BookNews
September 2008

Please share this newsletter with other teachers at your school.

Books and Brunch
Our popular program, Books and Brunch will be held October 3, 8:30-12:00.  Our featured speaker this year is Peter Catalanotto, award winning author and illustrator.  He has written and illustrated many wonderful books for children including Matthew A,B,C, Ivan the Terrier, and Emily’s Art, as well as illustrating books with other authors such as Happy Birthday America and Mother to Tigers. 

He will take you through his entire creative process from inspiration to finished books. 

We will have good food, lots of new resources to share, and shopping at the Evergreen Bookstore.  If you are interested in attending Books and Brunch, call 419-521-3110 to sign up by September 23.  Attendees at past Books and Brunch programs have found useful information and materials that they can use at school.  All school librarians, teachers and administrators are welcome. 

Summer Library Program
Our Summer Library Program was a great success this year with 5741 children joining the program and 2896 of those completing the program by reading at least 8 ¾ hours and visiting the library at least 5 times.  That means 50% of the children joining the Summer Library Program completed the requirements!

Western Elementary won the Summer Library Program Participation Contest this year with 66% of the school’s population joining the Summer Library Program.  A framed poster will be presented to the school at an assembly in September.

Our Teen Summer Library Program had 1739 participants with 812 completing the program by reading at least 1000 pages.

Thanks to all who encouraged students to keep reading over the summer.

BookFLIX
One of our newest databases is BookFLIX.  BookFLIX is an interactive literacy resource that builds a love of reading and learning – online! BookFLIX pairs classic fictional video storybooks from Weston Woods with nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding. BookFlix can be used in the classroom, at home, or in the Library.  You can find a link to BookFLIX on the front page of the Library’s web site.

Access Programs
Don’t forget that Library staff will come to your classroom and present enrichment programs to enhance your lessons.  For a complete list of possible programs and information about services offered to teachers, take a look at the TeacherZone

• http://www.mrcpl.org/TZ/index.html
  and click on Access 2008-09 under Teacher Services.

Book Trailer Contest
Students in grades 7-12 are invited to create a trailer for their favorite book.  The deadline for entries is October 10.  Post videos on YouTube and then notify the Library by emailing teenzone@mrcpl.org with a link to your trailer and a valid email address for contacting you.  Be sure to put “Grab Your Popcorn Trailer Contest” in the title.  All trailers are to be 2 minutes or less and qualify for a PG rating.  The winner chosen by the Teen Advisory Board will win a Flip Video Camera.

Transform Students into Skilled Researchers
The Return of the Google Game by Katrine Watkins gives specific ideas for teaching teens the fundamentals of efficient searching using Google.  Watkins explains how the game helps students learn to limit their searches in order to get fewer, but more relevant results.  Read the complete article here:

• http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555545.html
  ( SLJ, May 2008)

Finding Images Online
Anna Adam and Helen Mowers share some places on the web great for finding pictures that can be used for assignments.  Some of the sites mentioned in the article are:

• Picsearch     
  http://picsearch.com/,
• Pics4Learning     
  http://pics4learning.com/
  
• Flikr
  http://flickr.com/ and
• Wikimedia Commons
  http://commons.wikimedia.org/ among others. 
• For more information go to: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555562
  (SLJ, May 2008)

Kid Lit Kit
Scholastic’s Kid Lit Kit is a daily blog with book recommendations, mini-lessons, activities, and more ideas for using books in the K-8 classroom. Look here for fiction/nonfiction book pairs, picture books, video booktalks, poetry, and the best new books for kids. 

• http://blogs.scholastic.com/kid_lit/

Teen Read Week
Teen Read Week is October 12-18.  The theme this year is Books with Bite @ Your Library.  For more information go to:

• http://www.ala.org/teenread

Get on the List!