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If you're looking for Canadian fiction, you'll want to check out this new website offered by the Canadian Children's Book Center and Amazon.ca. 49th Shelf. It is "...the largest public collection of Canadian books ever assembled."

And so we're back for another fun, reading filled year at Holy Cross Elementary. This summer flew by as I spent a few weeks in Europe with the Assumption High School trip to France, Belgium and Germany. Was amazing to see many of the historical sites and artifacts I'd studied in art history courses, as well as general military history sites such as Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach, the remains of the Berlin Wall, etc.

While on our travels I read an amazingly tragic young adult title which related to our trip. The Book Thief by Mark Zusak features a young German girl who learns to read after rescuing books from a pile of them smoldering from book burnings conducted by the Nazis. Highly recommended.

We're quite excited about our starter set of elementary school appropriate ebooks purchased for the library. They will be readily available for teachers and students to use next year. ebooks can be displayed on our Smartboards, downloaded to ebook readers, or viewed on any portable device that can access the Internet. Wowza!

We'll track how our new ebooks are being used and discover ways in which they can supplement our current literacy efforts.

Can't wait!

Our year-long collaborative story, Diary of a Rubbery Kid, is now complete! Go here: http://judithgraves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Rubbery-kidflipbook.swf to read the flipbook.

Comments on the ending are more than welcome. As are suggestions for next year's tale.

Scholastic will be back in our school in May for a 1/2 Price Book Fair...that's right, all titles will be 50% off.

Wednesday, May 25th - 8:30 to 4:00 pm

Thursday, May 26 - 8:30 to NOON only.

This is a great opportunity to stock up on summer reading materials.

Along with promo materials for this month's upcoming Scholastic Book Fair, they sent a few posters and links to videos regarding their Read Every Day program.

"Today we live in a world full of digital information. Yet reading has never been more important, for we know that for young people the ability to read is the door opener to the 21st century." For more info go to www.scholastic.com/readeveryday

Many thanks to all the parents, staff and students who dropped by the Scholastic Bookfair Safari during parent/teacher interviews on November 24th and 25th. We earned over $2000 worth of book product to be added to our library collection. During the fair, visitors enjoyed booktrailers playing on the Smartboard, a bevy of new titles and there were loads of great photo ops:

Congrats to Joshua in 4W who won the Scholastic draw of $25 worth of books for both himself and his classroom library!

The next installment of the Rubbery Kid tale is now available in audio format. Read and LISTEN!

All year long the students and staff of Holy Cross are helping me to write a story and monthly installments are displayed on the library bulletin board, as well as posted to the library wiki.

The plot is directed by popular vote. Each month the story ends on a cliffhanger and there are two possible directions for which the story could progress. Once votes are tallied, the tale continues according to which plot twist gets the most votes.

Read the story here and see how it's developing. I'm also recording students reading the various parts...and so we have our own audio book version. ;)

I just saw this article on the School Library Journal site....so sad. Eva Ibbotson has had titles on the Young Readers Choice Award list in previous years (The Star of Kazan), she's written many cute ghost stories and fun middle grade / young adult novels. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Ibbotson wrote more than 20 novels for children and adults that touched generations of kids—and their parents—for more than 35 years. She was especially famous for her fantastic creatures, outrageous characters, and brilliant storytelling—all of which came from her imagination and observations of human foibles. Her deceptively funny books pack an emotional punch, whether Ibbotson was writing for eight-year-olds or young teens."

Some of her titles in our library: The Star of Kazan, Dial-A-Ghost, Island of the Aunts, Journey to the River Sea, and The Secret of Platform 13.

Social studies teacher, Mr. Belsher, (Assumption Junior/Senior High) has had great success with his board game club, Axis and Allies. Students meet in his class during lunch, after school and even on binge gaming days he organizes on "no school" days. Axis and Allies is a historically accurate, military strategy game where players take on the roll of different countries during WWII (there are different editions...and I'm likely not giving it enough hype). Bringing gaming and history together, Mr. Belsher is supplementing the curriculum in a way that resonates with students.

And he's not the only one using gaming to connect with kids. Public and school libraries are also tapping into the gaming world. There are Rock Band nights at the teen book club, middle grade clubs play games based on appropriately leveled fiction, etc. But there's a place for board games as well. I'm going to investigate the idea further and see what I can incorporate into my own library program. I encountered this resource and thought I'd share it with you. LIBRARIES GOT GAME by Brian Mayer and Christopher Harris (a self-professed Library Journal mover and shaker). It's basically an introduction to the multitude of board games out there, how they relate to curriculum, and how you can best PLAY them in your library.

Here's the Amazon link with reviews like this one from School Library Journal: "The authors look at modern board and card games that go above and beyond the dice rolling of Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land. They explain how specific games enhance language-arts, social-studies, and math units, and build literacy skills. "

I discovered this video from the 21st Century Learning blog which features a lot of techy stuff and how changeable our education environment is - thanks to all our new gadets and ways to communicate: cell phones, Youtube, laptops, etc. This is a 2 minute clip that takes us from pen and paper to the great beyond. Check it out: http://teachertube.com/videoList.php?pg=featuredvideolist

There are plenty of heated discussions going on about the implementation of ebook collections in school and public libraries. I recently attended the School Library Journal's Virtual ebook Summit, ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point. Academics, publishers, librarians and library staff alike pontificated on the role of libraries in an ebook world. From "Libraries Without Walls" to publishers showing off their fancy new ereaders, the conference was worth attending. If simply for the exposure to new ideas and the reinforcement of the need to standardize ereaders to best suit readers.

You can still register to access the archives (until December): http://ebook-summit.com/

Celebrating Library Month @The Cold Lake Public Library.

What makes your library special to your community? How does it enrich the lives of you and your neighbors? Tell us about it in an essay of 700 words or less.

1. In 700 words or less, tell us how the library is important to your community. Entries will be judged equally on originality, clarity of ideas and grace of expression. Include your name, address, daytime phone number and email address. Entries may be submitted from October 1, 2010 and must be submitted no later than 12:00 Noon on October 31, 2010. Please send all entries to manager@library.coldlake.ab.ca By participating, each entrant accepts these rules.

2. Contest sponsor is not responsible for late or misdirected entries or technical malfunctions and may suspend, modify or terminate the contest in the latter event. In the event of early termination, judging and selection of winners will take place using eligible entries received prior to termination. No telephone calls will be accepted.

3. You may submit only one entry.

4. Entries will not be acknowledged or returned.

5. The essay must be the entrant’s own original work, the subject matter must be true and the essay may not have been published previously, entered in any other contest or won any other award.

6. Submission of an entry grants The Cold Lake Public Library the exclusive right to publish, edit and/or copy the entry for any and all purposes in any media (including but not limited to print and digital media) without further compensation to the entrant.

7. There will be 1 winner per age category. Judging will be completed on or about November 15th and winners will be notified by mail and/or email.

9. Judging for the contest will be done by the staff of The Cold Lake Public Library or appointed by the Staff.

One Winning Entry per Category:
5-6yrs, 7-8yrs, 9-10yrs, 11-13yrs , 14 -17yrs. And 18 and up

"Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, FL partnered with Full Sail to create an inspirational music video to get students excited about reading. This video was inspired by the Flash Mob Dance on the Oprah Winfrey Show performed by the Black Eyed Peas and several thousand of Oprah's fans.

Full list of credits is at the end of the video." Just press play to be inspired!

2010 Tagline: Opening Doors to the Future

October is both Canadian Library Month and School Library Month, with National School Library Day being celebrated on Monday, October 25, 2010. Find out more information at the Canadian Association for School Libraries and the Canadian Library Month sites.