Good News in My Inbox

The above picture shows the table of contents of the January 18th edition of SLJ Teen
Yesterday, I received an email from School Library Journal (SLJ) asking if Bookmarked, the high school library book group, would be interested in reviewing books for them. SLJ has several email/online newsletters. One of them is called SLJ Teen. In that bi-monthly newsletter, four to six teen reviews are posted in each issue.  The students in Bookmarked are already reviewing books for YALSA's Teen's Top Ten (TTT). I require each student to write at least one review every month to submit to the publishers. The student might nominate the book for TTT if they think that it is worthy. I think that the students could use the same review for TTT that they submit to the SLJ newsletter with some nominal additions. The teen reviews in SLJ Teen run about 200 words with half of the review describing plot and the other half describing why the reader liked or didn't like a particular book. I think that it would be a lot of fun to participate. Once we commit, it will be a year stint. I have only asked a handful of students, if they were interested. So far they like the idea, but I have to get a commitment of one review a month from all members before we can sign on.

Then this morning when I opened my email, I had another surprise. Last week I entered an online contest to win a skype with an author. I thought this was an interesting contest because all the authors live in the Los Angeles area, and you could not apply if your school was local to that area. I should be hearing from Cecil Castellucci soon to set up the day and time. I love having the kids talk to authors. This year the students at PFTSTA have had four face to face visits and two webinars with authors. I am not sure which age group she will talk to, and I don't know if it will be during a lunch period or a class period. I will wait to see what she prefers.

Tomorrow I will be filming a thank you note to former first lady, Laura Bush. We have won three Gulf Coast School Recovery grants. The very last of these school recovery grants from the Laura Bush Foundation will be given on March 1st. They are inviting all past winners to attend. A movie is being made with pieces from each school expressing thanks to the first lady. I have two eighth graders on tap to say a few words in the video.

As you can see, there is never a dull moment around here.

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