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<p class="MsoNormal">Another great blog post from ALA’s Association of Library Services to Children!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:16.8pt">
<a name="1"></a><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlscBlog/~3/aE8g_Q6kxoM/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none">Creative Reader’s Advisory</span></b></a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="meta-prep">Posted on</span> <a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2014/03/creative-readers-advisory/" title="12:01 pm">
<span class="entry-date"><span style="color:blue">March 7, 2014</span></span></a>
<span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author"><a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/author/elisabeth-gattullo/" title="View all posts by Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla">Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla</a></span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">There are kids who walk into the Children’s Library, walk right up to the desk, and tell you exactly what they’re looking for. There are kids
with definite opinions and kids whose taste is harder to suss out. All these kids are a part of the joy of Reader’s Advisory – the easy ones make you feel like you’re aces at your job, while the difficult ones make you feel like a superhero when you find the
perfect book for them to read.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">But there is another group of kids that we noticed we were not reaching – the ones who won’t approach the librarian for suggestions, even when
coaxed. At the same time, we noted our new fiction displays were not emptying out as quickly as they once had. In an effort to reach those children who don’t like to come to the librarian for RA and to help kids realize that there were worthy options among
the new fiction, we started adding a simple and effective bit of hands-off RA to our displays.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:140%"><a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab5.jpg"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="300" height="225" id="_x0000_i1027" src="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab5-300x225.jpg" alt="ab5"></span></b></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Sneaky RA!<br>
photo provided by the author<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">What we did was simple and not groundbreaking, but it has amped up our new fiction turnaround to the point where are there are days that we
run out of new books in the library! I used the die-cut machine to punch out roughly 1 zillion (a real number) bright yellow medallions, on which we wrote “For Kids Who Love….” and then inserted the title of a similar book that kids will know. The thing that
makes this so effective is we exclusively link the new books to massively popular titles and authors. This lets both kids and parents who might not be familiar with popular but mid-list titles recognize books they may want to read. Does the book have family
issues or emotional plot beats? For kids who love <a href="http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/152776">
<em><b><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none">Wonder</span></b></em></a>. Are there animals who talk/have feelings? For kids who love
<a href="http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/171248"><em><b><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none">The One and Only Ivan</span></b></em></a>. Is there any magic? For kids who love
<a href="http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/179886"><em><b><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none">Harry Potter</span></b></em></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:140%"><a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab3.jpg"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="300" height="225" id="_x0000_i1026" src="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab3-300x225.jpg" alt="What's your favorite book's soulmate? photo provided by the author"></span></b></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">What’s your favorite book’s soulmate?<br>
photo provided by the author<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">We started applying this to our themed fiction displays as well. For example, in February, we had a Book Soulmates display. We invited kids
to discover the soulmate to their favorite book and then linked massively popular titles to older books that need a new audience. This allowed me to FINALLY convince a child to check out<em><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"">
<a href="http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/8837"><b><span style="color:#000099;text-decoration:none">Good Night, Mr. Tom</span></b></a></span></em>, a book with some of the worst cover art I have ever seen, but which I love so much
<a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2013/05/book-to-film-good-night-mr-tom/"><b><span style="color:#000099;text-decoration:none">I wrote about it here</span></b></a>. I advertised its soulmate as
<a href="http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/record/8655"><em><b><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none">Number the Stars</span></b></em></a>, since they’re both about children’s experiences during WWII. And
<em><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Mr. Tom</span></em> hasn’t been checked in since!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:140%"><a href="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab1.jpg"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#000099;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="300" height="225" id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ab1-300x225.jpg" alt="The author's favorite tiara and everyone's favorite song. photo provided by the author"></span></b></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">The author’s favorite tiara and everyone’s favorite song.<br>
photo provided by the author<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:140%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">We plan to keep this up for as long as it’s effective. Patron feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Both parents and kids have remarked
that they love the new displays, and our only questions have been about whether or not it’s ok to disturb the display and/or take a book with a medallion on it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Now I just need to figure out how to tie together princesses, RA, and like titles for this display, and I’ll be golden!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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