Sponsored by the Magnetic Imprint of Lion Forge
Irena Book One: Warsaw Ghetto is the true tale of Irena Sendlerowa, a social worker in the Warsaw ghetto in the early 1940s, during the early days of German occupation. She is credited for saving the lives of 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them to safety in small groups.
After the war, she attempted to reunite the children with their parents. This book is a must-have for admirers of Irena’s extraordinary life and those looking to learn more about the Jewish experience during World War II. Find it in stores now from the Magnetic imprint of Lion Forge!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
- Halifax libraries train staff on how to handle a wide range of unruly and disruptive behavior.
- Charleston County Public Libraries add armed guards in response to a credible shooting threat received last year. I cannot tell you how much this idea terrifies me.
- Santa Barbara County Libraries were able to use the tax revenue from cannabis sales to strengthen their budget, meaning that they won’t have to reduce hours or programming!
- Leander (TX) Public Library shares their policy updates after the recent drag queen program debacle.
- Hundreds of books were removed from an Illinois prison library. The Chicago Tribune notes that the majority of the books were about black history and empowerment.
- Florida Department of Education posted an extremely dated, whitewashed, and out-of-touch reading list for students, and Twitter clapped back.
Cool Library Updates
- Digitizing the Vatican Library.
Worth Reading
- Why do publishers suddenly hate libraries?
- How to stealthily incorporate intellectual freedom lessons into your youth book clubs.
- Bolstering the MLS: What librarians need to know about certification, badging, and microcredentials.
- Ghana’s wondrous one-woman library.
Book Adaptations in the News
- Netflix announces the premiere date for To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.
- Updates on There’s Someone Inside Your House and The Haunting of Hill House Season 2.
- Love, Simon is going to be a Disney series!
- NBC’s streaming service orders a pilot for One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus.
- Check out the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women and prepare to argue (again) over which character is the best.
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
- Amazon responds to the New York Times story that questions how Amazon polices copyright in its bookstore.
New & Upcoming Titles
- Cyntoia Brown signs a major book deal upon her release from prison.
- Alleged sexual abuser Mark Halperin already has a book coming out.
- Reasons why you need to be excited about the diverse crime fiction from Agora. I already have a couple of these titles on my list to purchase for my own library!
- 28 YA sequels and 15 awesome middle grade books to keep an eye out for this fall.
- New true crime for August.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
- An American Sunrise – Joy Harjo (Elle, New York Times, NPR, Vogue, Washington Post)
- Inland – Téa Obreht (Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Time, USA Today)
- Doxology – Nell Zink (New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair)
- gods with a little g – Tupelo Hassman (NPR, Washington Post)
- The World Doesn’t Require You – Rion Amilcar Scott (New York Times, USA Today)
RA/Genre Resources
- Why do so many women read thrillers? Because it’s a safe space to own their own fears.
- Related: Karin Slaughter says readers are drawn to true crime because “it’s human nature to want to know where the danger is.”
- Have you noticed a recent witch trend? You’re not alone.
- A bookworm’s guide to finding the light: or why this reader loves horror.
Books & Authors in the News
- Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi are teaming up to help young people navigate and fight racism.
- Nicholas Sparks denies the claims made in a defamation lawsuit against his school.
Numbers & Trends
- Barnes & Noble reports a 31% increase in Romance sales compared to last summer.
Award News
- The 2019 Hugo Award winners are here!
- Teens ages 12-18 can start voting for YALSA’s 2019 Teens’ Top Ten List.
All Things Comics
- Art Spiegelman was asked to write an essay for a collection of Marvel Golden Age comics, so he wrote about how superhero comics pushed back against facism, and made comparisons between the 1940’s and today. Marvel asked him to rewrite his essay to make it apolitical, so Spiegelman withdrew his essay and submitted it to the Guardian instead, because did these people SERIOUSLY think that the creator of Maus was okay with being apolitical? The original essay is here.
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman will start over as a new comic series.
- Crime manga that explore the other side of the law.
Audiophilia
- Audible continues its expansion of original content. Or in other words, this means that there’s even more content that libraries will be unable to provide access to.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
- 10 books to help kids understand climate change.
- Snake books for readers of all ages.
Adults
- NPR picks 100 favorite funny books.
- True crime that goes beyond serial killers and sensationalism.
- Awesome detectives from recent crime novels.
- Novels for true crime fans.
- Crime novels for horror fans. (This one’s mine!)
- International true crime you’ve never heard of.
- 50 must-read parenting books for all parents.
- Sea creature romances.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- A mother’s search for Indian bedtime stories grew into a small business that distributes Indian cultural books geared towards newborns through middle school readers.
- This calculator will tell you how many books you could read in a year if you stayed off social media. Yes, this is a reductive look at reading and social media use, but it’s still eye opening.
- Reader in chief: Is Obama our newest book influencer?
Level Up (Library Reads)
Do you take part in LibraryReads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? We’ve made it easy for you to find eligible diverse titles to nominate. Kelly Jensen created a database of upcoming diverse books that anyone can edit, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word is doing the same, as well as including information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.
Thanks for hanging, and I’ll see you next week!
–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.