SLJ BoB, Final Battle

Today, SLJ's BoB announced the winner of the Undead Poll and hip-hip-hooray it is Eleanor & Park.  It will take on P.S. Eleven and Boxers & Saints in the final battle, judged by Jennifer Holm.  Since Holm is a writer of both graphic novels and middle grade books, my prediction may be a long shot, but I'm hoping Eleanor & Park will do as Okay For Now did two years ago, and win both the Undead Poll and the whole competition.  If it doesn't, I will not be too heartbroken because Boxers & Saints (which would be my second choice) and P.S. Eleven are excellent books and certainly worthy of winning.  We'll see tomorrow; don't forget to check http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/ to find out the winner.

SLJ Battle of the Books Round 3

Final Four!  My predictions were pretty good for this round; I got 3/4 correct.  The one I got wrong broke my heart.  Eleanor & Park was defeated by Far, Far Away.  I just hope Eleanor & Park wins the undead poll (readers of the blog were invited to vote on a book that will be brought back for the final round).

Here are my predictions for Round 3.

Match 1:  Boxer & Saints vs. Far, Far Away judged by Patrick Ness - I am going with Boxers & Saints again because I think this high-quality graphic novel belongs in the final.  And Far, Far Away took out my beloved Eleanor & Park.

Match 2:  P.S. Eleven vs. The Thing About Luck judged by Robin LeFevers.  I'm going with The Thing About Luck.  I love what Katherine March pointed out about the plot of the book, "Not much happens and yet—in an extraordinary feat of capturing the small moments in which we grow up—everything happens."

I'll post about the final battle.  I just want to say a thank you to the authors, judges, battle organizers and kid commentators for their contributions to this wonderful event.  Thank you all for enriching the lives of readers everywhere!

Be sure to read http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/ today and tomorrow for the results of Round 3!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

Books I finished last week:

Finally finished!  I received this series for Christmas.  I sped through A Game of Thrones, but this one took me almost six weeks to finish.  I'm doing something a bit different for the third book.  My sister and I carpool together to our schools.  It is about a 30-minute ride.  We've decided to read A Storm of Swords out loud together during the week and commit to reading two chapters over the weekend.  This will no doubt mean the Book 3 will take me even longer, but it will be interesting to read a book this way.

I connected a lot with this memoir, as I too grew up as a teen in the 1990's, in a  religious family, although no where near to the degree as the Hartzler family.  I like the connection the author made at the end about loving and accepting his father for who he is.  I'm have many family members with whom I disagree politically so this perspective was a real eye opener.

This week I'm reading:

Bookmobile

So my goal as an elementary school librarian is to get as many books into kids hands as possible.  One of the indicators of reading success is growing up in a print-rich home.  Unfortunately, not all kids have that, so the school has to try and bridge that gap.  The school library plays a vital role in doing just that.  I have replaced circulation limits with guidelines, and I try to promote the library as much as possible.  Our students have to wait for their bus after school so I decided that was a great time to check out library books.  The best way to do that?  Bring the library to them.

Fortunately, my school library already had this wagon available so I all I had to do is simply fill it with books and roll it outside.  If you do not have access to a wagon, you could use a plastic bin on top of a portable AV cart.  This is a new program, so I have lots of things to learn, but here is what I have already figured out:

1.  Circulation - How are you going to track who has which book?  At first, I used paper and pencil and wrote down names, teachers and bar codes.  Then I figured out that I could access our circulation system on the web via my phone and check out books that way.

2.  How many books should they get?  Right now, I'm going with one.  This is a supplement to kids' coming to the library and regularly checking out books. I also want to make sure there are enough books to go around.

3.  It was a bit chaotic the first day.  Now I have students go in groups of four to the wagon and form a separate line for checking out.

4.  The kids love it!  Of course this requires some extra work on my part, but the kids' response has made it worth it.

SLJ's BoB Round 2 predictions

We're now in the Elite Eight of School Library Journal's Battle of the Books.  My prediction success for the first round is rather poor, 3 out of 8.  I abstained the first round, correctly predicted rounds 2-4, and was wrong for rounds 5-8.  Since I've shared my thoughts on every book, I'm going to do one post for Round 2 with new predictions, which may very well be all wrong.  My predictions are below the brackets.

Match 1:  The Animal Book vs. Boxers & Saints judged by Tonya Bolden - As wonderful as the The Animal Book is, I really want to champion a graphic novel, especially one as well done as Boxers & Saints.

Match 2:  Eleanor & Park vs Far, Far Away judged by Rae Carson - What a nightmare of a choice! Both of these books are wonderful and deserve to go on, but Eleanor & Park still resounds with me even though I read it 6+ months ago, so I hope it wins.  The best scenario would be for one of these to win the Undead Poll so both can have a well-deserved spot in the final round.

Match 3:  Hokey Pokey vs. P.S. Be Eleven judged by Joseph Bruchac - I still find Hokey Pokey to be an odd book that doesn't match its audience so P.S. Be Eleven all the way.

Match 4:  The Thing About Luck vs. The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp judged by Katherine Marsh - Gotta go with The Thing About Luck because Kadohata can make harvesting wheat sound interesting to me.  Her writing is nothing short of amazing and her National Book Award was well-deserved.

Don't forget to check out the results each day at http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/

I'll follow up next week with the final four!

SLJ's BoB Round 1 Battle 8

True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp vs. What the Heart Knows judged by Shelia Turnage

Activist raccoons living in a car? Wild feral hogs?A magic radio?  Sugar pies? There is a lot going on in this book. Sonny Boy Coup wants rid of the Sugar Man Swamp, including the Sugar Pie Cafe, ran by Chap Brayburn and his mother. He wants to build an alligator wresting theme park there. In addition to this, a gang of wild feral hogs that destroy everything in its path is making its way toward the swamp. The solution is simple.  All raccoons Bingo and J'miah (the true blue scouts) have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. The problem is no one has seen him for more than 40 years. I love all of Appelt's books. The only downside I see here is that with a plot this complex, the reader can easily get confused.

Oh, I adore this book! And I didn't really expect to love it as much I did. I enjoyed it so much that I plan to purchase my own copy. So many of these poems related to experiences I have had. My strong connection with the poems as an adult made me wonder if adolescents (this book is recommended for ages 12-17) can really appreciate what Sidman presents here.

As much as I enjoyed The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, I have to go with What the Heart Knows because of my emotional response to it. It has been a triumphant week for middle grade and this battle's judge, Shelia Turnage, is a middle grade author, so I kind of expect to be wrong on this one.

Don't forget to visit http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/ for the results!

SLJ BoB Round 1 Battle 7

Rose Under Fire vs. The Thing About Luck judged by Malinda Lo

This book takes place after Code Name Verity.  Rose is an American working as a British Transport Pilot.  She is intercepted by German planes and taken to a concentration camp. Wow, what a haunting book. It doesn't matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, the details are still horrifying.  I never realized that they did experiments on people, as done to the "rabbits" in this book.  I'm glad that authors are still writing about this subject because it is important that we never forget this travesty in human history.

Summer and her brother, Jaz, travel with their grandparents on their summer job of harvesting wheat.  Ah, the dreaded description of combines.  I didn't find these sections as boring as others did.  But then again, reading about the history of cataloging would make anything less boring by comparison.  The strength of this book lies in the characterization.  The relationship between Summer and her immigrant grandparents is relatable and reflective of other children's experience with immigrant parents or grandparents.

As with a previous battle, I am going to go with the book I finished more recently, Rose Under Fire. This might seem like blasphemy, but I hated Code Name Verity so I was relieved to read a book by Elizabeth Wein that I liked.  I've misjudged the last two battles, so who knows?

Check out the results tomorrow at:  http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/