The View from the Leslie Library Windows: Book Slappers

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Book Slappers

Had a couple of boys today at one of the tables just slapping their books down and slapping down the covers. I made them come over to my desk and sit behind the desk! Threatened them with not getting books today - no book slapping!!! Had my wonderful DLC kids in today and they are amazing. I think some of them even tried to do the motions of the book I read them. Did LLI reading today and had the kids write sentences from their book into their journals. Had them do silent reading to start, then introduced the new book. I liked one of them wanted to write from the book "Astronaut means a sailor among the stars." Nice! Checked in lots of books, managed to get all the laminated barcodes cut out, though some I wasn't able to trim up nicely, but at least they were separated! When I get time in the library with kids, I open all the windows and turn on all the lights. When the library is being lived in, it comes alive. I love all the books I get to put out to catch the kids' eyes and see them checking them out. The buzz of them talking - even though by standards at the school they are too noisey, I still love the buzz. One group today was all sitting in a line from the door waiting for their teacher to pick them up. Everyone had a book open and was looking at it and sharing it with the kids around them. That was so exciting! I even told them how happy it made me. Can I whine, just a little? I feel a bit picked on. Is it because I'm the library media assistant? I'm the only one with lunch at 11:20, which doesn't bother me because I sit in the library and read which is what I'd do at Sprague if I wasn't talking with Mrs. H. I'm the only one who has to work both lunches and the only one that has to monitor the kids dumping their milk and food. What is up with that? Because I'm new I'm the bottom of the tank? Or just because I'm the library lady and it's not that much different? I watch the clock the whole entire hour I'm there, and am so ready to bolt the minute the clock hits 12:50. Sometimes I get out a few minutes early when I have a class coming in immediately, but I still think it's unfair. Thank you. Done whining.

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What I'm Reading

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris was a great non-fiction read! Love a good non-fiction! Joseph Lister worked hard, studied hard, never gave up on his ideas that something outside was causing untold numbers of people to die after surgery. His quest to find the answer was long overdue and he was the one to craft it and make it a medical standard. Brilliant!
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho was so good. I liked it even better than Stamped. His honest and open look at what is was like for him growing up really brings the issues into focus. Highly recommended!
Verify by Joelle Charbonneau - what if everything went digital which gave the government and people in power a way to change history, past and current. What happened to some words, like the word 'verify' that is no longer in the digital dictionary. Meri has lost her mom and her dad drowns sorrow in liquor. Meri is entranced by her mom's last art pieces and is given a slip of paper (the horror! what about the trees? recycling?) and on it is the word 'verify'. Atlas gives her a dictionary, a paper one and an old history textbook. Meri jumps on the train with him so they can change the world.
Kalahari by Jessica Khoury - what a ride! I even took this home one night to finish! Sarah lives with her dad doing research deep in the Kalahari. A group of students are sent to see if they can qualify for a grant and when her dad goes missing when he heads off after poachers, she is left to take care of them. Her dad doesn't return and the poachers are after them. They come across a white lion stalking them, but wait? It isn't white it's something else. They come across a lab and realize there is a virus, that has been let loose on the Kalahari that could destroy the whole world. So exciting!! Great ending as well!
The Year of the Buttered Cat by Susan Haas with Lexi Haas - Okay. I have to admit that I got this book because of the title. Buttered cats, what an intriguing thought! But the real intrigue is the persistence, the optimism of Lexi. Because of jaundice, she was disabled and this story is about her decision to take a chance on ground breaking surgery to try and get some mobility, speech and live her gifts. She has five she had to find. Read it for Lexi (and maybe to find out about that buttered cat).
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. There are spaces only you can fill, and Darius learns this as his family travels to Iran to see his grandfather who is dying. Along the way he deals with his depression, makes a friend, has innumerable Star Trek references and also learns that it's okay, to not be okay. I must admit, I had to look up some of the places he got to visit. What a rich heritage. I thought Zoroastrians were long gone, but no, they are still practicing today in Iran. Great book, totally okay.
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - perfect book lover tale of a woman captivated by a man and a bookstore and how she made more impact on her fellow book lovers and the man who got her to read than any bomb that fell during the Blitz. Very lovely!
The Girl From the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat - Lovely WW2 story by Jenny who actually grew up on one of the Channel Islands. Hedy fled Austria only to find her island haven invaded by the Germans. And though she is wary, she falls in love with a German officer. The twists and turns of German occupation test them both as each find a way to help the allied forces win.
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I loved these short stories that all center around a modern day Native American Powwow. My fave was Rez Dog and they were all a great window into culture that I have rarely seen. I watched some videos on Fancy Dancing because of this and I would love to attend one, but feel a bit like a looky loo if I did. Fun, eye opening and full of information. Loved it!
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Loved this fictionalized tale of the daughter of one of the lexicographers of the first ever Oxford Dictionary. As Esme goes from hiding under the sorting table, to one day being a lexicographer herself, we see her story unfold along with the people attached to the dictionary. It was really wonderful as we glimpsed her life and how the words she found and rescued formed the backbone of this novel. Really well done. It will stay on my shelves.