Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Will Kanye West's reputation ever recover from his antics at the VMA's? Does he regret his behavior?

Have you ever regretted something, wondering if your community will ever be able to forget it so you can move past it?

In the 2009-10 California Young Reader Medal nominee Story of a Girl , Deanna is wondering the same thing. When she was 13, her father caught her having sex with 17-year-old Tommy. Rumors spread, and now, 3 years later, people are still gossiping about her. Wort of all, Deanna's father hasn't had a real conversation with her since that day. As her family life falls apart, she relies on her brother and her 2 best friends, who are a couple. Deanna feels lonely and is trying to figure out an escape. As I read this book, I found myself caring about her, rooting for her, and hoping she would figure it all out. She is a girl who made a mistake which took over her life. Will she (and the people she cares about) get past it?

Read Aloud Favorites

Update: We got most of the books below at the public library. I am glad we don't live in Philadelphia! Closing all the libraries? REALLY?

About 15 years ago, I was a children's librarian. I worked at public libraries and K-6 school libraries. Now that I have spent so many years at the middle and high school level, I miss the children's books! Lucky for me, I have kids who love it when we snuggle up and I read to them.
Now we are into chapter books - especially those with sequels. I have a 10 year old son and a 7 year old daughter, so finding books that they both enjoy can be tricky. Books with sequels are good, because once we find characters that they both care about we can continue for a while with them. Here are some family favorites:


The Tales of Olga da Polga by Michael Bond
After reading this series about a feisty guinea pig, we were inspired to get one as a pet - with rosettes and all, just like Olga. Except ours is a boy. The kids didn't connect with Bond's more famous Paddington Bear, but this one hooked them (and me) from the start.


The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
This whole series is exciting. Imagine your little plastic figurines coming to life! It is an older book, so the language is a bit dated, but it has it all - from adventure to characters needing miniature supplies. They use a toothpaste cap as a cup. What could be better?

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Even my son loved hearing about these adventurous and thoughtful sisters.

Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins
The humor of the toys - especially the ball, who one day realizes he has no limbs, is spot-on. We read this one a year or two ago, but it continues to be a part of our family memory.

What are your read aloud favorites? I think any of the above would work in a classroom or school library setting as well as at home, appealing to both genders.

Sometimes Fear is Good

I am sure you have all heard about the purging of the Cushing Academy Library. I have thought about it a lot lately - as we all should. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I see it as a mistake - a huge mistake - but I can also see it happening at other schools. I finally realized today - I feel afraid. I am afraid for our field. I am threatened by the changes at a school I frankly hadn't heard of before they decided to dump their books in favor of an espresso machine.

Now more than ever we have to make our library programs even more relevant, important, and exciting to students and faculty. We have to make ourselves even more indispensable in our roles at our schools, and we must learn to toot our own horns. Make sure others (adminsitration) know about your great books, lessons, clubs, extra-curricular events, and overall contributions to the intellectual life of the school. The death of the Cushing Academy library has only invigorated me to do my best this year, to take more risks, be visible, and solidify my role and the library's role in student life.
How has it inspired you?

Wow them with Prezi

Today I had the opportunity to start the year with my upper schoolers by giving 10 minute presentations to each grade, 9-12. It was the first day back, and I needed to tell my students about changes in the library. We (well actually the other librarians) moved all the books, interfiling reference and circulating books, changed how to print from the color printer, and made some other really not-so-interesting improvements. Changes that will help the kids, but changes that could make for a boring presentation. So I decided to make it snazzy by presenting maybe the first Prezi at my school. The kids ooohed and aaahed and asked me to teach them how to use it. Actually the tech department did too. I wish my Head of School was there to see it.

Prezi, a web based presentation program, took only a bit of time to learn. I watched the help videos a couple of times, tried making one, watched the videos again, and finally got the hang of it. It isn't hard - I just kept losing my perspective on the ever changing size of the text. I used the free version, which worked really well from my home. But when I tried it at school it wouldn't load. I don't know if it is because I didn't have the latest version of Flash or if it was blocked for some reason, but I brought a downloaded version on a flash drive which worked perfectly. Now I just have to get Prezi to work at school so I can use it more and teach the kids how to use it. Try it - maybe the kids are getting bored of PowerPoint!

Turning off 2.0

I am having a delightful summer while I purposefully take a break from my usual 2.0 librarian life. Focusing on my family is so rewarding - a reminder of why I don't work during the summer. So, in my non-working I have neglected my blogs, dismissed my Google Reader, and have only clicked on a few of Buffy Hamilton's intriguing links from her Delicious account which she posts on Facebook. OK, so I didn't take a complete 2.0 vacation, but I did take a break and found myself to be so relaxed and happy. I am thinking of leaving Twitter completely. I have to confess, I love not reading it. And so many people publish their status on both Twitter and Facebook, that sticking just with one is a time saver. I feel like I am recovering from an addiction.

I even read less books this summer than usual, spending the time savoring magazines and watching So You Think You Can Dance with my daughter. Or playing with WiiFit! I read LazyGal's reviews (she reads practically a book per day!), and the guilt of not reading that much floats away as I turn a page in Real Simple and sink further into my couch. Not that I haven't been using my brain! I have been very creative about my home, I have made some tough parenting choices, and I am also coping with a parent with Alzheimer's Disease. I do have a lot on my mind. Just letting myself focus on all of that instead of the next great 2.0 tool or debate about "21st century skills" has proven to be very healthy for me and for my family.

I am sure as August comes and the school year starts, I will become inspired and dive in again. But for now... Sorry to those friends whose blogs I used to read regularly, whose reviews and ideas usually guide me, I just cannot keep up this summer. I am relishing my 2.0 break. But I think I will be back. Some new ideas are even starting to percolate...

Book Review: Methland

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding

I keep reading books about meth, and I keep finding myself engrossed in the stories. Methland starts where Beautiful Boy and Tweak leave off. Those books are excruciating personal family stories, one written by the father (David Sheff), one by the son (Nic Sheff), about the son's addiction and the repercussions on the lives of the family members as well as the addict. Set mostly in the Bay Area of northern California, they chronicle Nic's descent from healthy, successful college-bound high school student to the life of an addict in and out of rehab.

Methland is an investigation into what meth is doing to rural America, who the culprits are, and who the heroes are. Methland addresses the problem of what the culture of the drug is doing to small towns and also to America as a whole. Reding investigates how meth infiltrated one small town in Iowa (and across the nation), what the government is and isn't doing about it, Mexico's role, the food industry's role, and the local people who are giving their careers and lives to try to stop this controversial epidemic. He develops relationships with addicts, politicians, and cops over a few years (2005-8) and lets readers meet these people and learn how their issues came to be. An engaging book, this should be read by politicians and citizens interested in the ramifications of addiction to meth on the American Dream.

My only complaint is that Methland doesn't have an index. That would have made it more helpful for future researchers. Otherwise I highly recommend Methland, as well as the books by David and Nic Sheff. David Sheff was an author and journalist before writing Beautiful Boy, which is evident by the writing, and I recommend it to adults. Tweak, written by the son Nic, isn't as well-written, but it is exciting to read the tale told by the addict. I would recommend Tweak to high school juniors and seniors (it is sexually explicit, so it would depend upon your community). Methland is good for 11th grade and up.

Better World Books

We weeded hundreds of books from our collection this year. We removed a lot of reference books, books that haven't been checked out in a decade (or so), books that aren't relevant anymore. It was a slow process, because we took all year to do it, only weeding when we had time - and space for the weeded books.
What do you do with your weeded books? At ALA in Anaheim last summer, I found out about Better World Books. From their site: "Better World Books offers a no cost program to help you manage your discarded and donated books. We make the most of your books by selling them on over 18 online-marketplaces and sharing the proceeds with you and one of our nonprofit literacy programs. "

It takes time, but there is something very satisfying about sending discarded books to BWB to be either sold or recycled. Each book, after being weeded from our catalog and OCLC, had to be pre-screened through the BWB portal. If the book was accepted it went in one box, rejected books went in another. Sometimes students helped us with the project, but one of our librarians ended up doing the bulk of the work. By the end of next week, we will have sent approximately 35 boxes of books to BWB. They supply the boxes, they pay for the UPS shipping. They don't make us remove the library book pockets, barcodes, etc. We have received just a little money back, but just knowing the books won't be in a landfill gave us reason enough to use BWB this year.


The rejected books went to Goodwill. Where do you send your weeded books?
Better World Books is also a great place to buy used books. Read about how they are even doing well in this economy.