What's Popular at Prospect - November and December

Here's a peek at our most circulated titles in November and December!

#10 - The 100 Year Old Secret by Tracey Barrett.
This title is on our Battle of the Books list!












#9 - The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.
Those crayons are still very popular!


#8 - A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass.












#7 - All the Answers by Kate Messner












#6 - Lost Cat by Roger Mader.
This is on the Monarch Award Nominee list, our student choice award for grades K-2.












#5 - Masterpiece by Broach.
Another one on our Battle of the Books list.


#4 - Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise.


#3 - Sidekicks by Dan Santat.
This popular graphic novel is on the Bluestem Award Nominee list, our student choice award from grades 3-5.


#2 - The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli
Another Monarch Award Nominee and I think this has a good chance of winning the Monarch vote at Prospect!













 And the book that has been checked out the most in November and December was....
The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths!
This series is approaching Wimpy Kid  status here! :) I need to buy more copies of #2 and #3.

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday

We will be reading the book Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming for our One Book, One School book at my school. I recently re-read that and am making a bookmark of suggested family read alouds after they Finish Lowji. 

I was hoping to come up with more books about a character who wanted a pet. I had a hard time coming up with some!
This is the list I came up with.  A few of them do have to do with a human character and his or her animal friend or desire to get a pet, and others I just put on the list because I think they would be good family read alouds:

• Adventures of a South Pole Pig by Kurtz
• Because of Winn-Dixie by DiCamillo
• Crenshaw by DiCamillo 
• Everything for a Dog by Ann M. Martin
• The Magic Thief by Prunes 
• Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Grimes 
• Masterpiece by Broach 
• Mr. Lemoncello’s Olympics by Chris Grabenstein 
• Nuts to You by Perkins 
• The Penderwicks by Birdsall 
• Project Mulberry by Park 
• Ranger in Time (series) by Messner 
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Blume 
• Toys Go Out by Jenkins 
• The Year of the Dog by Lin 
• The Year of Billy Miller by Henkes

While trying to compile this list, I read Everything for a Dog for the first time, and I enjoyed it. This is a parallel novel to Martin's A Dog's Life (which I now need to read). It is told from several different points of view and time periods. The story begins with Bone, an abandon dog, who gets separated from his sister Squirrel and ends up wandering the countryside season after season, picking food from garbage piles and searching for a permanent home. The second point of view is of a boy named Charlie who is struggling to find normalcy after his older brother dies. He is comforted by his family dog, Sunny. Finally, we meet Henry, a boy who year after year asks for a dog and everything for a dog on his Christmas list. He tries, unsuccessfully, to convince his parents that he's responsible enough to care for one. His heart aches with a hole that will only be filled by a furry friend.
In the end, all three stories are connected in a beautiful way.  I would recommend this story to anyone who likes dog stories. Be warned that there are some very sad moments but it does have a happy ending. 

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday

I've been listening to The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove.
I thought it had a slow start and it took me a little while to get into, but then it picked up and I didn't want to stop reading! It takes place in an alternate reality where the world is separated by different "ages." Sophie, who lives with her famed mapmaker uncle Shadrack, arrives home one day to find their house ransacked, her uncle kidnapped, and their secret map room—housing mystical maps containing memories—emptied of all of its treasures. Sophia sets out on an epic journey to find her uncle, with the help of a boy from the West. She meets pirates, raiders, princesses, and dangerous creatures along the way.
This is a hefty book - 528 pages, and reviews rate it 6th grade and up, but I purchased it for my K-5 library. There wasn't anything that I would consider inappropriate for an intense fantasy novel.

I also read The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems by Lauren Myracle. This is a fun early chapter book about a 7-year-old boy named Ty.  There are some new and scary things going on in his life, including the arrival of a new baby sister. Ty wants to love his little sister, and he does - but suddenly his mom doesn't seem to love him anymore.  Ty reminded me of Ramona a bit, or Clementine, he tries so hard to be good, but sometimes it's hard to control yourself. That's what happens when he  manages to take a penguin from an aquarium during a class trip. I think first and second graders will love this story!

AASL Conference: Experience. Education. Evolution

Earlier this fall I had the opportunity to attend the AASL Conference in Columbus, Ohio. This was my first AASL Conference and I had a blast! I'll admit I was a bit starstruck by all the authors and "famous" librarians - movers and shakers like Diana Rendina of Renovated Learning and Matthew Winner or the Let's Get Busy Podcast and All the Wonders.
Even though it was about a month ago, I'm still processing some of what I learned there! I definitely came away with an overall feeling of passion for books and my profession as a librarian.

Here is a link to the session handouts: http://www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab/aasl15-handouts

Some of my favorite sessions were:

• Transitional Chapter Books for Beginning Readers, Shannon Hale, Sara Pennypacker, and Troy Cummings. This is the second time I heard Shannon Hale in the past year and she is spot on and engaging!
• Illustrated Fiction: Blending Visuals With Narratives to Draw Students In, with Nick Bruel, Maggie Stiefvater, Jon Klassen and Kenneth Oppel! I can't wait to read Kenneth Oppel and Jon Klassen's new chapter book, The Nest (and luckily, I snagged a copy in the exhibit hall!)
• Makerspaces and Libraries: How to Bring Some STEAM into Your Program, with Diana Rendina. One of my take-aways from her session was do your research, find your focus, get others on board and include student input! And, just do it! You can think about and plan for a Makerspace for a while (years even), but you just need to get started and see where it takes you. You can
• Beyond School Visits: Making Virtual Connections with Authors and Illustrators. Matthew Winner was the moderator for this amazing line-up of authors: Loren Long, Matthew Cordell, Jonathan Auxier, Rafeal Rosado, Marc Tyler Nobelman, and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
• Elementary Library Centers with my new friend Edie Crook and Carolyn Vibbert. Their presentation can be found on Carolyn's Blog, Risking Failure. 
• Elementary Media Literacy with Nancy Jo Lambert.
• The Power of Pictures Books with Kevin Henkes, Steve Light, Sophie Blackall and Sean Qualls.

I also loved meeting authors in the exhibit hall, Meet and Greet Author Time (Author Speed Dating) , Brian Selznick's keynote, and the Author Breakfast! I'd love to go again to the next AASL Conference in 2017!

With Jon Klassen

Kevin Henkes, Sean Qualls, Sophie Blackall and Steve Light

New friends Elizabeth Graham, Nancy Jo Lambert, and Edie Crook

Eric Rohmann and Candace Fleming

Matthew Cordell

Josephine Angelini, Rae Carson, Kate Messner, Colleen Gleason and Sabaa Tahir.

Sharon Draper

Book stash I came away with!

Fun times in Columbus!