Sunday House of Secrets haul and more

I thought I would stop by House of Secrets today before work and checkout what was on the shelves. I keep meaning to restart my "Graphic Novel Friday" posts but things have been very hectic. Yesterday, we had our Back-To School Day (more on that later) and it is also the start of our library classes, basically, this means the History team are bringing their classes in. We love our History team!!!

Today's purchases :

• the final installment (5 of 5) of the comic version of Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility. It is actually a really great way to get a new generation of kids to read Jane Austen. The language of the original text is incredibly daunting but I can see how the use of certain words and the style could be a deterrent for younger readers. It is abridged and the visuals definitely adds to the story. I am enjoying it.
• J. Torres and Elbert Or's Lola: a Ghost Story. I featured the cover for this post. At first, I read it as "Low-La" like the Kinks song but then I looked at it more closely and realized it "Lo-Lah," which is the Tagalog word for "grandmother." I love that they dedicated it to their Lola Gloria. I swear, all Filipinos have a "Lola Gloria" some where. It also goes into some of our amazing Filipino supernatural stories. I love those stories - stories about the ogres living in the trees, the gnomes, the aswang, and of course, ghost stories. (side note: I need to record my mom telling those stories)
• Oct Previews - I need to read some reviews and figure out what to start collecting. I have not had time to do much collection development and it's already October!! The cover of this issue of Previews is kind of creepy. It's a drawing of a little girl for the story "Let Me In" which is now a movie.

This school year has been pretty fun so far. I am again teaching 2 classes, in addition, to our library lessons classes that come in throughout the year. Like I mentioned earlier, Back-To-School Day was yesterday morning and it was pretty successful. I had to do 3 presentations for parents explaining what our class was about and it entailed. Most years I try to use the 10 minutes up so no one can ask me questions (parents make me nervous) but this year was a whirlwind. My first class was good but I was so nervous that I talked too fast but the parents were nice and one of them even told me that I did all right. The 2nd class I had...well, I was in the wrong building!!! I was waiting and waiting. I was 5 minutes late! I only knew I was in the wrong place because a student's mom showed me her schedule. She totally saved my hide! Then I had to sub one class. The questions and comments were pretty helpful. One parent pointed out that our website it difficult to navigate. Thank goodness I'm hearing it from a parent! Now I can tell Computer Services. It's a new website too but it's so hard to even find anything.

Also, I'm now the sponsor for the Manga Club. I don't know much about manga so today I'm checking some stuff out and then I'll do some online research. It was such a funny request. 2 students came up and started the conversation like I knew what he was talking about.

He said, "We want to start a manga club."

I said, "Oh that's great!"

then he goes, "I don't really know anything about manga but my friend who wants to start the club does."

I'm all "ok." Then I asked him to call that other kid over.

He starts explaining how another teacher can't do it. And that that teacher bring snacks to the anime club. Then he starts going on and on and isn't asking me about becoming a sponsor.

So I go, "So, you want me to be the sponsor?"

and he goes, "well, we heard that you are a really good baker!!! Yes."

WHAT?!?! For my baking skills?!?! My friend, Carolyn and I just started busting up laughing. I mean, really? But you know, I can't really say "no" to that. But I told them "once a week" because I'm a teacher and not made of money.