Good morning, and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Burns, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event. Yes, we are a webinar. You can call us that. We won't be offended. We'll recover anything that may be of interest to librarians. The show is free and open to anyone to watch. Our live show or our recorded shows on our website. All of our recordings of our previous sessions are all there, so you can go and watch anything if you've missed it. And we do these shows live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. But then the recordings are there for you to watch at your convenience. We do a mixture of things, presentations, interviews, book reviews, many training sessions, basically anything library related where we'd love to have it on the show. We have guest speakers come in sometimes, and we have Commissioned Nebraska Library Commission staff sometimes. And this morning we have Commissioned staff, Sally Snyder, who is our coordinator of children and Young Adult Library Services. Every year she does a couple of different book review type sessions for us. And right now she's going to tell us about the new books that came out in 2013, almost at the end of the year. She can go back and see what there was from kids all the way up to teens. And Sally's show, as I said, our show is usually an hour long. But sometimes with so many books that come up, this particular episode has a tendency to run long. So just as a warning, it may be longer than an hour in the end. We'll keep going until Sally's done. If you need to leave at that for an hour, that's no problem. The whole thing will be recorded, and you can always catch up on what you missed later. So that's it for my intro. I will hand over to you, Sally. You shouldn't be able to control everything from there. I wanted to say a couple of things before we really get started on the list. And one is that there is a handout available on the Library Commission web page. I hope you received an email about that. Everyone who registered ahead of time, I emailed that to you yesterday. Great. If you don't have it, it will be included in the show now. It's afterwards for anyone who didn't register ahead of time. If you're watching this, that's a recording, and you want to have a copy of the list of books in front of you, which I would recommend. You can go to the Nebraska Library Commission web page and search in the search box up in the corner for handouts. When you do that, so far, the top thing that comes up is the list of handouts. That's how I get to it. And right now, this presentation is the top one. It says, Encompass Live Coming. Yeah. Best Youth Books 2013. Yeah. So you can tell if that's what it is. And so that's to make life easier for you. A couple of things also to mention is you will notice that if you have the list in front of you, that a couple three, four books are from 2012. And that's because generally I work this presentation to be ready for our Nebraska Library Association, Nebraska School Librarians Association Conference, which is generally in mid-October. So there's a part of the year that we don't catch. And so I bring in a few things from the past year that I missed because they weren't out yet. And that's why they're on the list in case you were. And if you don't like them there, I'm sorry. But that's how we go. And also, I apologize. I have a little bit of something going on with the sore throat. Yes. Both Sally and I have a little head cold things going on. Luckily, because we're all doing this remotely, you guys are in no danger. So we're glad about that. But yeah, the two of us. OK, so we'll get started. I start with the children's books, and then I'll do the team books later. So this is the best new children's books that I have encountered. And I get a number of review books from different publishers, but not from everybody and not every book, of course. So there will be things that I haven't seen. I do check a lot of books out of the library as well because I hear about them and I'm interested in them. So I get some books that way. And there are books I haven't gotten my hands on. So if I don't talk about your favorite book, I apologize. And please email me and tell me what it is because I don't want to read it. So we'll get started with best new children's books. And of course, we'll start with picture books. And I'm also going to talk. I have to mention I have a script so that as I go, that keeps me on track and keeps us closer to our hour instead of going so far over. So that's why I'm looking at my script. Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin. Rambunctious Monsters introduced primary colors and combined colors with jumping, dancing, scribbling, squishing, and enthusiasm. Lots of energy here, so be sure to have plenty of crayons and paper available after reading this at story time because they're going to want to do the same thing. Yeah, I can see that becoming messy.  Children will especially love the girl's determination to do the right thing with the help of a red crayon. You can't really tell on her hand they're in the red boat, but she can draw things and then they come real. As a child, one of my favorite books was Harold and the Purple Crayon. This is much more elaborate, of course, than that one was, but it's beautiful. Nightlight by Nicholas Blackman has simple language with wonderful paper cutouts that blend in when the page is turned. So it's very cleverly designed. And as you look at the cover here, the two headlights, I think both of them are cut out and you turn the page. But throughout the book, as you turn the page, the cutout part that's showing the light through from something blends in with the back of the other page. So it's pretty interesting how clever it is. And I think kids will love that. Digger and Tom by Sebastian Braun was first published in England. Digger is a hard worker, but he is rather small. One day he finds a rock and starts to work on removing it when, one by one, the other pieces of equipment barge in to try and do the job for it. But it is Digger who finally succeeds as a story of persistence and recognizing everybody's worth and all those trucks and pieces of equipment aren't bad either. This is a book that I added since my, I forgot to mention that my presentation in October, I've added a few books since then because I got a hold of them since then. So see what a seal can do by Chris Butterworth is blends fiction in the larger type with nonfiction in the smaller type. With a look at the life of a gray seal, how clumsy he looks on land versus how sleek and past he is in the sea. The end papers show gray and white drawings of 17 other types of seals, and the front and back end papers are different. It's a beautiful look at underwater worlds. Max and the Taiga Long Moon by Floyd Cooper. A boy's love for his grandfather has him watching for the moon all the way home.  When clouds cover the moon for a while, Max is disappointed. Maybe grandpa was wrong. Peck Peck Peck by Lucy Cousins. A father teaches his little woodpecker how to peck and the youngster just can't get enough of it. Watch out when he goes into the house. Listeners will love repeating the frequent refrain of Peck Peck Peck. The holes in the cover and the pages in the book show where he has pecked and those will delight listeners. They'll have to look on the pages to see what has holes in it. It's great fun. Another book about crayons. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. The crayons have each written a letter to Duncan airing their complaints. Red is overworked. Beige is only used to color boring wheat. And black mostly outlines everything. Why can't a balloon be black for a change? Orange and yellow each think that they are the true color of the sun. Duncan finds a solution to make all the crayons happy. It's a fun idea with an open-minded solution. Jasper and Jupe by Oliver Dunray. Two Goslings as it says on the cover. One tidy, one messy. Jasper avoids the puddles. Jupe jumps right in as they walk around the farmyard until they come across the beehive. Then they both run to the pond. At the end of the book they are of course best friends. How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Egan. This is told as if the train is a pet dog. Teach them how to sit, roll over, fetch, among other things.  And it's a fun one to put in the middle as you're reading some books about trains. Oh, If Only by Michael Foreman. Starting with, oh, if only I had stayed home that day.  Oh, if only. Upset cats, birds, parade horses and more result in a happy ending for the boy and the dog. The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freeman. Fish and Snail live in a storybook. Fish likes to leave that book and explore other books and learn other stories. And then when he comes home he tells Snail the stories that he's found. One day, Stay at Home Snail considers visiting another book too. Tuesday by Neil Gaiman is a fun story about a young panda whose parents keep asking if he is going to sneeze because his sneezes are monstrous. Anticipation is built throughout the story and the kids will read along with you when Chew starts to go, ah, ah, ah, and then he doesn't sneeze. But what happens when Chew sneezes? It is all conveyed in the art. The Silver Button by Bob Graham. As the girl prepares to put the third and final Silver Button on her picture of a duck, her brother takes his first step. An ambulance goes by. A soldier hugs his mom. A baby is born and more. The story slowly expands outward with occasional broader views where the reader can still find the first house in the book as they look down on the map-like drawing. I look at one moment in time and all that is happening then. Grumpy Goat by Brett Helquist. The farm is a happy place until Grumpy Goat arrives. One by one the animals say hello but he chases them away and all he does is eat, eat, eat. One day he sees a beautiful flower and is touched by its brilliant yellow color. He cares for it and sits and watches it. He mellows toward the other animals until the day the flower blows away. He is heartbroken. Listeners may be able to predict what happens next because I think they'll recognize what kind of a flower that is. 26 Pirates by Dave Horowitz is a companion book to 2011's 26 Princesses, which I have not seen. Here is a humorous rhyming alphabet book full of dastardly and not-so-dastardly pirates. Each boy represents a letter such as, Pirate Owen, where's he going? And Q is Pirate Quaid, not Afraid. There is also Pirate Lee, Needs to Pea. Their ship, the Sea Princess. This could spark a careful rhyming of listener's names in the same rhythm as the book. Because we care about what you rhyme with. Two Shy Pandas by Julia Jarman. Two Young Pandas, Panda and Pandora live next door to each other, but both of them are too shy to be the first to say hello. They notice what each other are doing, but not when the other one is looking. One snowy day both of them are worried about the other if one is sick, or maybe they moved away. They soon are hurrying out their front doors to find out if the other is okay, and they finally meet. It's fun, and it's a good look at shyness, particularly for those who are not, to understand a little bit about why or how other people might be shy. My Crocodile Does Not Bite by Joel Kulka. Joel Kulka, excuse me. It's Pet Show Day at the school, and Ernest is bringing his very large crocodile, but don't worry, his crocodile does not bite. Cindy Lou, a bossy show-off, insists that her poodle will win the day. Pee-pee can do all the tricks a crocodile can. She just doesn't feel like it right now. Gustav is an upbeat jovial fellow and is well-trained. After the final insult from Cindy Lou, Gustav does swallow her whole. He didn't bite. He swallowed her whole. No worries. On the last page, Gustav is riding a unicycle and juggling Cindy Lou's pee-pee and a tennis ball. So all is well at the end. The Green Bath by Margaret Mayhee is great fun. The new Green Bath tub takes the boy down to the sea, then across it, racing a sea serpent to find pirates and treasure. This is one of Margaret Mayhee's last books, because she passed away, I believe, in March of this year. Cowpult Clyde and Dirty Dog by Lori Mortensen. Cowpult Clyde is all cleaned up after a hard day of work, but dog is still dirty. How can Cowpult Clyde get dog in the bathwater? He tries a number of things before finally, and ultimately, he is successful, and the kids will just love what he does. Up the Creek by Nicholas Oldland. Moose Beaver and Bear have been, I think, two other books before this I haven't seen. But in this one, they're learning about working together and what happens when everyone wants to go their own way. Like with canoeing, if everyone's paddling their own direction, you do not get anywhere, and they figure that out rather quickly, and they do have some experiences along the way. It's great fun. The Tortoise and the Hare by Jerry Pinky. This is one of his interpretations of fairy tales and folk tales, and the beautiful illustrations add to this straightforward retelling. This one, you can't tell so much from the cover, but it's set in the American Southwest, and it's also beautiful. He recently also did puss in boots, if you haven't seen that one. Truck Stop by Ann Rockwell. Trucks start pulling in even before sunrise. This is a look at the life of a boy who helps his parents at the Truck Stop counter every morning before he goes to school. But one morning, he knows something is wrong, and he's the only one who notices and says they have to do something. And the many different types of trucks will, of course, draw readers to the book. Oh, I love this book. Exclamation Mark by Amy Kraus Rosenthal. Everyone else he knows is a period or a dot. Exclamation Mark feels left out, unnecessary, weird, and jobless. He just doesn't fit in with the others. The only time he really feels comfortable is when he's laying on his side so he doesn't stick out up so much. Then Question Mark comes along and starts asking him question after question after question until finally he yells, Stop!  I think it's a terrific way to teach a little bit about punctuation in a fun story, so take a look at that. Perfectly Percy by Paul Schmidt. The best thing in the world are balloons, at least to Percy, but when you are a porcupine, balloons are problematic. He thinks and thinks to try and find an idea that will allow him to have a balloon without accidentally popping it. Good luck, Percy. This is a good reminder that finding a solution can take time. Do not give up too soon, because he does figure out something. Your pajamas are showing by Michael E. Schmidt. This is the first book in the Where's Leopold series and it's translated from the French. One day, Leopold is able to disappear. He never had before, but now he can. He uses it to harass his older sister, Celine. She's about two years older. She can hold her own, but he also helps her with some bully girls at school. The comic book format will appeal to the target audience of grades one to three. There's a little bit of potty humor included, but not too overwhelming. And book two, Snowball Truths, came out in August. Bugs in My Hair by David Shannon. This is an imaginative story of a boy whose mother finds he has head lice. Outrageous illustrations express the voice feelings about what's in his hair and what they might be doing. And also tells about how they get rid of them. It's a must have for libraries and I think now he needs to do what about bed bugs? That's a big thing now, yes. That's another big thing. The Dark by Lemony Snicket. A boy is afraid of the dark, especially in the basement. But one night, his night light has burned out. The dark visits him in his room and asks him to come with it so it can show him something. It's a clever use of black space, especially as a boy uses a splash light. And it's a calm story, not a scary story actually. That's good. As fast as words could fly by Pamela M. Tuck. In the 1960s, Mason Steele, who was 14, takes notes of his father's concerns after the civil rights meetings that he attends. And then he hand writes business letters for his father. The group buys him a typewriter and he works hard to learn how to use it. At the end of the summer, Mason and his two older brothers learn they will all attend Belvoir High for the All Black School. They face a lot of discrimination, but when Mason proves his typing skills to the school librarian, he has an after-school job. Then he hears about the Citywide typing tournament. Could he represent Belvoir High? This is a fictional story based on a true story that's revealed in the author's note. Oh, and David Wisner has Mr. Waffles. This is another new book to the list. Mr. Waffles ignores all his cat toys to his owner's dismay. But one toy catches his eye. It turns out to be a small spaceship with beings aboard who must now try to make repairs without attracting Mr. Waffles' attention. This is clever and fun in the ants and the ladybug and some other animals that apparently, small animals like that, apparently Mr. Waffles terrorizes. They help the aliens to get away. Beginning readers in early chapter books, I'll start with Pinch and Dash and The Terrible Couch. A Daily has written this one. It's his second book about friends, Pinch and Dash. Here Pinch is enjoying reading in his snug chair in his cozy room when the movers arrive with his ants bright red couch and cram it into his cozy room. It doesn't fit, nothing works right. Pinch is unhappy, but Dash thinks he can make it all work if he just moves a few more things around. Eventually, Pinch comes up with a solution. One person's trash is another one's treasure. Bink and golly, Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo and Allison McGee. The third book about two best friends again contains three stories. The first story is golly's realization that she is royalty. We don't know how she comes to this conclusion, but she is certain that it's true. The second book is Bink grappling with the fact that she is much shorter than golly. And the third involves their efforts to start a collection in order to get their photo in Flickers Arcana, which is another great look at the ups and downs of friendship. And I heard this might be the last book about Bink and golly, so heads up on that. Doddsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan. This continues the series, which takes a look at major cities of the world. Doddsworth so far has been in New York, London, Paris and Rome. This time Doddsworth and the Duck are in Tokyo, but trouble continues to follow the Duck. As the readers are laughing as they are also learning a bit about the city. It's clever and fun. The second book about Bramble and Maggie, titled Horse Meets Girl by Jesse Haas. It finds them working through compromise, so neither one of them is always the boss. Bramble also becomes bored quickly when everyone has gone to work or school, so she causes some disturbances. The neighbor has an unexpected contribution to the situation. This is another fun chapter book for horse fans. Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkees. Penny finds a beautiful blue marble in Mrs. Goodwin's yard, and she takes it home without asking anyone, but soon guilt begins to gnaw at her, because she knows it wasn't in her yard, it was in her neighbor's yard, and it might be something they've been looking and looking for them, and she tries to decide what she should do. Ling and Ting, Share of Earth Day by Grace Lynn. The second book about the twins, Ling and Ting subtly shows us their personalities through their preparations for and celebration of their birthday. Baking a birthday cake and shopping for a gift for their sister are among the six chapters in this beginning reader title. As it says in the first book, Ling and Ting are not the same. The Meanest Birthday Girl by Josh Schneider. It's her birthday, and Dana has called Anthony and Egoborce, pinched him, and eaten his dessert at lunch. Still, he gives her a birthday present. Oh, what a present. A white elephant, literally. Dana soon has more than she can handle. And this is by the 2012 Theodore Seuss Geisel Award winner for Tails for very picky years. And this was great fun, because she kind of got what she deserved. But she begins to realize her errors. Picture book, nonfiction picture book titles, includes Seahorses by Jennifer Keats Curtis. Beautifully illustrated, this tells the life cycle of the seahorse, how they collect food, avoid predators, and reproduce. It does include an illustration of impregnation, but not much of the visible. In case you were worried about that. Seahorse is the one with the male's care for the babies, too? Yeah. Noah Webster and His Words by Jerry Chase Ferris is a picture book biography of the man who first compiled the English language into an American dictionary with American spellings. His road to this event is fascinating. He studied 20 languages in order to give the origin of the words listed. Finally, published in 1828, his American dictionary of the English language became the second most popular book ever printed in English after the Bible. Occasionally, words used in telling his story are defined in parentheses, such as Yale was expensive, adjective having a high price or costly. It includes important dates in his life and in the life of our country and a final note more about Noah Webster are all at the back in the book, so full of information. Patricia McLaughlin and Emily McLaughlin-Cheris have written cat talk. 13 homes of cats talking about themselves, their likes or dislikes and they vary from straightforward to humorous to tender. We get a quick look at what makes each cat who he or she is. Beautiful watercolor illustrations complement the text. The Long Long Journey, The Godwit's Amazing Migration by Sandra Markel. Hatched in Alaska, the bar-tailed Godwit feeds on meadows, spiders, larvae and other things before flying non-stop to New England for the winter. The longest such migration recorded so far. The information is conveyed in a conversational tone and will be useful for reports as well as it's appeal to animal lovers wondering about this amazing bird. The cut paper and watercolor illustrations enhance the text and of course there's an author's note at the back of the book with a little more information which I really appreciate because they make the story good and then they give you that extra information to know where the reality and where it all came from. The kids can learn more. They want to find out more about it. And then they can even look up more in other books. The Long Long, Oops! Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough and Carol Moore and how she among others was determined to have room for children in the public library and she did not take no for an answer. This does imply though that in the until the author's note this does imply that she was the only one and in the author's note the people recognize that other women were also working for the same thing as one person who really worked hard for that. Fiction for grades 2 to 5 or so because I don't think I mentioned this before but my grade groupings are kind of general like the book review sources do. We know that some children are ahead of what we would call their grade level and some not as fast. So this is general look at things. Bones by Holly Black Zach, Poppy and Alice all 12 have been playing a fantasy game for years with action figures and other items but suddenly Zach announces he won't play anymore though he really wants to. Poppy tells them both that she has been seeing and talking with the ghost of the dead girl whose bones were used to make the delicate china doll in her grandmother's china cabinet. They must go on their final quest to bury the doll in the girl's empty grave. It's a little bit creepy because she wants to write a rom and it's by Holly Black so we're familiar with her. So you know what you're getting. But again this is for grades 2 to 5 so not as oh flora and Ulysses by Kate de Camillo after a squirrel is run over by a runaway vacuum flora a self self-described natural born cynic applies CPR and revives him naming him Ulysses they are inseparable even as her mother works behind the scenes to end this friendship her parents have separated and flora survives by reading the comic book she loves about the amazing incandesto which also include a short in each one called terrible things can happen to you she has studied every one of those to be sure she is ready for any kind of terrible thing that might come along Ulysses after his experience in the vacuum finds that he can type and write poetry and also that he is a hero when needed great fun and numerous illustrations through the book Nikki and Deja substitute teacher by Karen English is I believe the fifth book in the series the classroom gets a substitute Mr. Willow when their favorite teacher breaks her ankle Nikki and Deja are both uncomfortable when Mr. Willow lets things go and does not insist the students behave the way in this show the orbits would then Mr. Willow is replaced by Mr. Blaggart who operates on the other end of the spectrum he takes no gov and has to class run each morning well thanks ever go back to normal this is a little bit more didactic than her other books but I think that readers will be interested in the look at substitutes and how one can be on the easy side and another can be on the much more tough side the odd squad bully bait by Michael Fry Nick 12 spends a lot of time in his locker since bully Roy loves to put him there the school counselor decides Nick and outcast Molly should join Carl in the safety patrol Carl is currently the only member something Nick is adamantly against still there are advantages to someone having your back and in a side story is the ghost of Emily Dickinson really haunting the school and pulling pranks numerous illustrations help to break up the text and this is the first of a new series the humor and wacky situations will appeal to our wimpy kid fans Neil Gaiman fortunately the milk a wacky story of a father's quick trip to the store to buy some milk for his children's breakfast upon his return he recounts an incredible story of what happened while he was out aliens and stegosaurus flying a hot air balloon pirates the time space continuum and so much more were involved fortunately the milk is usually safe lots of black and white illustrations are included very wacky ginger snap by Patricia Riley Giff tells of Gina who's 11 her nickname is ginger snap and her older brother Rob they just got back together after living in foster homes due to their parents deaths in a car accident it is almost the end of World War II the war in Europe is over but Rob has enlisted and he is on one of many ships in the Pacific when he is reported as missing in action that prompts ginger snap to run away to Brooklyn and look for the lady who might be her grandmother it's a quiet story of seeking and finding home welcome to the tribe is tibetumtum number number one by Grimaldi this is noted as a reprint edition but I can't find when it first came out I've looked in separate I did not look in world cap so I'm not as thorough as I should have been the cave people families all know that dinosaurs disappeared ages before humans came along so no one believes tib when he says he has found one and it is friendly many adventures later the people do finally see tumtum and they are sure he should stick around this is a graphic novel with full color panels and plenty of fun the warm whisperer by Betty Hicks every year the town has a woolly warm race up a string and this year maybe Ellis copied he's in fifth grade maybe his year to win his family needs the prize money for his dad's back operation for the deductible he has found a woolly woolly warm that seems to listen to him and is willing to learn Ellis loves all animals and he really cares for his woolly warm tink when she has lost Ellis has to try with a new worm that doesn't even know him can his new worm win the thousand dollar prize the truth of me by Patricia McLaughlin Robbie loves to visit his grandmother and this trip he finds more than he expected his grandmother always tells him stories of the wild animals in the nearby woods but this trip he gets to go with her to see them and at this point a bit of magical realism comes into the story thread with the animals there's a side story about how Robbie feels his parents act like they don't care about him and his grandmother tells him something that happened in the past that is the root of this feeling it's about families, love and the best we can do Lulu and the dog from the sea is a second book about Lulu a week at the beach sounds wonderful like a wonderful vacation for Lulu her best friend Melly and Lulu's parents but right away they are warned about the thieving dog from the sea he steals, he knocks trash cans over and he is too rambunctious but Lulu doesn't see a troublemaker she sees a hungry lonely dog Nancy Clancy's secret admirer is book two of this new series about fancy Nancy for a little bit older readers this is by Jane O'Connor Nancy and her best friend Jojo still have their mystery club but Valentine's Day is drawing near and they decide they need to secretly help babysitter Annie find love with Nancy's guitar teacher Andy numerous illustrations will be enjoyed by the readers there's a third book that just came out in November in this series and now I can't remember the title but you could look for that too I'm not ready yet Timmy Failure, Mistakes Were Made Steven Pastis Timmy 11 has a detective agency but contrary to his beliefs he is not good at following clues his partner and imaginary polar bear usually makes things worse with illustrations on every page this is again reminiscent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid with a more clueless main character likely to be more since this is marked as book one the daring escape of the misfit menagerie by Jacqueline Resnick shades of bad treatment all out Roald Dahl or Lemony Snicket Bertie 10 is forced to help his uncle by caring for their circus animals and doing every other dirty job around the place when his uncle tricks another man and acquires his four remarkable animals Bertie and the new acrobat Susan who's close in age to Bertie end up engineering a possible escape the Sasquatch Escape by Susan Self versus book one in a new series called The Imaginary Veterinarian Ben 10 is sent to spend the summer with his grandfather whose idea fun his pudding day at the senior center now we're talking his grandfather's cat catches something that looks a bit like a bat but is it a baby dragon he then meets local girl Pearl and soon they are having an amazing summer they have they um accidentally let the Sasquatch out and now they have to bring him back to the secret headquarters and they have to follow the instructions in a Sasquatch capture kit it's great fun and it's followed up by the lonely lake monster which is book two in the series in this story they end up encountering the lake monster when they shouldn't have been over by the pond and the lake monster is lonely and he grabs Ben and takes Ben to the little island in the pond so that Ben can't escape all he knows is that he's lonely so they have to help the lake monster my life as a cartoonist by Janet Tashian Tashian this is the third book I believe about Derek who's 12 in this one he is up against new kid Umberto who is in a wheelchair Umberto steals the limelight and Derek's comic book ideas while maintaining an innocent heir to the teachers when Derek tries to defend himself the teachers think he is bullying Umberto Derek is working hard to improve his cartooning skills but also Umberto outshines him there too as in the previous books the stick fingers in the margins illustrate the meaning of the more difficult words this is something Derek does to learn and remember the words the third book in the series again will appeal to wimpy kid fans because we all know how we need other books that will appeal to them read through them so fast Tommy Soros by Doug Tindappel is a graphic novel about a boy whose dog is hit by a car and killed he goes to spend some time with his grandfather and then he discovers a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the property it eventually realizes that it is his dog Tommy come back to him in a different form and eventually the town people the nearby town people discover that he does have this Tyrannosaurus Rex and they are not sure it should stick around either people are so picky stick dog by Tom Watson there is a humorous tale of a group of dogs to steal the hamburgers from a family enjoying their picnic stick dog is a leader and he is very tolerant of the less usable ideas from his friends eventually after many side trips and discussions they have a better day than they ever imagined the second book about stick dog and his friends stick dog wants a hot dog by Tom Watson stick dog and his four friends want to snitch some hot dogs from Peters Frankforders a cart wafting Tommy smells across the neighborhood as usual some side tracking occurs and stick dog is wondering if it's hungry Tommy will ever get something to digest and if the raccoons get there first there may be nothing left for the dogs disaster nonfiction for grades 2 to 5 or so include revolutionary friends by Celine Castoria this is a brief look at the friendship between General George Washington and the Marquita Lafayette also includes a little bit about the effects Lafayette had on the revolutionary war and mentions that when Lafayette was shot and injured General Washington told his surgeons take care of him as if he is my son so they really had a good friendship hoop genius the subtitle how a desperate teacher in a rowdy gym class invented basketball really tells you what this book is the whole thing it's by John Coy the invention of basketball came from a teacher hoping to channel the energy and competitive spirit of the young men in the gym class he has taken over they are bored with calisthenics and gymnastics so James Naismith must find a way to keep them in line and control their energy picture book dog fiction that gives the basics of the story and another thing that's fun is the end papers contain a reproduction of the first draft of the rules of the game wild animal neighbors sharing our urban world by Ann Downer is a look at eight animals that have or are trying to find homes in cities this title explores the problems and notes some of the innovative solutions that are being tried to help both animals and humans it's an appealing format with plenty of photographs and includes an index and bibliography cowboy up ride the Navajo rodeo by Nancy bull flood the books design is appealing poetry on one page and nonfiction text on the other with one photo or more on each page talks about getting ready and being involved in a rodeo the announcers Palaver is included once the rodeo begins it's a celebration of the Navajo people and of the rodeo and includes a page of rodeo history at the back of the book noting the care taken of all the rodeo animals Miracle Mud by David A. Kelly Russell Aubrey Lena Blackburn was a major league ball player but not an exceptional one he did however make the Hall of Fame in a way for discovering a special mud that is still used to take the shine off of baseball in 1938 he began to sell it to the other teams this picture book biography tells the story of his baseball playing, coaching and solving the problems of the shine on new baseballs it's an unusual topic that will attract baseball and sports fans and includes a two page spread of additional information at the back of the book I never heard about this mud and about the problem that was fascinating FaceBug by Jay Patrick Lewis has 15 poems with additional information at the back of the book and it includes a photo of each bug's face and some cartoon type drawings on each page how can you miss with that Hey Charleston by Ann Rockwell and you can't see the subtitle and of course I didn't write it down it's a true story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band thank you the Jenkins Orphanage Band was formed by Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins in the late 1800s to earn money to support the orphans this is how the Charleston dance and the music called rag originated paving the way for more musical changes to come and there's a little bit more to it than that in the book they were invited to England to perform and while they were in England World War I basically started and there were a number of Americans that were stranded in London because their money was in British banks and that was frozen during the duration so the money that the band had made they loaned to the people who were stuck there so they could all get back to the US which is a pretty amazing story too kind of at the back of the second half of the book something to prove by Robert Skade as it says on the front book jacket flap in 1936 the New York Yankees wanted to test a hot prospect named Joe DiMaggio to see if he was ready for the big leagues they knew just the ball player to call satchel page the best pitcher anywhere, black or white is the front and papers and there's a quote on the back of the book which says Joe DiMaggio stated the best and fastest pitcher I ever faced satchel page and this is just about that one game and now we move on to team books on your list you'll see a list of some of the new books in series so I jumped over talking about those to make time for everything so that's just a way for me to let you know something new has come out in a particular series you might be keeping track of okay we'll start with fiction for younger teens nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Claire is 16 and she has spent her life reminding her parents and everyone else that she is there they just tend to forget one day looking out her window she sees a boy that's Nick he's 17 aiming a rifle at her he is stunned that she sees him he is a nobody like her and has been trained as an assassin but now he questions why the institute has sent him after her she has no threat to anyone there's a bit of magic in with the idea that some people are completely evil some are normal and some are forgettable strike 3 you're dead by Josh Burke this is listed as Lenny and the Mike series book 1 Lenny Norbeck is about 12 and his two best friends both named Mike are spending the summer taking it easy until a new player for their Phillies team falls down dead on the pitching mound now they plan to solve the mystery of what happened to him Jinx by Sage Blackwood if you stay on the path he will stay alive the Urwald forest surrounds Jinx home and everyone knows to stay out of it a wizard appears and buys Jinx as his stepfather is abandoning him which means certain death in the forest as he grows up he is curious about the wizards Simon his work room that he is never supposed to enter and how long do you think that goes it doesn't last very long how to get in there oh yeah there's the board the raft by SA Bodine Robbie is 15 and is a passenger on the delivery plane to the midway atoll where she lives with her parents when a storm causes them to crash now she is trying to survive in a life draft this book will be a popular choice with teens due to the survival aspect along with the specific knowledge Robbie has from living on midway such as the danger of disease from fish living on the edge of the islands I didn't know that I would have tried to catch the fish and eat them and then it went over for you this is a tough story because she has very little and every time you think something good might happen no it turns out to be worse so it's a tough story etiquette and espionage by Gail Carragher this is the first book in her new series aimed at teens called finishing school said in the same world as her parasol protectorate series but in a slightly earlier time period we meet Sophonia 14 who was always in the midst of kerfuffles and disturbances her latest stunt has landed her in a finishing school but while she does learn a proper curtsy dancing and other expected things she is also learning eavesdropping and diversion she is soon investigating on her own the location of a vital missing item could she have found her proper place and book 2 curtsies and conspiracies came out last month I haven't had a chance to read it yet pinned by Sharon Flake 9th grader Autumn's goal is to be the best wrestler and she is well on her way Adonis also in 9th grade is focusing on academics he is gifted and has the brains and the concentration to go far he is in a wheelchair born without legs told in their alternating voices Autumn who has trouble reading is determined to convince Adonis he wants her in its life and all he wants is for her to leave him alone if I ever get out of here by Eric Gansworth this takes place in the 1970s Lewis is a member of the Tuscalora Indian group and he lives on the reservation in upstate New York but he does attend the white school in town along with some of the other teenagers from the reservation however he is in the 7th grade in the top group and he is the only Indian in that top group so he feels bullied feels like an outsider a number of things and then George Haddonfield comes to town his father is in the Air Force they have just moved to town his father is at the base nearby and George doesn't care about Indian, white and all that kind of stuff he just kind of thinks Lewis is fun so they get together this includes the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Wings a big blizzard, a road trip lots of things going on Prisoner B 3087 by Alan Grants is a fictional account of a true story Yannick was 11 when Germany took over Krakow, 12 when the wall to keep the Jews in the ghetto was built and his Bar Mitzvah 13 was held secretly and quietly in an abandoned basement he has eventually transferred to 10 different concentration camps somehow continuing to survive it's an amazing story and a completely different tone Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Summer Vacation by Tommy Greenwald is the third book about Charlie Joe Jackson he is in middle school and he hates to read he goes to Camp Rita Bookie which is a lot like summer school to him he is a little lost among the group of nerds he finds there even though two of his best friends are there while he is definitely not in his element Charlie Joe does find he has something to contribute Coal Town Jesus by Ron Courchy told in free verse Walker 14 and his mother are grieving the death of his older brother Noah not long after Walker prays for help for his mother Jesus walks into his bedroom Walker isn't sure if Jesus is really there or is a manifestation of his mental situation but as time goes by things slowly begin to improve only Walker and a stray dog seem able to take a walk to Jesus can we take a walk or something Jesus asked your mother's heart is breaking I am very sensitive to people suffering why don't you do something about it why don't you some may think it is sacrilegious since Jesus is portrayed at times as a smart alec and a regular guy but as this short book goes on his approach becomes clear oh yes and Jesus does ask for some red tennis shoes so hence the cover is comfortable here the hypnotist by Gordon Corman Jack Jack's opus he's 12 he finds he has descended from two powerful hypnotist bloodlines but he has just begun to realize that he can control other people's actions with some frightening results especially when the head of the Sencha Institute has plans for Jack's abilities is the Sencha Institute really a good place mmm and I have a feeling that there's going to be more books about the hypnotists Scarlett by Marissa Meyer is book 2 in the Lunar Chronicles series Cinder, Kai, and Scarlett's stories alternate Scarlett lives on a vegetable farm in France her grandmother has disappeared and the police have given up an accidental meeting with Wolf a street fighter sets her on a course to search for her grandmother meanwhile Cinder is trying to escape from prison and Kai can see no way to avoid marrying the Lunar Queen Lovanna there's plenty of mystery and action that continues to move the story forward and books 3 and 4 are going to come out February 2014 and the last one in 2015 according to information I have at this time though we know sometimes things change The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen is sequel to The False Prince which is book 2 and this is book 2 in the trilogy Jaron 14 chooses to flee the castle in secret hoping it will help him keep the throne Carthia is threatened by pirates and possibly by a neighboring country Jaron is gambling that he will be able to stop the pirate threat being outside of the castle to me this series reads like the Rangers Apprentice series so anybody asking for more like the Rangers Apprentice hand them these two books right away Road Trip by Gary and Jim Paulson this is told by Ben who's 14 and the family's border collie Atticus they're on their way to rescue a border collie puppy Ben and his father are working through some issues and they also help and are helped by others they pick up along the way if this has humor and heart and it's also a short book so somebody looking for a not very long read will enjoy that Ship Out of Luck be careful how you say this Ship Out of Luck by Niel Schusterman Annecy and his family are coerced into joining Mr. Crawley and Lexie for a seven day cruise trouble still follows Annecy because how could it be his fault these things had happened soon he is enmeshed in an international incident and he is possibly guilty of a federal offense Annecy has heart for the troubles of others and continues to try to help hurry can again lots of humor Navigating Early by Claire Vanderpool Jack 13 is sent from Kansas to a boarding school in Maine and his parents early on a strange boy who was fascinated with the number pipe and believes it is telling him a story he also believes his brother is still alive after World War II and following the story will help find him the boys take a row boat and go on a quest into the mountains during a week of school vacation danger and adventure await them Pivot Point by Casey West when her parents announced they are divorcing an Addie Madison and high school junior she will need to choose whether to live with her mother in the place she has always lived or with her father who is moving outside the protected compound where those with special abilities can use them freely Addie is able to look six weeks into the future to see the two different paths she could take and what will happen with each choice and then she has a tough decision to make about what she is actually going to do some nonfiction for teens the Nazi hunters by Neil Vascom the subtitle says it all how a team of spies and survivors captured the world's most notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann escaped and lived for years in Argentina after World War II ended Boya describes this title as a spy story with an evil genius and zealous advocates seeking justice it is amazing to me that the search was discontinued more than once due to rumors not being worth following and lack of photographic evidence that Eichmann was living where reported but again they eventually do capture it and they have photos of the time in the book so that also helps really tell the story Andrew Janks my life as a young filmmaker by Andrew Janks his family moved to Belgium when he was nine years old and he was lost until his mom bought a video camera to send tapes back to the states Andrew spent all his spare time with the camera they returned to New York when he was in sixth grade but he still kept taping anything and everything he uses a scrapbook approach to tell his story using many photos plenty of white space along with the text it's sure to appeal to the team familiar with his show and or interested in life after high school and college because he does talk about how he spent two years at film school in New York but that wasn't working for him and then that's when he decided to go off and do his film about the documentary about living with the nursing home people zombie makers two stories of nature's undead by Rebecca L. Johnson tells of animals mostly buds in nature that inject other creatures who then no longer act in their own best interest in effect they are zombies after each example is explained the author includes a brief science behind the story explained by scientists and or university professors it's fascinating and icky and there might be some in your house the author found some in her house they were flies they were in the attic light on the prairie by Nancy Plain is the subtitle Solomon Butcher photographer of Nebraska's pioneer days this includes the Nebraska history along with the biography of Solomon Butcher at least during his time living in Nebraska so this primarily of course focuses on Nebraska but the photographs are well known across the country by him and it really gives a sense of the life at that time and it's wonderful to have this all together in one book and this also won the nonfiction award for Nebraska Center for the book Youth Book Awards Gulp by Mary Roche Adventures on the Alimentary Canal now this doesn't sound very interesting but it's fascinating it's by Mary Roche amazing stories of research happenstance and the workings of the human digestive tract it is an adult blog or it was marketed as adult but it's sure to interest teens especially with sections such as spit gas and fecal transplants and any of the teens who have read her earlier books like stiff are going to see her name and say oh yeah I want to see what she has to say here bomb by Stephen Schienken he tells of the Manhattan Project and the scientists from other nations who assisted there are also a little bit of discussion of how some nations like Russia were hoping to steal the secrets of the bomb it includes attempts to thwart the Nazi scientists who were attempting to develop a similar bomb and the aftermath after the bomb was used and this book received the excellence in nonfiction award it was a Newberry Honor Award and a Cybert Honor Book it's definitely something you need in your collection for the good of mankind by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein this is sickening but it's likely to catch teens attention the author discusses a number of cases starting in the 1700s of experiments on unknowing patients to learn more about what the human body can stand in the late 1700s Edward Jenner introduced the cowpox virus then later the smallpox virus on young children's arms and included his own son to prove the former could save lives and it's unclear whether he had permission to do this with the other children or not so this book also discusses the development of laws to protect people from this kind of action included this Bad Girls by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stempel her daughter is a look at some of the bad women of history 26 ladies in 24 chapters each chapter focuses on one or two ladies who were very bad or were they coerced or foolish or controlled Jane Yolen and her daughter offer the basic details as we know them in text and then in a little one page graphic novel format debate each case as to was she really bad did somebody else exert pressure this will likely inspire some readers to find out more about some of the women Delilah, Lizzie Borden, Marahari and Bonnie Parker to name a few now we'll go on to fiction for older teens The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black Tana is 17 her ex-boyfriend Aiden and Vampire Gabriel who was found changed to a bed traveled to the nearest cold town the walled city of vampires to try to save Aiden from becoming a vampire he's been bitten but he hasn't changed yet and the book explains how this process works I didn't think the vampire book could be this is fascinating and I don't know there might be more so they can come from a different angle or do something different with it yes definitely comes from a different angle The Diviners by Libba Bray Evie is sent to New York to live with her uncle after she embarrasses the son of an Ohio small town big shot she loves her punishment and spend some time in speakeasies downing the booze this takes place during the 20s 1920s she loves her punishment then supernatural is everywhere in this book Evie has a talent to see the past lives of the odd kids and her uncle runs the museum of American folklore superstition and the occult but now there is a bloody killer on the loose with no clues as to who may be next he could be an evil spirit Evie is determined to find out book two just came out in August titled Diviners Curse and Lair of Dreams book three will be out next April more to read Killer of enemies by Joseph Brushock part Apache and part Abenaki Lauren 17 is skilled in killing the giant genetically engineered monsters that roam the countryside now that the cloud has caused most machinery to quit the world is a different place her mother brother and sister are being held by the four heads of Haven the former prison now being used to keep the monsters out and the slaves in if lozen can continue to survive she plans to eventually free her family this really reads like the others of Joseph Brushock lots of adventure action and really pulls you forward in this story the elite is sequel to the selection by Kira Kass 35 girls were chosen for the selection for Prince Max and Demi to get to know eventually choose a wife to later be queen now in this book the elite there are only six left and they are called six of them the elite main character America singer is still among them and she is still not certain whether she wants a life with the Prince or her former wish to marry Aspen and live in poverty as a six there are eight cast levels and who you are is determined by your cast the King, Queen and Prince are of course ones America was a five when she arrived at the castle during this book a rebels attack the castle more than once and America is trying to understand what they want and why they wanted along with all the duties and tests assigned to them for the competition so this is kind of the bachelor as Prince and learning more about the country's past history that they didn't know reached by Ali Kondi is the third and final book in the match trilogy Kasha, Kai and Xander each contribute to the rebellion against the society as they worry and wonder how the others are doing a terrible illness is spreading and soon it seems no one can stop it not the society and not the rebellion as people struggle for their freedom to choose some begin to wonder if things will ever really get better game by Barry Liga this is the sequel to I hunt killers the New York police department asks jazz to go to New York to help try to catch the hat dog killer named for the marks he makes on his victims Billy Dent jazz a serial killer father has escaped from prison and is playing mind games again jazz continues to hope he will not become a killer too reminding himself that people are real people matter this is creepy and gory like the first book and I have to give you a warning there's a cliffhanger ending maybe you didn't want to know that I'll tell you what it is I also have heard that the movie rights have been sold for the first book I hunt killers so it's going to be interesting this series this is not a drill by Beck McDowell Emory and Jake high school seniors visit a first grade class three mornings a week to teach French this morning a distraught father comes into the room to take his son home there is soon a horrible situation because the teacher has refused that he hasn't gotten permission and they discovered that the father has recently returned from Iraq is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder has a gun and is willing to use it the teens do their best to keep the children calm and think of a way to calm the father tense and hard to read at times this title gives a sense of what it could be like to be in such a situation not a dropped drink by Mindy McGinnis 16 year old Lynn will do anything to protect her valuable water source with the arrival of new neighbors forces her to reconsider her attitudes she has been taught by her mother who told her all along don't let anyone or anything get to the water the little pond and they spend a lot of time up on top of the house looking down and they do they kill any animal or any person that tries to get to the water because that is survival the first line in the book is Lynn was nine the first time she killed to defend the pond and like that means she killed a person but it really shows a change from the things that her mother had taught her the way she was raised after her mother was accidentally killed and these people show up and they need help slowly she begins to change to try and find a new way of survival the 100 by Cass Morgan the last humans have been orbiting Earth for years in a space station type home in this place breaking the rules is a criminal activity now the chancellor has decided that 100 teens being held in confinement many of them age 17 will be dropped to Earth to hopefully survive and send back data to prove that life that Earth is livable again shades of a penal colony crossed with war to the flies I understand this has already been selected by the CW to create a TV series I can see them doing that I think it does say right there coming soon I guess it's not a rumor all the right stuff by Walter Dean Myers Paul 16 is working in a Harlem soup kitchen this summer after his father was killed in a random shooting he hasn't seen his father in a long time but he's still working through the loss where he listens to lessons about the social contract from Elijah who was an elderly African-American man Paul also mentors a 17-year-old unwed mother who wants to make it to college on a basketball scholarship and this book is heavy on the social contract side of the story but the characters and the discussion that Paul has with Elijah really carry the story forward and it doesn't feel too heavy or too mired in things to think about I like the way when Paul asks Elijah a question Elijah will usually say think about it and we'll talk tomorrow and then Paul will do some things over the night it's a fascinating and it's a short book but it's a look at things that maybe people haven't thought about very much lately another book by Walter Dean Myers Invasion May 1944 Josiah Wedgwood called Woody in 19 is in the 29th Infantry preparing for Omaha Beach they joke about how the Germans will run from them and they'll be going home by October however of course it is horrendous men die everywhere Woody in the 29th continue across France thinking of home when not fighting he happens across a friend from home Marcus Perry who was black and drives a supply truck segregation in the army is not a main focus of the book but it is there there is some language and talk of sex included and certainly should be expected in a book about World War II or any war this was written to accompany his two titles Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fluges to kind of round out his war stories Eleanor in Park by Rainbow Rowell has alternating viewpoints of Eleanor in Park short sections of each after the opening chapters as they develop from a grudging acceptance to friendship and then to romance and this is kind of a tough book because they both faced bullying Eleanor because she is her with red hair and she is bullying at school and she she's getting a different kind of bullying at home from her stepfather Park is Asian American and she gets bullying for that as well but both of them really work hard to not let that affect them and to keep going forward to the things that they want to accomplish Fan Girl also by Rainbow Rowell talks about twin sisters from Omaha fans of assignment snow book series they are starting their freshman year at UNL but will live separately for the first time one Kath is having trouble adjusting Grant is a sister who pushed for the change and Kath feels like a fish out of water she turns to the fan fiction she and Grant wrote together for two years and now is writing alone it is the one familiar place for her and she's really faltering Winger by Andrew Smith there is a reason he has been talking about this book Ryan Dean West is a 14 year old junior at Pine Mountain boarding school he is intelligent and excruciating immature he is a starter at Wing on the Rugby team hence his nickname Winger and those scrawny and thin he throws himself into the game we hear his inner monologue where his thoughts often end with I am such a loser but we also see his yearning for Annie two years his senior and his friendship with Joey team captain who was gay and open there is a school library journal noted drinking profanity crudeness and constant verbal slurs there is also heart humor and pluck along with a heart breaking conclusion the dream thieves by Maggie steve offer is book two of the Raven cycle and things are beginning to escalate in Cabe's water Ronan Lynch's ability to pull objects from his dreams is almost out of control but the most concerning thing is that the mysterious gray man is stalking the Lynch family looking for something called the gray and again this is a middle book I think there's going to be three in this series so you have the middle book issues of pulling the story forward without really a conclusion but it's an excellent rose under fire by Elizabeth wine I got started on this book and had to take it back to the library and then I haven't gotten it back again but it is excellent it's a companion book to code name which I read completely and I thoroughly enjoyed in this book the main character is rose justice and American and her job is to ferry allied planes from England to Paris and it describes her job and the dangers involved and about a third of the way through the book is captured and she is sent to Ravensbrook the notorious women's concentration camp in northern Germany and there she encounters the Polish women who are being experimented on with medical experimentations and their efforts to survive all of this so it's different from the first book as far as I've read but it's still about something that you don't hate about very much and also about being strong and surviving the fifth wave by Rick Yansey in this book they note that alien invasions are not like the movies they don't like come down in their spaceship and you wave at them and they wave back the first wave was lights out no power no more electricity the second wave they call surf set because that was tsunamis everywhere the third wave was well I don't want to give everything away but we're down to them wondering will there be a fifth wave and if there is what will it be because there aren't that many humans left Cassie is 16 and she promised her brother Sammy that she would find him and she will keep that promise we can't trust anyone who was left they might actually be one of the others aliens Boy Nobody by Alan Zadoff he is 16 and 16 and he was brought into the fold at age 12 when his father died and he was taught what he needed to know and now he does his job he gets close to someone he needs to usually at the new school and then that friendship gets him close to his target he kills his target and then he leaves this time for the first time the person he is supposed to get close to the mayor's daughter awakens romantic feelings can he kill her father short chapters twists will appeal to readers it's similar to the first book I was talking about in this section nobody but also they're very different they're both assassins but other than that they're very different and that's the last book on the list there are again lists of additional titles for the series books but I thought I didn't hear no problem yeah not that much longer no that's okay not a problem that was great so nobody had any questions or comments throughout the show except for actually that's not true Pat Kasha who were you asking about earlier lose film here yes they say thank you for the handout so yes that was very useful so yes the handout related to this that Saida's reading from will be available afterwards if you didn't get ahead of time before the show and the PowerPoint slides will be up if you're interested in seeing this the covers and what not with the recording so thank you very much Sally for coming on show and do that with us again this year I always like having you on to do this and it's usually about this time after the conference in October and before the new year starts because I get lots of ideas for Christmas presents I say this I think every year my cousin is three kids eight ten and an older teenage boy so I'm always looking for ideas for that so I found great ideas here over the years to do for Christmas so that will wrap us up for today thank you everyone for attending thank you Sally and that wraps up yes for there we go making sure I saw it on the screen there our best new youth folks in 2013 it has been recorded will be available later today tomorrow so if you weren't able to catch everything or you want to share or watch it again you'll be able to see the recording we hope to join us next week when our topic is turning your library around part two four years later a couple years ago we had staff in the south city public library here in Nebraska come on they made some huge changes at their library and increased their usage and their programming with a very small staff so they've they've XORF the director their contact name wants to update and what they've been doing on assistant so you see more new things they've been doing there so I hope you'll sign up and join us for that and if you are on Facebook Encompass Live is on Facebook as well so if you're a big Facebook user please do go there and like us on Facebook you'll get notifications of when shows are coming up our recordings are available when we're starting like I said this morning just right now you can log right in on the fly so if you are a big Facebook user then go ahead and like us there and keep up to date on what's going on with Encompass Live other than that we are wrapped up for today thank you very much for attending and we'll see you next time bye bye


Hi, awesome. I'm really excited to join you all today and thanks very much to the Product School for giving me this opportunity to come to talk to you, so let's get stuck into it. So I'm Andrew Howe, my mantra, I like a good mantra, I don't know if you guys know Guy Kawasaki, he's one of my favourite people out in the world, but he says everyone should have a mantra, so a number of years back I said what is it that really drives me when I work and that mantra was that products empower in life, so I really like and definitely now will only really look at working for companies where I feel like the product that I'm trying to generate is going to have an impact on people's lives in a positive way and so I think it's really important for me to be working at a company like that and at the moment I work at bookie.com, so I really get that opportunity there. Bookie is a great place to product and it's definitely got that product outcome thinking going on, which is one of the reasons that I've been there for a while now and I can't see myself leaving for a little while, but yeah everything's there is the right way to do things. So just skipping forward now, so again background would be I've worked as startups in the financial services industry and not for profits and obviously now in the global travel industry, not all of that there's been an important role sometime that you know I've started, I've done business analysis earlier in my career and I did commercial strategy and I made the shift over to product roughly about six or seven years ago maybe a little bit longer and it just was a natural progression from all of the different places and different skills I pulled together for me to take a step into product. So what we have today, we want to talk about outcome thinking and specifically we're going to have a chat about product outcome thinking. It's a bit of a large subject, there's a lot out there, if you go out into Google and out onto the wider internet and you start doing a bit of Googling, you'll find that there's a lot of information about product thinking and people have very different views or lenses that they put on there. You might see people talk about technology thinking and problem thinking and outcome thinking. Some people might talk about outputs and outcomes and we're going to talk a little bit about that today. But really those are all things that make up outcome thinking. They are a different type of thinking, they're all part of the same thing and I think in my personal view, it's not the right thing to say you shouldn't think about output. Output is an important part of outcomes. You have to understand the output process and what it's doing but really where we want to do is product managers is in that output outcome mindset. So what does that actually mean? Well, we'll have a bit of a chat about that now. So just to define quickly what an output is because that's most of the thing that people are saying, we should be doing outcomes and that output. So output is the amount of something that you can generate or machine can generate or an industry can generate and it's the volume of things. And that's important because if we want to build something or create something, we have to know how well we can do that and what's involved to do that, right? So we shouldn't completely disregard output as a fundamental part of outcome thinking. So you can be super productive from an output perspective and you can be super efficient but the question is, are you being effective? And this is where we start to get into the round of outcomes, right? So effectiveness is the outcome, right? Productivity, efficiency of the measures around the output. So here's a really great example which I really like about, you know, if you just outputting yourself to the place that you want to be that outcome, have you built it the most effective way, right? So for example, do I really need to build a bread machine within a bread machine to make a loaf of bread? It's a classic Simpson's example of a problem. So what is an outcome then? Let's flip it now, let's talk about outcomes. So outcomes are basically the consequence of something, right? So it's the way that the thing turned out. It's not the process in getting there. And this is where we as product owners or product managers or product leads, whatever, you know, you guys are calling yourselves at the moment. This is where we want to spend our time and I think a lot of our thinking, right? And everything that we should be doing should be about facilitating an outcome, driving the, you know, everything towards that, helping the team, helping each other to make that outcome a reality. So how do we go about shaping an outcome and getting to a place where we can understand that outcome? Well, first off, you've really got to make sure that everyone understands the problem, right? And what we really mean by this is that you guys as a team have spent sufficient time in the problem space. And what you've done there is you've validated that there's a desirability to solve that problem with customers. Now, you can, once you've got that, that understanding, you know, you can do really quick exercises here around things like just jumping up on a jamboard, getting everything that you know about that problem just shoved into one space, and then theming it really quickly so that you can get an understanding of the different subcategories of problems that exist within that. And a really good example of a problem here in the digital realm would be something like that you're losing customers at your checkout page in your e-commerce journey, right? Customers are going through all the steps, they're getting to checkout, and then you'll drop in a lot. And then when you go out into the wider market and you're looking for benchmarks on what conversion looks like, you seem to be 10% down on everybody else, or even worse, right? So you have a problem now, you have a problem, and then you can go out to customers, you can do some discovery around it, and you can say, hey, what is the problem? Try and contextualize that problem now a little bit more with your customers. So we've now gone through that, and we haven't just done that as a single person exercise, we've done that as a team, we've understood the problem is here, and that's really important, because if you're the only person that understands the problem, how are you going to be supposed to generate ideas or ways of solving that problem that's going to generate the outcome that you as a product manager want to create, right? So this isn't about being an individual, product is not, you know, a one person sport, it is a team sport, it's an activity that is team oriented, and you have to have that in your mindset. Really, your job as a product manager is there to facilitate that everyone else's success. So so yeah, so we've understood that problem, everyone's got their head around that that part of the things. So then the question is that ideation phase, how might we solve that problem, right? And this is where we're going to spend a bit of time with with the team. And again, we're going for another exercise of ideation, the workshop, and we're going to start pulling out ideas. Now we don't just want to pull out ideas and say, oh, we're going to do that, because then we're getting into the realms of output, right? So you can have a list of 100 things, and you go, right, I'm going to go make all those 100 things, and that's going to get me my 10 percent back, right? But actually, what we're doing there is being we're not being effective. We're probably not being very efficient. We're probably being very productive, because we got 100 things that we can go and build, and build them, but we're not probably doing that in the right way. And what we mean by that is that 100 things you may only need to have actually done 10 of those to get to where you want to get to. Or it may be only 10 of those are actually the things you need to care about that are going to get you where you want to get to. So this is where we now have to start thinking about putting some rigor around those things. And this is where things like hypotheses can really help us to understand that. So first off, so we've got that how might we, the ideas, and we want to make sure that we can measure those things, right? So have we got a measure that sits around those that gives us that ability to say, Hey, something is this measurable? So I've got an idea. Is it measurable? Can I go into the thing, make that change and see that movement? Because what we're trying to generate here product outcomes of behavioral changes. Okay, they're not. We're trying to change the behavior of a customer to do something more in line with where we want them to go. So in this instance, as the example we're talking about, we want them to convert more. We want them to check out more, right? And so to do that, we need to make sure that we can make a measure between the current experience and the things that we're changing. And we may use things like AB experimentation, but we need to make sure that we have either micro conversion events or other events available data points that allow us to be able to measure that successfully. So we have a measure in place, and we're confident that we can make that measure. So the next step then is, okay, we've got that hypothesis now. So when we talk about hypotheses that I always talk about Teresa Torres, she's really great at defining all of this sort of problem space and also the structure of hypotheses. But she uses this very, and I love this example and it's something we use very similar here, booking. But yeah, I know if I design this, which is the change, this will increase the conversion. So that's the impact for the who here. So online grocery shoppers and by how much by 10%. And also there's a time box on that there as well, because we're saying this is going to happen in seven days. And this comes back to, you know, making sure that we're going to do diligence on our data analysis to say that we have the volume to be able to return that experiment within this window of time. Right. But again, just to flip this, this is obviously digitally orientated. You can use this same method for manufacturing and things like this, because you still want to create an impact. Right. So you're going to change something to create that impact. So it may be that you're doing something that you want to change the color of a t-shirt. Right. And that's what you think you've been increasing the number of sales of that t-shirt for 18 to 30 year olds who shop on your website by 5%. And it's going to happen over the next 30 days. Right. You can use hypotheses in lots of different ways. And so we've got a hypothesis and we've got a set of hypotheses. So we might have more than once. We've got a load of ideas now that allow us to, that we think other things that are going to solve that problem. We put some value around them and we prioritize them. So out of the 100 things, actually there is only 10 that we care about because if we get those 10, we're going to over deliver on what our outcome is, which is we want to create 10% impact to the checkout on our e-commerce site. So now we've got that and stripped out the waste. So we've reduced our output down to what we believe is the thing that's going to create the most effectiveness. And we prioritize that in our backlog and now we're going to go into the realms of going and delivering that. Right. But before we do that, we want to explain that and set us a focus around that. So we want to make sure that the wider business understands it, other teams and also that we as a team have something that gives us the ability to understand that easily. There's a great framework for that and it's basically the OKR framework. And we use this at booking.com and I've used it in other places as well. So we set an objective. We want to make that inspiring. So, you know, we want to make an amazing checkout experience that really invigorates our customers to convert, additional customers convert checkout. We've got a measure that we can measure our key results against, which is the checkout conversion. And instead of just saying we're going to hit, we want to increase this by 10%, which is a very specific number. And what OKR allows you to do is give yourself a bit of range. And especially if you've got more ideas than maybe you might need, you've got a couple of extra ideas to make sure that if something fails, you've got something you can fall back on, right? So for example, you have a 0.3, a 0.7, and a 0.1, right? So when you look at those 0.3, that 0.7, and that 1, this is basically a range of outcome. And what we would say something like is, hey, our 0.3 might be 8%. We're going to get 8% towards our desired outcome of 10 in this next window of delivery. And the 7 may be the 10%, and the 1.0 may be 12%. But the reason why we have that range is because the 0.3 is something that we're really confident on. And that 8% might be a lot easier to get to because the things, there are some things that are just broken in the site or things that we can fix. We know that it's going to improve conversion, right? But actually you make it, so we're really confident on that one, but making then the leap from the 0.3 to the 0.7, there's a little bit less confidence there. We're still in the realms of possibility, but we're not as confident as we were at the 0.3, but we're not so unconfident. You know, it's not completely stretching us that it's not within the realms of us achieving, and we want to aim for that 0.7. That's what we're aiming for, in our OKRs, right? That's what we want to try to achieve a success. And then our 1.0 is, is that, hey, if everything went amazing and we absolutely smashed it and things just happened, then we think that we could potentially achieve this additional 2% on top of that. So what that gives us then as a product team, and especially around our outcome focus, is a range of success, and that means that it's going to be more manageable for us to hit some success and learn from that. Now, if we fail to hit that, that's not the end of the world, right? Failure isn't a final step, it's just an opportunity to learn. So what we don't want to do is fail again through the same mechanism and same mistake. We want to learn from that and improve so the next time we do hit our OKR. So OKR is a really good tool because it allows us to also say, hey, if we under forecast what we can achieve or if we overstretched ourselves the next time we just need to, need to learn from that and ping it back a little bit and it helps keep us focused and also helps make sure that we're not over pushing ourselves out of the realms of what is actually possible within those cycles. So yeah, OKR, really great framework, but then you're in the doing, right? You set your OKR and now you're in the quarter and your team's running and you know you're getting into it. So where are you now? Well, you're still that facilitator and leading up to that place, you should have been doing your planning and identified lots of things like your dependencies, tried to remove as many of those things as a team as you possibly can, but your realm as a product manager in this space is to continue to make sure that the things get facilitated and also the challenge here, I think especially when you get PMs that are or POs that are coming new into the space, there's a tendency to get stuck into the detail and detail is important, but your role here at this stage is to take a step back from that and to be able to make sure that you're continuing that job of doing that outcome facilitator role, right? So, you know, is there a thing?  How's the experimentation going? Is there any data problems? Have we, if we underestimating, do we need another skill set we don't have when right, I'll go and get those things so that the team can continue to move towards the outcome success that we want to drive, right? And again, reminding ourselves here that we're trying to drive a customer behavioural change, you know, are we measuring those things effectively? So, sometimes the thing that we need to do in that instance is make sure that we're giving ourselves time to take that condor moment and what's the condor moment? Well, a condor moment is basically when you take a step back, you know, making sure that you take a step back and you're looking at the space holistically and you're going, where are we? What's the confidence like? Are we going, have we spent too much time on this hypothesis? Is it not working? Shall we switch over to the next one in the list or our next one in our priorities? Because if we spend any more time in this, then we're potentially going down a rabbit hole. It's making sure that you're facilitating those conversations to the team as well as making sure that anything that could be blocking the team you're working on because if you get to the end of the quarter and the difference between you hitting your 0.3 in your OKR and hitting your 0.7 in your OKR was that the team got blocked for a week and a you weren't aware of that because you were in the detail of something else or that blocker where you didn't get raised quickly enough because you weren't able to manage that amount of information or whatever the challenge was being. Then there's an element of like we've all failed, right? But we can learn from that because next time you need, the other thing is let's make sure that that doesn't happen. So that's about you taking a step back, make sure that you're having that opportunity to make sure that everything's where it should be. But also that then you're working with the team to make sure that your feedback loops are faster and that you're getting that information that you can do and rather than that the teams get stuck on it that you're able then to go and facilitate a way out of that problem, right? So yeah, so making sure you have those times to take a step back is really important. And also coming back to this planning thing. So planning, people don't put enough time into planning. Plans are only as good as the moment they were written, but planning is a really important tool. And it's important because let's say we go back to that list, we have that list of, you know, five things that we're going to do or ten things we're going to do. Well, what happens if none of those things return, right? But we're early enough in the quarter to do something about it. Or we're going down the track and it doesn't quite work out. Well, this is where our planning comes into effect because our plan isn't going right, but our planning has gone into enough detail to say there are other opportunities here and we can pull another player or a different set of tactics in to be able to try and Oh, sorry. Yeah, so sorry, just a bit of a glitch. And so planning, yeah, so planning is really important, again. So like I said, so if you've got that space and you have all of those potential other tactics that you can come into your disposal around that problem, it will potentially give you that opportunity to still achieve that outcome or part of that outcome without completely failing. So planning is a really important step and you should, you know, one of the things I always say is that we as a team, we always put time into planning and we start that early enough so that it's just a part of the process and it can be managed well and efficiently. And so, yeah, so it does lead to outcome success because those times where you get to a place where you can't go down the route that you originally planned to, it gives you that flexibility to move less than right around those issues to still facilitate back through into that outcome that you want to generate. So the idea here is about the flow of things rather than being so rigid that things just don't happen. And again, what we tend to find or you may find is the things like methodology and things like that can get in the way. They're really important but sometimes we need to be more flexible than that. And as a team working now, sitting down about how you want things to play out and what are your, you know, four backs is a really mature product type of thinking that I think is not always prevalent in all teams. So, yeah, so planning definitely equals outcome success. So just quickly as well, I wanted to quickly lastly talk about this. So again, one thing that can really make a difference between, you know, the type of impact outcomes are generating and the impact that they can generate is the type of thinking that you have. So if you're in a very predictable space, so you're thinking very linearly, you're doing optimization, you're taking it from one optimization to the next, then you're always moving forwards but you're moving forwards that are very predictable and sometimes a slow pace, right? So you might be making very small, minor improvements to the overall thing that you want to try impact and where sometimes if you think more exponentially, what you can do is you can skip some of that stuff. So rather than taking that nice, gentle curve, you're gonna, you're gonna make that curve go up more, more, more erratically, more, sorry, more erratically, more quickly because you're gonna take some risks, right? So if you can get into a place where you're premature around your process and how you're working as a team and the practice that you have and, you know, thinking about how you can be more exponential in your thinking can be a real benefit as well in product thinking because what you're trying to say is okay, this is the sort of customer behavioral problem I have at the moment. These are some of the things I could fix it with right now or potentially improve it with but hey, where did we think customers may be in x time from now and is there an opportunity to jump to that place and pull it forwards and in doing so you potentially have created a bit of a USP or a new curve that puts you in front of your competition and also, you know, makes your customers have a better experience and maybe think that you're a bit more cutting edge around the other things that are in the market. So another thing that we tend to use quite a lot in our teams that I work with is is there an exponential way that we can solve this problem that's gonna get us not just the outcome we want but maybe push us past that as well to drive towards more of the vision or the wider goals that we're trying to achieve. So just something I way to quickly talk to you guys about. And again, a really good book that's worth reading if you haven't read it already I know that probably a lot of you have is Radical Focus. Brilliant book, great, easy read. Really easy to understand how OKRs can be working, how they can be intimately. You can get through this really quickly, really practical ways as well. I think even in the back it's started orientated but in the back it has a lot of product stuff as well. So great, great book to read. And again, I think I mentioned Theresa Torres earlier who's also someone I think has got a real load of good stuff on product thinking and how to think about problem spaces. Yeah, so that's it. That covers everything. I hope this has been a really useful session. There's a lot out there. I'm not a guru on it. This is just the thoughts and experiences of things that I've done and things that work for me.  So don't be afraid to share them with the world. Anyway, brilliant. Thank you very much.