School Librarian Check Out

I haven't written a list of the things I've been checking out so here it is:

Reading:
Ally Condie Matched. There was an article on this book and on Ally Condie in SLJ and I had to pick it up. I loved Hunger Games so I thought I have some high expectations. On the back of the jacket it also mentions Twilight (cringe) so hopefully it's better written.

Graham Bowley No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - I love these kinds of books. Also, this came highly recommended from students and Ambookgeek.

Clay Shirky Cognitive Surplus

Survey of EBook Penetration and Use in the US School (K-12) Libraries - you can download it for your appropriate library. If our school is any indicator, ebooks are where it's at (FINALLY)

Listening:
Jeff Lindsey Dexter By Design. This is making me want to watch the show.

Highly Recommend:
You check out the Midwinter 2011 Tech Trends wrap-up presentation archived at ALA Techsource - so worth watching. Lots of interesting things - the Library in the Cloud is one of the things I'm interested in. Plus, @griffey 's gadget report. That alone makes it worth watching. I love gadgets even though I can't afford them! But at least I can drool over them :)

Also, read about this Librarian game on the Speak Quietly blog. What a great way to teach kids about how to shelve books. Actually, and parent volunteers. I want to use it next year for our call numbers lesson. I played it on Library Goddess' iphone. It was so fun! Except you need a bigger screen because some of the call numbers are hard to see. I say we get iPads for our library lessons. Wouldn't it be great to also have them using Noodle tools or some similar tool as well especially since after we started using LibGuides our database and ebook use is up pretty much 2 fold!

Book Drops: What I Read in 2010

I was inspired by my friend, CP, to list out what I read this past year. I did it last year too but didn't lay it out as a list. Here's that post. I have to check a couple of different spaces I think because I started using Get Glue this year and I might have stuff on Good Reads which I don't really use. But let's see how I did because I know in the summer I got a bit lazy.

1. From Fear To Facebook - Matt Levinson
2. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
3. National Geographic's Rare
   
4. Ghostopolis - TenNapel
5. Zombie Chasers Book 1 - John Kloepfer
6. reread - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. reread - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahan
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
12. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
15. The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan
16. Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve
17. Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
19. The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
20. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
21. Robot Dreams - Sara Varon
22. The Wave: In Pursuit of Monster Waves - Susan Casey
23. Mouse Guard Vol. 1 - David Petersen
24. Lola: a ghost story - J. Torres
25. Creature Tech - Doug Tennapel
26. Pencil Fight Number Three
27. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Eric Shanower
28. The Marvelous Land of Oz - Eric Shanower
29. Bayou - Jeremy Love
30. Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing
    
31. Sense and Sensibilities - comic version
32. The Complete Alice In Wonderland - Dynamite comics
33. A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
34. Last Call - Daniel Okrent
35. The Tiger: A true story of vengeance and survival - John Vaillant
36. The Warriors: Power of three - the fourth apprentice - Erin Hunter
37. Everwild - Neal Shusterman
38. Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli
39. Julius Caesar - Ellen Galford
40. The Forbidden School House - Suzanne Jurmaine
41. Extreme Scientists - Donna M. Jackson
42. Going Bovine - Libba Bray
43. To The Heart of the Storm - Will Eisner
44. Life in the Boreal Forest - Brenda Guiberson
45. Pedro and Me - Judd Winick
46. How Robots Work - Tony Hyland
47. The Ancient Persians - Virginia Schomp
48. Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick
49. Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
50. Hatter M. Vol. 1 - Frank Beddor
51. Hatter M. Vol. 2 - Frank Beddor
52. Muckrackers - Ann Bausum
53. Isadora Duncan: a graphic novel biography - Sabrina Jones
54. The Raucous Royals - Carlyn Beccia
55. One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry
56. Doomed Queens - Kris Waldherr
57. Britten and Brulightly - Hannah Berry
58. Getting Graphic - Michele Gorman
59. Escape: The story of the Great Houdini - Sid Fleischman
60. Peter and Max - Bill Willingham
61. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
62. Who was First? - Russell Freedman
63. The Runaways : dead end kids - Joss Whedon
64. The Story Behind Toilets - Elizabeth Raum
    
65. Aya - Marguerite Abouet
66. My First Book of Tagalog Words - Liana Romulo
67. Food For Thought - Ken Robbins

67 books!!! That's pretty good for the year. So much reading. It was nice going through my old blog posts to see what I read. I totally forgot about the history of toilets book! Lots of graphic novels, a good mix of nonfiction and pretty much a crazy variety. I also included the audio books on this list because why separate them out? Happy reading in 2011!!!

Sunday Reading Wrap-Up

Time is flying. I don't even remember the last time I posted about any of the books I've read so here is a little round up.

Audiobooks on my very short commute.

• Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire read by Simon Vance. I am really enjoying listening to Simon Vance narrating this story. He's an excellent reader. At one point, when Lisbeth Salander ends up at the farm house I was in so much suspense and nervous as to what was going to happen, I was visibly freaking out in my car. I can only image what people who were at stoplights watching me were thinking. So good!!!
• Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States - I just get so angry but you know, our country just repeats the same b.s. over and over again. Ok, I am really being incredible superficial and not explaining my self or the book but honestly, it just made pissed off at the government and also the people of this country. Worth listening to and/or reading. The first part is read by Matt Damon and then the 2nd half is Howard Zinn.
• Currently listening to: Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. I had to take a break from nonfiction and also finish the trilogy. Today, my coworker decided it was out a great idea to talk to me while I was sitting in my car eating lunch and listening to it. UGH!
• Next on the list : Daniel Okrent Last Call: The rise and fall of prohibition - I picked it up at the end of the year when I was shopping for the teacher/staff lending library. I think, I might have the same reaction that I had with Howard Zinn's. My friend was telling me that the parallels between what happened during that time is happening now. Great. I mean, I know, it's good that I'm angry but this cannot be good for my stress levels.

On the Nook:

I've been testing out the Nook for the library which I've decided is kind of pointless. I mean, it's not like I have another Nook to share books with. You need at least 4 to see if it would even matter which is a lot of money to spend to test something. I do like it better than the Kindle so far. I like the Lending option. I like that it's a format that isn't proprietary. And it seems to be thinking about libraries. But you know, after that ebook virtual conference a couple of weeks ago, we really do need someone who works and understands libraries to be building these tools for us.

• Jonathan Franzen - Freedom - depressing but I thought it was a pretty amazing read. Don't sure if I can label him the Literary Genius of our time but I did enjoy it and didn't want to put it down.
• John Valliant - The Tiger: a true story of vengeance and survival - You know, I have no concept of what a tiger's personality would be like but they are incredibly magnificent mysterious creatures. This book is certainly putting them in a new light as well as educating me about Russian and Chinese relations in regards to poaching and territories as well as Russian and indigenous . I am just about finished with it - 40 more pages.
• Next Up: I think I'll order Nurture Shock by Po Bronson.

Print:

• The Warriors by Erin Hunter. I don't know. I don't really understand why it's popular. I'm having trouble just getting into the story. And I read pretty much every thing.

Also, I'm trying some manga reads since there is a new club that I'm a sponsor of. I guess I should read Bleach or something...

Tag! I'm It! : 6 Things That Make Me Happy

My friend, Elizabeth A., who blogs at Archipelago, tagged me with this meme. I like this one because 1) it's only 6 things not 250 which seems to be the case for most of these memes and 2) it's about what makes me happy! And who doesn't want to make a happy list?

Here are the rules because I'm tagging you people!

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post six things that make you happy along with these rules.
• Then tag six others (letting them know, of course..I only tagged 5).
• Let the person who tagged you know when your entry is complete.

What makes me happy at 6:42 in the morning.

• that first cup of coffee after not waking up to the alarm clock.
• using our fun monitoring system to play with the children...Ambookgeek and I have moments of pure happiness this way and it also gets the kids to a little more relaxed around us so that they will come up to us for help later - whether it's for a book recommendation or help researching)
  
• laughing, having fun, and spending time with my loved ones (cheesy but true..my peeps are hilarious and it doesn't even matter what we are doing)
• sitting on a surfboard, waiting for a wave as the sun is setting (it is the most beautiful thing to ever experience and I think, even if you don't surf you should just paddle out there and sit on your board...nothing like it on the planet)
• curling up in bed with a good book and a cup of tea

Ok, I'm tagging some people but if you want to join in please do!

1. tiffanybbrown
2. jasontoney
3. mellemusic
4. miss mahoney
5. miss fel
6. joffi
   
7. 
   

• 
  

Book Challenge: Read a Banned Book

It is Banned Books week - Sept 29 to Oct. 6.
Learn about why it came to be here.
I also thought that with the whole Palin banning book controversy, the issue is back in the limelight.

Here is the challenge. Pick a banned book. Read it and then post a comment here if you want about the book you read and why you think it was added to the list. I am curious to see what people about some of the books. You can agree, disagree - just don't be rude or obnoxious.

Here is a link to ALA's Banned Books page. They have a number of different lists to check out.

Last year, Chris Crutcher, author of Whale Talk and Deadline, visited our school during Banned Books week. He is one of the most challenged authors because his books actually deal with issues and are not all light and vapid.

Here is a list of the top 10 challenged authors:
1) Robert Cormier
2) Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
3) Mark Twain
4) Toni Morrison
5) Philip Pullman
6) Kevin Henkes
7) Lois Lowry
8) Chris Crutcher
9) Lauren Myracle
10) Joann Sfar

That should help you get started.

I think I am going to read Walter Dean Myers' newest book, Sunrise over Fallujah. I think that might make the list this year.