Book 58 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - the arena

I don't often read the best sellers. I find these promote themselves - everyone is reading them, everyone is talking about them, everyone is sharing them by lending their own copies or borrowing the library copy. I thought I would read this book simply because some of the grade 4 students had seen the film and were now clamoring to borrow our copies. I am so pleased I did. The dystopian view of the future is brutal so are the Hunger Games the characters take part in.

Katniss Everdeen's sister Prim's name comes up during the 'reaping' and instead of seeing her go to the National Hunger Games Katniss steps up to take her place. A skilled hunter and poacher, she has some survival skills but nothing like the cunning and brute strength she will need to survive the Games. The Hunger Games are a reality TV show in which 12 boys and 12 girls hunt and kill each other until only one survivor remains. 

This book has been challenged in school and libraries across the USA. A 'challenged' book is one that someone asks to removed from a library collection. In the blog My Hunger Games one of the team run by Jacqui explores why The Hunger Games might make it on to such a list. They provide some good links. It is interesting that the book has led to such a website - run by a group of fans. I am not one to remove challenged books from our library - students should be able to choose what they do and don't read. I am cautious about which students under grade 5 are wanting to read this book though. How do I make the call? I check with the student's teacher and check their borrowing history which should give me clue as to whether they are able to read such a book. When it comes down to it though it really is the student's choice.

Having read 'The Hunger Games' I am not keen to continue on to the other two books in the trilogy. I have other adventures to go on.

Book trailer done by Han Wang as a school project

Sharing in the library

Today a student expressed surprise that I thought he should return his library books in a timely manner so other students could also share them. I used the word "share" and I wonder if that was the disconnect. Today when a young person "shares" something electronically they don't "share" it at all - they simply pass it on. When they "share" a photo, video or audio file it actually never leaves them. They do not experience any cost to themselves, they are not without it, it never leaves them. To return a library book, however, does have a cost to them - they cannot use it while someone else has it. In this easy-to-access electronic age I am wondering if our language is becoming too soft and meaningless as well. Yes there is a cost to sharing, there should be. Sharing means that I choose to go without so that someone else can participate in an experience. Now we can pass on the experience without losing anything at all. I am not sure that is a good thing.

By the way - I still want that library book returned so someone else can read it......

How to wish a librarian a happy birthday? Say many happy returns.......

Book 57 - My most excellent year by Steve Kluger - Boston, USA

This novel was on the ALA laugh out loud list. It really lived up to the description. It is the story of 11th graders Anthony (TC to his friends), Augie and Ale. Their English teacher has given them the assignment to journal throughout their year. Each student takes a slightly different approach. Anthony addresses his thoughts to his Mum who died when he was about 6 or 7. Augie addresses his thoughts to a different diva each month, Bette Davis, Liza Minnelli and so on. Ale's journal is written to her heroine Jacqueline Kennedy. As ewach student reveals their lives we see how their friendship grows. Augie and Anthony had already adopted each other not long after Anthony's mother had dies. They are so much brothers that both their families have adopted the other family. Ale is the new girl in town. Her diplomat parents mean she has met many stars and alienated a few countries. 

During their year the three of them discover things abut themselves and each other that make them very close indeed. Ale's performing career begins as she reluctantly enters the talent show Augie is directing. Augie finally discovers he is gay - something his family has already figured out for themselves. Anthony meets Huckie, a deaf 6 year old and befriends him.

The summary above simply does not do justice to this complex and comic look at life and growing up. I really enjoy the portrayl of the teens in this book and their very supportive families. No horror tales here though there is some tragedy to overcome that is for sure.

Steve Kluger's website

Networks and professional development

During the past week I have attended two Network meetings. The first one was the inaugural meeting of a new group called L-TEN - Learning and Technology Educators Network (I think). Thirty teachers from about 6 - 7 different schools in Istanbul and from one school in Sofia met at our school. We were tech integrators, librarians, teachers, school leaders, some were all of the above. We discussed issues facing all of us, shared ideas and solutions and talked about interesting apps and websites and tools. It was fun. Next year there will be three meetings of L-TEN.

Today I went to the Istanbul School Librarians' Network. There were about 15 of us and we had discussions about ebooks, collection management and writers. Not too different except, I have been attending this Network for three years and I feel I am getting to know the other librarians well. We had cake and farewells this afternoon for two of our colleagues who are leaving Istanbul in June. I will miss them both.

Networks are great for sharing ideas and for making friends. It is wonderful to get together with people who are passionate about the same things as you are. I really appreciate my colleagues who make the effort to attend these meetings - their contributions help me work more effectively in my own school. Thanks.

Book 56 - Raven Summer by David Almond - Northumberland, England

Liam and his friend Max follow a raven into the fields near their homes and there they discover a baby. She is is lying on top of a pile of stones with a note attached to her clothing, "Plese look after her rite. This is a childe of God." Liam takes her home to his father to find out what they should do. The Police ask the boys lots of questions but they only know that the raven led them to her. The baby is placed with a foster family but Liam's Mum asks if they can visit her. During their visit with the baby, now called Alison, they meet Oliver, a refugee from Liberia and Crystal who are also in the foster home and close to Liam's age. Liam's mother decides they should try to adopt Alison and soon Liam has Alison in his home as his sister. 

This is the main plot of this story yet it also has two very sinister sub plots which all seem to collide at the end of the book. One subplot involves Liam's neighbour and classmate Nattrass who is more than a bully. He has a sadistic side that is truly sinister. The other subplot involves Oliver's past in Liberia and his own trauma at the hands of sadistic adults forcing boys into child armies. 

These subplots are very dark and such a striking contrast with the finding of the baby in the field and the hope she brings with her. Can a person be moved with compassion in one set of circumstances and also become vindictive and filled with hate and rage in another circumstance? This book is for the older teen as it has some very explicit details involving bullying and others which involve the dire realities of war.

Commonsense media's review and Teen reads review

Book 55 - Zen and the art of faking it by Jordan Sonnenblick - Pennsylvania, USA

This book was on the School Library Journal list of books to tickle your funny bone. It is a great book for International students who can instantly relate to San Lee's desire to blend in as the new kid at school. He has had to move around quite a lot throughout his lifetime so when he ends up in "Nowheresville" Pennsylvania he observes his school mates and the social cliques like an expert anthropologist trying to figure out which group he will mostly likely fit in with. He has an awesome Humanities teacher who unnerves him instantly on the first day of class. The good news is that the class is studying religions of the world and San had covered that already in his last school. The bad news is that in answering some questions on Buddhism San unwittingly came across as some sort of Zen expert. Now he has to rush off to the town library to really study Zen Buddhism. Enter my favourite character the town librarian - at first a real stereotype but as we get to know her she has all my favourite librarian qualities and more. San finds his studies bring him new enlightenment not only about religion but also about his school, his classmates, his teacher and his own feelings about his father. 

While this was not so much a laugh out loud read, it was enjoyable. I love a book with a librarian as a complex character as well. I can recommend this to students in grades 6 - 8. Lots of fun and some useful thinking about religion, faith and friendships. 

Teenreads review by Jana Silciliano and Jordan Sonnenblick's website and Book trailer by Heidi Floyd on Animoto

The highs and lows of ebooks

or should I say the agony and the ecstasy? I love ebooks. I have a kindle and I love it. I have more than 80 books on my kindle. I have 9 samples - these are first chapters of books I can download for free to see if I want to purchase them. During conversations with my friends about books I have my kindle app on my smart phone open and I simply find the book we are talking about and down load a sample. I take notes in my ebooks on my kindle, I book mark and highlight. I love it. Some of our students and staff have kindles or nooks or other ereaders. They share my delight in being an International traveler and packing 80+ books in my hand luggage to read and enjoy. So what are the draw backs? I love sharing the books I read. I am a lender of books, my own books, as well as being a librarian. I also love borrowing books from my friends and family and from my local library - Browns Bay Library in Auckland, New Zealand (picture above) I still have a current library card for this lovely place. They do not lend books on to the kindle format - yet.

We do not have kindles in our school library. From the beginning of libraries exploring how to lend ebooks I decided I did not want to commit to the hardware around ebooks. I want my patrons to enjoy ebooks on any device, anywhere, anytime. I did not want to purchase kindles, ipads or readers and lend them out. That seemed to me to be a huge waste of resources. So our library's first connection with ebooks was through Tumblebooks We subscribe to the Tumblebook library. We have passwords and our staff and students then have access to the Tumblebook collection. This is proving to be more and more popular, particularly with the primary school. It has great features for secondary but they have not been as quick to go with us to use it. I love the Shakespearean texts which are read aloud to students.

The PTA at our school raised a lot of money for the library again and this year we decided to trial FollettShelf This provides us with ebooks we select ourselves. Some of the books have unlimited download which means more than one student can borrow it at a time. This month Follett Destiny upgrade has provided a way for FollettShelf to be incorporated into the Destiny catalogue. This has taken a while to launch as the book downloads to one device. So the students have to decide what they will download the ebook to to read it. It does have apple apps for ipad and iphone and they are working on android as well. I was very disappointed to find that about 20% of the books I wanted to purchase - including 'The Hunger Games' were only available in North America. Also not every book is available on ebook format.

We also trialed ebrary from Jstore. I loved this. It was mostly for senior students grades 10 -12. It had a clunky search mechanism but that meant the students had to get skilled at using advance search. The books they found were so helpful. Itis expensive though and now I need to weigh up whether to subscribe to their collection.

So all in all I am a beginner with ebooks but I have taken the plunge. Some of my experiences with them have been great and some frustrating.....