New Display: Blind Date with a Book!

I've just finished my new display. It was inspired by discussions on the YALSA Ya List and was a lot of fun to prepare! Entitled 'Blind Date with a Book', it allows students to pick a book with minimal input from me, just short clues, written much like personal ads. I also gave the option to solve all the clues to get a chance to win a $10 Chapters card (mental note, must buy $10 chapters card.....)

The display board had the instructions on how to do this (read the clues, pick out a book, check it out (I put a temp barcode on each one), give back the clue, unwrap the book and enjoy!). I also put a list of all of the clues there in a folder.

The main issue that I had was that at this point, some classes are doing their independent novel and so my choice of novels was limited. Many "good" or easily recognizable ones are checked out or I know will be necessary for the classes coming down later. However, I managed to get 16 books ready for this.
The clues were as follows (you can highlight the space after the words "Book Title' to see which book it's talking about):

Clue #1: Where did you come from? Are the boy I created? Are you here to kill me or save me?

Book Title: Eve and Adam

Clue #2: Needed: Someone to help me run my family. Must be able to be discrete selling illegal goods and able to deal with chocolate shortages

Book Title: All these things I've done

Clue #3: Needed: someone to help me solve my own story. Must be able to dance all night.  

Book Title: Entwined

Clue #4: Seeking: The Almighty Smize.  Can you help me conquer Catwalk Corner?

Book Title: Modelland

Clue #5: Looking for a guy who understands ambition, family and complicated hair. Must enjoy the sound of a typewriter late into the night and agree with the civil rights movement.

Book Title: The Help

Clue #6: Wanted: A family guy. Must appreciate how important sisters can be. Should be able to help provide for my sister and mom, especially when I am unexpectedly away. Abilities to hunt, bake and ice cakes will be taken into consideration.

Book Title: The Hunger Games

Clue #7: Needed: Someone to help me live my last day. Must be comfortable with repeating themselves.  

Book Title: Before I Die

Clue #8:  I’m Crazy For You. Love is a disease – let’s catch it!

Book Title: Delirium

Clue #9: Wanted: an organized, understanding guy. Must like golden face tattoos, girls with complicated jobs and be able to keep secrets. No vampires need apply.

Book Title: Bloodlines

Clue #10: Wanted: Someone to make me their choice. Must be brave, smart, selfless, kind and honest.

Book Title: Divergent

Clue #11:  Looking for someone who loves me for me. I’m a modern, updated girl who is looking for someone who doesn’t judge. No married people need apply!

Book Title: Jane

Clue #12: Looking for someone who won’t take my breath away. Must love the novel ‘An Imperial Affliction’. Not required to have all of your limbs.

Book Title: The Fault in our Stars

Clue #13: Wanted: A person to travel with me. Must love adventure, uncertainty and the colour blue.

Book Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Clue #14:

Seeking Friends for an Adventure:  Helpful if you have one absentee parent who just happens to not be human.

Book Title: The Lightening Thief

Book Title: The Help

Clue #15: Wanted: a smart girl who won’t dump me. Being named Katherine is both an asset and a deficit.

Book Title: An Abundance of Katherines

Clue #16: Are you in my future? If not, what can we do to get you on my profile?  

Book Title: The Future of Us

Exciting Times at the Library

Of course, aren't they all exciting times?

It was fantastic to get caught up in the excitement of the awards earlier this week. I didn't agree with all of the choices (Seraphina and I will have to agree to disagree) but I did agree with the love and excitement shown as they were awarded. Full list of winners can be found here. I've since ordered a few of the ones I'd not read - very excited.


I begin book talks today with students. This is such a vital and important part of my job and I love it so much. I'm busy cataloging books that I bought at Chapters recently and planning out what to say with each of them ("it's about the Titanic. And werewolves. Yes. Werewolves on the Titanic..."). I love it when kids talk back - respond - with their opinions on books as well. If you look at my Goodreads profile, you'll see that the ones on the 'Non-Word Reads' shelf are languishing as I try to get through ones for the booktalks. Ah well. I'm currently reading 'Dash and Lily's Book of Dares' and have fallen in love with it. Why are all of these teens so much cooler than I'll ever be? Ah well....


I recently got an ipad for the library - and have since ordered an ipad mini. On each I put quotes from books. This one has 'I am Selfish. I am brave'. The mini will have (I hope!) 'Maybe okay will be our always'. I'm hoping that putting these quotes will mean that it makes it that much more obvious that the connection between technology and books is there! I spent yesterday downloading apps - now I need to explore more and see what I need to do to make it the ultimate library tool. I did just download the YALSA book finder, so that might help! I spent about 20 minutes the other day making a video about the library - no plot, no focus - just to see how to do it in iMovie. It's an app I'll be recommending to teachers to use for book trailers or even general presentations. 20 minutes, no fuss, no muss - just a not great but looked fantastic horror movie trailer about the library.

It always amazes me how many things can happen in a library. The set for our school musical is over in the corner, a college is presenting here third period, a social justice class is scheduled for fourth period and I'm book talking during fifth period. My homeroom has been here, the PASS teacher has students scheduled all through the day. Our PD day will be here, the set will be gone! and prom decorations will be created. It's a cozy place.

Now... if the books would catalogue themselves.....

Reviews: Moonbird and Seraphina

Review: Moonbird: A year on the wind with the great survivor B95
Published by: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-374-30468-3
Reading Level: Grades 5 and up

AND


Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Published by: Doubleday Canada, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-385-66839-2
Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

I've chosen to review Moonbird and Seraphina in the same entry NOT because they have overwhelming similarities but because what I have to say applies to both. One is a fiction novel about a half dragon caught up in a mystery, the other is a non fiction tale of a bird migration and of B95, a bird who has made the journey over 18 times - flying the distance one would travel from Earth to the Moon and halfway back again. So, no true similarities but one: I disliked both but knew I was reading good stuff.

I don't like dragons - or even half dragons and thus a plot surrounding them is not to my taste. 'Seraphina' reads well and the storyline is interesting - murder, intrigue, fighting between groups. However, make those groups dragons and humans and throw in descriptions on how to clean your scales and I'm out. I enjoyed it more in this second reading (I reviewed it previously for 'Resourcelinks and had a ARC). I can see literary merit in this book - well written, strong plot, well developed characters. I just did not like it. 

The same is true of 'Moonbird'. In this saga about the migration of the rufa red knot, we learn about the travel and diet patterns of this bird species. These birds travel from Terra del Fuego in South America to the breeding grounds of the Canadian Arctic. The migration habits of this group have been tracked as well as their population. Scientists have tagged and identified many of the rufa, tracking them year after year. B95 was tagged 18 years ago and is still flying. Given the fact that the population of the rufa has dropped 80% in the past 20 years, his survival is fairly epic. This is a full colour book, pullouts of bios, features and facts an dis nicely written. However, I couldn't find it in me to care for these birds. That sounds callous but honest - I thought the story was fascinating, I was just not inspired to help. I did like that they mentioned Parks Canada in the list of groups and resources of people for those who are inspired to help - Parks Canada does great work and should be mentioned.

Both books received a 4/5.

Good reads page Seraphina
Good Reads page Moonbird.

Review: Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

Review: Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Published by: Scholastic Press, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-11674-9
Reading Level: Grades 5 and up

 I am a Newfoundlander. My grandfather on my mothers side was a sea captain and lived through at least one shipwreck. To leave my island you must take a boat or a plane - or swim, I guess! The Titanic has always been part of our consciousness - when I was a child we sang a campfire song about how "They built the ship Titanic just to sail the ocean blue" (full lyrics here). Even when I didn't know what it was, I knew of it. I knew of the perils of the sea and the majestic danger of ice burgs. I have gotten sunburned walking around the graveyard in Halifax looking for Titanic graves, I have spent time in exhibits in local museums looking at artifacts from the Titanic and replicas of items that might have been used. I even followed the live twitter feed last year as they tweeted as if it was real time and the ship was sinking. I have an interest in the subject matter - not necessarly a great knowledge but an interest, much of which was naturally obtained by my location and personal history.

This particular look at the Titanic is nicely done. Hopkinson takes the reader from the first short voyage with passengers, from London to Queenstown and then for it's final fatal voyage from Queenstown and onwards. Throughout the entire book there are pictures of life aboard the Titanic - some taken by passengers who were part of the first short voyage, others taken on ships with similar offerings as the Titanic. There are also copies of items such as work orders, menus, distress telegrams and other such print items to further illustrate the historical importance of the events contained within. 

At times this book gets a little unclear as it jumps around from survivor to survivor. However, the clarity in which it describes the fatal voyage, while staying true to the young reading level makes up for any occasional lack of focus. The pictures will please readers who.want to see the historical items but are also a great addition when trying to "sell" this book to a reluctant reader.

I give this book a 4/5.

Goodreads Page

Review: Wondershow by Hannah Barnaby

Review: Wondershow by Hannah Barnaby
Published by: Houghten Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-59980-9
Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

Sometimes it's the little things about a book. Things which have nothing to do with the story. With this book, it was the dedication. It states:

For the lost and the lonely
For the different and the same

The longing and the beauty conveyed in these two lines made me realize I was in for a treat of a book. I was not disappointed.
To explain the plot of this story gets complicated and detailed. On the one hand, it's a story of a girl in search of her family who joins a circus, telling stories as a "normal" and finds her true family. On the other hand, this is the story of Portia, set in the United States during the 1930s. Portia is our main character - a young girl in search of her family. Portia has always had a way with stories. Her father was her constant audience; her mother was "lean and restless" and departed, leaving a space which was quickly closed and was never spoken of again. Her father and his moods controlled the stories Portia told and through that, as a young child she learned the art of storytelling, the difference between a lie and a tale and how a family can fly away. A visit to the circus was quickly followed by the disappearance of her father, leaving the two mixed in Portias mind: her father must have left to follow the circus. Portia is left with her Aunt, a no nonsense woman who taught Portia to cook and sew and who eventually decided that she was unable to care for Portia as she should be cared for. Portia is left in McGreavey's Home for Wayward Girls with the Mister, a man who uses the home as a front to get cheap labour - the girls are put to work sewing mail order uniforms or picking apples. Portia quickly becomes friends with Caroline, a girl who has caught the eye of Mister. She becomes one of the house girls, who, with Caroline and Delilah the cook, take care of the main home where Mister lives. It is there she finds the files and knows that Mister knows where her father is - she just has to earn his trust enough to be able to access it. When tragedy strikes, Portia leaves and finds the circus, hoping she can find her father, or, failing that, employment. Through the strength of her storytelling skills she finds a place as a "normal' in the Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show and it is there she discovers what family truly means.
So... big set up for a fairly pat plot - discovering family, discovering self, discovering what a freak means vs what a normal means, finding out who the true monsters are in the world. However, all of this is boiled into beautiful prose where the reader is able to watch Portia develop from a headstrong young girl into a woman who is secure in her family and her future. As well, it gives a glimpse into the world of the traveling 'freak' show - shows popular in the 1930s. Through this novel the reader gets a glimpse into part of the world of the 30s. Barnaby creates a set of characters that the reader wants to learn more about and of whom the reader will form definite opinions. Beautifully told, a little different and smart - a fantastic novel.
I give this book a 5/5
Goodreads page

Review: Steve Jobs: The Man who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

Review: Steve Jobs: The Man who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

Published by: R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-250-01445-0

Reading Level: Grades 9 and up

I am not really an Apple person. There, I said it. I am awaiting my iPad for the library but admit that part of the reason it was purchased was because that's what is being used by the board, not because that's what I really wanted. Yes it does really cool things but, I guess, I've never been able to buy into the whole 'Apple is God' way of thinking. However, many many many people are into the Apple is all thinking - and many of the things that I enjoy using were impacted by Apple, so even if I don't have Apple products, I still have Apple to thank for a number of the things that I use everyday.
Perhaps some of my lack of passion about Apple comes from my dislike of Steve Jobs. There - an even bigger admittance from me. I'm not a huge fan of Steve Jobs. In works that I've viewed and bios I've encountered, he just seems like not a great guy. Give me The Woz any time, with his sense of humour and appreciation for others. Or even Bill Gates with his dedication to charity and giving away his money. That is if I have to choose. Steve Jobs photographs like he cares but really, the more I learn the less I like him.
So, I approached this bio with a bias. Jobs and his drive to be the best and lack of appreciation for others has been well documented. From early life with his adopted family and his issues in school to his later life with his wife and children and his company, this bio tells the good and bad about Jobs and does so in a clear and concise way. The story of Steve Jobs is a complicated one - you want to admire the man for what he brought to modern technology and yet, so often, learning the truth of his life, his attitudes and his behaviours, it's hard to like him. His abandoning of his first child, his behaviours to his employees, his refusal to contribute to charity, his inability to realize that his choices impact others - all of these things make him appear to be a pretty crappy guy. The good things he has done - helping the world modernize, helping others become financially solvent through their work in the company, his reach for perfection in the products he delivered to his customers - sometimes pale in comparison. How would his first daughter have felt, knowing her dad named a computer after her even though he didn't want to be part of his life? How would business partners feel knowing that he shared what he wanted to share - even financially? After almost any bio I have read or watched about Steve Jobs I am struck with the idea that he wasn't such a great guy. I remarked to my mom after reading this that I knew it was a YA bio of him - I left feeling he was a jerk as opposed to any stronger word I might have used after a non-ya bio!
Despite the flaws of the subject, Blumenthal has created a great profile. Students who are wondering from what brain their apple products emerged will be able to read about one of the people who helped make them happen and do so in an accessible and well written format. She has plenty of pullaway information boxes but puts them at the end of chapters so that the reader is not drawn away from the narrative of her biography. She presents testimony and stories from a number of people who were in the life of Jobs to help develop her story, which aids in trying to understand what kind of man Steve Jobs was.
I gave this book a 4/5.
Goodreads Page.