The View from the Leslie Library Windows: 9-11

Friday, September 11, 2015

9-11

I could not let today go by without a memorial to 9-11. So I brought in my fabric and gathered the books we had. Most of our kids were not even born yet. I had a group in this morning that will come in about every other day and one of them picked up our Tribute book and looked at it during 1st period, but that was about it. I may do this one more year, that will be 15 years. I'll have to see after that. Another great day in the library! Two orientations with book talks and a lot of the books I'm talking about have been checked out! Makes me happy, but then I need to find more books to talk about and put up! I still have more on my cart, but they are paperbacks and need to be covered, so that will happen Monday! Had my aides finish up all my Kercheski check outs today. We only messed up one class, so that was easily taken care of! Got Mr. S and Mrs. C's books all done and taken to their classes. Handed out Realidades workbooks to the students that paid for them (new ones have been ordered and are on their way!).Quite a few of our kids still have books out from last year. So they only get to check out one book at a time until those are taken care of. Most of the students were "Oh, yeah, that's on my shelf at home!" Hopefully they will bring them in! Some were from other schools so I had to contact the other school to see if it was there, or if it had been paid for. Had two students in for lunch and one of them left a nasty surprise on one of our search computers. Just made me ill. Not only that I saw it, but that another student might have. I didn't know her name, but I did know the girl she was with. Ended up taking a picture with my phone and sending all the info to our campus monitor and our behavior specialist. Checked out a class set of Language Network to a teacher. Tried to help another with document camera issues, but the two doc cams we had wouldn't work for her. Off for the weekend with books in tow. I still have classes coming in for booktalks next week too! Must get busy! I had one of our teachers in today and as I rattled off books and talked about them, she asked me (have you read all those?), I had to say yes! Of course!

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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.