Playlists For Young Adult Novels

We are knee deep in "Read To The Rhythm" our music and rhythm themed Summer Reading Club theme. And though here in California the school year begins in the middle of summer, I'm going to ride the summer wave all the way into September, when it remains hot as hell with only the distant cool breezes of Halloween at night to remind us that we do indeed have an autumn around here.

This year's Summer Reading Club theme is the jackpot for this Mama (that's me in the third person, as I'm due with the second kid any moment now).  It combines my love of discovering new tunes with my love of young adult literature.

And I discovered my favorite way to combine my love of both is to create (and beg my teen patrons to join me in creating) music playlists inspired by young adult novels! You can take your playlists in any direction you like.

I chose to create Ipod inspired playlists like these. But you could use simple clip art of boomboxes or paste a list with the book image onto a CD painted black (to resemble an old school lp) or print song/artist titles onto music notes, cut them out and paste them onto the books themselves.

Point is, you've got options.







What's the appeal for our contingent of Reluctant YA Librarians, you ask? On the face of it, this requires way too much initiate and effort. True. BUT. Apparently I'm not alone in my love for book-inspired playlists because there are a bevy of Young Adult Authors who have created and posted their own playlists comprised of songs that inspired them while they were writing their novels.

Samples of author-created playlists 

AUTHOR-CREATED PLAYLISTS

Book Riot's (always a great, underappreciated resource) February, 2015 list of some pretty hot authors and links to their playlists.

Francesca Lia Block created a soundtrack for her groundbreaking Weetzie Bat.

Kirstin Conn-Mills created a playlist for her music-themed book "Beautiful Music For Ugly Children" on playlist.net, a site that's all about creating personal playlists.

Over at "The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club" (I'm still trying to digest the name of the site) they have the motherlode of author-created playlists.

And over at epicreads.com they have kindly culled all the music references from Michelle Falkoff's 2015 novel "Playlist For The Dead".

Celebrating Gay Pride With Teens In the Library

In Los Angeles Gay Pride Month is in June. It's also the first month of most library Summer Reading Clubs (or as we here now call it "Summer Fun" so as to not alienate the not-so-gungho-readers from the other fun stuff happening in the branches) which makes it the perfect time to introduce an LGBTQ-themed craft or program for teens.

And what better way to do it than with RAINBOWS!

The Rainbow Flag has become synonymous with gay pride, diversity and equality for everyone. Aren't you glad such a universal symbol of smiles and happiness was usurped when it came time to plan LGBTQ-themed programming?

When I couldn't find a flyer or online resource I liked, I created a Rainbow Flag flyer that describes the history of the flag and the meaning of the colors using age-appropriate language. It looks exactly like this:

Now came the easy part. RAINBOW PROGRAMMING!

You don't need me to tell you about all the fun things you can do with rainbows. But in the event you adore me and am curious about some of the things I'm contemplating, check out my LGBTQ Teen Programming board on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/hillaryesta/lgbtq-kid-teen-programming/

More to come on some of the fun stuff I've got in mind to celebrate Gay Pride!

Read to the Rhythm: 2015 Summer Reading Club

It's not even 2015 yet but my head wants to get in the Summer-Reading-Club game. Perhaps because the theme gets to me and my love of music. Or maybe because of the infinite possibilities swimming in my brain when it comes to marrying books and music, or music and the library.

One thing that always gets me come summer reading club programming is just how divorced programs are from actual books or other sundry library items. With the exception of displaying a few books related to a program, we really don't marry the two often despite being the library.

So I'm thinking of creating book-specific inspired programming that will allow me to book-talk a music themed book and present a craft inspired by that book.

Let me begin with what so many great things begin with. A Booklist.

ROCK ON READING!
MUSIC THEMED YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

MUSIC LOVERS

Audrey Wait!, Robin Benway

Ballads of Suburbia, Stephanie Keuhnert

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Kristin Cohn-Mills

Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

Fat Kids Rule the World, K.L. Going

For What It’s Worth, Janet Tashjian

Girl, Blake Nelson

Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno

Heavy Metal and You, Christopher Krovatin

How to Rock, Meg Haston

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Stephanie Keuhnert

Just Listen, Sarah Dessen

King Dork, Frank Portman

Lovestruck Summer, Melissa Walker

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Notes From the Blender, Trish Cook

Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chblosky

Supergirl Mixtapes, Meaghan Brothers

When We Were Good, Suzanne Sutherland

BEING A MUSICIAN

Audition and Subtraction, Amy Fellner Dominy (clarinet)

Always A Catch, Peter Richmond (piano)

Being Friends With Boys, Terra Elan McVoy (singing)

Chopsticks, Jessica Anthony (piano)

Disenchantments, Nina LaCour (rock band)

Drummer Girl, Karen Bass (drummer)

Glee series, Sophia Lowell (singing)

Guitar Notes, Mary Amato (guitar, cello)

Honeycomb, Patricia McCowan (guitar)

I’m Glad I Did, Cynthia Weil (songwriter)

If I Stay and Where She Went, Gayle Forman (cello)

In The Band, Jean Haus (drummer)

Lemonade Mouth, Mark Peter Hughes (rock band)

The Lucy Variations, Sara Zarr (piano)

Matthew Meets The Man, Travis Nichols (drummer)

My Misadventures as a Teenage Rock Star, Joyce Raskin (rock band)

No Place to Fall, Jaye Robin Brown (singing)

Paradise, Jill Alexander (drummer)

Power Chord, Ted Staunton (rock band)

Prom and Prejudice, Elizabeth Eulberg (piano)

Rockstar Superstar, Blake Nelson (bass)

The Scar Boys, Len Vlahos (rock band)

Screaming Divas, Suzanne Kamata (rock band)

Second Fiddle, Rosanne Parry (fiddle)

Sister Mischief, L. Goode (rap)

Skinny, Donna Cooner (singing)

Ten Miles Past Normal, Frances O’Roark Dowell (rock band)

This Song Will Save Your Life, Leila Sales (DJing)

Virtuosity, Jessica Martinez (violin)

Wise Young Fool, Sean Beaudoin (rock band)

BEING A STAR

Amplified, Tara Kelly

Big Time, Tom Ryan

Born to Rock, Gordon Korman

The Daughters Take The Stage, Joanna Philbin

Rockoholic, C.J. Skuse

On The Right Track, Sam Kadence

Open Road Summer, Emery Lord

Pop, Catherine Bruton

Pop Princess, Rachel Cohn

Rock Star, Adrian Chamberlain

Sound of Us, Ashley Poston

Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker

FANTASY

Awoken, Timothy Miller

The Girl Who Became A Beatle, Greg Taylor

Chantress series, Amy Butler Greenfield

Seraphina, Rachel Hartman

Strange Sweet Song, Adi Rule