The Book Search

The Florida Association of Media Educators (FAME) announced the winners of the Sunshine State Young Reader award this week.  It didn't come as a surprise to me, because the kids at my school also voted this one as being the best, it was Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein.  The kids loved the suspense, the cryptic puzzles, and the non-stop action, so if you haven't read it, by all means, get it and read it soon!  They also announced the nominees for next year and I was happy to see that not only have I read many of them, we already have several of them in our school library.  Here's a little video that shows them. This week, my favorite book was an older title that was recommended by the amazing Liesl Shurtliff when she came to speak at our school.  She said she had been reading "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull to her boys and that it was really good.  Really good was a big understatement!  I can't believe I hadn't read this befo...

This week, in addition to reading some new titles, I've also been trying to clean out the library (in library speak, this is called weeding).  There is a precarious balance in libraries in having enough books, particularly enough copies of the "It" book, and having books languishing on the shelf for years at a time with no one ever checking them out.  Our school library dates back to the 1920s and although there are very few books from THAT far back, it's not unusual to find books from the 1960s (it's hard to throw out perfectly good books!).  But I've been a little ruthless this week, trying to get more books that my kids will actually read rather than having shelves full of books that no one wants to pick up. I'm a little sorry I weeded this one out, but I removed it from the system before I read it and once I read it, I thought, "Oh heck, I know several kids who would really like it" but I gave it to an awesome 3rd grade teacher at my school...

I've been reading eclectically this week... I even read what passes for a grown up book this week!  Here's what's been on the list: The Six by Mark Alpert was my favorite.  This is an action packed science fiction novel for at least middle grade and young adults.  Adam Armstrong is 17, has muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheel chair.  At best, he has a few months to live.  His dad is a computer scientist who works for the government and has been working on an artificial intelligence project that is about to change Adam's life.  This program would allow a computer to extract Adam's memories and download them into a computer.  The memories would then be uploaded to a robot that would essentially BE Adam.  Adam's mom is vehemently against this idea because she is a conservative Christian who believes that God created life and humans should get out of the way.  5 other kids are given the same process and at the same time, the pilot proj...

I just read some amazing new books.  The first one was a sequel to one of my favorite books from a couple of years ago.  It's called "The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly.  The first one was called "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" and Calpurnia or Callie V as she is called by her family is a terrific character.  Callie lives with her large family in Texas in 1900.  She has 4 brothers, a mom and dad who care about her a lot (although they REALLY don't understand her) and a grandfather who really does understand her.  Callie is VERY interested in all things scientific and her mother despairs that she will ever become a lady (not if Callie has anything to say about it).  I love that Callie is so interested in science (in this one she does dissections, creates a barometer that forecasts a devastating hurricane, and becomes a veterinary assistant) and although she wants to please her mother and father, she also continues to push for opp...

Gees... more new stuff?  Who writes these books?  How can anyone possibly keep up?  Well, I'm here to help! Do you have to teach your students about text features?  Well, I found a book today that your boys (and probably some of the girls) will be falling over themselves to get a look at.  It's called "Super Basketball Infographics" by Jeff Savage.  Each two page spread has a different kind of graphical element with facts about basketball.  The graphs are visually interesting (using size to relate proportion) as well as being vibrantly colorful but the information was also very compelling.  And the variety of graphical presentation was staggering!  This is going to be a great addition to your classroom library (although it will probably disappear pretty fast.  Better buy two!). The second one I read is by Louis Sachar, (famous as the writer of "Holes" and "The Wayside School" series).  This one is science fiction and it has...