PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD

It's like Survivor, except it's for books: The CCRSB Teen Readers' Choice Award is a "vote 'em onto the island" and "vote 'em off the island" showdown that will result in one winning book, announced this spring.

Here's how it works:

Between now and Jan. 13, pick up a form in the library to nominate your favourite book for a CCRSB Teen Reader’s Choice Award -- any genre, any publication date, any origin, and any format. (Can't remember the name or author? Your friendly librarian can help!)

The top 10 books nominated among all participating CCRSB schools will be announced in February. Between Valentine's Day and May 13, read a nominated book and discuss it online or at school.

From April 25 to May 14, vote for your favourite top-10 book. The winner will be announced at the end of May.

Track the trends and timelines at: CCRSB Teen Readers' Choice Award

Everything old is new again

Interested in old and not-so-old books? Want to help our library buy new books? Stop by the library any Monday, Wednesday or Friday to peruse the titles on our cart of recently withdrawn books. Take an armload, make a donation, and we'll buy new ones!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say "hi" at the PRHS Christmas Craft Show on Nov. 19. We sold $90 worth of withdrawn books. I was sad to see Leonard Cohen's poems go, but they went to a good home (and our old paperback was admittedly pretty dog-eared and worn...).

Thanks also to the incomparable Ms. Bartlett, PRHS's former librarian, who has turned over the reins to me. I will now be steward of the books and the blogs. I'm happy to be here.

SYNC YA Literature into Your Earphones

2 Free Audiobook Downloads Each Week

June 23 - August 17, 2011

Teens and other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer. Each week from June 23 - August 17, 2011, SYNC will offer two free audiobook downloads.

The audiobook pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the YA title's theme and is likely to show up on a student's summer reading lists. For example, Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, the first book in a popular series with strong allusions to Romeo & Juliet, will be paired with Shakespeare's classic.

To find out when you can download titles to listen to on the run this summer, visit www.AudiobookSync.com.

SYNC Titles

Summer 2011

6/23/11 - 6/29/11

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

6/30/11-7/6/11

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Trial by Franz Kafka

7/7/11-7/13/11

Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

7/14/11-7/20/11

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney

Beowulf by Francis B. Gummere [Trans.]

7/21/11-7/27/11

Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

7/28/11-8/3/11

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Rescue: Stories of Survival From Land and Sea by Dorcas S. Miller [Ed.]

8/4/11-8/10/11

Immortal by Gillian Shields

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

8/11/11-8/17/11

Storm Runners by Roland Smith

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

GLBTQ books at the library - update

I've just updated (for the third time) the GLBTQ books at the library post that I originally published in January 2009. According to the statistics for this blog, it's one of the most popular posts so I thought some new content would be helpful.

And President Snow will be played by...

...Donald Sutherland!

I like it, I really like it.

Hunger Games casting update

There are a couple of important updates to my earlier post about the Hunger Games movie cast:

Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy

Although I was hoping for John C. Reilly as Haymitch, Woody Harrelson is growing on me. I'm eager to learn who they cast as President Snow!

Additionally, all the tributes have been cast as well as Seneca Crane, Caesar Flickerman, and Katniss' mother and while most are listed on IMDb, there are pictures of all the tributes posted on the film's Facebook page.

Don't you ever interrupt me...

I was hoping to find this video somewhere other than YouTube since it's blocked here at the school, but no dice. I hope you can enjoy it elsewhere!

New websites added to Delicious in April

Reading as a teen = better job

A study involving 17,000 people shows that those who read books as teens get better jobs as adults.

Hunger Games movie casting

It appears that new Hunger Games cast members are being announced daily, so I thought it would be helpful to have a look at them as a group. Lots of unknown actors in the mix, which should be interesting!

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss











Josh Hutcherson as Peeta
 










Liam Hemsworth as Gale
 










Willow Shields as Prim (Katniss' little sister)
 
 









Amandla Stenberg as Rue (District 11 tribute)











Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh (District 11 tribute)











Levin Rambin as Glimmer (District 1 tribute)








Jack Quaid as Marvel (District 1 tribute)








What do you think of the casting so far? Do they look like you imagined they would?

Watch for new cast members on the Hunger Games Facebook page.

Student request

A student suggestion box for PRHS has found a home in the library, and one of the suggestions was for me:

Different variety of books! More historical/thrillers/adult.

This was a fun one to do, especially as I just received a donation from the Student Council. It is also apt since we don't have many adult books or thrillers, although we have a fair amount of historical novels (which I need to promote more, it seems!). So here is an abridged list of books at the library - some new to the library with more still to come - that fit this request.

Historical Fiction

(You can view a nearly complete list of historical fiction at the library, as well as lists of World War 1 and World War 2 fiction on GoodReads.)

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. Arthur trilogy.

Gardner, Sally. The red necklace.

Hooper, Mary. Newes from the dead.

Jefferson, Joanne K. Lightning and blackberries.

Roberts, Judson. The strongbow saga.

Smith, Sherri. Flygirl.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The witch of Blackbird Pond.

Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Eagle of the Ninth.


Adult Fiction (full list)

Bradley, Alan. The sweetness at the bottom of the pie.

Brightwell, Geri. The dark lantern. (This book is actually an adult historical thriller!)

Ford, Jeffery. The shadow year.

Hill, Lawrence. The book of Negroes.

Mankell, Henning. Chronicler of the winds.

O'Flynn, Catherine. What was lost.


Thrillers (full list)

Abrahams, Peter. Reality check.

Bowler, Tim. Frozen fire.

Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin.

Hamilton, Steve. The lock artist.

McNamee, Graham. Bonechiller.

Ness, Patrick. The knife of never letting go.

New books!

Hooray, I can log into Blogger from work again! :)

Due to a donation from the PRHS Student Council, I purchased new books for the library, some based on some student requests.

Fiction

Bowler, Tim. Frozen fire.

Brightwell, Geri. The dark lantern.

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a pearl earring.

Cornish, D. M. Factotum (The foundling's tale, book 3)

Efaw, Amy. After.

Ford, Jeffery. The shadow year.

Gallo, John. On the fringe.

Griffin, Adele. Where I want to be.

Hamilton, Steve. The lock artist.

Kluger, Steve. My most excellent year.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The death-defying Pepper Roux.

McKinley, Robin. Chalice.

Shulman, Polly. The Grimm legacy.

Shusterman, Neal. Everlost.

Smith, Sherri. Flygirl.

Valentine, Jenny. Me, the missing, and the dead.

Volponi, Paul. Rikers High.


Nonfiction

Guinness World Records 2011.

Ripley's Believe it or Not! Enter if you Dare!

Stone, Tanya Lee. The good, the bad, and the Barbie.

Gotta Keep Reading

Inspired by the Oprah/Black Eyed Peas flashmob in September 2009, Ocoee Middle School in Florida made their own version called "Gotta Keep Reading."

Ocoee Middle School Gotta Keep Reading from Michael Cardwell on Vimeo.

Freedom to Read Week, February 20-26

Freedom To Read Week is celebrated in Canada every year to "encourage Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Censorship occurs when anyone but the justice system attempts to enforce limits on what a person can or cannot read. Furthermore, included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is this statement: “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms . . . thought, belief, opinion and expression.”

I have put together a display of books contained in the PRHS library that were either challenged (one or more persons wanted the book off library shelves or out of classrooms) or banned (those persons challenging the book succeeded) in the past decade in Canada or the United States, one even within Nova Scotia. Below is a virtual display of those books.

For more information about book censorship in Canada, explore the Freedom To Read Week website.

PRHS's freedom-to-read-week book montage

PRHS's favorite books »

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Google Art Project

Announced on February 1st, Google Art Project digitally displays over 1000 works of art from museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Florence's Uffizi Gallery, the Tate Britain, Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, and many more. You can do a Google Street View-style walk through of the galleries, make your own collections from the works on display, and the level of detail is mind-blowing (you can even zoom in one eye in Rembrandt's Night Watch - they won't let you get that close in the museum!).

Seriously, getting this close just wouldn't happen.

Artist information, data about the work itself, and links to more works by that artist are provided when you click on the white "i" information icon on the right side of the screen.

My one issue with this site is the inability to search among all of the galleries. For example, one of the art club members wanted to see something by pointillist Georges Seurat and I could not find a way to search for his works in all the museums contained in Art Project. However, a work-around would be to do a Google site search, such as "Seurat site:googleartproject.com" in the main Google web search.

That one gripe notwithstanding, it is a wonderful resource that allows detailed viewing of artwork for anyone with an internet connection, and hopefully the coming months will bring even more artwork and galleries.

Rick Riordan on "The lost hero"

One of the new books at the library is The lost hero by Rick Riordan, which is the beginning of a new series based in the same world as his Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. It sounds great!

Food for thought

This 3-minute video about the rising global population is certainly worth watching.

7 Billion, National Geographic Magazine from Jamie Lee Godfrey on Vimeo.

I like big books

This is pretty great, I have to say.