Tales from a Loud Librarian

For Teen Tech Week , I wanted to create some kind of contest where I would provide a grand prize. The contest would be designed to have students submit some sort of written piece, and then I would randomly draw two names for the grand prize winners, one from middle school and one from high school. I like the idea that the winners are selected randomly and that just by entering the contest all students had an equal chance to win. Thinking about it, I decided that I would ask the kids to submit a review of a book, movie, or game that they would like to recommend to their friends. I gave wide parameters of what they could review. The students had to submit one paragraph with a brief summary and one paragraph explaining why they would recommend the book, movie or game to their friends. I created a Google form for them to submit, so it was easy to share on the library website and in emails. The students chose from new and old and below is a pie chart showing what they chose to review. It w...

The following book review was written by a member of Bookmarked, the high school book group at PFTSTA. This book is geared to 8-12 year olds, but as you can see the reviewer Michaela, who is 14, is a big fan of the story. Edge, Christopher. Twelve Minutes to Midnight. Albert Whitman. March 2014. tr. $16.99 ISBN 9780807581339  The blood-curdling tales in the magazine, The Penny Dreadful , are taking London by storm. No one expects the author to be thirteen year old Penelope Tredwell, who writes under the pen name of Montgomery Flinch. She seems to have the city in the palm of her hand. One day, she gets a letter from the Bedlam psychiatric hospital asking for Montgomery Flinch's help in a mysterious case. Each night, at exactly twelve minutes to midnight, the patients rise from their beds in a trance like state. They maniacally write continuous ramblings of gibberish. However, Penelope soon discovers that these writings are much more than gibberish. They are predicti...

Creating a Chirbit  The middle school English teachers and I are always trying to encourage the students to have a book that they enjoy reading at hand. We want them to find what they like to read. That may mean finding an author who speaks to them so that they want to read everything by the author or finding a genre that speaks to them so that they can find books with similar themes. One of the sixth grade girls has gone dragon crazy and is trying to read everything that I have related to dragons in both fiction and non-fiction. She is a big reader and will probably run out of books in the PFTSTA Library pretty soon. To inspire the students to find books that excite them, the 6th grade teachers and I cooked up an activity that would motivate the students to read and provide book advertising in the library, too.  Student is listening to a book talk captured with a QR code on the iPod Each student in the class was asked to read a book that they liked and create a...

Bookmarked, the high school library book group at PFTSTA, recently finished its gig reading and reviewing books for the online newsletter from School Library Journal called, SLJTeen . The students have been submitting reviews twice a month for the last 18 months. You can read all those reviews here:  http://sqworl.com/thwdxz .  Since the students are still reading books pre-publication that the publishers are sending to us, I thought that I could post their book reviews here. Students self-select the books that they want to review from the ones sent to us by the publishers. All of their opinions about the books and authors are their own. The teen reader loved the alternate history presented in  The Inventor's Secret  by Andrea Cremer,  who visited PFTSTA in 2012 . The next book,  Freak City   by Kathrin Schrocke, was first published in Germany several years ago, but it's initial publication in the US is January 2014.  CREMER, Andr...

Click here to read my article Click here to read all five teen reviews It has been a great run, but the December 18th edition of SLJTeen was Bookmarked's last contribution to the twice a month newsletter. I was pleased that we could end with a bang. The students submitted five reviews , and I wrote an article to say goodbye . In the reviews, you will find a student reviewed Noggin by John Corey Whaley; the same book that I reviewed in the December 4th edition . I hate to admit it, but I think that Vy nailed it better than I did. Click the links above to read the student's reviews and my swan song.  Click here to read my review of Noggin

                          Click the above image to enlarge and read I hadn't read the amazing description about me that Dodie had written in this week's edition of  SLJTeen  until I received an email from a fellow librarian. She was sending me kudos about something that I hadn't even seen. Dodie, you had me floored. I just don't think of myself in that way. I do what I do to provide the best library program that I can physically do for the students at Patrick Taylor. The fact that I love it is a big plus in my book, and I realize this is not a given. It also helps to have supportive administrators, faculty members and parents, too.  The students were a little light this week with their reviews for SLJTeen . So Dodie and I had an opportunity to wax eloquent about some books that we have been reading. Though I write in this blog regularly, which means I am published on the web, it s...

                                                                        Bookmarked will be ending its run as the resident teen book review group for the bi-weekly online newsletter,  SLJTeen,   in December. If you enjoy these reviews by my teens, don't despair because I will be posting reviews from them in this blog. Watch when I tweet out those reviews, or just be sure to visit this blog every now and then to find out what the teens are reading and what they think about those books. You can see by the four book covers pictured here which books were reviewed this past week.  Read the November 20th edition of SLJTeen here . 

When I asked the members of Bookmarked if anyone would be able to contribute to this week's SLJTeen , it was like pulling teeth. Sometimes the students get so overwhelmed with studies that they do not have time to read anything new. The president of Bookmarked realized that she needed to step up to the plate. So she chose a short book that was written in verse. She knew that she could read the book and get a review in to me in time. She is not a big fan of historical fiction, well, none of my students really are. You will be surprised by her review of Mariko Nagai's newest book . Another student was in her sick bed but was able to send me a review of Megan Miranda's thriller, Hysteria . The student didn't realize that the book's publication date was over six months ago. We try to submit SLJTeen reviews for books that have not been published yet. I have four students who promise me reviews for the next issue. SLJTeen is letting us go at the end of...

In this week's edition of SLJTeen , four teens had their reviews published. The members of Boomarked are fans of a variety of genres and styles of writing. Find some of what they liked by opening the link here .

The members of Bookmarked only have a couple of months left to read and write reviews for the online newsletter, SLJTeen , from School Library Journal . We started this gig in June of 2012 and will submit our last review at the end of December. Until then, enjoy two new reviews here . 

School as been in full swing for a month and a half, and new books have been pouring in from the publishers. The students have been ecstatic with the new arrivals. Here are four reviews of the newest works from some established authors: open here to read the teen's reviews . 

In the September 4th edition of SLJTeen , two teens write about authors that they adore. Fred got to meet Gina Damico, author of Rogue , when she visited PFTSTA in the fall of 2012 . He was jumping up and down all over the library when the third book in her series arrived. You can read his review to see if it met his expectations. Destiny loooooooves Rainbow Rowell, and she eagerly grabbed Fangirl when she saw the ARC in one of the boxes from the publishers. Read her review to find out if her love affair with all books by Rowell continues. Paris writes about After Eden by Helen Douglas. You can find all three reviews right here . 

Laurie Halse Anderson visits PFTSTA in November 2010 I have been a book reviewer for both School Library Journal and Library Media Connection  for 18 months. Once I started writing those reviews, I have rarely put a book review in this blog. For this week's edition of SLJTeen , I was lucky enough to have my review of Laurie Halse Anderson's new book included along with a  teen review of Toffler-Corrie's new book,  My Totally Awkward Supernatural Crush . Okay, we needed to fill in the review space because I got only one review submitted to me by a teen, but it worked out for the best because I was asked by the publisher if quotes from my review can be used for publicity. I don't think that I have ever been quoted before. Open here to read the reviews .

When the summer temps hit the 90s in southern Louisiana, everything slows down. The members of Bookmarked are still writing reviews for SLJTeen , but this week only two students submitted reviews. Maybe the heat will give the students a chance to stay inside where it is cool and read some of the many ARCs that they brought home for the summer. Click here to find the reviews .

Find a new novel to read each month of the summer with this trio of titles reviewed by members of Bookmarked here in the June 5th edition of the online newsletter, SLJTeen . I was pleased to find out that Destiny B. was as big a fan of The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider as I was. I read and reviewed it for School Library Journal (SLJ). It was the very first book in over a year of reviewing for SLJ that I recommended for a star review. Most of what I am sent to read, I don't particular like. This one was different. I thought it was a great read. My review has not been published yet, so I can't share it with you here, but I sure hope that SLJ will star it like Kirkus did. That option is totally up to the editors.

May 15th was suppose to be the last time that Bookmarked members were going to be published in SLJTeen . Our editor, Dodie Ownes, months and months ago asked me if the group would continue to write for the on-line newsletter. It is stressful meeting deadlines, but the students were all for it. They thought it was an honor to be asked. If the reviews were not written so well, they would not have been invited to keep going. Here are the latest reviews from Bookmarked . They will continue to write over the summer. You can find a link to all of the reviews written since May of 2012 here.  

Check out the reviews that members of Bookmarked wrote for the April 30th edition of SLJTeen .  Open here to read the reviews .