WONDERCON 2014, ANAHEIM CA!

     I'll be at WonderCon with my comics/graphic novels/Glitter Gaybies/Smells Like Library!
     On Saturday I'll be signing at the Prism Comics booth from 1pm-2pm. (Also probably on Sunday after the panel discussion)
     On Sunday I'll be on a panel discussion, and here are the details:
We're Here, We're Queer, Now What? - New Direction in LGBTQ Comics
Sunday, 4/20/14, 11:30a.m. - 12:30p.m.
Room: 210A
More lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters are making their mark on all corners of the comics world than ever before.   How do LGBTQ comics creators push the boundaries in a world where acceptance is more the norm?  Join creators Tommy Kovac (Skelebunnies, The Royal Historian of Oz), Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf), Josh Trujillo (Love Machines, Anything That Loves), Shayna Why (Overshare Party) and others to be announced as they explore new directions and neglected subjects in LGBTQ-themed comics, how technology is changing the way people relate to each other and new methods of publishing comics.  Presented by Prism Comics and moderated by Roger Klorese (Board Member, Prism Comics).

     Spoiler alert: I have no idea what the new direction is for LGBTQ comics. North?

HELP ME, TYLER DURDEN-- YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE

-or-
THE POWER OF FICTION

     There's an 11th grade girl who frequents the library. She's very quiet, but interesting and quirky. She's a huge fan of Chuck Palahniuk, particularly FIGHT CLUB. She's so ensorcelled by that novel, she has three copies of it; two in English, one in Korean. We'll refer to her as "Fight Girl" from this point onward.
     Fight Girl says she doesn't like "YA fiction," because she can't identify with the protagonists, usually. For some reason, she TOTALLY identifies with Palahniuk's narrative voice, and that connection is clearly very important to her. This makes me like Fight Girl. It's unexpected and atypical.
     When I asked her what it was about the narrator in FIGHT CLUB, she said something to the effect of, "Well, he's a white collar/cubicle worker, and he's frustrated, and pretty much hates everything."
I drew this a few years ago, but it seems appropriate
     She also likes the gay subtext, and the fact that Palahniuk himself is gay. The concept of "the outsider" seems to resonate with her. Which is cool.
     Fight Girl is like a prickly 17 year-old porcupine, sitting there in the library with a book obscuring her face, framed by her long black hair. I think she's read almost every Palahniuk book, now. She also likes Kurt Vonnegut (CAT'S CRADLE), and James Baldwin (NATIVE SON, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN, etc).
     Her mother read FIGHT CLUB, and even watched the movie with her, but still has a hard time understanding the significance. Her mother told her father, "You better read this book if you want to understand your daughter." Apparently Dad only got a few pages in, threw the book down, and said, "Why do you like this?"
     She's also worried about her grades, even though they're good. I think she's under a lot of pressure to constantly excel, and she's undoubtedly getting pressure about college and career choices. I told her there's so much more to life than high school. She said, "I know. I keep trying to remind myself of that. Even though people like my mom try to convince me that everything about high school is SO IMPORTANT, and will affect your whole life." (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist)
     Fight Girl says she's having a crappy year in general, and it seems to me that having found Palahniuk, she's clinging to his work like a life raft. Which is exactly how I felt about Anne Rice's books when I discovered them at age 17. Louis, the narrator of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, was absolutely real to me, even though I knew he was fictional. His voice spoke to me in a way that no one else's did, when I needed it most.
     That's why books are important. Especially fiction.
     Fight Girl told me that she was called up to the Counseling Office, because one of her teachers said it seemed like something was wrong. This was very irritating to Fight Girl, and she wanted to know which teacher said that. The counselors did not divulge this info, or Fight Girl might have gone all Tyler Durden on his/her ass. I get the impression she did NOT open up to the counselor about anything.
     I have my eye on Fight Girl, and I want her to know that I'm a sympathetic ear if she needs it. When I look at her it's like seeing a reflection of my own high school psyche. I'd be even more concerned if she didn't have Palahniuk, Vonnegut, and other nihilists on her side. Friendly voices saying, "Yeah, man, fuck ALL of this."
     If you've never carried a book around with you like a secret talisman, and re-read it over and over again, then you might not understand.
     Have you ever carried a book around with you everywhere like a secret talisman, and read it over and over again? Have you ever felt like a fictional character understood you better than anyone in real life?

     Yesterday I came up with some reading suggestions, one of them being GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn. I told Fight Girl I'd read that it's one of Palahniuk's own favorite novels. I got it off the shelf and handed it to her. She smiled and thanked me.
     A few minutes later she rejected it. I noticed her silently returning the book to its place on the shelf. She left without a glance or a word.
     I'd expect no less from a complicated, atypical deep thinker. It's not that easy.

BULLETIN BOARDS & DISPLAY : March Book Fair & Easter

This was my idea, with books on the Ferris Wheel, and books as roller coaster train. I just found a good simple carnival silhouette online, and replicated it with banner paper, prefab "books," copy paper, and a big black pen.

     We're having a Scholastic Book Fair the last week of March, so this month's bulletin board decor is a nauseating mix of carnival-y book fair imagery, Women's History (see previous post), and Easter & spring bunnies, etc.


     I did a Google image search for "carnival," and "fair," and found some nice & simple ideas. Primary colors, that circus-type font in Word, etc. We printed big fair ticket images on colored paper and cut them out, printed lettering on yellow paper, etc. SIMPLE. Because this is a busy month and shit's gotta get DONE.

This was my idea, too. Isn't it nice? Doesn't it tie the "fair" theme in nicely?


     And here's the circular glass display cabinet that some of my fellow library techs are jealous of. It is pretty cool. I don't know where it came from.

Countdown: "11 more days 'til the book fair!" (I update the number each morning)

     We got a cheap little round blackboard for less than $2 at Michael's for the countdown.

Various little bunny figurines and eggs donated by the previous Librarian who is still my friend, and by my mom. Who is also still my friend.

Tough to find rabbit or bunny books in a junior high/high school library. So we have the emotionally scarring Watership Down lurking at the bottom of the display, beneath cheerier titles like Peter Rabbit and Bunnicula.

Egg wheel from my mom. That ties Easter in with the fair theme! It's all cohesive. And before you say, "No, it's not! What about that Birding book?" let me interject that birds fit the spring part of our theme. COHESIVE.
Per reader request, here is the carnival ticket image, which I think I found online searching for free carnival/fair clip art:

BULLETIN BOARDS & DISPLAY : March is Women's History Month


     Did you know March is Women's History Month? Well, it is. So give it up for the lay-deees!
     I'd had a hard time finding a visually pleasing poster for it, so I was happy to obtain the one above from the "Diversity Store," HERE.


     The World War II woman above is from a free set of historical encyclopedia posters I picked up at some library conference. I cut the commercial stuff off and then my library volunteer aunt created that lovely lady-border around it using flowery stationery. Clever, yes?


     We used the nicest pictures from an old calendar of "Women Reading." "The Reading Woman?" Something like that. Then we added appropriate books to the display. Alcott's Little Women, A Break With Charity (Salem Witch Trials) by Ann Rinaldi, Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo, and Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky.
     Women's History ain't always pretty, you guys. Shit happens.

     And here's the image I use for a bibliographic bookmark I call "Sugar & Spikes," which features edgier books for edgy girls.
Here's the list of books, all of which are available in our school library:

 FICTION

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Watcha Gonna Do? by Cynthia Voigt
Blister by Susan Shreve
Blue Is For Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Born Blue by Han Nolan
Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci
Changeling by Yasmine Galenorn
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Dark Secrets: Legacy of Lies by Elizabeth Chandler
Define “Normal” by Julie Anne Peters
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Goat Girls by Francesca Lia Block
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger
Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert
Lucy the Giant by Sherri L. Smith
Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Poison by Chris Wooding
Stoner & Spaz by Ron Koertge
Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Threshold by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Tithe: a Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

NON-FICTION

33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History… edited by Tonya Bolden
Girls: a History of Growing Up Female In America by Penny Colman
Gutsy Girls: Young Women Who Dare by Tina Schwager
Patently Female: Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas by Vare and Ptacek
Picture the Girl: Young Women Speak Their Minds by Audrey Shehyn

 (added after original post:)
     There's also this, which we put on the smaller bulletin board behind the counter--

      Years ago the Librarian and I made these "framed" pics of famous women, just by printing nice pictures out in black & white, and putting a backing frame of black construction paper, then creating labels that say who the women are, and what they're famous for. So we have Jane Goodall, Rosa Parks, and Abigail Adams. It's probably time I added some more ladies to this little gallery.

BULLETIN BOARDS & DISPLAY : January

"Fight the CHILL with some steeeamy ROMANCE!"

     January is always tricky when it comes to decorating in the 'brary. You come back from Winter Break and there's that damn Christmas tree and all the garland and snowmen and elves and shit, staring you in the face like an un-flushed toilet.
     Luckily I can leave anything that is just wintery and not necessarily Christmasy. So I left up the snowy background paper on the big bulletin board, and the Narnia poster, and just had to figure out something to go on the left side to replace Santa.
     I finally came up with the slogan, "Fight the CHILL with some steeeamy ROMANCE!" which is very unlike me because that's my least-favorite genre. But it's been FREEZING in the library the last couple of days, so I've been thinking about COLD and CHILLS.
     I printed out some romance book covers, including David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing, plus a gay girl book by Julie Ann Peters, and several hetero romances. I always try to represent everyone.
     I cut the flames out of big sheets of red construction paper. Simple.
   

     But every time I look at it, in my head I change it to, "Fight the chill with some stiiiiinky romance!" and then I get the crazy giggles.

Display cabinet dedicated to "Year of the Horse"
     January 31st is Chinese New Year, and 2014 is the Year of the Horse. So my mom (trusty library volunteer) and I put together a display of horse books in the circular display cabinet. She half-jokingly said I could bring in some ponies from my personal collection, and I was like, "I will TOTALLY do that!!!" I have a shitload of My Little Ponies, but also other types. The crazier the better. (She has asked me in the past if I can ever have too many ponies, and I have said no.)

Close-up of top shelf of Year of the Horse cabinet.

     I grabbed a book on Chinese Astrology, and found a listing of traits attributed to people born in the Year of the Horse, and those are the words you see on the red-backed cards placed randomly on the glass shelves betwixt various horses & ponies. Calm, independent, cheerful, sociable, curious, popular, generous, confident, amusing, talented, etc.

That big horse is from the Bratz toy line. It has glittery hooves.
The purple pony in front is a special edition My Little Pony designed by artist Junko Mizuno.
     I ended up using an assortment of my more tasteful ponies, for the most part. For example, I refrained from including Strawberry Shortcake's scented horse, "Honey Pie." And I did not include She-Ra's transparent blue winged horse, "Crystal Moonbeam." 

Back of the Year of the Horse display cabinet.

This one is from the "Bratz Babyz Ponyz" line. It looks pretty snarky.


     We have these two big black frames I use as bulletin boards, one on each side of the library. It helps break up the monotony of blank white institutional walls. Anyway, we slapped a Chinese New Year poster up on one, which you see above. 
     Below is the one my mom assembled with online images she found, plus a great Year of the Horse quote. And some intricate Chinese paper cuts we found in a fancy book. It was donated years ago, and I never knew what to do with it because if I allowed students to borrow it, the delicate paper-cut things would have been ruined. So Mom carefully extracted them from the book, and now they can be enjoyed as decor!


     So that was January's decorating frenzy. Now it's back to shelving, mending, generating library and textbook fine notices, and doing inventory. GET BACK TO WORK!

BULLETIN BOARDS & DISPLAY : Banned Books Week 2013!

     This post is quite tardy. The library has been very busy. But better late than never, right? Banned Books Week 2013 was September 22-28. I had the library all decorated to support intellectual freedom, and I did presentations about censorship and intellectual freedom for 6 eighth grade English classes. They were all very attentive and polite, and had great questions and participation. Their teacher had them all check out books that had been either banned or challenged, which made for some interesting research coming up with about 200 titles that fit the bill and were currently available in our library.
     She gave them an assignment to read their challenged/banned book and take a stance on whether they agreed or not with the book being challenged or banned, and why. Of course she leaned heavily toward influencing them on the side of intellectual freedom.
     I really liked how the teacher made it very clear in her paperwork for the students that banning a book means removing it from an entire community so that NO ONE has access to it.
     I felt it was totally worth the effort on her part and my part. I loved that the teacher wanted to do such a thorough exploration of a subject that's near and dear to my heart. It gave me the opportunity to talk about my own personal experience with censorship. It's great to see teachers who recognize how important it is to teach kids about the issue, and make sure they understand all the complexities of it. It's not simple or easy.
     I ended up having some great conversations with students regarding the reasons (so-called and real) why some people try to ban certain books. Sometimes it was difficult to find the info, which was also a nice research challenge. ;)
     Here are some pics of what I put up in the library for Banned Books Week, 2013.
   

There's that comic I drew a billion years ago when I worked in the junior high library...
Detail of the "Library Key"



I like this poster.


I like this poster, too. Those robots are cute AND open-minded.
     "Think for Yourself and Let Others Do the Same" poster available from ALA HERE.

BULLETIN BOARDS & DISPLAY : Halloween 2013

Vintage Halloween tablecloth used as bulletin board covering.

     My Aunt Wanda gave me this rad bag full of vintage Halloween decorations. We figure they're from the 1950s, or maybe even the '40s. Some of the stuff was never even opened! Anthony and I put some of it up at home, and the rest I took to the library. My mom helped me put everything up, which was totally fun. Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Aunt Wanda!

Vintage scarecrow as centerpiece of the big bulletin board. (I made the reading tarantula years ago when I worked in the Children's Room of the Santa Ana Public Library.)

     I'm actually ashamed of that half-hearted "WEAVE ME ALONE, I'M READING" slogan. I was in a hurry to come up with something reading-related and also spooky or whatever, and kids were due to come flooding into the library any minute.

Luckily for me there were TWO of these vintage flying saucer witches, so one is at home hovering over our dining table, and the other is coasting across the library whiteboard. She's bitchin'.

     Then this crepe paper honeycomb spider happened!

"Kiss my fat black ass!"

     Rubberhead the Skeleton Man hangs out in the library every year. He's surrounded by potions, ravens, a vintage black cat crepe paper thingie, and horror stories.



Vintage crepe paper honeycomb bats, clip art collage stuff, and spoooooky books! Plus my extended bibliography of horror reading recommendations printed on orange paper.

There's that witch, some skull lights, and that sassy black spider...

Vintage Halloween tablecloth, vintage crepe paper spider, Maurice Sendak calendar, Chris Van Allsburg glowing pumpkin print from "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick," and Alice In Wonderland Halloween scrapbook paper.

I drew that lil' skeleton years ago, and he really needs some new material because he says "The horror… the horror…" every damn year.

    In the picture above, see those two vintage orange and black plastic Halloween decorations? My Librarian gave those to me before she retired. I love them. Thanks, Marilyn!

The End!