Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

Warning: this post may ramble and will probably not make much sense.

Rewind to Monday morning. I headed to the convention center to hear the Youth Media Award announcements. You may notice that I did not post a thing about them. First of all, many, many folks did and better than I ever could. More importantly, the awards began at 8AM and ended about 9. My flight was at 11:25. So, I sat near the door and flew out of the convention center as soon as the final announcement was made. I called the hub, who was standing by at the hotel while stuffing my iPad into my backpack. Once we got to the airport, I had a bit of time, but discovered that I couldn't figure out how to blog in Blogger on my iPad. Maybe I need to install an app or something. It just didn't work. 

So I read. 

My reading definitely suffered between Thursday and Monday. It's a good thing I got a few books ahead in my book-a-day because I was just too busy and beat to read. I did make up for it a bit on the plane. I decided to risk airsickness and didn't take Dramamine, which zonks me right out and was able to read two books and start a third on the flight. 

The fallout.

It didn't take long. Within the hour, folks were posting critical comments about the what was chosen as winners and honors, specifically, the Printz. The winner was quite a surprise. I didn't know the book, and got the distinct feeling that many in the audience didn't either because there was a pause/ gasp before the applause. Personally, I find hearing about "out of the blue winners" utterly delightful. I am sorry to admit that I hadn't even heard of the winner, In Darkness or an honor, The White Bicycle before Monday morning. But let me add that I can't wait to read them. (I need to read the Printz books because I work at a middle school.)

Everyone's entitled to an opinion. If you don't want to buy the winners that is fine. Money and shelf space are not unlimited. I wish those folks would've taken the time to read reviews, if not the actual book before making the comments. A passionate but ill-advised response was made and blam-mo, the posts flew, then devolved into a thread called, "books we hate."

Sigh.

Most times, I am so thrilled to say that I am a librarian. I wake up each morning looking forward to going to work. I love my kids. I adore my teacher colleagues at my school. My job is the best. I have a nice budget. My program gets support. I have kids who like to read. I attend as much professional development as possible and, for the most part, think that my colleagues in other schools and public libraries are smart and savvy. There are the occasional head-desk moments though and I've had a few since Monday.