HERE'S AN ICEBREAKER NOW TELL ME YOUR WHY
Hello, readers!
Alas, the calendar has turned, and it’s August. Yesterday, I opened the back-to-school letter my admin mails out with meeting dates etc., and I wanted to throw up on my shoes. (We go back for pre-service trainings later this month.)
I love the library.
And also…
The transition from summer to school is soaked through with melancholy. Educators carry an incredible weight during the school year — unique to each and broadly undiscussable. The transition from a season of rest to a season of everything is somber, often unmet by the staff meeting diet of HERE’S AN ICEBREAKER NOW TELL ME YOUR WHY.
Let’s acknowledge: we can possess affection and bitterness simultaneously. We must.
For me, on the precipice of this transition, three things help (some).
1. Pick read-alouds to look forward to
I’m of the mind that the best back-to-school read-aloud is just a really good read-aloud. It doesn’t have to be about a school or a classroom — it just has to be a good time, something to unlock the rocket-fuel delight of experiencing a story together. I have a few more weeks to mull it over, but I’m currently thinking my personal lineup will include Bear for a Day by Corey R. Tabor and The Cow in the Dark at Night by Jess Hannigan.
2. Right-size your view of your job
For me, it is critical to be realistic about what services the district has actually purchased from me in my contract. What I want my job to be and what it is are two different things. I look forward to joyfully providing what they’ve purchased with excellence, and living my lovely life outside of that. For me, literature is a vocation, and the school library is one component of that vocation — burnout and uncompensated labor don’t have to be.
In an era when many districts are chiseling away at library budgets and staffing while piling on other duties, maintaining clear-eyed boundaries is essential. Your district won’t maintain these boundaries for you. (The system runs on the assumption that you won’t either).
3. Treats
Self care, self care, blah blah blah.
NO!
Let’s get realllll specific: you need to buy yourself a pair of exquisitely comfy sweatpants and not wear them until after the first day of school. These are your put-them-on-when-you-get-home-from-work sweatpants. They are a blissful signal to your brain that you’re not at school anymore — you’re a future fossil spinning on a space rock, and all that gnarly stuff from your day can stay in its place. You are not allowed to wear these sweats to school for pajama day. They are sacred.
You also need to pre-order a book or two that comes out in the first weeks of school. These books are for you, not for school: a fun little something that will show up in your mailbox, there for you when the moment is right. My personal pre-orders include Tom Nancy by Mac Barnett and X. Fang (a copy for my personal picture book collection, not the library) and May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (get a load of the cat on that front cover!).
Not sure what to pre-order? Take a spin through Lit Hub’s list of most anticipated books or consider a curated subscription service from an indie bookstore. I’m evangelical about Phinney By Post, and I’m eyeing Arundel Books’ indie fiction box.
Bits & Pieces
In their review of The Cow in the Dark at Night, Fisher the bookseller included a quick line, “This book is not good for: Grumps.” Now, I’m dying to try this kind of reverse shelf-talker in the library.
This 2-hour interview with Jon Klassen is lovely and brilliant and made me weirdly emotional. I am now reading this book on Jon’s recommendation.
This conversation with Mac Barnett was a much-needed counterweight to my own back-to-school dread:
Housekeeping: Substack recently introduced the feature to allow users to scan posts for AI using Pangram. I am choosing to dis-enable this scan on my work. I do not use AI to write my substack (or at all), and I do not plan to.
Okay, time to go jump in the river and bank a few more back floats…
Happy reading,
Chrissie
