Welcome back to school! The library opened for class visits the week of September 10. The library guidelines were reviewed so the students know the rules of the library and how to care for the books they check out. The rules are posted on the doors of the library and often reviewed throughout the school year, when needed.
Welcome Mrs. Coombs! Mrs. Coombs will be working with Mrs. Allison in the Library Media Center this year. She is very nice and has volunteered at the school with Meet the Masters for the past three years so many of the students already know her.
Welcome books at storytime! This is the first week of the new school year that books are being read and introduced to the students during class visits. All the books read this week in the library have dragons in them and the students are fired up about these books!
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
Me and My Dragon by David Biedrzycki
During story time the students were asked what pet they wished they could have. Many answered, a dog, a cat, a hamster but no one said a dragon! Of course not, dragons aren't pets, they aren't even sold in pet stores...well, except for the pet store that a boy visits in this book. He gets to have a pet dragon! He tells how he takes care of a pet dragon and all the fun things they will do together. The illustrations in this book are enjoyable to look at. This book is a Beehive Nominee for 2012-13.
3rd - 4th Grade
How to Train Your Dragon as told by Cressida Cowell
A new cable television series began this week called "How to Train Your Dragon." It is a take off of the movie and the book that started it all!
Hiccup is a "smallish viking" around 11 years old and he is the heir to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. His father is the chief. He and ten other boys want to become members of the tribe but in order to do so they must pass through the Dragon Initiation Program. A huge, hairy, red Viking named Gobber is in charge of the boys initiation program. He tells them three things they must do to become members.
1. Catch a dragon.
2. Train a dragon.
3. Show that the dragon has been trained at the Thor's Day Thursdays Celebration.
The chapter on catching a dragon in the dragon nursery was read to the students at storytime. I really enjoy reading this book and this chapter is my favorite. I love the suspense as all the boys crawl into the cave filled with thousands of sleeping baby dragons and they must each choose one to train. They must be careful not to wake any of the dragons or they will be in great danger! A boy Viking named Fishlegs just can't hold back four sneezes. Will the dragons wake up?
5th- 6th Grade
The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
"The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter" is the statement on the top of the front cover of the book. This is a fantasy that many children will really enjoy. It is a 2012-13 Beehive Nominee for Fiction.
The book starts in a land called Quill. A bleak, gray, oppressed place where no one is allowed to think for themselves or they will be punished. Quill has been controlled by the High Priest, Justine for the past 50 years. Once a year is the Purge. The children around the age of 13 are separated into groups. There are the Wanteds who will have the privilege to attend University in Quill. They are the "elite" group, if you will. Next are the Necessaries. These are the ones who take care of the every day work needed to keep society going. And finally there are the Unwanteds. They are the children that are selected to leave Quill and never return. They are sent on a bus to the Death Farm to be eliminated in the Lake of Boiling Oil. Fortunately, there is a magical mage named Mr. Marcus Today who has created a most wonderful place for the Unwanteds to live in named Artime. It is invisible to the people of Quill. When the Unwanteds arrive at the Lake of Boiling Oil instead of death they are given a new life filled with beauty, magic and learning. They are free to think and create for themselves! Who would ever want to leave Artime? If anyone does, they threaten exposing all of Artime to the Quillians who think they are all dead. War with Quill would be inevitable and Artime would be destroyed.
The main characters in this book are twins, Aaron and Alex. Aaron is a Wanted, Alex is an Unwanted. After experiencing Artime, Alex wants Aaron to share in this new wonderful life, but is he willing to risk putting all the Unwanteds and Artime in danger of war and destruction just for Aaron? How can he return to Quill anyway? Through magic? What about other Unwanteds who seem discontent in Artime and creep around places where they shouldn't be in the middle of the night?
I think the students will really enjoy this book. After introducing it to the first 5th grade class this week we already have 5 students on the waiting list to read it! The book is at Whitmore Library too.
