Shelf Care, Episode #10: Pandemic-Induced Programming Pivot

Kansas City Public Library’s Kaite Stover and Crystal Faris talk to Susan Maguire about how they moved author events and youth programming online, how screen fatigue and the digital divide affected them, and what lessons they’re taking with them for post-COVID programs. Then audio editor Heather Booth talks to the Best Patrons Ever, aka her husband and kids, about their audiobook plans for the 40-plus hour drive to Yosemite.*

Here’s what we talked about:

Rainy Day Books in Kansas City

Bookshop.org

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics, by Bruce Goldfarb

Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, and the Weird in Flyover Country, by B. J. Hollars

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)

KCPL on Youtube

A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen and read by Kate Simses

Stef Soto, Taco Queen, by Jennifer Torres

Song for a Whale, by Lynne Kelly and read by Abigail Revasch

Middle School’s a Drag, You Better Werk! by Greg Howard and read by Michael Crouch.

★ Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds and read by Jason Reynolds

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley and read by Jayne Entwistle

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen and read by Emilia Fox

Sealand: The True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation, by Dylan Taylor-Lehman and read by Patrick Lawlor

Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling and read by Jim Dale

★ We’re Not from Here, by Geoff Rodkey and read by Dani Martineck

★ Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11, by James Donovan and read by Allan Robertson

Once Upon a Marigold, by Jean Ferris and read by Carrington Macduffie

Words on Fire, by Jennifer Nielsen and read by Kathleen McInerney

*Heather’s update on her family’s vacation listening: “We ended up listening to Song for a Whale, but still haven’t finished it. I think I’m going to put it on during ‘remote learning’ breaktime since we never drive anywhere anymore.” Best laid plans, amirite?