Week 9: Assignment 1 and 2

After reading the two articles and watching the videos from the New York Times and You Tube, I feel book trailers are a very effective tool in marketing books. I think that young adults in particular and some adults are more influenced by a moving visual picture, with the enhancements of sound and color - more so than the written word. Book trailers provide a motivation to read the books they promote and a context for imagining the story of the book in our minds as we are reading it.

Week 9: Assignment 3:

Overall, I have found this online learning program to be a very worthwhile experience. At times the questions were somewhat repetititve and the assignments with multiple parts, overly long. In spite of these minor flaws, I feel that the team that created this program did a thorough job in providing an intellecutally stimulating learning experience. Most importantly,  I now have a plethora of resources to use in initiating a enthusiastic reader's advisory interaction with customers. I have noticed a greater comfort level and more confidence in asking the right questions to keep the flow of conversation going until the perfect book for the customer is discovered. This process can be a fun collaboration beween librarians and customers. Hopefully, if we keep reaching out to our customers they will find the opportunity to relate to a friendly staff about literature as engaging as reading the next good book.

Week 8: Assignment 4

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by himself is the autobiography of an American slave. He details his experiences as a slave from boyhood to manhood and describes in graphic detail the physical and psychological torment of African american slaves under their white masters. We follow him from the plantation to Baltimore, Maryland where he learns to read and discovers the definition of abolition. At some point, he becomes the property of Master Auld, a cruel and sadistic slave owner who takes a special interest in attempting to break the soul and spirit of Douglass.  This is a highlight of the narrative as Douglass uses a compelling and exciting writing style to describe a relentless two hour battle in which Douglass stands his ground and refuses to relinquish control to his oppressor. I would recommend this book to teen boys because it is a fast, simple and engaging story with well-developed characters. It definitely reads like a novel. Any adult who is interested in the historical details of American slavey will experience the brutality of this period coming to life through Douglass's fascinating account of his life.

Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee ILibigaza fulfills the expectations of a top notch disaster novel. Immaculee gives a gripping and suspenseful account of her near death escape from genocide during the Rwandan Holocaust. Readers will be kept on the edge of their seats as she stays one step ahead of the machetes of the hutu soldiers. I would reccommend this book to adults interested in women's history, because of the strong female heroin facing dehumanizing oppression. Fans of Christian fiction will also be drawn in by Immaculee's telling of how her spiritual faith and conviction helped her escape a tragedy that claimed the lives of her entire family.

 

 

Week 8: Assignment 3

My four choices are:

Autobiography: Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass by  Frederick Douglass (located in the Biography area)

Memoir: Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (Located in the Biography area)

Disaster/Survival: Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee iLibagiza  (located in the Biography area)

Contemporary Social Issues: Coming Up From the Down Low: The Journey to Acceptance, Healing and Honest Love by James L. King
(located in 305.3889K)

Week 8 Assignment 2:
The E-Learning podcast on performing reader's advisory with non-fiction was clear and succinct. This encourages me to offer nonfiction as an option to customers.

Week 8: Assignment 1

I am glad that non-fiction reader's advisory is a part of this online program, because it is one of my favorite genres. I agree that in order to help customers choose an appropriate non-fiction title we should be familiar with the various subgenres of non-fiction.

Week 7: Assignment 4

I spent some time at Harlequin Teen  and observed the trend toward creating stories specifically about African American teens to market to this population. Another trend is creating Harlequin stories around popular past times like the world of nascar to broaden the appeal of contemporary romance in general and to perhaps extend interest to a male audience.

I looked at Teens at Random and noticed a trend toward making the purchase of facebook games and video games based on books, and the books as well, available for purchase right here on the book review site.

Week 7: Assignment 3

Forever Young Adult is a site developed by the managing editor of Badass Digest and other young adult professionals, (film programmers, school librarians, YA authors etc...) from around the nation who are past their teen years. This site offers book, movie, and video reviews. Visitors to this site are just as interested in YA characters as they are in YA novels as a whole, magining  themselves dating or spooning with Peeta from The Humger Games. Described as a "non-stop internet slumber party,'" it is fittingly a little random and cluttered, but has some glitz and lots of graphics, with photos. This site is aimed at the more mature young adult female who wants to kick back with a cocktail while reading or looking at a chic flick. Given the vast number of reviews and comments, it seems to be a fun site with a growing following.

Teenreads is a clean, crisp site which is maintained by 27 teens from around the nation who blog, write book reviews and share feedback. This site also features contests, polls and a newsletter.
The teen board members change on a six month basis which I imagine keeps the ideas and perspectives fresh. I noticed 581 voters on one of their polls so this site is building an audience. Moreover, getting teens to collaborate together in such a positive way is a mark of this site's success.