In episode two of the new season, Siân and Roger discuss politics, “rock star” librarians, and wanting fries with that.  People we talk about K-Fai Steele Adam Rex (thread) Dan Santat Links Diana Gabaldon (“Recent statistics from the New York Federal Reserve detailing employment outcomes by college major shows that English students have a 7.5 percent […]

Actually, it’s not so much that there are a @ALotofMen in the latest newspaper misrepresentation of the children’s book biz; the problem is that there are so few.  I am not suggesting the article needed More Men, simply that it seems to lack any understanding of how librarians purchase books for library collections.  Sure, the road […]

Podcast the 37th in which Roger and Siân talk about the recent election and women in publishing.  Links Roger’s morning after Lee and Low Diversity baseline survey Publishing industry is overwhelmingly white and female, US study finds Are Book Publishers To Blame For Gender Discrimination?  Why Men Don’t Read: How Publishing is Alienating Half the […]

Podcast the 29th in which Roger and Siân chat with social work librarian and Horn Book reviewer Anastasia Collins about cultural (mis?)appropriation and bagels.  Books we talk about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier People we talk about Lionel Shriver Toni Morrison Links Simmons Lionel Shriver’s speech New York Times article Inappropriate Appropriation […]

Podcast the 22nd in which Siân and Roger talk about Jason Bourne, Bruce Willis, and “stupid.”  Stupid: lacking intelligence or common sense Books we talk about Harry G. Allard and James Marshall, Stupids series Dorothy Kunhardt, Pat the Bunny Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are Audrey Wood and Don Wood, The Little Mouse, The […]

On the bus this morning, I sat next to a mom and her strollered two-and-a-half-year-old son.  He was being freaking adorable, his big Margaret Keane eyes peering wisely into my own.  We’re chatting and the mom asks the boy if he wants to sing “Wheels on the Bus.”  That was a challenge I could not […]

Podcast the 21st in which Roger and Siân talk about Lane Smith’s There Is a Tribe of Kids, Siân actually considers the idea of a library not carrying the Harry Potter books, and Roger expresses a strong opinion about vampirism.  Books we talk about Lane Smith, There Is a Tribe of Kids and It’s a Book Antoinette Portis, […]

“Should this book go in nonfiction or folklore?”  ACK, the book review placement problems. The Decider (Martha) is away this week so Shoshana, Elissa, and I are left to our own devices when it comes to deciding what goes in which category of the September/October Magazine review section.  A historical illustrated book retelling a real incident but with invented situations and […]