Legend

I knocked out another Truman this weekend!  Now to get a hold of the sequel!!!

Legend by Marie Lu

June is the Republic's top prodigy--a perfect score on her Trial.  Day is the Republic's most hunted criminal--a boy who failed his Trial and then escaped the Labor Camps to which he was sentenced.  When June's brother, Metias, is murdered, there is only one person to blame and June will stop at nothing to avenge her brother's death.  But when her path crosses Day's, she realizes that the criminal may not be exactly who he seems to be.  And neither is life in the Republic.    

Truman Talk

So can you tell I've been MIA since MASL?  The last month of school is always a "fight to keep your head above water" blur and then I think we had summer break.  It FLEW.  And once again, I was too busy having fun to get my reading done.  I did manage to knock out a few Trumans and my goal is to get a few more finished before kiddos show up in two (GULP!  TWO?!) weeks and wipe the Truman shelf clean.  So here are the ones I managed to finish this summer:  

The Eleventh Plague: Stephen was born five years after the Collapse, when a huge war and plague changed life on Earth forever.  He's never known anything other than roaming the country and living as a "salvager" to survive.  Suddenly, he finds himself alone and needing help for his father--which leads him to the community of Settler's Landing.  Settler's Landing has everything that the pre-Collapse world had:  the residents live in actual houses and the children go to school and play baseball.  It seems to be exactly what Stephen has missed his whole life.  Then he meets a girl named Jenny who has different ideas about the world.  When she and Stephen pull a prank that starts another war, the fate of Settler's Landing and Stephen's own future are at stake.

The Running Dream:  Jessica's whole life revolves around running.  But all that changes when her track bus is involved in an accident on the way home from a meet.  Jessica wakes up in a hospital with one of her legs gone.  All of a sudden it's not just running that's impossible--even figuring out how to get in the shower takes everything she has.  To catch up on schoolwork, Jessica gets help from a girl named Rosa whose cerebral palsy has unfortunately always defined her.  When a new leg offers the chance to run again, Jessica realizes how blessed she has always been and works toward a different kind of finish line.

Silhouetted by the Blue:  Serena has big dreams for her seventh grade year.  And when she gets the lead part in the musical, it seems like all of her dreams are coming true.  But then there's everything at home.  Her mom has died, her dad is down with the "blue," and her little brother, Henry, needs a parent, not just a older sister.  Serena finds herself juggling laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking, not to mention her homework and play practice.  How much can one girl handle and what happens when she finally admits that it's too much?

Lost in the River of Grass:  It's hard to be excited about her class trip to the Everglades when Sarah just doesn't fit in.  Instead, she's counting down the minutes until it's over.  Then things start to look up when she meets a local boy named Andy who offers her an alternative to the next day's outing: a ride through the Everglades on his airboat.  It's the perfect solution until something goes terribly wrong and Sarah realizes that no one knows where she is or who she's with.  And Sarah herself barely knows this guy--and yet suddenly, she's relying on him to save her.           

MASL Moments

So every year, I get the awesome opportunity to go to the Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) Spring Conference.  My husband likes to give me a hard time about how "crazy" 700+ school librarians must get!  :)  It's such a great experience.  I come back with a ton of ideas that I usually have to sadly file away in my "August" folder because we're just a short month away from summer vacation (Just to clarify, NOT sad about that break coming up! ha!)

Some ideas are easy to implement.  In fact, I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to figure this one out.  For years now, we've put barcodes on the back of each book--at the top right.  Mainly for inventory purposes.  And for years, I've heard complaints from kids who can't read the synopsis on the back.  So I'm sitting in a session this past weekend and the presenter passed out some books for us to see.  Not only did I end up ordering the book that was handed to me, but I just happened to flip it over and see the school's barcode at the BOTTOM.  Hello! 

That said, I don't think I will be re-positioning the 11,000+ barcodes in the media center. . .  but rest assured new books will be more "user-friendly!" 

I also got some great tips on Edmodo, literacy lessons using Common Core, and research skills across the curriculum.


(Photo from MASL Spring Conference blog)

That's me sitting in the middle with the brown jacket!

Now, if you're a student, you probably aren't too excited about any of that, but check this out: 

(Photo from MASL Spring Conference blog)

Yes, that's James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner, last year's Truman winner!  He was SUCH a fun, entertaining speaker.  He talked about his family, how he got started, and how he very ceremoniously ripped up his CPA license renewal form (Yes, he was an accountant) when he made it big.  The Maze Runner is being made into a movie so watch for it to hit the big screen!  Mr. Dashner has a cameo.  SO jealous!  Gotta write my book!!!  How awesome if I had a cameo in MY book-to-movie someday!  A girl can dream. . . .

For now, though, I LOVE what I do and I'm so glad I get the chance to go to such a great conference every year!
  

iLove the Trumans!

Last Monday, I had the Truman Voting Party.  Well, actually part-IES!   My first year here I had 41 kids qualify, last year I had 53, and this year, I had to split the party into two different hours because there were 67 kids who read at least four nominees!  WOW!  It's exciting to see so many kids reading at a time in their lives when friends, activities, sports, etc. can supersede books.  Makes this librarian's heart HAPPY!

Our bulletin board--Students added an "app" each time they read a Truman!
 

We enjoyed ice cream sundaes, pop and prizes, and of course, voted!  At our middle school, Virals won with a total of 15 votes, The Lost Hero had 11, and Paranormalcy had 8.  The final winners will be announced at the MASL Spring Conference in April so stay tuned to see if the rest of MO agreed with us!  Thanks to all who participated in the Truman Challenge and keep up the GREAT reading!!!

The Name of the Star

Well the 2013-14 Trumans have been announced. . . I always like to see award lists during the spring and compare my collection.  I only had eight of the twelve nominees so I had some ordering to do.  On the flip side, I had the Newbery (The One and Only Ivan), the Coretta Scott King Award (Hand In Hand), and the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal (Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon) which also won the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.  It's a good feeling to know that books of this status have already been checked out by kids in my school!

I'm embarrassed, however, that until today, I'd only read one of the Truman nominees: Cloaked.  So I have some catching up to do.  Today I finished The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, the first in a new series.  Louisiana-born Aurora, better known as Rory, is attending a boarding school in London while her parents are working in Bristol.  It's not easy being the American trying to fit in. There are definite rules and expectations and if that's not enough to worry about, a Jack the Ripper copycat is suddenly recreating the horrific crimes of the late 1800s.  For some reason, Rory is the only one who can see him.  And she's next on his list.

In Tune

I have a confession.  I'm a secondary education major, I taught English for nine years, and I LOVE bulletin boards.  The cute-si-er, the cheesier, the better.  Unfortunately, my poor students were often stuck with general FYI boards or generic "bulletin board in a bag" sets.  However, as a media specialist, bulletin boards are a must.  Gotta promote the books, gotta get kids' attention, gotta intice them to come in!  A while ago my sister sent me a bulletin board off of Pinterest and I adjusted it a bit:  "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my cover so read me maybe."  It was a huge hit.  Kids stopped in the hallway and actually READ my bulletin board.  I could hear them laughing, pointing it out to their friends, and even better:  singing. 

So began my themed bulletin boards.  We did a little Taylor Swift:  "We will never, ever, ever, stop reading together" with pics of students reading.  Then came the holiday season:  "Through the halls we go reading all the way."  This month came from Florida Georgia Line and I was really excited when I asked some kids for a song suggestion.  One of my faves too!  It's obviously not the best grammar so I'm hoping that when teachers and parents see it they don't think the media specialist doesn't know how to speak correctly. . . .  

It's been really fun.  And today a student told me she thought of me when "Cruise" came on the radio.  Mission accomplished.        

Books 32-52. . . . Oops. . .

Hello 2013!  You came a little sooner than I wanted. . . .   Shouldn't there be about twenty more weeks in a year?!  Well, it's obvious that I didn't make my goal.  I'm disappointed, but I've also realized that a) a book a week is a LOT (even though I'm sure there are many super librarians out there who can do it), b) I still read and wrote booktalks for 31 books (YAY!), c) I'll never regret the fun summer we had (even if I hardly opened a book!) and d) resolutions are tough to keep.  See Exhibit A--my waistline--and Exhibit B--my children's scrapbooks that are still more than two years behind.  Sigh. 

BUT on the bright side. . . . now I can use this blog to showcase a little bit of everything.  What's going on in the library, what I'm reading, what students are working on, what latest Pinterest projects have inspired me. . .  Like my tree of discarded books!  :) 

So here's to everything that 2013 will bring--even if it's a few less than 52 books.