Beach Reading

My brother reading George Martin

My college-bound niece reading Neuromancer

Yours truly reading...

What does an unemployed K-12 school librarian read during her week at the beach?

 

I just got back from a wonderful weeklong vacation with my family at Rehoboth Beach.  We’ve been going to Rehoboth since I was a teenager.  I am definitely a surf and sand kind of girl.  One of my favorite pastimes, aside from books, is scuba diving, although I prefer tropical climates for that particular beach activity.  I am fascinated with all sorts of marine life and have 2 entire bookshelves devoted to books on marine life, both fiction and non-fiction (although primarily non-fiction).  I volunteered at the Baltimore Aquarium for 5 years as a diver prior to having children and hanging up my regulator and wetsuit temporarily.  This year’s trip to Rehoboth was especially wonderful as I had a group of 4 dolphins swim within 5 feet of me while I was swimming in the waves!  I could just about touch them, but I have a cardinal rule that I won’t interfere with sea creatures’ space. If them approach me, that’s fine, but I won’t invade their space.

So what did I read at the beach?  I took along a bag of books that I’ve been trying to get to for ages.  It was an ambitious reading load, but I was able to read three out of the ten I took with me despite all of the other vacation distractions.  Let’s face it; ice cream, shopping, screaming kids, surf and sand, and crunchy bears do tend to get in the way of a good book.  My week started with the paranormal, wound its way round to an interesting fictional look at poverty, and ended up with a dystopia centered on a life with undersea dwellings.  I thoroughly enjoyed all three.  Here’s a summary of each:

Me & Lish McBride at ALA in New Orleans.  Note the super cool octopus tiara she is wearing!

Hold Me Closer Necromancer

By Lish McBride

http://www.lishmcbride.com/

I had been wanting to read this paranormal thriller for sometime and was lucky enough to meet Lish and obtain an autographed copy at ALA this summer.  The cover bears a quote by Sherman Alexie, one of my favorite authors, describing the book as “…a scary funny book OR a FUNNY scary book.”  I love the description because it is spot on!  The book was a William C. Morris Finalist, an award given to first time authors for excellence in debut YA novels.  Lish will definitely be an author to watch. 

She has written a hilarious tale of a teenage necromancer, Sam, who is playing potato hockey out in the parking lot with his buddies at the fast food joint where they work and just happens to smash a potato right into the back of a very expensive car belonging to none other than the local high falutin’ all powerful necromancer.   Upon meeting the rich scary guy when he comes in to complain about the potato that has smashed up his fancy car, Sam finds himself frozen in his tracks.  The necromancer seems to think Sam has some kind of special power and is not too happy about it.  The story continues with hijinks and hilarity as Sam discovers who he really is and what power hides within him. 

There are other books by this title -- be sure you get Andy's.

Trash

By Andy Mulligan

http://www.andymulliganbooks.com/trash/index.php

I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages and finally got around to reading it this week.  What a treasure!  Trash is the story of three boys living in poverty who pick through trash each and every day in order to survive.  One day, two of them discover a treasure that changes their lives forever and sets them off on a whirlwind mystery adventure.  But in so many ways it’s more than that.  It’s a peek into poverty and how little some people have.  It’s a commentary on the disparity between rich and poor and the irrational distribution of power and wealth.  It’s an expose of greed and corruption and how humans often treat one another.  It’s a celebration of the triumph of children and the human spirit.  It’s a story that will stay with most readers for a long, long time.

This cover is so beautiful....

Dark Life

By Kat Falls

http://katfalls.com/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4572534/kat_falls_author_of_dark_life_book_trailer/

http://screenrant.com/robert-zemeckis-dark-life-movie-disney-ross-52526/

Dark Life is another book that has been on my shelf for ages and I just never seem to get to it.  Beach week just seemed perfect for the subject!  I was originally attracted to it purely because of its underwater theme.  A scuba diver and marine enthusiast simply cannot resist a fantasy about a future where you might be able to live under water!  Kat Falls’ sci-fi thriller has attracted worldwide attention and is set to come out as a Disney film directed by Robert Zemeckis in 2012.  A sequel to the book, called Rip Tide, was released on August 1st.

The story is about a teenage boy named Ty who was born in an undersea pioneer village.  He has a thirst for adventure and skirting the edge of rules.  There is a band of seafaring “outlaws” cruising about the ocean and reeking havoc and Ty has a close encounter with them as the story opens.  Soon thereafter he meets a teenage girl named Gemma from the “Topside” and then the story really takes off.  Tones of the Wild West intermingle with beautiful images of underwater life as Ty and Gemma trounce through this wonderful tale like Sherlock and Watson in diveskins.  It was the perfect story to end my week at the beach!

Upcoming Book Release...

Wisteria - Welcome

 

Olive - Peace

The Language of Flowers

By Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Scheduled for release August 23rd

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a new release by Random House later this month. I had the pleasure of receiving an advanced reader’s copy at ALA this summer. It is a beautiful tale of a young girl who has been tossed around by the foster care system and provides the reader with some insight as to what happens when a child isn’t successfully adopted…multiple times. Victoria is filled with anger and spite, but she has a great love for plants and flowers. The story opens on the date of her emancipation from the foster care system. Each chapter unfolds the mystery of her past as she begins to try and build a future. The one thing that she has an appreciation and love for is the Victorian meaning of flowers. Emotions and meaning are carried throughout the book as the story unfolds with the meaning behind flowers. This clever and engaging story makes one ponder the state of our foster care system what we need to do to improve it.

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/vanessa_diffenbaugh/

http://www.languageofflowers.com.au/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Flowers-Novel-Vanessa-Diffenbaugh/dp/034552554X

http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html

http://www.thelanguageofflowers.com/

Agapanthus - Love Letter

Freesia - Lasting Friendship

Coreopsis - Always Cheerful

Pink & Red Roses -- Grace & Love

Angelica - Inspiration

Lupine - Imagination

Abutilon - Meditation

A New Book to Add to My Favorites List...

Revolution

By Jennifer Donnelly

http://www.jenniferdonnelly.com/rev_home.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7qJPFmmrBs

http://booktunes.net/interview/16813189-A-Child%27s-Heart

Every once in a while I read a book that completely captures me. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly was one of those books. I read while I was at ALA in New Orleans -- the perfect setting because of New Orleans’ French history. I even bought a souvenir silver fleur de lis skeleton key necklace for myself in the French Market after deciding it was kismet when I found it!

 
Revolution tells the stories of two girls, Alex and Andi. Alex is living during the French revolution and is fighting to save the life of the young prince of France. Andi is a young highly gifted musician who is fighting to survive her family’s tragedy in modern-day Brooklyn. The stories intertwine mixing music, art, and history in a complex and captivating way. Donnelly aptly weaves emotions into her tale so that they feel legitimate. Lovers of historical fiction, musical tales, or just plain good stories will love Revolution. It’s a book that will stay on my permanent shelf.

The latest from Dav Pilkey...

Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers

http://www.pilkey.com/nextbook.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOrwAZd2XZY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrj1Kl-mQJc&feature=bulletin

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3IVCDZCLPZVJ8/ref=ent_fb_link

http://www.pilkey.com

Me and Dav Pilkey at ALA in New Orleans

Dav Pilkey never fails to bring potty humor to a new level.  I had the pleasure of relaxing with a “tinkletini” while standing in line in a red super cape with fellow librarians to meet the infamous author for a sacred signed copy of his new book Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers on the day of its release.  I love it that Dav has become a superstar despite the critics out there that claim his books aren’t good enough to be on our library shelves.  He has paved the way for graphic novels of all sorts and he is open and honest about who he is and why he writes the books he writes.

 

Caped librarians at ALA 2011 sipping "tinkletinis" and waiting to meet Dav

First of all Dav is funny.  When it comes down to it, most of us like a little down to earth potty humor when we’re with our families.  My little princess daughter is the first one to crack a joke about “the gas we pass.” When she was three, she walked around in a ballgown, but she also had a collection of Walter the Farting Dog books.  We decided then and there that she was probably going to be some boy’s perfect prom date.  Dav is using humor on a basic level that kids just get and parents would too if they stopped long enough to take a look.

Second, Dav purposely makes his books imperfect.  Children have enough examples of perfection around them.Dav takes the stand that children are smart enough to know what is a mistake in his book and if they see mistakes, they will find them funny.  They will also be encouraged to write themselves without worrying so much about being perfect.  One of the worst things children learn is that they have to be perfect in order to be good at something.  It steals creativity away from them. If we can encourage them to keep drawing and writing at all ages, they will continue to grow creatively and that is the point that Dav is trying to make. It is an honorable one.

Whether you like Dav Pilkey’s books or not, if your kids like his books, I encourage you to buy them for them.  Any books that kids will read over and over again are worthwhile. It keeps them reading and will encourage their creative spirit.  If they are reading Dav Pilkey, encourage them to write their own comics.  Maybe one day they’ll be at ALA and I’ll be getting their autographed new releases!

If you love dance....

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers: LDX

http://thelxd.com/

http://www.youtube.com/jonmchu

 

Those of you that know me personally know I love dance and that I recently started tap dancing with a little inspiration from my eight-year-old daughter. My daughter takes four dance classes a week – tap, ballet, hip hop, and irish. My son also takes hip hop. When I was in Game Stop a few weeks ago I was chatting with the young guy at the register as I often do and telling him about my family of dancers. He told me about this cool group on the web called the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers and told me to check them out. So I did. They are truly amazing and I couldn’t resist sharing them in a post!

The group, commonly known as the LXD, is a web series composed of two rival groups of dancers (can you say West Side Story anyone?): heroes who are the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers and villains who are the Alliance of Dark. They discover that they have superpowers called the “ra” through their dance abilities. The story takes place between the year 1920 and the year 3000. Jon Chu is the creator of the series and it includes every form of dance under the sun. 

*I do like to give credit where credit is due. I don’t often use Wikipedia for a resource, but it was acceptable here and well reference back to Jon Chu’s resources so my info on LDX did come from Wikipedia.

Introducing The Fabulous Jenni Holm!

A Multiple Newbery Honoree and Co-creator of the Graphic Mouse Queen...

While I was at ALA, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Newbery Honoree Jenni Holm who was honored this year for her fabulous book Turtle in Paradise. I absolutely loved Turtle and highly recommend reading it. It is a historical fiction book as well as a coming of age story written about a young girl named Turtle who is shipped off to Key West during the depression to stay with her aunt and cousins – her are unaware she is coming. It’s a story of Key West before it was a tourist town; a story of life with the bare minimum.

Jenni Holm is not new to winning Newbery Honors. She has won them before for her novels Our Only May Amelia and Pennies From Heaven, also historical fiction. She also writes the incredibly popular BabyMouse series in collaboration with her brother Matt. In fact, my interview was prompted by my daughter’s love of the BabyMouse series. Every elementary library I have spent time in – Roberts, Wayne, and Radnor – has had trouble keeping the books on the shelf. And there is good news from the Holms team! They are producing a second series that is gender neutral called Squish! Squish is about a baby amoeba and while I haven’t read it yet, I am sure that it will be a winner given Jenni and Matt’s track record.

http://www.jenniferholm.com/ 

Me and Jenni Holm at the 2011 ALA National Convention in New Orleans.

 

    

Example of German mouse toy both Jenni and I played with as children.  These mice came in a variety of different clothes.  They now sell for quite a bit of money as collectors items.

Brother and sister team Matt and Jenni Holm.

Playing With Frogs...Apps in the Classroom

Nimblebit's  Pocket Frogs  +Plus    http://nimblebit.com/

 

A little known fact about me is that I actually started out in the world of higher education as a Biology major.  In fact almost all of my “elective” classes at the University of Delaware ended up being in the sciences despite the fact that I officially graduated with an English major and a Fine Arts minor.  Yes, I am an eclectic one.  My love of Biology was really sealed in 10th grade Bio class with Ms. Houghton when we were doing genetics experiments with Drosophila melanogaster – fruit flies.  Ms. Houghton was in her first year of teaching and fresh out of grad school.  She was tough but excited about bringing as much practical lab work into the classroom as possible.  She was an amazing teacher.  I became a whiz at breeding Drosophila.  I even took mine home over spring break, much to my mother’s dismay.  She wasn’t too excited about my science experiment hanging out in the kitchen, although I assured her it was completely self-contained.  I became so good at breeding the little critters that at one point the University lost their entire supply and I ended up breeding a new supply to restock them.  By then I was a senior and a lab aide to Ms. Houghton and had also taken AP Bio.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered an iPhone app where I could “virtually” breed critters!  Nimblebit’s Pocket Frogs on the +Plus network is a wonderful app that has huge potential for helping teachers demonstrate basic genetics in action, hunt strategies, natural and sequential patterns, basic classification systems, scientific nomenclature through a fictional version, organization of information, and allocation of resources through creation of a small business.  I’ve fiddled with the app for months and am pleased with how it is set up.  It essentially allows the user to breed and collect frogs while increasing levels and gaining “money” to buy habitats and therefore collect more frogs.  There are goals for collecting certain frogs.  As the player becomes more savvy, they figure out how to breed specific frogs more easily.  I can pretty much breed anything I want because I understand the underlying idea of genetics and simply pick out the features I want to create the specific frog.  It may take a little while, but I am always able to do it.  

 For a student who doesn’t understand how genetics works, it would be challenging.  My 8 and 10-year-old children, for example, find the game a little more challenging than I do and simply go around collecting frogs.  They don’t understand how to breed specific frogs.  That’s where the app is great as a teaching tool for older students – like high school bio students who are not often getting the opportunity to do genetics labs in the classroom today.  An app like this provides a great opportunity to ensure that they really do understand genetics rather than just repeating what they are reading in their textbooks and has the bonus of being fun.  It also provides the integration of other related skills like scientific nomenclature.  The frogs all have names that relate to traits that are expressed.  It is similar to traditional scientific nomenclature that would be Family-Genus-Species.  They are then organized according to this nomenclature in a FroggyDex and as each frog is collected it is highlighted in the individual’s FroggyDex showing how many frogs have been collected and how many total can be collected.  I have collected approximately 2200 so far.  My next goal to reach is 5000.  I’m almost half way there.

I see so much potential for doing so many things with this app collaboratively with Biology, Math, and Economics/Business teachers in a high school that would take the learning far deeper beyond the textbooks so that students are using what they are learning and actually putting it into action and then discussing it.  I think that that is what will make all the difference and ensure that they remember what they learn long after any tests they may take.  And on top of that, they may actually have a little fun!

Breeding

Some of the varieties within one "species"

Frogs in a pond and in a habitat

Frogs in a habitat at level 7 -- I'm at level 23

Some of the beautiful and diverse array of frogs

Dolphin Parade By Pete Kuhn

My friend photographer Pete Kuhn made a beautiful video of him and his sons watching dolphins swim off of a boat this summer.  It's a short but lovely little piece of film footage set to music.  Enjoy!