The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson

And another wonderful book - the Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson, published by Macmillan, not in paperback until next year and not yet in the National Library collection, but I'd say this is one to buy in hardback for all primary school libraries... It would be a fun book to read-aloud for mid / upper primary.

Here is a link to a well-written review that the book deserves, by Amanda Craig in The Times
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article7105078.ece

and here is the opening chapter, from the Pan Macmillan website :
http://www.panmacmillan.com/extracts/displayPage.asp?PageID=8133

Eva Ibbotson is another clever, prolific, rewarding author like Geraldine McCaughrean, and I love too what she has said about libraries and how much they have meant to her - I did a post about it earlier this year... http://libraryzest.blogspot.com/search/label/Eva%20Ibbotson

The Death Defying Pepper Roux

I've just finished The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean (said Ma-cork-run, according to her website) and LOVED it !

It is published by Oxford University Press, the National Library has it to borrow, and the paperback is due in September.

For the best introduction to the book, listen here to the author talk about it...
http://fds.oup.com/www0.oup.com/pepperroux/media.html

and there is plenty more to explore on her website about it, her "book of the moment", including reviews, activities and downloadable poster http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/bkm.htm

Here is a wonderful review of it by Frank Cottrell Boyce in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/27/death-defying-pepper-roux-geraldine-mccaughrean
in which he finishes, "The publisher's blurb compares Pepper Roux to the movie Amélie, largely because they're both set in France. This is like comparing the siege of Stalingrad to the Eurovision song contest because they both involve Russians and Germans. Pepper Roux is much funnier, much more stylish and much more profound. If you want to compare it to something else you could try Borges or Garcia Márquez."

If you don' t know this clever, entertaining, prolific, varied author, check out some of her books - Stop the Train, Pack of Lies, and The Kite Rider are some of my favourites...

The Death Defying Pepper Roux would make a great read-aloud for intermediate / junior secondary level, as would many of Geraldine McCaughrean's other books, thanks to her talent for telling a lively story with imagination and depth.

For people looking for class novels a la Louis Sachar's Holes, this could fit the bill, though I have to say that I have real reservations about whole class sets of novels from my own experience as a school student - and a reader - when I found them excruciating.

See also Donalyn Miller's posts on the subject of whole-class novels in the archives of her Book Whisperer blog, along with suggestions for alternative strategies :

One size does not fit all (Parts 1 and 2 - January 2008)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2008/01/
"My seventeen year-old-daughter is what we call here in Texas, “a long, tall drink of water." I, on the other hand, have a full-figured glass that has overflowed. When shopping, we laugh when we see clothes sporting tags that claim “one size fits all” remarking, “Not us!”
Stretch this t-shirt over the ubiquitous practice in reading classrooms of teaching whole-class novels, and you can see that it doesn't fit most readers..."

Google search story creator

Have you seen Professor Michael Wesch's video The machine is us/ing us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
If not, check it out - a brilliant 4 1/2 minute segue from paper to web 2.0 with provocative questions at the end about needing to rethink our ideas of copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves... in the web environment.

A light-hearted version of telling a story through Google searches is this 50 second story - Parisian Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU

which I came across through this post on Kelly Geigner's Teacher Tracks blog in which she shares some ways to use Google's Search Stories in the classroom...
http://www.teachertracks.com/2010/04/5-awesome-ideas-for-using-google-search.html

Here is the link to Google SearchStory creator http://www.youtube.com/searchstories and if any of you are a fan of the movies Toy Story as I am, you'll enjoy the story playing there now...

Creative writing "rules"

Shared by Jane Ryan, Howick College Librarian on the school library list serv:
"A little something I stumbled across that might inspire creative writers. Make sure to read part 2 as well. I particularly liked Ian Rankin's short sharp statements."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two

Blogs, books, steampunk and seatbelts...

I came across this blog by UK English teacher Jeffrey Hill.
He shares some lesson plan ideas which include video / youtube clips as starters for discussion or activities... http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/lesson_plans/

I enjoyed this link to the OK Go music video featuring a Rube Goldberg / Heath Robinson contraption http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/03/music-video-ok-gothis-too-shall-pass.html and the interesting background article from the Sunday Times (March 2010) about it : How a group of geeky scientists created the world's coolest pop video by John Harlow http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7069950.ece

In the Times article John Harlow mentions Steampunk, and by chance the latest edition of Magpies (May 2010) has an article The (not so new) Steampunk Revolution by James Roy, which is a good introduction to the genre. It refers to Michael Pryor, an Australian steampunk author - and here is a link to a blog post by him on "the joy of steampunk" http://randomhouseaustralia.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/the-joy-of-steampunk/

This is an interesting blog - Literary Clutter "Bookish bloggings from the cluttered mind and bookshelf of Melbourne author, George Ivanoff. His current teen novel is the computer-game inspired Gamers' Quest."
See the labels for some recent posts about steampunk and interviews with some key Australian authors in the genre...

There is a whole weird and wonderful world of steampunk to explore out there, and here are author Richard Harland's tips for aspiring steampunk writers : http://www.richardharland.net/worldshaker/WS.steampunk/steampunkwritingtips.htm

Another item from Jeffrey Hill's English blog before I go - this powerful ad http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/01/video-embrace-life-seatbelt-ad.html and his LESSON IDEAS : "There are several ways you could use this ad. For example, stop it half way through and get students to speculate what the ad is for. You could then discuss how effective the ad is. As a follow up, get students to design a poster for the campaign or record a voiceover for the ad."

Oh, and by the way, do you subscribe to Magpies ?

Sharp Shades fiction series

My friend and colleague Dyane keeps me posted about books of interest, now that she is in Christchurch with a collection at her fingertips! Here is a recommendation from her for that challenging area of appealing high-interest / low reading level fiction...

"Have you come across the series Sharp Shades - fiction aimed at lower level readers for year 7- 13? Big font, sprinkled with illustrations, short chapters and aimed at that level of boy in particular. One title I read last night was Doing the double. I would highly recommend it!"

Published by Evans, National Library has these titles :

• Doing the double / Alan Durant'
• Hunter's Moon / by John Townsend ; adapted by David Belbin
• Plague / David Orme ; adapted by David Belbin
• Wrong exit / Mary Chapman
• Blitz / David Orme.

What good readers do...

Have a look at these classroom activities to help children learn to think about their thinking and the strategies they use to solve problems :

making animal creations from playdoh
http://www.wested.org/stratlit/ideas/animalcreations.shtml

and identifying what good readers do...
http://www.wested.org/stratlit/ideas/readingprocess.shtml

ALSC and David Diaz bookmarks

ALSC - Association for Library Service to Children is a division of the ALA, American Library Association. Its Kids!@ your library initiative "provides promotion tips, sample press materials, downloadable art, and other tools to help local libraries reach out to kids, their parents and caregivers." http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/initiatives/kidscampaign/index.cfm

The focus is on public libraries more than school libraries, but one of the resources is the downloadable promotional mini-poster and bookmarks created by illustrator and graphic artist David Diaz. I really like them - they have a touch of Marc Chagall about them...

Mini poster [PDF - 7,914 KB]

Bookmarks [PDF - 712 KB]

See also the Great websites for kids site from the ALA / ALSC http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm

Access to books key to academic achievement

A recent piece of research featured in Donalyn Miller's Book Whisperer blog describes how growing up in a home with books confers a distinct advantage...

Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations by: M. D. R. Evans, Jonathan Kelley, Joanna Sikora, Donald J. Treiman in
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (10 February 2010)

Abstract : Children growing up in homes with many books get 3 years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class. This is as great an advantage as having university educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father. It holds equally in rich nations and in poor; in the past and in the present; under Communism, capitalism, and Apartheid; and most strongly in China. Data are from representative national samples in 27 nations, with over 70,000 cases, analyzed using multi-level linear and probit models with multiple imputation of missing data.

and here is a link to The Book Whisperer's blog (see May 23rd post) with the official press release from the University of Nevada, UCLA and Australian National University study.

Of course, for families without books in their homes, this is where libraries come in, and in particular, school libraries...

"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It's an enormous force for good." Barack Obama

Digital storytelling and "the literacy club"

I've had fun with my young niece and nephew using Photostory to make "videos" (animated digital pictures with written captions, voice narration and music) of events, activities and visits, and mentioned before in this blog how easy it is to use...

Stenhouse have just published a new book which you can preview in entirety online : Make Me a Story Teaching Writing Through Digital Storytelling by Lisa C. Miller
Browse the entire book online!
"Digital storytelling uses computers and software to marry text with art -- photographs, drawings, paintings, and video -- as well as narration and music. Lisa leads teachers step‐bystep through the process of creating a digital story in an accessible (even for the computer neophyte), instructional, and entertaining way."

See also the website The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

In the introduction to Lisa Miller's book, Linda Rief says "Frank Smith admonished us years ago to let kids into the "literacy club" via real reading and writing, and now I have to join the 21st century version of the club. At the very least, I have to let my students show me (and teach me) how they use these tools to enhance their learning."

From the Heinemann website, publisher of Frank Smith's books : The Literacy Club is Frank Smith's metaphor describing the social nature of literacy learning... exploring the idea that we learn from other people, not so much through conscious emulation as by "joining the club" of people we see ourselves as being like, and by being helped to engage in their activities...

Digital publishing

From Library Link of the day came this piece about the changes happening in digital publishing vs traditional publishing :

'Vanity' Press Goes Digital by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in Wall Street Journal, Media and Marketing, June 3 2010

"... digital self-publishing is creating a powerful new niche in books that's threatening the traditional industry. Once derided as "vanity" titles by the publishing establishment, self-published books suddenly are able to thrive by circumventing the establishment. "

The article has a useful sidebar describing the "stars" of self-publishing : Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Lulu, Smashwords, FastPencil, Scribd, and Author Solutions.

Gotta keep reading at Ocoee Middle School

Gotta keep reading at Ocoee Middle School, December 11 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D9jiEYxzs

Word of the day

I subscribe to Word of the day which sends information about an interesting word and its meaning, usage, etymology and an example in context in a quote, by email each weekday.
http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html

It is a free service, and at the end of each month there is a "digest" of interesting comments on the words from subscribers. One person shared this video link - though I won't tell you the word it relates to here as that would spoil it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTLO2F_ERY

So, if you are interested, once you've watched the video, here is the link to the word...

NZ Book Month - March 2011

The new project director for NZ Book Month is Nikki Crowther - she sent out a message introducing herself and announcing that New Zealand Book Month has been postponed from October this year to March 2011, and in March annually thenceforth...

"Why? For a number of good reasons, including the fact that the school year will be disrupted in 2011 due to the Rugby World Cup. And because our current objectives involve the school community to an even greater degree than in the past, it seemed vital New Zealand Book Month adapt. Further, in discussions across the industry we learned there are other good reasons to move New Zealand Book Month in the calendar year, including:

• Retailers tell us the hectic buzz of Christmas is gone, the summer holidays are over, Back to School has brought us back down to earth with a bump and March is a good time to turn our thoughts to more cultural pursuits and a little escapist pleasure as the evenings start to draw in
  
• The Book Month Board note the importance of sharing our passion for books with as many people as possible -- rather than compete with Rugby World Cup Fever, let's aim to raise a little Book Fever ahead of the game!
  
• Teachers and Librarians highlight that the best time to get children enthused about the sheer joy of reading for pleasure is at the start of the academic year

Telling a story...

Following on from the last post - about being able to tell a story...

Here is part of an Acknowledgment for Paul Reynolds by Courtney Johnston from her blog Best of 3 :

"I don't know what the story is", he roared in the last meeting I attended with him. "You need to tell me a story!" So I told him a story; a story about dusty books on dark shelves that were full of treasure and wonder, but languishing unknown, which - with a little money and a little effort and a little good will - we could rescue, and release out into the world where they could become useful and marvellous again. And he said thank you, and threw himself behind the idea. So that's what I'll remember, and take into the world with me - the need to tell stories, to excite people, to bring power to your ideas."

This is one of the most interesting blogs I've visited - personal, insightful, eclectic, informative, professional, inspiring.

And in fact, those are probably some good words to describe the late Paul Reynolds too.

Courtney Johnston : art, books and tweeting http://flavors.me/auchmill
Best of 3 blog : http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/

Stories, libraries and learning for life

Right Brain Skills and the Media Center: A Whole New Mind(set) by Doug Johnson in Knowledge Quest, Sept 2007 AASL (American Association of School Librarians), a division of ALA (American Library Association).

This short, persuasive article looks at the theory put forward by Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age (Riverhead, 2005) which suggests that those who can successfully develop and use the right-brain abilities of high concept (seeing the larger picture, synthesizing information) and high touch (being empathetic, creating meaning) will "rule the future".

Doug Johnson asks "how might libraries cultivate the skills needed by this "conceptual age" worker?" and suggests some strategies and resources provided by libraries to teach these vital skills...

I particularly like the recognition of the power of STORY :

#2. Not just argument, but also STORY.
"When our lives are brimming with information and data, it's not enough to marshal an effective argument… The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling story."

Library programs can:

• Ask for student writing using the narrative voice.
  
• Teach speaking skills.
  
• Use storytelling as a part of teaching.
  
• Give students opportunities to both hear and tell stories.
  
• Promote the reading of narratives – fiction, biography, and narrative non-fiction.

Read more

A butterfly award !

Bridget Schaumann has awarded this blog a Butterfly Award !
Thank you, I'm honoured.

Obituary for Martin Gardner

In the typically well-written style of The Economist's obituaries, here is their obituary for Martin Gardner - mathematician, author, reader, thinker and communicator...

http://www.economist.com/node/16271035

"WHERE literacy meets numeracy, enthusiasm meets scepticism and philosophy meets fun, there you find Martin Gardner. He earned his crust by writing, but his abiding interest was in maths, and his gift, or rather one of them, was to explain mathematical concepts in ways that made sense to non-mathematicians..."

Martin Gardner wrote The Annotated Alice amongst many other books.

What is a schwa ?

I've just finished reading The Schwa was here by Neal Shusterman and highly recommend it. This book has humour, memorable characters, mystery, friendship and poignancy, and I think it would make a great read-aloud for intermediate / secondary.

On the dust jacket, Neal tells "The idea came in the middle an author visit. I was answering questions in a school library when a teacher pointed out a boy who had had his hand up the whole time, and I hadn't noticed. He was sitting in front of the library's big dictionary, and I made this odd connection : the kid was unnoticeable - like the 'schwa' in the dictionary."

Here is a link to Amazon for reviews http://www.amazon.com/Schwa-was-Here-Neal-Shusterman/dp/0142405779
The School Library Journal review likens the writing to E L Konigsburg (one of my very favourites) and Jerry Spinelli, and that is exactly who came to my mind when reading it too.

Go to Bill Cassellman's Words of the world website to read more about the schwa...

Ross Todd's eloquence

Ross Todd is a brilliant, articulate advocate for school libraries.

Here is his inspiring definition of a school library :

"The school library is the school’s physical and virtual learning commons where inquiry, thinking, imagination, discovery, and creativity are central to students’ information-to-knowledge journey, and to their personal, social and cultural growth."

When searching for the exact wording of a half-remembered quote from Ross Todd, I revisited his 2001 IASL paper Transitions for preferred futures of school libraries with the subheadings :

• Knowledge space, not information place
• Connections, not collections
• Actions, not positions
• Evidence, not advocacy

See also this powerpoint School Libraries : making them a Class Act from a presentation Ross gave at the WA School Library Association Conference.

Award winning blogs to explore

Here is a link to Salem Press http://salempress.com/Store/blogs/blog_home.htm and their 2010 blog winners :

General Library Blogs
First place: Libraries and Transliteracy
Second place: Centered Librarian
Third place: Librarian.net

Quirky Library Blogs
First place: Awful Library Books
Second place: Library History Buff
Third place: Going Green At Your Library
Another Third place: Judge a Book by its Cover

Academic Library Blogs
First place: No Shelf Required
Second place: ResourceShelf
Third place: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Public Library Blogs
First place: Agnostic, Maybe
Second place: Blogging for a Good Book
Third place: Library Garden

School Library Blogs
First Place: Bib 2.0 "exploring the integration of technology into the library and classroom"
Second Place: Not So Distant Future
Third Place: 100 Scope Notes - has an amazing list of children's lit blogs in the right sidebar


Not so distant future blog has a post with Twitter advice to new library school students :

Getting Started
On Monday, a group of library school students is coming to visit my library, so today I asked my colleagues on Twitter to share their advice to new or incoming librarians...

If I had to express my advice in 140 characters, I think it would be:
embrace the new, support and collaborate with teachers, put students first, always learn, share your passion, always reflect, lead change

And this is totally unrelated to libraries but a heartwarming animal story shared as an "end of year" post on Bib 2.0 blog...
http://bib20.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-love-this.html

Thomas Keneally interview on BookTV.nz

A delightful interview with author - and doting grandfather from the sound of it - Thomas Keneally at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival - about happiness, worries, standout book from his childhood, choice of author to be stuck in an elevator with ...
http://activitypress.com/2010/05/20/booktv-nz-set-to-bring-video-book-reviews-author-interviews-to-the-web/

BookTV.nz http://www.booktv.co.nz/ is New Zealand's channel for watching and sharing web video book reviews, book trailers, author videos, video book readings, new book news, and anything book-related...

Australian Library and Information Week May 2010

Ideas for library promotion activities from the Australian Library and Information Association website :
http://www.alia.org.au/liw/great.ideas.html

ALA Toolkit on the School Librarian's Role in Reading

This is a great resource from the American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslissues/toolkits/slroleinreading.cfm

Excerpt from the School Librarian's Role in Reading Position Statement

"Reading is a foundational skill for 21st-century learners. Guiding learners to become engaged and effective users of ideas and information and to appreciate literature requires that they develop as strategic readers who can comprehend, analyze, and evaluate text in both print and digital formats. Learners must also have opportunities to read for enjoyment as well as for information. School librarians are in a critical and unique position to partner with other educators to elevate the reading development of our nation’s youth."

Interveiw with Pie Corbett

Interview with Pie Corbett, UK teacher, Principal, and advocate of creative writing by students...

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/news_blogs/email_updates/interviews/pie_corbett

One question / answer from the interview :

Literacy is clearly a key influence on the future success of the nation, as well as individual success. Do you think literacy is primarily an issue for schools or should it be seen as a social justice issue and treated as a cross governmental priority?

When I was a child, we lived in a two-up, two down. We had no bath - it was a tin tub in the back yard. The toilet was at the end of the yard. The first six years of my life, we used to go over the road twice a day and fetch water from the well. We were too poor to own books. However, every night we were read a story, and those stories came from books, and those books came from the library. It was being read to that made the difference to me and I would say that the reason that I eventually became a teacher, a headteacher, an inspector and a writer, I can track back to our weekly visit to the library. Without that library, the world of literacy would not have opened up for me. Literacy is essential for a healthy, thriving society that gives everyone a chance. All children deserve the right to an imaginative and literate childhood. To reduce the long tail end of illiteracy, I do think that we have to tackle this in an orchestrated manner and ensure that goes beyond it being seen as merely a school issue. It is too important and I would love to see further work on this to establish a full frontal, coherent approach.

Tumble Books - a great online resource

Michelle from Whau Valley School shared this resource at a JuLS workshop this week... Check it out - I've just enjoyed Ace Lacewing: Bad Bugs Are My Business

"Tumble Books is a great website where you can find a range of books (with activities to accompany them online) at different levels. You can select a book and it will read it aloud while showing some animations/pictures to go with the story and some of the texts even highlight the words that are being read aloud. Worth a look. Here's what to do : Google Tumble Books and then scroll down until you get to the site that says 'Login to Tumble Books' and click to enter..."

WebTools4u2use

A wiki with lots of links to various webtools which might be interesting to explore...

"A wiki for school library media specialists to learn about cool new web tools, see how they can be used in school library media programs, and share ideas & success stories."

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/