Week 5: Assignment 1
I have been following NPR books, which has great reviews for new books. They cover a wide variety of genres but all of the books seem to have some literary merit. Also, the reviews are honest. This helps me when I'm recommending books to a customer, or even choosing a book to read myself!
Week 5: Assignment 2
Here at the Reisterstown branch we do a lot of readers' advisory for children. Lots of kids come in saying they need to do a book report on a science fiction book, or read a biography, or find a good mystery. Our NoveList database is great for searching these genres. Goodreads is also a good go-to source for finding lists of children's books. Early Word is nice because it tells me which books that are out right now are "hot", so to speak, as in they are generating enough buzz to be blogged about. However, I would say that NPR does pretty much the same thing, and they have more friendly layout. I do like that Early Word has so many categories, though. However, looking at all of these books reviews makes me wonder how I should approach reader's advisory when it comes to recommending books I haven't read. Should I say, "this book got great reviews on NPR"? Is that an appeal factor? Hmm.
Week 5: Assignment 3
I picked Girls on Fire, by Robin Wasserman, as my selection from Amazon.com's best books for May. The novel seems dark (because of the murder) and the fact that it's about high school students in the 90's immediately makes me think of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I would recommend this book to teens who are prepared to read dark, heavy, intense material. Some read-alikes for this title could be The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis (similar high school angst, confusing friendships, and intense emotion) and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen or The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (again, intense emotion, death, teens, 90's.)
No comments:
Post a Comment