One in an occasional set of interviews with the reviewers who provide critical insights about new books from our client publishers.
Jennifer Wharton has been on our list of reviewers for about two years now and provides a librarian’s look at how titles will work in programs, supporting curriculum, or circulating amongst her library patrons.
Jennifer, let’s start with your introduction.
I am the youth services librarian of a medium-sized library in southern Wisconsin, the Matheson Memorial Library. I have been working there for over sixteen years and I especially enjoy collection development and reader’s advisory. At those rare times when I am not reading or reviewing, I sew, quilt, and garden.
How did you get started reviewing titles?
I started blogging in graduate school, somewhere between 2007 and 2008. However, you won’t be able to track my blog back to its beginnings since I frequently edit, revise, repost, and delete old posts! Blogging was all the rage at the time and I’ve always liked making lists and recommending books. I was later involved in Cybils for many years, both as a panelist and as a category organizer and board member. Between Cybils and attending library conferences I got to know various publicists and learned a lot of lessons about what worked best for me in reviewing books. At one point I was running somewhere around seven blogs with 5+ reviews a week on my main blog! Eventually I pared things down and I now run one major blog with about three reviews a week and one side-blog as well as reviewing for No Flying No Tights.
What is your favorite genre to review? Who is your ideal audience for your reviews/writing?
My personal favorite genre is nonfiction; my colleagues are always trying to get me involved in trivia because they think my random fact knowledge will be useful! However, in general I focus primarily on picture books and books for early elementary and middle grade. This ties into my main audience, which is librarians, teachers, and myself! During every review I write, I am thinking in the back of my head “Will this circulate at the library? Would this circulate at another library, if not at mine? Is this a title that works in storytime? Which readers/teachers will be interested in this book?” Most of my audience is fellow librarians and colleagues and I frequently share blog posts in answers to people asking for collection development or reader’s advisory guidance. I also use my blog to help me remember titles to promote through themed displays or marketing, or to recommend specific books for reader’s advisory.
How do the children in your life influence your choices?
While I am a “book aunt” to a small number of niblings, all of my reviewing is done with library patrons in mind. I work with kids of all ages and sometimes share teen reader’s advisory requests with my teen services librarian (I personally don’t read YA, only manga), but I get the most reader’s advisory requests for elementary-age kids, both as individuals and in school requests. I try to have a balanced collection while using my budget responsibly and purchasing the titles that will be of the most interest to readers. This can be very different from my personal tastes – what I like isn’t necessarily going to circulate and I may find a book problematic but a kid is unlikely to see what I, as an adult, see. When reviewing picture books I generally have specific teachers in mind or how a group in storytime or in a classroom will respond to the title. For beginning chapters and middle grade titles, I sometimes have specific kids in mind, especially if the title is a little different, but generally I am thinking about whether kids will take it off the shelf or if they’d pull it out from a classroom collection.
Tell us a bit about the process from reading a book, to deciding to review/write about it.
I receive review copies from a number of sources, including Publisher Spotlight! I like Publisher Spotlight because it lets me try out books that are more niche – with a smaller budget I can’t always afford to purchase books for my library that I’m not absolutely sure will circulate – as well as to find hidden gems. When requesting books for review I keep in mind my library audience, my current workload, and the general areas I review. Experience has given me a pretty good idea of what will circulate. I will also sometimes pick books because they look pretty or just sound interesting!
! I also extensively request library books – my small library is part of a four-county consortium that includes several much larger libraries as well as numerous smaller libraries so I have a good chance of finding a lot of new books to preview. I keep lists of all my requested books, from the library or for review so I am not requesting duplicates.
I read and write in big chunks, usually on weekends although I do take nonfiction to work to read during lunch. Once I’ve read the books, I add them to my LibraryThing account, so I can find them again later, then I sort them out into three piles. If the book caught my interest, there’s something unique about it, I think it might be likely to be overlooked, or it sparked a lot of ideas for me on using it in storytime or recommending it to certain readers, I’ll put it aside for a longer review on my main blog, Jean Little Library. All requested review copies that don’t fall into this category, and any library titles that stand out to me, I write up short reviews on my secondary blog, Flying Off My Bookshelf. On that secondary blog I also list other titles I have read, many of them library books, in monthly summaries that can be searched. I hope to help more readers discover titles I have reviewed through my Pinterest page. I’ll highlight reviews from both of my blogs in my small Facebook reader’s advisory group, share them with friends and colleagues, and any review copies I don’t add to our collection or use as prizes I pass on to neighboring libraries. I also keep a running list of authors, illustrators, and series and I will add new authors that list – I check this list once or twice a year for new books. Reviewing for me is very much a part of my overall work in collection development and while I don’t do it on work time, it’s a big part of my life as a librarian.
We hope you have enjoyed this look into the life of a librarian reviewer! We know our publishers appreciate the insights she provides.
