New Picture Books

Greetings! This is the last post for the year 2011. My next one will be in the year 2012. I have now completed three years of emails and blog posts now. I have a good time doing this and I know many of you have been helped because you write and tell me so. Thanks so much for the kind words. I enjoy helping where I can.
Today I will booktalk a few more books for you. These are mostly all new books and I hope you see something that catches your eye.

I just got this book called ‘Balloons Over Broadway’. It didn’t look like a book that I would normally be interested in, but then I saw the last line on the cover; the story of the puppeteer of Macy’s parade. I know I am not the only fan of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and this book tells the story of how the whole thing began and how it has grown over the years.

The two books shown below are part of a set of books about a period in history. The cover looks a little bit like a newspaper and is titled “Actual Times” and the date of the paper is the date of the event. Don Brown writes the story and illustrates it so people will know what the event was like. These titles are ‘Gold! Gold from the American River!’ and ‘America is Under Attack’.

“I Will Come Back for You” is the story of a Jewish Italian family during World War ll. The father was taken and detained in a village in the mountains and the family went into hiding on a farm. The story actually happened to the author’s mother. The dust jacket reads, “Based on the experiences of the author’s own family, this deeply moving book deals with a difficult subject in a way that is accessible and appropriate for young readers.” The endpapers have photographs from the family album of the people in the story.



Steve Jenkins is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. His illustrations are torn and cut paper collage like his other books, but so well done that you have to look carefully to notice this. These two books are about the eating and sleeping habits of different creatures. If you already are a Steve Jenkins fan, you will enjoy these two books. If you aren’t a fan yet, just pick one up at a bookstore and leaf through it. I advise starting with “Actual Size”.

“Saving Audie” is the story of a young pit bull who was about to be raised to be part of a dog-fighting ring until the owner was caught. Audie was rescued by a kind couple and is now able to trust other humans and even help other dogs in different ways. The book also contains information about pit bulls and information about the other dogs from the dog-fighting kennel and how they are doing as well.

Claire Nivola has written a book about the Italian village Orani on the island of Sardinia where her father was born. She writes about the times her family would visit the relatives and explore the town and surrounding countryside. The author describes ordinary life in the village with her family and the other villagers. Note that the book contains a drawing of a dead man on a bed with mourners dressed in black surrounding him. The story does not dwell on this event, rather it includes it along with festivals, and weddings as part of the daily life in Orani.

If you have ever been to Niagara Falls, you may have seen the movie about the different people who have tried to go over the falls and you will also know that few have done this and lived through the experience. “Queen of the Falls” is about Annie Edson Taylor who accomplished this amazing feat. Chris Van Allsburg has written and illustrated Annie’s story and also included other information about the barrel riders who have been successful.

What do you do with a runt piglet that was too weak to push his siblings aside so he could eat? Why, bring him to the house and let the family pet dachshund nurse him, of course. Pink thrived with his doggie mother and eventually returned to the farm although he did take his dog bed with him. Students will love the photographs of Pink and his two families, pig and dog.



At first this book did not attract my attention, but during the Scholastic book fair last fall, I finally sat down and leafed through it. The book contains a number of stories of extraordinary animal friendships. Some are long-term friendships, and others are shorter, but it is very interesting to see some of the animal combinations that make some unlikely friendships. The photographs are stunning. This is a good book for all ages. Nonreaders can study the pictures and more advanced readers can read the text as well as enjoy the pictures.




I hope you find something that is of interest in this group of books. I also hope you have a restful Christmas vacation. I’ll see you back here in January 2012.
Christmas Blessings,
Audrey

Library Holes and Weeding

Where are the holes in your library? Do you know what kind of books you have and what kind of books you need to update or weed? This week I will give you some very general guidelines for weeding your library. If you want to go into more depth, you can do a search on the internet for weeding the library.

I found that The Crew Method (for weeding my library) is fairly easy for me to use and is intended for small to medium sized public libraries. In our even smaller school libraries, we need to take these weeding guidelines with a pinch of salt, but they are still useful and a good place to start. I actually printed out the 93 pages and put them in a binder for quick and easy reference. I will admit that I need to weed my library as much or more than you do, so this is me preaching to myself as much as giving you some guidelines! You can find this at https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/index.html.

Here are some very general guidelines to keep in mind as you weed your library.
1. Remove books that have wrong information in them. No information is better than wrong information.
2. If a book is being used in your library, keep it. If it is something that is valuable to your school, keep it. (Even if students don’t use it.) For example, a local author donated a book to your school, or it is precious to someone.
3. You don’t have to throw away a book that you wish to keep. The weeding guidelines just help you get started. The decision is ultimately yours. Just because a book is old does not mean it isn’t good.
4. It is much easier to weed someone else’s library rather than your own. If you are finding that you just can’t throw books away, get an outside opinion.
5. It is OK to throw books away.
6. If a book is dirty, torn, marked up, etc., throw it away. If you need that particular title, buy a newer copy.

Reference books such as encyclopedias may soon be outdated since the latest information can be quickly obtained from an online encyclopedia. Take a look at the encyclopedia in your library. How old is it? If it is more than five years old, take a longer look at how you use it. (Or do your students use it at all?) Now you have a decision as to keep it on the shelves or not. If no one uses it and you just dust it off every year or so, it might be nice to have a little extra room on the shelf. If the encyclopedia you have is from 1970, just throw it out. I give you permission.

Do you have anything in the 100s? This can be a difficult section for an elementary library. Look for books on computers and books on feelings like I mentioned in last week’s post. Try to have SOMETHING in that section.

Your religion section should be easy. BUT check to see what kind of books you have there. Do you have 40 old devotional books sitting there unused? Maybe it is time to weed them drastically. Go to the Adventist Book Center and see what is there. If you can, take a couple of students to help you choose. This will be fun for them and they will be more likely to read them which will promote them to others.

The Social Science section should be pretty easy, too. Careers, military, immigration, economics, education, law, customs, etiquette, folklore, and holidays all belong here.

Check the Language section (400s) of your library. Do you have ANY books on language or in other languages? Kids love to look at this kind of book. One suggestion I have is to get books from the series “The First Thousand Words in . . .” Let the students choose which ones you start with. These have drawings for each word and are fun to look at.

In Pure Science (500), you probably have lots of nature books. Check that you have science experiments for the kids to try. What about math books? Space, astronomy, earth sciences, botany, and animals all belong here. This is often quite a large section.

It is also easy to find books for the Applied Sciences (600) section. Medicine, health, cars, transportation, agriculture, pets, home economics, and cookbooks will all go here. This is usually a very popular section, especially the pets section. Students love reading about dogs and cats and horses, but don’t leave out other pets. I add to this as students ask for particular books. “Do you have any books on how to take care of rabbits?”

Arts and recreation is again another easy section to fill. Think art, music, collecting things, drawing, photography, games, and sports. Also, think riddles and joke books. You can see that this is easy to fill. We put I Spy books here and watch them leave and come back on a regular basis.

Literature (800) is the easiest to fill unless you have a separate section for Fiction or Stories. I have all our stories cataloged as 813 and therefore this is our largest section. If you have a separate section for Fiction, then you would put poetry books and any books by non-American authors in the 800s and the stories in the separate Fiction section.

Last comes the 900s, History and Geography. Check that facts are accurate, watch for changes in country names, borders, etc. If you put your Biographies here, check that you have the biographies you need for the curriculum. Do you have all the presidents? What about world leaders? Do you have books on the different states and countries? Those are the kind of books you will look for to fill any gaps in your library.

Previously I have been asked if there are any guidelines as to how many books should be in each section and I found the following information. I put the percentage recommended and in parentheses I put the number of titles for a library of approximately 4000 books. (I did not do this for the high school side.)

Dewey Classification Subject Grades K - 6 Grades 7 - 12
000 - 099 General Works and Reference 2 – 5 % (80 – 200) 6 – 8%
100 – 199 Philosophy, Psychology .5% (20) 1 – 2%
200 – 299 Religion & Mythology 1 – 2% (40 – 80) 1 – 2%
300 – 399 Social Sciences, Folklore, Holidays5 – 10% (200 – 400) 10 – 15%
400 – 499 Language .5% (20) 2 – 5%
500 – 599 Pure Science 10% (400) 5 – 10%
600 – 699 Applied Science 10% (400) 5 – 10%
700 – 799 Fine Arts, Recreation 5% (200) 5 – 10%
800 – 899 Literature (not including fiction)5% (200) 5 – 10%
900 – 999 History, Geography, Biography 20% (800) 20%
F Fiction, Stories 20% (800) 20 – 25%
E Easy books, Picture books 20 – 25% (800 – 1000)

This chart is taken from Administering the School Library Media Center by Betty J. Morris, 2004; page 339.

Please keep in mind that these are just guidelines. We do want our libraries to be well balanced as much as possible so that makes this helpful, but we are very likely to have more than 40 – 80 books in our religion section. Take a quick inventory of the Dewey numbers you have and how many in each section. (Students love to do this kind of thing!) How many books in the 100’s, 200’s, etc? That will give you the approximate number of books you have and will also give you a general idea of the balance of your collection. You will see at a glance where the gaps in your library are.

I hope this quick overview of the sections and the kinds of books in each of them hasn’t been too boring. This is the kind of post you might print out and refer to on occasion or check it out on my blog.
Have a great week,
Audrey

Books for the Library

Greetings!
I have been processing some books for our library and I want to share some wonderful titles that you might decide to purchase for your library. My choices this week are totally random in subject matter. I just picked books that I liked particularly well.

One set of books I recently bought is a great set for your career section. The set is published by ABDO Publishing and each book shows the different tools that each professional uses. The book is appropriate for nearly all ages although the reading level is low. We are placing these books in the Everybody books section so the younger children will have some information on careers. If you don’t have any books on career choices, that is a section to improve.



I found an article years ago about a traveling library in Africa that uses camels to haul the books. I thought this was so interesting and cut the article out, put it away, and promptly forgot about it. Last year I was culling a huge pile of papers at home and came across the article. I went to the internet and did a little research and found a book called “My Librarian is a Camel” by Margriet Ruurs. I bought the book and was fascinated by the different ways books are brought to people all over the world. Libraries come by boat, bus, train, wheelbarrow, elephant, donkey, and even bicycle. Photographs show each country and the ways books come to the people who live in remote areas. It makes me feel so fortunate to live where books are so readily available.

Someone recommended the book “Me . . . Jane” by Patrick McDonnell to me and I decided to get it. It is the story of Jane Goodall and her childhood decision to become a naturalist and work with gorillas. Some of her childhood drawings and writings are shown in the center of the book. The story is simple and sweet and I wholeheartedly recommend it.


How’s the pet section of your library? Do you even have one? That is a section that is popular with our students so I try to keep an eye out for good books on pets. I found a set on large dogs that I like. Each book tells about the dog and the history of the breed, the characteristics of the breed, and the pros and cons of owning that particular breed of dog. Photographs make this a great choice for your library.


Do you have any books to help your children understand relationships with others? There is a lot of talk about bullying in schools and as much as we’d like to think it doesn’t happen in our schools, the truth is that we are not immune. This set has one book on dealing with bullies, and other subjects that are worthwhile to discuss in class. Respecting others and treating them with kindness is how our Christ modeled his behavior for our example. This set of books written by Susan Martineau is called the Positive Steps set and is published by Smart Apple Media. I also have a page from the inside of one of the books so you can have a glimpse of the layout.



I cannot resist a good children’s cookbook. They are so much fun and kids love them. If you don’t have any children’s cookbooks, I would urge you to consider adding a couple to your library. Then watch and see how they are used in your area. I would bet that you end up adding more.

While we are talking cookbooks, think about getting some to represent the different cultures and countries that our students study. The two books shown below are easy to handle and have recipes and other cooking information and are specifically meant for children.


Check your library and see where your gaps are. Then keep an eye out for books to fill the gaps and make your library a better resource for your school.

Hope you have a great week.
Audrey

Ellen G. White books and a Holiday idea

Greetings!

I received a question this week from a reader asking if there was a preferred way to catalog the books of Ellen G. White. I think the easiest way to do this is to use a ‘W’ on the top line and then the abbreviation for the particular book. For example, you would catalog The Acts of the Apostles like this:

W
AA

I found in the Index to the Writings of Ellen G. White a list of her books and the abbreviations for many of them. If you would like this list, check in the first few pages of your index to find them. If you don’t have an index and would like a copy, let me know and I will send you a copy. There are other books that aren’t listed there, but you can follow the general pattern and catalog them accordingly.

I found an idea in a library journal that you might like to use to encourage reading over the holidays. One librarian used the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” as her start and then selected 12 recently published books to recommend to the students. She called it her “12 Books of Christmas” reading list and posted this in the school library, in the newsletter, as a bulletin board display, and made a bookmark for the list. I might not use recently published books, but would choose books that I wanted the students to read or books that were favorites of mine. The point of the reading list is to keep books and reading on their minds through the holidays. Try it out and see if you like it.

Encourage books as gifts and consider starting a stash of books that you can use for gifts. When I have a book fair, I use my points to get books from the fair and put them in a separate cupboard to use for gifts.

I hope you have a great week.

Audrey

Authors and Books

Greetings!
I want to share some authors and their books with you this week.
It is difficult to find books that span the ages of our children in grades 1 – 8, but Jerry Pallotta is able to do this easily. He writes alphabet books. I know that sound childish, but his books also include a lot of information about the subjects he is writing about. If you aren’t familiar with his books, I highly recommend them. I know of teachers that have their students make similar books for class projects and use these as a guide. Some of his titles are ‘The Underwater Alphabet Book, The Spice Alphabet Book, The Bird Alphabet Book, The Desert Alphabet Book, The Flower Alphabet Book, The Ocean Alphabet Book, and The Icky Bug Alphabet Book.’ He also has some math books that kids enjoy such as the “Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Fractions Book.” The fractions are shown using a Hershey’s chocolate bar.



Gail Gibbons writes and illustrates informational books for younger children. She researches her subject and simplifies it for her readers. She has many, many books out and you can find them online and choose the subject or subjects you can use best in your school. I like the one about apples and the one about berries, but the one about monarch butterflies is good, and the one about bees is great. You can see how much I like her books, can’t you. I really like the one about pottery. It is called ‘The Pottery Place’ and she has even made the endpapers look like splatters of clay slip. Gail describes the process of making things out of clay and the firing and glazing process. In her book ‘Stargazers’ we learn about stars, constellations, astronomers, telescopes and more. All that in 32 pages! There are many more books of hers, but you get the idea.


Aliki also has many books that she writes. She, like Gail Gibbons, researches, writes and illustrates her books. The first book I noticed of hers was ‘A Medieval Feast’. I love the descriptions of the preparations needed for a feast for a king and the illustrations are so colorful. There is a simple text for the story, but further information is included in the illustrations. In her book ‘How a Book Is Made’, she goes through the entire process of writing a book, the editing process, the publishing and the printing until finally the book is done and ready to read. ‘Corn is Maize’ tells the history of corn and how we use it today. At the end of the book she describes how to make a corn husk doll and corn husk wreath.

Beverly Cleary wrote the Ramona Quimby books and I hope you all have heard of them and even have them already in your libraries. If you don’t, it would be a good collection to have. The Beezus and Ramona movie that came out recently spurred a new interest in the books. They are also great read aloud books. Anyway, most people know about those books, but she wrote four books for young children about twins Janet and Jimmy which are wonderful. The Growing-up Feet, Two Dog Biscuits, The Real Hole, and Janet’s Thing-a-ma-jigs are all so good I could not tell you my favorite. Beverly Cleary has the ability to write exactly what a child would think and feel so the stories are very real. Other books of hers are about Henry and his dog Ribsy, and ‘Dear Mr. Henshaw’ with the sequel ‘Strider’. She wrote a few books that stand alone such as ‘Socks’, ‘Muggie Maggie’, ‘The Mouse and the Motorcycle’, ’Mitch and Amy’, ‘Ellen Tebbits’, ‘Emily’s Runaway Imagination’, ‘The Luckiest Girl’ and ‘Fifteen’. The last two books are about girls in their teens. I believe that you can’t go wrong with a Beverly Cleary book.

One last author that can span the grade levels is Peter Spier. His books are often wordless or nearly so and filled with pictures. Everyone will enjoy looking at the books and little ones learning to read will be able to ‘read’ the story for themselves. I am showing his book ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ which has the lyrics to our national anthem illustrated in great detail. However, my favorites include ‘Noah’s Ark’ (look for the comical end when many rabbits leave the ark), ‘Rain’ (somehow he makes the beginning of the book look a bit dustier than the end when the rain has cleaned it all up), ‘Christmas’, and ‘Jonah’. There are more, but these are good ones to start on.

I hope this information has been helpful to you and you got some good ideas of books to put in your library. I know I had a good time looking at these again.
Check out my blog at sdalibrarian.blogspot.com. All these weekly emails are archived there. I would be pleased for you to become a follower, too.
Have a great week!
Audrey

The Making of a Good Reader

Greetings!

We all want our students to be good readers. You can buy all the programs, incentives and other gizmos you want, but as far as I am concerned, there is one best way to become a good reader. That is to READ. Since most of us don’t have extra money to throw away, there is a great FREE way to accomplish this. Sustained Silent Reading. Drop Everything and Read. It doesn’t matter what you call it. Daily silent reading will do it.

There are some important steps or rules to follow. These are NOT for the students as much as for the teacher to follow. I personally guarantee that if you follow the rules I am about to give you, you will have a 98% success rate and have increased your students reading levels by nearly two grade levels in reading over the course of the school year.

First, you need to make time in your daily schedule for silent reading. This could be part of the reading class or after lunch or anytime that works, but it needs to be scheduled just like you do for all the other subjects. If you decide to use part of the reading time, still schedule it along with a time slot. Write it on the schedule so you and the children will see it every day. Do your ultimate best to never miss a day. These actions will visibly show the students that this is important to you. It is important enough that we do this every day, not just when we feel like it or if we happen to have enough time, then we will have silent reading. We do this every day.

Second, let students choose what they want to read. The reading needs to be self-selected, not assigned. This is not the time to read the social studies assignment! Encourage students to gather enough reading material to last for the period so they won’t be getting up and walking around and distract others. Young children may need 10 – 15 books or magazines at arm’s reach. Older ones may only choose to have a chapter book. You may need to decide if you will allow students to bring reading material from home or not.

Third, YOU NEED TO READ TOO. If you grade papers or work on lesson plans and don’t read during this time, you send a very loud message that even though you SAY reading is important, you don’t really believe it. Find a book that you have been wanting to read and pull it out and read every day. You are the model for these kids. If you are afraid you will go overtime if you start reading, I totally understand. I kept a timer handy and set the timer for the specified time every day so I could read in peace and not continually have to be watching the clock. I waited until everyone was settled, and then set the timer and we all started reading.

If you haven’t done this yet, I would recommend starting with 5 minutes for grades 1 – 3 and 10 minutes for grades 4 – up. After a week or so, increase the time until you are reading for 15 – 20 minutes every day for grades 3 – up. First and second graders may not all be able to read for that long, but you know what your students are capable of doing.

This is not Reading Buddies where older students read to younger ones. That is also a great program, but completely separate from this. If you have a variety of grades that includes students too young to read for the extended time slot, you may need to be a bit creative with them. Maybe a parent or volunteer can take them out of the classroom and read aloud to them during this time. Maybe this can be nap time. Maybe you set a silent reading period for 10 minutes, and then take the younger ones for a quiet class while older ones who wish to continue reading silently can do so.

A quick recap:
1. Schedule daily silent reading time and write it on the schedule.
2. Let students choose their own reading material.
3. The teacher must model and read during the time slot.
4. Read daily without fail.

If you follow these guidelines, you will turn out a classroom full of readers for FREE!

I hope you decide to have a silent reading period in your classrooms if you aren’t doing it already. It amazes me that many teachers do not seem to think this is important enough to schedule in daily. I taught third grade for 11 years and at the end of each year my third graders would leave my classroom with nearly all of them reading on a fifth grade reading level or close to it. The only thing I did that other teachers did not do was to have silent reading time every day. I loved that time of peace and quiet. It really helped lower stress levels in our classroom, mine included. After reading, we were all calm and would then continue our school day.

Have a great and peaceful week!
Audrey

Greetings!
Many times we find books that need some repair. I have found that most of the repairs just need a little glue. I will demo a few basic gluing repairs and hope that you will be inspired to do some of these yourselves.

I recommend buying glue for book repair rather than trying to use something like Elmer’s glue. It just does a better job and lasts quite a long time. Check with a library supply for book glue. I buy it in a large size and decant it into a small Ziploc plastic container. The glue doesn’t stick to the container and if it does dry on the sides, it peels right off. If you keep the container closed, it will not dry out for a long time.




When the text part comes away from the cover of a paperback book, it is an easy fix. Just take a paintbrush and paint the glue along the back of the spine.



Then press it firmly back in place and hold it in place with rubber bands.





I also stack the books as I repair them using boards and a weight. The boards I use are from a piece of smooth plywood that I had cut into pieces (9” x 12”) at Home Depot. They cut the boards for free, so my cost was the sheet of plywood and two bricks. I think I paid less than $5.00 for all of it. I wrapped the two bricks in butcher paper and duct tape to keep them from scratching the books.





At this point, if I have more books to repair, I will take the first books from the bottom and set them aside. All they need now is to dry. I usually let them dry overnight, but if you are in a hurry, it should be OK in a couple of hours. I just warn others to be gentle with it for a while.

Sometimes we have an area that needs to be glued, but we just can’t get a paintbrush in the area. This next book needs to be glued along the edge next to the spine. Here’s a trick I learned. Dip a knitting needle in the glue and insert it into the area that needs to be glued. You may need to dip a few times, but the area will be glued, and the glue on the needle will wash off easily.





Set aside either with rubber bands or under a weight to dry. This particular book also needs more work on the upper and lower spine. When the book is dry, I will use repair wings and repair corners to reinforce the spine and corners.

The supplies I used today were from Highsmith library supply and other sources. Book-Saver Liquid Plastic repair hinge is available in three sizes: 8-oz, quart, and gallon; Ziploc container from my house, and knitting needle, rubber bands, and paintbrush from any craft store. Boards and bricks were from Home Depot. Highsmith also has a book care and repair guide for under $10.00 which will guide you through basic repairs.

I hope this has been helpful to you. I know when I see something it makes much more sense. Have a great week.

Audrey

Copyright and more

Greetings!

At this time of year our students are into the routine of school and are likely beginning to work on bigger projects. I notice more of these happening at our school. As children are beginning to learn research skills, let’s add copyright lessons. These are easy to incorporate as you present the parameters of the assignment. If students are old enough to read and learn information whether from print sources or the internet, then they are old enough to tell where the information came from. My May 11, 2011 post was on copyright and I encourage you to go to my blog and reread it to remind yourself of the simple basics of copyright. In the blog post I also have a link to a website that was created for teacher education on copyright for Henrico county schools. The great thing is that anyone can take the quiz to learn, but we don’t get graded on it!

There are a couple of pet peeves of mine regarding copyright issues. First, Google is NOT a source. Students often cite as their source “Google.com”. If your students do this, have them type in “google.com” and see what comes up. This should clue them in to the fact that Google is NOT a source.
Second, “Fair Use” does NOT mean that teachers can automatically use whatever they want without citing their source. I mention a couple of examples in the May 2010 blog post about what is fair use and what is not.

If you want to do some fun lessons on copyright with your students, check out the free educational program called “B4U Copy”. www.b4ucopy.com There is an Elementary school guide and a Middle School guide. I have used this guide in library lessons and we just discuss the lessons, rather than use them as worksheets. The kids like it and there are some wonderful teaching moments. This free program is part of the website www.ymiteacher.com site. Take a look at that site and you’ll find other free units already prepared for you to use. But make sure you cite your source!

I hope you take a look at the May 11, 2010 post and while you are there, peek at a few others. You might be surprised what you see.
Have a great week!
Audrey

Inappropriate Books Brought From Home

Greetings,

I am revisiting an old question that was asked in 2009 regarding inappropriate books that students bring from home. One teacher wanted to know how other teachers handled this issue. This is a good question because we all have had this happen. What should we as SDA teachers do?

This issue is more common in the upper grades than the lower grades. I believe that if a student needs to do a book report, the book should be approved by the teacher first. If the book does not appear to meet SDA standards, then I would tell the student to choose another book for the report. For example, you as the teacher have not read the book, but the cover and illustrations indicate that it is a fantasy novel, then the student likely should choose another book to read.

Some teachers avoid this problem by assigning certain genre for each book report. This month students need to report on a historical event, or a book of poetry, or a science book, or a biography. One advantage of this is that you can help students read other material that they might not otherwise be exposed to. You could also have students read across the Dewey numbers choosing a book from each of the Dewey numbers each month. Some teachers avoid the problem by having a class discussion about the kinds of books that will be acceptable and what is not acceptable. This will also make your expectations clear without causing embarrassment to a student.

As a teacher, when I saw a book that was inappropriate I would speak privately to the student and let them know that I thought it was wonderful that they enjoyed reading so much. Then I would explain that the book they had is not one that many of the other parents would like for their children to read and request that the student take that book home and read it there and choose a different one for school. I seldom had a problem.

I would like to hear from you about how you have handled this issue in the past and would be interested in sharing ideas in the near future. I will just use the ideas, not names.

I hope you have a great week.
Audrey

New Titles

Greetings!

This week I am in the midst of the fall book fair from Scholastic and my library is full of cases of new books. What a wonderful thing for a librarian! I have found some wonderful titles that I would like to share with you. These are not in any order, just listing them as I find them.

The Sandwich Swap by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah with Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. $16.99 hardcover. Which is better for lunch? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a hummus and pita sandwich? Lily and Salma are best friends but the sandwiches they each bring look strange to the other. An argument turns into a food fight which turns into a school-wide international foods picnic. This is a good story to help teach diversity and tolerance for the customs of others.

Pierre the Penguin: A True Story by Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Laura Regan. $4.99 paperback. There is a penguin at the San Francisco California Academy of Sciences museum who skipped molting for a few years. His feathers grew brittle and broke off leaving him nearly featherless. Without feathers, he was too cold and would not get in the water. The aquatic biologist worked with the vet and others and to make a tiny wetsuit for Pierre so he would be warm enough. Soon his feathers did grow back and he recovered. Questions and answers are at the back of the book along with a website to view the penguins online via a webcam. I have visited this and seen the penguins and also saw pictures of Pierre. Very cool! No pun intended.

Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby. $$16.99 hardcover. On Johanna’s family’s farm, a pig had a litter of piglets one of which was premature. They brought him inside and one of the dachshunds became mother to the piglet. She had one puppy of her own, plus being foster mom to other puppies. She took care of the pink piglet aptly named “Pink” until he was old enough to return to the barn. Photographs of the animals are the illustrations.

Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships by Catherine Thimmesh. $16.99 hardcover. One page shows a photograph of an unusual animal friendship while a short paragraph tells the story of the two friends. One picture shows a darling baby macaque that had been abandoned hugging a white pigeon and the story behind it.

With the Might of Angels by Andrea Davis Pinkney. $12.99 hardcover. This is the newest of the Dear America series telling the story of what it was like for a young black girl to attend an all-white school in Hadley, Virginia in 1954 after the court rules in favor of desegration due to Brown vs. Board of Education. If your school does not have any of these Dear America books, you might take a look at them to see if this is something you would like to begin adding to your library. They are all written in diary format about an event in history. This is a good way to introduce history or to supplement a unit.

If your school has a Scholastic Book Fair, you will find these books there. If you don’t have a fair, consider a trip to a Scholastic warehouse or attend a book fair at the local public school.

Hope you a have a great week.
Audrey

Hello,
This week I am trying something new. I want to show you how to tape a paperback book to extend its life on your library shelves. I am also going to try to insert pictures to make this easier for those of you who are visual learners like me.
You may have a method of taping that works well for you and I am glad, but many schools do not tape the paperback books and may not realize how helpful it can be in the long run. Once you do a few, you can easily teach one or two older students to do this and they can take over the job of taping books for you.

First, you need a paperback book. I put the spine label on first so the taping will be the protector and I don’t have to use a separate label protector. You also need tape. I really like Scotch 845 Book Tape and I have found that the 2-inch wide tape is the best and most versatile. It fits all but the widest books and there are so few of them in paperback that it is just not worth purchasing wider tape for them. I just use two strips on the spines for those. You will need scissors to cut the tape and a bone folder to burnish the tape down. Fingers work OK, but having something hard to smooth out the tape is really best. You can probably find something other than the bone folder to use, but you can purchase one from Highsmith for less than $1.50 and it is just a nice tool to have.

















Measure out the tape visually so a bit extends on each end of the books’ spine.



















I sometimes put the book between my knees to center the tape visually before putting it down.










Smooth the spine with your finger, the burnish it with the bone folder.

























Carefully smooth each side down one at a time, smoothing with fingers, then the bone folder.
























For the edges of the cover, visually measure out the length again having a bit extend on each end. Place carefully so the center of the tape is on the edge of the cover. Smooth and burnish, then open the cover to smooth down the tape on the inside of the cover.



































Trim the tape flush with the book so no edges of the tape show. It may be that there is a small bubble of air under the tape. Often this can be pushed out using the bone folder, but if not, then make a small prick in the bubble and burnish it down.




















Now you have taped a book and have covered the parts that are used the most by children’s hands. Some people tape the entire cover, but I have found that this often makes the cover curl up and not lie nice and flat.

Here are the supplies I used and the approximate cost of them from Highsmith, the library supply source I use most often. I have found that one roll of tape will cover the spines and edges of approximately 20 – 24 paperback books. You might be tempted to purchase packing tape and use that since it is cheaper, but we have learned that the Scotch book tape is easier to apply and our helpers agreed it was worth the extra amount.

Scotch 845 Book Tape, 2-inch wide $6.34 - $6.80 each
Bone folder $1.44 each
Scissors


Please note that I am not being paid by Highsmith for promotion. I mention them because other teachers have asked me where they can get the supplies I use.

By the way, if you haven’t read the book I just taped, Dewey by Vickie Myron, it is an enjoyable story and would be a great read aloud for your students.

I hope this has been helpful for you. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great week,
Audrey

Automating your Library

Greetings!
Would you like to automate your library? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of the books your school owns and be able to find them quickly and easily? Well, you can do it and for less money than you might expect. I sound like a commercial for library automation software, but it is nice to be able to locate books quickly and know instantly whether you have a book on a particular subject without going to the shelves and perusing them hoping to find the subject you need.

You may have read the Journal of Adventist Education Summer 2011 issue on Libraries. I wrote an article with the help of my assistant, Joy Palmer, on how to organize a small library. If you read it, you will have a good start on getting your library organized.

However, this post is focused on what kind of automation program would be best for your school. The NPUC has recommended two automation programs; Readerware and ResourceMate.

Readerware is the less expensive of the two programs. Readerware is easy to use and is cheap. The prices you pay are one-time fees. The database can hold between 10,000 and 20,000 items which is perfect for most of our small SDA schools. The program extracts reviews and cover art for most books. There is a free tutorial and they offer a free 30-day trial. The program uses either Windows or Mac. I could not find any information to find out if a bar code scanner is included in the purchase price. Three years ago when I gave this information out, each item was purchased separately, but the prices are changed slightly and it appears that the program includes a complete package with all items needed. There are three options for purchase.
1. Standard Edition $40.00 – this is a single user and includes all the Readerware features needed.
2. Client/Server Edition $90.00 – This version includes all the features of the Standard Edition and supports up to five concurrent users.
3. Client/Server Enterprise Edition $500.00 – Includes all the features of the Standard Edition but has no user limit.

If you choose to go with Readerware, I would recommend the Client/Server Edition because you will be able to have one computer as the data station that can be password protected so students cannot alter the data and you can have four other computers as the card catalog in use at a time.

ResourceMate is another automation program that you might consider. There are four options for purchase.
1. ResourceMate Regular ($195.00) has the following features.
a. There is no limit to the number of items.
b. It uses Windows.
c. It is easy to use. You input the ISBN and search for the book. You can get Dewey information and subject information. It is also easy to add information that your school might need. For example a teacher wants to remember the books he or she used for the rainforest unit they just taught. Type in ‘rainforest’ for each book that does not already come up with you search for the rainforest books.
d. A demo is available. You must enter information to access this.
e. Training videos are available. There are three videos. You must purchase these for $35.00 each or two for $59.00, or three for $89.00. (Schools may be able to share these or maybe talk the NPUC into purchasing these for check-out.)
f. Online training is available for $35.00 for each subject taught. Examples include cataloguing basics, printing labels and cards, etc. There is a list of subjects on the website. You choose the session or sessions you want and sign up for the particular class on a specific date.
g. Tech support – the first 3 months are free, and then support is about $70 - $110 a year. Tech support is optional. The NPUC also has a few other teachers who are using this program and might be able to help you with any problems.
h. A user manual is included.
i. Built-in reports such as author, categories, call number, circulation, etc.
j. Password protected so the computer can be used for searching and the information cannot be damaged by someone searching on the computer.

2. ResourceMate Regular Multi ($395.00) includes the features above plus
a. Multiple people (up to 3) can install the program on their computers and enter items there and the data can be merged to the main database. This makes it easy for volunteers to help with the automation process.
b. Bar coding – need to purchase the bar codes and a scanner
c. Inventory reporting
d. History of circulation activity
3. ResourceMate Plus ($395.00) includes the features of the Regular version and the Regular Multi version. There are some extra features as well.
4. ResourceMate Plus Multi ($595.00) – similar to the above with some extras.
5. ResourceMate School Basic bundle – ($1042) This includes the following
a. ResourceMate Plus software
b. 1 patron search license
c. Bar code scanner
d. Bar code labels (1000)
e. Extended circulation
f. Spell check
g. One package of 1000 labels (spine)
h. Level 1 Training video

If you opt for ResourceMate, I would recommend the ResourceMate Plus for $395.00. The Regular Multi also costs $395.00, but the Plus version seems to have some features that aren’t listed with the Regular Multi version. I am not sure why, but you can do more research on the website.

If you are deciding between the ResourceMate and the Readerware, I would recommend the ResourceMate simply because it is a more robust program, no limit to the number of items, and we have other teachers who can help with questions you may come across.

I hope you find this information helpful if you are considering automating your library. This post and all previous posts are available on my blog sdalibrarian.blogspot.com.

Have a great week!
Audrey

Oldies but Goodies

Greetings!
If your library looks a little like my library you have lots of great books that don’t look too attractive on the outside. You try to get your students to read these stories, but they naturally gravitate to the newer, books with clean, attractive, full-color covers. We understand since these books naturally appeal to us, too. But how can we get students to pick up the older stories and read them? I have a few ideas for you.

Clean the books that you can clean. I have found that the books with a shiny, but dirty cover can usually be cleaned fairly easily. There are products on the market you can buy, special cleaners and erasers, but I was not having much luck with them and tried a dab of hand soap by the sink. I had a damp rag and put a bit of soap on the rag and started rubbing. Then I carefully wiped it all off with a clean rag that was a bit damper and dried the book. It looked almost new. This worked with the books that have a protective sheen, NOT a cloth cover.

Cover books with a ‘new’ dust jacket. I have covered books using two methods. I found a nice color cover from a place like Amazon or Barnes and Noble and copied it in a Word document, then pasted it on a dust jacket that I cut to fit the book. I have a plastic dust jacket protector I use to keep the jackets looking nice. Other schools laminate the dust jackets or cover with clear contact paper.

Get students to do as much of the work as you can. I set up a small shelf that I labeled “Lonely Books” and acted very sad that the books hadn’t been read for a long time. Then I asked students to choose a book, read it and let me know if they thought the book was good enough to keep in the library or if they thought it was time to weed that title out. If they liked it and thought others would like it, then they made a dust jacket for the book. I learned that it worked better if I cut the dust jacket out and lightly sketched out the area for artwork, title, spine label, and blurb. Then I let them make a wonderful cover. I promoted the ‘new’ books and other students checked some of them out. (This would make a great book report idea!)

Go with the theme. When you are studying a unit, check out as many books on the theme that you can. Get all levels of books, picture books, informational books, stories, magazines. Display these in your classroom so students can browse through them. If you are the librarian, find out what units the teachers are studying for the year and make sure that there is a variety of material to support the unit.
I hope these ideas have helped you continue to make your library or classroom the fun place to be and read.

Have a great week,
Audrey

Inexpensive Shelving Ideas

Greetings!

This week I am going to tell you how to get stuff for cheap. Or at least I can tell you how we have been able to add furniture and shelving to our library for very little money.

When we moved into the new school facility seven years ago, I had little furniture for the library. The shelving along the walls was custom built shelving and exactly fit the space in the old school. There originally was some talk of taking down the old shelving and moving it to the new school, but soon we all realized that this was not an option. The school was able to purchase new shelving along the walls and two magazine units. I was very grateful. We chose a light wood to match some stand alone shelf units we brought from the old school.

A local retired carpenter was hired to help cover the old low bookcases. He put the old bookcases back to back and covered them with a new top. He also custom built two new cases on casters that exactly matched the old ones. These were built for much less that would cost to purchase them. We were fortunate that our builder was willing to do this for much less money that he could normally charge. I rescued four shelf units (approximately 36 w x 30 h x 15 d) that teachers did not want and brought them into the library. Two are in the library proper and two are in my storeroom space.

For a short while we had some brick and board shelving while we were waiting for new shelves to arrive, but this can pose some safety issues and is not recommended. The shelves could topple over and harm a child. Shelves should be affixed to the wall or made very sturdy to avoid this problem.

By having Scholastic Book Fairs, I saved enough points over a few years to purchase furniture that I wanted and I have four pieces this way. I have a four-sided unit that swivels, a wooden library cart with shelves, and a two-sided unit that has a slanted top on each side. We keep dictionaries and other reference books in it. I also have a rolling two-sided unit with a space for sharing books and small shelves. I use that at times for story time.

Over the last ten years our area has had two or three stores go out of business and liquidate their stock. Usually we think of the clothing or items that were sold in the store, but if you think of the furniture, you can get some great things for very cheap. We have gotten Lucite holders and stands, wooden furniture, and sign holders this way.

If you think outside the box, you can obtain what you need for not too much money. Do you have a retired carpenter in your church? It may be that for the price of materials he or she would be willing to make the items you need. At least you can get an estimate. Did you notice a display or a poster in your local bookstore that you like? When they are finished with the display, they might let you have it. Take a look at your local flea market or garage sales and see if there is anything that might work in your library. A little cleaning or paint can really spruce up an old bookshelf.

You can make your library space look nice without spending a lot of money. I would love to hear of the ways you have saved money in your library space.

Have a good week,
Audrey

Bible and Mission books

Greetings!
I recently got a question regarding the older Adventist mission books and where it would be best to place them. This is a great question since we all have these old books and many of them are treasures.

I then realized that most of us have quite a collection of religious books and probably add to this section regularly. Here is a breakdown of the 200 section of Dewey for the categories you will use most often and books that might be included there.

220.5 – Bibles. This is the official place for Bibles according to Dewey.

220.9 – Bible stories that cover the Bible - both Old and New Testament. If you want to separate the Old Testament stories from the New Testament stories, you can use the next two divisions.

221.9 – Stories about Old Testament characters and other Old Testament stories

225.9 – Stories about New Testament characters and other New Testament stories

232 – Jesus and His family. You may decide to put stories about Jesus in the 225.9 section instead, but if you wish to separate these you can do it here.

242 –Devotional books. If you wish to separate your daily devotional books from devotional books that don’t have a daily reading, you can put daily devotionals in 242.2

248 – Christian experience and life – I hesitate to put this category in, but if you decide to use this, I would encourage you to only put adult books here such as Paint Your World. (I would not put children’s books here even if they seem to fit because this section is often ignored by children. I would put children’s books in either the story section or the Everybody Books section depending on the reading level.)

266 – Mission stories. Put all mission stories here, old and new.

270 – Early church history. Books about the early church such as the Waldenses would go here.

280 – Other Christian denominations

286.7 – Adventist section. I believe that it is important to put the decimal for this section to separate Adventist books. The number 286 is for Baptist, Disciples of Christ, and Adventist religions.

290 – Other religions, non Christian

Now what do you want to do with stories like the Uncle Arthur Bedtime stories? You might be tempted to put them in the 248 section, but I have already mentioned that that section is likely to be ignored or overlooked. I would advise you to put stories in the 813 section. That is the section that most children gravitate towards and these books will be seen and more likely used if there are in with the stories. However, you could put them in a separate section for collections of stories. If you want a collected story section, use 808 for it. We put Uncle Arthur books there along with the Guide collections of stories, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and other books that have individual stories in them. Since we are already in the 800 section, here is a breakdown of that section for you as well. (If you have literature from countries other than America, email me for that category if you need it.)

808 – Collected stories
808.8 – Poetry
813 – Stories. (The official title is American literature of fiction, but we either call it stories or literature for our students.)

One new thing I have noticed is that our Adventist publishers are beginning to put decimals after the 813 on some books. For example, the new Serenity series by Kay Rizzo has the number 813.54. I don’t know what the decimals stand for since Dewey does not have any decimal divisions for 813. You don’t have to use the decimals after 813 if you don’t want to.

Well, I hope this has been helpful to you. I have readers who faithfully save these emails in a folder to refer to later, but you don’t have to do that. I post each email on my blog and you can access it there if you want to. Just go to sdalibrarian.blogspot.com and you will find all the posts from January 2009 and since.
Happy reading!
Audrey

Organizing your small library

Hello for the last time this school year!

I know you must be as busy as we are finishing school, cleaning classrooms, putting away materials and organizing them. Sometime this summer some of you may decide to tackle your library and organize it. Whether you work on your school library or your classroom library, I have help for you. The summer issue of the Journal of Adventist Education is the Library issue. With the help of Joy Palmer I wrote an article for that issue on how to organize a small library. If you follow the guidelines in it, you too can organize your library even if you aren’t a librarian.

As you work on organizing your library whether you do it this summer or another time, please let me know if you have any questions. I hope the article was easy to understand, but I want to know if there are parts that need clarification. I have offered to present a session at the NAD Teacher’s Convention next summer in 2012 in Nashville on organizing a small library and I could use all the advice and help I can get.

I hope you take time to be a little lazy this summer. Read, relax, restore. I will be back next August when school begins with more ideas and books for you. If you have any particular category of book that you would like to have me feature, please let me know.

I have enjoyed being your Resource Librarian this year and look forward to a great year next year.
Have a great summer!
Audrey

New Titles

Greetings!
This week I am giving you some great titles that are new and also ones that might be a bit obscure for you.

The first title is a picture book, but it is not just for younger children. There is a lot of information in Energy Island by Allan Drummond. The island of Samso, Denmark is a very windy place and over time the people have harnessed the energy of the wind to power nearly everything on the island. The drawings are a bit cartoonish, but still appealing to all ages.

Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg is the true story of Annie Edson Taylor and her planned trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The pencil drawings in sepia tones give a historical bent to this achievement. I only hope that children won’t read this and decide to try it for themselves!

Don Brown has written a story from history about the Gold Rush titled Gold! Gold from the American River! The cover of the book looks a bit like the heading of a newspaper. The illustrations are cartoonish, but the information is really for middle and upper grades. Younger children will enjoy the story too, but it is really intended for all ages. Coming soon in the same format and by Don Brown is the story of the day the Twin Towers fell titled America is Under Attack. The book will be available in August.

My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs is a good book to share with students about how libraries work in other parts of the world. I read an article about a library in Kenya where books are brought by camel every two weeks to the nomadic people there and got interested in this. This book is one of the treasures I found in my research on that. You might enjoy the novel The Camel Librarian by Masha Hamilton also. I would call it a ‘beach read’, but not a book for our school libraries.

Young children lose teeth and usually put it under their pillow and find some money the next morning left by the tooth fairy. But what do children in other countries do when they lose a tooth? This next book Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World lets us know exactly that. Anyone want to be visited by the Tooth Rat?! The back of the book includes information about teeth, also. Again, this is not just for younger children. Older ones will get a kick out of the different traditions. It might be something interesting to include in the study of the different countries.

Who Stole the Mona Lisa? By Ruthie Knapp. Can you imagine stealing a painting as famous as the Mona Lisa? What in the world would you do with it? This is the story of the man who did steal Mona Lisa in 1911. This would be great to include in a study of Leonardo da Vinci or portrait art or even just as a good story.

If you need books on the Iditarod, you probably have Togo or Balto. Now there is a new one called Painter and Ugly by Robert J. Blake who wrote Togo and Akiak. Painter and Ugly is about two dog friends racing in the Junior Iditarod race. Mr. Blake got the idea after he met a real dog named Painter whose best dog friend is Ugly. Ugly had been sold to a different team and Blake wondered what if Painter and his best friend were both in the same race?

I hope you enjoy these books. I may have more for you next week.
Audrey

Hello,
A few weeks ago one of you emailed me and asked if I had any ideas for finding some Christian based DVDs on Volcanoes, Earth's features, rocks, and minerals. I finally had the time to sit and research this on the computer and found some information on this subject. Please note that I haven’t previewed these DVDs or purchased them myself. It may be that if you order them, you can get your money back if they aren’t what you need. I would certainly ask for this if I were you. Also, I hope that you do preview any movie that you show to kids. I learned this lesson myself.

I started my research by typing ‘Christian DVD earth science’ in the search engine. Here are some of the DVDs that I found that looked like they would be good for our SDA schools.

I found these and more at Christianbook.com.
1. The Awesome Forces of God’s Creation – 3 DVD set. Published by Moody.
2. Global Warming: A Scientific and Biblical Expose of Climate Change. Published by Answers in Genesis.
3. The Ice Age: Only the Bible Explains It. Published by Answers in Genesis.

I found another website called ‘Sing ‘N Learn (www.singnlearn.org) that had a DVD called Earth Science. One reviewer commented that there was no evolutionary material in the DVD. There is other teaching material there, also. The phone number of this site is 1-800-460-1973.

I also found quite a few DVDs at Christiandvd.com. From the Home page, look on the left sidebar and click ‘Teaching’, then click ‘Science’. You will be on a page that has a nice variety of Christian DVDs on science.

The last site I found was www.sixdaycreation.com/cms . There is a wealth of information on Christian based science and I found it to really interesting to look around on this site.

If anyone has found this information already and has a good source for purchasing them, please let me know and I will be happy to pass it along to the group.

I hope you have a great week.
Audrey

Teacher's Choices 2011

Hello,
I’m sorry I missed last week’s post, but I was attending the International Reading Association convention. It was held in Orlando, Florida, so the weather was sunny, hot, and humid. It was wonderful although I am glad to be back in the Pacific Northwest again. While I was there, I got some great ideas for promoting reading, and also a long list of books that I suddenly decided I must have. I thought that I would share some of those titles with you this week.

One session I attended was the Teacher’s Choices 2011. These are books read by and chosen by teachers who deemed them exceptional for curriculum use. They were book talked by teachers who were on the committee. I have read some of these titles, but not all of them. I will give the same blurb found in my handout. You can find this and more information on other books at http://www.reading.org/resources/booklists/teacherschoices.aspx . On this page is information about all the Teacher’s Choice books since 1998.

Primary Readers – Grades K – 2 – Ages 5 – 8

Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds. Philomel.
Told from a young boy’s point of view, we hear the story of Rosa Parks and her determination to keep her seat on the bus on Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. The language is authentic. Oil painting illustrations magnify the story.

The Brothers Kennedy: John, Robert, Edward by Kathleen Krull. Simon & Schuster.
Three ordinary brothers led three extraordinary lives. The Kennedys were raised to believe that they could change things for the better and with their tireless efforts, they did.

The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin. Tricycle.
This is a simple story explaining the science of the water cycle. One little raindrop is falling to earth and is excited to be alive. However, he then worries about crashing. This story demonstrates how one should live life to the fullest.

Lily’s Victory Garden by Helen L. Wilbur. Sleeping Bear.
This World War II story emphasizes how one girl takes action in her own community by growing a vegetable garden. She asks a neighbor for a plot of land to use. Friendship is bestowed on a woman who has lost her son in the war and working in the garden heals her sorrow. The seed packet artwork adds to the story and shows that one person, no matter how young, can truly make a difference.

My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete. Scholastic.
Told from a little girl’s point of view, we see what it is like for her twin brother to have autism: “Kids with autism are valuable human beings with real feelings even though they can’t always express them.” This heartwarming story can be shared with children of all ages.

Seed Soil Sun by Cris Peterson. Boyds Mills.
This book has vibrant photographs with lots of details for children to see. It opens with hands showing a wide variety of seeds. We then watch corn grow. This book complements science curricula and demonstrates where food actually comes from rather than just the grocery store.

Intermediate Readers – Grades 3 – 5 – Ages 8 – 11

Bag in the Wind by Ted Kooser. Candlewick.
This book showcases environmental awareness through the travels of a plastic shopping bag. People in the United States use 100 billion plastic shopping bags per year. This book could be used for sequence lessons. After reading this story, you will definitely think differently about using plastic shopping bags.

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George. Dutton.
Incorporating history and environmental awareness, we learn what happens when the prairie environment is decimated and nearly all buffalo are killed. A herd of 300 buffalo survive to begin the renewal of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, a protected patch of land, in Kansas. Thanks to this assertive effort, there are more than 200,000 buffalo in existence today. Brilliant watercolor illustrations illustrate this story.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine. Philomel.
Told from the point of view of 10-year-old Caitlin, we learn firsthand what it is like to deal with Asperger’s syndrome. A shooting in middle school took the life of her beloved older brother. Now Caitlin searches for closure for herself and her dad. (Note: this book contains a shooting, and may not be what you want in your library. I put this in because ALL the teachers who read it kept talking about it and I figured you could read it for yourself and decide if it will be appropriate for your school library.)

These titles are all taken from the 2011 Teacher’s Choices brochure. I will finish this section next week. I hope you are having a good week.

Library Announcement: This is the time to begin collecting all the library books and have them returned to school. School will be out in only three weeks.

Audrey