Book review/trailer: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

So this is what I was working on last week for my weekly book review:



It is a wonderful graphic novel: great story, spectacular full-colour illustrations, and a style that creates tension and drama. This 2004 volume (the original was released in 1993) also includes preliminary sketches and an introduction by Bo Hampton.

Until I read this, my only knowledge of the story was the Disney animated short. The Washington Irving story is far more detailed than I remember the film being (although it's been at least 15 years since I've seen it) and definitely more gothic and ominous.

4 stars out of 5 for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Bo Hampton.

Visit the author/illustrator's website.

Library commercial!

So I got a Mac a while back, was looking forward to a chance to try out iMovie, and had some hours to make up from all those snow days. What does all that mean? It means the "perfect storm" for me making a video ad for the PRHS library, that's what!

Behold!

Parrsboro Schools newsletter/calendar - April 2007

The April school newsletter has been sent home, but now you can also view them online. I have linked to them below.

April Newsletter (PDF file - you will need Adobe Reader to view this file, which you can download for free)

April 2007 Calendar (PDF file)

May 2007 Calendar (PDF file)

I'm not being lazy...

...I'm just working on something new for my weekly book review that I think is going to be really, really cool.

If I can get it to work, that is. *fingers crossed*

Check back Wednesday!

PRHS Career Conference - Monday, April 23rd

On Monday morning the students at PRHS will be participating in a Career Conference that will see many community members presenting on what their jobs are all about and how students can get into their particular line of work.

I will be participating in the conference and have put together a number of links to library career resources that may be helpful to anyone interested in pursuing a career in libraries. Hopefully my presentation will get across that librarianship isn't all stamping books and shhh-ing people, and is actually a lot of fun.

Some more new books...

I had an order come in dribs and drabs, and I think this is the last drib (drab?) from that order. Hooray for new books!

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (sequel to Uglies)

The Bumblebee Flies Anyway by Robert Cormier

Maus I: My father bleeds history by Art Spiegelman - the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust.

90th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge - April 9th

On April 9th, 1917, soldiers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) reached the top of Hill 145 on Vimy Ridge in France, a feat which had not been accomplished by either the British or French troops since the Germans gained control of the hill in 2-1/2 years earlier. It was the most successful Allied battle in World War One to that point, and established the CEF as the elite Allied fighting corps.

Over the past 90 years, many historians and Canadians have come to look up on Vimy Ridge as symbolic of Canada's emergence as a nation, and you can learn more about Vimy Ridge and its significance at the following websites.

A photo I took from the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in March, 2000.

Book review: Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Tally is an ugly and has been counting down the days until she turns 16, gets operations to become a pretty, and moves across the river into party-filled New Pretty Town. Tally and her best friend, Peris, used to sneak out of their dorm and do "tricks" like spying on new pretties - but that was before Peris turned 16. When Tally pulls her first solo trick to find Peris she meets Shay, who tells her about what exists outside their city and what really happens when you become a pretty. Will Tally risk her life to save Shay when she disappears? Do the terrifying Specials give her a choice?

Uglies and its sequels (Pretties and Specials) are set in a future not far from our own where everyone gets surgery when they turn 16 to make them beautiful. Like many of us never question our ability to choose a different nose or whiter teeth, Tally never wonders if becoming pretty is what she really wants; in fact, she can't wait until she becomes pretty and truly considers her own features to be undeniably ugly. The ideal of physical beauty that the society in Uglies buys into is disturbing while being a possible future for our own society.

Which isn't to say that Uglies is preachy. Far from it! There is lots of action, many different and interesting characters, adventures in the wilderness, and umpteen feats of daring. I read Uglies over the Christmas break and couldn't put it down - well, except for a break or two for Christmas cookies and revising my letter to Santa to include a hoverboard.

4.5 stars out of 5 for Uglies.

Read a review.

Scott Westerfeld's website (includes an interview about Uglies).