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A few months back a video of the Seattle Public Library’s record-breaking book domino made the rounds. It was incredible: Well, now the Central Library in Cape Town, South Africa has bested Seattle’s record. As evidenced by the video below. I sincerely hope this book domino arms race continues. (Thanks to Book Patrol for the [...]
I’ve had these in my files for a couple of years doing nobody no good. So, I thought it was time to crowd-source, update and improve a series of checklists I’ve planning to work on and share. The checklists are meant to be a handy list of things to plan, do, and celebrate month-by-month in the life [...]
Baba Yaga is a witch of Russian folklore, and Toby Barlow bewitches with his new novel — our starred reviewof the day. His first, Sharp Teeth, was a 2009 Alex Award winner, a story of werewolves in L.A. told entirely in verse. Babayaga is (mostly) straight prose, and offers quite a combination of genres–spy thriller, [...]
The Meanest Birthday Girl By Josh Schneider Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-83814-4 Ages 6-9 On shelves now. Life is easier when you can categorize it. When you can slot it in a distinct category and reduce everything to black and white terms. Gray is problematic and messy, after all. [...]
Wanna know what we’re planning to write about this year? We looked at that super long list (which grew longer as others tossed more titles in) and we thought about it. And you know, a lot of those books are great reads, but they aren’t really worth in-depth discussion. So we’ve narrowed it down. A [...]
September is a great time get your network on. On Monday September 9 at 8 pm ET, it’s the very special third annual Back to School Special, featuring an idea share led by Tiffany Whitehead (Mighty Little Librarian), Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl), and the daring Gwyneth Jones. Visit the TLCafé homepage for instructions on how to join the event using Blackboard Collaborate.
At the end of the last Heavy Medal season, Wendy announced– I’m now retiring from Newbery fandom. This was my fifth year, and I read more widely than ever before thanks to the great Seattle Public Library system that I’m now privy to (72 books that I considered eligible for the Newbery, plus a number of [...]
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are probably a thousand different ways to do library great. Sure there are handbooks on how to put together a traditional library program–how to create a budget, weed a collection, host an author event, collaborate with teachers. But no textbook shows you what it looks like when the [...]
Prepare to bid summer farewell with some of this week’s new releases. Archie Comics takes you behind the looking glass into “Mirrordale” in Archie #647. Papercutz releases the third volume of that freaky fruit Annoying Orange, and Viz Media has a slew of media tie-ins including the new series Max Steel. The List: ARCHAIA ENTERTAINMENT [...]
Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang. First Second. 2013. Review copy from publisher. Boxers & Saints, Volumes 1 & 2. The Plot: The story of the Boxer Rebellion is told through the eyes of a Boxer and a Christian. Each volume is a standalone; but it’s best to first read Boxers, then Saints, and [...]
Thanks to my good buddy, Shannon, I getting a little hooked on GeoGuessr and I can’t wait to share it with our Social Studies Department. Released last May, the web-based geographic discovery game places players on five randomly-determine Google Street View locations, asking them to guess where they are. Once a player is ready to guess the location, [...]
Spring. After a exhausting fall and winter of measuring the year’s best books against each other; the new publishing year opens and those of us who doggedly follow children’s literature in the peculiar quest of speculating about the Newbery Medal get excited. Very excited. The slate is clean: what book will garner next year’s golden [...]
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party Written and Illustrated by Nathan Hale Amulet Books – and Imprint of Abrams, 2013 128 pp. 978-1-4197-0856-5. In the third book in the series of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, the Donner Party tragedy gets the graphic novel treatment that combines historical facts of their terrible plight intermixed with [...]
Sophie’s Squash By Pat Zietlow Miller Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf Schwartz & Wade (Random House) ISBN: 9780307978967 $18.99 Grades PreK-1 In Stores *Best New Book* Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library Children are masters of personification. Rock, stick, spoon – they can turn just about anything into a sentient being. In terms of [...]
I just updated and distributed my September teacher newsletter. Along with all the Spartan-specific content was an update of 50 Ways to Leave Your Research Paper and Tell Your Story, a document I’ve been trying to crowd-source and improve for years. I am sharing this most recent update, though I readily admit its short-comings, one of [...]
Last week I asked how explicit is too sexually explicit for teens. This week I want to ask a similar question about form rather than content: how experimental is too experimental? This question, like last week’s, was keyed to a book I was reading, Book III, edited by Joshua S. Raab, and published by theNewerYork [...]
