Statewide My Favorite Book Contest

One of the new elements to the statewide Summer Reading Program this year is the My Favorite Book Contest. To participate, young readers come to the library and have their pictures taken with their favorite books. The contest is still ongoing and will be until SRP official ends. But several photos have already been sent in and uploaded. You gotta check these out, some of them are so creative, so adorable. Many brought in their own props and even dressed up as the character from the books they brought. I don't know about you all, but I'm anxiously awaiting additional photos, not to mention the announcement of the winner. However, with the risk of sounding cliche, regardless of who the winner is I just think this is a wonderful creative way for children/teens to get excited about books and express their tastes in reading.

Display idea from the Bartlesville Public Library

This past fall a devoted patron, Elizabeth Massey Overlees, passed away and left our library a sum of money to purchase books and magazines with. To honor her memory we wanted to make sure that we purchased items we knew she would like to read herself. The books have started to arrive and earlier this month we decided to display some of those titles. In order to create a complete display of all the book items that were purchased with Mrs. Overlees' money, our creative staff came up with a brilliant idea. Book covers for the Overlees collection were enlarged, printed in color, laminated then laid on the display unit. If a book had arrived and was in the collection, then it was placed on top of the picture, similar to what you would see at Blockbuster or some other movie rental store. The final result was a very eye-catching. It kind of makes me want to see all displays in libraries done like this. Not that I want to seem lazy or anything, but it would be a lot less upkeep when it comes to keeping displays full throughout the entire month.

Another reason for Harry Potter to be challenged

Found this via BoingBoing

The WaPo is reporting on a statement of JK Rowlings regarding a primary character in the series.

J.K. Rowling has outed one of the main characters of her best-selling Harry Potter series, telling fans in New York that the wizard Albus Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts school, is gay.

Speaking at Carnegie Hall on Friday night in her first U.S. tour in seven years, Rowling confirmed what some fans had always suspected -- that she "always thought Dumbledore was gay," reported entertainment Web site E! Online.
Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was "terribly let down" and went on to destroy his rival.

That love, she said, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy."

"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she said.

The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission -- then erupted into applause.

1st book eligiblity

Adrienne shares how you can be eligible for the 1st book winnings

Dear Librarian,

Congratulations to everyone who helped Oklahoma win the national First Book contest. As a result of our efforts, the state will receive 50,000 new books to give to children at-risk for low literacy.

The First Book contest tallied more than 133,000 votes. More than 34,000 of those votes selected Oklahoma as the state to receive the windfall of books.

This contest provided a wonderful demonstration of what can happen when many organizations join together to share the gift of reading.

The big book giveaway is tentatively scheduled for September 20 in Oklahoma City.

Many of you have been curious about how the books will get into the hands of children. Eligible organizations throughout the state may apply to receive a portion of the books for giveaway to young readers. Eligibility requirements are:

* programs that predominantly serve children from low-income families; and,

* programs that do not discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, or physical or mental disability.

Is your library eligible? Perhaps. Your library may be located in an area that predominantly serves low-income children, or you may have an early literacy program targeting these youngsters, or you may be aware of organizations in your community that would be eligible. First Book will make the determination of eligibility as well as the quantity of books to be distributed to qualifying organizations.

To be considered for participation, organizations must register at http://register.firstbook.org

The next step will be to fill out an application in order to receive free books. Very soon, First Book will be forwarding a link to this application form to those who are registered. So, if you are interested, please register as soon as possible.

Once the online application process begins, selection of free book recipients will be made on a first come, first served basis.

Organizations approved to participate will need to have someone attend the Oklahoma City event on September 20 in order to pick up their free books.

Congratulations, again. We did it! I am so proud to be State Librarian of Oklahoma—where there has been this tremendous outpouring of support for children and literacy.

Sincerely,

Susan McVey, Director
Oklahoma Department of Libraries

Red Dirt Book Festival Registration Open

Registration for the Red Dirt Book Festival is now open!

The third, biennial Red Dirt Book Festival, an official Oklahoma Centennial event, will be November 2 and 3, 2007 in Shawnee, Okla. at the Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center. The mission of the Red Dirt Book Festival is to celebrate the art and craft of writing through an event that brings together Oklahoma readers, writers, illustrators, publishers, storytellers, scholars and performers.

“READ, WRITE, TALK,” continue to be the festival’s thematic strands. “Oklahoma Character,” is the unifying focus for the 2007 festival. The festival’s goal is to identify what is unique about Oklahoma character as reflected in our literature. This may include the unique character of our history, our landscape, our lifestyle and our Oklahoma “characters.” Through a series of lectures, panel presentations, and group discussions, participants focus their attention on thematic questions. Other festival attractions are a banquet and luncheons, book signings, exhibits, storytelling and performances....

Disclosure --
My coworker, Kevin, and I are the 2 person web team behind Red Dirt. We are using Joomla (which is the CMS we are going to do to redesign our work website this coming year). We've already tested some features on the Big Read and learned a lot about the software and users -- so the more folks who use the online functionality of Red Dirt the more Kevin and I get to see how the CMS holds up. So be sure to shoot any design/function commentary my way! :)

First Book | What book got you hooked

Chris J (an Okie in Texas) sends this Library Story

Interesting contest from FirstBook - slickly done from the technology side, brings in their staff to personalize the organization, has celebrity support (think getting your mayor or council people to do this), and leads to a good cause with 50,000 books geting delivered to the state that has the most votes. Where does your state rank? Check here

At this moment Oklahoma is #4 come on folks!

Vampires in your Okie library?

I heart technorati searches -- you find some of the funniest things. For instance I would have never found out about the book below or read the review had it not been for one of my canned searches (Oklahoma and libraries -- not anything about vampires). And although I can't find Broken Heart Oklahoma on the map (perhaps in the woody areas between Broken Arrow and Broken Bow?) I did find it online.

Don't talk back to your vampire (amazon info)

Review by Romance Divas: When I first heard the title, Don’t Talk Back to Your Vampire, I knew I had to read this book, to do the review for it. And Michelle Bardsley did not disappoint me either. Funny and original, I would call this Dark Shadows meets comedic sitcom, with a dash of Dresden Files. You have the vampire hero; you have the vampire mother who even has the typical worries of mothers all over and the hots for said vampire hero, there’s the teenage daughter who still is human, plus loads of interesting secondary characters.

Broken Heart, Oklahoma was a normal town with PTA meetings and all the regular, mundane life, until a supernatural creature came in and killed eleven single parents Not long after the Vampire Consortium came in and turned them all into vampires, then bought out the town basically to make it a place for paranormal beings. One of these turned vampires is Eva LeRoy, town librarian and single mother to a teenage girl whom sometimes seems to dress Gothy and even becomes interested kin a teenage boy who also happens to be a vampire hunter. And being undead apparently doesn’t take away problems, it just makes solving them from a new perspective. Eva is also interested in Lorcan O’Halloran, a four-thousand-year-old vampire and professed druid who happens to be the one who killed her. But the ways of love are never easy as Eve learns. Mix that with rival vamps and werewolves, add a dash of a guilty Lorcan and it isn’t easy for Eve to get her man, er, vamp.

As some say -- who'da a thunk it?

The Independent | Tolkien Jr completes Lord of Rings

The Independent | Tolkien Jr completes Lord of Rings

The first new Tolkien novel for 30 years is to be published next month. In a move eagerly anticipated by millions of fans across the world, The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, 89 years after the author started the work and four years after the final cinematic instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of biggest box office successes in history.

The book, whose contents are being jealously guarded by publisher HarperCollins - is described as "an epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism."

It is likely to be a publishing sensation, particularly as it is illustrated by veteran Middle Earth artist Alan Lee, who won an Oscar for art direction on Peter Jackson's third film The Return of The King. Lee provided 25 pencil sketches and eight paintings for the first edition of the book, one of which is reproduced here for the first time in a national newspaper.

Tolkien experts are already tipping The Children of Húrin - which features significant battle scenes and at least one major twist - for big budget Hollywood treatment. Takings from the Lord of the Rings trilogy box office takings to date total some £1.5bn.

Chris Crawshaw, chairman of the Tolkien Society, said: "It would probably make a very good movie, if anyone can secure the film rights.

"Tolkien saw his work as one long history of Middle Earth: from the beginning of creation to the end of the Third Age. The Children of Húrin is an early chapter in that bigger story."

The author's son Christopher, using his late father's voluminous notes, has painstakingly completed the book, left unfinished by the author when he died in 1971. The work has taken the best part of three decades, and will signify the first "new" Tolkien book since The Silmarillion was published posthumously in 1977....

Oklahoma Reads | Fire in Beulah

From the Reading Oklahoma blog:

Readers Select Fire in Beulah as the 2007 Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma Book

Find out more about the 2007 title. Visit author Rilla Askew's website.

As modern day Oklahoma confronts the tragedy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, a native daughter lends her voice. Rilla Askew’s novel is the story of Althea Whiteside, an oil wildcatter’s high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic black maid, Graceful. They share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush. Their juxtaposing stories unfold as tensions mount to a violent climax...

Tulsa Librarian/Reviewer gets blogged

For a few months now, I've been reviewing fantasy and horror novels for Library Journal. Some titles include World War Z, The Terror, Un Lun Dun and The Good Fairies of New York.

I just received word that one of my more recent reviews, of Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, was quoted in LJ's staff blog, "In the Bookroom".

For those who don't know, Joe Hill is a pen name for Joseph Hillstrom King, son of Stephen. His first published work, the story collection 20th Century Ghosts, won the Bram Stoker Award for Fiction Collection. His novella "Best New Horror" also won in the Long Fiction category, beating out his father's "The Things They Left Behind".