Often we think about giving something up for Lent, but it can be very meaningful to take something new up as well. How about reading together as a family each morning or night? If you'd like something with a Catholic theme, we have a lot to offer in our school library. I've been talking to the kids about how we are lucky to have a big 200s (Religion) section in our NDA Library. Here are some examples of our books: Please stop in or send me an email if you'd like to borrow a book or two during Lent. I'm happy to help!
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Have comics been making their way into your house lately? Well, they might not technically be comic books. They might be graphic novels. The term graphic novel was first coined by Will Eisner in 1978 when he published his book-length comic, A Contract with God. The format began earning mainstream attention and respect when Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his graphic novel, Maus. Since the early 2000's, graphic novel sales have been growing, the books have been finding their way into schools at all levels, and teachers and librarians have come to appreciate their value. Graphic novels are great for building visual literacy skills, motivation to read, and student confidence in their reading ability. Many kids who struggle with traditional texts find that they excel in reading graphic novels. The reverse can be true too, as some strong readers find that they have to work extra hard to comprehend graphic novels. If you'd like to learn a bit more about the history and value of graphic novels. check out this infographic that I made last fall. In the fall, the fifth graders came in clamoring for more graphic novels and we have been slowly but surely adding to our our graphic novel collection. The Amulet series has been a big hit, and we've added titles from Zita the Spacegirl to The Monster on the Hill to The Odyssey (yes, graphic novel versions of many classics have been created!). If you'd like help finding great graphic novels, try one of the following websites listed below, or get in touch with me! No Flying No Tights Good Comics for Kids (a School Library Journal Blog) I mean your favorite Dewey Decimal number, of course. Is it 398.2 for folktales or are you more of a 796 (sports) fan? The past couple of weeks, the students in kindergarten through fifth grade have become more familiar with the organization of our library by learning about the Dewey Decimal classification system. I do not require the students to memorize all of the categories (or neighborhoods), but I do want them to get a sense of where some of their favorite subjects are located. Kids who are fascinated by different vehicles should know that they can find what they are looking for in the 600s (Applied Science and Technology) while those who enjoy poetry need to know where the 800s (Literature) are located. We have been busy this week creating posters for each category to help us know where to look when we want a book on a particular subject (see the gallery below of third and fourth graders at work). I hope you had fun searching for the items on the Dewey See It bookmark! This week, members of the Student Council have been busy counting and packing books that were left over from NDA's Fall Used Book Sale. After the sale, Cece Golinvaux came to me to propose donating the books to Read Indeed, an organization with which she had volunteered before. This Minnesota-based non-profit literacy organization, started by 13 year-old Maria Keller, distributes books to kids in need near and far. Check out the Read Indeed website to find out more. Thank you to the members of Student Council and to Mrs. Golinvaux, who have given their time in service to NDA and Read Indeed!
Have you seen the New Books feature on the Home Page? I recently added this slide show to call attention to some of the beautiful new books we have received in the past couple of months. The books that we have added to the NDA collection this year have come from family and parishioner donations and from the funds raised at our Barnes and Noble Book Fair in the fall. We will have more new books coming in from Scholastic soon because of your generous patronage of the the Scholastic Bookfair. Thank you so much! Of course there are still more books out there that I'd love to make available to the students, so I'll continue to maintain the Wish List on the Friends page. I also appreciate the student and teacher suggestions for which books to add to the collection. Always feel free to tell me if you know about a great book or series that could be enjoyed by your friends at school. On January 27th, the American Library Association announced the winners of the 2014 Youth Media Awards. This year, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo won the Newbery Medal for "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature". This is Ms. DiCamillo's third Newbery Medal (she also won for The Tale of Desperaux and received a Newbery Honor for Because of Winn-Dixie) and it is her second major honor this year, as she was named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature in January. The following four books received the Newbery Honor this year: Doll Bones (Holly Black), The Year of Billy Miller (Kevin Henkes), Paperboy (Vince Vawter), and One Came Home (Amy Timberlake). The 2014 Caldecott Medal, for "the most distinguished American picture book for children" went to Brian Floca's Locomotive. Three books received Caldecott Honors: Mr. Wuffles! by David Weisner, Journey by Aaron Becker, and Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle. We will soon have copies of all of these award winners available for checkout in the library! Currently, each library has a display of winners from previous years. Look for the medals on the books your students bring home. If you're interested in the winners of the other ALA Youth Media Awards, such as the Pura Belpré award or the Coretta Scott King award, see the press release on the ALA website Let us know if you were rooting for a particular book for the Caldecott or Newbery in a comment to this post. Personally, I loved Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown and The Day the Crayons Quit illustrated by Oliver Jeffers and written by Drew Daywalt. Besides Flora and Ulysses, I was also rooting for The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. As you can see by the photos in the gallery below, NDA students had a lot of fun looking at books and finding good new reads to take home from our Scholastic Bookfair. Thank you to all of you who stopped in during Bingo Blizzard - What an exciting night! Despite the cold temperatures which threatened to derail our class visits, we were able to get all students through the fair during the school day the following week. This was only possible due to the patience and flexibility of the teachers and volunteers, so a huge thank you goes out to all of them! In the end, our sales were up over last year and many, many kids, teachers, and parents found new books to love. Leave a note in the comments if you'd like to share a good book that you found at the fair.
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