Would you read this...

So, I read this review of a book on the Reading Rants blog. It's called Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia. Based on this review from Reading Rants and these from Goodreads (one of my favorite book-review sites), would you read the book? Would you be excited about it?

Mitali Perkins on literature and race...

Mitali Perkins, author of one of my favorite books, Monsoon Summer (it's set in Berkeley!!!), wrote an article for the School Library Journal about her experiences with reading and her culture growing up. Read it here:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6647713.html

Enjoy!

Step right up for some new John Green action...

Hot off the presses, the new John Green book, Paper Towns, has hit the HNHS library shelves.

John Green also wrote other fan favorites, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. We have all of these in the HNHS library!




Paper Towns by John Green

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. As usual, John Green writes good boy-nerd characters and humanizes the heck out of everyone, jocks and nerds alike. Good job, John. But, I have to agree with other reviews that say "what happened to the end?" I was surely expecting a much more dramatic conclusion to what was a very dramatic mystery and search. All we got was an unshowered girl with a laptop and a little teeny bit of mediocre soul searching. I didn't need a dramatically emotional reunion (ok, maybe I did), but what about a little more something. Overall, enjoyable and entertaining... not bad.


View all my reviews.

I'm a Shover and Maker... are you?

after a hiatus of sorts...

Hello. Ms. Haverstock is back. I have been reading a lot, but most of the record of that is on Goodreads. That being said, I wanted to share my latest review here. I read Red: Teenage Girls Write on What Fires Them Up Today. It could be something that one of you HNHS students would like or would identify with... check it out (gosh, I love this library pun).

Red: Teenage Girls Write On What Fires Up Their Lives Today by Amy Goldwasser

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This collection was not as mind-blowing as I would have liked it to be. Given that, there were a few really great pieces of writing, some great stories and a lot of sweet (and sad) self-expression. How rad would it be to be 15 and a published author?! Teenagers are thoughtful (duh!). I would have liked to see more diversity of voices especially in light of the author's mention of diversity in the introduction. Overall, it was fine.


View all my reviews.

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama - The Big Picture - Boston.com

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Posted using ShareThis

Just in time for exams...

Use it with care... may inspire studying or saving the world.


This was originally posted at: Best Week Ever

Grown-ups and copyright: Emily the Strange...

Today when doing my regular bloggy reading, I came across some information about our dear friend, Emily the Strange. Whether you like her or not, you should know that according to this blog, she was copied from an earlier book, Nate the Great and the Lost List. So, the people who originally created this character have gotten neither credit for their creation nor any of the big bucks that the creator of Emily the Strange has earned from her merchandise sales AND upcoming movie sales.

What do you think about this? What do you think should happen to the creator of Emily the Strange? How should the original author and illustrator be compensated?

My wishes were answered...

This is funny, library-related AND appropriate.

Libraries featured...

I am always on the lookout for library or book related bands, music videos, music lyrics, Youtube videos, etc. So far, I know about Harry and the Potters, the Belle and Sebastian album Books, the band the Books, Green Day's song At the Library and many, many more. Here's the Green Day video.


Help me find some more!

Yellow Jackets

Wednesday night a teeny group of HNHS students and I went to see the play Yellow Jackets at the Berkeley Rep. It was a fabulous experience. The play was thought provoking and definitely great to see a second time. The issues were fairly universal for anyone who works in or attends a school in the Bay Area with incredible diversity. Each of the characters had strong personalities and points about the experiences they were having. The range of topics raised ran from the Holocaust to tracking in schools to institutional racism. Whew. Heavy. It sparked great conversation with the students.

The best part came when we stalked the actors after the show. They were generous with their time and talked with us for at least a half an hour.

If any students out there want to come next time come see me in the library. If we can get 10 students to go, the tickets will only be $15!

This one goes out to the librarians...

Hey BAISL-ers... Here's the link to Hecka Tight Reads with Rachel and Julia.

Review sources mentioned:
Some are librarians, some are young readers, some are less young readers... all are interesting. In my further exploration of this, there are many, many folks out there blogging about YA fiction. Reviewer X has a GIANT list of these folks' blogs on her blogroll. Other folks do as well. These are the ones that I follow regularly in my Google Reader and like. Explore at will!

Favorite Teenage Angstbooks: Book Reviews
Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!
The YA YA YAs
Alternative Teen Services » YA Books
Crazy Quilts
ALAN Online
hiplibrariansbookblog.blog-city.com
YA or STFU
Bookshelves of Doom
The Chick Manifesto
Young Adult Book Bloggers

Here are the two student review blogs:
Reviewer X
And Another Book Read
WORD for teens

The Library of Congress and Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is one of my favorites. I think because my dad is a fan and the music reminds me of him. So, news of note today is that the Library of Congress has honored Stevie with the Gershwin Prize.
As some of you juniors know, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and holds most of the books published in the United States. It also has amazing collections of photographs, maps and manuscripts. Many of the photos from the Library of Congress can be viewed on Flickr.com. The library was established 208 years ago in 1800 by President John Adams. To read more about it go here to the history section of the LOC webpage.

Food for thought... literally.

So, in all my blog reading, I came across this great article about school lunches and trash. Think for a minute about your lunches whether you buy them here or bring them from home. How much do you throw away after each one? What things do you re-use? Then read the article. What can you do to reduce the amount of trash you throw away every day?!

Welcome back, welcome back...welcome back!

Hello all you studious students. Welcome back to school! I hope your summers were fabulous and relaxing. Don't forget to check back here for all kinds of snazzy library or school-related links and fun facts.
Cheers,
Ms. Haverstock

the end of the year!

So, today is the second to last day of the 2007-2008 school year. You all will be happy to know that I finally got my cataloging software to cooperate and I have no lingering books checked out! Thank you to everyone who made this year great for the library and thank you all for checking out books!

One final link to share with you as the year draws to a close. Yesterday I found this great site called Today in Literature. Each day, the site offers a story and a picture about a significant person or work of literature. Today's entry is about the death of Anne Bronte, the sister of those other, slightly more famous authors who wrote Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Enjoy!

And more importantly, enjoy the summer!

Tomorrow is Earth Day!

What can we (you) do? Go here to the Earth Day Network's website to find out what's going on around the world. Around the East Bay there are many things to do. Here's a few:

• Habitat for Humanity's Build-a-thon
• Read about Earth Day happenings in Castro Valley
• UC Berkeley is hosting Earth Week
• watch KQED's Earth Day special on Quest
• Go to the Aquarium of the Bay for special Earth Day events!

Do it!

Poetry prize awesomeness.

I love poetry, but don't usually spend much time reading it. When I do, it usually really connects with something in my heart. There's something about being able to capture a feeling or an experience in so few words and for those words to have the power to evoke similar feelings in the reader. There is great power in that.

Here's a prize winning poem by unpublished poet Polly Atkin. I ran across it today in an article in the Guardian, a British newspaper. How does the description of the surroundings on each day make YOU feel?

Seven Nights of Uncreation

On the first night I woke up deep underwater,
dry as a fish-bone in the belly of a ship,
the heavy silence below the water-line
punctured by crackings like timbers or bones
smashing to splinters on unseen rocks.
I was blind, trapped. Utterly lost.

On the second a glimmer of pinkish light
showed pillars rising from lengthening sides
to meet in the curve of the ceiling like arches.
Something within me could tell without asking
that these were the ribs of a monstrous creature,
the platform I stood on, its lung.

On the third night the taste of the dark was different;
I felt right at once I was deep underground
with the weight of the wet earth driving me down,
the metallic blood-tang of hewn rock in my mouth
and a prescient knowledge I'd never get out.
I was buried, the cave was a tomb.

By the fourth night of this I was wary of dreams,
the days between blinking, plagued by impressions
I did not recall from the nights' haunting visions,
but knew from their otherness they were the same.
I arrived just like home on a wide open plain,
but the wind spoke in alien tongues.

On the fifth night I rose to the ridge of a hill,
my eyes fixed by chance to a passage below,
where a sad slow procession wound its way north
into shadow, hung over the land like a hawk.
I felt it important to watch, but the wind
and the rain relieved me of sight.

On the six night I fell into nothing. Nothing
smothered me, crushing and crowding around,
everywhere, blankness rubbing me out
inch by inch, until I was nothing. I stuttered,
coughed when I tried to speak.
When I tried to scream I was mute.

The seventh night was a night of rest.
I crouched awake til the birds' dawn chorus,
hearing them singing to hours of darkness,
thinking I'm them; I am just like the birds,
tricked into ludicrous song by illusion,
tricked to believe in the false dawn light.

On the dawn of the eighth day I unlocked my limbs,
and stepped into a new life.

Totally rad library video!

urban myths...

In the interest of being a good librarian who asks students and people in general to check their sources before they pass on information, here is a link to a site that helps you do just that. You know those pesky email forwards that have stories about things like missing children or certain politicians and their dirty deeds, well, here's a wealth of information that will help you discern if these are true or not. Thanks to Mrs. Mandujano for passing it on.