The Librarian Writer

Title: El Deafo Author: Cece Bell Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Publication Date: September 2, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-1419712173 248 pp. ARC provided by publisher I am so happy that Cece Bell's El Deafo got some Newbery love as it was named an Honor Winner earlier this month. This graphic novel is funny, sweet, honest, touching, and true. It deserves all the accolades and awards and fans that it has. Cece Bell got meningitis when she was four years old and became profoundly deaf. She has used this life experience to create El Deafo , which was the nickname she gave herself. She went to a regular school and to help her hear the teacher, she wore a Phonic Ear. The device amplified the teacher's voice, but unknown the the teacher, Cece was able to hear the teacher wherever she went throughout the school. Including the bathroom! Cece thought of this as her superhero power, but it was a secret power that she didn't share with anyone. She was ashamed of the Phonic...

Title: Sisters Author: Raina Telgemeier Publisher: GRAPHIX Publication Date: August 26, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-0545540605 208 pp. ARC provided by publisher Raina Telgemeier made her name with the Eisner-winning Smile , a middle grade graphic novel that perfectly captured what it's like to be different when you're not entirely sure you want to be different. Raina has created another note-perfect graphic novel with Sisters , which this time explores the love-hate-barely tolerate relationship of sisters. Both Smile and Sisters are based on Raina's personal experiences and it shows in the honesty and humor of the books. Sisters centers on Raina and her baby sister Amara, a baby sister she dreamed of having but the reality of her turned out to be much different. There are sepia-toned flashbacks of their early days together, the constant power struggle for attention and territory. But the main story is a road trip that the family takes to Colorado. Family dyna...

A while back I wrote a blog post about research tools for writers , and I thought it was time to include some new ones to the list. One of things I like to do is read up on a certain subject before I write about it. I may use Wikipedia for a brief overview (yes, librarians use Wikipedia), but then I may want a book for a more in-depth view. And if I don't want to spend money to buy it, or my local library doesn't carry it, I check Worldcat . Worldcat is an aggregator of libraries' catalogs so you can search a particular title or author and find out what libraries carry it. Worldcat lists most academic and public libraries, and a few specialty libraries, throughout the world. Is the only copy of a pulp novel you want to read before you finish your noir novel in another state? Then you can see if it's available for ILL (Inter-Library Loan). There's usually a small fee, and there's some restrictions on what items can be loaned, so check your local library for t...