Are Book Trailers for Everyone?
After reading the articles and viewing a plethora of book trailers, I will say it was inevitable that we would get around to these visual talking points and their efficacy at promoting books. Are they for everyone? Not necessarily. Are they annoying? Sometimes. Do I care about them? No. Do I see a role for them in readers' advisory? Of course; there is a role for any piece that expands a books' reach. But for those avid readers (I consider myself one) I think it can also be a distracting couple of minutes. I am happy to read and listen to what people are saying about a book. I just don't want to be prejudiced by visual clues that may include actors or gimmicks, no matter how clever or cute.
Now, having said all that, I do think for younger readers, including young adult, book trailers can provide just the hook to get these readers off the fence. And that is where I see most of their value.
Bookish Thoughts
This has been a thoughtful and extremely useful exercise. I loved the concept and feel I have gotten a lot out of it. I particularly enjoyed being exposed to new websites and blogs devoted to readers' advisory. I liked Stacked and My Printz Will Come for YA, and I also liked the teen publisher sites at Penguin and Harper. It was also useful for me to track genres I am not as familiar with, such as science fiction and fantasy. For that I went to Locus.
The Prezi tool, created by Alex, was a lot of fun. It made me realize just how much more exploring of sub-genres I need to do. You are never finished learning or reading, and that was the beauty of this task. It made me visit and revisit my ideas about readers' advisory, what I can glean from others, and how much I already bring to the table and to our readers. This is really an ongoing learning opportunity.
In terms of the quality and quantity of the assignments, it is clear that much consideration went into the exercises and sites chosen to explore. However, some assignments I felt were difficult to complete in the time allotted to me and went beyond my expectations. For example, assignment 6 was time consuming and lengthy. Just look at my responses. And while I learned a lot from the exercises (I liked thinking about the mashups.) it took forever to complete.
I also didn't particularly enjoy looking for blogs to comment on, as many folks were at different points in the process. That was time consuming, although I will add that BCPL has some talented librarians and their thoughtful and creative blog posts reflected the seriousness by which they took this assignment. Over all, hats off to the administrators of Be More Bookish. It was a worthwhile endeavor, and I am a better readers' adviser because of it. Thank you!
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