Karen Jensen

Northern Region, Valencia

Founder and Editor at Teen Librarian Toolbox

The personal Twitter of Teen Librarian Toolbox https://t.co/7Qri1GSOkV Tweets & Opinions are my own. she/her

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Articles

Audiobook Review: Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Publisher’s Book Description: When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren’s missing sister, Mara thinks she’ll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation. Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation.
Sunday Reflections: My Daughters are Not Your Incubators

2 weeks ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Several years ago, there was a teenage girl who lived next door to me. She was the youngest of three children and had two older brothers. I was acquainted with but not overly close to her and her family, but on occassion her mother and I would talk. One day she told me that this girl’s oldest brother may have gotten a classmate pregnant.
Bringing Ancient Traditions to Today’s Young Readers, by Regina Linke

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

If you had told me five years ago that I would enjoy reading ancient Chinese texts translated into modern English before bed, I would have laughed out loud. Of course, it makes sense now, considering that I publish The Oxherd Boy, a webcomic on Instagram that combines ancient Chinese brush painting with East Asian philosophy.
Calm and Connected, Then Speak on Climate by Rune Kier Nielsen

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Are you OK? Are people around you? We live in an uncertain time. A lot of us suffer from the mental load of living in a world where people in power are silent and passive on issues that define our future. Some of those in power even put our future further at risk. One of those issues is climate. We may feel alone, powerless, and disillusioned. Like standing on a beach waiting for a giant wave to hit the shore. We see it coming—but what can we do? I was not always a climate activist.
Sunday Reflections: How are We Protecting Children if We are Just Going to Work them to the Bone?

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Although I will often tell you that history was my least favorite subject in high school – and it was – I find myself reflecting a lot lately on those lessons I was taught by my history teachers. I remember learning about the Civil Rights Movement and firehoses turned on our fellow humans just because of the color of their skin. I remember learning about women fighting for the right to vote.
RA Tool of the Week: Inside Out Inspired Emotions, but Make it YA Books

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

As the movie Inside Out 2 was coming out, I decided to make an emotions based Reader’s Advisory tool for my library day job. The premise was simple: take each emotion character and share a book that represents the emotion of that character. My first RA tool was epic! It include an adorable picture of each character that I downloaded from the Internet. It looked amazing. And then my librarian brain kicked in and I remembered that I was committing massive copyright violations.
Media DISCUSSION: Adolescence on Netflix

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A DISCUSSION OF THE NETFLIX SERIES ADOLESCENCE. IT INVOLVES SOME SPOILERS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW DETAILS OF THE SHOW AND IT ALSO INVOLVES DISCUSSIONS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENAs a librarian who specializes in services to teens, I don’t just read YA/Teen books to stay current with teens. I also spend a lot of time researching teen culture, visiting teen websites and watching teen media. I do this for several reasons.
An All-American Girl: Front and Centered, a guest post by author Niña Mata

1 month ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

I was 13 years old when All-American Girl starring Margaret Cho first aired on ABC. It was the first time I ever cared about TV ratings. I was convinced that if I kept both of our TVs tuned in, I could somehow help keep the show alive. I needed it to succeed. It was the closest thing I had ever seen to my family on television; a Korean American family sitcom, who looked and sounded, close enough, to my own. Margaret Cho wasn’t playing a sidekick, or a background character.
Important Update: Deep Cuts Proposed to the IMLS are a Further Erosion to Education and Democracy

2 months ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Since January 21st, there has been an outright assault on government agencies. People have been fired, information has disappeared, and talking point keep getting repeated. On Friday night, it was time for them to come for libraries. First, please make no mistake, they have been coming for libraries for a while now in one form or another. During Trump’s 1st term, there were assaults on the IMLS – we’ll get to this more in a minute.
Haunting History: A True Story of Spirits, Teens, and the Quest for Fame, a guest post by author Barb Rosenstock

2 months ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

You haven’t been humbled until you’ve started a presentation to a large audience of teens with the question, “Who likes history?” The one raised hand belonged to a super-enthusiastic eighth grader in the back row who had put it up before the presentation even started. This nonfiction author’s humblest moment happened over a decade ago and I have never asked about history the same way since. Now, my author visits start with a personal narrative. I talk about my storytelling grandfather.