Announcing the 2025 Summer Scares Spokesperson and Program Timeline

Happy Halloween everyone. And welcome to the annual day when we announce the next year's Summer Scares Spokesperson and schedule. Enjoy all the spooky excitement.

HWA ANNOUNCES SUMMER SCARES READING PROGRAM 2025 SPOKESPERSON AND TIMELINE

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD, and NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), is proud to announce the sixth annual Summer Scares, a reading program that provides libraries and schools with an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle grade readers. It introduces readers and librarians to new authors and helps start conversations extending beyond the books from each list, promoting reading for years to come.

Summer Scares is proud to announce the 2025 spokesperson, #1 New York Times Bestselling author Kendare Blake:

"As a proud member of the club of people who read Stephen King too young, I am both honored and absolutely psyched to be this years' Summer Scares Spokesperson. Long ago, in elementary school, I had a beloved librarian with hair as black as night and teeth like Nosferatu. On dreary, wintry afternoons she would gather the children near and read to us from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, her eyes brightening with our every small whimper. She was, in short, THE BEST. I hope to meet many more librarians this year with her same, spooky spirit. So come along, folks of all ages, and let's read the scary stuff all summer long! It's not just for October anymore." 

Blake, along with a committee of six library workers, will select three recommended fiction titles in each reading level, totaling nine Summer Scares selections. The program aims to encourage a conversation at libraries worldwide about the horror genre across all age levels and ultimately attract more adults, teens, and children interested in reading. Official Summer Scares designated authors will also make themselves available to public and school libraries.

The committee’s final selections will be announced on February 14, 2025, Library Lover’s Day. Blake, along with some of the selected authors, will kick off Summer Scares at the 9th Annual HWA Librarians’ Day, Friday, June 13th, during StokerCon® 2025 at the Hilton Stamford Hotel in Stamford, CT. Tickets for this in-person event are available now: https://www.stokercon2025.com/librarian-s-day.

Additional content, including podcast appearances, free webinars with Booklist, and lists of suggested titles for further reading, will be made available by the committee and its partners beginning in March of 2025 and continuing through the Spring and Summer.

Of special note is the annual Summer Scares Programming Guide, courtesy of HWA Library Committee Co-Chair Konrad Stump and the Springfield-Greene County Library, which provides creative ideas to engage horror readers. Centered around the official Summer Scares titles, the guide offers tips and examples for readers’ advisory, book discussion guides, and sample programs, enabling librarians, even those who don’t read or especially enjoy the horror genre themselves, to connect their communities with Summer Scares.

To see past year’s Summer Scares titles, spokespeople, and programming guides, please visit the program archive: http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares-archive.html.

This year, Summer Scares is excited to announce a brand new sponsor– iREAD, an all ages Summer Reading Program developed by librarians for libraries. iREAD is used by libraries across the United States and around the world through their partnership with the US Department of Defense, bringing Summer Scares to our military families stationed across the globe.

iREAD Content and Development Manager Becca Boland shared her excitement:

“As a new sponsor of Summer Scares, iREAD is thrilled (and chilled) to support the Summer Scares program guide that will help libraries ‘unearth’ a love for reading. As part of this partnership, every summer you'll find one spine-tingling book for each age range and category that aligns with the iREAD theme. iREAD will also help to provide programming assistance for the guide ensuring everyone has a ‘fang-tastic’ time! Let’s conjure up some excitement and make this summer a real ‘scream’ with Summer Scares and iREAD."

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates coming soon from Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD and NoveList®, as well as at the HWA’s website: www.horror.org and RA for All Horror: http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares.html.

Questions? Reach out to HWA Library Committee Co-Chairs Becky Spratford and Konrad Stump via email: libraries@horror.org. 

Summer Scares 2025 Committee Members: 

Kendare Blake is the author of several novels and short stories, most of which you can find information about via the links above. Her work is sort of dark, always violent, and features passages describing food from when she writes while hungry. She was born in July (for those of you doing book reports) in Seoul, South Korea, but doesn’t speak a lick of Korean, as she was packed off at a very early age to her adoptive parents in the United States. That might be just an excuse, though, as she is pretty bad at learning foreign languages. She enjoys the work of Milan Kundera, Caitlin R Kiernan, Bret Easton Ellis, and Richard Linklater. She lives and writes in Gig Harbor, Washington, with her husband, their cat son Tyrion Cattister, red Doberman dog son Obi-Dog Kenobi, rottie mix dog daughter Agent Scully, and naked Sphynx cat son Armpit McGee.

Becky Spratford is a library consultant and the author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, third edition which was released in September of 2021. She reviews horror for Booklist Magazine, is the horror columnist for Library Journal and runs the Readers’ Advisory blog, RA for All: Horror.

Konrad Stump is a Local History Associate for the Springfield-Greene County (MO) Library, where he co-coordinates Springfield-Greene's popular “Oh, the Horror!” series, which attracts hundreds of patrons during October. He created the Donuts & Death horror book discussion group, featured in “Book Club Reboot: 71 Creative Twists” (ALA), and co-created the Summer Scares Programming Guide. Library workers who are interested in cultivating horror programming can contact him at konrads@thelibrary.org for free assistance.

Carolyn Ciesla is an academic library director in the Chicago suburbs. She has worked as a teen librarian and reference librarian, and has reviewed horror titles for Booklist Magazine. She’s currently teaching horror to first-year college students. You can find her all over the internet as @papersquared.

Kelly Jensen is an editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book website in North America. She covers all things young adult literature and has written about censorship for nearly ten years. She is the author of three critically-acclaimed and award-winning anthologies for young adults on the topics of feminism, mental health, and the body. She was named a person of the year in 2022 by Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the year in 2022 by the Chicago Tribune for her anti-censorship work. She has also earned commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her censorship coverage. Prior to her work at Book Riot, she was a public librarian for children, teens, and adults in several libraries in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. She is currently enrolled in a clinical mental health counseling master's program to bolster her work with mental health.

Julia Smith joined the Books for Youth team at Booklist in 2015, where she is now a senior editor. Her love of middle-grade literature and all things unsettling and strange draws her to creepy children's stories. You can follow her at @JuliaKate32 on Twitter.

Yaika Sabat (MLS) comes from a background in public libraries of various sizes. She now works at NoveList as the Manager of Reader Services, where she trains library staff nationwide on readers’ advisory, creates genre-focused content, and works on reader-focused products and services. As a Horror Writers Association’s Library Advisory Council member, she works to help librarians understand and embrace the horror genre. Her other passions include writing, graphic novels, film (the scarier, the better), and folklore.

RUSA CODES Conversation-- RA 101 With my Editors and Friends Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt

So one thing I have learned being a RA trainer is that library staff are clamoring for the basics. Libraries are realizing that getting their entire staff on board behind promoting patrons’ leisure needs is imperative. Creating conversations around books, movies, audio books, all the things we circulate for patrons’ wants, this is an activity that is key to our mission and one that all staff can participate in at some level.

When I started doing this RA training thing full time, I thought that I would be doing all second level RA training. I wrongly thought that everyone knew the basics. Nope. What I found is my basics classes are the most requested-- for current practitioners to get a refresher and to recruit new staff to provide basic RA-- still 3 full years later.

The RUSA CODES Research and Trends Committee also noticed this and asked Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt to help them answer people’s questions in the next CODES Convo.  

The details on this one day, email event are below. I normally only lurk on these, but since this is my specialty, I am scheduling time to participate too.

Please consider joining us and getting some of your co-workers subscribed too. Even if all you do is follow along [live or after the fact], it would make for a great conversation in a staff meeting later.

I will also post the notes here on the blog when they are available a few days after the event. Below are the details on how you can subscribe.  I hope to “see” you there.

CODES Conversations: RA 101April 24, 2018 10am-6pm EST 

What are the key ideas, practices and sources everyone should be learningabout as they begin to do readers' advisory work? Join us and special guestmoderators Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt and bring your questions, suggestionsand advice! 

CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facingcollection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interestedin those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (orlurk)! 

Use this link to join us! http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos

Staying in the Know is Even Easier Thanks to a Brand New Daily RA Column Via Library Journal!!!!!

[Yes the extra exclamation points were necessary; thanks for noticing.]

Just launched by Library Journal and my long time editor Neal Wyatt-- Book Pulse. From LJ:

Book Pulse 

Welcome to Book Pulse, a daily update designed to help collection development and readers’ advisory librarians navigate the never-ending wave of new books and book news. 

Here you will find highlights of titles moving in the marketplace and getting buzz, bookish stories making news, and key items from the literary web. 

Book Pulse owes its existence to the legacy of Nora Rawlinson and EarlyWord as well as the work of Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords at the RAOnline Blog. Book Pulse takes their vital work onward, continuing to nurture a community of librarians learning from and supporting each other and providing resources that help us excel at our jobs. 

I look forward to your input—what works, what does not, what helps, what is needed? Write me at nwyatt@mediasourceinc.com.

I can’t contain myself, I am so excited about this new daily column! And Neal is someone who I trust 100%. She edited my book, among other things I have written professionally. It would not be as good of a resource as it is without her work on it.

You can read every column here. But, before you ask, there is NOT a way to have it emailed to you yet, but they promise to work on it.

You need to read this column daily, along with a few others. I have laid this all out before in a post entitled, Stay In the Know With Minimal Effort.  The post is part of my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service. I have now added Book Pulse to that post. This is how important I think this new column is.

Read below for why spending 10 minutes each day, reading three columns will make you a better RA provider. rRemember you can pull up the post below at any time by visiting Rule 5 here.

MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2017

Call to Action: Stay In the Know With Minimal Effort

Today’s Call to Action is less scolding and more of a pep talk.

One of the most important things every single one of you can do to be better at RA service is to stay on top of the book world news. Or as I say in Rule 5 of my Ten Rules of Basic RA Service:

Look, I know that reading widely is important for our job, but honestly, it is not as imperative these days as it used to be. Why? Well because you can learn a lot about many different types of books by speed reading “about” books.

Let me explain further. In my signature RA for All training, I still show people how to speed read a book for appeal; however, I am finding that I also give this advice-- “You can also replicate this speed reading for appeal with the physical book by fully reading the NoveList entry for that title.” It’s even better if you follow some of the links. And, if you also go to Goodreads and read the 5 star and  2 star reviews [1 star ones are sometimes too mean and petty to be useful for our purposes], you get a full picture of the appeal of the book with an example appeal  statement from the book’s target reader and those who also disliked it and why.

This is a great way to “read” books in genres that you dislike personally or just don’t have the time to stay on top of. You get objective information about who the book most appeals to on NoveList and then actual opinions from readers via Goodreads.

However, staying in the know on the general book world news is about more than speed reading select titles. We also need to be aware of trends in all of pop culture in general and still stay on top of the most pressing book news.

One thing I hear- frequently- from library workers all over the country is that they try so hard to stay up to date, but Twitter is too “noisy" (even when I show them how to make lists) and they get overwhelmed by their RSS feeds from all the blogs and book news sites they follow that way. I regularly get calls for help from people with thousands of posts to sort through in their RSS feeds.

Many of you are so inundated that you are sinking. I see it all of the time. Library workers who have the drive to stay in the know, but they cannot find the time to follow everything as it is happening quickly, in real time. So instead, they give up.

I get this response, I really do. But, it is not an option people. I will be your life jacket. It’s not that hard. Today, I will share my easy way to know the bare minimum about the most pertinent information.

First, I highly recommend everyone read Entertainment Weekly every week. Not online, the actual magazine. Seriously, you can write off your subscription to the magazine as a business expense. But also, if you work at a library you can spend 1 lunch break with the current issue each week [or read the digital copy if your library, work or home, subscribes]. A quick page through of the magazine will let you know what the current pop culture/mass media trends are. You will be alerted early to books being made into movies or tv shows. You will see what books are getting the most buzz. You will even see actual book reviews. But the biggest thing you will get out of it is a wide angle picture of what, in general, is popular right now-- week by week. Not only do these trends extend into all areas of leisure media consumption, but also, knowing what people like overall will help you craft book suggestions based on what is popular overall.

But that is just for general trends and very specific titles of interest. In order to stay on top of the deluge of daily news while making sure to filter out what doesn’t matter so you only spend time reading the "news you can use" take my second advice--

Sign up for 2 daily newsletters and read this one daily column [not a newsletter yet] and you will be good. That’s it. Just these three:

• Shelf Awareness for Book Trade Workers [That’s you]. This daily email covers all age levels of books and gives you a heads up on author media appearances. [Media appearances always lead to book requests from patrons]. 
• PW’s Daily newsletter, although if you click here you can see a full list of all of their free newsletters. You can pick the ones that are most relevant to you on top of the general “Daily.”
• Library Journal’s Book Pulse, a daily update designed to help collection development and readers’ advisory librarians navigate the never-ending wave of new books and book news. 

What I have found is that while some bigger news may break more quickly on Twitter, if it is important enough, it will make it through to these two newsletters that next morning. I have been monitoring this consciously for a few months now and I am confident in this advice.

Let them sort through all of the noise for you. That’s what these editors are paid to do. You have enough going on at your libraries to add this to your daily to-dos. Use the links I provided, give your email address to them, and start each day with a recap of what you need to know from book news, to upcoming titles, to reviews. Again, the beauty of this solution is that someone else is doing this work for you. You then only have to read a very short email with the most pressing information.

You need to stay in the know. You cannot avoid it. So instead of being overwhelmed by everything and/or just ignoring it-- both very bad ideas-- please take my advice here today. The outcome is that you are more informed, less stressed, and have happier patrons. See, you have nothing to lose.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.

Horror Debuts Column in Library Journal

This is a cross post with RA for All: Horror

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31 Days of Horror: Day 23-- My Annual Library Journal Horror Debuts Column

Earlier this month, my semi-annual take over of Neal Wyatt's Reader's Shelf column in Library Journal went live. Every October they ask me to do horror debuts. Each year I offer up 6 excellent choices for all library collections; and because they are debuts, I am alerting you to authors when they are emerging.

When you read this year's column below, you will notice that the first two are not quite horror, the third straddles the line between dark fantasy and horror, four and five are 100% horror, and six is one of the best debut books I have read in any genre. Here is the direct link to the column, and I have attached it below.

You can find more in depth reviews of Haven and In the Valley of the Sun, with readalike options using the links I have provided or in my Horror Review Index.

Finally, you can see all of my Library Journal columns archived on this page here on the blog, at any time.

First-Time Scares | The Reader’s Shelf

BY BECKY SPRATFORD; EDITED BY NEAL WYATT ON OCTOBER 17, 2017 

As we creep closer to Halloween, celebrate with some fresh and frightening tales. Stretching across a range of genres and styles and presenting different levels of terror, these debuts will satisfy a variety of readers looking for a scare.

A harrowing apocalyptic thriller presented through chillingly realistic sf, The End of the World Running Club(Sourcebooks Landmark. Sept. 2017. ISBN 9781492656029. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9781492656036) by Adrian J. Walker became an international best seller. Edgar Hill is never going to win father of the year; when asteroids begin falling, he is busy nursing a hangover. Still, he loves his family and after being separated from them in the chaos, he joins a group of survivors and does the only thing he can: he runs. He runs in an attempt to reunite with his loved ones; in the hopes of surviving; to flee from all his many mistakes; and to live to see an uncertain future. This tale of action and dread set in a devastated landscape showcases the endurance of the human spirit.

Emil Ferris uses the imagery of horror movies and magazines from the 1960s to set an unsettling tone in her historical mystery My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (Fantagraphics. Feb. 2017. ISBN 9781606999592. pap. $39.99). Ten-year-old Karen Reyes has a tough life—her mother is dying of breast cancer—in a diverse, working-class Chicago neighborhood. With a rich imagination, superior artistic skills, and a questing mind, Karen is on the case when her neighbor, a Holocaust survivor, is murdered. Under­pinning it all is Karen’s realization of her own blossoming homosexuality. Ferris weaves an astounding story through text and image in a moving and original graphic novel.

Emily B. Cataneo’s first collection, Speaking to Skull Kings and Other ­Stories (JournalStone. May 2017. ISBN 9781945373619. pap. $15.95), is brimming with ghosts, haunted books, alternate ­dimensions, and dark fantasy in an assemblage of lyrical pieces best classified as weird fiction. The complex female characters, creepy settings, and magic-filled story lines draw in readers much like the award-winning works of Karen Russell, Jeff VanderMeer, and Kelly Link. Cataneo provides all the chills and anxiety of horror in every turn of the page without the gore many fear they will encounter when first trying the genre.

Violent and haunting, Abode (Bloodshot. Jul. 2017. ISBN 9780998067971. pap. $14.99) by Morgan Sylvia is a good old-­fashioned novel of monsters wreaking havoc. It unfolds in a locale many horror fans know well: an old house in the middle of the woods. As one can expect, bad things start to happen when a new family moves in, but the story gets fresh power in the way the frights are revealed. The opening chapter sets the scene perfectly with an urgent email from someone mysterious, addressing “you” about the harrowing events that have already come, even if “you” cannot fully ­remember them. The unique frame and voice create an extra found footage layer of fear and suspense. Librarians will need to go a bit out of the way to order this indie title, but it is entirely worth it.

Tom Deady won this year’s Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for Haven (Greymore. Jan. 2017. ISBN 9780990632726. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9781587675973). It follows a man recently released from jail as he returns to the New England town where he was accused of a killing spree 17 years earlier. The strange murders suddenly ­begin again, but the evidence clearly points to something evil lurking in the forest caves and lakes around town. To learn the truth, a ragtag group of unlikely but sympathetic heroes band together. Shifting narration, breathless action sequences, and unearthed puzzles ratchet up the dread and tell a story reminiscent of the genre’s classics by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

Everyone has a secret, and no one is completely innocent in Andy Davidson’s In the ­Valley of the Sun (Skyhorse. Jun. 2017. ISBN 9781510721104. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781510721111). Desperately trying to escape his past, Travis Stillwell suffers an encounter with a pale-skinned girl who leaves him bloodied and weak, unable to tolerate the light of day, and tormented by an overpowering hunger. Widowed motel owner Annabelle Gaskin stumbles upon Travis and offers him a job in exchange for board, and the two lonely souls strike up an awkward friendship, along with her young son. But monsters, both real and imagined, can’t be hidden forever. This evocatively dark yet oddly beautiful debut will have wide audience appeal. The plot and characters play with the mind, and the pacing reflects the story’s harsh landscape—a slow, riveting burn.

The column was contributed by Becky Spratford, who runs the critically acclaimed library training blog RA for All, http://raforall.blogspot.com, and is the author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror. Follow her on twitter @RAforAll

RA Summer Camp Program Recap

As promised, here is a recap of the program with Neal Wyatt yesterday.

Annabelle and I tweeted during the event using the hashtag #arrtreads. You do not need to have a Twitter account to view our notes.  I will be repeating some of what was there, but not everything, so click. Also, there are pictures and posts from yesterday on the ARRT Facebook page.

First and foremost, what I loved most about this program overall is that Neal took the one thing all of us RA librarians think we know everything about-- appeal-- and made us look at it in a new way.  The result? I felt like I had my eyes opened.  I learned so much more about what I do every day and have many good ideas to bring back to use with our staff.

But let's back track.  Neal opened with what I saw as a brilliant idea, but was shocked that no one had ever done it before.  She took the three main RA sources which introduced the idea of appeal and went through them [quickly] to show where they were the same and where they differed.  These three are outlined in the following books. listed in the order in which they were published:

• Joyce Saricks and Nancy Brown's Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library (1989 first edition)
• Catherine Sheldrick Ross's Reading Matters (first edition in the 1990s)
• Nancy Pearl's Reading Doorways. (Described in Book Lust, developed in the early 2000s)

She spent about 30 minutes really honing us in on their similarities and what is most important to consider because the bulk of the 2 hour meeting as going to be all about writing annotations! But just before we switched gears, Neal tried out her newly created Myers-Briggs style test so we could each assess our personal reading tastes based on 4 big areas of appeal; the areas where the 3 resources overlap the most.

We also did madlibs with appeal where we were given a sentence with multiple missing adjectives and a noun and a verb to fill in.  The goal, make 2 sentences but make them be completely opposite of each other. Not only was it fun, it really focuses you on how the words you chose to use in only 1 sentence make a HUGE difference in how the book sounds to a reader.

So before we all dug into reading The Lottery by Shirley Jackson [which we later worked on writing an annotation for] Neal talked at length about annotations. Along the way she used examples of her own work to point out both how to and how NOT to.  Here are some quick soundbites of the things she said on this topic:

• Writing an annotation is not like writing a review.  An annotation is to advertise a book to its best reader.
• Always start with genre and type of book.  Example: a locked room mystery.  This orients the audience to the type of book it is right away.
• The biggest mistake people make when writing annotations is that they add more story. Instead, less plot and more appeal.
• Show restraint. Don't overshare
• You are writing to someoone who has not read the book already, so do not write in code.
• Characater-- identify main character and write only the 1 most important thing about him or her.  Example: Jack Reacher-- mention he is an ex Army MP, leave out that he doesn't own anything. [Becky's note: although I often like mentioning his weird tick of him not owning anything because it is funny and endearing about Reacher, she is correct, it is not the most important thing about Reacher; readers can discover that quirk on their own.]
• Be DEFT with your writing.  Make your words do double duty. Example: use adverbs and adjectives that reflect the tone of the book as you are describing the story.
• There is no need to mention the setting in an annotations unless it acts like another character in the story or it is key to the book's plot.  Example: Hampton Sides' In the Kingdom of Ice is very setting dependent.
• While setting is not always necessary to mention, frame is very necessary. If a book has any specific frame you must mention it.
• In general advice about writing annotations: Only talk about the things that matter to the experience of reading the book.

I want to also quickly mention Neal's personal advice on how to write an annotation.  As she cautioned, this is what works for her. She had a slide which Annabelle posted a picture of here.  Below are her steps in the order she does them as she writes an annotation:

• Sketch out the elements you will include
• Look for overlaps
• Look for empty thoughts
• Order by orientation and importance
• Look for gaps
• Write it
• Revise it
• Fact check it
• Prepare to be edited

Then we read The Lottery [love that story!] and brainstormed an annotation as a group of 50+. Very cool.  My favorite adjective that came out of our brainstorming was from the BPL RA's fearless leader Kathy-- "disorienting."

Then we ended the session by playing RA Jeopardy!
Other quick takeaways of note:

• Neal is working on a book on the history of RA Service.  Knowing Neal it will be comprehensive AND interesting to read.  I am quite excited. 
• ARRT is a big part of that history of RA service in US public libraries and we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary this year.  Big milestone birthday means big party!  Go here for details and to sign up. You do not need to be a member to join us at the Oak Park Public Library on Saturday, September 6th. Non-members do need to fork over $10 though.  Again details here.
• The next ARRT program will be Wednesday November 12th from 2-4 PM at the Schaumburg Township District Library and it will feature Heather Booth talking about RA for Teens. She is currently working on an update to her 2007 ALA Edition guide on that topic. More details after we party.  

All in all it was wonderful day at RA Summer Camp!

Are You Ready For RA Summer Camp!

That's right, I said summer camp, and it is being presented by Neal Wyatt, readers' advisory expert and all around great person.  Here is the link to the official flyer from the ARRT webpage.

But here are the details:

RA Summer Camp: Developing Skills Through Play
Tuesday, August 12th @ 2 PM
Naperville Public Library, 95th Street Branch

MadLibs! Myers-Briggs! Jeopardy! Find come fun relief from the dog days of summer in this interactive and practical RA program.  Neal Wyatt, co-chair of ALA's RA Committee and Library Journal's RA contributing editor, will host a program focused on two key RA skills-- writing about books [everything from annotations to blog posts to published columns] and understanding appeal [Nancy Pearl's Doorways, Joyce Saricks's big six, and more].  Some participants will leave with prizes bur all will gain a deeper understanding of what they enjoy in the works they read, how other readers connect to titles, and how to write about the reading experience in ways that grab and audience.

And all of this is only $15 to attend.  Our library is sending as many people as we can spare to be away and who can fit in my van. You do not need to be an ARRT member to come.

I can't wait.  This is a RA program that will benefit anyone who works with readers, from the newbie to experts like me.

If you cannot make it, but are intrigued, let me know.  I can tell you how it went after and put you in touch with Neal to see if she can do this program in your location.

Finally, here is the flyer so you can see how snazzy it is whether or not you click here. Hope to see you there.

My LJ Horror Column

Better late then never.  Library Journal finally posted my annual Horror guest column on Neal Wyatt's Readers’ Shelf.  Here is the link, and the column is below.  Don’t forget, just because Halloween is over, that doesn’t mean people stop wanting to read horror.

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Horror Gems for the Haunting Season

It’s that time of the year again, when other­wise mild-mannered readers turn into ravenous fiends searching for a terrifying fix. Instead of just turning to old standbys like the works of Anne Rice, Stephen King, or Peter Straub, why not try one of these 21st-­century options that will deeply satisfy horror-hungry readers but that have a much higher chance of being on the shelves come Halloween time.

David Zeltserman’s The Caretaker of Lorne Field(Overlook. 2011. ISBN 9781590205792. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9781590205389) has an imaginative frame that should please readers looking for the unsettling feeling of horror without all the gore. Jack Durkin is the current caretaker of Lorne Field, but he is merely one in a 300-year line of Durkin men who have held the job. From spring until first frost, Jack’s life is dedicated to pulling the weeds that grow in Lorne Field. Why? Because the weeds are vicious monsters, and if not weeded, they will grow to their full form, leave the ground, and destroy the world! Then again…they might just be weeds. The only way to know for sure is to stop taking care of the field.

Alden Bell offers an original, captivating, and different take on the zombie craze in The Reapers Are the Angels (Holt. 2010. ISBN 9780805092431. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9781429929677). Temple, a 15-year-old girl, is struggling to survive after the zombie apocalypse. The Southern landscape through which she wanders alone is desolate, menacing, and eerie. This is not an action-based thriller, however. Yes, Temple is running away from killers, both human and the undead, but Bell’s narrative is focused more on the people and places along Temple’s route. The mashup of Southern Gothic and psychological suspense set in a zombie wasteland creates a heartbreaking, atmospheric, and terrifying treat of a novel.

In his historically accurate retelling of Sir John Franklin’s doomed search for the elusive Northwest Passage, The Terror (Back Bay: Little, Brown. 2007. ISBN 9780316017459. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9780316003889), Dan Simmons supposes, after the ships became trapped in the ice, that it was a monster that finally did in the crew. This intricately plotted story comes equipped with its own menacing, and historically predetermined, atmosphere—a trapped crew with no way out, no communication with the outside world, depleted food stores, cannibalism—but the addition of some supernatural bite makes it a nice Halloween pick, especially for readers interested in learning history while being ­frightened.

David Wong serves up a side of the giggles along with a large helping of scare in John Dies at the End (Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. 2012. ISBN 9781250035950. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9781429956789). The fictional character named David Wong talks directly to the reader as he relates the fate of his friend John. After trying a new drug, “soy sauce,” David and John realize that what they thought was a bad trip is ­really a newly opened portal to Hell, and now a deluge of murderous monsters are flowing into the world. This spoof is written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, and readers will find themselves alternating their smiles and cringes as they compulsively turn the pages. Have no fear, although the title gives away the ending, David and John manage to return for the equally engaging sequel, This Book Is Full of Spiders.

One of the most critically acclaimed genre novels in recent years, Toby Barlow’s Sharp Teeth(HarperPerennial. 2009. ISBN 9780061430244. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9780061843471) is a gritty story of underground crime and urban werewolves who can morph at will. Told in visually arresting free verse—the text creates a jagged right-hand margin on the page that mimics the shape of sharp teeth—the novel’s style boldly echoes its unnerving tone. With competing packs of modern lycanthropes, romance, violence, and a complex story line, Barlow treats readers to a fearsome and gory ride.

A great hidden horror gem is Leopoldo Gout’s illustrated novel, Ghost Radio (Morrow. 2009. ISBN 9780061787829. pap. $12.99; ebk. ISBN 9780061981678). Joaquin is the host of a popular paranormal call-in radio show in Mexico, but as he prepares to bring the show to America, the ghosts of his past begin asserting themselves quite literally into Joaquin’s life. He tries to confront the specters before he goes completely mad, but, unfortunately for him (but great for readers), that choice may be making things worse. Gout puts readers directly into Joaquin’s head, resulting in an absorbing and unsettling read as they follow Joaquin’s descent into madness. Audio buffs take note: with its radio setting, Ghost Radio is particularly creepy in audio format.

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This column was contributed by Becky Spratford, a Readers’ Advisory and Teen Librarian at the Berwyn Public Library, IL. She is the author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, 2d ed. (ALA Editions, 2012) and a proud member of the Horror Writers Association. For more horror suggestions from Spratford, visit raforallhorror.blogspot.com

Readers' Advisory: How To Balance Your Library's Reading Budget

Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt (the editors of my book) finished up a the first of their online workshops on the topic in the title of this post yesterday.

Over on the ALA Editions Blog, they have posted the resources and some of the slides from their presentation here.

Head on over and see what Joyce and Neal had to say and add your questions to the comments field.

Good RA service need not break the bank.  You can be creative in your purchases as well in how you market your collections in order to stretch your reading budget.  It is imperative in this weakened economy that the library be a place for leisure readers.  Patrons are on a tight budget and they are cutting their spending on books while increasing their use of the local library.

Of course, our budgets are tight at the library too.  We need experts like Joyce and Neal to help remind us of all we can do with our limited funds.

Check it out for yourself.

Over at the BPL we are taking this advice to heart.  We have increased our services to leisure readers both in the library and online in the last year without spending any extra money.  In fact, we spent less on books but increased our circulation by concentrating on staff training, starting a permanent staff recommendation display and blog, The Browsers' Corner, and by focusing our time and energy on displays.

What are you doing in these lean budget times?

RA for ALL in RUSQ

I received my issue of RUSQ this week but have been too busy writing to read it. Imagine my surprise when my RSS feed to Galley Cat had this link to Neal Wyatt's Alert Collector article entitled, "A Selection of Core Resources for Readers' Advisory Service," listing this blog, RA for All as one of the blogs of note. Click here for direct access to the page where RA for All is mentioned.

Neal's Alert Collector column in general is a must read for all Adult Services librarians, but this one in particular should be saved by any library staff members who are working with leisure readers. These are the best resources out there for assisting your leisure readers in the categories of books, articles, databases, websites, and blogs.

I am humbled and honored to be included on the list, but I am also just as excited to access some of the other resources. Most I have read and/or already subscribe to, some are by friends of mine, and one I even write for, but for many of the listed resources, the articles especially, I have not look at them since they first came out.

Every RA librarian, whether you are one of the ones creating these "core resources," or brand new on the desk, all of us, can use this list to better ourselves. We all need to continuously train ourselves, stay atop of the biggest trends, and understand the larger issues. No one is exempt from this.

I know what article my students will be reading first this spring. In fact, I think I can safely replace my list of suggested resources with this one core list. Thanks to Neal and her team for their hard work.

If you have a favorite RA resource that was left out, please leave a comment.

New Reading Maps Added

Finals for GSLIS 763 are tonight, and new reading map urls are going up on the class blog as I receive them from students.  I usually direct readers of this blog to the archive to see what students have been working on, but today I was blown away by how many maps we have accumulated over the last 2 years (28 and counting), and feel the need to duplicate the list here. But first, a few comments...

When I started the class blog I was driven by the desire to share the great RA work our students were doing each and every week. Just the wealth of information, readalikes, and searchable appeal terms that are now accessible to anyone through the posting of their weekly annotations is worth the blog's existence. And no, the annotations are not perfect, but they are clearly labeled as being by students, and as a group, they are becoming a valuable RA resource.

However, adding the Reading Map Archive to the blog was for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to make sure I had access to these maps long after the students had moved on. But see for yourself below-- we have 28 great maps as of right this minute and that number will only grow. Each semester more students attempt a reading map as one of their 2 big projects (they have 5 choices).

For the record, our reading map assignment is based on this article by Neal Wyatt in Library Journal (11/2006). Thanks to Neal for leading the way.

So, here is the list, directly copied from the class blog. Click on one and start your virtual journey through a book. Also, use them to help identify readalikes or suggestions for you or your readers:

• Twilight by Colleen
• The Watchmen by Michelle K.
• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Sarah
• Sandman by Mike
• Plainsong by Anne
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Katy
• The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Marissa
• The Awakening by Allison
• Pride and Prejudice by Elizabeth
• Graphic Novels by Jill
• Fabletown by Chris
• Sookie Stackhouse by Christine
• Julie and Julia by Madeline
• Johnny Got His Gun by Chris
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Russ
• Year of Wonders by Maggie
• American Psycho by Anne
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Elizabeth
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Cris
• Shop Class As Soulcraft by Jason
• Big Stone Gap by Jessica
• Ballads of Suburbia by Shannnon
• War for the Oaks by Bethany
• High Fidelity by Kris
• The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Zach
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Christina
• The National Parks by Elizabeth
• American Gods by Amanda

RA Programs at ALA Conference

You may have noticed that I am actively advertising for the American Library Association Conference beginning this coming weekend right here in Chicago. As a Chicagoland librarian, I am very lucky that this conference comes through town every 4 years or so.

This year there is quite a bit going on for those interested in providing cutting edge RA service for your library patrons. In fact, Cindy Orr over at RA Online's blog posted a very nice consolidated list of the RA specific offerings.

I am most excited about the RUSA President's Program, led by Neal Wyatt. From the RUSA Blog:

The program, which will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Monday, July 13, is the inaugural session of the Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum, a new RUSA initiative where ideas, best practices and creative possibilities are actively engaged and deconstructed in order to contribute to the advancement of RA service. This year’s theme—how appeal is an interdisciplinary concept that applies to music, art and books—will be addressed with program content that covers multiple perspectives on the topic, including service implications and collection building.

The Adult Reading Round Table is also a sponsor of this event. I will be working at ARRT's table during the program, so come by and say hi. You can click here for more details on this program, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency and does not require an extra ticket beyond basic conference registration.

The ALA conference also brings many authors to town. I am hoping to catch Michael Connelly, Junot Diaz, and Charlaine Harris among others.

Over 12,000 librarians are expected to invade Chicago this weekend. Maybe I'll see you there.

Genre Fiction Awards from ALA

The Reference and Users Services Association division of the American Library Association announced their "Reading List" at ALA Midwinter in Denver last week.

From the press release: "The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (which includes suspense, thriller and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and women’s fiction. This year’s list includes novels that will please die-hard fans as well as introduce new readers to the pleasures of genre fiction."

Here is this year's list complete with readalikes for the winners and honor books in each category.

As a reader and as one who helps readers, this is one of my favorite "awards." It is not often that genre fiction is recognized on such a large scale. Generally, genre awards are given out by the writer's association for that genre. Kudos to Neal Wyatt, who as President of RUSA, has led the charge to recognize these wonderful titles.

New Genre Study Article

Library Journal has a great article by Neal Wyatt on genre studies. Click here for the full text.

Neal outlines the different approaches one could take with a genre study. I think this article will become new required reading for my Dominican class.

Reading Maps Examples

As I have posted about before here, whole collection RA is the new trend in helping patrons. If you like a certain book or topic, the library should be able to provide you with suggestions of similar materials from each and every department and in every media option.

Reading maps are not new, libraries have been doing a version for years, called pathfinders. Some reading maps have embraced the new whole collection RA mantra, but kept the old format. Reading maps like these from Oak Park (IL) Public Library are well done, but do not take advantage of the Internet for linking to book summaries, websites, and even pictures and video.

These two examples by Neal Wyatt are a better example of how web based reading maps can serve patrons better. Beginning last semester, I have been encouraging my students to give reading maps a try. Last semester I had 2 takers. Hopefully, this semester, a few more will try and I will be able to share them with you.