The View from the Leslie Library Windows: Every Day

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Every Day

I sent this out this morning to our Principal and Assistant Principal:
I've been noticing, thinking about these optional staff meetings. It is a wonder to me how many of us attend. Every meeting. Every day. It shows our community. Our hearts for our students. Our hearts for each other. A place to gather, just a virtual hands up that says 'I'm here, I care, I'll be here.' It is truly a wondrous thing and I'm taking a moment to share this profound way in which we gather as community, even in the midst of disarray, to show up, to be the support for our students and each other, every day. Like the signs I still see say, 24J Every day. We will be here every day.
I then trolled through a couple of emails, pulled up my Teams, now heading into classrooms to see what's been going on. I love that Ms. N has my book talk videos in her assignment stream. I have four synchronous meets I'm a part of, and the first one starts in just a couple of hours! I'm a bit tentative, and we'll see how that goes! I have one on Mondays, two on Thursdays and one on Fridays. I just added them all into my Outlook Calendar and they will go until June 10th, our official end of school. Just did my first meet, it went ok. Did some navigating around, talked and chatted with students. It turned out well. Now to get ready for my Book Buzz webinar! A lot of the books were too old for our students, 9th grade and up, but there were some that looked appropriate, but I'll have to look them up! Luckily I write down titles and authors so I can check on Follett. Two pages worth! Then our staff meeting and our principal read out what I wrote! That was so nice! Then one of the LMA's had a link for a book talk but couldn't get on. So I followed her link and just clicked on the big orange banner with two books and the vimeo came on about them! They will definitely be on one of my lists! Now I'm hoping to find my 1pm Google Classroom Meet. It was definitely quieter than the morning one! But I observed and watched the chat, only one student mentioned anything, but all was well. When the students get comfortable, I hope they come out more!

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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.