ALA is this weekend and I think my blog is going to be a bit quiet until I return. I don’t want to neglect things completely, so I thought I’d take the time to post a bit today.

Yesterday, I drove to Indy and had the opportunity to actually listen to NPR all day in my car. This included twice hearing their piece about the whiteness of children’s literature. I thought it was very well done. While there is always more that could have been said, I did like that NPR brought attention to this important issue and that they didn’t trivialize it. The link is here, you can listen to or read the article. Additional points are made in the comments.

The piece was create by Code Switch, a new department at NPR that is “a team of journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting.” They discuss the racial issues most of us thought would never make the light of day, and they’re doing it in mixed company.

I also got to upgrade my iPhone yesterday! I was made aware of the impending deadline to upgrade my 4 to a 5 “for free” and given the age of my phone, I really needed to do that! I’ve lost some phone numbers and songs in the process as well as faith in the iCloud, but am glad to have a new phone. New can be nice! While it’s still an iPhone, there are enough differences to challenge my brain a bit.

Going to ALA? Although most of my time will be with BFYA, there are several sessions I want to attend. Unfortunately, I’ll miss B.A. Binns session “Attracting Reluctant Male Readers”. This is such a relevant topic! What do you plan to do at ALA?