Nerds Heart YA!

Hey there blog readers!

Ms. Haverstock is participating in her first ever book reviewing/judging process!

Check out the button in the sidebar to see the shortlist and learn more about the contest. Here's a link to the shortlist of the books that are under consideration. I am in the first round of judging. I am super excited about the role I get to play in evaluating these books!

Check back here to keep up with what is going on!

Book lists!

Another booklist... I keep posting these booklists and links to blogs about books because I think that is what could attract people to read. I guess I like lists and I hope that other people do too. Enjoy!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/apr/04/cat-clarke-top-10-teens


-Ms. H

Hunger Games casting nominations...

I read blogs, library blogs, librarian blogs, book review blogs. I think I have mentioned this before. In my mornings reading, I came across another link to a discussion of the casting of the upcoming movie based on the book the Hunger Games. So, the issue is that the person cast in the movie role as the character, Katniss, may not/probably will not look the way she was described by the author in the book. An article from the blog, Jezebel says this:

"Those who read The Hunger Games slowly enough to savor its descriptive language know that Suzanne Collins gives her heroine "olive" skin, grey eyes, and dark hair. Katniss' looks in the novel are typical of her fellow residents in "The Seam," an impoverished area populated by coal-miners like her deceased dad. The wealthier merchant class, including Katniss's mom and sister, generally are described with fair hair and skin." Other blog and internet folks are predicting who will be cast and rumors are flying.

The main point is that the women in the running for the Katniss role have lighter skin and lighter hair and are not a person of color. Are the movie decision makers whitewashing this character, casting a Caucasian person when it seems obvious that the character would be a person of color? Read the blog discussions. There are more here and here and here and here. Remember, these are blogs and they are opinions, but they could be interesting to think about.

In a fit of inspiration this morning in response to reading all about it and thinking about it, the HNHS Library decided to run a little contest. Who would you cast as the different characters in the Hunger Games? Here are some suggestions from The Film Stage, another blog. Who didn't they think of that you would like to see on screen?

You can nominate the actors you would like to see in the different characters' roles on the poster outside the library. Once we have received all nominations, I will make up an online ballot and we can all vote!

Keep thinking!
Ms. Haverstock

library magic...

About once every couple of years or so, I create a library video using Animoto. It doesn't get used for much, but maybe I will put it on the library homepage. Delightful!

Holidays and books...

Happy Holidays from the HNHS Library!
In my daily reading, I have come across lots more best of 2010 lists of great books. I have used these lists to compile the HNHS Library's wish-list on Amazon.com.

If you would like to purchase a gift for the HNHS Library, click the link above. The book will be conveniently shipped right to the school! You can dedicate the book to a current student or to an alum. The book will then receive a bookplate with the student's name and graduation date.

Best of...

The Best of 2010 lists are starting to come out. The variety of these lists are a really cool way for me to do some collection development. There are lots of diverse groups producing the lists... teachers, students, librarians, library organizations, award committees, publishing companies and that makes for interesting review reading. The first of the lists on my radar is the Kirkus Review's 2010 Best Books for Teens.

The others that I watch for are:

Cybils
Michael Printz Award
National Book Award
Booker Prize
Teen's Top Ten
Alex Awards

With the exception of the Alex Awards, I am often a bit skeptical of wholesale acceptance of award winning books. I know librarians are trained in most things book-ish and publishers do the book-ish thing for a living but I also know that these people are not teenagers (nor am I). I like recommendations from people who the books are intended for. That is why I am always also on the look out for teen reviewers.

If you want to be a reviewer for library books and you happen to fall between the ages of 13 and 19, email me and let me know! HNHS students and otherwise are welcome!

Amazing library post of the year!!!

Hello everyone! The HNHS librarian is back in action. After a lengthy hiatus, I am back with lots of interesting library-related links to share. Here's a couple of fun ones for starters:

Awful Library Books: this blog is dedicated to all the awful library books that we librarians remove diligently from the shelves. Haven't you seen that one about atomic war from the 1950's? What about those teen advice books with pictures of girls in plaid knee socks? Be gone! But first, take a photo of the cover and send it to this blog so that we may all chuckle at our past.

The Travelin' Librarian: this blog entertains with ridiculous cartoons about libraries and librarians (what high school student doesn't love those?). There are other interesting posts with snarky library videos and some informative stuff about what to do if you want to be a librarian.

If you are curious about what I do all day, a lot of what I do all day is read book reviews and blogs to figure out the best way to teach you about research and to find the BEST books for you to read. Some of the blogs I read for that are:

Brown Paper: this blog is written by an Southeast Asian Canadian person who reviews books written by people of color. She reviews books from a person of color perspective which I find extremely valuable.

Reading in Color: similarly, this blog author is a person of color AND she's a teenager. So her thoughts and opinions about books are especially extra cool. I seek these people out because they do a great job of helping me find books that reflect the incredible diversity here at HNHS. This is really important for me to do for you all. It's good to have variety.

Here are some other blogs I read regularly:

• Reviewer X: awesome international YA reviewer.
• Librarian in Black: technology in libraries... lots of links to new products and 2.0 things.
• Blue Skunk Blog: a blog specifically about school libraries.

The moral of the story: I read a lot!

Happy almost four-day weekend!
-Ms. Haverstock

YA through the decades....

Woohoo! Ms. Haverstock is participating her first book challenge! For those of you that don't know librarians and other book-y sorts of people like to dork out about different nerdy things one of which is books. We like to challenge each other to do things like read. Imagine that. Here are the rules for this one:

"Rules:

1. Books should be considered YA or, for older books, should feature a teenaged main character or point of view. Let’s say from roughly ages 12-18.
2. Read at least one book from each decade: 1930s or earlier; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s. Re-reads are fine. Check the main challenge page for book ideas for each time period.
3. Sign up either by commenting or signing the Linky at the bottom of the page. You can use the graphic on your blog to promote the challenge if you wish. You can start this challenge at any time during the year.

Optional

Post your reading list on your blog!"

So, over the course of the rest of the calendar year, I will be reading YA books from long ago and from today. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Thankgiving thoughts...

So, I was reading things on the internet as I do and I came across an email from Debbie Reese who writes a blog about Native Americans in Children's Literature. She pointed her readers to the website for the National Museum of the American Indian and their online resources for teachers about Thanksgiving.

We as a school have not really discussed the reason for the season. Maybe some folks have in the classroom and I don't know, but just in case, here's some information from the museum.

• The first Thanksgiving was in Plymouth in 1621.
• The Indians in attendance were the Wampanoag.
• The Wampanoag had lived in the region for thousands of years and had a very sophisticated society with their own government, their own religious and philosophical beliefs and developed culture.
• The gathering of people on this day was as much to forge political alliances and recognize a day of peace as a gathering of neighbors. It was also a celebration of the success of crops planted by the Europeans with help from the Wampanoag.
• There is a letter from Edward Winslow wrote that is considered to be the only surviving record of the event.***
  

A quote from the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address:
We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She
supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as
she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks.

Consider these things as we head to our respective homes for the holiday. Enjoy the time!

*** This material is from: American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving and Harvest Ceremony: Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth, documents published by the National Museum of the American Indian Education Office.

November 7th @Barnes & Noble in Emeryville!

Come one come all to the HNHS Library fundraiser @Barnes and Noble!

• look at our Non-fiction Wishlist
• look at our Fiction Wishlist

• Check out the Evite and invite yourself (if you haven't already been invited!)

Librarians use lots of ACRONYMS!

Hey fellow readers...

Just an FYI from ALA and YALSA (that stands for American Library Association and Young Adult Library Services Association). The Teens Top Ten list is in! That means that teenagers just like you voted on their favorite books. The results include some books that we have here in this very library. Including:
Paper Towns by John Green
Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
and soon to be cataloged
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Stop by the library to check these out or to print your nerdy yet cool 2009 Top Ten bookmark!

Welcome back HNHS!

Hello everyone! It's my fifth year here as the librarian and I am so excited about that. I am a seasoned librarian now. It's official.

To kick off the year, I wanted to share some cool stuff with you all. I spend a lot of my time here in the library researching cool resources for students and teachers. With all of this I find lots of non-library related things too. But for today, I want to share some magazine sources that you may not know about. Some of them are linked in the sidebar over there to the left of the screen under the pictures of book covers.

It's important for you all to be exposed to things other than the popular culture found in things like Seventeen and Teen Vogue. To that end, I try to supply alternatives both in print and online like: Alive Magazine, a magazine written for and by people your age and LaTeen, a magazine specifically for Latina girls. Another that I like is VenusZine, a magazine that profiles all things women, DIY and rock and roll. There are so many ways to be and choices to make about who you are and who you want to be. So, come on over to the library and read all about it.

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?