The Librarian

One of the things I did this past year while working at international school in the Philippines was work in the elementary library. It was one of my favourite places to be, and I had so much fun observing the elementary librarian, Carol, in everything she does.

I really want to tell you about Carol, because she is utterly amazing.



The elementary library.

Carol has been at the school for almost 25 years, which is a long time for someone to stay at an international school, where staff and students are constantly coming and going. But she is not only the elementary librarian. She also did one-on-one literacy coaching with nine elementary kids, literacy classes with both first and second grade, helped the teachers with the English curriculum, AND she taught six library classes every week. I was physically in the library more than she was.

Carol's love for books and kids was infectious. It was so fun to watch her during library classes. At the beginning of class she would spend twenty minutes on a lesson before book checkout time.  The lessons were usually Carol reading a story, or talking about an author, and sometimes the lesson would coincide with some current event.



Hobbit bulletin board that one of the library volunteers made.

For example, when The Hobbit movie came out in December she took about four weeks in each fifth grade class to talk about The Hobbit book before the movie came out. In the spring, the school put on a production of Beauty & the Beast so she spent a few weeks reading and talking about different book versions of the story. (As a result, about a quarter of the elementary girls dressed up as Belle for our Literacy Day). She also did a unit on The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, both a book and short film by William Joyce (which is a beautiful film, you should check it out if you get the chance).

But my favourite thing to watch Carol do was recommend books to kids. She is so amazing at pitching books. I don't know how she does it. She knows exactly what to say that will get a specific group of kids to latch on to any book's premise and scramble to me, pleading to put them on the hold list first for that book. Every time Carol pitched a book to the kids, a 5-person long waiting list for that book would spring up. And I'm not exaggerating when I say every time!

Carol's love of books and the people who read them was really inspiring to me. It was really cool to be able to work with her this year and learn from her, whether it be how she taught the kids or what she taught the kids or just her energetic enthusiasm for books.



Goofing off in fifth grade library class.

Almost every Monday Carol would ask me "So, what books did you read this weekend?" And after I told her she would list off the three books she read, while simultaneously recommending them to me. If Carol recommended a book to me, I couldn't NOT read it.

There are a lot of people on this online writing community who are super passionate about books and reading and getting kids to read, but it is an entirely different thing to see that in real life, and it is incredibly awesome.

Do you know anyone in real life that is super passionate about books? Do you think it's awesome?

Less is More

I have a confession.

I like to act out my own scenes sometimes. (When no one is home; I definitely cannot act). I like to do this, though, because it gives me an idea of what exactly is going on in the scene. It gives me a really clear picture of what I want to happen, because usually I can only describe what's happening if I can see it first.

The problem with this is I see everything, so my first instinct is to write everything. I think, "well, I see him turn on his back and do this, so I must describe every little movement so the reader knows what's happening."



Source

Every book would be three times as long if every writer did that. The thing is, the reader doesn't need to know what I see in my head. I give them enough words so that they can take the words and use their imagination to fill in the rest. It's amazing what you can do with a few words. It's easy, for me anyway, to think if I describe it enough, they'll see it perfectly. In fact, I think the opposite is true. You just have use the exact perfect words so that those words trigger the imagination in the way you want them to, so they see a bit of the picture you see (of course, it will never be the same picture).

And that's really hard. But whoever said writing was easy?

Cliff-hanger Endings: Are They Really That Bad?

Hey guys! In order to make up for my silence over the last while, I thought I'd just give you a short update on what's going on, and then I'll start my post. So, I'm actually in the midst of exams right now so I am taking lots of time studying and writing those (normally my exams would be in June, but because of the kind of courses I'm taking, they're in May). I'm also getting ready for wrapping up school completely and graduating high school in only twoish months! Eek. :D Let's see... I'm also trying to prepare a short story to enter in a local writing contest. I hope to start some fun new blog stuff after I'm done more of my exams, so you have that to look forward to. I have a few ideas up my sleeve. ;)

Anyway, I wanted to talk about endings. The two books that my English class most recently read were A Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence and A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Neither of them had very satisfying endings. A Stone Angel ends with the two words "And then..." and that's where the novel ends. The story ending of A Handmaid's Tale ends with the main character being taken away, and whether to safety or to her death the reader doesn't know. Then the last line of the epilogue-like ending is a university professor asking his students "Are there are any questions?" which is funny because, um, YES.

A lot of the students in my class complained loudly about how these endings were horrible, you don't get to find out anything, it wasn't wrapped up nicely at all, etc, etc. Then they write the entire book off as awful because you don't get to find out anything - and what's the point of reading a book that doesn't answer any questions it raises?

Well, that's a discussion for another day. But are these somewhat cliff-hanger endings really that bad? I feel like they are very effective, and they make you think. That is what I like about these endings - they force you to think. If there is anything that makes me love a book, it is that it makes me think. That's part of the reason why I loved Jellicoe Road so much. The intertwined and complicated plots required a whole lot of thinking to figure them out.

I think this is also why those "20 years later" epilogues sometimes really bug me, such as the one in Harry Potter or Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles. I feel like they shut down any opportunity for the reader's mind to wander and wonder further about the characters and story. Basically, it shut downs any opportunity for the reader to think about the book.

Yes, endings need to wrap up loose ends and whatnot. But I think they also need to be left at least somewhat open-ended to allow the reader to think and wonder.

So, I want to know what you think about all this... Do you like books that make you think? Do you like endings that wrap up completely, or that are left open? What books have made you think the most?

Reading Interview with My Superwoman Mother on Books

Guess what time it is? Yup, that's right... time for another reading interview!! Woohoo!! So, now you've met all the members of my family including my brother, my dad and my sister. But... there is someone missing. Now, it's time to meet my amazing mother, aka Superwoman!! She is the one who is largely responsible for my love of reading and, consequently, writing.

The interview begins with an interupption by my father...

Me: So let's start with the basic questions.

Dad (in background): Your name
Me: Sure...
Mom: I feel a little nervous.
Me: Why?
Mom: I don't know...
Dad (laughing): Because you might uncover something she doesn't want to reveal...
Mom: No, that you're going to argue with me or something....

Thankfully, there was no uncovering of deep dark secrets or arguments. :) Now, to the interview!

What kinds of books do you like?

Well, I like suspense, because lots of times I can't predict what's going to happen. But I like a lot of things. Family stories, historical fiction. Probably my favourite are suspenseful things. Things that are sort of fast-paced. I like some sorts of science fiction.

The best books are books that you just keep thinking about after you put them down, because you want to know what's going to happen. Not knowing what's going to happen in a book is important to me, unless you just want something really easy to read once in a while. I like books that aren't predictable.

What genres do you stay away from?

Westerns. And your typical romance story. It just seems like such a low level of reading. Well, maybe it's not a low level of reading but it's just like... they have a formula and whatever romance novel you read it all happens the same, it's just a different place and different person. You always know what's going to happen.

What are some of your favourite authors or books?

Francine Rivers, Ted Dekker... and they're totally opposite which is funny. One book I read lately that was really good was Sarah's Key. It sort of haunted me afterwards, same with that book The Boy With the Striped Pajamas.

How do you pick out books for me and my brother?

For you, I can think of what I liked at that age and also if it's a YA book that I'm interested in, then you would probably be interested in it. Although of course there are some YA books that I would read but you wouldn't, but I know those ones. And with your brother... the authors that he's read before and liked, and I basically go off the books he's read before and books he's read very quickly. Also, his interests like math or soccer. And with your sister, it's easy, because of her interest in movies.

Do you think reading is important? Why?

Yes, because it gives you a different perspective on things. I mean, I guess you can get a different perspective watching TV but with reading a book... it's almost like with watching TV it's someone else's perspective, while with reading a book it's your own perspective. With books, you learn about other people's perspectives but you also put your on perspective on those perspectives... haha. And reading's fun... it can take you to a different place in your head. And it also puts me to sleep. All I have to do at night is read a book and then I fall asleep.

When we were little, were you determined to have us read?

I remember Dad and I talked about the values we wanted to instill in you and one of them was that you would love reading. And you do that by reading yourself and reading to your kids. I love reading kid's books as well as the other books I read. I'm known as "The Book Lady" at work.

Where do you think your love of reading comes from?

My mom. My mom read to me, and she was a reader. My dad wasn't really a reader, but my mom was. We'd read all the time before bed. I can still remember my favourite book... There's A Mouse in the House. I can even remember the cover, it had like an older, three-story house on it with a mouse in the top.

And just having books around. There's actually some statistic that if you have a certain number of books in your house then your kids will be readers. Although it's only, like, twenty books.

How would you have felt if even after you did all that, we still weren't into reading?

I would probably just... keep reading to you. It wasn't just me reading to you, it was Dad reading to you... and just us reading ourselves. All those things instill a love of reading.

You read YA sometimes. Why?

I don't read all Young Adult stuff. But I think sometimes because... I don't know if this is true or not... but I think YA writers actually have to write better in some cases because  if you want to get teenagers to read then it has to be written well. Because most aren't going to put the effort into reading a book unless it peaks their interest. So it has to be written well. Although I don't know if that's really true.

Do you have anything else to say about books?

Um... they can be a friend, when no one else is around...

Uh, I think you got that out of a book.

No, I didn't! They are like your best friends when no one else is around. And they're very quiet, actually.

Yeah, but they leave you after 200 pages...

But there's always another book. And I love the library. It's like a free bookstore.

Thanks, Mom! Isn't she great? :)

What I Want From Readers of My Writing

I've sent a few stories and poems to various friends and family over the years. Sometimes I'll ask, er, plead with them to comment on it. Questions, comments, anything at all is welcome!! Yeah, I don't usually get that many comments back. Not what I'm looking for, anyway.

So what kinds of things do I want to hear about my writing from my readers ("readers" in my case means "family and friends")?

Compliments

First of all, I want to hear what the reader liked about that piece. Not only is this nice because it gives me a self-confidence boost, but it gives me an idea of what worked the best in my story. It's also fun to see if the reader's favourite lines are the same as mine. (As it turns out, usually they aren't).

Questions

I want to make sure what I wanted to come across in my story came across clearly enough. If the reader is confused and isn't getting it, I need to fix that.

Critiques

Obviously, this is really important. What isn't working? What do I need to fix? It's always good to get a second opinion. Sometimes I just can't tell whether something works or not, or if it's just in my head. That's where another person's perspective comes in handy.

Feelings

This is one thing I really love hearing - what the reader was feeling while reading my work. Whether they were sad when this happened to that character, or whether they were shocked when that happened. I want to know what's going on inside the reader's head. I feel like these are the kinds of things big authors hear from their fans sometimes. :)  I don't know, these things are just nice to hear. Also, again, it helps to figure out what works.

Nit-picking

Hmm... I kind of feel nervous putting that on this list. Do I really want people nit-picking my work? For those who don't what "nit-picking" is... it's when you get down right to the tiny little details. (It's a phrase used often in my choirs, right before concerts :D). What I mean by nit-picking as far as critiques go, is that I don't just want an overview of "this was good, this was bad". I want my work to be completely analyzed, and thoroughly. This would be ideal, anyway.

However, I don't always want my work to be read with critiquing it in mind. Sometimes I just want people to read my work. It's funny, actually. Depending on the work, I'll send them to different people. One of my friends is excellent for providing the reader insight, without the critiquing part. I can always count on her to tell me her feelings on the work. Another one of my friends is an excellent critique partner who knows more about writing than my other friend does. I'll send her stuff I want to be critiqued thoroughly. Then another one of my friends I find loves poems, so I'll send her the poems I write sometimes. Um... well, that was a rabbit trail if I ever saw one. There really was no point to that.

Anyway!

What do you want from the readers of your work?