Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!
But who are the authors and illustrators behind these great Loan Stars reads?
We find out in our series Meet the Loan Stars.
Meet Amanda McCrina
Amanda McCrina was homeschooled through high school and graduated from the University of West Georgia with a BA in history and political science. For three years, she taught high school English and government at an international school in Madrid, Spain, and is now a bookseller in Franklin, Tennessee. She is the author of Traitor.
Amanda’s latest novel, The Silent Unseen, is on the March & April 2022 Loan Stars Jr. list!
Get to know Amanda, her love for libraries, book recommendations, and more in her interview below.
If you could visit any library in the world, where would you go?
At the moment, I'd love to visit Jervis Public Library in Rome, New York. My current project is set in 1950s Rome, and my main character, who plans to be a journalist, would certainly spend a lot of her time there.
Do you have a favourite librarian, real or fictional?
Shout-out to Maureen, who was one of my early readers for my first YA historical novel, Traitor, and to Mary, who has been one of my critique partners for more than a decade.
Which book would you choose to recommend to library patrons?
Fiction: My Long List of Impossible Things by Michelle Barker 🍁. Non-fiction: Red Famine by Anne Applebaum.
What does being a Loan Stars pick mean to you?
It's an incredible honour, not only because I owe so much to librarians as a reader and a writer but specifically because Canada figures so prominently in the Polish and Ukrainian history I write about.
And it’s an honour to have you on our list, Amanda!
Are you a Loan Stars-recommended author or illustrator who wants to be featured on our blog? Get in touch with us to get started.
Until next time!
Find out what titles made it to the November 2024 Loan Stars Adult Canadian list.