Tuesday Title Talk: Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

Just because school was out for summer last week, that doesn't mean the blogging stops! Each Tuesday this summer, check out the newest blog feature, Tuesday Title Talk. To kick things off, today's featured book is Echo, by Pam Munoz Ryan.

First, some information about the author. Pam Munoz Ryan has written 30+ books, many you've probably read or heard of, like Esperanza Rising, Paint the Wind, and Becoming Naomi Leon.

If you'd like to read about the author's life and see all of her books,  you can visit her official web site. 

Her newest book Echo is part historical fiction, part folk tale. She tells three separate tales: a German family at odds with one another about Hitler's politics; two orphaned brothers taken in by a wealthy, sad stranger; and a California immigrant family tasked with taking care of a farm left abandoned when the Japanese American owners are taken to an internment camp. Running through all three stories is a musical instrument that connects to the original folk tale that starts and ends the book.

If you enjoy historical fiction, especially stories set during World War II, Echo would make for some great summer reading! 

Celebrating National Poetry Month

Seventh grade language arts students have been into the library recently to celebrate poetry during National Poetry Month. They "wrote" poems during two different activities: book spine poetry and found poetry.

During our look at book spine poetry, students worked with partners to "write" poems using books mainly from the fiction collection. While the shelves looked "well loved" after the activity, it was definitely worth it!

Students came into the library later for another activity--found poetry. With two options for "writing," some students chose to extract words from a scene in an independent reading book, like this poem based on a scene from Divergent.

The second option students had to "write" a found poem was to choose only the words they wanted from a page from a weeded book. After looking at several examples, the creativity flowed!

Check out some of their work below:

And the Winner Is. . .

Today the Iowa Association of School Librarians announced the winners of the state award books. Already students at the Middle School voted Prisoner B-3087 as the building-wide winner. (See this earlier blog post.) With more than 8,600 Iowa students voting from over 50 schools, Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero was announced as the statewide winner.

Remember, you can access next year's book list HERE and get a head start on reading the requirement to vote again! You'll probably recognize a few favorites. . . like The False Prince, QB1, See You at Harry's, and Unstoppable.

HP & the Goblet of Fire Book Club Meeting

Book Club met again today, this time to talk about--and cast several different votes for!--Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The focus of our conversation was three areas students voted on when they entered: the three triwizarding tournament challenges or tasks, new magic introduced in this book, and Harry's abilities as a wizard.

After an all-boys 6th grade Book Club vote, the coolest new magic was overwhelmingly decided to be the unforgivable curses; however, when the all-girl 7th grade Book Club met, aparating was closing the gap. Portkeys were considered new magic, as was the pensieve, but they each received very few, if any, votes. 

Students also voted on the most outrageous or challenging of the tournament tasks, and facing the dragons was the hands-down winner. The water task and maze both tied for second place. The dragons' unpredictability was most often cited as the reason why they were the most difficult task.

The final vote concerned Harry himself. Students voted 2-to-1 that Harry was a very lucky wizard versus a very talented wizard. Many noted, though, that he had to be a good wizard to have some of the lucky breaks that he did.

Join us at the end of the month when we'll be talking about book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Students also took time to recommend several different titles that we hadn't already talked about, many of them books in a series. Maybe you see one of your favorites on the list. 

Building-wide Iowa Teen Book Award Winner

With the announcement for the state-wide winner of the Iowa Teen Book Award approaching in mid-April, students voted recently for the building-wide winner. In a very tight vote, Prisoner B-3087 edged out The Raft by 3 votes to win!

For the first time in many years, every nominated book received at least one vote from the students who were eligible to vote. Check out the chart below:

Stay tuned to find out which book wins at the state level when the Iowa Association of School Librarians meets in April. Maybe our choice was the choice of hundreds of other middle school students!

If you're interested in getting a head start on next year's list--or want to see if you've already read any of them!--you can access the list HERE or take a look at the poster below.

Got a Device? Read from our eBook Collection!

There's a new library display that you might find helpful if you've got a device and would like to read from it.

Thanks to the Clear Falls Library (@CFHS_Library) on Pinterest for the inspiration!

With spring break coming up, some of you might be spending time traveling...why not load some eBooks onto your device and pass some of that time reading! 

What you need to know (thanks to @kellyreinhold for the template to use!):

Once you have downloaded the BryteWave app, you'll need to know our FollettShelf web address: https://wbb05737.follettshelf.com. You'll need to log in using your Destiny Quest log-in information (username = lunch/library ID#; password = first name). If you're unable to log in using this information, just stop by the library and we'll reset everything for you.

What sort of eBooks do we have in our collection? Take a look at just some of the hundreds and hundreds of titles we have:

Stop by the library for more information and to pick up an informational bookmark to make the eBook process go a little more smoothly! See you soon! 

Another Library Contest for You!

Now that our Minecraft Book Setting Contest is over (congrats Shaine B!), it's time to kick off another contest!

With this contest, students will match the teacher to the bookcase. Forms are available at the display; please turn them in at the library desk when complete. The contest ends on Thurs. Feb. 19, and the winner will be announced on Mon. Feb. 23. The winner will receive a gift certificate for the upcoming spring book fair.

Good luck!