Three Great Books

I read three great young adult/children's books over the Christmas holiday.  All three were review copies or were received free at the AASL conference this fall.

The first was A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (2009). This book features the irrepressible Mrs. Dowdel who first appeared in Peck's A Long Way from Chicago. This story finds her helping out the Barnhardts, a Methodist minister and his family. Bob, our narrator, recounts the adventures and mishaps of the family and their colorful neighbor in this delightful book.


I loved this book. It made me laugh aloud, and I found myself constantly reading passages to my poor husband. These characters will stay with you long after you've read the book.

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Richard Peck autographed the book for me at AASL!

The second book was The Magician's Elephant by Kate DeCamillo (2009). This is a magical book about the power of belief. Set in a fictional country plagued by a cold and gray winter, Peter encounters a fortune teller who says that his sister, long believed dead, is alive and that an elephant will lead him to her. This preposterous prediction seems unlikely until a magician accidentally conjures an elephant that falls through the roof and into the lap of a noblewoman. Peter's quest to find and then free the elephant so that he can be reunited with his sister brings him into contact with an odd assortment of characters. Each is memorable, and each is, in his or her own way, seeking an "elephant".

 

Finally, I read Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful Wintergirls.  This young adult novel deals with the oft-covered subject eating disorders,  but Anderson's storytelling, lyrical language, and character development make this a an important work of young adult fiction.  Lia, a high school senior, is struggling with anorexia and sometimes cuts herself to feel the pain of being alive.  Her father and mother are both too immersed in their own careers to pay any attention to her.  Her stepsister and stepmother aren't able to offer her the support she needs.  When her oldest friend Cassie dies alone in a motel room after leaving 33 voice mails for her, Lia begins to spiral out of control.  Haunted by Cassie's ghost and her own demons, Lia struggles to find a reason to stay alive.

Laurie Halse Anderson autographing my

book at AASL.

Wonderful Web Sites

Going through my RSS feeds today I rediscovered a couple of great web sites and found some new ones.  Check these out!

LoudLit is a site that offers free mps downloads of classic works of literacture, along with a read and listen feature.  The selections are limited since the site relies on donations to pay for production of the recordings.  They offer the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Heart of Darkness, The Scarlet Letter, The Secret Sharer, Tale of Two Cities, and Typee.  They have Great Expectations now available as a read and listen selection, but not for audio donwload.  They also feature several poems and short stories.  Thsi would be a great resource for your students with reading disabilities!

Another great site that I had forgotten about is eHow.  eHow gives written or video directions about how to do almost anything you can imagine.  Want to learn PowerPoint, knitting, cooking, plumbing...?  It's all here.  Most articles and videos are submitted by users, although some feature professionals.  Users can rate the how to guides, so you can see whether others have found the instructions useful.  It's a great resource for students or adults.

Another great resource for adults is one I discovered today.  Called Academic Earth, this site aggregates college and university lectures from across the country.  You can "audit" courses from Harvard, Yale, or many other universities.  Expand your mind in the new year!

Another aggregator that I find very interesting is Popurls (pronounced like popular).  This site aggregates conventional news outlets like the New York Times, but it also aggregates Twitter, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, Google blogs, and many other sites.  It's a one stop shop for what's happening on the Internet.

Another site that is new to me is a free email provider specifically for kids called Zilladog.  This site provides children a free email account.  The site is filtered, and parents can create the account with a login password that gives them access to their child's email.  It's a great way to let younger children learn about email and how to use it appropriately and responsibly.

Great New Image Resource

Sprixi is a fabulous new resource for finding photos and graphics that you or your students can use for projects, Web pages, blogs, etc.  Sprixi not only catalogs a wide collection, but also provides the proper attribution for any image you download or link to.  This ensures that neither you nor your students will be violating copyright.  What a great idea!

http://www.sprixi.com/

Hope for Oklahoma

A recent study from Central Connecticutt State University lists the top 50 most literate cities in the U.S. based on such things as education level, libraries, bookstores, number of online book orders, etc.  Both Tulsa and Oklahoma City made the list with Tulsa tied for 20th and Oklahoma City at 38th.  When the two major cities in a state make a list such as this it has to be good news.  We may be broke, but at least we're literate!

New Year's Resolution

One of my new year's resolutions is to do a better job of blogging.  I manage to find the time to toss things out there on Twitter or Facebook, but finding the time to actually write seems to be a challenge.  It's a challenge I need to meet, however. 

The economy is in worse than any time in my life.  Schools are scrambling to keep their doors open.  They are looking for any way to cut corners, and, I fear, libraries may be one of the targets.  We have to keep getting out the word that school libraries do make a difference.  Certified library media specialists do make a difference.  We have to keep that message in front of the public!