Week 5: Building Base Knowledge (Part II)

What useful information have you learned from the resource that you have been monitoring  since week one?  Blog about it.


During week one, I decided to monitor Goodreads as a resource. But since I was already familiar with Goodreads, I decided that I was technically cheating and began to monitor Early Word. I was somewhat intimidated by the layout of the website at first. It felt like there were so many components that I needed to explore in a limited amount of time. I eventually reminded myself that this was a learning experience, so I should definitely take my time when exploring what the site had to offer. Right from the start, I appreciated the many reader's advisory list that the website offered. I also thoroughly enjoyed how the titles were categorized by released date. This extremely helpful when customers request suggestions for new releases.


More than likely, you have a diverse mix of customers who have equally diverse reading preferences, but all of these resources are available via Early Word.  Take a look at the site and click around; there are lots of links in both sidebars.  Post to your blog: What resources are new discoveries for you?  What do you think that you will continue to use?

At Rosedale, thanks to Storyville we have a large circulation of kid titles. One of the things that I found most helpful about Early Word is it's archive for children and young adult titles. Parents are often overwhelmed by the number of titles and topics made available to their children, so the enlist our help to help them narrow their search. I will definitely put Early Word in my bag of resources to use when attempting to locate new/popular titles for our youth and adult readers a like.  

Pick a title from Amazon’s Best of the Month, found under the right-hand “Coming Soon” sidebar on Early Word.  Write a blog post using appeal factors or read alikes to describe the title.  Why is this title expected to be popular and to whom would it appeal?


SPOILER FREE REVIEW!: In If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo, readers are introduced to Amanda Hardy, a high school student starting her senior year at a new school. Readers follow Amanda as she attempts the all too familiar act of trying to fit in with her peers, all while concealing a personal secret. Along the way, she unexpectedly falls for golden boy, Grant and struggles to let him into her world. Feeling alone and afraid that her secret will push Grant away, Amanda struggles to come to terms with her new life. Russo's novel has begun to fill a major void in the world of young adult fiction. Readers both young and old will be able to relate to the universal story of feeling different, while wanting to fit in.