Christmas Books

Greetings!
Merry Christmas! Yes, I know it isn’t Christmas yet, but it very well may be time to order any new Christmas books to add to your library. I have some ideas for books for you.
The Nutcracker Ballet is a Christmas classic. Becoming a Ballerina by Lise Friedman and Mary Dowdle is the story of real dancers as they practice for this performance. Photographs help to tell the story of the preparation and performance.

A Christmas Tree for Pyn by Olivier Dunrea is the story of a little girl named Pyn who wants to decorate her first Christmas tree. Her father says no, but over the course of the story, he eventually softens and she does get her tree. Father is very gruff, but Pyn remains sweet and cheerful.

Ruthie and her family will have the honor of giving a tree to Pine Grove for the Christmas pageant. Ruthie’s father chose the tree in the spring, but had to go to war. Now Christmas is nearly here and even though the town is busy with preparations for the holiday and practicing the pageant, Ruthie and her mother are hoping that Papa will be home soon. After the pageant is over and the gifts from the tree are handed out, Ruthie and her mother have yet another wonderful surprise just in time for Christmas. I hope you enjoy The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston set in Appalachia in the early 1900’s. Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are wonderful.

What is Christmas like for a family who lives on a lighthouse? In The Lighthouse Christmas by Toni Buzzeo Frances and Peter wonder if Santa will know how to find them so far way on their tiny island off the coast of Maine. The supply boat has not been able to get to their island because of wild weather and supplies are getting low. The weather keeps the children from visiting their aunt on the mainland, it deposits a stranger on their doorstep but Frances and Peter try their best to keep up as many of their traditions as possible. Later on that day a small plane circles the lighthouse and drops a package at the edge of the water. Inside are some small gifts from the Flying Santa. It may be that you choose not to purchase this book because Santa is mentioned, but please know that the story is inspired by a true Christmas tradition known as the Flying Santa Service which honors the many lighthouse keepers on the islands of Maine. The Flying Santa service has been active continually since 1920 with the exception of the years during the war. Now it visits Coast Guard families. You can go to www.flyingsanta.com to learn more.

You may have been fortunate enough to visit Rockefeller Center at Christmas time and have seen the famous Christmas tree there. Have you wondered how it gets there? The Christmas Tugboat by George Matteson and Adele Ursone gives us the story. George Matteson was a tugboat captain for years and one year got the assignment to carry the special Christmas tree to New York City. The job was an easy one and he took his wife, Adele, and his young daughter along. Adele realized that this was a great children’s book idea and the two of them wrote the story. James Ransome illustrated it with his paintings. He wanted to capture the chill of winter and the cozy feeling of the family working together. It’s a great book to share at Christmas time.

I hope you have the opportunity to take a look at some of these books and maybe even purchase one or more for your school.
If you have a favorite Christmas book or story that you like to read to your students, please share these with me and I will in turn pass them along to the group.
Have a great week.
Audrey

Greetings!

We participate in a program each year here at Rogers called Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award. I go to the website and find the list of nominations for the coming year. I then go to Amazon.com and look up information on each book and decide which of them I feel are appropriate for our school. I purchase them and I read one each week during library class. All students in public and private schools, from kindergarten through third grade in Washington State may vote on their favorite. I do a different program with Kindergarten and since our school has multigrade classrooms, I don’t include the third grade. At our school this program is only for our first and second graders. After all the books are read, I line them up along a counter and do a very quick booktalk for each to remind students about the story. Then each student votes on his or her favorite book. I count the votes and send them in to the award committee.

Last year the winner was one of my favorites. It was called “Little Pink Pup” and was about a runt piglet who was adopted by a dachshund mother and nursed to health. The illustrations are photographs and at the end of the book, there is information about the pig after it is grown. I accessed the author’s blog during library class and we got to see more photos about “Little Pink Pup”.

This year there are 20 nominations for the 2014 Washington Children’s Choice Picture book Award. I immediately eliminated three of them, have questions about six of them and have chosen eleven of them to purchase. I try to purchase them through the Scholastic Book Fair. This way I can buy hardbacks with points instead of spending cash for them. I usually only have to purchase one or two through our local bookstore or Amazon.

I have found some wonderful books through the Washington Children’s Choice award and have shared many with you already. If you don’t live in Washington, I am sure that your state has a similar program. I suggest that you see what is on the lists and do a little research to find some great ideas for books. Be warned that the awards for books for older students may be unsuitable for your library.

You can google Washington Children’s Choice or go to http://childrenschoiceaward.wikispaces.com for information.

Have a wonderful week!
Audrey

Finding a Dewey Number

Greetings!

I hope you are getting settled into a routine and may soon have some time to work on your library. One of the questions I get most is about how to find the Dewey number in order to catalog books. I have put this information on previous posts, but it is certainly good to be reminded on occasion.

There are a number of ways to find the Dewey number.

1. For most newer books, the publisher will have a suggestion for where the book will fit and give a Dewey number accordingly. This is found on the imprint page – the page with all the tiny print and publisher information. You will likely see a small section with the author’s name, a short summary, ISBN number, Library of Congress number, and the Dewey number. Sometimes you might see an apostrophe in the Dewey number. This usually occurs when there are three or more decimal places. The apostrophe signifies that you could stop the Dewey number there if you like. I have found that usually the publisher gives a number that I can live with and not have to change it.

2. You can go to the Library of Congress website and type in the title of your book and find the Dewey number there. Go to http://catalog.loc.gov, type in the title of your book and press “Search”. A list of titles should come up. Find the specific title you are looking for and double click your book. Some information on the book will come up, but you will probably not find the Dewey number there. You then need to click “Full Record” and in that part you will probably find the Dewey number. I say ‘probably’ because at times you may not find it there. This website is usually very helpful, but it is possible you might not find success here.

3. You may be able to borrow a set of DDC books from your local public library in order to find a Dewey number. I would not recommend this unless you have had some experience using these books since it can be complicated and frustrating to the novice. (Believe me, I know!)

4. You might be lucky enough to find a librarian who will volunteer to help put your library in order. This is the best option as it takes most of the work off you!

5. You can skip looking for it and purchase books already cataloged. This is a great help, BUT it costs something per book. Usually the cost is between $1.00 and $2.00 or maybe even more. It would depend on your supplier. If you purchase your books from a local bookstore, this might not be an option anyway. You might decide that the extra cost is worth your time and hassle, but there are a couple of other things to think about first. If your library is cataloged fairly simply meaning you use very few decimals, you might get a book that is cataloged with three or four decimals. Vegetarian cookbooks have the Dewey number of 641.5636 but you might have chosen to go with a simpler 641 for all cookbooks. Another thing to consider is the placement of a book. I bought a book a few years ago about whale scientists. I thought it would be a great addition to our section on whales and show how people work to help them. The Dewey number for whales is in the 599’s. We wondered if it might work in the career section which is in the 300’s, but decided to go ahead and keep it in with the whales since that was my original intention on purchasing the book.

6. If your public library is online, check their catalog and see if you can find your book or books that are similar. My library at Rogers is online and you can check to see where I have put books. Go to library.rschool.org and you can search for what you want. You can also go to our school website, click “Meet Us”, then click “Student Support”, and click “Library”. The link is on that page.

7. Last but not least, you can email me and I’ll give you some suggestions, too.

The bottom line is to make sure the book fits with your library and is placed where the kids can easily find the book so they can use it. If the kids can’t find it, they won’t be able to read it.

Have a great week. Access my blog at sdalibrarian.blogspot.com for previous posts.

Audrey