State Library of Iowa highlights youth‑collection picks, storytime tips and spring training dates in February “Check It Out” webinar

Janae Jackson Doring, youth services consultant at the State Library of Iowa, used the February edition of the library’s monthly “Check It Out” webinar to recommend new and notable children’s and teen titles, describe a practical storytime‑collection strategy for library staff and announce upcoming professional development and district events.

Doring opened the session by explaining the program’s purpose and scope: “storytime standouts are books that are the best to use for storytimes,” she said, and then moved through picture books, board books, early readers, middle‑grade and teen fiction, graphic novels and children’s nonfiction. She also demonstrated how she organized a dedicated storytime collection at a previous library to make outreach and program planning faster.

Why it matters: the State Library’s recommendations and collection tips are aimed at public‑library youth librarians and caregivers who select books for storytimes, outreach and age‑based collections. Doring paired concrete purchase and shelving suggestions with release dates and series alerts librarians can use to plan orders and displays ahead of budget cycles.

Doring’s selections ranged across age levels and formats. Among picture‑book picks she recommended Mister Norton’s New Hat (Hugh Louis Jones; illus. Corey Egbert) as a read‑aloud for preschool–2nd grade; How to Make a Bedtime (Meg McKinlay; illus. Karen Blair) as a “cozy” bedtime choice; and upcoming Little Blue Truck and Racer Red (Alice Schertle; illus. Jill McNamara), due March 25. For early readers she highlighted Fox, Fox, and More Fox (Corey R. Tabor) and Dot the Ladybug, The Perfect Spot (Callie George; illus. Stephanie Fizer Coleman). Children’s nonfiction recommendations included LEGO How to Build Everything (Hannah Dolan) and National Geographic’s Our Country’s Presidents (National Geographic Kids), noted for being updated through the 2024 election.

For middle‑grade and teen readers Doring recommended All the Blues in the Sky (Renée Watson) and upcoming releases such as Impossible Creatures: The Poison King (Catherine Rundle), scheduled for Sept. 11. Teen picks included Where the Heart Should Be (Sarah Crossan) and Skin (Ibi Zoboi). Graphic‑novel and series alerts included titles from Magic Tree House, Dino Poet (Tom Engelberger), The Babysitters Club graphic novels and Cat on the Run (Aaron Blabey). Doring also mentioned Very Bad at Math (Hope Larson) and Oasis (Zhuo Jing) for middle‑grade readers.

Collection and programming guidance: Doring showed a photograph of a three‑shelf storytime collection she created at a previous library and said she relabeled the titles in the catalog with a “story hour” tag and added a bottom‑shelf sticker to speed locating books by theme (pizza, bears, etc.). She recommended keeping a “tickler file” of titles to order when budget cycles permit and reminded librarians that model LEGO builds and other hands‑on programs can be adapted when exact pieces are not available.

Events and logistics announced: Doring asked attendees to register in Workday Learning for multiple upcoming offerings. She listed a webinar on youth volunteer engagement scheduled for April 9 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and a summer‑reading collection webinar, Level Up Your Summer Reading Book List for All Ages, on April 24 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. She said there will be no March Check It Out live session because she will be traveling the next week for district STEM fairs and summer‑reading summits. Check It Out will resume April 22 from 11 a.m. to noon. Doring also reminded participants that four attendees would receive a “Check It Out” book prize pack to be sent to their libraries via Iowa Shares and asked viewers to leave their first and last names and library in the chat to be eligible.

Sources and follow‑ups: Doring suggested professional resources including School Library Journal newsletters and the Youth Services Book Review website as curation tools. She gave examples of how to use indexes, publisher notes and series release dates to plan orders and cautioned librarians to remove posters from some children’s guidebooks (she noted Pokémon Legendary and Mythical Guidebook contains a poster) before shelving to prevent damage.

Dissent or open questions: the session was largely a presentation with chat feedback; attendees shared tips in chat (for example, using binders to list books by theme and keeping tickler files), but there were no formal decisions or votes. Doring invited attendees to follow up via phone or email for help with youth programming and collection development.

The webinar concluded with reminders about registering for the STEM fairs and summer‑reading summits and the April webinars; Doring said she looks forward to in‑person visits to districts and to the next Check It Out session.