenn-Estes – Treasurer
• Elsie Tep – Book Review Chair
• Carla Avitabile – Book Review Editor
• Jessica Lee – School Library Liaison
• Amanda Jacobs Foust – Webmaster

Thanks to everyone for their commitment, and we look forward to seeing what you bring this coming year!

On October 25th, 2011, BAYA presented “Who’s Afraid of Comic Books?! Building and Maintaining Graphic Novel Collections in Your Library.”  This half-day workshop featured a presentation featured a lecture packed with advice about organization and collection development for graphic novel collections, a short film about manga, and a creator panel.  We were thrilled to have the creators Jason Shiga, Derek McCulloch, Tyler Ortman, and Mark Siegel join us to discuss their work with us, and share with everyone in attendance their love of — and belief in the possibilities of — comic books!

For those who missed this spectacular event, we wanted to share some of the goodies that were presented that day:

Annotated Bibliography - A painstakingly curated list of 60-someodd books that deserve a place in your teen graphic novel collections!

Guide to Online Resources - An enormously useful list of places to go to find news and reviews from the world of comic books, with helpful hints for building your collection!

Teens Talk About Manga - A short film assembled by BAYA and comprised of interviews with our teen patrons, as they tell us why they love manga so much!

Thanks again to everyone who came and made this event such a success!

Click the link to download the flyer! BAYAComics2011.doc

Tuesday October 25^th, 9am to Noon

San Leandro Public Library

300 Estudillo Ave. San Leandro, CA 94577 

(a 5 minute walk from San Leandro BART)

$25 Advance Registration

$35 at the Door

BAYA: Bay Area Young Adult Librarians presents a unique opportunity for librarians working in any environment to learn the ins and outs of the world of comics from the perspective of libraries, users, and industry professionals. Everyone who works with graphic novels in their library – or wants to learn more about these wildly popular materials – will have something to gain at this half-day workshop.

We’ll begin with a presentation by Jack Baur (Berkeley Public Library) and Amanda Jacobs Foust (Marin County Free Library), two longtime graphic novel selectors who will share the secrets of purchasing, organizing, and preserving graphic novels in the library and provide attendees a glimpse of the future of digital comics.  This will be followed by a video of manga reading teens, discussing what draws them to Japanese comics.

The second half of our program will feature a special panel of comic book professionals who will share their creative process and views of the power of comics as a means of telling stories, and as an educational tool.  Guests on the panel will be Jason Shiga (writer and illustrator of Meanwhile and Empire State),Derek McCulloch (writer of Stagger Lee and T. Runt!), and Tyler Ortman (editor of the Manga Guide to… series).  

In addition, we will be hosting a “Comic Book Petting Zoo,” featuring our favorite comics for a hands-on look in their traditional book form, as well as digital comics and reader apps for iPads. Books will be available to purchase for your library (home or otherwise).

All this for just $25 ($35 at the door)!  See the attached flyer for registration information, or e-mail Jack Baur at jbaur@ci.berkeley.ca.us or visit http://baya.orgfor more information.

Dear BAYA Members and Friends,
Please remember to bring flyers from your most awesome events! We want everyone to be able to shop around and take home flyers for event ideas at their own libraries. The more the merrier!

The topic for our next meeting will be “Successes and Failures: Sharing the Best and Less-Than-Best of Our Teen Programs and Services.”  This will be similar to our annual “Anatomy of a Failure” session, but we are hoping to put an equal emphasis on what really works in our programs.  To that end, we are encouraging members to bring multiple copies of flyers from some of their most successful events to share with the group. 

We will also be getting ready for our ELECTIONS, which we will hold in November.  We will be announcing open positions and encouraging members to consider leadership in BAYA!

Tuesday, September 27th

Redwood City Library

1044 Middlefield Rd

Redwood City, CA 94063

650-780-7018

http://www.redwoodcity.org/library/

AGENDA:

• 9:00-9:30 - Arrival and Networking
• 9:30-10:00 - Book and Program Sharing
• 10:00-11:00 - Successes and Failures: Sharing the Best and Less-Than-Best of Our Teen Programs and Services
• 11:00-11:15 - Break
• 11:15-12:00 - BAYA Business (including discussion of open BAYA Leadership positions for 2011-2012!)

A no-host lunch will follow the meeting at a nearby restaurant.

See you all tomorrow!