LitMinds Blog and Interviews

Elizabeth Bird is the self-described “Finest Flower of the Children’s Librarians.”  We took a look at her blog, A Fuse #8 Production, her work at the Children’s Room of the New York Public Library, and her reading recommendations, and we wholeheartedly agree.  Elizabeth’s ideas on the best new and classic children’s books, getting kids to read, and what character she most identifies with inspired us to revisit our reading lists and rethink our ideas about children’s literature.  

Elizabeth has been featured on NPR and served on the committee that awards the prestigious Newbery Medal.  In her own words, “Children’s literature is not for the weak. (…) Children’s librarianship, in contrast, is a sweet sweet ride.”  In this interview, we invited her to tell us more about that ride.


1. You express a lot of enthusiasm for your work as a librarian specializing in children’s books.  Tell us a bit more about your job, and what a day in your shoes entails.  What might surprise us about your work in children’s librarianship?

Well, first and foremost I am not in a typical children’s librarian situation.  When I first began with the New York Public Library system, I was a librarian working in a branch in Greenwich Village.  Now I work in NYPL’s Central Children’s Room alongside four magnificently talented and enthusiastic children’s librarians.  My days are spent divvying up Reference Desk time with my co-workers.  Then there are Preschool and Toddler Storytimes to hold.  We have continual classes from local schools to daycares coming in for programs, visits, and presentations.  And then, of course, we have to wrangle the performers, keep the enormous children’s room in order (with the help of our Pages who are, each and every one, candidates for sainthood), and give good reference information to every tourist, parent, teacher, and editor that walks in the door.
 
What might people be surprised to hear about my work?  Well you might not know that because my library is situated in Midtown Manhattan we get a wonderful and steady stream of authors and illustrators in our doors.  Sometimes they just want to say hi.  Sometimes they want to look at our extensive collection of older children’s material.  And sometimes they want to take a look at our N.C. Wyeth paintings or our most famous resident, Winnie the Pooh.  We also get a lot of graduate students doing research on children’s literature as well.
 

2. In your work as a children’s librarian, you must provide services to a lot of families and their children.  Based on your experiences, what are important elements in encouraging children’s interest in reading at a young age?  What are your childhood memories from going to the library and reading?  How do these memories compare and contrast with what children experience now as readers?

I once was working the Reference Desk when a father came in lugging his very reluctant ten-year-old son by the arm.  It was the dad’s clear intention that his son should be reading “good” literature.  In this particular case, he wanted the boy to sit and read a couple chapters of Treasure Island.  The kid for his part was a reluctant reader to begin with and as charming as R.L. Stevenson is, you do NOT want to use him to convince your kids that “reading can be fun!”
 
The most important thing we like to stress when it comes to reading is to start your kids in on it as early as possible.  Read to them.  Read to them from day one.  Even when they’re a drooly little baby who’d rather chew on a book than look in one, read them that book.  You want them to associate reading with good things, like spending time with someone who loves them, right from the start.
 
None of that is to say that you can’t get older kids interested in reading too.  It just takes a different method of persuasion.  Parents may sigh and moan over the out-and-out silliness of Captain Underpants but you will find few books out there more adept at getting kids hepped up about reading.  The Captain can be a librarian’s greatest ally.  Then, once the kids (and honestly, teenagers get a kick out of Underpants too) are comfortable with that, then you sloooowly transition them into other kinds of books.  Captain Underpants to Time Warp Trio.  Time Warp Trio to The Spiderwick Chronicles.  The Spiderwick Chronicles to The Lightning Thief.  And so on.
 
It’s funny that I grew up to become a children’s librarian, doling out this kind of advice.  I mean, if you were to ask me to conjure up the face of a single librarian from my youth (school, public, etc.), I couldn’t do it.  Librarians scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid.  But I loved the library.  I loved surfing the stacks and finding things on my own.
 
Looking at libraries then and now, computers are the most obvious change that’s taken place since my childhood, but they’re not the only one.  Librarians today are more active than ever.  Public and school librarians are teaming up to get kids involved in summer reading.  They’re putting on programs, taking courses in early childhood development, and taking a real active interest in getting every child they meet a library card of their very own.  When I was a kid the librarians were there, but you could go your whole childhood without speaking to them.  Nowadays, I wonder how often that’s still the case.


3. Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Captain Underpants…these characters have been popular in children’s literature for several years now.  Who are the new and upcoming authors, books, and characters?  Who might we look out for but have yet to discover?

Ooh!  Good question.  Well, two series immediately come to mind.  Their fan bases are already established, but I suspect that we’re going to see a lot more attention paid very soon to The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley and the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan.  In terms of national appeal, these series are going places.  And what with the upcoming Spiderwick Chronicles coming out in cinematic form (with the books written by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi) that series is sure to catch on like wildfire soon enough.
 
I’ve other favorites as well, though.  The Kiki Strike books by Kirsten Miller are the best girl spy middle grade series titles you’ll find.  The Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor is my favorite fantasy title of the year.  In a perfect world this book would get a LOT more attention.  And keep a close eye on author Laura Amy Schlitz.  Her A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama, which came out last year, is magnificent.  And now she’s come out with a book entitled Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village that is without compare in terms of information on Medieval English daily life.


4. You have served on the selection committee for the Newbery Medal, which is awarded to the most distinguished American children’s book published in the past year.  What criteria are used in determining the finalists and winner?  How does such a well-known distinction impact the world of children’s literature?

Ah.  Well, the Newbery Medal goes to (and here I quote), “the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year.”  You can actually find the terms and criteria on the American Library Association’s website, if need be. Each year fourteen committee members (and one chair) sit down at the Mid-Winter ALA Conference and hash out who wins what.  They talk about everything imaginable.  How well each book fulfills its purpose.  The quality of the writing.  The author’s skill with words.  And the committee does NOT consider whether the author has won before or if the pictures are pretty.  This is all about the book in hand and its writing.
 
The Newbery is undoubtedly the highest honor an American children’s written work can receive.  In terms of sales, media attention, and historical importance, the Newbery is the top of the top.


5. On your kidlit blog, A Fuse #8 Production, you write a daily review of a children’s book.  This means you are reading a lot of children’s literature, even if some children’s books are pretty fast reading.  What do you find to be distinctly appealing and enjoyable about children’s literature?  What are your other reading interests and habits?

Well, first off I’ve been increasingly lazy about the whole “daily review” aspect of the blog.  But I am reading a lot of children’s books, it’s true.  Don’t let the myth that they’re “fast reading” get to you, though.  With the rise of the 800-page fantasy novel, it sometimes takes a lot longer to finish a book intended for a 12-year-old than it would for someone over the age of forty.
 
I do love the literature, though.  I love watching the different trends emerge from seemingly disparate sources.  Last year I found two different British authors who, while wholly unrelated to one another, both included sentient cheese in their narratives.  At least five books had kids getting their arms or digits torn to shreds in everything from looms and meat grinders to manglers and machines.  But what keeps me coming back to children’s literature is the capacity to surprise.  I always find something of interest, even if that something is just how deadly deathly dull the book is.
 
My other interests lie partly in my own writing.  I do a bit of it here and there.  My husband is also getting his screenwriting degree from Columbia University so we get to see a lot of good films here in New York.  Sadly, I haven’t had much time to spend reading adult novels lately, though I am enjoying Middlesex before bedtime.


6. What are classic children’s books that every library should have?

With the clear understanding that I don’t consider this a complete list, you should at the very least own the following five.  Here’s my top five consisting of 2 fiction, 1 non-fiction, 1 picture book, and 1 poetry title:

    * The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett - Quite possibly the world’s most perfect children’s novel. It has an unlikable heroine, a mystery, and hints at ghostly hauntings that never come to pass.  
    * Holes by Louis Sacher - When people ask what the best children’s book written in the past twenty years is, nine times out of ten the answer is Holes.  A modern day classic in every sense of the word.
    * Lincoln, A Photobiography by Russell Freedman - It seems a bit unfair to select a non-fiction title that was also a Newbery winner, but Freedman’s book is great.
    * Seasons by Charlotte Zolotow - I personally feel that this is a too often overlooked collection.  Zolotow has a talent for the small subtle moment.
    * Bark, George by Jules Feiffer - If you haven’t added this book to your regular read aloud storytimes, you are missing out.  Feiffer has written a book that works with all ages.


7. Suddenly, you find yourself living the life of a character in a children’s book.  Who are you and why?

This is what we call in the business, “the tough question.”  And I’m going to go with an answer that is simultaneously really nerdy and really weird.  You ready?  I am Tonks from the Harry Potter books.  Now, why would I say that?  Well, think of all the women in their 20s that appear in children’s literature.  Think long and hard.  You either end up a Betsy from the Betsy-Tacy books, an Anne from L.M. Montgomery’s series, or you tip too far on the other end of the spectrum and end up a villain.  You might point out that I don’t have to be a twenty-something-year-old white girl in this question, but I like sticking with what I know.  Plus Tonks has much to recommend herself.  She’s just as clumsy as I am but with the ability to grow a pig snout at a moment’s notice.  The final nail in the coffin?  Her name is “Tonks.”  I think that seals the deal right there.

You can view Elizabeth's LitMinds profile here and discuss the interview here.