I LOVE MY LIBRARIAN AWARD

STILL TIME FOR LIBRARY USERS TO NOMINATE LIBRARIANS FOR 2009 CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK/NEW YORK TIMES I LOVE MY LIBRARIAN AWARD

Nominations are still open for the 2009 Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award.

The award invites library users to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community. Nominations will run through October 9 and are being accepted online at www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

Up to 10 librarians will be selected. Each will receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and a $500 travel stipend to attend an awards ceremony and reception in New York, hosted by The New York Times in December. In addition, a plaque will be given to each award winner’s library.

Each nominee must be a librarian with a master’s degree from a program accredited by the ALA in library and information studies or a master’s degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Nominees must be currently working in the United States in a public library, a library at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or at an accredited K-12 school.

Nominees will be judged by a selection committee based on quality of service to library users, demonstrated knowledge of the library and its resources and commitment shown in helping library users.

Adolescent Literacy

A September 21 post to YALSA's listserv:

According to a new report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, adolescent literacy is a cornerstone of the current education reform movement, upon which efforts such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) should be built.

The capstone report of the Carnegie Council for Advancing Adolescent Literacy, Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Readiness (108 pages, PDF), notes that although U.S. students in grade four score among the best in the world in reading achievement, by grade ten they score among the lowest in the world. To combat this trend, the report recommends that the U.S. education system give teachers literacy-focused instructional tools and formative assessments, encourage schools and districts to collect and use information about student literacy performance more efficiently, and call upon state-level leaders to maximize the use of limited resources for literacy efforts in a strategic way. The report can be accessed at http://carnegie.org/literacy/tta/pdf/tta_Main.pdf

Reading in the Disciplines: The Challenges of Adolescent Literacy, a companion report to Carnegie's Time to Act, focuses on the specific skills and literacy support needed for reading in academic subject areas in higher grades. The report outlines strategies for teaching content knowledge and reading strategies together. It can be accessed at http://carnegie.org/literacy/tta/pdf/tta_Lee.pdf

Preview the new Pooh book online

Publisher Penguin Putnam has posted the first chapter of the new Winnie-the-Pooh book, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.

Since Pooh's creator, A.A. Milne has been gone for over 50 years, it is obviously not written by him. Author David Benedictus tries really hard to get that Pooh feeling right, but how can you recreate something with such easy charm?

Regardless, it is winsome to get the chance to reconnect with those beloved characters again -- in a non-Disney manner. Hooray for this newest expotition into the world of Christopher Robin and Pooh.

Growing a Reader

I love this post, from Josie Leavitt, a blogger for Publisher's Weekly.

Growing a Reader
March 22, 2010
One of the absolute joys in owning a bookstore is the kids. I’m especially fond of three-and-four-year-olds who have embraced reading to such a degree that want to share their newfound love with everyone, including stuffed animals.

We have a bin of stuffies (as some kids call them now) in the picture book section that kids love to go through. Often the kids will just play with the toys, but every once in a while I see them carefully setting up the toys with books in their little stuffed laps. We have one little boy who is read to constantly by his parents and he comes in with his father about once a week or so. Young Finn is perfectly content in picture books by himself.

Someone donated three rather large dragon animals to us, and they are a favorite of Finn’s. He sets them up in the three kid-sized chairs in a circle. Then he carefully selects a book for each dragon to read. One dragon was reading a book about dragons, of course, I was told. The other two each had very different books:the red dragon had a fairy tale book and the blue dragon was reading a short truck book.

What was so revealing and lovely, was how Finn turned the pages for each dragon, retrieved fallen books and generally wanted to make sure each dragon had a satisfying and rewarding reading experience. Finn can’t read yet, but he was making up stories, mostly to the dragon reading the dragon book. I was charmed to pieces and only wish I was able to get a picture of Finn with the dragons, but he got very shy.

The care, and almost reverence, this little boy has with books was so touching. He wanted to share his love of story with anyone who would listen, and in our busy store it meant dragons. At his house, I’m sure the dog gets many books set out by his bed.

Finn’s behavior speaks to a household that loves books. He sees both parents, especially his stay at home dad, reading all the time. He is read to constantly. This simple act, sharing a story with a child, has an amazing ripple effect. These parents have grown a reader. And in turn, our stuffed animals have a reading buddy.

Valentine's Day Story Time

Painting rocks was lots of fun, but get ready for Tuesday, February 8th's story time because the entire story time will be devoted to Valentine's Day. We are going to make Valentine cards, snack on cookies, and read Valentine stories.

Last week we read Guido Van Genechtens book, No Ghost Under My Bed. Read the book to find out if this little penguin actually has a ghost in his room, conveniently at bedtime.

Want to see a cute Sumatran orangutan baby or how about a baby aardvark named Amani? Then check out Zoo Borns! by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland.

We also read, Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak . A rumpus, a king, and wild things. It does not get much better than that!

Springing Into Action

Valentine's Day story time was a hit. The kids stamped, colored, and glued to their hearts delight. They made beautiful cards to give away. Instead of cookies, we gobbled up red and pink cupcakes. Yummy! And just as delicious, we gobbled up two funny books, Banana! By Ed Vere and Can I Play Too? By Mo Willems.

Next week's story time is a mystery. I will have all new picture books to share, but I am keeping the craft a mystery. Hmm, what will i find in my craft box next? Come to story time to find out. :-)

Spring is just around the corner- that means I will be looking for new nature crafts to make, and spring theme picture books to share.

Join the fun every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in the Carnegie Room.

Carol

If You Love Books...

Come check out the Emergent Reader Story Time. Tuesday we read four fun books, starting with A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper by Nate LeBoutillier, think you know everything a zookeeper does in one day? You might be surprised to find out just how much a zookeeper does! To find out the most interesting facts about animals then you should read Out of Sight by Pittau & Gervais. Did you know pigs are good swimmers? Neither did I, this is just one of the amazing facts you'll discover in this book. And what else besides a fly will an old lady swallow, let me give you a hint, they rhyme with course, hat, and log! Read, Taback Simms' book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, to finish this riddle. So just who will be delivering your next pizza? And what would you say if a cat delivered your pizza? The crowd favorite goes to Virginia Walters' book, Hi, Pizza Man! -Carol