The more I read, the less I write.  Sorry, but there are some really great books out there…  These three all stretch the imagination.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

I’ll be ordering this for our middle school library. I really liked the main character, Lucy, and her very supportive foster parents and friend. I spent three straight hours finishing this book because I HAD to see if they could do the three impossible tasks to break the ancient curse placed on Lucy’s family. Interesting tie-in with Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair”… Did y’all know it was based on an old Scottish ballad called “The Elfin Knight”?

The story contains some topics that aren’t typically included in middle school fiction (spoiler alert:  a teenage pregnancy resulting from date rape by a possessed young man who then is involved in a fatal car accident) but it’s not as bad as it sounds.  The details are limited and these unsavory events are actually germane to the plot.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I think I like book series almost as much as my students.  I bought this sequel to Hunger Games the day it came out and finished it in four days.  I was worried that this second book might not live up to my anticipation but it was actually better than I expected.  My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending was just cruel.  How many days until the third book comes out???

I do think it’s interesting that Katniss, the main character, remains torn between two incredibly great guys, as she was in the first book.  Although her two romantic interests are very different from each other, they are both devoted to her.  Does this sound familiar?  I’m looking forward to introducing my library’s Twilight fans to this great series.  I know they’ll love it!

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

This is a strange story about a young teenage boy, Todd, who was born on a recently settled planet where all of the men’s and animals’ thoughts are audible (ugh).  The women of the settlement did not survive long, so only men remain.  Todd’s guardians, determined to save him from an upcoming manhood ritual, force Todd (and his dog) to run away.  Todd’s escape and his discovery of a girl in hiding with the whole town in hot pursuit results in a gripping, gut-wrenching read.

I’m not sure what else to say about this one… I picked it up because, after enjoying those last two books, I was looking for another fantasy/science fiction type YA series that I might could order for our collection.  I almost immediately realized that this was not the type book I could put in our middle school collection.  I didn’t particularly like the story or the fact that it was full of profanity and near-profanity but at the same time I couldn’t put it down…  …I just had to find out what happened to the characters.  It was sad, tragic, and occasionally disturbing.  I may change my mind later, once the story fades a little, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of this series…  (LOVED the dog, though.)

Keep reading and keep learning!

September 19th is, ye guessed it, International Talk Like A Pirate Day!  I wasn’t plannin’ t’blog about it, but those swashbucklin’ buccaneers o’er at Libr-ARR!-yThing made me bring a spring upon me cable.  Blimey!  Come around and go smartly, matee!  Go check out LibraryThing in pirate-speak.  If ye miss it, t’is shown below.  T’is handsomely done! Arrrrrr!

Shiver me timbers,  me pirate name is Calico Anne!

Stay yer course, heartie!  Keep readin’ and keep learnin’!

Everyone has a story to tell. With Storybird, there’s no excuse not to. It has incredible artwork in a variety of styles. It’s easy. And if you don’t try to play with it when it’s overloaded (which it must have been last night), it’s quick, too! What a cool idea. I think this may be what we do in our first Jr. Tech Camp this year. By the way, I read about this in the Read Write Web blog and also in Scott Holcomb’s blog.

Check out my life story… …so far, anyway.

Keep reading and keep learning!

I don’t know if I mentioned that I finally got an iPhone. The 11 month wait was worth it. I’m addicted. I was a little disappointed, though, when I tried to include a picture in a text and found that I couldn’t. The phone was willing but AT&T wasn’t able. That’s evidently going to change on September 25th. Hurray! I read about this on the Read Write Web blog.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what’s a video worth? I think when you’re trying to engage middle school students in a review about how to use the school library, a video example is priceless. If you’re able to get their classmates to be the actors in your little library drama, all the better! The following clip is one of several filmed for this year’s library orientation. Our students, and even the teachers, got a chuckle out of it and it spurred a lively discussion about how to properly return a book to the shelf.

Download

At our district’s Library Inservice last week, I hosted a breakout session called “Casting a Wide ‘Net for Readers:  Using the Internet to Promote your Library”.  If you missed it, I’m including the PowerPoint below (there’s not much to it, I tend to talk more than “present”), along with these links to three cool web tools we discussed:  LogoEase (to make unique logos for your library and its programs), Wordle (a fun, eye-catching way to get your point across), and Animoto (slick little videos of your uploaded pictures).

Download