Sunday, May 30, 2010

We Celebrate Our Library's Fifth Birthday

We are planning a happy hour to celebrate our library's fifth birthday and to raise funds to keep it going.  There will be great music; $2 BEERS and $3 MIXED DRINKS; SNACKS; RAFFLE PRIZES; and a short READING by Wendy Shanker (called “irreverent and refreshing” by Publisher’s Weekly, “a bubbly diva” by Harper’s Bazaar and “ “fierce and funny” by Ms. Magazine), author of The Fat Girl's Guide to Life and Are You My Guru?: How Medicine, Meditation & Madonna Saved My Life    Thanks to parent Richard Manitoba (NS parent of Jake)  for hosting!  WHEN: June 9, 6-8pm WHERE: Manitoba's, 99 Avenue B.  Please come and support our library!



                                                                      

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Birthday Cupcakes



We will be serving "Happy Birthday Library" cupcakes* in the Lobby on Friday, June 11th, at dismissal, to all students. 


If you're available to help serve cupcakes for 15 minutes, please let me know (mckinleylibrary@gmail.com).  Thanks!  --Cheryl

*provided by Ciao for Now 




Friday, May 28, 2010

George O'Connor brings Athena and Zeus to 4th & 5th graders in the Library!

Author/cartoonist George O'Connor was our special guest on May 28th.  He presented a "how to draw" workshop, taking students through the step-by-step process of creating a Cyclops or Athena figure.  What a great way to wrap up Rachael & Kenton's class study of mythology and also capitalize on kids' passion for graphic novels and Greek mythology in Ms. Baron/Ms. Nye's 5th grade class.  There are 10 more books planned in this exciting series.


George has promised to post all of their drawings on his website, www.olympiansrule.com.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Librarians' Day of Dialog/Book Expo America (BEA)

I had the fortune to attend School Library Journal's "Day of Dialog" a full-day program for librarians, critics, publishers, and other book people at the Book Expo America convention.  A fascinating panel discussion on "Steampunkery" (a literary genre and subculture).  If you are not familiar with this phenomenon and want to learn more, you can watch the panel right here:  http://vimeo.com/12054016  "Drawing the Line Between Picture Books and Graphic Novels," an amazing conversation about the boundaries between the two genres.  An interesting distinction for me was stated by illustrator David Wiesner, who said that picture books are (usually) meant to be read aloud whereas graphic novels are to be read alone.  Agreed.  Lastly, I attended the panel "The Care and Feeding of Tweens: Who are they, where are they, and what do they respond to?"


If you are so inclined, you can watch videos of two of these panels here:


Steampunk Panel - SLJ Day of Dialog, BEA 2010 from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

Tween panel: SLJ Day of Dialog, BEA 2010 from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord, The Inkheart trilogy) read the first chapter of her new book Reckless, to be released in September. She is as magical and captivating as her books!

One of the other perks of going to Book Expo is coming out with as many posters and advanced readers' copies that you can stuff into the free literarily-decorated giveaway bags.  I'm eager to read Tony Diterlizzi's  Wondla as well as Inrid Law's Scumble and David Tanis' Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys (for my personal cookbook collection)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Illustrator Visit: Andrew Glass

Andrew Glass, illustrator--and parent of Catherine ('15)--talked to Katie's and Debbie's classes about his work as an illustrator, beginning with showing how every pocket he had was filled with a little notebook, so he is always prepared to sketch his ideas and what he observes.  Andrew is currently working on a historical fiction picture book about flying cars!
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