The end of the picture book? Hardly.

I heard the buzz surrounding the New York Times article "Picture Books No Longer A Staple For Children" on kidlit and library list-servs and now I've had a chance read it and think about it. And like most of my colleagues, I'm going to jump in and say, it's wrong. For one, the article seems to assume that the only place one might find a picture book for their child to read is a bookstore, a bookstore selling only brand new $16.99 picture books. Well, that was the author's first mistake.

Walk into any public library and talk to the people in the children's department or the circulation desk. Picture books circulate like crazy. After DVDs, they are usually one of the most highly circulating items. Picture books will always be purchased as gifts - I've certainly been purchasing 10+ a year for my 2 year old nephew - but when the economy goes south, I think most families of readers have looked at the price tag of picture books (and this is a case where the paperback versions do not stand the test of time and are hard to look through in any shelving unit) and decided they could go without buying them new. Also, half the time I head into a bookstore looking for a few titles that have been recommended by Horn Book or Booklist, I find they don't even have them and turn to Amazon (all the while wishing I still lived around the corner from the tremendous 57th Street Books).

I also don't buy the either/or argument, based off a few comments from individuals, that parents are en masse telling their kids not to read or look at picture books in favor of easy readers or beginner chapter books. Again, I think back to being at the library just the other day and checking out books to families with new readers. A young girl, about 5 or 6, handed me a stack of 8 books, 4 picture books, 3 easy readers. With no budget limiting them, the kids will choose as many as their little hands (or mom's tote bag) can hold.

The craziness of committee work

I spent a good chunk of this morning filling out nomination forms for Best Fiction for Young Adults. Four, in fact. It had been a while since I nominated some titles and I've had these on my mind. I was really tempted to nominate this one book (which shall not be named) because I'd been growing fonder and fonder of it in my memory. Thankfully, I went back and read my notes. In reading them, it became quiiiiite clear that I enjoyed the book, but did not at all think it was worthy of being nominated. Duly noted!

It's getting to that point in the cycle where I'm edging closer and closer to having read 300 books. It's kind of a marvelous achievement, you would think, but man, I am already thinking about the lovely break I am going to give myself when this year's term ends. I am going to not try to read a book a day. I'm not even going to try to read YA fiction. I'm going to read an adult book or two (Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, if I can stomach it!) and watch my TV shows and, oh yeah, spend time with friends and family. It's been so frantic here in the hours after work, where it's become apparent that my boyfriend and I basically never stop working. Yes, the day job ends, but it's like our day job has created a night job. I'm reading and writing notes, taking a quick break for dinner and a Colbert Report, he's rushing in and out of lab. It's kind of crazy to think how easy our lives were a year ago. When the question was not, Can we please add more hours to the day? but rather, What should we do now?

Before I started my new jobs, I was trying to find a way to fill the time, all the while hoping and wishing with every new day that it might bring the news I so want to hear: a call or email from an agent. Now, I haven't given up on that search, but it's something I approach with both excitement and trepidation. I cannot imagine adding editing or any other work to my already overflowing daily responsibilities! ::Gulp::