The Book Girls are only partly real; like most heavily marketed-to demographics, they only sort of exist. Every Book Girl is something else, too - a sportsy girl, a scientist, a nail-art aficionado, a poet, a prodigy, a patient. But the force they are exerting is real. They have created a market for what they love, and they insist upon it.
They have allies in boyfriends and boy friends, in parents and other adults, in librarians and book critics. The world of their books is much more complicated than just them, and they are more complicated than just their books.
Jennifer Bromman-Bender, librarian at Lincoln-Way West High School (New Lenox, IL) and author of several books on booktalking, including R&L's Booktalking Nonfiction: 200 Sure-Fire Winners for Middle and High School Readers (2013), spoke about how to present nonfiction books to middle- and high-school students. She also gave a presentation of some of her most popular booktalks. Katie Mediatore Stover of the Kansas City (MO) Public Library (and author of several ALA Editions RA titles) was up next, with a ton of practical advice on how to booktalk informally-while in the stacks, or out in the community. She also discussed how to pull out the best elements of a book in order to sell it to a reader. Kaite incorporated a lot of RA tips (talking about tone, mood, warning the reader what to expect) on how to do what she calls a "bookmercial." Becky Spratford, author of ALA Edition's Readers Advisory Guide to Horror (2012) and librarian at the Berwyn (IL) Public Library, gave advice on how to get your staff comfortable with booktalking, and why booktalking is so important. Becky then finished up with a selection of her favorite horror books for booktalking.