Thursday, March 21, 2013

2014 Award Nominations Challenge

This is a year of challenges for me,  all of them good and positive in their own way, for example I have challenged myself to run a 5K,  grow a vegetable garden, and read more.  Okay, that last one is not really a challenge since I already love to read. So I decided to truly make it a challenge and read all the 2014 award nominated in our state.  In Illinois, we have four main award groups ranging from Kindergarten to high school grades including picture books, non-fiction, and YA novels. The Monarch books are for K-3 children books, the Bluestem  comprises books for 3 through 5th grade, Rebecca Caudill books for Young readers (4-8th grade), and the Abraham Lincoln for high school students.  Last year, I managed to read most of the Abe Lincoln , a good portion of the Monarch books, and a few Bluestem. Sadly, my Rebecca Caudill books list went untouched.

The combined lists total 82 books! The good news is that I have already read some of them- Yippee. I will update these lists as I read the books and post short reviews and links to the our library catalog so you can check them out.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Baseball is around the corner

Baseball season is around the corner for many of us. Teams have been selected, practices scheduled, and new uniforms ordered.  Some of us can't wait to be out there hitting, fielding, having fun with our teammates or just cheering them on.  As I was checking our new arrivals this week  I came across this pretty cool story and immediately thought of my family. I wonder if this is one of their dreams....to have enough players to create their own team.

 Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team

Brothers at Bat  the true story of an amazing all-brother baseball team, written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Steven Salerno, Clarion Books, 2012. The Acerras had sixteen kids, I know hard to believe now days but in the 1930 families had lots of kids.  With these many kids ( 12 boys) the Acerras had enough to field a baseball team and had 3 on the bench!  The Acerra's story is quite unique not only did they shared a love for baseball, they cared for each other and always put family first.  I appreciated the little details about their family life, their trials and tribulations during World War II, and their life after baseball.  In 1952, they made history when they played their last game together as a team. The illustrations created using crayons, gouache, watercolors and pastel provide a nostalgic sense to the book. The author's note includes factual information on the popularity of all-brother teams as well as details on the book writing process.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013


Do you find yourself overwhelmed with the number of growing apps and tools that are supposed to help us organize our lives. I know I do, I try to figure what would work best to keep my story time themes, book reviews, blogs I follow, articles I want to read, documents I created and even the the occasional grocery list. It just seems that instead of helping us these tools are becoming another organizational challenge themselves.  But thanks to some great librarians and bloggers I found some creative ways to keep things organized. Here are three of my favorite programs.

My number one bookmarking tool is  Symbaloo. This is a visual bookmarking tool that allows you to keep track of your websites and arrange them into "tabs"or webmix.  I love the visual aspect of this tool and how customizable it is. I can change the color of the tiles, move them around between tabs, display names, etc. Because it is in the cloud I have access to all my bookmarks anywhere I go. 





Another tool I am currently using is Evernote. I am falling in love with this tool and the more I explore it the more uses I can think of it.  I love that I can save entire articles or blog postings, I can tag and search everything I have saved and  have access to it from my laptop at home, work, or even my phone. I actually love the phone app because I can check my Google Reader and save articles to my Evernote with just a few touches. The phone app allows me to record notes- how cool is that, or take pictures and save them to my notebook. Check out this great article by Melissa Depper on ALSC Using Evernote for a Storytime Archive.



A great blogger is Julie Greller from "A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet" check out her amazing list of  136 Interactive Educational Games by Subject Area  there is a whole section on library skills!

Google Reader is my favorite way to keep up with bloggers and all my subscriptions. By having all my subscriptions together I can spend an evening checking out the latest posts, saving findings to my Evernote notebooks, and staying connected.



These are just a few of the tools on a growing lists of  organizational tools you enjoy using. Do you have a favorite you would like to share?





Monday, March 11, 2013

New Arrivals

Our regular story time sessions ended a week ago and I am now finally catching up with some of my reviews. Over the last 6 weeks I have been reading quite a few picture books and YA novels.  This weekend I took the opportunity to check out some of our new picture books.

About a Bear
About a Bear by Holly Surplice, M E Media, 2011.  The first thing that captured my attention was all the colorful leaves surrounding the bear.The tones of pink, purple, and oranges are beautifully carried out throughout the entire book. The illustrations are a mix of drawings and collages that support the almost musical text.  I found myself almost humming the story as I was reading it.  This is a simple book that could work well with a wide audience. Check it out at our library.

The Shape of My Heart 
The Shape of My Heart by Mark Sperring and illustrated by Alys Paterson,  Bloomsbury, 2012. Throughout the book readers will be delighted to find all the shapes that surround us from clocks to watermelon slices you will find that each pages is full of different shapes.  The vibrant illustrations are full of shapes and details. Young readers will create a fun game finding all the hidden shapes. The bold fonts help the text pop up from the multicolor shapes and backgrounds. The final shape is of course our hearts full of different shapes and objects from everyday life.  This was a fun book to read with my young son. Check it out at our library.

This Moose Belongs to Me 
This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers, Philomel Books, 2012. I love Jeffers' books, his characters are so unique and confident, like Wilfred who finds a moose and decides to keep it as a pet. Of course,  Wilfred made sure to review all the rules of being a good pet  with Marcel like rule 11: providing shelter from the rain or rule 16: knocking down things that are out of Wilfred's reach. All is well... most of the time Marcel remembers the rules until someone else claims Marcel is their moose! Will Wilfred give up?  Would Marcel still be his rule obedient moose?.  I loved the story and the bold fonts, super imposed images against grainy backgrounds, oil paints, and water colors truly create an intimate experience when reading this book. Check it out at our library

You Get What You Get
You Get What You Get by Julie Gassman illustrated by Sarah Horne, Little Boost, 2012.  Melvin has a hard time dealing with disappointment, if he doesn't get his way he is known to throw a fit. And that is why he hates this new school rule "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit". How unfair is that? He is determined to make sure that his family doesn't know about his new rule but what happens when they find out...would he still be able to throw a fit. The title of this book was the first thing that I noticed, I still tell my kids this saying every so often, so I knew it was going to be a fun read for all of us.  Melvin's expressions are adorable and totally support the text and message.  The black font is perfect against the white background allowing for oversize Melvin drawings to take over the entire page.  This is a cute story that could be paired with similar titles to convey a good message to young readers. Check it out at our library.