New Books

Hello,

I have some fun new books for you to consider adding to your library.

Whoosh! By Chris Barton, Illustrated by Don Tate. ISBN 9781580892971 $16.95 US
I heard about this first title and knew that I had to get it. It is the story of how the super soaker water gun came about. Lonnie Johnson was an engineer that worked for NASA to help figure out how to ensure a constant supply of power to the Orbiter and probe Galileo that was going to go to Jupiter. While testing his idea for a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, he blasted a stream of water across his bathroom. “What a great water gun this would make,” was his first thought. And the Super Soaker was born.

White House Kids by Joe Rhatigan. ISBN 9781936140800, $14.95 US
The subtitle of this book is “The Perks, Pleasures, Problems, and Pratfalls of the Presidents’ Children”. This book covers all children who have lived in the White House through Barack Obama’s girls. There are lots of illustrations and photographs illustrating the history of the White House and the residents since then. At just under 100 pages, it is a great addition to your library.

The Secret Life of a Snowflake by Kenneth Libbrecht. ISBN 9780760336762 $17.00 US
This is an informational book about snowflakes. It is an up-close look at the art and science of snowflakes which is also its subtitle. There are photographs and illustrations on every page and the text is simple enough for younger readers (third and fourth graders) while also interesting enough for older readers. This is difficult to do. The author is a physicist at Caltech where he studies how crystals grow. He has two other books. One is titled “The Art of the Snowflake”, and the other one is titled “Ken Libbrecht’s Field Guide to Snowflakes”. I am having a hard time imagining who would need a field guide to snowflakes, but one is available apparently. He has a website you can check out, too. www.snowcrystals.com (I just had to check on Amazon.com to see if the field guide is there. It is.

A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards, Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. ISBN 9780533497106 $17.99 US
Mrs. Goldman knits hats for everyone in the neighborhood. Sophie notices that Mrs. Goldman doesn’t have a hat and learns that Mrs. Goldman has given her hat away to someone who needed it. Sophie worries about Mrs. Goldman’s head being cold and decided to knot a hat for her. Sophie only likes to make the pom poms for the hats, but valiantly works to knit the hat. When she completes the hat, she sees that she has dropped stitches and has holes in the hat. Sophie solves her problem by making lots of pom poms and putting them all over the hat.

Will’s Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe, illustrated by John Shelley. ISBN 9781580893682 $17.95 US
I had no idea how many common phrases and words we use that came from Shakespeare’s works until I read this book. The book also gives us some history of the time period. One side of the page has a paragraph or two about the history and Will’s Words are given on the other side with the information of the play it comes from.

Olinguito, de la A a la Z! written and illustrated by Lulu Delacre. ISBN 9780892393275 $18.95
This bilingual book written both in Spanish and English is an alphabet book focusing on a fairly newly discovered animal in the cloud forest of Ecuador and Columbia, the olinguito. In the information at the back of the book, you can discover more information about the olinguito and also explore the pages of the book. Each picture has real pressed leaves and flowers, a zoologist, and there are nine different kinds of birds in the book. More games and activities can be found at the author’s website. This is a good way to let students know that author information can have a lot more than just the story in the book.

A Bike Like Sergio’s by Maribeth Boelts, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. ISBN 9780763666491 $15.99
Ruben wishes he could have a bike like his friend Sergio, but his family just doesn’t have enough money to buy one. One day Ruben is buying something for his mother in the grocery story and notices that a lady has dropped a dollar bill. He quickly scoops it up and pockets it. After all, it’s only a dollar, so he doesn’t try to go after her. Later, when he is home in his room, he pulls it out and discovers that it is a one hundred dollar bill, not a dollar bill. He now has enough to buy a bike. His conscience bothers him all night and the next day. He is sent to the store again and is surprised to see the same lady! This time he chases her and returns the money. “You have blessed me, Ruben,” she exclaims. His heart is lighter and he runs home and tells his family his story. They are very proud that he did the right thing.

American Girl Ultimate Visual Guide by Carrie Anton, Laurie Calkhoven, and Erin Falligant. ISBN 9781465444967 $24.99
If you have students who love the American Girl dolls whether they own one or not, this book will be used and well loved. This book gives the history of the beginning of the American Girl dolls and the company and shows the complete line of dolls and their accessories. This book is new to our library and already I wish I had more copies!

I hope you enjoy these book suggestions.
Have a great week!
Audrey

Steps to a Better Collection, part 2

Hello,

I know that weeding is difficult – I have a hard time with it, too. Do what you tell your students to do. Break it up into smaller sections and do a section at a time. Start with one section – maybe do only the 100s and 200s this year. Find better books to improve just those two sections. Next year, weed and buy books for just the 300s and 400s. Keep going and in five years your whole library will be done and you will be ready to start again on the 100s and 200s again.

This week I want to also remind you to vary your reading levels as you weed and buy. How many books on Native Americans do you have? What reading levels are they at? At our school, the only classes who use this particular subject in their curriculum are in the primary grades, so I know that I need to have books on the lower levels for them as well as upper levels for the older students who are interested in this subject. This information can help me in the weeding process and also the buying process.

I know that some of you feel at a loss as to what kind of books are good? Where do I get them? How do I know what to buy? Find a professional who knows books and follow them. I can help you with books that I get for our school. I often share these titles with you. I also publish these weekly emails on my blog, so if you missed one or want to see them again, just go to sdalibrarian.blogspot.com and you will see all the posts I have made since January 2009. Other spots to find people would include Pinterest. Follow Deborah Ford, and you will find others that you like, too.

One of the most important things to do is to read the books you buy. You need to know what you are putting in the library and when a student needs a particular subject, you will likely remember and be able to help them. (The students will also think that you have read every book in the library!)

Audrey

PS – If you need ideas or titles for a subject, let me know and I may be able to help. I’ll also post an email about it since if one person has a question, others may have the same question.

Steps to a Better Collection - Weeding

Hello,

I hope you had a good vacation and are fueled up to start the second half of the school year.

This week I want to tell you more about what I learned at the BER seminar I attended in October with Deborah Ford. Deborah is associated with Junior Library Guild and has access to all the newest books. She also is a great proponent of ‘growing’ a great library collection.

By ‘growing’ I mean that your library is changing on a regular basis. You keep the books that are useful in your curriculum and discard or weed the ones that no longer have a place there. Many librarians call this ‘shelf worthy’. Does that particular book deserve a space on your library shelves? Do you need three or more copies of this book? The answer may be yes and the book deserves a spot on the shelf.

The age of the book is not always a reason to discard a book. I was helping one school to organize their library a few summers ago and as I was cataloging, I came across a copy of Kate Greenaway’s ABC book titled “A Apple Pie”. The original rhyme was first mentioned in a religious work in 1671. Variations appeared in the early 19th century and the most popular illustrated edition was Kate Greenaway’s edition in 1886. The rhyme introduces the apple pie and then proceeds to use verbs that tell what happens to the pie. The story begins “A was an apple pit. B bit it, C cut it, D dealt it, E eat it, and so on. The story can be found online if you are interested in it. In any case, I looked for the publication date and only saw the 1886 date. I did not see any reprint dates and I looked all over it. Then I began to get excited and called out that I had found a treasure that I thought was a first edition. I told that school not to discard this since it may be valuable. So you can see that the age of a book might not be a bad thing.

However, this kind of book sighting is fairly rare and the age of a book might be a very good reason to discard a book. Think science books, current events, computer or technology books – all these will have a limited shelf life if they are to be useful.

Discard books that are in bad shape or are ugly or missing pages. Discard books that have very fine print, few or no illustrations, illustrations that are out of date, or too technical for your library.

Discard multiple copies of books that aren’t useful. Keep one copy or possibly two if you have children who like to read the same book, but get rid of the others. Discard or remove to your church library any of Ellen White’s books that aren’t useful for your school curriculum. I advise that small schools have one set of the Conflict of the Ages series, one set of the Testimonies, a copy of Education and any others that you know will be useful at your school. Take the rest to your local church to put in their library or to a book sale or put in a “Free” box at church.

While you are weeding your library, you are also completing a collection analysis. You are learning where your worst areas are or where you are missing books. This is where you will need to put your book money.

I know what you are thinking – I don’t have time to do this! I don’t know where to start. Here are some suggestions for you.

1. Find a parent (or even an older student or two) to come in and go through the shelves. She or he will need to take each book off the shelf and glance through looking at the book. They will consider the condition of the book and look for the things I mentioned above. Any book that they feel is not appropriate, have them put the books in boxes. Have one box for books that they think is not appropriate in regard to age of the book, copyright date, fine print, etc. Another box would be for books that are in bad shape, covers missing or loose, marking inside the book, or missing pages.

2. Now the hard job is done and you can look through only those books that have been pulled off. Go through the books and make a final decision. You may find that a favorite book of the school is in bad shape, so now you need to either get the book repaired or replace the book. It may be that a newer edition is available or a better book can take its place. Write down the subjects or titles, then discard the books. Now you have a plan of what to get.

Deborah Ford is ruthless when weeding. I am more careful since I know that there are some books that are useful to our Adventist libraries even if students aren’t reading them much. It is fun for their parents to come in and happen across a book that they read as a child and become nostalgic.

At the same school I mentioned above, the teacher had a helper who was ruthlessly weeding the shelves. When I visited, the teacher was noticeably distressed over this. I went to the boxes that had been weeded and started looking through them with her at my side. I actually found many books that were useful to the school even if the students hadn’t checked them out such as books on careers. Those are books that are used, but not always checked out. They might be used at school or in the library. We kept them. I pointed out books that I could mend when I came in the summer and we put those in a box, and I pointed out books that needed too much repair, so we tossed them. As we worked together, the teacher relaxed and began to feel better. We kept quite a few of the ‘discarded’ books after all, which was a relief to the teacher.

If you have any questions about what to keep, first think of your curriculum. Is this something that supports my curriculum? Will I use it in my lessons? Is this something that is shelf worthy? If the answer is no to any or all of these questions, it may be time for that book to leave your school. If you still have questions, I would be happy to help you if I can.

Have a great week.

Audrey