Mean Green Learning Machines!

I am all about this winter's lead story on School Librarian's Workshop online*. It is centered around elementary school aged children researching current global environmental issues and what they can potentially do about it. Not only does it educate the children that there is a problem, but it helps their self-esteem and researching skills by making them active participants in the solution. What's not to love? If you are working with this age-group and are environmentally conscious, I definitely recommend you read this workshop and incorporate it into your lesson plans. Perhaps around Earth Day? Or maybe Earth Hour?



Video is taken from the main page of the Earth Hour site



*This is not a perma-link for this article. To find the article discussed in this blogpost, open your browser's "find" application (on PC's it is usually control and F). Paste the following: It's easy being green. Voila!

And the Dumbledore jokes continue... Sigh.

I had a whole big shebang planned for this evening's Pottertastic Tuesday. That is, until I saw this video. Alas, Albus takes sway and the shebang will be tinkered out for next week.

I'm frightened and delighted by this video. I'm disturbed and scandalized and yet, still I watch. I guess it's appropriate that it's imitating a Britney Spears video, since her life makes me feel all those things and then some.

Legendary Urban Chicken

This just in: there is a giant chicken running loose through the city! I repeat--there is a giant chicken terrorizing the streets of Hoboken. Do not leave your windows open and be sure to only leave your apartment when absolutely necessary! Keep all children and dogs indoors until the situation has been taken care of. *

I don't know about you, but if this was an all points bulletin going out in my hometown and I was an abnormally large chicken, I'd feel pretty lousy. And lousy is precisely how Henrietta, the 266-pound chicken of our tale--The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater--feels after being forced to leave her home. First, she is sold to a young boy to feed his family on Thanksgiving day by a mad scientist that genetically modified her. Then, after being saved a fate of sharing a table with stuffing and cranberry sauce, she is kicked out of her new home after a dog starts a fight with her. To make matters worse, she has no where to go and no one to feed her. If you were in Henrietta's shoes, what would you do?

I'll tell you what! You'd rummage through rubbish bins, nicking all kinds of potato chips and other scraps to fill your hungry belly! You'd hide amongst the tallest buildings in your hometown, hiding from all those that fear and persecute you! You'd run from screams and shouts that made you feel as if you were a horrible chicken being! And saddest of all, you'd never know that your best buddy Arthur was looking to bring you home the whole time!!! Well. That's if you were Henrietta.

This book is quite entertaining, especially once some of the scientist's other modifications are thrown into the mix. The enjoyment factor is quadrupled for anyone from Hoboken, or at least familiar with the city of a square mile. Every so often a street name cropped up and I would squeal with delight that someplace my feet actually walk on a semi-regular basis was immortalized in this delightfully funny book. I can only imagine a kid from Hoboken (or the surrounding area) reading it and thinking, "Washington! That's where my favorite pizzeria is!!" A splendid book all around and a fairly easy read. But, then again, it is set in New Jersey, so it's pretty obvious that it lends itself to being awesome.

Datability
The only aspect about this book that may raise a few eyebrows of child readers is the lack of leash laws. This effect may be doubled on the face of a reader from Hoboken, as everyone knows it is NOT customary to let your dogs out the front door in the morning and expect them to come home at night, as the book suggests. It is common knowledge that any dog living in Hoboken is on a tiny leash, followed closely by a well-dressed yuppie carrying some type of pooper-scooper. Also, the dogs MUST be dressed in teeny little coats that may or may not match that of their yuppie owner in the winter months, such as the setting of the book. Other than that snippet of a "fact" found on one page in the book, the tale is quite timeless!


*No actual news reports from the Hoboken Chicken Emergency were harmed in the making of this blogpost. Any and all newscasts have been dramatically reproduced by the executor of this blog for theatric purposes.

Reason Number 473 I should have known I was going to be a librarian

I read the dictionary and encyclopedia for fun and always have. My favorite book in the fourth grade was my very own encyclopedia that had everything in it, as far as I was concerned. Once the Baby-Sitter's Club helped me determine that my favorite state was Kentucky (since all the gorgeous fictional characters come from there), my encyclopedia helped me memorize everything about it. From the state bird, the cardinal, down to the state dance of clogging, I read that entry over and over again as if it would bring me closer to living in Kentucky.

For the record, I no longer have aspirations to live in Kentucky.

Oh. I see.

Apparently I was right, all that is required to be a good librarian is good looks and a slammin' body. Damn.

Ahem. Announcement Time.

Dear Mr. Blog and the anonymous readership,

I have been abandoning my duties as a blogger and for this, I am deeply sorry. It started with a missed Throwback Review and snowballed into the first Tuesday in a good long while without any mention of Harry Potter. I do not like to offer excuses and explanations, and have said nothing as a result.

To remedy this, I want to explain that my absence has not been a result of too much leisure activities or being bogged down by work. I am simply reexamining my metadata choices (tags, for the non-library folk out there) to make sure they represent exactly what I wish them to. Anyone who has read this blog over the past month has witnessed my secret love of metadata transform into a public (and quite obsessive) love affair and can understand this leave of absence. My problem is, if I post more before coming to a firm conclusion, I will provide a larger pool of posts to edit and therefore, extend my absence further.

I am sorry and look to be back in time for the next Pottertastic Tuesday. Thank you.

--Kristie--

Old lady!

I really enjoy this picture. I don't know what it is about it, but there's just something about it. It speaks to me. Literally. It said, Kristie, you pretty much want to put me on your blog otherwise all the luck I gathered from throwing this salt over my shoulder will be used against you and your family. I mean, if a picture said that to you, what would you do? Would you just sit back and take it? I mean, the old lady has spiders living in a window inside her body. ::shudder:: I don't want to be on the wrong side of that voodoo.

Serious stuff: Thank you Children's Illustration for introducing me to this image created by Abner Graboff from I Know An Old Lady. A few more of Graboff's pictures can be found at Eric Sturdevant's flickr account.

Death of Dewey?

This just in (okay, not really... this article was published in July):

According to a post on The Chronicle of Higher Education, there are a select few public libraries in Arizona forgoing the traditional Dewey Decimal system. And while the comments are littered with several librarians whose reactions might suggest that such a move is blasphemy, there are a few points in support of it.

The article argues from an academic standpoint, which is understandable when considering the source, but the libraries in question are public libraries. Personally, I think it might be a good move, depending on the patrons. One of the comments suggested that better library instruction is called for, not an overhaul of the entire classification system. That is just plain silly. Anyone familiar with CISSL or the campaign for school libraries led by names like Carol Kuhlthau and Ross Todd would know that we are already attempting better instruction. Despite our best efforts, children are still not grasping Dewey. How can they when dogs are separated from other animals? Kids don't strategize their searches thinking, hmmm... I bet dogs would be located under applied technology because they are domesticated. And raising pets is probably referred to as animal husbandry. Yeah, that's the ticket... Not!

There is a growing body of academic research pertaining to children and their understanding of categorization. (Trust me, I had to read pretty much all of it for a paper last semester. If you're interested, here is a large portion of my bibliography. Knock yourselves out). Liz Cooper's findings were especially interesting in light of this article, because when children were asked to come up with categories for their own libraries, they came up with suggestions rather similar to those found at a store like Barnes and Noble. So, perhaps it is the library that needs to change, since children's cognition and understanding is a tad harder to mold.

Pottertastic Tuesday

I've been saving this one for a rainy day. Not literally rainy as in clouds and dripplets and stuff, but when I saw this awesome personality quiz on A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy I saw it everywhere (and I do mean everywhere... see also: Fuse 8, bookshelves of doom and so on). I felt it best to wait until we almost forgot about and then BLAM! There it is. So, without further ado, I present my results from Pirate Monkey Inc.'s Harry Potter Personality Quiz! As next Tuesday is the full moon, I may be unable to type up my usual Pottertastic Tuesday reports due to a sudden need to ravage villagers. I'm sure you understand.



Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Blog Game Time!

Aside from three questions about books and reading, there isn't any real connection to kidlit here. Sometimes, a gal just needs a good survey, ya know? Without further ado, I give you the latest meme craze:

What Privileges Do You Have?
(developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. Blog meme taken from A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy)

Instructions: Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college

2. Father finished college

3. Mother went to college

4. Mother finished college

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.

6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.

7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.

8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.

9. Were read children's books by a parent.

10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.

11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.

13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.

14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.

15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.

16. Went to a private high school.
Practically. I mean, Hunterdon Central is practically a private high school in public school's clothing.

17. Went to summer camp.
From the age of 4 to 14. I still have my Princeton Y shirt from the first summer. It was a dress and now... well, it's more of a belly shirt that I can't seem to talk myself into wearing now that I graduated undergrad. When did I get all conservative? Hmph.

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
hahahaha

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels

20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Mostly. I bolded half.

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
I don't know if it counts, since it was painted by my father. But let me tell you, he's pretty damn good with the oils.

23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
This is tricky, since my mom and I didn't, but my dad and company do. Such is the life of the divorced kid.

24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
Again, my dad and stepmom not moms.

25. You had your own room as a child.

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
I had my own phoneline for a few years, then I got a cell phone halfway through high school.

27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.

28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.

29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.

30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.

31. Went on a cruise with your family.
Went on a cruise with marching band?

32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.

33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.

34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
Grand total: 14
(the two half-bolds joined together for one whole bold line)

Kickin' it Old School

Now that classes have definitely been ceased for a few weeks now, I'm realizing that my lack of regular blogging outside of Pottertastic Tuesday was not because I had no time, but merely a lack of motivation. To ensure that my blog contains something other than various tidbits relating to Harry Potter, I have decided to incorporate a second weekly item into the blog-orino. That's right folks, the Throwback Review will be broadcast from this dinky blogspot every Sunday evening to remind you of the wonderful books of days past. There are only two qualifications a book must meet in order to find itself featured in this lovely little section:

1. It must be written for children or young adults.
2. It needs to be at least ten years old, preferably more.
3. I must check it out from a library, because what's the point of telling you about it otherwise?

So without further ado, I give you the very first Throwback Sunday Review

Alice In-Between
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

What makes the Alice books interesting, as far as "throwbacks" go, is Pyllis Reynolds Naylor continues contributing to Alice's trials and tribulations. Even though this book was originally published fourteen years ago, the perils faced are still very relevant to young readers. In fact, the only aspect of it that could potentially be dated is that Naylor does not once refer to Alice McKinley as a "tween." And while these days labels are a lot friendlier to those in-between kids, the stress of not-quite needing a bra at all times is no less annoying and confusing.

Beginning with Miss Alice's birthday, the narrative follows Alice and company through some hard lessons for young girls just coming into their "raving beauty." All around her, Alice finds out first hand what girls must do for one another in order to protect themselves against men of the grabby-handed variety. Naylor is able to subtley educate her young readers as to the right and wrong ways to handle these tricky situations while remaining true to the narrative and not sounding as if she is trying to hard. Put simply, this is a wonderful way for girls aged eleven through fourteen to find out not only how to compose themselves if they are stuck in one of these traps, but also illuminates the dangers of dressing too old for one's age.

Apparently I'm into Metadata

So the next book I read after An Abundance of Katherines also contained fun footnotes and anagrams and excellent metadata--it's weird how that works out without planning (Note: I actually read Pretties and Specials in between Katherines and the book in question, but those two are as addicting as I imagine crack to be, so they are practically not books, but a one-way ticket to rehab. More on them in a later post--I'm waiting to finish Extras). What book is it? Well, I probably shouldn't tell you about it. Or, at least, I feel like the author would be pretty T.Oed if I told you. It's secret. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. I read The Name of This Book is Secret and learned about scary events that may or may not have happened to people potentially named Cass and Max-Ernest. But I didn't say that.

First, the juicy metadata. Apparently authors and publishing companies are really into flipping around the copyright information. Because this book is the second book I read over winterbreak that deviates from the boring ole slop of yesteryear's books. Though, of the two, this one is more overt, seeing as the information is splayed out on odd angles across the page. Oh! And not only does the author include footnotes, but he (or is it she?) includes an appendix! The appendix features a glossary defining all sorts of circus slang, but that's not all! It also teaches the reader a nifty card trick. Sweetness! Now I can blend in when I show up at my ten year high school reunion telling everyone I joined the circus immediately after graduation and impress them with my skills.

On to the less pleasant task of my post. Sigh. Much as I enjoyed this book, I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. The author refuses to go on with his/her story at intermittent points because the events portrayed are too horrific. The author also reveals strange details about him/herself by informing the reader that dark chocolate from Europe (with a high cacao percentage) is a preferred vice. And the biggest aspect of this book that seemed a little too familiar is that the author's mysterious identity. Now, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and don't think that it intentionally replicated A Series of Unfortunate Events, but the similarities are kinda scary. I definitely recommend this book if a kid just finished Lemony's books and is hungering for more.

Pottertastic Tuesday

In my family, my obsessive love for Harry Potter has turned into a bit of an injoke. When things get too boring or some sort of Potter-related business comes up, my cousins find it necessary to mock me. As if I cared one bit what other people thought of my on-going Harry love affair. Psht. Harry is my man through and through and even my boyfriend of over two years knows that he would lose if I had to chose between him and Harry. Fortunately for Jim, Mr. Potter is fictional and can't come woo me away from him.

But I don't just love the story lines and surprising twists that Jo Rowling throws in there. Oh no, because if that was all, it would get super-duper boring reading the same thing over and over again. At some point, I lost count of exactly how many times I read each Potter book, but it's exceedingly excessive, that much I know. I read the book in discussion today, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, at least eleven times since my fourteenth birthday--no joke. And yet, only one of the last times I read the book did I even notice this tidbit.

Now that I've superfluously built up suspense, I can reveal this little fact from the books that prove, yet again, JK Rowling's a Genius. That's right, she gets a capital G. What of it? I'm tangenting again, sorry folks. So, any dolt can look at the table of contents and discover that chapter eight is entitled "Flight of the Fat Lady." And while some people are less oblivious than I and may have spotted this prior to the tenth reading of the book, others may not know that this flight is mentioned later on in the text. In chapter fifteen ("The Quidditch Final"), after the fat lady is restored, the password is a word that here means a flighty woman. The proof is on page 295 (Scholastic hardcover):

They passed the security trolls, gave the Fat Lady the password ("Flibbertigibbet"), and scrambled through the portrait hole into the common room.

Rowling didn't have to include the password there; the sentence totally would have worked otherwise, but she did. Know why? As the Beastie Boys might concur, she's crafty. Oh JK, how I love thee so. It is to you and your brilliant universe I devote my Tuesday, every Tuesday honoring here in this hallowed blog. I can only hope that I can penetrate all the little crevices of these books with subsequent rereads.

More fodder on Dialogue Markers

I just finished the wonderfully delightful (despite odd [but totally welcomed] intrusions from the narrator) novel, An Abundance of Katherines. As anyone that actually reads this blog may note from two posts ago, I find John Green's inclusion of excessive footnotes to be a joy. Yet, it was his lack of metadata (if you could view the dialogue markers that are technically part of the narrative proper to be metadata) that really got me going.

What am I talking about here people? I'm talking about dialogue markers and how the simple decision to exclude them takes the reader deeper into the prose. How, in the case of this book, the exclusion can mirror the confusing situation the characters are facing and make them that much more identifiable. And, luckily for the author, this decision leads to pages and pages of straight up dialogue and nothing else. Not gonna lie, I occasionally had to count back some lines to figure out exactly who was speaking, but it worked for this story. Perhaps, it works for this story only.

One thing that I'm still not sure if I am in complete agreement over (but could possibly get behind for This. Story. Only.) is using ellipses to indicate that no characters are talking. Literally--this story only. Why is that? Because using only ellipses is horribly tacky and an insult to narration. But An Abundance of Katherines is different because of the aforementioned lack of dialogue markers, and consequently, a lack of narration. I'm still not in love with it. I'm hoping it grows on me, but I have an immense allergy to the dreaded dot dot dot.

All in all, John Green gets away with loads more stuff than everyone else could dream about in this book. Loads.

Pottertastic Tuesday and Then Some

I must say, whlie I enjoy being able to read book after book to my heart's content, I do miss searching and being needed to find information. I decided to whet my librarian appetite by updating my iRead list on Facebook, only to have the application crap out on me after only an hour of adding books I wish to read. Lame. So, I will put a bunch of other blogger's lists that I wish to crawl through when the application is back up in this little post, so it is all together. Librarians are overly organized like that. It's how we roll.

Fuse 8's Best 2007 Books

ALA Notables

Jim's computer is quite slow and annoying me at the moment, so I suppose my list shall be tiny for now. Alas. Anyway, it is time to bring you the following Pottertastic Tuesday materials. In honor of my missing the duty of librarianship, I shall supply you with five interesting Harry Potter memorabelia finds that are just plain weird. First at bat is this ridiculous fleece blanket that is not complete without a giant picture of Daniel Radcliffe's face.How did Warner Browthers know that my bed is yearning for a larger than life image of Mr. Radcliffe? It's like they are mindreaders, for serious. Perhaps they know that I need something to match this Maurader's Map pillow that does not actually contain the map of Hogwarts. What good is a Maurader's Map without a freakin' map? And while I am in my new Pottertastic bedroom, if I should want to read my Harry Potter (Bloomsbury adult versions, please people--Scholastic is sooo last year) books, I'm clearly going to need a light by which to read. Everytime I just incanting "Lumos," nothing happens so, I must resort to eckeltricity. Fortunately, this Triwizard Cup lamp was made for this very purpose. Phew!

And when my eyes get too tired to keep reading, I can cuddle up with my very own plush Monster Book of Monsters. Because, you know, I might as well own a stuffed book since I like books so damned much.

And when I find myself yearning so much to be a student at Hogwarts, I can read my books by candlelight in this fancy Potter votive holder. Because that's cool.