TitleTales

Sports of the Winter Olympics: by Heather Ji

Collection Development Blog Post—01/22/10
I’ve always loved watching the Olympic Games. Waiting four years to see incredible athletic feats, hear the touching personal stories of the participants, experience the joy of my whole family happily watching the same television station… Of course now we have Olympics every two years, which doesn’t make them less exciting, it just makes it harder for me to remember when to clear my schedule—and clear off the couch. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver and start February 12th, so you might want to prepare yourself and your library by adding some updated titles on the sports that will be featured.

Crabtree just published a series of books on Olympic sports for ages 8-12 that includes titles on some of the more unusual events, such as biathlon, cross-country, ski Jumping, Nordic combined, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. There are also some recent biographies of Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White and up-and-coming skating stars. Don’t forget that the Paralympic Games begin on March 12. Fighting for Gold, written for teens, tells the story of how the Canadian Men’s Sledge Hockey team won the gold medal in 2006. For older readers, there are several new titles aimed at athletes, including Snowboarding: Learning To Ride From All–Mountain To Park And Pipe, and Making It: What Aspiring Hockey Players And Parents Need To Know To “Make It”, From The Experts And Pros.

• Browse our Blog: Sports of the Winter Olympics list

Crafts & Hobbies: by Susan Shaffer

Collection Development Blog Post—01/22/10
The New Year (and new decade) brings a chance to explore new skills or improve an old talent. I’ve been doing some quilting lately and would like to try knitting (again). I plan to challenge myself to complete a knitted project this year. Maybe its today’s economy, but crafts seem to be making a resurgence in popularity. I’ve noticed many craft club meetings advertised at libraries for children, teens and adults. While looking at craft books, I’ve found some clever ideas and several books that include ways to reuse materials. In Denim Revolution, Nancy Minsky gives suggestions and instructions for recycling and embellishing denim to make or restyle garments and accessories. This is a great book for teens or adults. For the younger crafter, Kathy Ross demonstrates in Earth-Friendly Crafts: Clever Ways To Reuse Everyday Items, how to rely on everyday discarded items to make kid-friendly projects.

Since March is National Craft month, it’s the perfect time to focus on crafts for all ages. How will you celebrate? Will you try a new craft technique or will you teach a craft to help them learn or improve their talents? Craft projects can be an economical way to banish boredom and increase your skills.

• Browse our Blog: Crafts & Hobbies

Interview: Francisco X. Stork

Francisco X. Stork was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was nine. He studied Latin American literature at Harvard before completing a law degree at Columbia University. Publishers Weekly praised his first novel, The Way Of The Jaguar, as a “splendidly intense debut.” His second book, Behind The Eyes, was selected as both a Commended title for the Americas Award and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. His latest novel, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, will be released in March 2010.

Francisco works as an attorney for an affordable-housing agency in Massachusetts. He lives near Boston with his wife.

• Browse our list of featured titles by Francisco X. Stork

BWI: Your latest book, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, looks at death and life through the eyes of Pancho, a teen trying to manage the violence in his life, and D.Q., a teen with cancer who is trying to live his remaining days as if he wasn’t sick, to live according to the Death Warrior’s Manifesto that he wrote. What was the inspiration for the book? Were the characters based on people that you have known?

FXS: My initial inspiration came from a re-reading of Don Quixote (something I do every five years or so to remind me of what writing is all about). As in Don Quixote, I wanted to create a story about two very different persons who transform each other in the course of their relationship. The characters are not based on any one real person. I don’t know exactly how their personalities and voices came to me. Perhaps they represent different sides of my own personality.

Collection Development

It's like having your own personal assistant — with an MLS degree

Working together, we'll help you build a collection that will inspire you … and your patrons.