Bullying is never okay!

We recently read a new book--Bully by Laura Vaccara Seeger--to all the students. This simple picture book is about a little bull who hasn't learned how to make friends. He has been bullied by the other bulls, so when he is asked to play by other animals, he responds the same way. He puffs himself up and calls them  names until one little goat stands up to him and calls him a bully. Then he realizes the way he has been acting and feels bad. He returns to his regular size and apologizes. His friends are still willing to play with him so off they go.

This book helped us understand that when others say or do mean things, sometimes, it's because they have not been taught the right way. Treating others with kindness is the best way to make friends and be happy. We need to accept one another--it's okay to be different--because everybody is different, and that makes the world more interesting. Bullying is never okay!

 We read Danger on Midnight River (World of Adventure Series) by Gary Paulsen to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. This book has life-or-death situations where the boy who was bullied by his classmates has to decide whether to help the boys who tormented him at school . . . or not. It is a quick adventure read!

Come check out a book or two about bullies!

Award Winning Books for 2011

The Caldecott and Newbery awards are the most prestigious awards given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, to American authors' books in the United States of America. Once the winning books are announced, book stores have a difficult time keeping their shelves stocked with these quality children books.

The Caldecott Medal for 2011 goes to A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead, Illustrated by Erin Stead.

This book is about friends and how they take care of each other. The story is unpredictable and the illustrations are delightful. My favorite picture is when the animals are riding the bus. I highly recommend this book for all elementary students and their parents to enjoy reading. Though in the Media Center, we read it to the students from Kindergarten through Third Grade.

Read to 4th-6th Grade

The Newbery Medal for 2011 goes to Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.

Abilene Tucker is the 12 year old daughter of Gideon Tucker. She loves to hear his stories of a town he lived in 18 years before called, Manifest. Abilene describes her father's stories about Manifest like "...sucking on butterscotch. Smooth and sweet...." The students savored butterscotch drops while we read this flavorful metaphor in chapter one.

Continuing with an introduction to the story, Gideon gets a job in Iowa with the railroad and sends his Abilene to this town of Manifest. She arrives on a train scheduled to meet Pastor Howard whom Gideon arranged for her to stay with. "Abilene's Manifest" is much different than the smooth and sweet stories Gideon told her about. The pastor she meets is an interim pastor who has been waiting 14 years for the real pastor to show up. His name is Shady and, yes, he is a bit shady. She makes friends when she goes to her first day of school which is the last day of school before summer break.

She comes upon some old Manifest Herald newspapers and reads them in hopes of finding information about Gideon's time in Manifest, She also discovers an old cigar box hidden under a board on her bedroom floor that is filled with trinkets, a map, and letters about suspicions of spies in Manifest during World War I. As Abilene and her friends begin to investigate the past, someone warns them to stop their investigation by inconspicuously posting a note to their treehouse. The adventure of past(1918) and present (1936) becomes too irresistible for the girls to leave alone!