Shameful follow-up

Monday, I posted about gleefully working my way through six back issues (or three months) of Booklist and School Library Journal. Before I was able to feel too smug about the accomplishment, even with the fine sheen of shame, the September issue of Booklist appeared in my mail box. Since I was in the mood and this issue had a few Thanksgiving titles, it was a simple matter to peruse and purchase another 22 titles for the juvenile collection. Here are a few of my selections:

• Angry Management, Chris Crutcher
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Gennifer Choldenka
• Hate List, Jennifer Brown
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, Holly Black
• Duck for Turkey Day, Jacqueline Jules
• Turkey Trouble, Wendi Silvano
• Punctuation Celebration, Elsa Knight Bruno
• And Then Comes Halloween, Tom Brenner
• Breathless, Jessica Warman

Purchasing holiday books is often a bit of a conundrum; student teachers are in the classroom for the fall season, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, yet finished the first week of December. The juvenile collection does include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year (to name a few), but they are not as extensively used during the traditional down times between the fall and spring academic year. With luck on my side, the Halloween and Thanksgiving titles on this list will be shelf ready in time for classroom use.