Hero; Beautiful Creatures

Lupica, Mike. Hero.
Zach's dad is an assistant to the president of the United States, so he doesn't get to see a lot of him, although the two have a good relationship. When his father is killed in a plane crash, Zach is sure that his mother, and the government, are not telling him the whole story. When he investigates the crash site, he meets Mr. Herbert, who claims to have known his father very well, and also claims that Zach has magical powers. Zach has seen a few of these, but isn't sure what's going on. With the help of his friend Kate, he tries to search for clues, but isn't even sure who is on the side of good and who is evil, since his Uncle John seems to think that Mr. Herbert was the one who had Zach's father killed and is in league with "the Bads". Since Mr. Herbert is arranging to have Zach beaten up on a fairly regular basis (to toughen him up for the real fights), it seems likely that Uncle John is good-- until Mr. Herbert is killed in an act of valor. Now Zach not only is confused about who is good and who is evil... he's not even sure who he is himself.

Strengths: This starts out with a great action scene with Zach's father, so we know that he has some powers. All of the characters are rather likable, and the premise is a good one. A sequel is surely in store.

Weaknesses: After an exciting beginning, Zach mopes for a long time about his father. Understandable, but a bit boring to read. While the premise was good, the execution was lacking. Perhaps Lupica will make the change from sports books to action and and adventure a little better with his next book.

Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret. Beautiful Creatures.
Ethan lives in Gatlin, a small Southern town where rivalries and social maneuvering make it difficult for the new girl, Lena, to fit in, especially since she doesn't embrace the local stereotype and her uncle is the local creepy haunted house guy. Ethan is oddly drawn to Lena, especially since she seems to be the girl who has been in his dreams. Ethan needs someone, since his mother was killed in a car crash and his father has retreated to write. It turns out, though, that Lena has a lot of problems-- on her forthcoming 16th birthday, she will be called as a Caster, and could have to join either the Dark or the Light side. Ethan and Lena seek the help of Amma, Ethan's housekeeper/nanny as well as a librarian friend of Ethan's mother, to try to uncover the mystery of Lena's family before her birthday. A cast of evil characters, both magical and mortal, get in their way, but the romance that develops between the two makes them fight strongly for the best to happen.

Strengths: A surprisingly engaging paranormal romance. I don't usually like Southern settings, but in this, it is used to good effect, with the fight against the Dark being played out in the midst of a Civil War reenactment! This is told from Ethan's point of view, so I should be able to get guys to read it, too. Beautiful Darkness is the sequel that is out, and there seems to be another one coming.

Weaknesses: The evil characters tend toward the stereotypical a tad, and there's really no good reason for Lena to go to the Dark when she has a choice. The binding on the copy that I have is already falling apart and I haven't even added the book to the collection yet. (A student gave me one without a dust jacket, which is why it took me so long to pick this one up.)

Back to school, on a two hour delay. Don't know how we will get all of the students into the library to get books, but we will try!

Hughes' A Crack in the Sky

Hughes, Mark Peter. A Crack in the Sky.
Hardcover copy generously donated by Mr. Hughes.

Eli has been proud of his family's involvement in InfiniCorp, which protects its workers from the disease and environmental dangers of a dystopian future world by maintaining dome cities. When Eli notices that the pixels in the sky are experiencing more than temporary difficulty, he tries to find out the truth, which brings him into contact with Foggers, who are trying to overthrow Infinicorp. Accompanied by a mongoose, Marilyn, with whom he can communicate because of a chip in her brain, Eli embarks on a dangerous quest that takes him from the inner sanctum of Infinicorp to the Outside to a reeducation center. He finds out the truth, and it doesn't look good. There have been a lot of coverups and brain washing, and the environmental issues are more dire than anyone is letting on. This one is sure to have a sequel.

Strengths: I liked Eli, and Marilyn was both sweet and interesting. The environmental issues are well presented and seem realistic, which makes the book all the scarier. The corporate culture and mind control is somewhat reminiscent of Brave New World, but I liked how video games controlled people instead of drugs.

Weaknesses: The plot could have been tightened up just a little. Like many longer books, this dragged slightly in the middle for me, but not tremendously so.

Snow Day of Death

First, that would be an awesome title for a book. It's probably a good thing that I haven't been able to find Northrup's Trapped to read during these days we've been off! I feel sorry for our superintendent, because it's a horrible job to decide to cancel school. Since it is 39 degrees and raining, I was just about ready to leave, but NOT looking forward to the trip. (Even considered getting a ride in, but since my children couldn't, I would have to walk!)

Zindel, Paul. Reef of Death.
PC is used to following after his adventurous Uncle Cliff, so when he gets a call to go to Australia, he takes his trusty computer and goes! Cliff is helping an Aboriginal girl whose tribe is in a grave financial situation and whose brother was killed while looking for the tribe's treasure. She has memories of a giant sea monster eating him, but how can this be? Well, given Zindel's flair for horrific monsters, very likely! In short order, Cliff is also mauled and digested, and PC and Maruul decide to keep this from the authorities so that they can figure things out themselves. Enlisting the help of Wally, an older man who runs a surf shop and is sympathetic to Maruul's plight, they discover that the horrible noise that set the creature off on a feeding frenzy is being made by Dr. Ecenbarger's boat, the Anemone. Dr. Ecenbarger is beyond evil-- claiming to be a geologist, she is trying to make money from the ocean's resources but also performing terrible experiments on animals and in insistent on feeding PC and his friends to the sea monster. After lots of gut wrenching, things work out.

Strengths: For years, I could not read past the first chapter of this one! Like Rats and Raptor, lots of killing and destruction caused by evil animals or creatures instead of humans. Why are there not more books like this? Surely someone could write them!

Weaknesses: No one is writing books like these and my copies are all falling to little bits! I also wish I could get the entire PC Hawke mystery set in PermaBound, but it is also out of print.

Two more books on a snow day

Railsback, Lisa. Betti on the High Wire
Babo lives in an abandoned circus camp with several other "leftover kids" and Auntie Moo, who tries to take care of them and keep them safe from the ravages of war. Babo is sure that her parents, whom she does not remember but about whom she has created lots of stories, will return to claim her. When people from the United States want to adopt her, Babo is not happy to leave. She and her friend George make their way to their new families in the US. Babo, now called Betti, finds it difficult to adjust to the new home, her new sister, and many other facets of life, but after difficulties learns to adjust.

Strengths: Railsback has worked with children in war torn countries and lends an immediacy to a story that has not been often told. It is a little surprising that there are not more novels with main characters who were adopted from foreign countries.

Weaknesses: While Railsback gives a convincing explanation in the back why she chose not to name Babo's country of origin, it makes the story seem less real. Also, while I realize that Babo would have trouble with the vocabulary and concepts of language, for me it detracted from the seriousness of the story to refer to people from the US as "melons" and to interpret words like "spooogetti- skinny broken-eyed snakes". I can see what Railsback is trying to do, but this still makes for difficult reading.

Ryan, Pam Munoz and Sis, Peter. The Dreamer.
Neftali, a frequently ill and day dreaming child, has difficulty dealing with his overbearing father, his older brother, and his step mother. Told in short anecdotes about experiences Neftali has, I didn't know until the end (I must have read it but forgot) that this was a fictionalized account of Pablo Neruda's life. This is in the teen section of my local library (probably for that reason) but seems like a very, very young book, with whole pages devoted to the sounds of dripping water. While this might be interesting to people who are devoted to Neruda's work, not a lot happens in this book, and I cannot see students picking it up. It's sort of like The Little Prince-- very vague and existential.

And it looks like I read and reviewed 68 books in January. Sometime in May people start blogging numbers of things they have read, and counting seems like too much work, so I'll try to keep on top of it this year.

Moon Over Manifest

Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest.
After an alarming accident, Abilene is sent by her father, Gideon, to stay with a friend of his in Manifest, Kansas while he continues to try to make a living during the Great Depression. Shady is an odd choice of custodian for a young girl, since he runs the town saloon, but the other townspeople all get involved in Abiliene's care. After breaking something belonging to the local diviner, Miss Sadie, Abilene goes to work for the woman to pay for the damage, and gets involved in the story of the town years earlier, during World War I, a story which showcases many of the objects that she has found in a box at Shady's house. Much of the story involves a young boy, Jinx, and his friend Ned. Ned ends up going into the army, and Jinx comes up with a scheme to help the town buy a portion of land so that the local mine cannot. The scheme involves marketing a mixture of elixir and moonshine that proves effective against the deadly flu at the time. In order to carry out the production of this mixture, the town fakes a flu epidemic, is quarantined, and earns almost enough money to buy the land. Again, thanks to Jinx's intervention, the town triumphs, at least briefly. There are many tragedies still in store, and the town, as well as the people in it, are unable to triumph over all of them. Abilene learns a lot about her father, herself, and the town in this atmospheric historical novel.

Strengths: Even in the midst of an ice storm, I could feel the dry heat of Depression Era Kansas. Like another Newbery winner, Holes, this book layered a lot of elements into a thought-provoking and moving story.

Weaknesses: This reads more like an adult novel with a child protagonist. Nothing terribly interesting happened until page 215, when the town started their bootlegging operation. This is more of a book that teachers adore. Just not seeing the widespread appeal of this for younger readers.

Choldenko's No Passengers Beyond This Point

Choldenko, Gennifer. No Passengers Beyond This Point.
ARC received from publicist. Release date 8 February 2011.

Finn and his older sister India and younger sister Mouse are horrified when they find out that not only has their mother lost their home, but they will be moving from California to Colorado to live with their uncle the next day. All of the children are worried and angry at their mother, apprehensive about the move, and irritated by the presence of each other. When the plane lands mysteriously and abruptly, they find themselves in a Falling Bird, place of opposites-- they first arrive at magnificent houses, but are soon ripped away from them. They are given everything, and then must fight for the smallest thing. Memories of their past come to haunt them... their father's death, fights with friends, and unrealized dreams from their life in California form their journey in Falling Bird. They are all fighting a clock, and must complete certain tasks and decide the route that each of them will take before it runs down. In the end, they all decide that family, no matter how irritating, is more important than individual wishes. The ending is a huge surprise, and I don't want to spoil it.

Strengths: The story is mysterious and intriguing, the dialogue snappy, and the characters individualistic while still being likable. Fantasy fans will like the advantages and challenges of Falling Bird.

Weaknesses: This gets off to a bit of a slow start, and the world of Falling Bird is a bit confusing. We don't find out what is going on until the very last few pages, and some readers may give up before them. All along, I felt like I was not making some connection between the emotional turmoil of the realistic world and the purpose of the children being in Falling Bird. Not to ruin it, but the story is, in a way, a reimagining of the Wizard of Oz story.

I was hoping to be part of Charlotte's Library's "Timeslip Tuesday" with this, but it's not really time travel!

Cutting Edge Teen Literature

They were. Well, back in the early 1970s they were cutting edge. In honor of my weeding efforts on Friday, here are two books that were getting old even when I was in middle school, yet somehow still reside on my library shelves.

Zindel, Paul. My Darling, My Hamburger. (1969)
This is still in print; in fact, you can buy study packets so this can be taught in the classroom! Seniors Liz and Sean have a physical relationship that ends with Liz becoming pregnant. At first, Sean promises to marry her, but after talking to his judgmental father, decides not to. Maggie, Liz's friend, takes her to have an abortion. Nothing is explained in detail, but this would have been groundbreaking stuff. Maggie is interested in a rather depressed boy named Dennis. Also unusual is the inclusion of handwritten notes and language arts papers, although that reminded me a bit of Up the Down Staircase. None of the characters are very likable, and almost more jarring than Liz being pregnant is her smoking! I may pull this one for lack of interest.

Klein, Norma. Mom, The Wolf Man and Me. (1972)
Brett's mother has never been married, has a career as a photographer, wears jeans a lot, has a boyfriend who brings movies over for Brett to watch, gets another boyfriend who occasionally spends the night, and fixes steak tartar for dinner. With raw egg on top.

So many scandalous things, and thirty years later all we can think is "The mother let the girl eat RAW HAMBURGER???" It seems somewhat odd to me that in the 1970s, when relatively fewer parents were divorced and dating, that there were so many books about children dealing with those issues. Now, when it is more common, there are not as many. I really should pull this one, but the description of Brett and her mother at a peace march in Washington wearing dresses "so people don't think only hippies protest", puts this so squarely in the realm of historical fiction that I may keep it. I didn't realize that Norma Klein died back in 1989, at the age of 51. Most of her books included controversial topics, and she also wrote Sunshine, about a young mother dying of cancer. That was my speech for Prose and Poetry my sophomore year. This should go, but I'll probably keep it.


Another series that really needs to go is Constance Greene's A Girl Called Al. (1969) I loved this one, but no one has read it, or the several sequels, in the entire time I have been at Blendon. So why am I sad that I never got to read Al's Blind Date?

Library Day in the Life-- Day #4

Really, it's pretty much the same thing every day in my library. Check in, check out, monitor students. But there's a lot more I need to do that's hard to get to.

Here’s what I would be doing if I had no students for the day.

• Planning some library lessons ahead.
• Developing projects with teachers on various topics. Anyone have anything good on “the legacy of Rome”?
• Cleaning the back room. After our major renovation and moving this summer, there are a few things missing, and I have learned my lesson about cleaning out. Need to look for my three hole punch and think about getting rid of some tape recorders.
• Shelf reading and weeding. Where is Bad Girls in Love? Probably in the nonfiction. And how have I been here for 15 years without realizing that my Dracula book is not about the movie, but rather a bad novelization of it? As with cleaning out, this is a continual project.
• Talking with teachers to assess their equipment needs. The district purchased LCD projectors for each room, leaving me with about 15 television/DVD/VCR combinations on carts. Some of those, as well as any overheads that are not working properly, can go to auction.
• Taking down the huge and mainly inoperable Media Retrieval System whose vast metal cabinet takes up half of my back room. Can’t really do this, but I would love to.
• Cleaning and repairing equipment. Also barcoding things for easier check out.
• Filing my purchase order paper work. From the last, um, nine years.

Obviously, these are not hugely important things, but they must be done every soften. This is why I close for five days at the end of the year. I open the very first day, and come in a lot in the summer, but some projects require a significant amount of time sitting on the floor in the dust, so they are hard to do in the morning, and impossible to do during the day.

Guy Friday- Paul Zindel

I am finally up to the Z's in reading my way through the library and thought that Paul Zindel (1936-2003) would make a good subject for Guy Friday.

Language Arts teachers love The Pigman, and Zindel was a well-respected and much lauded writer for his plays, such as The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. My Darling, My Hamburger was supposedly very racy and cutting edge, and since I can't remember it, that may well be what I read tonight.

In my library, however, Mr. Zindel is read for his bunch of monster horror books, which I usually list in one breath as RatsRaptorReefofDeathDoomstoneLochNightoftheBat. I'd never read one all the way through, since Reef of Death was just too scary for me. That's all I had to say to students and they would pick it up! The only downside to these titles is that many of them are, sadly, out of print.

Zindel, Paul. Rats.
Sarah and her brother Michael live on Staten Island near a huge landfill, where their father works. Their mother was killed in a car accident, so they often have to take care of themselves and their pet rat, Surfer. When mutant rats escape the landfill and start coming up through people's toilets and threatening any human they find, the children and their pet must try to stay safe and save the area from these vicious rodents.

Strengths: Nonstop action and lots of gore. Usually, the people killed are the more unsavory characters in the book, but this is very graphic. My boys love these.

Weaknesses: The gore. A Begonia for Miss Applebaum this is not!

Zindel, Paul. Raptor.
Zack's father is a paleontologist working in the Southwest. He is brutally injured in an accident that is assumed to be a landslide but is in fact a raptor attack. Zack tries to find out more about what happened to his father and finds a raptor egg that hatches. The trouble begins when the raptor mommy comes looking for her baby, which Zack doesn't want to give up, since he thinks it will help his father become famous. Another paleontologist has the same idea, so Zack and his friend Uta must try to protect the raptor baby while keeping the area safe from the adult raptors.

Strengths: Again, fast-paced, with a nice sense of place. I also enjoyed how the girls in both books have strong roles in saving the world, something I never would have guessed was in the books.

Weaknesses: Again, the gore. Yuck!

Library Day in the Life #3- Wednesday

Just unusual things and amusing recommendations today! Same amount of SSR classes as Tuesday. Worked on book orders on and off all day, checking shelves, lost books, making sure I didn’t have duplicates between two vendors.

1^st period:

• Wiping down four books which seem to have been dropped in the mud.
• Putting together a “quick” teacher collection on planets
• Scary book for which I had four copies: R.L. Stine’s Broken Date.
• Finding a book “about drugs” with two copies for readers of Beauty Queen: Answer: Go Ask Alice.

2^nd period

A 7^th grade language arts teacher and I have been working on a nonfiction book project. Many of her children are in changing out their nonfiction books.

• “Do you have any books about real werewolves?”
• “Do you have a nonfiction chapter book?” Why, yes! Why don’t you try Behind Enemy Lines?” “But I don’t want anything that really happened.”
• Had several students pay fines. Threats are working.

3^rd period

• Do you have any wrestling books? (Takedown, Wrestling Sturbridge, Wrestling with Honor. All I have. Can’t find anything more but Martino’s Pinned, which is more of a high school book. )
• Do you have any skateboarding books? Skate Freak, Fakie, Skater Stunt Boys, some Matt Christopher.)
• Trying to fix the hydraulics on my new desk chair, which goes down five inches on a whim. Duct tape is the answer. Working well so far.

4^th period

• Language arts students in researching family names and creating documents with pictures as a watermarked background.
• “Any problem novel as long as it’s short”: Lipsyte’s Yellow Flag. (“I love Nascar! How did you know? “The race car on your t shirt.”)
• Visiting students during lunch to remind them about overdues.

5^th period

• “Do you have a book on planets?” “Did Mr. B. tell you he had all my books?” “Yes, but I thought you might have some.” Luckily, I kept the encyclopedias.
• Working with students to find the addresses of authors for another language arts project.
• New high school helper in for training.

6^th period

• “Do you have any books that are funny, action/adventure, AR and really, really short?” (Maybe not. My brain overloaded at one point. But I did.)
• Fixed two library shelves that tipped over, dumping entire contents on floor.

7^th period

Oddly quiet, which allows me to regroup for tomorrow. Language Arts students are typing fractured fairy tales. Try to help student find “fairy tale sound effects” for presentation. Alternate assessment for some of our students in the multiple handicapped unit.

The vast majority of my day is spent with students who come up to me and say forlornly that they need a book and they don’t know what they want. They usually leave with something that’s not too painful!

Not-What-I-Wanted Wednesday

I predicate my purchases on what students request, hoping to find the very best examples of, say, football or skateboarding books. My reading, however, doesn't always match up with the needs of my students. Do I buy things that aren't necessarily asked for? Absolutely. But it has to be something I really like for me to sell it.

It amazes me how many books I miss. Maybe one of these is exactly what someone else is looking for!

Goodman, Shawn. Something Like Hope.
From Publisher: "Shavonne, a fierce, desperate seventeen-year-old in juvenile lockup, wants to turn her life around before her eighteenth birthday, but corrupt guards, out-of-control girls, and shadows from her past make her task seem impossible."
What I Wanted: Something like Sharon Draper: gut wrenching and powerful book about a young girl trying to overcome the odds of being raised in the inner city.
Why It Didn't Work For Me: The f-bomb on page two. This is clearly aimed at a high school audience. A shame, since the cover is very nice.

Chow, Cara. Bitter Melon.
From publisher: "Frances, a Chinese-American student in a competitive school in San Francisco in the 1980s, begins to question her mother's insistence that she becomes a doctor when she accidentally enrolls in a speech class and discovers a hidden talent."
What I Wanted: Multicultural book, and in the wake of the whole Tiger Mother thing, this was a very interesting read that I personally enjoyed very much.
Why It Didn't Work For Me: I can't get anyone to check out Paula Yoo's Good Enough, which is similar, so I won't buy this.Too old for my readers, just from an interest standpoint.

Zucker, Naomi. Callie's Rules.
From publisher: "Eleven-year-old Callie Jones tries to keep track of all the rules for fitting in that other middle school students seem to know, but when the town decides to replace Halloween with an Autumn Festival, Callie leads her large family in an unusual protest. "
What I Wanted: Fun, light realistic fiction for girls.
Why It Didn't Work For Me: Too quirky. Large family with weird names, and what 6th grade teacher assigns Lorna Doone? Of course, Callie prefers Jane Eyre and holds all of the other girls in disdain because they care about things like clothes. On the topic of Halloween-as-evil, I already have Stephanie Tolan's Save Halloween, which doesn't circulate much.

Boyd, Maria. Will
From publisher: "Seventeen-year-old Will's behavior has been getting him in trouble at his all-boys school in Sydney, Australia, but his latest punishment, playing in the band for a musical production, gives him new insights into his fellow students and helps him cope with an incident he has tried to forget. "
What I Wanted: Any book about musicians that didn't also include numerous sex and drug references.
Why It Didn't Work For Me: This may be that, but I couldn't get past the very Australian vibes.

Neighbors of various kinds

Springstubb, Tricia. What Happened on Fox Street
Mo Wren loves her neighborhood that backs up to a wooded area. Since she knows everyone, she can keep an eye on her younger sister Dottie when her somewhat unorganized father has to go to work, run around the neighborhood, and still feel safe. It has everything she needs, including a friend who visits for the summer, shops, neighbors who keep her in line, and memories of her deceased mother. When all of the neighbors get letters from a man trying to buy up and redevelop the neighborhood, Mo is worried that her ideal life may come to an end, especially when she finds out her friend may no longer visit for the summer. Things come to a head when Dottie runs off during a storm, secrets are revealed, and Mo finds out whether or not she will get to stay on Fox Street.

Strengths: This has a good sense of place, supportive adults, interesting problems and an appealing cover.

Weaknesses: Not a whole lot happened, and there were many elements that made this seem like the sort of story teachers love to read to a class, but classes don't much care for.

Cook, Kacy. Nuts.
When Nell finds two baby squirrels in the yard that have fallen out of their nest, she researches the best way to care for them on line. She chooses to ignore the most important bit of advice-- turn them over to an animal rehabilitator. Instead, she enlists her parents and two brothers into caring for the animals, getting advice from the woman who posted the information by telling her that she is older than 11 and too far from a rehabilitator. Since the children are homeschooled, they do a lot of research into wildlife habits and are able to spend time caring for the animals. One meets a tragic end, but the other, Mantha, prospers to the point where it is necessary to release her into the wild. Nell is reluctant to do this, but finally realizes it is necessary.

Strengths: Wow. I know more about raising squirrels than I could ever use. The research in this book is very apparent, but the cautions are very clear as well. Again, appealing characters and supportive adults make this interesting.

Weaknesses: I don't have a lot of students who are that interested in animals, so I'm unsure whether or not I will purchase this.


Kephart, Beth. Dangerous Neighbors.
From the publisher: "Set against the backdrop of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Katherine cannot forgive herself when her beloved twin sister dies, and she feels that her only course of action is to follow suit."

I picked this up because I am always intrigued by World's Fair type exhibitions, but this is much more about Katherine's fragile mental state. It is a very lyrical, probing book, but very slow. It is listed as grades 8-12, and I think that is definitely the case. It moved very slowly.

Booking Mama, Caribou's Mom, There's a Book and Word Lily all liked this very much.

Library Day in the Life #2: Tuesday

Visit the main site for Library Day in the Life, Round 6

5:00 am.: Polishing coffee pots, cleaning chaos in back room, scouring counter and sink.
Preparing work for volunteers, including spending a long time trying to get bar code lables to print.
5:30: Checking e mail, blogging, routing new magazines, making actual notes for library lesson to keep on file. This week: Why Ms. Yingling will creepily stalk you if you have an overdue book! (Answer: Because you probably need something new to read.)
6:30: Visiting other blogs for suggestions, working on final book orders for March.
7:45: Library opens
8:00: SSR1
9:06: SSR2
9:40: SSR3
9:56 SSR4
11:16: SSR5
12:12 p.m.: SSR6
12:22:SSR7
12:30-1:00. Lunch. Bug 8th graders about overdues on way.
1:12: SSR8 and my own SSR of 10 students assigned to library.
1:58: Nothing scheduled. Study hall students a bit later. Just containing chaos and getting ready for the next day.
3:00: Faculty meeting
4:00 : Head home
7:00-9:00 Read

After all SSRs, study hall students and students from other groups come in for books and use the computers for projects and research. I figure 25 for each SSR (except 6th period, which is always 30+) and another 25-30 from other groups. Most of the students want help in picking out or finding books, so I frequently am running around the library with lines of children behind me. I feel so loved.

My goal at the end of each period is to have checked in all books, filed all cards and answered all e mails. This rarely happens on Tuesday. I had one parent volunteer in the morning to shelve and weed, and one in the afternoon to shelve and glue books back together!

And yes, the cards are necessary. The Destiny circulation system combined with student helpers and busy days means that a lot of books do NOT get checked out on the computer. When books are about two weeks overdue, I go through the cards to make sure they were actually on the computer, and have to explain to children about why I didn't send them an overdue slip.

Found Middle Grade Book Challenge at Cindy's Love of Books. She only had six people entered, and I know that many of you out there are up for this one! Hop over and take a look!

Library Day in the Life #1: Monday

I've never caught this before, but thanks to Holly Hibner's blog (that I got to through Awful Library Books!) I found Round 6 of the Library Day in the Life Project! This was started by Bobbi Newman of Librarian by Day. It's meant to show the public how hard working and useful librarians are, and the first day was yesterday! I will post one week (five days) just for fun.

I am at a suburban middle school library in Ohio, USA.

Monday, January 24
5:00 a.m. At desk, running overdue slips, attempting to blog weekend reading
5:30 a.m. Filling coffee pots for Bulldog Breakfast, helping with set up.
6:30: Bulldog Breakfast
7:30: Cleaning up from Bulldog Breakfast
7:45: Library open, flurry of renewals
8:00: Fix teacher's DVD player
8:05: Study hall students, check in books, file cards. There is only one scheduled class on Monday, but each period of the day sees about 30 visits from various classes.
8:54: Study hall students, a stray language arts class; check in, file, work on book order for five minutes. Instruct student helpers to shelve, dust.
9:48: Study hall, stray social studies class to use the computer; check in, file, spend ten minutes trying to do some purchasing paperwork.
10:38: 6th grade lunch. Hunt down students with overdues, call a few homes. Fix programming glitch with printer. Student helpers attend to study hall students.
11:36: 7th grade lunch. Repeat. Work out payment plan with two students and also contact their former schools to check on whether their textbooks were turned in. Try to finish blog.
12:30: 8th grade lunch. When I normally take lunch, but there is a Battle of the Books meeting and several students serving lunch detentions for books due in October. No student helper, so I pop up to check out books.
1:00: Run to office to retrieve mail, turn in paperwork, pick up books from Library Link. I have eight students assigned to me for Sustained Silent Reading.
1:12-1:25: SSR group (30 students); deliver lesson on WHY we bug them about overdue books; get books to students. Three library helpers at the desk.
1:25-1:40: SSR group(30 students) that missed Friday.
1:40-1:54: Study hall students that need books.
1:58: Dump coffee from breakfast, fling pots in back room. Check in 100 books, file cards (a really, really necessary part of my library, due to students and parents not quite believing the computer), work with student to push in chairs, straighten shelves, repair chaos of day.
3:10: Head home.

Also included in there somewhere: answering about ten e mails an hour from teachers and parents, helping students reserve books from public library, adding books to order lists.

At home: Only spend about an hour and a half reading.

Nonfiction...Tuesday

Fritz, Jean. Alexander Hamilton: The Outsider
Wow. Ms. Fritz is about 95 years old. As with Milton Meltzer's Tough Times, I could not say anything bad about this new book even if there was cause, which there was not. This 132 page treatment of Hamilton's life is fast paced and very readable, with plentiful and appropriate illustrations. It follows his life from birth and childhood in the West Indies (under less than ideal conditions) to his foolish death at the age of 49 in the duel with Aaron Burr. You'd have thought that after his 19-year-old son died in a duel, he would have sworn off them! The most interesting aspect of this book was that we see pivotal American history unfolding from the perspective of how it affected just one person. Even though I have a good biography collection, this is worth adding, because it was the sort of book that I kept shouting sentences from it to my children. ("Did you know...?")

Jones, Carrie. Entice.
ARC received from the very kind Charlotte at Charlotte's Library.
Zara is still upset that her boyfriend, Nick, has been killed, even though he is apparently in Valhalla. She's also upset that she's been turned into a pixie by Astley, who wants her to be his queen, and the fact that local teens are under constant attack by evil blue pixies, and she can't be everywhere to fight them off. 'Cause she has GOT to find Nick. 'Cause she looooooves him.

Okay, this is where my 17-year-old daughter asks me when my soul died. This is a fine addition to the series (Need and Captivate). There's a lot of pixie fighting, traveling to Iceland, community pulling together to fight off pixies and keep Zara from hurting herself even more than she does. There's even a frisson of attraction between Zara and Astley. However, I am too old. I know that if Zara gets Nick back from Valhalla, he will probably dump her after three months for some cute were, probably right before prom. After she's bought her dress. Also, I find the cover vaguely disturbing.

Short Take on Sequels

Dowswell, Paul. Prison Ship.

Sam manages to get work on another ship after his adventures in Powder Monkey, but soon is framed for cowardice along with his friend Richard. They are sentenced to hang, but manage to get that commuted to being transported to Australia. They are lucky to get on a decent ship, and are befriended by a young doctor, who helps them once they get to Australia. They get work at a shipyard, but make some poor choices and end up being put to work on a farm where the owner is excessively cruel. They take off through the outback and barely survive, but once they make it back to civilization, their previous contacts help get them out of trouble.

Dowswell, Paul. Battle Fleet.

While Richard decides to go back to the US, Paul signs up with the navy, but this time as a midshipman. He ends up on the HMS Victory and is involved with the battle of Trafalgar.

Strengths (of series): These were very well done, with fights interspersed with intrigue and details of every day life. I found myself liking these way more than I thought I would.

Weaknesses: It's hard to believe that all of these things would happen to one boy, but I don't think the students will mind!

Beil, Michael. The Vanishing Violin.

This sequel to The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour finds the girls hired by one of the sisters in their school to find out who is sneaking in, cleaning and improving the school. This takes a back seat, however, when Margaret recieves a very good violin bow, and the girls have to solve a 50 year old mystery. Like the first, this involves clues and puzzles, helpful adults, and a little romance.

Strengths: These are fabulous mysteries, and the New York setting and local detail are thrilling to students in Ohio.

Weaknesses: While there are four main characters, I had trouble telling them apart. It was sort of Margaret and SophieLeighAnnRebecca. Small complaint for a book that starts out "Like a plaid-skirted Jedi Knight..."

Byng, Georgia. Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery.

When Molly and Mickey's new tutor, Ms. Hunroe, whisks them off to London, they find that she is not what she seems-- she wants them to steal a second book of magic from a Mr. Black. The two children read some of the book and are able to morph into ladybugs in order to escape. They then change into people and other animals, but only Ms. Hunroe seems to know the secret how to "meego" and return to themselves. Ms. Hunroe and her associates don't want to share this secret until they get their way, and Molly finds that Mr. Black is not as evil as he seems. After surviving a trip to the Andes and solving the immediate problems, Molly and Mickey, along with Petula, return home.

Strengths: Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure gave me a headache (from too much thinking!), but I found this one rather enjoyable, with all the morphing into different animals. For a fifth book in the series, this one still had a lot of interest.

Weaknesses: I was inordinately bothered by an Asian character named Miss Teriyaki, and found that all of Ms. Hunroe's accomplices were slightly annoying. They were evil, so I suppose that's all right!

Mebus, Scott. The Sorcerer's Secret.

Sequel to Gods of Manhattan and Spirits in the Park.
Final book in series dealing with historical figures from New York City's past reinvented as gods. Found out another weakness of mine from this-- mention more than four characters on a page, page after page, and my interest starts to flag and my comprehension to droop dramatically.

Perez, Marlene. Dead is Just a Rumor.
Sequel to Dead is the New Black, Dead is So Last Year, Dead is a State of Mind. Dead is Not an Option comes out on May 2nd. My students are loving these, because they have witches AND werewolves AND vampires. I kept picking this one up at times when I couldn't concentrate on it so don't feel I can give a plot summary and do it any justice.

Survived the Bulldog Breakfast this morning, but my daughter came to school, threw up, resisted going home, and finally went. I have a headache. I NEVER get headaches. This bodeth ill.

Laundry or Reading?

Balog, Cyn. Sleepless.
Julia is trying to recover from the death of her smart aleck boyfriend, Griffin. Eron is finishing up his hundred year stint as a Sleepbringer, recently assigned to Julia, and will be able to return to being human after Griffin replaces him. The bad news? Griffin isn't as accepting of his death and new job as a Sandman as Eron was, and he is trying to stay with Julia in any way he can. Julia continues to go to work, practice for her driver's license test, and hangs out with Bret, Griffin's best friend who is a little too interested in her. When Eron becomes human for limited amounts of time, he seeks out Julia, which angers Griffin and jeopardizes Eron's chances at becoming human. Will Julia be able to understand who Eron has been, and will Griffin be able to let her go?

Strengths: Balog's work is very readable, which surprises me since I have slogged through so many paranormal romances. Like this author's Fairy Tale, this is a nice twist on the genre, and adds the realistic note of people moving on from their "one true love". Fairy Tale has circulated nicely, and I'll be purchasing Starstruck when it comes out in July.

Weaknesses: This is almost too old for middle school, but luckily Balog doesn't throw the characters in bed together. I guess it was all the talk of the sandmen "seducing" the women to sleep that just made me worry that something would be coming that never did.

Langan, Paul. Brothers in Arms.
Martin Luna is not keen on school, so when his mother moves from their old neighborhood after Martin's 8-year-old brother is killed, he's not wild about going to Bluford High. Still grieving, he has little patience for putting up with a snotty football player, turning in his English assignments, or making it to detention. He's rather run back to his old neighborhood and hang out with his friend, Frankie, who has vowed to find the people who shot Martin's brother. After a while, however, Martin begins to realize that the way he is living is probably what caused his brother's death, and he decides to accept the help from the people in his life who care.

Strengths: The Bluford books are short and simple, and some of my students love them. I appreciate that the characters change, but it's not depicted as something easy.

Weaknesses: Since these are short, there's not a lot of depth in secondary characters.

Guy Friday: The Young Boy and the Sea

Because Westervillle City Schools has a snow day, I wish I had Northrup's Trapped to read, but I was thinking about swash-buckling sea stories. This is not something a lot of boys ask for, but I'll have one or two every year who can't get enough. I didn't include the many older titles like Treasure Island; 100 years ago, sea stories were the big thing. I also didn't include the girls-at-sea books like The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Dowswell, Paul. Powder Monkey.
This first book in a trilogy finds young Sam Witchall leaving his family to go to sea in 1800. Things are going well until he is pressed into joining the British Royal Navy and finds himself assigned to the worst job-- bringing gun powder to the ships' guns. There's certainly a lot of other work, which is vividly portrayed, and many battles to fight in, since the British are at war with France and Spain. Sam would love to try to escape from service, but knows that his chances are slim. He is helped by a colorful cast of shipmates, only some of whom are deliciously dastardly. After Sam's ship goes down after a battle with the Spanish, he and a few shipmates make their way to a small village along the coast and have to decide whether to run away or return to the navy.

Strengths: The descriptions of everyday life on a ship at this time are well done. We find out about food, hygiene, work, and how ships were run. Since Sam is the age of my readers, I am sure this makes it easier for them to insert themselves into this adventure and bewail the fact that they are stuck in the middle of Ohio!

Weaknesses: There was a lot of turnovers in characters, and I would have liked to see some of the ones who were killed developed more, but that is also true to life. People died more frequently than we are used to today.

I am excited to see that Dowswell's newest book, Auslander, about a boy living in Berlin during World War II, is being published in the US in August.

Avast, me hearties! Here are some other good tales of the sea!

Avi. Beyond the Western Sea.
Cadnum, Michael. Ship of Fire
Cadnum, Michael. Peril on the Sea
Hawes, Charles Boardman. The Dark Frigate
Hesse, Karen. The Stowaway.
Hobbs, Will. Leaving Protection
Jacques, Brian. Castaways of the Flying Dutchman.
Lawrence, Ian. The Castaways (et alia)
O'Dell, Scott. The Black Pearl
Paulsen, Voyage of the Frog
Somper, Justin. Vampirates

Assorted Reading

Magoon, Kekla. Camo Girl.
Ella's life is difficult enough-- her father has died of cancer, her mother is gone half the week for work, and she is in middle school. She has always been friends with Z, but as they have gotten older, Z's behavior is seen as stranger and stranger. Her other friend, Millie, has distanced herself from Ella because she doesn't want to hang around Z, but Ella feels responsible for Z's well-being, especially since his father left and he and his mother are living at WalMart, where his mother works. When another black student, Bailey, comes to school and takes an interest in Ella, she is thrilled that she might finally have some other friends, but her relationship with Bailey annoys Z. Ella tries to balance all of the facets of her life, but things become difficult when Z runs off to Las Vegas and she and Bailey go to find him.

Strengths: This was a very moving story of friendship and protrays accurately how difficult middle school is for anyone, especially for those who are different. I loved all of the characters, and the story had enough action that students will not think it is too slow.

Weaknesses: While I figured that Ella suffered from vitiligo (hence the title), and Z was probably on the autism spectrum, this was not clearly explained. I think it would have been helpful for my students to know the underlying cause of the challendes with which the two main characters are dealing.

Spradlin, Michael. Orphan of Destiny.
(Sequel to Keeper of the Grail and Trail of Fate.)
Tristan is back. He, along with Robard and Maryam, needs to get the grail to a safe place, but Sir Hugh is hot on his trail and killing as many of Tristan's cohorts as possible. To make matters worse, Tristan has angered Eleanor of Aquitaine, who tells him he will never take the throne, which gives him a pretty good idea of the secret that everyone has been hiding from him. Even when all of the obstacles are overcome, the grail is safe and things are quiet, I think that this may continue, because the body of Sir Hugh was never found...

Strengths: This series is hugely popular in my library! It is fast-paced, related to the curriculum, and has appealing characters. Even the books are beautifully formatted.
Weaknesses: Only mine-- I am having trouble keeping up with series! It was hard for me to remember what Tristan had been up to previously, which is why this sounds like anemic praise.

Ames, Ruth. This Totally Bites.
Emma-Rose has always felt different from her family. They are sunny and upbeat, she is pale and loves black. When her great-aunt Margo comes to town to help her mother with a museum exhibit about bats, Emma-Rose realizes why she is so different-- she takes after Margo, who is most likely a vampire! There are other problems to worry about, though. Emma-Rose is in charge of the school dance, and it falls on the same night of her mother's exhibit opening. With the help of Henry, a boy she has been crushing on, Emma-Rose manages to organize the dance, find out the secrets of her past, and realize that being who she is is just perfect.

Strengths: These books (Poison Apple series by Scholastic) are just perfect for my 6th grade girls who want to read Twilight but just can't.
Weaknesses: This would have been more successful for me if Margo hadn't turned out to be a real vampire, but my girls will still be pleased. At least Emma-Rose is not one. (It skips generations!)

Garza, Mario. Stuff on My Mutt.
This one is not my fault! One of our teachers is working on her MLS and needed this for a class, and once I requested it from Interlibrary Loan for her, I had to read it. To my dog, of course, who now wants me to knit her some legwarmers. This tiny, paperbound bit of fluff from Chronicle Books is not something that I will buy for my library, but it would certainly circulate it if I had it! The book consists mainly of pictures people have taken of their dogs, with stuff on them. Check out the web site.


Boynton, Sandra. Amazing Cows.
Well, again, not quality literature, but I did think that perhaps I could pass this off as a nonfiction book about cows. Can't really, but it was fun to read! Love the cow knock knock jokes, the story involving 80 cows named Tino, and, well... all of it. Can I justify purchasing it? No. Darn. I wish that there were some middle grade fiction ala Wimpy Kid done by Boynton. Ooh. Maybe I can justify buying Chocolate: The Consuming Passion (1982). But it's out of print!


Daly, Cathleen. Flirt Club.
From the publisher: "Through notes and journal entries, best friends and self-proclaimed "drama geeks" Cisco (Izzy) and the Bean (Annie) write of the trials of middle school, as well as their efforts to attract boys by forming a Flirt Club. "
Strengths: Girls who are big fans of Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicholson will find the rambling notes and journal entries a treat!
Weaknesses: I couldn't finish this one because of the rambling journal entries. Also, I kept getting the feeling that it was set in the 1970s, even though there were no indications that this was the case. I'll fling this at some random readers today to get their take on it, but I'm just not sure.

Library Notes

This is for Jim at TeacherNinja, who requested more information about day-to-day library operations.

Library Helpers. Oh, how all of the students want to be library helpers. Unfortunately, this does not mean they all want to shelve books. No, they want to stand at the only computer within 20 feet of the circ desk. This is fine when we have classes and I am roaming around helping students get books, but after I've taken care of the class, and the study hall students, and have checked in all of the books (something only I do, after being challenged by parents!) and filed the circ cards, sometimes I have five minutes to do something frivolous like, oh, check work e mail or look for new releases of YA fiction. This is hard to do with two sixth graders standing at my elbow.

I finally hired a full complement of workers. At least two every period of the day. I take applications. If a student does not fill it out completely (I do need to know what period your study hall is!), or if they answer that they want to be a helper because they hate study hall, they are not hired. Also not hired are students who are struggling with grades, have chronic overdue problems, or cannot behave themselves in the library. I switch out most of my helpers on a quarterly basis so that many students get a chance.

The jobs that the helpers are supposed to do (and which are posted for them to see) are:
Put books in alphabetical order on carts
Shelve
Sharpen pencils
Dust shelves
Dust backs of chairs in computer lab
Push chairs in
Pick up stray paper
Straighten computer lab
Scrub pencil marks off tables
Sensitize books and pile up
Make the library a better place to be!!

This isn't that exciting, I know, but I remember spending a lot of time in my 4th grade library bundling up Campbell's soup labels. Try enough student helpers and you will find some that work really well. You will also find some students that don't do a lot of work, but need to be near you. School work always comes first for my students, and some of my students are "supervisors" who spend most of their time doing homework, which is fine!