What is Mix It Up at Lunch Day? This program, now in its tenth year, was developed by Teaching Tolerance, a project of The Southern Poverty Law Center. Since the cafeteria is common ground to all school students, it also is the place where most cultural and social lines are drawn. By encouraging kids to sit at a different table and hang out with someone new, these divisions can be broken down through the simple act of breaking bread together, and sharing a conversation.

Teaching Tolerance has many resources available, from posters to discussion guides. You can also register your school as an official Mix It Up participant—over 2000 schools have already registered. Plan now to take advantage of this free and easy-to-implement program.

In The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got that Way (S & S, 2013), Ripley reports on her year-long “field trip to the smart-kid countries” to see if she could account for the success of the high achievers. What made these kids smarter than their American peers? To offer an insider’s perspective, she recruited three teenagers participating in student exchange programs: Kim, a sophomore from a low-performing high school in small-town Sallisaw, OK, made her way to Finland after the hard work of raising $10,000; Eric, a recent graduate of a high-achieving, affluent Minnetonka, MN, high school, deferred college for a year to attend high school in Busan, South Korea; and Tom, a western literature enthusiast from Gettysburg, PA, opted to spend his senior year in Wroclaw, Poland.

So, what did Ripley’s investigation reveal? While many of the problems that plague schools, such as principal and teacher complaints, strong unions, political maneuvering, and test anxiety are universal, where children live often determines how seriously they take their role as students. In Finland, Korea, and Poland, the stakes are high; students’ college choices and future careers are determined by how well they do on their exams. Though also true to some extent in the United States, many American students appear fairly blasé about academic success. Interestingly, access to technology wasn’t a deciding factor in motivation or better learning. In fact, the three countries profiled had no digital whiteboards and few computers in the classroom. (They also didn’t have school sponsored sports teams.) What mattered most was rigor and equity, that all students were expected to perform to a certain level and held to the same standards, as were their teachers. In Finland, especially, Ripley describes how improving teacher-training programs by limiting admissions to highly qualified applicants, demanding subject area expertise, and extending the internship period, also improved the level of rigor in the classroom. And they did this while rather than after adopting stringent national standards.

It’s clear that no one country has the answer to America’s public (and sometimes private) school morass. Each has specific issues and problems; consider Korea’s late-night hagwons, private tutoring schools that reduce equity because they charge for access to the best teachers while wearing down students to the point of exhaustion. But what is clear is that in each of the three countries profiled, policy makers and educators and, more importantly, parents and students have decided that a good education matters and excuses for failure are unacceptable. Ripley’s reporting is top-notch, fluidly presented, and well-documented, and her coverage of the teenagers’ personal journeys and experiences, both social and academic, make this a must-read for anyone interested in getting American schools back on track.

So, what’s the goal of this orientation anyway? First, I’d like all students to learn that the library is a friendly, welcoming place, a safe haven in the storm that is high school. Sometimes all a student needs is a place to hide out. Secondly, I want all students to really know what we have to offer them: fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, audiobooks, magazines, and reference books. I want them to actually log in and access our ebook collection. I want them to use the databases, save articles, and generate citations. All of this is a fairly large hope for a group of kids who’ll undoubtedly ask, “How many points is this worth?”  So knowing my audience fairly well, I’ve decided to resort to outright bribery, and I’m going to convince my staff to be open and prepared for the chaos I’m sure to unleash.

I’m putting together a scavenger hunt. Yes, I know, this is not a terribly new idea.  But I’m planning on throwing a few twists in to make it interesting and keep the students engaged.  Students will travel around the library in groups of no more than three. To begin, each group will receive a clue, in the form of a Call Number, which leads them to a different print location so not all students are converging on the same spot at the same time. I’ll need to develop at least 12 different scavenger paths so students touch on everything fabulous in the library without tripping over each other.  When students locate their book, they’ll find one of those old plastic VHS cases disguised as a book and containing candy (Smarties most likely) and their next clue, which will be one of a variety of things. Several will direct them to specific computer stations with directions to access a specific database. They’ll need to locate an article on a given topic, generate the citation, and email it to me along with their group number so we can keep everyone organized and on individual scavenger paths. I plan to have my assistant back in my office sending out the next clue when she receives correct emails. Other clues will lead to “books” containing QR codes linking to our website. One clue will direct them to check out an ebook. Yet another clue will lead them to iPads loaded with Aurasma videos demonstrating how to download newspapers and periodicals on their laptops and smartphones.

Ultimately, the real goal of this chaotic undertaking is to teach kids that the library is a place where questions are answered, passions are pursued, and where dreams are launched. Obviously, this is a work in progress, but as it takes shape, I’d love to hear what other librarians are doing to spice up their obligatory orientation.

For more ideas on how to spice up your orientation, check out Joyce Valenza‘s Orientation Inspiration post on her Neverending Search blog.

Back to reading

Bouncing Back to School: Great Books for Easing First Day Jitters
By Joy Fleishhacker
From what to wear to following rules to making friends, these engaging picture books address common beginning-of-the-year concerns with solid storytelling, genuine empathy, and upbeat resolutions. The list includes titles both new and tried-and-true that will reassure youngsters that their apprehensions are shared by others.

Books to Enhance Class Trips and Learning Adventures | Focus On

By Joy Fleishhacker

A mix of fact-filled offerings and fictional adventures, these titles give kids a break from the routine and encourage interactive learning experiences.

Joyce Valenza’s tech picks

Fall decorating: a round-up of smart (and free) posters

Meaningful, inspiring, attractive visuals to fill our display cases, grace our bulletin boards, and embed on our websites—and where to find them.

Your back-to-school letter

Valenza shares Doug Johnson’s suggestions for writing the back-to-school letter

Orientation inspiration

With help from the #tlchat community, Valenza crowd-sourced suggestions for making library orientations inventive, different, and fun.

For more, visit our Back-to-School resources page.

The books presented here have been chosen to support and enhance expeditions to favorite preschool and elementary-aged destinations: farms and other food-producing enterprises; museums (both natural history and art); nature reserves and outdoor-observation areas; community institutions; and zoos and aquariums. A mix of fact-filled offerings and fictional adventures, all of these titles pair handsome illustrations with well-written texts to entice young readers and listeners. They can be used in the classroom to support Common Core Standards by introducing and/or reviewing site-related subject matter and vocabulary as a starting point for post-trip research projects and to inspire creative art and writing projects and initiate personal written and oral narratives. Featuring class expeditions of all kinds, the titles can also be shared to generate discussion of behavioral dos and don’ts, model positive information-seeking methods, and dispel any fears or anxieties about going to unfamiliar places.

Best of all, these appealing volumes encapsulate the magic of a field-trip experience and expand the learning–and enjoyment–well beyond the designated outing.

Credit WBFO News photos by Eileen Buckley

UB’s Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction (CLaRI) is a non-profit center that has served hundreds of children and families in Western New York for 50 years. There is no charge for the reading program. While the children benefit from the reading and writing instruction, this program also provides the grad students with intensive hands-on teaching time before they head off to the classroom for their practicum.

Do these kinds of programs exist for library school students focusing on early literacy and children’s services? If so, SLJTeen would love to hear about them. If not, what are you waiting for?

Wow!  School is starting soon and the lazy-crazy days of summer are drawing to a close! My guess is we all had a season jam-packed with travel, family, learning, reading, recreation, mountain climbing, rebuilding, and (I hope) relaxing.

No matter what you did, as you return to school, you’re bound to hear that traditional phrase, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” Just like you, many of our kids have had some remarkable experiences this summer. Some have taken advantage of leadership opportunities, internships, travel and exploration, team events, books and literature, movies, and concerts. They’ve learned rules, refined lessons, conquered challenges, and oh, did I mention, read a few books?

Our students’ experiences demonstrate their knowledge and diversity, and it’s worth sharing. Get your “tech on” and you’ll learn that students’ ability to share this information using 21st-century skills is incredible.

Here are the top 10 ways to kick off the school year that will allow your students to share the richness of their summer experiences.  These activities just might help teachers and classmates to better know, understand, and appreciate each other.

1) Use Instagram to create a collage of pictures with daily prizes. You might want to suggest themes such as:

○     Sports, books, travels, jobs, concerts, pets, family, friends, etc.

○     Use a free collage app for your phone or tablet like Framatic,  Instaframe, or Instacollage.

○     Post collages on your library web page or blog, display them in the library and online.

2) Start a contest where students vie for the most ‘Pinterest-ing’ summer.

○     Use Pinterest to post movies watched, food eaten, places traveled, books read, concerts attended, lessons learned, sports played, etc.

○     Award cheesy prizes to the best pages like this one.

3) Have a video contest using Vine or Instagram Video (or similar video tool) to create persuasive short videos about why their summer was the “awesome-ist.”

○     Announce rules, select top-notch judges, and advertise prizes.

4) Post a “back-to-school” survey you create using Google Forms. Then compile the answers with hyperlinks and post on your website.

5) Use Socrative to help select a slogan or theme to encompass students’ summer experiences.

○     Set up Socrative’s short answer form so students can submit slogans and/or themes.

○     After several slogans have been submitted, initiate the voting feature and have students vote for the best slogan/theme.

6) Start a Twitter hashtag contest:

○     Solicit tweets to a common hashtag on twitter such as #mascotvacation

○     Have a daily theme for tweets such as best books read, hottest/coldest place traveled, highest elevation, farthest traveled, concerts attended, sports played, etc.

○     Display tweets and give daily cheesy prizes.

7) Have a summer photo contest:

○     Have students submit online and use Thinglink to provide links or videos to explain what it is about the photo or experience that stood out for them.

8) Have an essay contest using a theme such as something new tried, class taken, skill learned or job completed in 150 words or less. You can simply use GoogleDocs, or a site like Stage of Life, which features a free blogging community for teens.

9) Have students anonymously submit their best summer memory and make a game of trying to match the experience to the student.

10) Use Aurasma to showcase things that inspired your students over the summer.

You might be surprised how sharing these experiences can enhance your relationships with your students in the coming year. But what may really surprise you is how this may strengthen their relationships with each other. I think you’ll find that the combination of experiences your staff and students have accumulated over the past few weeks will astound you.

Yesterday, my-about-to-be 13-year-old and I visited the Great Books Summer Program at its Amherst, MA, location. It made sense to bring Sasha because he was just back from three weeks at the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). I wanted his take on how the two programs were similar and different, and what I might tell you about them. I’ll get to that, but first here is the news as it relates directly to school librarians reading this column: these programs, and doubtless similar others that focus on music (Read*Teach*Play at the Ravinia Festival, DARTS at Tanglewood), and the other arts and sciences are exactly what middle and high school students need. They offer what schools straining under reduced budgets and months of test prep simply cannot provide. And they are not just for wealthy families, tiger parents, and super-motivated kids. Not at all.

Every high school has a college guidance counselor. But the school library should be the Summer Mind Camp clearing center—where brochures are gathered and websites curated, and from where, via an email blast, parents read about these opportunities. Every school library has a summer program to keep kids reading, which is great. But these camps do so much more—and every child deserves to hear about them, and see if there is one that is a fit for them.

At CTY, Sasha took a class that focused on great Supreme Court cases, starting coincidentally, the very same week that the Court handed down its key rulings on the Voting Rights Act and same-sex marriage. He loved the moot courts and debates. For the first time in his life he was, as he desperately texted me one morning, “surrounded by Republicans.” It was a great experience. But as much as he was stimulated by the classes and the discussions, he grew because the other students hailed from all over the United States, and indeed, the globe. Sasha met, and got to know, the world of people and ideas he will grow into.

CTY offers many courses, including some focused on math and computing, and perhaps, as a result, drew a real mix of boys and girls. Great Books focuses on literature: the plays, poems, essays, and novels that its designers consider, in the Mathew Arnold sense, “the best that has been thought and said.”  It appeared to me that there were more girls at Great Books, but the population was equally international. A boy who had arrived from China showed Sasha around, led him to the basketball courts during a break, and became an instant pal.

One key difference between the camps was that CTY— a very large, long-established program across many campuses—often uses middle and high school teachers as its instructors. This means that the best of them are quite skilled at stimulating discussion and directing campers to come up with their own answers, even if they are not necessarily experts. Great Books, by contrast, hires college professors and its three campuses—Amherst, MA, Stanford, CA, and, just recently, Oxford, England—provide students with an opportunity to meet, to interact with, and to learn from leaders in their fields. These are not full-on college lectures—there is give and take. But to my eyes, the liveliest conversations occurred when the campers broke into smaller groups and processed what they had heard and read that day.

Both programs understand kids—these are not cram courses. They build days around an interplay of art, sports, social time, and learning. And what each supplies—in its own way, by its own rules—is a humanistic education, that exposure to deep thought, rich literature, and probing minds, which we all too often see squeezed out of our K-12 schools. These camps give young people an intense exposure to everything the Common Core tries to achieve—with their international peers.

The programs are not an extra for the few. They are necessary mind medicine, soul fodder, for our kids. And school librarians can, should, and must be the ones to let students know that these opportunities exist. CTY does require certain test scores. Great Books needs only a recommendation from a qualified adult (such as a librarian or teacher). Both programs are expensive (not including travel), but both also have well-established financial aid and scholarship systems in place. When you think of the young people in your school, start by asking who would really benefit from attending this kind of mind camp—this amusement park of ideas and creativity and global connections. Make sure he or she, and his or her parents, know they exist. Don’t begin with the question of who can afford the experience.

The real question is: who can afford not to have this opportunity?*

*(We came upon Center For Talented Youth on our own; the Great Books program invited me to visit and paid for our overnight stay. I do not believe my views in this article were slanted by their blandishments, but in fairness you all should know that I was their guest.)

Photographers Gerda Taro and Robert Capa

It’s been my experience that when the tests are over and the school year is winding down, librarians want a nonfiction author to charge up the students, and a Common Core speaker to share insights with the staff. So, all through May and June, my calendar is full.

Very often, the day includes a lunch session with a small group of students, that has an opportunity to gab with me over sandwiches. During one such get-together, a brave 8th grader asked, “Why should we care about history, anyway? It’s over.” She was straight talking, direct, and I thought she probably spoke for many of the others present. I gave her the answer I give myself: she and her peers live in the eternal now—perhaps teenagers always have—but popular culture, the media, social networking, and an array of electronic devices make it easy to be inside whatever is trending at the moment. I’ve learned that Internet trends follow the same spike-and-crash arc, and that many of today’s teenagers live within that 24-to-48 hour-blast-and-demise of rumor, hit, meme, song, and video. Surely that must-know imperative has always been with us—whether the information was whispered among friends, shared along on a village path, or written in a letter. Now, however, there appears to be no push back from our surrounding culture, no sense that the immediate world, however compelling, is of less weight than centuries of accumulated knowledge, art, culture, or history. So what could I say to that teen?

I took a plate and held it horizontally: “This,” I said, “is your world. You live in the eternal now.” Then I took a second plate, and placed it vertically, beneath the first: “This is what you stand on.” History is that column, that pillar, on which the present rests. As we investigate the past, as we ask new questions, as we line up cause and effect in new ways, our present changes. Indeed, as we begin to see how easily events could have been different or altered, we begin to see that we can influence the present and craft a new future.

We study history not out of reverence for the past, but to give us the tools to make a better future. Living in the eternal now, how will we ever know if we are just refashioning old mistakes? (I ran across exactly this idea in the work of William Crary Brownell, Edith Wharton’s first book editor, and the subject of my doctoral dissertation.)

All of this, however, is background to another recent experience I had in a school. I decided to make a PowerPoint presentation on the book my wife, Marina Budhos, and I are writing: The Eyes of the World: How Three Friends (Two Lovers), and a Camera Tried to Fight Fascism (Holt, 2014) The book is about Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour (Chim) during the period of the Spanish Civil War.

There are many hooks for readers in this story, and one huge problem: few, if any, teenagers know or care about the Spanish Civil War. So what could I do to engage the students I was visiting? I decided to draw a parallel between nations’ choices about getting involved in the conflict in Spain in 1936 and our choices now about Syria. The parallels are striking: two clear sides, one we support and one we oppose, and a situation in which there are so many crosscurrents and dangers, few want to get involved. I crafted my PowerPoint and the kids responded positively. And then I read an article by Harvey Morris on The New York Times website, in which many scholars were drawing precisely the same parallel.

Why read history? Because we face terrible choices today, and we have the past to study—not as a lessons about right and wrong, but as a mirror that allows us to examine our actions and ourselves more closely. History matters because it is us—deepened, scrutinized, enriched in contemplation. It provides us with an opportunity to pause, weigh, consider, and reflect before we act. That is what I had to offer the questioning teen. I suspect she left with an inkling that I just might be right.

Matthew Hudak, a U.S. packaged goods analyst in Euromonitor International’s Chicago office says that Millennials, roughly defined as those age 13 to 35, “simply aren’t interested and instead are doing different things. Older consumers don’t tend to chew it as much and use mints for breath-freshening.” This trend runs contrary to a 2012 article in USA Today that alleged that teens are using gum as a “fashion accessory.” Here’s to hoping that fewer books are coming back to the library with sticks of gum used as bookmarks!

Does Burn Note encourage sexting? Burn Note’s creator, Jacob Robbins, told TechCrunch, “The story that was most frequently written was that teens were primarily using Snapchat for sexting, but that was pretty transparently not true unless sexting was a daily activity primarily done during school hours in which case school administrators could be expected to weigh in loudly.” It actually may be more useful for teens who want to share snarky comments about their classmates, or answers on a test. Download it and give it a try yourself—you and your administrators will definitely want to know about this application.

The teen programs held at the Oakville Public Library are developed in many different ways. A program may be based on ideas generated by our Teen Advisory Group (TAG) or it may be something that has run successfully in the past, like the annual Write2Xpress contest and awards night. Some have even been based on suggestions from teens who fill out the evaluation forms after workshops and events. One member of the community thought a workshop on Financial Literacy would be a great addition to our slate of programming. TAG and I agreed, and that workshop will be taking place later this spring.

The Real Life University & College Fair was a little different. It came about after I overheard a conversation between one of my pages and some of her friends. Amanda, who was graduating from high school, was telling friends about how she had called the awards office at the university where she had been accepted to learn more about the deadlines surrounding tuition payment when dealing with financial assistance. The information wasn’t available on the school’s website, and Amanda wanted to pass it along to fellow students who were  heading to the same school in the fall. I realized that there were likely other pieces of information other students needed to know before heading off to university or college that they wouldn’t learn from a campus visit or at a university fair with official school reps. For example, would you ever consider that you might want to change banks if the bank machines on campus are from a different bank and campus is at least 20 miles away from the closest city?

Getting all the important details from post-secondary students

So the Real Life Fair was born—a forum for high school students to meet current university/college students to learn what life is really like at school. The draw for high school students is that they’ll have the chance to speak with current post-secondary students, learn more about their choices, and get the scoop on the realities of residence life, professors and programs, the registration process, and much more.

To maintain my talent pool, I stay in touch with graduating pages and TAG members, and ask them and their friends to participate with the promise of a pizza lunch and my undying gratitude. This year, we added a chance to win one of five $25 gift cards for Tim Hortons, a favorite coffee shop with locations on many campuses across Canada.

Erica, right, talks to high school students about residence life

Our first fair in June of 2010 boasted a grand total of just over a dozen participants, including university and high school students and the occasional parent stopping in to see what we were all about. Once we moved the fair to February during Reading Week (the Canadian equivalent of Spring Break), numbers began to climb as more university and college students were available. Since high school students had yet to hear if they were accepted to the schools to which they had applied, their interest still remained high. This year, our fair attracted a whopping 71 participants, which included students from universities both within commuting distance like York and University of Toronto, McMaster in Hamilton, Sheridan College (Oakville Campus), and from more distant locales, such as Carleton and University of Ottawa, McGill in Montreal, and St. Mary’s University in Halifax. It was like the United Nations of post-secondary community. Needless to say, I can’t wait for the 2014 Real Life University!

Elise C. Cole is the teen services librarian for the Oakville Public Library, a six location library system serving Oakville (population 182,520) just outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Community Calendar is also a great place to visit if you’re looking for program inspiration. AASL has provided other great resources for celebrating School Library Month. You still have two weeks left—get moving!

The answer has to be testing! High-stakes testing! Advanced Placement testing! American College Testing or even the SAT! Students feel pressured to work hard to prove themselves in this world of achievement.

“When I took the practice ACT, I started out with a 24, but I’m hoping to get a 30!” one junior told me. Not all our students care this much, but there are those who do, and they are looking for great resources to help them prepare for the tests. Students are also looking for study assistance, and often checking out all of our ACT practice books and loading up on ACT flashcards. They’re also looking for online resources.

SHMOOP is a terrific homework site with loads of incredible resources for free. The site offers literature guides for almost every text taught by my school’s English teachers. Novels like Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby are among the hundreds that are featured. Even secondary novels, like Kafir Boy and The Awakening, are showcased in remarkable detail. Each is supplemented with snappy summaries, thoughtful themes, quintessential quotes, creative character analysis, quirky questions, and even quixotic quizzes and formidable flashcards. (OK, so maybe that was too much!) There’s even an essay prompt and a teacher area for each book.

Not only that, but SHMOOP has free learning guides for many other subjects, including algebra, calculus, biology, music, American history, civics, poetry, Shakespeare, mythology, best sellers, and even E\economics. Each section provides support for students working to increase their skills and abilities. From what I’ve seen, the materials are solid. But it’s free, so there are ads and pop-ups throughout.

Right now, my students really need ACT help. They are lucky because this spring our district is piloting the fee-based testing portion of the SHMOOP service. We introduced the ACT section this month and have been working with the teachers, too. So far, these testing support tools have been terrific for the students to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in the four major areas of ACT. After identifying areas of weakness, they can drill and practice to build their knowledge and skills. Some students just need to practice their timing as they take the exams, which is facilitated by the automatic timer accompanying each tool. Finally, there are five practice ACT exams, which is great because research indicates that most folks raise their score each time they take the test. I think we’ll see good support for our students that is worth the cost of this portion of the site ($23/individual, district pricing variable).

This website isn’t the only answer. My students have other community resources at their fingertips, too. We have a terrific public library with 24/7 online services, including test preparation and skill strengthening. And thanks to their library cards, every student has the opportunity to use Learning Express, which has not only ACT test prep, but a plethora of study skills, job skill building, and career licensing practice exams. There are even citizenship exams that I have all my library student aids take for part of their world knowledge requirement.

So this spring, when your students are distracted by the birds and flowers, help get them back on track with some of these great community and online resources. With a bit of help, they’ll get into their college of choice, rake in the scholarships, and reap great rewards—and then, of course, come running to thank you for making it all possible!

Clinton set the mood for the day by telling the group, “If you have the opportunity and the means to do something, you should do it.” She went on to encourage the teens with, “As we say in my family, it’s always better to get caught trying.”

The day’s youngest speaker was 10-year-old Caine Monroy, the subject of a documentary film that  features a cardboard arcade that he built. His creation has inspired more than 100 schools in nine different countries to create their own cardboard arcades. He closed his speech by telling the audience, “When you are 10, do what your imagination tells you to do.”

Inspiration also ran high when 16-year-old blind musical prodigy Kuha’o Case took the stage. He told the audience, “I see no limits. I see nothing at all.” At the age of 12, he taught himself to play the piano and organ. He performed a medley of popular songs selected by the audience—including “Some Nights” by fun., “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele, and “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz—that earned a standing ovation.

Fourteen-year-old fashionista and singer Tallia Storm reminded the audience to always be prepared, asking them, “What’s in your bag?” Storm was very well prepared when she met David Furnish, Elton John’s partner recently; she handed him her demo along with a handwritten note, which John liked so much that he asked Storm to open his show in Scotland, where she was then dubbed “Tiny Chancer” by the press. She is shown modeling a proudly Scottish cape and skirt of her own design.

Not all the speaker were teens. Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, spoke about his Africa Rising Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting a positive image of Africa around the world. He hoped that together, youth could use their collective voices for a positive change.

Sophie Umaz used her voice and effected change; after almost being killed in 2007 during post-election violence in Kenya, Umaz began the I AM KENYAN project to promote peace and patriotism in Kenyans and to ensure a safe 2013 general election. With the use of photography and social media, people posted on Facebook and elsewhere pictures of themselves with the words, “I am Kenyan,” thus encouraging them to see themselves as Kenyans before identifying themselves ethnically. In the six months since she launched her campaign, Umazi’s organization has had a global outreach of over 4 million, collected over 10,000 pictures globally, and is credited with Kenya having a peaceful election with more than 70 percent voter participation.

At seven, Dylan Vecchione began asking questions about the devastating affects of climate change on coral reefs that he noticed while scuba diving. Now 14, the eighth grader can take credit for developing Reef Quest, one the largest documentation projects on coral reefs around the world. The “Virtual Reef” is the leading digital underwater panoramic photographic record of global coral reefs and is also being used as a platform for citizen science environmental programs in 48 countries—over 60,000 students have participated in Reef Quest sponsored research.

Among the attendees who had to apply to attend was a group of students from James River High School in Midlothian, VA. Timothy Couillard, their ethics teacher, decided that it would be a good idea for his students to attend because he uses the TED videos with his class. Also attending was Megan Pehanick, a teen services librarian for the Ocean County Library System (NJ).

“Young people really can and will change the world, I saw that at this event,” Phanick told School Library Journal.  “After attending the TEDxTeen conference I realize that our library system needs to do even more to help teens like these on their amazing journeys.”

TEDxTeen is organized by the We Are Family Foundation and is based on the nationally acclaimed TED conference with its theme of “ideas worth spreading.”

CC-licensed image by Flickr user schoeband

My 12-year-old son has spent this week getting ready for midterms. He’s working hard even though he knows, far better than I do, exactly what their weighted contributions to his final grades will be. He can name the percentage allotted to every single quiz, test, assignment, and extra-credit opportunity in all of his classes. And he claims that all he cares about is doing well enough to make the honor roll—no more, no less.

My eight-year-old, though, is taking piano lessons, and his teacher gave him the simple theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to practice, which gave me a reason to sit, transfixed, in front of an iPod and listen to the entire score. What I heard gave me the one good answer I can offer my sons for why grades really are not the point of education.

Give yourself a treat; go listen to the Ninth. You can’t help hearing how Beethoven plays with you—the music driving ahead with a martial air, you can almost sense the fife and drum of the people marching; now expectant as dusk; now soaring, reaching to and beyond the breaking point up toward sky, toward transcendence, toward Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” sung in the final movement:

Can you sense the Creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars He must dwell.

Be embraced, Millions!
This kiss for all the world!
Brothers!, above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.

Can you sense the Creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars He must dwell.

Joy, daughter of Elysium
Thy magic reunites those
Whom stern custom has parted;
All men will become brothers
Under thy gentle wing.

You usually hear the chorus sung in German, but I have recording of just the chorus in which Paul Robeson sings in English (slightly shifted to the political left, so it’s not about a Creator but rather the people united, “All for one and one for all”). When the chorus swells, it’s Robeson’s earth-rattling voice that I hear in my mind.

Beethoven masterfully braids together themes and melodies, so that you’re taken on an ever-winding journey upward. Robeson’s voice tells me the same story: everything is about creation. We put our children through their paces in school not so that they will learn something, or master something, or meet any standards. No. We give them tools so that they can experience the joy, the passion, of creating. All we are doing is saying, “Here, if you know this, there is more you can make; there is another path you can map; there is another song you can compose.” School—from pre-K to postdoc programs—exists so that we can all build more from within ourselves and with our colleagues.

Young people need training, so that they can become builders. In my Beethoven-induced reverie, I was thrilled to see this headline in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune: “Walnut High students build worlds in new academic program”. The article is about a school in California where 75 tenth graders have volunteered to work with three teachers, three periods each morning, to create a society from the ground up. As social studies teacher Justin Panlilio told a Tribune reporter, “Right now, the students are designing a world we call Atlantis. They have to build the government, cultural and economic structures that bind a society together.” Creation—that’s where school leads, not rote and grade percentiles.

My 12-year-old doesn’t have the patience to sit through an entire symphony. The soundtrack of his life is more immediate. But even as he put down one set of study guides and picked up another, he saw me beaming as I listened to the music. Perhaps there was a halftone of pity in his expression: poor old dad just didn’t understand what school life is really like. But I also caught a second of wonder. “Maybe, yes, maybe,” his eyes seemed to say, “there is a wild ocean ahead for me, not just these endless streams to cross.”

As you probably know, John Green is the author of Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006), Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008), and this year’s Odyssey award winner, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012), four titles sure to appeal to even your most reluctant readers. Dedicate 18 minutes of your life to watching his TED Talk entitled The Paper Town Academy. In this talk, he delivers the best response I’ve ever heard to the question, “Will this be on the test?” It’s worth printing out and putting on the walls of classrooms everywhere:

“Yeah, about the test… The test will measure whether you are an informed, engaged, and productive citizen of the world, and it will take place in schools and bars and hospitals and dorm rooms and in places of worship.You will be tested on first dates, in job interviews, while watching football, and while scrolling through your Twitter feed.The test will judge your ability to think about things other than celebrity marriages, whether you’ll be easily persuaded by empty political rhetoric, and whether you’ll be able to place your life and your community in a broader context.The test will last your entire life, and it will be comprised of the millions of decisions that, when taken together, will make your life yours.And everything, everything, will be on it…. I know, right?”

Hank Green co-founded DFTBA Records, a distribution network to help talented musicians find audiences. His own musical talents are evident in the song “This is Not Harry Potter.” The lyrics, all by themselves, are positively brilliant:

“And in the darkest hours, of my darkest nights

I found myself curled up with twilight

And I couldn’t help but wonder as I ravenously read

Can you avada kedavra the undead

’cause Edward Cullen totally has it comin’

and if he saw Voldemort he’d better start runnin’

Cause there’s not much that the dark lord and I

could agree on but I think that we would both hate that guy.”

I am eternally grateful to Hank for producing The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern twist on Jane Austen’s story. My husband has tried reading Pride and Prejudice, really he has, and has valiantly stayed awake for portions of various movie adaptations of the book, but it wasn’t until Hank’s vlog version that the characters and plot became interesting to him.

Individually, the brothers are talented and creatively prolific. Taken together, they are forces for good on our planet. For the last year, Hank and John have been teaching classes via YouTube. Hank Green earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana. John Green graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. They both have the educational credentials for their YouTube tutorials in which Hank teaches biology and ecology, and John teaches world history and literature. The buzz phrase in education right now is “student engagement,” and you’ll certainly feel that when you view these incredible videos (CrashCourse and SciShow), which are gateways to engagement: funny, entertaining, and informative.

The brothers Green clearly love learning, reading, and exploring the world we all share.They proudly embrace the word “nerd” and they make learning cool, and all of our students will be stronger, wiser, and kinder having made their acquaintance.

For more on the Green brothers, see SLJ’s coverage of An Evening of Awesome, featuring Hank and John at Carnegie Hall.

For our part, we saw a disconnect when SLJ’s public library spending survey revealed that a mere nine percent of public librarians actively collaborate with their peers in K–12. After we published the results in “It Takes Two” (May 2012, pp. 26–29), we learned about many partnerships, and we also heard from many from both school and public librarians who seemed burned out by failed outreach attempts.

Yoder and Lowry may be a rare breed, but, as is abundantly clear in our cover story, “Partners in Success” (pp. 22–28), they’re not alone. Many like-minded librarians are reaching across institutional walls and redefining their turf—and their institutions are changing, too. Considering the yawning gap between what kids need from libraries and the resources currently available to them, innovation in this area is urgent.

At first, I was inspired by the spark between two professionals that ignites a new partnership. I still am. This kind of grassroots initiative is grounded in knowing the kids, and, when it works, helps build the case for more. Now, however, I’m even more convinced that our institutions need to act with the same responsiveness and creativity.

We need more of what’s happening in Nashville. Talking with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools’ Kathryn Bennett brought this home. I met Bennett, a library lead teacher, at Library Journal’s December 14 Design Institute at the wonderful Warrensville Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library. It was great to see her at this public library event—after all, there’s plenty of insight into learning spaces in any good library.

Naturally, we fell into talking about Nashville’s Limitless Libraries initiative. Bennett is a big fan of the project, which, she says, wouldn’t be nearly what it is without the “Memorandum of Understanding” between the school and Nashville Public Library (NPL).

As NPL’s Tricia Racke Bengel details in her overview of how Limitless Libraries came to be, the memorandum enables the library to use information about students, with parental permission, so their student IDs serve as library cards, streamlining access to the collections. Racke Bengel, who was named a 2012 LJ Mover & Shaker for this work, describes a process that was certainly disruptive. The project keeps expanding as it enriches the lives of Nashville’s kids.

After reading cover story writer Marta Murvosh’s exploration of the state of public and/school library collaborations, I’m even more convinced of the need for us be actively reimagine how we serve our kids. And we must break down the silos that stymie that work.

Toward that end, SLJ will be giving more attention to collaboration in 2013 in an effort to forge a model to help us join together to approach challenges as a greater community. We’ll focus on these partnerships as part of the first SLJ Public Library Leadership Think Tank, currently in planning for April 5 in New York City. The daylong event aims to provide a public library companion to SLJ’s dynamic Leadership Summit, aimed at tackling school library issues. My hope is that the two events will, in a sense, ping pong off of one another to foster deeper dialog on the commonalities shared by all librarians serving kids. Collaboration will also be a theme in the upcoming Be the Change webcast series, which we bet will be the start of a robust leadership initiative.

Let’s change the world together. Happy New Year!

Rebecca T. Miller
Editor-in-Chief
rmiller@mediasourceinc.com

Marcus Lowry, teen librarian, Ramsey County (MN) Library and
Leslie Yoder, digital literacy and learning specialist, St. Paul Public Schools.
Photograph by Thomas Strand.

Last spring, when school librarian Leslie Yoder heard that young adult author Francisco X. Stork was available to visit Boys Totem Town, a residential program for incarcerated teens in St. Paul, MN, she pounced on the opportunity. Although Yoder lacked the necessary funds, she instantly knew who to turn to—her partners at Ramsey County Library.

For the last two years, Yoder, a digital literacy and learning specialist with St. Paul’s public schools, has teamed up with Ramsey’s teen librarians—and the outcome has been a win-win for both the librarians and the kids whom they serve.

Thanks to Ramsey teen librarian Marcus Lowry, who found the funds for Stork’s visit, the acclaimed writer spoke at a local high school and to dozens of Yoder’s enthusiastic students about his novel Behind the Eyes (Dutton, 2006), which deals with a reform school. “Our students don’t get to meet the people who write the books,” says Yoder.

When Lowry and fellow young adult librarian Amy Boese visit Boys Totem Town, they are weighed down with bags of books and eager to do what they do best—booktalking and spearheading a weeklong technology workshop. “It’s really energizing for us to go there,” says Boese, who also works with three other school districts. “They are always superpolite and have good questions.”

Although the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Public Library Data Service Statistical Report don’t keep track of the number of joint-library projects, Yoder, Lowry, and Boese are among a small group of school and public librarians nationwide who regularly work together. Like many rewarding collaborative projects, theirs usually begin with a modest idea, in this case, offering booktalks to kids in a correctional facility. But behind every successful school and public library partnership, explains Lowry, there’s also a strong personal connection and a shared vision. “It almost always has to start with one personal connection,” he says. “It’s the one person that sees that mutual value—that we serve the same kids.”

Teaming up in Minnesota: Aaron Blechert, a media specialist at Irondale
High School, and Amy Boese, a teen librarian at Ramsey County Library,
with students in the school library.
Photograph by Thomas Strand.

It’s also sound fiscal sense for school and public libraries to pool their limited resources, says Jeffrey Roth, the New York Public Library’s vice president of strategy and finance. “We’re in an era that institutions need to look and see who they can partner with and strategically use each other’s assets,” he says.

That’s a strategy that the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Nashville Public Library (NPL) have worked to perfection. Although sharing public library collections with public schools is fairly unusual, that didn’t stop these two creative partners from thinking outside the box. During the 2011–2012 academic year, when Nashville’s budget-strapped schools were hurting for resources, the public library reached out a helping hand and loaned the city’s 54 middle schools and high schools 97,000 items—everything from books and DVDs to CDs and Playaways to entice reluctant readers and struggling English-language learners.

As a result of the impressive partnership, which is called Limitless Libraries, Stephanie Ham, NPL’s project coordinator, says the public library’s circulation stats have soared by an unprecedented 60 percent. And on the school side, MNPS’s lead librarian, Kathleen Bennett, couldn’t be more pleased. “This model is just fantastic and the benefits are great,” says Bennett. “What the kids get is wonderful open access to lots of resources.” (For more on Nashville’s Limitless Libraries, click on this link.)

The relationship between schools and public librarians is a critical one. Even before the recent recession, few school libraries could match the buying power of a large branch or a mid-size public library system. And during these troubled economic times, school librarians and their budgets are often among the first items scratched from public school budgets. That’s a compelling reason why Wisconsin’s School District of La Crosse and the La Crosse Public Library are exploring the possibility of sharing school and public library databases. “From a fiscal perspective, we’re starting to balance our resources so we are not duplicating online services,” says Vicki Lyons, the district’s director of technology and library services.

Still, successful school and public library partnerships can be a tough act to pull off, say many librarians and educators. Some of the typical roadblocks include a lack of time, vision, or resources; difficult personalities to deal with; and a scarcity of support from higher-ups. That may explain why less than one-third of school and public libraries coordinate book and other material purchases, according to School Library Journal’s first public library spending survey (see “It Takes Two,” May 2012, ow.ly/gekWY). When it comes to homework assignments, only nine percent of public libraries work directly with schools.

The emphasis on standardized testing can also be a barrier to working together, especially when kids are pulled out of the classroom to visit a public library. If the benefits of a joint effort aren’t obvious, says Rachelle Nocito, a content specialist for the School District of Philadelphia, many teachers and principals begin to worry that these activities will negatively impact test scores. “School districts are judged on our students’ achievement,” explains Nocito, whose district is piloting a program with the Free Library of Philadelphia. “It’s really important that when we step out of our building to do anything, its purpose definitely aligns with the reading program and social studies curriculum or science curriculum.”

But that doesn’t mean that school and public libraries should hesitate to work together. Susan Ballard, president of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of ALA, encourages school and public librarians to reach out to one another and other community groups. “No one can do anything on their own anymore; it’s simply not possible,” Ballard says.

At the moment, ALA’s Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation is working on ways to bring media centers and public libraries together on issues such as preventing “summer slide”—when kids lose many of the reading gains made during the school year—and implementing the Common Core standards. “If you’re not collaborating, why aren’t you collaborating?” Ballard asks. “The end result improves services for kids and makes them better researchers and lifelong learners.”

Students, of course, aren’t the only ones who benefit from a collaborative program. “Great partnerships let you reach out dynamically and work with a wide variety of partners within the school and public library,” says Marge Loch-Wouters, coordinator of youth services at La Crosse Public Library. She should know. Loch-Wouters has been building partnerships with local Wisconsin schools for more than two decades. “Great partnerships don’t put you in a box,” she says.

Buffy Hamilton doesn’t need to be convinced that joint-library ventures make a world of difference. Hamilton is so bullish on them that she recently left her post at Creekview High School, in Canton, GA, where she ran an award-winning library program, and joined the Cleveland Public Library’s (CPL) staff. School and public libraries “have much more in common with their visions and goals than we might initially think,” says Hamilton, who will be CPL’s liaison with Cleveland’s public schools. “We’re working on these parallel paths, and we can find a way to interact and pool our collective resources and talents to accomplish those goals.”

The following collaborative projects are a sampling of what’s happening around the country. Each of these dynamic programs has its own distinct approach, but they all have one thing in common: they’re making a genuine difference in kids’ lives and in the communities that they serve.

Denver, CO

In 2006, when residents of the Mile High City voted to raise the sales tax to support full-day kindergarten and early childhood education, the Denver Public Library (DPL) and the Denver Public Schools (DPS) knew it was the perfect time to extend their partnership, which, at the time, primarily placed library volunteers in the classroom to read to kids. With the help of a two-year, $476,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant, the two organizations banded together, in 2007, to teach children’s librarians, media specialists, and teachers about the latest advances in early childhood education. Children’s librarians who specialized in infant and toddler brain development shared their knowledge with teachers, and educators, in turn, brought public librarians up-to-date on the workings of the adolescent brain. “It was a new way to collaborate,” says David Sanger, DPS’s director of library services. “We formed professional learning communities, and those have still continued.”

Although the grant ended in 2009, the partnership is still going strong. These days DPL, DPS, and local nonprofit groups and agencies, such as Head Start, are working together on a number of projects for children from poor families. School and public librarians are also sharing their respective approaches to improving literacy and serving the city’s many English-language learners, who make up 34 percent of Denver’s K–12 students. Both groups are also discussing how best to share their resources, including, says Sanger, how to get their catalog databases to “talk to each other.”

Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Denver’s 5 By 5 Project, which was created to support early childhood development, was inspired by these school and library partnerships, says Carol Edwards, DPL’s comanager of children’s and family services. The nonprofit organization, whose goal is to make sure that young kids have at least five cultural experiences by the time they start kindergarten, provides free admission to the city’s top cultural venues, such as the Denver Botanical Gardens and the Colorado Ballet, to nearly 3,000 Head Start and Early Head Start families. Plus, the library also offers free after-school camps for children of families in need. “It’s something that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been talking to each other,” says Edwards.

This month, DPL joined communities, such as Louisville and Boston, where one card serves as a student’s ID and library card. My Denver Card will also give kids free access to city parks and recreation services, and there are plans to expand its benefits to include the city’s transit system, says Jennifer Hoffman, manager of DPL’s books and borrowing. Hoffman says she anticipates issuing 30,000 cards. “We’re just trying to make it easy for a student to access us,” she says.

Portland, OR

To reach out to parents and students in east Portland, Multnomah County Library’s (MCL) Midland branch staff worked with educators at the Fir Ridge Campus (FRC), the David Douglas School District’s alternative high school. Their mission? To find teens who were eager to become library tour guides.

But these tours aren’t your average orientation sessions—especially when they’re conducted in Russian, Vietnamese, and Mandarin, the languages spoken in many of the young volunteers’ homes and neighborhoods. The aim of this innovative school-library project, says FRC’s librarian Deb Wheelbarger, is to attract parents who live in east Portland’s diverse and poor neighborhoods to bring their kids to the library and introduce them to its resources.

Student-guided tours are just one way that MCL has teamed up with its five area school districts. Another outreach program, Multnomah’s School Corps (staffed by Jackie Partch, Kate Houston, Peter Ford, and Gesse Stark, all of whom have MLIS degrees), offers local teachers curriculum support, which includes issuing them special library cards (so they can check out more books for longer periods of time), school visits to talk about research skills and library services, and “Buckets of Books,” which, as its name suggests, come brimming with books on commonly taught subjects, such as Oregon history, Pacific Northwest Native Americans, and insects and spiders, says Suzanne Myers Harold, MCL’s adult literacy coordinator. The library also brings visiting authors to local schools and works hard to bring students from the county’s high-poverty areas to theater productions and special events, including an awe-inspiring visit with the Portland Trailblazers, the city’s National Basketball Association team. “Through this collaboration with Multnomah County Library, we’re able to speak for them, and they for us,” says Wheelbarger. “I love the Multnomah County Library. It’s one of the most accessible libraries in the country.”

New York, NY

When the New York City Department of Education (NYDOE) realized there was a great way to work together with the New York Public Library (NYPL), Queens Library, and Brooklyn Public Library to get more learning resources into teachers’ and students’ hands, it couldn’t wait to get started—and MyLibraryNYC was soon launched.

Funded by a $5 million grant from Citigroup, the four-year pilot program, which gives students and teachers access to literally millions of additional materials, lets kids search their school and public libraries’ catalogs simultaneously from any computer that has Internet access. From the very start, the program, which began in 2011 with 84 schools and 50 NYPL branches, opted to take a potentially risky tact: to encourage kids to take advantage of their libraries, students would not be fined if they failed to return materials on time.

A recipe for disaster? Not at all, says NYPL’s Roth. In fact, almost 100 percent of the borrowed items have found their way back onto the library’s shelves. Best of all, students are scooping up more books. “The kids in the pilot were three times more likely to have a book checked out from their local library, and school library circulation essentially doubled,” says Roth. “The New York Public Library and the Department of Education already had a great relationship, but this has taken it to another level.”

Now in its second year, MyLibraryNYC reaches 250,000 students in 400 public schools, offering them access to 17 million books, videos, and recordings. And by 2015, the program hopes to include all 1.1 million of the city’s public school students, says Richard Hasenyager, NYDOE’s director of library services.

As part of the pilot program, NYPL will deliver books and other materials that meet the Common Core State Standards to participating schools. Groundwork is also being laid in all three public library systems to work more closely with school librarians and curriculum specialists so that their collections will support the state’s Common Core Standards.

NYPL estimates that MyLibraryNYC will cost $6 per student annually in direct and indirect costs, which include shipping the materials to schools and library branches. The public library systems pay for shipping and staff training, and the every school pays the roughly $800 annual fee charged by library resource vendor Follett for its Destiny catalog and BiblioCommons, which developed the catalog’s software and online interface. (Follett is giving those school libraries a $150 discount on Destiny.) School libraries that haven’t joined the pilot will pay $650, says Leanne Ellis, NYDOE’s coordinator of library services.

This year, the pilot added the Queens and Brooklyn public libraries and expanded to 207 school libraries that now serve 296 schools, says NYDOE. Although schools have to foot part of the bill, when you stop to consider what kids are getting in return—access to “the greatest books ever written by man,” says NYPL’s Roth—it’s a real deal.

Queens Library sees MyLibraryNYC as a launching pad to expand its librarians’ ongoing work with schools in the borough. “What can be done to help the kids, to support the teachers, to ensure kids have a strong start in reading and literacy and a place to go and their parents, too?” asks Bridget Quinn-Carey, the library’s chief operating officer. “Those are the wonderful things that libraries can do.”

Monterey High’s freshmen take advantage of computers in the Monterey Public Library teen zone as part of a joint venture between the school and library.
Photo courtesy of Monterey Public Library and Monterey High School.

Monterey, CA

To help its incoming freshman beef up their critical thinking skills and boost their tech know-how, the Monterey High School (MHS) turned to a familiar partner, the Monterey Public Library. The two teamed up to create a class called 21st Century Learning Skills. Aaron Sanders, the MHS history teacher who helped kick-start it, and Ben Gomberg, a librarian formerly with the Monterey Public Library, worked together to create the course’s project-oriented assignments, which have included creating websites that explore the coastal town’s history and comparing employment information that kids found on Craigslist with data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. Supported by a $5,300 IMLS grant, their aim was to give 130 to 150 freshmen (out of a class of 1,100) the skills they needed to succeed in school and in life, says Sanders.

As part of the class, students made four separate visits to the public library (located just a block away), and Gomberg, in turn, made the same number of classroom visits, offering presentations on topics such as copyright and privacy, evaluating websites, and using library resources to prepare for college and careers.

How’s the new course working out? According to MHS’s principal, Marcie Plummer, students who took the class had fewer D’s and F’s, absences, and discipline issues than their nonparticipating peers. Roughly half of the kids in the class reported using the public library in their free time and about a third of them also used it to do schoolwork from other classes, says Gomberg.

Students in the pilot program have also learned how to be advocates for their own learning and how to evaluate their approaches to school so that they can improve their academic performance. “Personally as a teacher, I saw them having huge gains in that area,” Sanders says. “They were not afraid of having conversations with their teachers.”

Philadelphia, PA

How do you improve 146,090 kids’ information literacy and critical thinking skills? If you’re the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and the Free Library of Philadelphia, you join hands to create a dynamic pilot program that pairs third-grade teachers with children’s librarians from nearby branches.

How does the program work? Six times during the last two months of the school year, instead of taking part in their school’s daily requirement of 90 minutes of reading, about 200 third graders take a short walk to their local public library, usually no more than a couple of blocks away. The purpose of the visits? To research the history of Philadelphia and their neighborhoods.

Upon returning to their classrooms, groups of three or four students dive headlong into the resources they discovered at the library and begin to create their own projects, says district content specialist Nocito. Although it’s impossible to predict what these inspired students are likely to cook up, one thing’s for sure—it’s always interesting.

Sarah Stippich, a children’s librarian at the Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Library, remembers the day when the Free Library’s 25-foot-long, state-of-the art Techmobile visited Anderson Elementary School and its third graders were introduced to iPads. “They were digitally mapping our neighborhood,” says Stippich. “They were really into that, not only the technology part of that, but being able to look at their neighborhood and say, ‘Oh, that’s where I live.’”

Some classes combine their walks to the library with physical education, and their students strap on pedometers to count their footsteps, says Betsy Orsburn, the Free Library’s chief of the Office of Public Service Support.

Although it will take at least three years to gather enough data to evaluate the pilot, says Nocito, the initial assessments indicate that students are making connections between their schoolwork and library resources. Their teachers also reported developing moderately strong to strong informative partnerships with public librarians.

Nocito would like to improve on the instructional aspects of the pilot program. Ideally, she’d like to see a 10-week local history project that touches on different curriculum areas, such as science and language arts, and then follow up with an assessment to see if students’ gains continue on in fourth grade. “We’re under scrutiny,” she says. “Our students are going to be held accountable for their visits to the Free Library.”

The pilot program originally began in 2011, when the Free Library offered to help city schools that didn’t have a librarian or a school library, says Joe Benford, the Free Library’s chief of the Extensions Division. “It really is a way to try to cement library instruction and information literacy in the school district curriculum,” says Benford. Although more than 100 of Philadelphia’s 249 public schools have school libraries, only 46 schools have certified librarians. “The school librarians are almost nonexistent,” says Benford. “What we’re trying to do is prove this works and works as a model for the future. We just wanted to see if we could collaborate with the school district, and we have.”

Even though the pilot program appears to be working, there are limits to what it can accomplish. Stippich, who works with three third-grade teachers at Anderson Elementary School and with seven other schools and 12 child-care centers, says it’s impossible for her to offer everyone the level of service that she gives to those in the pilot program. “I can’t be the librarian for everyone,” she says. “This has just convinced me even more that they need more school librarians.”

Freelance writer Marta Murvosh is an aspiring librarian who often writes about libraries and education. You can find her at www.facebook.com/MartaMurvosh.

GRANT, Michael and Katherine Applegate. Eve & Adam. Feiwel and Friends. October 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780312583514.

Gr 7 Up—Evening’s (or E.V. as her friends call her) mom is Terra Spiker, the owner and founder of Spiker Biopharmaceuticals. When E.V. is in a car accident that temporarily lands her a wheelchair, her mom brings her to her research facility to heal—and to keep her entertained with the task of “creating the perfect boy”—a.k.a. Project 88715. Enter Solo, a coffee cart boy and orphan, who’s searching for answers about the intriguing project. He wants nothing to do with Spiker Biopharm, unless it means bringing down the whole corporation—that is, until he meets the boss’s daughter.

One of my favorite aspects of Eve & Adam is the twists! I expected a cheesy romance novel about “star-crossed lovers,” maybe, or two teens in love who run away to be together. Needless to say, that’s not the case here. This is much more than a budding relationship book; instead, it takes readers on a roller coaster ride that’s filled with secrets and action, and—yes—some romance. Discovering the fine line between what’s right and wrong is a big focus as the secrets are revealed—as is finding out what kind of person you are because of those secrets. Interesting and action-packed, this is a page-turner!—Destiny B., age 15

RHODES, Morgan. Falling Kingdoms. Razorbill. December 2012. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781595145840.

A long, long time ago, in the country of Limeros, Lucia was stolen from her cradle. She was snatched by two sisters, who lust for power and quickly destroy one another. Lucia winds up in the hands of the King of Blood, whose son begins to lust for her as she begins to come into her magical powers. Then, in the country of Palesia, a boy gets murdered, which sparks a war that destroys all but one country. In Auranos, the reader follows a girl who witnesses her betrothed killing a young boy from Palesia. This girl then travels to Palesia to find a magical cure for her sister. If you can’t keep all of these details straight, don’t worry, the story isn’t all that difficult.

I loved it from start to finish. The first 20 pages took me a week to read, but I finished the rest of it in a day. Don’t let its slow beginning discourage you—the story speeds up considerably. The author keeps you on your toes by making you try to find out who’s the enemy. I loved the constant backstabbing. Eventually, the reader realizes that there’s no enemy, just arrogant humans whose quarreling gets in the way of progress.—Kaleb B., age 14

HALBROOK, Kristin. Nobody But Us. HarperTeen. January 2013. pap. $9.99. ISBN 9780062121264.

Gr 9 Up—Nobody But Us is about a young couple on the run from their past in hopes of a better future. Fifteen-year-old Zoe is consistently abused by her father. Everyone in the small town knows that, but no one offers to help her. When Will arrives, he’s quickly attracted to her, and she’s instantly curious about his broken past and his bad-boy ways. Will soon turns 18, and the couple decides to run away to Las Vegas to start a new life together. As incidents with serious consequences occur along the way, the two find themselves doubting everything they once believed could happen.

This is a very captivating book that was hard to put down. Will and Zoe’s persistent love was inspiring. Their journey from their small North Dakota town to Las Vegas will have readers on the edge of their seats with anticipation. This book offers a brutally honest account of the struggle of young love and its hope for a better future, no matter what. I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in romance, multiple points of view, violence, and endings that’ll leave you speechless.—Jazmine W. age 15

Ellison, Kate. Notes from Ghost Town. Egmont USA. February 2013. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9781606842645.

Gr 9 Up—Sixteen-year-old Olivia Tithe has become color blind and believes that she’s completely losing her mind—just like her mother. When her best friend, and first love, Lucas Stern, dies and returns as a ghost, she tries to unravel the mystery of his death. In order to save her mother and herself, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

Honestly, the summary wasn’t particularly interesting to me, but I’m glad I gave the book a chance. The author has a knack for making readers want to come back for more. Olivia is one of those characters readers love to read about. She’s strong, passionate, and doesn’t take no for an answer, even when the odds are against her. The mystery is intriguing enough that readers will find themselves reading faster and faster to figure out what it is, but they’ll also want to slow down so they won’t finish the book too soon. Ellison did a wonderful job, and I applaud her.—Kathleen M. age 16