Kids Are Customers 2007

The Maryland Library Association’s 2007 Kids Are Customers was a great experience. Seven sessions were offered; everyone was able to attend six of them as there two sessions were offered at 2:00.

The morning began with a presentation by the 2007 Blue Crab Award committee. The Blue Crab Awards seek out well-crafted books that will appeal to beginning and reluctant readers. Topics covered by this year’s winners and honors included penguins, dinosaurs, pirates, and physics. See the Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award web page for a complete list of 2007 winners.

The 2007 Blue Crab Awards presentation was followed by a preview of 2008 Summer Reading. Expect to see all varieties of bug books, bug crafts, and bug-centric programs next year. The move to the national summer reading consortium will mean spending less time and money creating posters and marketing materials (hooray for economies of scale!) and more time planning programs and creating bug costumes. My favorite craft ideas: encluse tissue paper in a Ziploc baggie and cinch the middle with a pipe cleaner. Attach 2 antenna and faster than you can say “pupa,” you have a butterfly. I also loved the ladybug hat worn by the presenter – it wasn’t part of the craft parade, but it could have been. A definite crowd favorite: an adorable and incredibly expressive mosquito puppet. Note to self: Keep eye out for equally adorable and expressive bug puppets.

Lulu Delacre presented story time rhymes and songs from her collection of Latino lullabies and games, Arrorró, Mi Niño. An easy one to remember goes “Pon, pon, pon el dedito en el pilón” or “Put, put, put your little finger in the cup.” While saying this rhyme, tap your index finger in the cupped palm of your other hand. Delacre’s book is full of classic Spanish-language nursery rhymes, lullabies, and little games, which are accompanied by gentle oil wash illustrations and include English translations.

Ms. Delacre also presented illustrations she created for next spring’s The Storyteller’s Candle (La velita de los cuentos), by Lucia Gonzalez. The story centers on Pura Belpré, New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, and the Three Kings Day celebration she organized at the 115th Street branch of the NYPL in the early 20th century. Delacre includes subtle collage work in her oil paintings for Candle by incorporating pieces of an original copy of the January 6 New York Times from the year Belpré first organized the celebration.

Three presentations comprised the afternoon. First, Emily Blumenthal, the Senior Education Coordinator from The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, gave us a summary of the programming the museum conducts for children. Based in a philosophy of free learning, The Walters has partnered with Enoch Pratt to bring books and art together in museum galleries.

While some attendees participated in a problem-solving discussion focused on programming challenges, I attended a presentation the work the International Children’s Digital Library has begun conducting with upper elementary and middle school students. The prototype, Alph, which was created through the ICDL’s participatory design work with these students, creates a dual-use space where the narrative space of the book exists within the social space of the web. That is, participants not only read a traditional narrative as you’d find in a print book, they also interact with other children in a reading group, posting comments to one another on plot and characters, connections between their life and the novel, and posing questions to one another. As a result, a community conversation coexists with the novel. The long and short of the presentation by University of Balitmore’s Nancy Kaplan: Kids read – and they will lead us into the future format. What we might consider a private leisure activity, kids enjoy most as a shared one.

Finally, the entire conference gathered back together for an explanation of how Caldecott voting works and a mock Caldecott vote. We learned that once a book is off the table it cannot be discussed again and that point spreads and tiered voting are involved. The presenter successfully demonstrated how voting results are affected by the pool from which the books are chosen – in two separate votes by conference attendees, two different books were given gold medals. From a pool of 10 past Caldecott gold medalists, Zelinsky’s Rapunzel ran away with the overall win; from a pool of just three, Henke’s Kitten’s First Full Moon edged out Rapunzel for the gold. The presenter also made sure to emphasize that the Medal honor books are as good as the gold medal winners.

I’m incredibly glad I went to Kids Are Customers. I will pull ideas from my notes not only for buggy programs next summer but even now as I plan story times and give book recommendations to patrons. This state-wide gathering of children’s librarians, children’s literature enthusiasts, educators, and authors proved inspiring and invigorating.