Several of my staff members chose books that were popular with the kids, like Magic Tree House and Big Nate. They wanted to familiarize themselves with books that kids were asking for. Listening to their booktalks for the group was a great way for all of us to become a little more familiar with these popular titles. Other staff members picked up titles that caught their eye or had won awards. I loved hearing them talk about books that they enjoyed reading and I'm seeing my staff gravitate more and more towards the books in our Children's Room when they're reading for their own pleasure, too.
We had a pretty wide selection of genres, including several nonfiction titles, which I was really happy to see. Nonfiction is one of our upcoming topics, but I'm glad to see people picking it up for pleasure this month. We're definitely working on building Readers' Advisory skills by reading widely this year, but part of building your department's Readers' Advisory skills is knowing what everyone's go-to genres are. As we read more and more, I think we're all figuring out what everyone's favorites are. I know that I'll go to Miss A if I need more books for a scary book list. I'll go to Miss K if I need mystery suggestions, etc.
As we're establishing monthly genres next year, I'm thinking I will include Readers' Choice for multiple months. Especially now that everyone's developed greater familiarity with our collection (through their own reading and hearing everyone's booktalks each month), I think my staff members are feeling more confident in choosing books they will like. They're also keeping an eye to the collection as they do their work, knowing they will need to read something for our meetings each month. Readers' Choice would be great for summer when things are so, so busy and maybe around the holidays when people might have a little more time off to read or might be buying and receiving books as gifts.
So, what did everyone choose to read this month?
- 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Gablis
- Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
- Big Nate in a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce
- The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman
- Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
- Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
- The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
- The Magic Tree House series (selections from) by Mary Pope Osborne
- Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Philip Hoose
- The Rainbow Magic series (selections from) by Daisy Meadows
- The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander
- The Seer of Shadows by Avi
School starts back next week, so our genre for August is school stories. Also coming next week will be a look back at this past half-year of Reading Wildly! Check back to see how it's going. :)