What else makes a good children’s librarian?  Knowledge of the literature.  When a patron walks into a children’s room and asks for help selecting a book for pleasure reading, it is essential that the children’s librarian have a broad understanding of children’s literature.  This is necessarily more complex than understanding adult literature, because it’s not just about authors and series, it’s also about finding books that are appropriate for the decoding and comprehension level of the child.  A good children’s librarian will have an understanding of reading levels, and of which books may suit a child’s current level, but can also be flexible and take each child as an individual.  Meaning that if Johnny loves sports books, his high interest level may mean that the librarian could successfully recommend a sports book to him that would otherwise be above his evaluated reading level were the subject matter different. 

Obviously, it’s almost impossible for one human being to have read every book in a given children’s room.  We can try, but there are only so many hours in the week, and a lot of those hours are given over to the other tasks required of a librarian.  Which is why a solid base knowledge of children’s and young adult literature is so important going into this field.  While in graduate school, we have more focused time to read large quantities of literature, and we are also able to hone our skills for recognizing what makes great children’s literature, and for understanding the trends and developments that drive the literature forward.  Daily, I am grateful for the broad and deep knowledge of children’s and young adult literature that I gained through my education at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College.  (Not so subtle plug here!) 

And remember to always, always, always, pay close attention to the tastes of your young patrons.  I’ve discovered many books through the kids who come into the library, books that went under the radar when I was reading book reviews because they weren’t starred or highly rated, but just in that middle range.  But there are so many books in that large middle range that appeal to kids because they are timely and unique and because word of an engaging book will spread from friend to friend, and it’s often the middle range books, not the starred books, that “pop” (Lisa’s favorite term) and become wildly popular. 

Tomorrow and the next day and the next:  Other things that make for a great children’s librarian, including reference services, programming, knowing pop culture, and the nitty gritty administrative details.