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(Why) It’s Thursday…is a Learning Journey

Written on: February 19th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts, Learning, Learning Journeys, Reading

Kathy here: A 2nd Thursday posting on a Friday? Really? It’s all about my learning journey…and learning curve…in the blogosphere.

1. It seems I have been posting to an old link. Learning: manage weblog versions as one manages document versions.
2. It seems I need to create my entries before the day I actually want to post. Learning: treat the Delaware Library Blog more as a creative writing exercise than a spontaneous letter to an old friend.
3. It seems that I can do much more to my postings than simply write them. Why sould I expect Richard to enrich the topic with links and images? Learning: commit or do not commit to blog authorship.

Do you blog? What learnings can you share with the rest of us? Interested in starting a blog? The Delaware Library Catalog has 29 titles to help you. Perhaps you just want to begin/to continue as a blog reader. Check out The Weblog Awards for “best” reading adventures as chosen by folks like you (including me). And, while I do read more substantive material, Cake Wrecks and Passive Aggressive Notes are such a guilty pleasure.

See you here next Thursday…I mean it.

Gotta Keep Reading!

Written on: February 19th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts, Reading

Another wonderful video, created by passionate, imaginative teachers and librarians- and the spirited and enthusiastic children they serve! Let’s kick off Summer Reading Black Eyed Peas style this year!

A Digital Native’s Demands

Written on: February 18th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

I am getting to work on this right now. Because you are so cute!

This video was produced by the Australian library technology organization VALA

Children and Teens Vote for Favorite Books at Delaware Public Libraries!

Written on: February 17th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts, News

Voting is currently underway at all Delaware public libraries to select the winners of the 15th Annual Blue Hen Book Award, sponsored by the Children’s Services Division of the Delaware Library Association. The Blue Hen Award promotes reading and library use in children and teens. Youth Services Librarians from Delaware public libraries nominated five books published between November 2008 and October 2009 in the following categories: Picture Book, Chapter Book and Teen Fiction. Children and teens who read all the nominated books in a category then vote for their favorite.

Nominees for the 2011 Blue Hen Book Award in the Picture Book category are:

• The Plot Chickens by Mary Jan and Herm Auch
• Tiger Pups by Tom and Allie Harvey
• The Birthday Pet by Ellen Javernick
• Stars Above Us by Geoffrey Norman
• The Scarecrow’s Dance, by Jane Yolen

Nominees in the Chapter Book category are:

• Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware by M.T. Anderson
• Chrissa Stands Strong by Mary Cassanova
• A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Nominees in the Teen Fiction category are:

• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Pop by Gordon Korman
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
• Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

The nominated books and ballots are available at all Delaware public libraries. Voting will end August 31, 2010; the 2011 Blue Hen Book Award winners will be announced Saturday, November 6, 2010.

Evolution of a reader

Written on: February 16th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts, Learning Journeys

Sometimes it strange how everybody’s learning/reading interests converge. At some point last week during Snowmageddon ’10, I looked around at my reading family and noticed that we were all reading books which were just about on the same topic. Normally our interests are much more obviously diverse- and even so, while the books we were reading all had evolution and natural history as a central theme, they were still very different!

My wife was reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, which charts one woman’s struggle for scientific and social recognition in Victorian England, my daughter was devouring Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, the story of a girl’s discovery of science and the complexity of family life in 19th Century Texas, and I was reading Dry Storeroom Number 1, an eccentric history of London’s Natural History Museum.

For further reading, there are plenty of great books available through our libraries:
99% Ape: How Evolution Adds Up and Evolution: the First 4 Billion Years are both highly recommended by Choice Reviews (one of the most significant book selection resources for academic libraries), and would fulfill my non-fiction interests. Peter Dickinson’s Bone from a Dry Sea might be a good follow up read for Lucy, or to close the gap between fiction and non-fiction, she might be interested in Charles and Emma: the Darwin’s Leap of Faith, another 2010 award winner, which explores Darwin’s struggle to reconcile his faith with his discoveries. Our NoveList database suggests Diane Smith’s Pictures from an Expedition for Kirsten.

If we wanted to know more about the actual science behind the subject, we could always go to the MIT OpenCourseWare website and experience a free, virtual lecture series in biology and genetics: click here for the list of video lectures. You can view the first lecture in the MIT series below:

Snowy Sunday Book Reviews.

Written on: February 15th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

• The Three Weissmans of Westport is a light-hearted ‘chick-lit’ parody of Sense and Sensibility filled with “fine and wicked riffs.”
• The Politician: an Insider’s Account of John Edwards’ Pursuit of the Presidency is as well known by now as Game Change, although much tawdrier. Andrew Young, who took the fall for Edwards’ affair, portrays a candidate “whose mental clutch completely slipped” under the pressure of the campaign and his own substantial flaws.
• The Lost Books of the Odyssey is a fictional remixing of Homeric themes, with both hits and misses, but in which the author’s “imagination soars and and his language delights.”
• Amy Green’s Bloodroot is an Appalachian gothic set in a hardscrabble blue collar world, which charts the struggle of “an all too ordinary woman trying to escape an inheritance of violence and poverty.” You can read an extract here.
  

  

  Dick Francis, 1920-2010

  Written on: February 15th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

  Champion jockey and incredibly prolific mystery/thriller author Dick Francis died over the weekend at his home in Grand Cayman. Francis wrote thrillers set in the world of horse racing, at a pace of almost one a year for 40 years. His books are known for their hard-boiled style stripped of that genre’s sex and violence- the Queen Mother was one of his biggest fans and she disapproved of vulgarity. Find his books at any one of your Delaware Library Catalog libraries. Click here for a list.

  

  It’s (almost) Thursday: Kids (Authors) Say the Darndest Things

  Written on: February 12th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

  Kathy here: We know humans rise to an occasion-or not-as dictated by their nature. While cooped up and only sporadically able to access stories of both linked to the Blizzard of 2010, I unknowingly explored the topic with my granddaughter through picture books. At 3.5 years, she has digested the concepts pushed forward in the Berenstain Bears and Little Monster series. Like her mother, she has read and reread the paperback books until they now fall open to her favorite spots. But, my own learning this week centered more on the rebels in the group.
  Enter David Shannon and Mo Willem. Rather, enter David and Pigeon. These characters bring to life that demanding toddler within us all. Shannon’s newest character is the wand-wielding Alice from Alice the Fairy. She explains life this way. “One time my Mom made cookies for my Dad. So I turned them into mine.” Amid the giggles-and the blasting snow-I remember that we are all just making our way as best we can.

  

  Snow Days for Wilmington, Kent and Sussex Co. public libraries

  Written on: February 9th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

  

  FRIDAY FEB. 12th UPDATE: Digging out is proceeding apace, and Kent and Sussex Co. public libraries are starting to reopen today, although shortened hours may apply in some locations. Local conditions are still wildly different in different parts of the state, with local road conditions and the availability of resources to clear parking lots and entrance ramps being the main determinant of whether libraries are opening or remaining closed. Check your local library website for more info or check this blog for update info as it arrives.

  Here is a partial list as of 11 a.m. today, Friday Feb. 12th:

  • Bridgeville will be open Fri. and Sa. 11-6
  • Delmar, Fri. 9-4, Sa. 9-2
  • Dover, regular hours
  • Frankford, Fri and Sa. 10-2
  • Laurel, Fri. regular hours; Sa. 10-2
  • Lewes, Fri. 10-4 and Sa. 10-2
  • Millsboro, Fri. open until 4
  • Rehoboth, Fri and Sa. Regular hours

  ORIGINAL POST: Due to continuing travel difficulties and facilities issues in Kent and Sussex Counties, many public libraries in the Delaware Library Catalog system may remain closed for several more days or have reduced hours. Due dates for all items have been reset to February 16th at the earliest, and items on hold will remain available for pick up until that date. Please check your local library homepage for any special hours or closing announcements.

  

  Neither Snow nor Rain….

  Written on: February 8th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

  Will prevent us from bringing the Sunday reviews to you! And by the way, that’s not really the motto of the Postal Service (click here for the full story from the USPS Historian).

  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot sympathetically examines a complex tale of medical ethics, scientific progress, and the human aspect of both. HeLa, the cell line developed by scientists from the subject’s cervical cancer have revolutionized medicine, and have been used in medical research for decades without the consent or, for a long time, the knowledge of Henrietta Lack or her family. As her daughter notes “I would like some health insurance so I don’t got to pay all that money every month for drugs my mother cells probably helped make.” You can read a transcript of an interview with the author at this link from NPR.

  • Where the Love of God Hangs Out by Amy Bloom is a short story collection characterized by “beautifully wrought prose, with spunky humor and a flair for delectably eccentric details.”
  • Don DeLillo’s Point Omega is a return to form by the dazzlingly creative author, whose recent offerings have failed to satisfy.
  • Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n Roll by David Kirby presents its subject as “a living rebuke to the ruthlessly segregated world in which he grew up.”
  • William Boyd’s Ordinary Thunderstorms is a comedy of identity, of a sort- a Rendell-like thriller reimagined to tell the story of modern London and internet culture.
  • Jesus, Jobs, and Justice is a long-overdue work that “details the contributions of black women to almost every important aspect of the struggle for racial justice”
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