Hello,
I love series books. I love them because when I find a series, I know I have plenty to read for a while. I love them because when I get a student started on them, I know they will be happy for a while until they are finished. So here are some series books that might be interesting for your library. Maybe you have some of these already. Check to see if you have a complete series. If you don’t, you really might consider completing the series. Try a used book source if you cannot get new copies or if your budget is small. I’ll try to put these in age appropriate groups for you, too.
Junior High students/Parents
1. Serenity books by Kay Rizzo. You will find these at the Adventist Book Center. These are great for your older students and parents. With summer coming up you may also get camp meeting specials soon, so make your list.
2. Gilbert Morris’ books. A number of these were donated to our school. I put them out wondering if anyone would read them. Junior high students discovered them and they have been checked out regularly for two years now. See if you can find used copies somewhere. You also might have a community member that is happy to donate these.
3. Jeanette Oke’s books. (Pronounced ‘oak’) I love the Canadian West series, but her Love Comes Softly series is good, too. She also has individual books, too. See above for source ideas.
4. Heartland series by Lauren Brooke. This is a great series about horses. It may be difficult to keep your younger horse lovers from this series. In the first book, the main character suffers tragedy and it may be too much for a younger child. I try to save these for the older students and steer the younger ones to other horse books.
5. Christy Miller by Robin Jones Gunn. This series published by Focus on the Family is also for older students since the characters are high school students and are dealing with high school problems.
6. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. I LOVE this series! I simply cannot get kids to read this because they say, “I saw the movie.” This drives me nuts! The series goes into Anne’s married life and her family and most kids have not read them or even heard of them. I keep trying, though. These books are good for all levels, but are usually intimidating to younger ones because of the small type.
7. Adventures of the Northwoods by Lois Walfrid Johnson published by Bethany House. This is an older series about family life in the early 1900s.
8. Holly’s Heart by Beverly Lewis. Beverly Lewis is well-known for her Amish series books which are also good choices, but this series is about a preteen girl. Holly deals with boyfriends and other issues with the help of her friends and her faith in God.
9. Girls Only by Beverly Lewis. The girls in this series are involved in Olympic sports and have dreams of participating in the Olympics. They have a Girls Only club and learn important lessons as they struggle with challenges. Another series very similar to this one is called The Winning Edge by Lynn Kirby published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Middle Graders
10. Cul-de-Sac Kids by Beverly Lewis. This series is about the escapades of friends in a neighborhood and is great for middle readers. The books are thin so they aren’t intimidating to younger readers. Plus, there are a lot of funny situations in the series.
11. Keystone Stables by Marsha Hubler published by Zondervan. Give your horse lovers this series to read and when they are ready for another one give them. . .
12. Ready to Ride by Heather Grovet published by Pacific Press. After they finish this horse series, you can guide them to. . .
13. Starlight Animal Rescue series by Dandi Daley Mackall. Granted, there are more than just horses in this series, but maybe you can convince them to read the others too.
14. Mandie series by Lois Gladys Leppard is an old series, but still popular at my school. Mandie lives in the early 1900s and deals with issues of the day. There are at least 40 in the series. This is one series that it would be OK to not complete! I would have the first few books, then decide how many more you need. There is also a Young Mandie series with about 8 books in it. Those are also for younger readers.
15. Lily series by Nancy Rue published by Zonderkidz. Lily is a sixth grader and deals with situations and issues by asking herself if God is in this. There are also some self-help books that are paired with the stories. One example is the book “Here’s Lily” in which Lily considers a modeling career, and the companion book “The Beauty Book” which discusses what true beauty is to a Christian.
Well, this is enough for this week. I’ll continue this subject thread next week with more series books. Meanwhile, if you have a favorite series that I have not mentioned yet, I’ll be happy to consider adding it next week.
Hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Donated Books, Old Books. What to do?
Hello,
A couple of years ago I was asked a question: What do I do with books that have been donated to our school? I thought I would address this again since we are coming into spring cleaning time and you may have this issue to deal with.
When someone wants to donate books to our library, I say something like this. “Thank you so much for the books. I’ll be happy to look through them and see what the library can use. If I find some in here that we aren’t able to use, is it OK if I share them around?” Usually the donor is just happy to find a home and does not care what you do with them. I now have permission to do whatever I like with the books.
Here are some options for disposing of books:
1. Put the ones that you think might sell on a sale table at your school. Charge $0.25 or less for them. You’d be surprised how many parents will come in and buy these books. Also it is a little bit of income for the library.
2. Donate them to a local daycare or children’s hospital.
3. Take them to a used bookstore and exchange them for books that you CAN use. I do this with my personal books and have a credit at a used bookstore in town.
4. Toss them into a dumpster. Call this the “black bag” method if it helps you feel better.
People have a real problem tossing books in the dumpster. I’m not sure why. If a toy or machine gets old, worn out, or broken and cannot be repaired, those get thrown out. Old, worn-out clothing is discarded. What is the difference with books? If a book is missing pages, toss it. If you cannot repair it and it is not worth sending to a professional for repair, toss it. If it is too old and the information is outdated, toss it. No information is better than wrong information. Repeat that phrase over and over until you are comfortable with it. No information is better than wrong information. You may decide to keep some books for historical purposes, but those will be few.
If a book is unattractive, but the information or story is good, then fix the cover. Make a book jacket for it. One way is to measure the height of the book and the width of the two covers and spine plus at least two inches on each side. Then cut a large piece of paper to fit the book. Now you can decorate it. Make sure to put the title in the spine area plus the spine label. You might find a great picture of the original cover online that you can copy and paste on the book jacket. The main thing is to make the book look attractive.
One idea that I have used is to have a shelf of these good but unattractive books and then I ask students to help me decide if the books are worth the space on our shelves. I asked a class or two to choose a book, read it and let me know if it is a good story and if they think other students might like to read it. If they think it is a good story, they can make a dust jacket for the book. They put a line on the back of the dust jacket that tells who designed the cover and what grade they are in. This would be a great book report idea plus get covers made for some of your books.
I hope you can use some of these ideas. I also give you permission to throw away books that you cannot use! Have a good week,
Audrey
A couple of years ago I was asked a question: What do I do with books that have been donated to our school? I thought I would address this again since we are coming into spring cleaning time and you may have this issue to deal with.
When someone wants to donate books to our library, I say something like this. “Thank you so much for the books. I’ll be happy to look through them and see what the library can use. If I find some in here that we aren’t able to use, is it OK if I share them around?” Usually the donor is just happy to find a home and does not care what you do with them. I now have permission to do whatever I like with the books.
Here are some options for disposing of books:
1. Put the ones that you think might sell on a sale table at your school. Charge $0.25 or less for them. You’d be surprised how many parents will come in and buy these books. Also it is a little bit of income for the library.
2. Donate them to a local daycare or children’s hospital.
3. Take them to a used bookstore and exchange them for books that you CAN use. I do this with my personal books and have a credit at a used bookstore in town.
4. Toss them into a dumpster. Call this the “black bag” method if it helps you feel better.
People have a real problem tossing books in the dumpster. I’m not sure why. If a toy or machine gets old, worn out, or broken and cannot be repaired, those get thrown out. Old, worn-out clothing is discarded. What is the difference with books? If a book is missing pages, toss it. If you cannot repair it and it is not worth sending to a professional for repair, toss it. If it is too old and the information is outdated, toss it. No information is better than wrong information. Repeat that phrase over and over until you are comfortable with it. No information is better than wrong information. You may decide to keep some books for historical purposes, but those will be few.
If a book is unattractive, but the information or story is good, then fix the cover. Make a book jacket for it. One way is to measure the height of the book and the width of the two covers and spine plus at least two inches on each side. Then cut a large piece of paper to fit the book. Now you can decorate it. Make sure to put the title in the spine area plus the spine label. You might find a great picture of the original cover online that you can copy and paste on the book jacket. The main thing is to make the book look attractive.
One idea that I have used is to have a shelf of these good but unattractive books and then I ask students to help me decide if the books are worth the space on our shelves. I asked a class or two to choose a book, read it and let me know if it is a good story and if they think other students might like to read it. If they think it is a good story, they can make a dust jacket for the book. They put a line on the back of the dust jacket that tells who designed the cover and what grade they are in. This would be a great book report idea plus get covers made for some of your books.
I hope you can use some of these ideas. I also give you permission to throw away books that you cannot use! Have a good week,
Audrey
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Reader Responses
Hello,
I recently received two responses to two different posts and thought I would share them with you.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about different ways to add books to your library without spending much money. One response came from Rosemary. She wrote that her local Barnes and Noble bookstore does an in-house book fair for her school. She has had three Barnes and Noble book fairs over the past three years and has been very pleased with this arrangement. The profits come to her on a B & N gift card which she uses to help increase her school library budget. Contact your local Barnes and Noble for more information.
Last week I wrote about using student helpers in the library. My student helpers belong to the Library Club. Donna responded to say that she has used student helpers in her library for 18 years. Her name for them is ‘Library Rats’ which is a play on the ‘Lab Rat’ term. The name has turned into a badge of honor over the years. Donna takes notice of students who will be useful in the library or might also get a boost of self-esteem from the job. She gives personal invitations to these students (even as young as 2nd grade) and begins training them. They come at their recess time once or twice a week and each student has assigned duties. When their job is done for the day, they receive a small piece of candy. Twice a year – Christmas time and end of the school year – she gives out small gift cards to the local Border’s store. Donna has many students requesting to be a ‘Rat’, but she explains that she can’t hire everyone. Also, once Donna trains her ‘Rats’, she keeps them as long as she can.
One thing I DIDN’T tell you is that this year, I am having some issues with my student helpers. About a third of them quit coming regularly and therefore are no longer members of Library Club. About a third of them come in, but don’t really do what I have asked them to do. I like the idea of training them and KEEPING them until they graduate or until they choose to leave. I also like the idea of assigning jobs. I will have to rethink my plan next year.
I hope these ideas from two of my readers are helpful to you. Take what you like, or tweak the ideas and plan until they work for you.
Hope you have a great week!
Audrey
I recently received two responses to two different posts and thought I would share them with you.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about different ways to add books to your library without spending much money. One response came from Rosemary. She wrote that her local Barnes and Noble bookstore does an in-house book fair for her school. She has had three Barnes and Noble book fairs over the past three years and has been very pleased with this arrangement. The profits come to her on a B & N gift card which she uses to help increase her school library budget. Contact your local Barnes and Noble for more information.
Last week I wrote about using student helpers in the library. My student helpers belong to the Library Club. Donna responded to say that she has used student helpers in her library for 18 years. Her name for them is ‘Library Rats’ which is a play on the ‘Lab Rat’ term. The name has turned into a badge of honor over the years. Donna takes notice of students who will be useful in the library or might also get a boost of self-esteem from the job. She gives personal invitations to these students (even as young as 2nd grade) and begins training them. They come at their recess time once or twice a week and each student has assigned duties. When their job is done for the day, they receive a small piece of candy. Twice a year – Christmas time and end of the school year – she gives out small gift cards to the local Border’s store. Donna has many students requesting to be a ‘Rat’, but she explains that she can’t hire everyone. Also, once Donna trains her ‘Rats’, she keeps them as long as she can.
One thing I DIDN’T tell you is that this year, I am having some issues with my student helpers. About a third of them quit coming regularly and therefore are no longer members of Library Club. About a third of them come in, but don’t really do what I have asked them to do. I like the idea of training them and KEEPING them until they graduate or until they choose to leave. I also like the idea of assigning jobs. I will have to rethink my plan next year.
I hope these ideas from two of my readers are helpful to you. Take what you like, or tweak the ideas and plan until they work for you.
Hope you have a great week!
Audrey
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