Library Lions Roar Janet Lee Carey Award-winning author of novels for children and young adults

KAYLEEN REUSSER ROARS FOR LIBRARIES

Welcome to Library Lions interviews. Author and Librarian Kayleen Reusser has stopped by this month to share her children’s books and her Library Love with us. Take it away Kayleen!

I’ve written 11 non-fiction children’s books with traditional publishers (Mitchell Lane and Purple Toad Publishing).

I also work as a school librarian. I’ll be visiting Library Lions again in the future to share about my work at the Bluffton Middle School library. I love to help students find books to love!

A Lion’s Pride of Programs
In an effort to encourage students to get excited about reading I’ve put snakes on my head to the mortification of my 3 adult children!

Many students like Greek mythology because of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief. I capitalized on that concept and sewed rubber snakes to a ball cap, donned a long, flowing gown and presented myself as Medusa! I didn’t write about her, but she was the only one – and the weirdest one!) – I could think of to capture their attention! This type of program works especially well with Grades 1-3. Grade 4 students seem to think it’s hokey but they listened well as I spoke. I’ve presented it to nearly a dozen schools, hoping students will realize how fun reading can be!

Check here for more about school visits and speaking appearances

Library Love When You Were a Cub
Growing up, I went to the library every week and checked out 3-5 books which I couldn’t wait to read. My mother was a teacher and she taught us to appreciate books. I read every chance I got even upside down in a chair! (Don’t ask me why—I don’t know!) That habit of visiting libraries and valuing their content is still with me today!

More Library Love (An Author’s View)
Even though much research material is available online, I still use library materials when writing a book. This was especially true when I was researching my 3 Greek gods books – Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes—I had to use original sources—Iliad, etc. They were available as classic sources from Google Books, but I checked out all of these from the library and had to cite them. Heavy books!

Author’s Roar
Funding for libraries, especially school libraries, is currently under threat. As an author, what are your thoughts about that?

When book funds are decreased, it’s easy to complain. It happened to me so I know. I tried to re-arrange books differently so it might look to students like we had ‘new books’. This worked out well as I created new collections of mysteries, biographies, etc. Creativity is our best weapon!

Kayleen trying two tasty recipes (papaya mango smoothie, and Cuban sandwich) from her book Now You’re Cooking: Cuban Cookbook

A Roar For Fellow Librarians
Melissa Thompson is the elementary school librarian at Bluffton Elementary School, the one elementary school in my corporation (we have one elementary, middle, high school). I was surprised when she showed me the display she had made of my books at her school! After I spoke to that school’s students, so many asked her for my books that she decided to put them together on a book shelf. Today, BES students recognize me in the community and ask me about my books. I appreciate Melissa’s support!

Library Lion’s Roar: ONE LAST BIG ROAR
It is fun to mesh my talents as an author with my job as a school librarian. It seems like a losing battle competing against technology. My biggest challenge is convincing students video games will never help them achieve goals in life. They need to READ to SUCCEED! (Medusa’s tag line)

Let’s Link Up

Blog: http://www.KayleenR.com

Website: http://www.KayleenR.com

Facebook: Kayleen Reusser

Twitter: @kjreusser

Pinterest: Kayleen Reusser

Thank you, Kayleen for your terrific interview!

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Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Email Janet on the Contact page on this website for an interview.

Note to Authors: If you’re interested in Roaring for Libraries on this blog, contact Janet.