There have been some big passes since our last update. Books have popped up in Italy and the Virgin Islands. As you can imagine, these have really rocketed up the number of miles traveled, moving us from just under 4,000 to over 10,000 miles travelled. Of course, you can find more information than you ever wanted to know about Pass The Book on the dashboard.
We got an email from Sarah, a teen services librarian at the Howard County Public Library in Maryland. They’re doing a really awesome Pass The Book program of their own. They’re chosen book is Scott Westerfeld’s, “The Secret Hour.” The point of all this is, we’re doing a book swap. They sent us a couple copies of The Secret Hour and we’re sending them a copy of Looking for Alaska.
For next time
We love your comments. And, you know, we love making these videos. So we were thinking “lets put them together”. In our next update, we’re going to read and respond to some of your comments. So if you have any questions about the program or any thoughts you’d like us to bring up – leave a comment here or send us an email at passthebook@imcpl.org.
When we recorded this video, Pass The Book items had logged well over 3,500 miles. Here are some specifics.
3,868 Miles Traveled
160 Total Passes
139 unique books have been checked in at least once
Looking for Alaska is the title with the most passes with 55 but An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns aren’t far back.
The Pass the Book website isn’t just maps and miles. We want you to tell us what you thought about the books. Each of the books has its own page you can visit to learn more about the books and leave comments.
I’m sure everyone has been waiting with bated breath for the answers to last week’s blog post featuring anagrams. So without further ado, here are the answers:
Napper Stow
Answer: Paper Towns
Inlaid Pianos
Answer: Indianapolis
Rich Godly Dip
Answer: Child prodigy (reference to the main character in An Abundance of
Katherines).
Stenciling Loon
Answer: Colin Singleton (the actual main character’s name from An Abundance of
Katherines).
Knob Thorn Rip Zoo
Answer:Printz Honor Book – Looking for Alaska was the 2006 winner of the Michael L. Printz Award. From the American Library Association, “The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association [YALSA].”
Crabbily I Purl
Answer: Public Library
Basket Hoops
Answer: Pass the Book
Fender Right
Answer: Nerdfighter – The Nerdfighters social network is a ning created by brothers John and Hank Green. From the website: “A place where nerds gather and play. We fight to increase awesome and decrease suck. We fight using our brains, our hearts, our calculators and our trombones.”
So far, Pass the book has been tremendously successful! Comments both on the website as well as in person have been very positive and we’ve seen books logged in all over Indianapolis, and even Chicago, Cincinnati and New York! Be sure to check out the Dashboard section of the website to see how many books have been logged, the total number of passes and the book passed the most. Keep logging everyone!
No, you do not need to change your glasses prescription, the title of this blog post is a very odd one. In fact, they are all anagrams of the word Katherines. An anagram is a word whose letters are re-arranged to create a new word or words. John Green’s second book, An Abundance of Katherines, is about a former child prodigy (Colin Singleton) who has a variety of talents but especially excels at creating anagrams. Colin’s other claim to fame (or shame?) is being dumped by 19 different women who all happen to have the same name: Katherine.
Can you decipher the following anagrams? (answers will be in next week’s post – or you could just leave the answers in the comment area.)
Napper Stow
Inlaid Pianos
Rich Godly Dip
Stenciling Loon
Knob Thorn Rip Zoo
Crabbily I Purl
Basket Hoops
Fender Right (if you can get this one, you are a true John Green fan…not to mention a Hank Green fan as well)
If you like An Abundance of Katherines (view in the catalog), you may also enjoy I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. Ed Kennedy one day inadvertently stops a bank robbery in process and from then on begins to receive clues on the back of playing cards which lead him to situations that need his help, whether he wants to give it or not. Ed is a reluctant hero following these mystery clues throughout the city and finds his own meaning in the process. It is a book filled with poignant humor and thought-provoking challenges for the character that lead the reader to think, “I wonder what would I do in this situation?”
This book can be found in multiple locations of the Indianapolis Marion-County Public Library in the teen section of the library with the call number TEEN FIC ZUS. Check it out!
You can follow Pass The Book on both Facebook and twitter. Ok…you can become a “Fan” of Pass The Book on Facebook and follow Pass The Book on twitter. Here’s the good news, if you use both and fan/follow Pass The Book on both, you’ll be able to hear about the same stuff twice (the Facebook page and this blog both announce their updates on twitter). However, Pass the Book also posts to twitter whenever a book is logged in so its not all the same stuff, just some of the same stuff.
We’re absolutely thrilled you have decided to participate in this one-of-a-kind-ish online teen book club, Pass the Book. We will be able to track 600 individual copies of John Green’s three books, Looking for Alaska, An abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns as they are passed from person to person.
As I type these words, I am already aware of one book on its way to Kentucky, one to New York and one all the way to Greece! It’s fascinating to wonder where those books will end up. Will we get them back in Indianapolis? Will they be passed to other countries? Will readers comment on them throughout the world? It is impossible to know, we are just going to have to wait and see.
Be sure to check back to the Pass the Book blog every week where we will discuss the books, share interesting tidbits about the author and even have some special guest writers!
In the meantime, here’s a little morsel of information about John Green from his Blog (link to http://www.sparksflyup.com):
When he was little, he wanted to be an earthworm scientist. (There is a word for such a person: oligochaetologist.) But he killed off his entire earthworm farm due to his general inability to care for pets. Later, he made a list of things he was good at. The list included ‘telling lies’ and ‘sitting.’ So he became a writer.
We, John Green’s fans, thank him for this list. From it came three wonderful books which will now be passed far and wide.
