Highland 2014 Caudill Results

It was a close race in picking the Caudill winner at Highland this year.

The Caudill program is a readers' choice award program for Illinois 4 - 8 graders. Each year 20 books are nominated to the program. Students who read three or more of the books are qualified to vote for the book and author they believe should win the award.

The students at Highland have spoken. With 434 students casting votes, Highland students chose:

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

It received 85 votes which was 20% of the total votes cast. 

In a close second, Highland students chose: 

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

It received 77 votes which was 18% of the total votes cast. 

Here's a breakdown of the complete results: 

Guys Read Meets at the Highland LC

Guys Read, a book club for guys led by guys, meets once a month at the Highland Learning Center. Led by Rob Eckmann, librarian from Cook Public Library, this group has spirited conversations about books and media. And there are always snacks at the meeting! Any guys in grades 5 - 8 are welcome to attend. 

Book Fair is Coming to Highland - 12/9 - 12/13

The Highland Learning Center will be hosting the fall book fair.
The book fair will run from Monday, 12/9 - Friday, 12/13.  It will be held in the Learning Center during the school day.

It's a great chance to stock up your personal library before winter break, find a gift for a teacher, or do some holiday shopping for family and friends!

Hobbit Fan Event in LC on Thursday, 12/12

To celebrate the release of the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the Learning Center will be having a screening of a recent International Fan Event. Please join us!

Highland Students are Guest Readers at Adler's Family Reading Night

Nine Highland students volunteered their time and talents this evening by sharing stories from Illinois authors at Adler Family Reading Night.

The elementary school students attended the event in their pajamas. Students, siblings, and parents packed the library, where the Highland students shared picture book stories.

It was a fun event. The Highland students did a great job as the featured guest readers!

Highland Students Needed as Guest Readers for Adler's Family Reading Night

Marie Lu is Awesome!

Marie Lu is awesome...at least that's the consensus from the group of Highland students that Skyped Legend on Wednesday.

with the author of

We had an audience full of students who were fans of the author's work, and I think we were all even bigger fans by the time our Skype session ended. She is approachable, insightful, and interesting. After giving us a brief intro about the idea behind Legend, we had a chance to ask her questions. Highland students took turns asking really thoughtful questions about her writing process, inspiration for her work, and getting advice about writing.

After being asked for advice about finishing up stories and struggling as a young writer, Ms. Lu NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, which happens to be in November. Several of those in the audience, me included, were inspired and decided to take on the challenge of trying to crank out a novel in the month of November.
responded, "Let yourself write something that is bad. Force yourself through...finish a story, no matter how bad it is!" She also mentioned

It was a great virtual author visit. We all value the opportunity to have "met" Marie Lu!