Tales from a Loud Librarian

In October, several students and I had the pleasure of attending the first ever Teen Readers' Choice Awards for Louisiana in Baton Rouge. You can read about it here . There have been readers' choice awards at the elementary and middle school level for a number of years, but a teen choice award was not added until 2012.  Vote Here The voting has opened for the 2013 award. You must read at least two of the books and be 12 to 18 years old to vote. Voting will end on February 1, 2013. Open here to cast your vote .  Here is a list of the books that have been nominated: Lauren Oliver: Before I Fall Cassandra Clare: Clockwork Angel Drew Brees: Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity Ally Condie: Matched Paolo Bacigalupi: Ship Breaker Suzanne Supplee Somebody Everybody Listens To Matthew Quick: Sorta Like a Rock Star Swati Avasthi: Split Holly Black: White Cat: Curse Workers Book 1 G. Neri: Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside S...

Bookmarked's bi-weekly reviews in the online newsletter, SLJ Teen, were published on November 21st. In this edition, one of the students reviewed Ruta Sepetys new book that takes place in New Orleans, where we live. Though the student loved the fact that the story was set in a place that she knew, she would have been a big fan even if that was not the case. Open here to see what she and the other reviewers had to say.

Open Here to Make your Nominations It is nearing the end of another year, and so the time has arrived to make nominations for the annual Edublog Awards . I love these awards, not because I like getting nominated (who doesn't like to get recognized), but because I always find some new electronic tool or new person to follow. I guess that I like these awards because I can count on all the nominations to be quality sources, and I love enlarging my professional learning network. Here are some of my favs of the moment: EdTech Blog: I know that he will get lots of nominations, but my favorite go to EdTech site is Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers . I know that if I am looking for a tool for a particular purpose that Richard will have several for me to choose. I am a faithful reader of his column in School Library Journal. Twitter Hashtag: I am a school librarian, and though I am interested in a lot of issues, my first interest is in what other librarians have to s...

Here is a happy sixth grader who walked into the library and found just the book that he wanted, the new middle school book by James Patterson, Middle School Just Got Worse . Students are allowed to put books on hold. When the book is returned to the library, the student will be sent an email telling them the book that they wanted is available. Some of the titles with lots of holds at PFTSTA include, Mark of Athena , Rise of Nine , and the Harry Potter books. 

Library Fundraiser from November 9th through November 27th Cover of  the catalog Help support library programs at PFTSTA like Teen READ Week and Teen TECH Week as well as help get the newest and hottest young adult literature on the shelves of the library by ordering with us.  This is the third year that the PFTSTA Library is working with Great American Opportunities for the Order Now, Pay Later style of fundraiser. Students can ask parents, relatives, friends and parents' co-workers to order from the spring Family Values catalog. The orders will be placed at the end of November, and then the items while arrive at school around the end of January, in time for Valentine's Day. By participating in this sale, the library gets a bigger profit than a traditional sale. We have been able to raise about $600 each year with this type of fundraiser. Now we understand that you may set aside money to spend for holiday gifts, and you don't want to wait until Janua...

On the last day of spirit week, the students were asked to dress as a celebrity. There were some very clever costumes of living and dead celebrities. However, when Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series walked through the door of the library, I had to snap her picture. I love the homemade t-shirt for Camp Half-Blood with Pegasus.

The teens in the high school book group, Bookmarked, have not let me down yet. On November 7th, another set of reviews was published in SLJ Teen. This project has been a big undertaking, but I think that it is totally worth it to have the kids thoughts about what they read get shared with librarians, publishers and authors around the country. As they continue to review books for SLJ Teen until May, Bookmarked was also selected to nominate books for YALSA's Teen's Top Ten program for another two years. The group had to submit an application for one of the five slots that were available for returning groups. Our group was the first ever selected from the Deep South, but this time another local school library was selected too. I know the librarians there and hope that our groups can meet through Skype or maybe even face to face. Click here to read the latest reviews. Just scroll down and click on the box that says, November 7, 2012.