Friday, November 16, 2018

Thankful for New Books!


Yikes!  We're almost to Thanksgiving without a single blog update.  Yes, things have been happening in the Big Kids' Library, but I'm not as good about keeping up here. 

One of the biggest events of the Library year happens in the fall -- the Library Book Sale held on Grandparents and Special Friends Day, and then again at the Fall BBQ the following day.  This is an exciting event for many reasons.  We (the librarians) get to select a huge number of the most awesome new books, we get to display them to the whole school plus a number of wonderful visitors and we get to talk about our collections and why we chose the displayed books.  And then, members of the community get to show their support for our library programs by donating to the library the price of books they select.   We created personalized bookplates for all donated books, and "honorees" get first dibs for two weeks.

Elementary librarian Natalie Bernstein and I spend a large amount of time selecting books that not only support teacher curricula and student learning needs, but that will speak to the diversity of our world and of the human experience, making sure our community has access to reading that will help their hearts as well as their minds to grow. 

From a new non-fiction work on the Vietnam War, or the latest YA fantasy novel, to a gender studies handbook or the new Black Panther comic, we're proud of our collections and love this annual opportunity to show them off.

Below is just a sampling of the new books joining the Junior High and High School library collection this fall.  I hope you're as pleased as I am.

Anna



(links go to book descriptions in Goodreads)
All the JH & HS Book Sale books
on display in the library.

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Race and Gender Studies
Anderson, Carol and Tonya Bolden.  We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide  (Young Readers adaptation of White Rage)
Mathison, Ymitri, ed. Growing Up Asian American in Young Adult Fiction. (scholarly criticism)


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Fiction (grownup and YA)
Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X.  (YA) (2018 National Book Award, young reader)
Jackson, Joshilyn. The Almost Sisters.
Chakraborty, S. A. The City of Brass.
Dray, Stephanie & Laura Kamoie. My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.
Hughes, Dean. Four-Four-Two. (YA)
Ness, Patrick.  And the Ocean Was Our Sky.  (Moby Dick according to the whales; illustrated)
Owens, Delia. Where the Crawdads Sing.
Quigley, Dawn.  Apple in the Middle (YA)

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Non-Fiction
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Even Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.  Katharine Wilkinson (Paideia '01), Senior Writer.
Redding, Anna Crowley.  Google It: A History of Google.
Partridge, Elizabeth.  Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam. (YA)
Stewart, Jefrey C.  The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke (2018 National Book Award)

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Graphic Novels
Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Speak: The Graphic Novel. (new edition of the 1999 classic YA novel of the aftermath of a high school sexual assault)

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En Español
Green, John.  Mil Veces Hasta Siempre (YA, translation of Turtles All the Way Down)
Shetterly, Margot Lee. Talentos Ocultos (translation of Hidden Figures)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. El Libro de la Alegría (translation of The Book of Joy)


Friday, April 13, 2018

Picture Books They Wish They'd Had

On display in the library in March, national Women's History Month.  Some clearly labors of love, all heartfelt, about being different or not fitting in, about being pre-judged and your abilities not being taken seriously, about finding out who you are and where you belong.

Isn't that how many creative works are born?  To fill an unmet wish or need of its creator?








I think I would have liked a picture book version of Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, or one called The Girl Who Hated Group Work. I never really identified with Ferdinand the Bull!

What picture book do you wish had been there for you when you were little?

Friday, March 23, 2018

Alumni & Parents -- Do You Read Ebooks??

Dear Paideia Alumni & Parents,

I'd love your input as I decide on how to go forward with Paideia's ebook offerings.  In the comments section below, or by directly emailing me at library@paideiaschool.org, would you help me out by answering these questions?

  1.  do you read digital ebooks (or listen to downloadable audiobooks?)?
  2.  if yes, do you usually borrow or buy?
  3. have you ever borrowed ebooks or audiobooks from Paideia's Axis360 collection?
  4.  do you ever borrow ebooks & audiobooks from your public or university library collection?
  5.  do you know what platform your public library uses? (often it's Overdrive/Libby, but there are others. Currently Paideia uses one called Axis 360.)


Here's why I'm asking

Whether and how the Paideia Library offers digital reading are questions we've wrestled with for years, first with the idea of e-reader devices to check out (in February 2011 -- we never really went there), then with the idea of building a downloadable digital collection, (October 2011 and May 2012) and what the collecting policy should be. Five years ago, we made the leap and launched Paideia's digital collection via Axis360, a platform now part of the Follett Library company.

Right now, Paideia's Axis360 digital collection has just over 500 titles, mostly fiction, almost entirely text ebooks and at the grade 7-12 level.  The guiding policy is to purchase ebooks meant for pleasure reading (as opposed to ones that would be used for research projects, such as Salem Witch Trials, or racial profiling).  There are other variables, imposed by publishing companies, that also influence what goes into our Axis360 collection.  Ebooks (even your Kindle and Audible purchases) aren't actually sold, they're licensed, meaning you are buying permission to use it, without all the rights of ownership (like reselling, or giving it away).   Some publishers only allow 26 checkouts per license, after which a library has to pay for the book all over again. Even worse, other publishers only license a book for 12 or 24 months, whether or not the book is ever checked out in that time!  And then some books are just not even available for the school library collection, period.

Zoom!  Five years later, it's time to re-assess.  Axis360 use is growing, but there are so many new books out that we don't have in that collection.  We haven't added much elementary-level material to the collection at all. Even though there is plenty of information showing that the first wave of enthusiasm for digital reading has lessened, and that readership of print books is rising, we can't just drop the ebooks altogether.  It's 2018, and digital is here to stay.

The thing I love most about offering digital book and audiobook lending from the Paideia Library is that it's 24/7/365!  We do our best to keep families supplied with a generous summer checkout program, but there are still going to be times when there's nothing to read and school is is closed.  Sigh.

Ownership is out, subscriptions are in (think Amazon KindleUnlimited, Spotify, Netflix).  OverDrive, still the largest, most well-known ebook borrowing platform, offers a subscription collection with over 10,000 titles available to our regional independent school membership group.   It's 4 times the annual cost, but 20 times the content, including elementary-appropriate books and audiobooks, and a bunch more stuff (that we may or may not want. We'll see.).

Would more people use Paideia's ebook collection through OverDrive?

If we had more titles available AND used the same app as the local public library systems, would it be more convenient and attractive for Paideia readers?  (ps -- take advantage of your tax dollars; use your public library often!!).  Would a more seamless process for students, staff and families who borrow from their libraries make it easier for the same folks to use Paideia's ebooks?

I think we're going to do it, at least as a test, but before I sign on the line, I'd really like to hear from adult members of the Paideia community about your ebook and audiobook use.  Parents in particular, because you can borrow from our libraries just like your kids can (take advantage of your tuition dollars; borrow from the Paideia Library!!).

Email me at library@paideiaschool.org, or leave a comment below to help me offer the best digital reading options for our community.  Thanks!!

Friday, March 9, 2018

January Book Club Update:
Scythe and When She Woke

The semester is well underway, and so are Book Clubs.  Both clubs (junior high and high school) have met twice in 2018, with really great meetings.  I LOVE this part of my job.  OK, so it's a fantastic job and I love most of it, but book clubs are super rewarding, and fun too.

High school book club is teeny tiny this year (3 stalwart members, with a couple more who sometimes come), but we're picking up steam.  We generally meet on Friday afternoons, when fewer clubs and activities are competing for time, and in January we met the first Friday after coming back from the holiday break.  Our book for January was When She Woke, a future-dystopian riff on The Scarlet Letter.  It's the second novel by author Hillary Jordan, whose first novel, Mudbound, is the basis for this year's Oscar-nominated film.

I contacted Hillary in December (we were in the same year at college) and she generously agreed to Skype with us at the January meeting.  Book club members, plus Caroline and Kristi from Admissions, and English teacher Marianne Hines, had a great 30+ minute conversation with Hillary on a snowy (in New York) Friday afternoon.  My favorite answer was to a comment that the last part of the novel seemed to wrap up quickly without a lot of development.  Hillary said that by that point, she'd said what she wanted to say, her characters had learned what they were going to learn, and she was basically ready for it to be done!  I love that, because not only does it remind me that accomplished authors are real human beings, but that they are creators with the power to choose and build their stories however they want.  And that's how it's supposed to be.

When asked if a movie version was in the works, she said of course, that's always a hope, and that it's been under option a couple of times.  Her vision of a TV series caught my imagination.  The story of Hannah, Aidan Dale and the "red" crimes is complete and ready to go, but a future world where the convicted criminal is punished, not by incarceration but by a genetically-induced identifying skin color (red for murder, yellow for misdemeanors, blue for violent crime) and released into society, promises any number of riveting multi-part stories.  HBO, Netflix, Amazon Video,  are you listening????

Junior High Book Club's January discussion of Neal Shusterman's new series starter, Scythewas fabulous!  Sometimes, there's just not that much substance to talk about, even if everyone actually enjoyed the book, but Scythe was not one of those.  In fact, the whole group loved it AND we talked about it for the entire 60+ minutes of the meeting!

Scythe explores many of the same basic if/then ideas as Shusterman's earlier Unwind dystology -- if society evolves and advances in a certain direction, then what happens??  In Unwind, the resolution of a war between anti-abortion and pro-choice factions is the absolute banning of all abortions, BUT, if a child isn't working out for the parents by age 12, they can release her/him to a government Harvest Camp for "unwinding" (being separated into constituent donor parts for transplant procedures).  So sanitary, so thoughtful, so gruesome in its reality.  Death and government and ethics, all in one fast-moving page turner!  Unwind has been a lit book and a Reading Bowl book in the junior high for several years.

Scythe begins with a different if/then proposal. IF advances in technology have made death irrelevant (complete revival is possible even for the "deadish," and turning the clock back on physical age is always an option), THEN how does society make room for the newly born?  In a nod to The Giver,  a revered and feared select group, a kind of priesthood of ordained Grim Reapers, carries this responsibility for society.  In an ideal world, the best person for this job is the person who least wants to do it, but a small and growing faction of new-order Scythes believes there's no harm in enjoying "gleaning," and in meeting their quotas in increasingly flashy and bloody incidents. Two teen-aged Apprentice Scythes are caught on either side of this dangerous political and philosophical rift.

Sanctioned assassins, a perfect virtual government, immmortality, and the ethics of life and death.  Big ideas for 12 & 13 year olds.  One student said that when she told her dad about this book club choice, his response was "I think my daughter is reading the wrong book!"  I'm pretty sure it was the right book, though, because the conversation and the questions were thoughtful, deep and numerous.

  • Imagine the power and responsibility a Scythe would have.  
  • How does this book resemble The Giver? (a few have to carry an unpleasant burden for the many)
  • If living forever means you get so bored, you make yourself "deadish" for fun, who would want to live forever? (the Tucks certainly weren't crazy about it in Tuck Everlasting)
  • Is it right or wrong to enjoy your work, if your ordained work is killing?
  • The Thunderhead is just "the cloud" super-advanced. Who's got stuff in the Cloud? (Google Drive, Amazon Music, Instagram, email?) Think about that!
In February, Junior High book club read Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski (after a routine flu shot, everyone in a 10th grade homeroom can hear other people's thoughts).  High School book club read a fascinating memoir, Thirty Days With My Father, by Christal Presley, a former Grady High School teacher, and Skyped with the author during the meeting. More on that later.

Coming up in March - 

What have you read lately?




Tuesday, January 16, 2018

January Update:
Baby It's Cold Outside! (but you knew that already)

Believe it or not, I've been occupied this short term co-teaching the Hip Hop Evolution class with a fine young rapper (and senior), Young Judo (aka Isaiah M). Yes, an old librarian CAN learn a new trick, and it's been pretty cool. I mostly get to expound on the political and social environments of each decade since the birth of Hip Hop in the 1970s, and also be the grownup in the room.  Since I was more on the new wave/punk/electro side of things in the 1980s, it's been fascinating to learn the parallels (and crossovers) of this musical expression that developed at the same time in African American & Hispanic communities. I heard Kraftwerk not long after Afrika Bambaataa did, but unlike me, he was smart and creative and imaginative, and sampled it into Planet Rock.  The Netflix documentary Hip Hop Evolution (clip with Grandmaster Flash here) is essential viewing, and I've also really enjoyed The Get Down (also on Netflix, a short YouTube feature with Flash is here).

I've certainly learned a TON in the past couple of weeks, with another ton (and two weeks) to go. I never did get a rapper name, though. Maybe Grandmaster Books? Suggestions welcome.

 So in the meantime, here are a couple of new developments to throw out there for you. The trailer for Love, Simon (the movie version of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda) was released today, and Holy Cow, it works! The characters are right enough, the look is right enough. So far, I'm happy. I think it's almost possible to hold one's breath until the March theatre release (but I probably won't).

 


Electric Dreams
Something else I just learned today, related to my robotics post from December, is that Amazon Prime Video has just released a 10-part series inspired by the world of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  Will it be any good?  Trailer below, but you'll have to have Prime to see for yourself.




2018 is chockablock with YA book-to-movie releases.  Stay tuned!
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