wrapped up in books

April was a conference and professional development heavy month for me. LPL hosted our regional library organization’s Readers’ Advisory Unconference, and in addition to get to listen to an inspiring keynote from Stephanie Anderson, I also facilitated two session on readers’ advisory and social media. I presented at a workshop on Readers’ Advisory LGBTQ titles about queer YA, and learned a lot about adult fiction, nonfiction, and romance from the other presenters. And I attended a Library Journal Lead the Change Workshop and took home some really great ideas. I promise I’m going to schedule some posts on all that, as well as some programs we’ve done recently at my library. But I still wanted to do a regular rewind post even though I only had one post on this actual blog, because I had posts several other places this month. 

Emma from Miss Print put together a fabulous month-long celebration of Poetry in April: Poetically Speaking. I wrote about my undying love for Federico García Lorca, but you should check out the entire slate of posts if you haven’t already. Two of my favorites were Tessa Gratton’s on her relationship with poetry and Kelly Jensen’s on subversive feminist novels in verse.

My blog posts and articles of the month: 

I also wrote about how I got into novels in verse by listening to audiobooks for Novel Verse Week at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves. This is a series that Sarah puts together every year, and it’s really helped me find novels in verse that I enjoy. So you should definitely check it out.

In addition to being Poetry Month, April is also Humor Month, and I wrote about all different types of funny YA books at The Hub.

See, I actually did blog this month, just not here. The only post I managed to get up here was my list of books for fans of Sarah Dessen.

Must read blog posts and articles of the month: 

• Tumblr: A place for readers and authors to connect (at the LA Times)
• Complex, Character-driven YA Thrillers (at The Hub)
• Young Feminist Starter Library (at BNTeens Blog)
• Let’s Stop Saying “Just Happens to be Gay” (at Book Riot)

What did I miss this month? Feel free to share any more must-read posts in the comments or link me on Twitter!