Friday Finds News Roundup, 4/5/2013

A few things of note this week…

Tweens are having (were having?) beauty contests on Instagram.  Not too surprising, but the grassroots counter movement is certainly worth noting.  A mom ruminates on the issue, and coincidentally I spotted this piece this week too, “Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life“.

One of my favorite recent professional development conversations, the #readadv Twitter chat, now has a blog.  This is great, because there has been many a Thursday night that I’m in the weeds and can’t participate.  I’m hoping this will help the conversations continue throughout the interim weeks as well.

Let’s connect teens with books!  YALSA has a few ways – their Books For Teens program is accepting applications, and if you’re near Chicago, you and your teens can get free Saturday exhibits passes for ALA Annual this June by participating in the Best Fiction for Young Adults Teen Session.

Speaking of Chicago, we lost a great Chicagoan this week with the death of film critic and thoughtful human, Roger Ebert.  Jennie at YAReadingList.com has put together a list of books about teens who love movies in his honor.  If you have a hand in ordering movies for your library, please check out the offerings from Ebertfests past and present, which highlighted some of Mr. Ebert’s favorite, often overlooked films.  He understood, as many of us do, the incredible humanizing, unifying, transformative power that creative works can  have in peoples’ lives.  His quote below, from a 2005 interview on NPR, highlights what we in the teen lit world often say about books:

“If you only see films about people just like yourself, why even bother to go? Because you already know about yourself.  You can only find out about yourself by learning about others.” – Roger Ebert

This is the end of the first week of School Library Month.  A big shout out to our school librarian readers from all of us at TLT!  Thanks for all you do for your students and communities and for contributing your expertise in so many ways!  I spotted this great and growing wiki project that addresses school and public library partnerships.  Good for all of us to keep in mind.

Happy Friday everyone!

-Heather

Filed under: collaborations, Friday Finds News Roundup, Instagram, Movies, Reader's Advisory, School Libraries, YALSA