The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I just finished "reading" The Arrival by Shaun Tan. I put reading in quotes because the entire story is told with artwork and no words. However, it clearly and powerfully expressed the story of a family leaving their homeland and moving to a new place. The father in the family goes first and has to struggle to try to figure out the language, culture, food, and a way to survive in this new and foreign place. As he comes in contact with people who help him understand the ways of this new place, their stories of why they have come to this brighter, more hopeful place are briefly told.

Wow! While I was hesitant to pick up this book, I am so glad to have experienced this story.

Works Cited
Arrival Cover. LibraryThing. Web. 28 Sept. 2008 http://www.librarything.com/work/1779085/

Recent Reading

I'm excited to be teaching a Materials for Young Adults course this fall! The class has required me to do a lot of reading. We are covering 5 or 6 books a week. Some of the books are more for older teens, but a lot of the books on our reading list are books we have in the Highland library.

I read The Contender by Robert Lipsyte. I've been playing with Animoto. It's a tool that lets users create a short video. It's a great tool for creating book trailers.
Here's my animoto:


Here's what I've read so far for the class:

Book Clubs

The Highland Lunch Bunch book clubs will be kicking off for this year soon. Any Highland students are invited to join the fun! We meet during the lunch and recess period to eat together and talk about the book. Please contact Ms. Wyatt if you have any questions. Check out the book club page to find out what is happening with the lunch bunch groups this year.

• 6th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Friday, 9/25, to talk about Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret. The book is a page turner about a brother and sister who have to figure out how to survive in the aftermath of an earthquake. I couldn't believe all that these two kids had to go through during the course of the book!
  

• 7th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Thursday, 9/24, to talk about Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Wowsa! If you haven't read this book yet, you have to check it out. Katniss and Peeta are chosen to represent their district in the annual Hunger Games. The games are a televised competition where the last survivor wins. There's something for everyone: action, adventure, and even a little romance.
  
• 8th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Friday, 9/25, to talk about Acceleration by Graham McNamee. This book was a thriller. Duncan has a horrible summer job, staffing the lost and found at the Toronto Subway. Bored out of his mind, he starts reading a diary that someone has lost. What he finds is disturbing. It seems that the writer of the journal is planning to kill someone. Will Duncan get involved and find this killer before it is too late?
  

Demon Princess: Reign or Shine by Michelle Rowen

Nikki Donovan’s life is perfect. She’s popular, just turned sixteen and Chris Sanders, the hottest guy at school, has just asked her out. Then Michael shows up, he seems to be stalking Nikki, trying to convince her that her long-lost father is really DemonKing in another dimension. She ignores him but takes the note that is “from her father” and convinces herself that it’s just one of Chris’s friends messing with her. If that’s the case then why does Michael know her father’s name: something she’s never told anyone and why is there a large man with a knife trying to kill her while calling her “Princess”? On top of all that why does she feel strangely drawn to Michael and now unsure about Chris?
It turns our Michael is telling the truth. Nikki’s father is a demon, but not the stereotypical one. He’s loving and compassionate just like any good father. He’s dying and Nikki is his only heir. Now Nikki must choose between becoming the Demon Queen or drinking a potion and turning back into a regular human. Pretty easy choice right? Well if she chooses the human route then she’ll forget everything and everyone related to the Demon world including her dragon-tear bracelet, her father and Michael. What will Nikki do? To find out the answer to these questions and more read Demon Princess: Reign or Shine by Michelle Rowan.
This book was one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I’d give it a perfect 5 out of 5. The characters were interesting and easy to relate to and the plot was unpredictable and kept me reading until the last page. Rowan has created a unique read that has something in it for everyone: monsters, mystery and even a little romance. It’s a sensational novel.

Summer Reading...an update

I was giving a presentation last week about technology tools that have been really useful in the library, and I realized that I haven't updated this blog for quite a while. I've been trying to read a bunch of books from the highland collection this summer. Here are the cover images of the last 20 books I've read. If you want to see my ratings and read my reviews of these books, click on the book cover below or check out my LibraryThing page.

Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson

I just spent a week with my family in Disney World. I decided to bring along Kingdom Keepers, a book about a group of Orlando middle school students who have been chosen as DHIs, interactive hologram hosts. Finn turns out to be the leader of this group when many strange, unexplainable events start to take place. When they all start having strange dreams and start visiting Disney at night in their holographic forms, they realize there is something very strange going on. The kids meet Wayne, an original Imagineer, who tells them about a fable that may help them stop the evil forces scheming something awful. This book will appeal to Disney fans. While it didn't knock my socks off, it was fun to read about this adventures taking place in all the rides and attractions I just visited.

Works Cited
"Kingdom Keepers Cover." Online image. LibraryThing. 20 June 2009 http://www.librarything.com/work/543826

Student Summer Recommendations

We asked students to recommend their favorite reads of the year. We had these recommendations displayed in the library to assist other students with ideas when they are looking for books to read this summer.
Here's the list in no particular order:

IQ by Roland Smith
Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith
Peak by Roland Smith
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Shakespeare’s Secret by Roland Smith
Masterpiece by Elise Broach
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz
Redwall Series by Brian Jacques
Eragon Series by Christopher Paolini
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent
Sammy Keyes Series by Wendelin VanDraanen
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Series by Michelle Paver
Shooter by Walter Dean Myers
Children of the Lamp by P.B. Kerr
Zenda Series by Amodeo
The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato
You Be the Jury by Marvin Miller
Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch
Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer
Swindle by Gordon Korman
Leven Thumps Series by Obert Skye
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zuszak
Inkheart Series by Cornelia Funke
The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfield
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Fable Haven Series by Brandon Mull
Amazing Agent Luna by Nunzio DeFilippis
Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale
White Giraffe by Lauren St. John
Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Evernight by Claudia Gray
The Weight of the Sky by Lisa Ann Sandell
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney
Feathered by Laura Kasischke
Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham