#children in library

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Two young readers in the Seward Park Public Library on the Lower East Side, ca. 1925.

Photo: NYPL

[elodieunderglass]

hi. what do you mean

[booksinmythorax]

My dear friends: When a librarian or teacher says "Audiobooks count as reading", we do not literally mean that audiobooks are the same as decoding visual meaning via symbols representing sounds. We mean, among other things:

Audiobooks can expose listeners to new vocabulary and forms of syntax.

Audiobooks can present listeners with long-form fictional narratives with engaging characters, interesting literary devices, and poetic turns of phrase.

Audiobooks can teach listeners new information in a long-form manner that goes into depth or wide breadth on a particular subject or subjects.

Audiobooks can help listeners' verbal comprehension skills.

Audiobooks can do all these things without presenting the same difficulties to blind, low vision, partially sighted, visually impaired, or dyslexic listeners; listeners with ADHD; listeners who experience physical difficulty with holding a book or e-reader; or listeners who are disabled in a host of other ways that a physical book or e-reader might present.

The written word is not specially imbued with magical noble worth above the spoken word, and if you think it is, you may have some ableism and/or racism to deconstruct.

[thehmn]

I just visited a library for the first time in, I dunno, seven years and oh my god the childhood memories.

If at all possible take the children in your life to a library once a month if not more. It will give them such a special view of the world. I felt so calm walking around, smelling the old books and looking at the people. Young students, immigrants studying up on their tests, old people chatting, women in their 30’s hunkering down with books on sewing. It probably also helped that this library is an extension to the social services building so you literally get people from all walks of life who need to register stuff or renew their passports and whatnot.

As an adult I’ve realized I grew up pretty poor and the library must have been a lifesaver for my parents. Our mom is a bookworm and would take us there regularly and while she looked for novels in the boring adult part of the library my brother and I dug through the children’s library where we could get comics, movies and games. And it was the one place we could get anything we wanted because it was all free. Now as an adult I realized it also accustomed me to all sorts of people that I wouldn’t necessarily have met as a child.

It’s just a really good and cool place y’all.

[itspileofgoodthings]

one of the things that continues to strike me on reread is how much the character of Darcy, and Austen through him, finds Mr. Bennet dead. And how much Elizabeth, in growing and changing and discarding her past blindness, has to move past her way of seeing her father and thus of seeing reality, because the two are connected! Darcy’s letter exposes her father’s flaws to Elizabeth in a way she’d never been able to see before. Most especially the way his laziness and neglect of his own gifts have hurt his family and that ultimately he doesn’t. care. Not enough to change. It literally says that she comes home from Hunsford and tries to laugh at her sisters’ and mother’s folly (the way she used to; the way her father has taught her to by example for her whole life) and she can’t anymore! It sticks in her throat. She is grieved by the failures that she sees in him, all the more so because she IS his favorite and she loves him! And the thing about Mr. Bennet is he never changes. The Lydia/wickham situation exposes to him sharply his own conduct and the consequences and he feels it! Because he is neither stupid nor unfeeling. But he, like everyone, has free will. And he chooses not to change when the opportunity presents itself. He even jokes about how quickly his feeling bad will pass and how soon everything will go back to normal, to his laziness and his selfishness. He is set in his ways and he serves as a contrast to Elizabeth’s personal journey because he embodies a version of a person she could have become and was in danger of becoming if her only goal at all times was to laugh at and judge people from the sidelines.

[yeehawpim]

have a happy memory as hanukkah is starting on dec 7! I've been frantically searching for a copy of this book in libraries since I remembered it.

here is a video I found of the author Eric Kimmel reading it aloud

[the-forest-library]

[bisexualhobgadling]

Dream of the Endless would be a great professor, but you know what else he'd be amazing at?

Children's Librarian

Kids are full of stories. He would absolutely love to hear them and help nurture that creativity. The really young ones could be read to and have nap time. Parents would love him. Kids would love him. Hob would love him.

also it would just be really cute 😌

[detroitlib]

From our stacks: Illustration from Norse Fairy Tales. Selected & Adapted from the Translations by Sir George Webbe Dasent. With Illustrations by Reginald L. Knowles & Horace J. Knowles. London: George Routledge & Sons Limited. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1910.

[aysekadinfasulyesi]

[intothestacks]

As a children's librarian, people who harass fans of Harry Potter indiscriminately really worry me.

Here's why.

1. The majority of Harry Potter fans are children.

I've had people call me disgusting and scum and an embarrassment to my disabled community. I've been suicide baited and have received death threats. All of this can be heavy enough stuff for an adult to deal with.

And then I think of how most of my 700+ elementary-aged students are huge Harry Potter fans. Because, you know, Harry Potter is a children's series. And they also have access to the internet and social media like TikTok and YouTube.

Now imagine the stuff that's been said to me being said to a kid. Because Harry Potter's main audience are KIDS.

2. This black-and-white mentality isn't healthy.

Very few things in life are cut-and-dry good vs bad. And if you employ this kind of thinking in one area of your life, odds are you'll apply it to other areas too(more on that in a moment).

And people who go out of their way to harass people who like Harry Potter don't seem to particularly care about any context beyond "If you like Harry Potter in any way whatsoever you're scum".

It hasn't mattered when I've pointed out that I absolutely and unequivocally think Rowling's TERF views are awful and scummy and wrong. It hasn't mattered that I try my best to consume the content only in ways that won't monetarily support her, (which kids typically can't do, btw). It hasn't mattered that it's literally in my job description to keep up with children's media to procure content for my patrons as well as to be able to hold conversations with them.

3. Saying "You're not allowed to read this without being harassed" is no different from saying a book should be banned.

This is ironic, seeing as the people doing the harassing are also often up in arms about queerphobic and racist book bans (as they should be) while demanding book bans of their own.

Because in their all-or-nothing way of thinking, book bans are only bad when the "bad" people do it.

No. Book bans are always bad, no exceptions.

Book bans aren't bad because they're banning the "good" books, they're bad because banning access to different ideas is always bad. Because every book has a lesson to teach us (perhaps not the lesson intended by the author, but a lesson nonetheless).

[nmoroder]

traumatized siblings. here's to finally finishing library of ruina (playthrough playlist)

[librarianproblems]

When you’re at the desk and a large children’s summer program releases

[sasha4books]

Book Spotlight 📖

[aotearoa20]

Jonathan Harker and Captain Nemo

It’s not your fault I see him everywhere, but you seem to know all his lines so well…

@lxgentlefolkcomic ep2 has me in a chokehold

[lacnunga]

Theres something about big booktoker/booktuber shelves that really heebies my jeebies