The OLD Top Shelf

Now that the Harry Potter saga is complete, Stephen King (writing for Entertainment Weekly) has the last word on the series.

Greetings from the Texas Association of School Library Administrators annual summer conference in Austin! My posts this week will give you a little insight into what we are spending the week talking about.

Book Clubs! – presented by Cris Espinoza, librarian at LBJ Middle School in Pharr-San Juan ISD. Cris has a phenomenal book club program that she described for us this morning. It is based on Oprah’s idea of discussing a book over a meal. All students are welcome to read the book of the month and participate in the Book Club meeting on campus. Students who want to go beyond that may write a review or summary of the book. These reviews are scored on a rubric based on TAKS writing criteria. The top six students are taken to lunch at a local restaurant for a more intimate discussion. In addition to the meal, what is different about Cris’ book club is that she invites district personnel, parents, teachers and community members to participate. The superintendent of the district has participated in every book club meeting since the club started. The program is funded by sponsorship from local businesses. The sponsors help to provide a copy of the book for each book club member, refreshments for the meetings and the lunches out. In 06-07, the book club had over 200 members and book club members had a 92% TAKS passing rate. These are students with a low SES and very little reading material at home, so it was quite an accomplishment! The LBJ Book Club was so successful that it has now expanded district-wide.

Chris Harris’ Infomancy blog details a successful reading project that took place in NY this year. The project, a brainchild of Chris and the Special Education Training and Resource Center coordinator, takes the social aspect of reading and book clubs and moves it into the realm of web 2.0. Chris writes:

The idea was simple, re-introduce reading to students as a social activity by providing them an online space where they could review books and share their thoughts with teachers and peers. To accomplish this, we built a book review site using the powerful open source content management system, Drupal. There was already a book review module available, and with a bit of tweaking we had something that would work. The focus would be on student summaries and reviews, with additional opportunities to tag and rate the books using a five-star system. The results were simply astounding.

Read more…
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Since summer is upon us, I thought it might be fun to get some recommendations of books to read this summer – when you need a break from the Bluebonnet, Lone Star or Tayshas lists. Here are my picks:

Best children’s – Each Little Bird That Sings ( I loved this story of an unconventional family. Have some Kleenex ready at the end!)

Best YA – Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (vampire love story! can’t wait to read the next two!)

Best memoir – The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (memoir of a successful writer who grew up homeless and in poverty, whose parents chose to continue to live that way)

Best adult fiction – OK, I didn’t really read it this year, but My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is the best adult fiction I have read in a LONG time. Nothing else compares!

Best adult non-fiction – The Innocent Man by John Grisham (this story of a man falsely accused and imprisoned will outrage you)

Best guilty pleasure – the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (hilarious exploits of a New Jersey apprehension agent or “bounty hunter.”)

Now, how about you? What are the best books you’ve read all year?

Popular author and illustrator Diane Stanley kicks off the Dallas
Museum of Art’s “arts & letters live, jr.” series on Sunday, January 28, at
3:00pm, in the Horchow Auditorium. Ms. Stanley will share insights
about her imaginative retellings of fairy tales — <The Giant and the
Beanstalk,> <Goldie and the Three Bears,> <Rumpelstiltskin’s
Daughter,>and her latest novel, <Bella at Midnight,> which is featured on the
Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for 2007-2008.

For a pre-event treat, join teen docents at 2:15 pm in creative
conversation about Thomas Sully’s painting <Cinderella at the Kitchen
Fire,> a work of art in the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection. Please
meet at the Visitor Services Desk.

Tickets are available by calling 214-922-1818.
Prices are $15 for public adults; $13 for adult members of the Dallas
Museum of Art, $9 for students.

Other authors appearing at “arts and letters live, jr” include Wendy
Mass (February 28), Markus Zusak (April 22), and two-time Newbery
Honor winner Laurence Yep (May 20).

The new “For Young Adults” series designed for ages 13 and older
features Barry Lyga (January 19/9:00pm/included in general admission
to Museum) and the FREE Young Writers Workshops with Will Clarke
(February 3/J. Erik Jonsson Central Library and February 10/Dallas Museum of
Art).

The Dallas Museum of Art is located at 1717 N. Harwood Street in
downtown Dallas.

For additional information, contact Arts & Letters Live by calling
214-922-1818 or artsandletterslive@DallasMuseumofArt.org.

One of the great joys of reading is that books can take us places that we could never go. The 2007- 2008 Texas Bluebonnet Master List creates such a journey, allowing readers to log millions of literary frequent flyer miles – miles that can be used for widening their imaginations, critical reading skills, and pleasure in the written word.

These young readers will visit a new world, the land of Foo (Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo), and revisit a familiar one…

Read more in the TLACast 25_4: DECEMBER 2006

Blogged with Flock

A list of favorite Christmas read-alouds was posted to LM_NET last week. The original request and the list of responses can be found at:
http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/LM_NET/2006/Nov_2006/msg01497.html

Marylaine Block’s Neat New Stuff for November 22, listed a great site, Kidsread.com. She says, “Your young readers should enjoy this site’s features on books and series,
author interviews, trivia, book reviews, polls, games, and e-mail
newsletter. ” As I explored the site, though, I found that it is part of a larger group of sites, The Book Report Network. This network is “a group of webistes founded in 1996 that share thoughtful book reviews, compelling features, in-depth author profiles and interviews, excerpts of the hottest new releases, literary games and contests, and more with readers every week.”

Each one of these sites is packed full of information about books and authors and all are worth a look:

http://www.tbrnetwork.com/

http://www.bookreporter.com/

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

http://www.faithfulreader.com/

http://www.teenreads.com/

http://www.kidsreads.com/

http://www.authorsontheweb.com/

This year parents, grandparents and others can give the
gift of reading and learning. ALSC has created a list of
new books recommended for holiday gift-giving, as well
as reading about the holidays themselves.

The gift-giving guide features titles suitable for readers
from preschool age through 8th grade and includes picture
books, novels, fiction and nonfiction.

Get more information at
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/october2006/Booksfortheholidays.htm