The Clueless Librarian

A librarian’s dream resource … it is for me, at least. I can see myself really taking advantage of the extra resources Anita Silvey includes in the daily posts.

The Children’ s Book-a-Day Almanac is a daily love letter to a book or author. Here you will find events, trivia, and celebrations for every day of the year, as well as a featured children’ s book to explore in more depth. Children’s book expert Anita Silvey discusses what each book is about and who each book is for, and she’ll also walk you behind the scenes to tell some of the backstories of how our classics came to be. While the Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac includes books for toddlers to teens, it’s also organized by age, genre, and theme so that you can find recommendations for the young readers in your life.

I accidentally posted this to my other tumblr site but it’s much more appropriate here.

… have bookstores been a must-stop on my overseas travels?

I’m a seasoned traveler to Japan because I was born there, I’ve made numerous trips there, and I lived there after college for close to a year. And since I enjoy reading manga, I spend a lot of time in bookstores during my trips there. But, for some reason, I didn’t consider bookstores a tourist destination until recently.

When I went to Argentina in 2006 I was determined to visit El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, since the store is set up in an old theater. It’s funky!

My Paris trip itinerary (summer of 2009) had many-a bookstore listed (albeit English-language bookstores) but I only managed to get to two: Shakespeare and Company (which was closed) and W.H. Smith (because I was looking for the British version of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book). (Actually, I did browse the kids’ book section at Le Bon Marche and bought some French books for my kids.)

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal this summer for our 10th anniversary and I was happy to stumble upon this site: Bookstore Guide. They profile various bookstores around Europe and there are three for Portugal (one in Porto and two in Lisbon). Can’t wait to check them out!

[via a comment on Bookstore Guide]

[via the Guardian’s Books Blog]

Until the official site is updated …

[via Heavy Medal: a Mock Newbery Blog]

Written by my predecessor for one of her classes at SJSU :: she is very much a knowledgeable librarian, on her way to become a professionally trained librarian.