Unshelved | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Booktalks and Book Trailers: Or, How To Get Kids To Check Out A Book

Kids can be a tough sell when it comes to convincing them to check out a book. So an effective booktalk is an amazing thing. Booktalks are slightly more formal than just telling one kid how much you loved a book. Giving booktalks isn’t something you can snooze through. If you are passionate about the book you’re selling, there can be unexpected and even exciting benefits for everyone.

Unshelved strip for 9/15/2003

Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum, Sept. 15, 2003.

There might be other reasons that you choose to booktalk a particular book. Maybe you’ve been assigned to sell it, or you feel like you have to align your booktalks with the Common Core standards. Doesn’t matter. You have to find a way to get kids to want to pick it up.

I just reviewed Witches! The Absolutely True Story of the Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer (check out the review here). This is a fascinating look at the Salem Witch Trials, which becomes even more powerful due to its fantastic design and Schanzer’s amazing black, white, and red scratchboard illustrations. It feels like you are really opening the pages directly into history. I would totally add this to my list of books I love to booktalk, which also include The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker, The Devil’s Arithmetic, and Jeremy Visick (it’s been awhile since I actually had to get up in front of a classroom full of kids, though). I understand it’s intimidating to do it, and I think it’s even more so when you have to booktalk into a camera as a classroom assignment, so it’s not that I really want to pick on Heather Prince. But this is not how you get kids to pick up a book. You’ve got to give it some pizzazz.

Admittedly, it’s hard to project your charisma on YouTube (note how I’m not booktalking on video here– there are reasons for that). But this is the joy of book trailers. They’re not as simple to put together as a booktalk, but when done right… wow. And Destiny, here, has done it right. If you like horror movies, she will have you hooked, but there’s more than flash going on here too. I think she liked the book, don’t you?

I LOVE this trailer, though. This is one that the author and illustrator of the book did, and it showcases the kind of craft that she put into the book. You can see one of her illustrations literally take on a life of its own.

Obviously she has the advantage of being the author and illustrator, but who better to hook you into finding out what comes next? Too bad it’s not possible to always get the author in to share the magic, but the glory of the Internet is that you still can find some pretty wonderful stuff.

But, even with great resources like this available, you’ve still gotta show them you, yourself, love it. And that is why you should read Witches! yourself, and if you are as impressed with it as much as I am, tell everyone about it. And you will get them to check it out.

Digital Comics

My new issue of Knowledge Quest (the official journal of the American Association of School Librarians) has an article on digital graphic novels, a format I haven’t though much about. There are web comics I follow (I love Unshelved), and some of them have even gone to print editions, but that seems a little different than a graphic novel. When I’ve looked at heavily illustrated books on Kindle or Nook, I haven’t been impressed. But the author discussed a very cool platform for digital comics, called ComiXology, which you probably already know about if you are a big comics reader. But if you aren’t, this might just get you hooked.

First, ComiXology started out as a tool for retailers, to help them promote print comic books, and they still have a commitment to working with retailers so they get revenue from sales of comics sold through them, so you can set up your order through this site or buy through them and still be supporting your local comic book store. I think that’s pretty cool. Second, they have created not just a catalog but a space for a community of comics lovers to discuss and review comics, and it’s free to do so, without extraneous annoying advertisements. Presumably, if you are a member you’re there to discuss and buy comics so ComiXology’s own promotions won’t bother you, and there aren’t any others. They also have free comics, a nice feature that the author of the article I read mentioned… one of them for this week is Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things #1. Third, they have some pretty great partnerships and relationships with comics publishers, including DC, Marvel, and BOOM! Studios, so there’s a wide variety of comics available and ways to access them, which I won’t go into except that there are apps, and you want more details you can read about it here.

What’s fun for me, in terms of promoting horror through a variety of media, is that if you start from ComiXology’s home page for digital comics, there’s a “Browse” tab with a drop down menu that allows you to search in a variety of ways, including series, publisher, creator, story arc, top rated, and GENRE. And one of the genres you can explore is horror. I didn’t wander around much there but just on the first page I saw 28 Days Later, 30 Days of Night, and American Vampire, all of which we’ve reviewed here. The newest issue of The Walking Dead was a featured comic, too. There’s a lot going on out there not just in the world of ebooks, but in the comics world as well, and the arguments as to whether there’s a legitimate place for digital comics will, I’m sure, continue.

After a brief look, I know I’m probably intrigued enough to download the app and try a free comic, at the very least, to see what the reading experience is like. I’d love to hear what you think about the rise of digital comics, or ComiXology!