I’ve always loved school librarians. How much? When I was in eighth grade, I chose “library helper” over art class as my elective so I could spend more time in the school library with the librarian. (Okay, I also loved having first dibs on the new book arrivals while they were still in pristine condition before anyone else got their grimy hands on them.) Therefore it should come as no big surprise that a blog over at the School Library Journal’s website called A Fuse #8 Production should nab this week’s coveted Friday Find spot.

Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian at the Children’s Center at the 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system, blogs on the School Library Journal website. While her blog is filled with many great resources related to children’s literature, what really grabbed my attention is her current series of posts that report the results of a poll of her readers to find their Top 100 Children’s Novels. Starting at the bottom of the list and working her way toward the #1 spot, every day she metes out reviews, comments, fun facts, cover photos and more on five titles, and every day I check to see what five books came up next on the list.

As Elizabeth explains in her first post of the series:

So as we embark on this massive countdown, I would like to remind all of you that there will be many emotional humps and surprises along the way. There are heroes and villains here. I guarantee that in the course of the countdown you will see one book that makes you boo, and another that makes you cheer, perhaps in the same post. This is a passionate list. There are books included here that I adore and there are definitely books here that I abhor. My job is to never show the difference. So sit back and get ready to complain or cheer in turns. It’s totally within your rights.

We’re currently about halfway through the list, and I’m so anxious and excited to find out what books are at the top. Aren’t you?

Learn more

Visit A Fuse #8 Production blog at the School Library Journal website.

Wondering what makes Elizabeth (Betsy!) Bird’s blog so darned good? There’s an interesting analysis at The Value of Blogging, a post found at Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web.

Follow the School Library Journal (@sljournal) on Twitter.

Want to read about more Friday Finds?

In this second category, the books regale with stories and events that might be ever-so-slightly based in fact, but mostly are fictitious and just plain fun. (I must admit, however, that a couple of times I have been surprised at how closely some of the more outlandish stories and events seem to resemble real life!)

If you are interested in reading funny, fictitious, and far-fetched stories about life in private schools, here are five you might consider. Just remember – they’re novels. Fiction. Not true. Enjoy!

	Academy X: A Novel by Andrew Trees Welcome to Academy X, an ethical wonderland in which up is down, right is wrong, and parents and students will stop at nothing (including lying, plagiarizing, and even seduction to name a few) in order to get into the Ivy League. Caught in the middle is John Spencer, a bumbling but lovable English teacher struggling through the final weeks of his spring semester. But keeping focused on a Jane Austen seminar proves problematic when his crush on the school librarian as well as a pending promotion threaten to divert his attention. Things become even more complicated when the college counselor asks John to lie (or at least exaggerate) in a recommendation letter for the very student who he’s just discovered is a plagiarizer. Things only get worse for John, who discovers that no price is too high to achieve a coveted admission to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton—even if that includes his own disgrace.
	Admissions by Nancy Lieberman This sharply observed and bitingly funny novel exposes the over-the-top absurdity of New York City`s elite private school admissions circus. For Manhattan’s most affluent parents, the Tuesday after Labor Day marks the beginning of the city’s most competitive and vicious blood sport: the start of the private school admissions process. But for Helen Drager, mother of Zoe, it shouldn’t be such an ordeal. After all, Helen’s best friend Sara is an admissions officer at Zoe’s current K-8. But Sara’s position becomes precarious, and Helen soon finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mounting lunacy generated by the fierce competition.
	The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn This is an amusing story of what happens when a New Yorker loses her job, her husband, and her ritzy Park Avenue pad and is forced to carve out a new niche for herself and her two private school-educated daughters. After transferring the girls to public school and renting a shabby-chic (at best) flat upstairs from a knicherie, Ivy Ames takes her billionaire friend Faith’s advice and starts a consulting business to help privileged pre-schoolers get into the city’s premier kindergartens. Light on substance yet heavy on laughs.
	Private Lives of Private School Moms: A Novel by Julie Heath Is it possible to raise grounded, well-adjusted children in an exclusive private school world where scandals and the outrageous acts of other parents surpass the imagination? That’s the challenge faced by four immensely appealing women, diverse in cultural backgrounds and personalities, yet strong in character, who’ve bonded together over this common goal. Follow the hilarious complications of some of the misguided parents chronologically through the Kindergarten school year at the prestigious Archimedes School, an institution built on the banks of Spa Creek in scenic Annapolis, Maryland.
	Schooled by Anisha Lakhani Here’s Anna, a newbie teacher with Ivy credentials whose passion for the low-paying teaching profession is cause for celebration at the upper-crust Langdon school, where as the exotic-looking newcomer, she is mistakenly identified as a coveted minority hire. With low pay and even lower expectations from teachers and parents, Anna realizes there’s no way she can survive—until she learns about lucrative after-school tutoring gigs. And just like that, Anna’s ideals go out the window. In a hilarious out-of-control spiral into obsession with all-things designer, expensive and showy, Anna transforms into someone who believes money can buy everything and everyone. There is redemption, of course, in the form of a teacher who bucks the system, and Anna discovers some of her students are pretty wonderful.