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CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS December 11, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Announcements, Reading Recommendations.
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As a kind of public service to the Res community, library staff compiled a list of books that would make good gifts.  We asked Res staff and Library Club members for suggestions and then we put them all together in a little booklet which was offered to students in Homeroom today.  Extras are available in the library and at the Main Desk of the school.  We hope it comes in handy when you are looking for just the right gift!  Our thanks to all the staff and students who submitted their suggestions.

NEW NONFICTION BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY October 8, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in New books in the Library, Reading Recommendations.
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On Call

On Call : A Doctor’s Days and Nights In Residency;
by Emily Transue (find it on our shelves at 610.92 TRA)

Stolen Voices : Young People’s War Diaries from World War I to Iraq;  edited with commentaries by Zlata Filipovic and Melanie Challenger  (302.2309 STO)

Censorship on the Internet : From Filters to Freedom of Speech; by Wendy Herumin  (363.31 HER)

Theories for Everything : An Illustrated History of Science from the Invention of Numbers to String Theory; by John Langone  (509 LAN)

Why a Curveball Curves : The Incredible Science of Sport; edited by Frank Vizard  (613.71 WHY)

The Way Toys Work : The Science Behind the Magic 8 Ball, Etch-a-Skech, Boomerang, and More; by Edwin Sobey

Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America; by Jacqueline Barnitz  (709.8 BAR)

Drawing Manga; by Selina Dean  (741.5 DEA)

Get a Hobby! : 101 All-Consuming Diversions for Any Lifestyle; by Tina Barseghian  (790.13 BAR)

The Great Adventure : Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America; by Albert Marrin  (921 ROO)

Twyla Tharp : Dancer and Choreographer; by James Robert Parish  (921 THA)

A Medieval Knight; by James Barter  (940.1 BAR)

American Colonies; by Alan Taylor  (973.2 TAY)

NEW BOOKS September 19, 2008

Posted by Mrs. Roy in New books in the Library, Reading Recommendations.
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There are a number of new books in your school’s library waiting for you to check out.

Are you waiting to read the next Stephenie Meyer book? We have it! Bella’s love for a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare. Stephenie Meyer’s vampire love saga can be found in the fiction section of the library. A review said this series “is a love story with a bite.”
Twilight is book #1, New Moon is book #2, Eclipse is book #3 and
Breaking Dawn is book #4. call number FIC MEY

Are you looking for a good book but find you are too busy? Let us suggest some newly arrived short stories.
Such A Pretty Face: amusing tales of our relationship with beauty. call number SC SUC
Who Am I Without Him?: “Hilarious and anguished, these twelve short stories speak with rare truth”. call number FIC FLA
Red Spikes: “…the remarkable, luminous, mysterious short stories of Margo Lanagan.”
call number FIC LAN
What They Found: Love On 145th Street:”…love can be found, and can thrive in unlikely places.” call number FIC MYE

All the short story titles above are shelved in the fiction area of the library.

Does your taste run to history? We have a great book describing the American Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story Of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan call number 973.917 GA

NEW STEPHENIE MEYER BOOK August 4, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in New books in the Library, Reading Recommendations.
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In case you missed the news, the 4th and final book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released on August 2.  There are already 292 holds for it on the Metropolitan Library System catalog!  I’m going out tomorrow to try and score a copy for the Res Library so we have it ready when school begins.  I know that a ton of you are fans, so let us know if you did anything special to celebrate the release of the book.  And mark your calendars now because the movie version of Twilight is scheduled to be released in December.

SUMMER OLYMPICS July 12, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Reading Recommendations, Web Resources.
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The Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing are less than a month away (August 8). The excitement (and the hype) will be increasing in the coming weeks but it doesn’t hurt to start setting some Bookmarks (“Favorites” for you PC users) for good websites and building your knowledge base through books and videos. Your local public library will be showcasing their resources about the Olympics as well, so take a look at their websites and library displays.

Let’s start with some basics:

Blogs: No doubt blogs will be showing up all over the place. NBC has quite a few already (see below) — scroll down the main page to find the link to blogs by athletes as well as blogs about sports. Also check the newspapers listed below. Because the Olympic Games are such a spectacle, usually in an unfamiliar place, reporters often blog about culture and history and politics in addition to sports.

Webcams: I checked the official site and I don’t see anything about webcams at the Olympics. If the Games were in most any other country, I would expect webcams at the major gathering places for visitors in the various cities. However, China can be a little on the paranoid side when it comes to controlling what the world gets to see about the country, so it’s entirely possible there won’t be any webcams. You can always check back closer to the opening of the Games.

TV schedule/coverage : NBC
http://www.nbcolympics.com/
In addition to Channel 5, the main NBC affiliate in Chicago, Olympic programming will also be found on MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oh! Oxygen, and Telemundo.

Newspapers: Good general coverage of the Games and in-depth coverage of local athletes can be found in the Trib and Sun-Times. The Christian Science Monitor is a good place for stories “around” the Olympics, especially the political and cultural angle. Plus it’s a good place to find a more international slant to the coverage (i.e., they’re not obsessed with the USA medal county). Another good place for that would be the BBC website. I’ve also listed a couple of places that provide links to newspapers all over the world. It’s a fun way to practice your foreign language skills and see how the rest of the world views the Olympics!

If learning about the Beijing Olympics has stirred your interest in the Olympics in general, try some of these books, videos, and websites:

Do a Subject Browse search using “Olympic Games” in your public library catalog and you will get a list of Olympic Games in numerical order. This will help you find even more books and videos about the Olympics.

Use the EBSCO Science Reference Center and FirstSearch databases to help answer your questions about the physics of sports, the physiology of athletic achievement, sports training, and sports equipment and clothing. If you’d like to know about the history and rules of a particular sport, check out Britannica Online.

Biography : The athletic achievement of the Olympics is awe-inspiring, but what usually draws us in is the stories of the athletes. Here are some biographies to get you started, but it’s the tiniest tip of the iceberg! Enter the search phrase “Olympic AND biography” in your library catalog for more ideas. And don’t forget magazine articles. Check the periodical databases subscribed to by Res or your local public library to find more information about your favorite athletes or sports. Browse the magazine rack at a bookstore or your public library as well. The major news weeklies (Time, Newsweek, etc.) will have lots of stories, but so will other magazines.

Culture and Geography : If you watch the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremonies, you may find yourself asking, “Where is THAT country?” The TV commentators will give you a little help, but if you want to inquire further, try some of these sources:

Hope this gets you started! Enjoy the spectacle and pay attention — the Olympics may be coming to Chicago in 2016!

You might enjoy these three books June 16, 2008

Posted by Mrs. Roy in Reading Recommendations.
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If you enjoy mysteries I suggest you give these two books a look. “Monkeewrench” by PJ tracy and “Don’t Look Back” by Karin Fossum.
“Monkeewrench” is written by a mother daughter team. The setting is Minneapolis; so close to home. Someone is murdering people and these murders duplicate those murders found in a new video game designed by the Monkeewrench Group. Who is the Monkeewrench Group? In additon to the Minneapolis murders there is a murder in Wisconsin. Is this murder tied to those in Minneapolis? The story plot and characters kept me reading late into the night. Watch out for the ending—

Another mystery for your summer time reading is “Don’t Look Back” by Karin Fossum. Ms Fossum is a popular Norwegian mystery writer . This book is the first Inspector Sejer mystery novel to appear in the US. Enjoy.
A young girl disappears from her neighborhood, then returns home unharmed. While searching for the missing girl the search party discovers the corpse of a teenage girl from the village. Who wished this well liked girl dead? Is there a link between the disappearance of one girl and the death of the other? This story plot shifts often. You are given glimpses into peoples lives and secrets. Small towns are not necessarily any safer than big cities.

A change of pace for this next story. ” ‘Mudbound’ is a story of racism and well kept secrets. Set on a desolate farm in the Mississippi Delta at the end of World War ll, the novel explores the complex relationshop between two families; the owners of the land and the sharecroppers who live and work on it.” The landowner’s wife, Laura, is trying to come to terms with living in the Delta, its deprivations and social expectations. The son of the sharecropper and the brother of the landowner have returned home from World War ll. It is their friendship upon which the story turns. I found this story to be heartbreaking, stark and then hopeful. This is Hillary Jordon’s first novel. She won the 2006 Bellwether Prize for her book.

Books for the youngest June 16, 2008

Posted by Mrs. Roy in Reading Recommendations.
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If you find yourself with some time to read to a 3-6 year old this summer the following are a few titles that I think they might enjoy—you may also.
“Morning Dance” by Todd Hannert
“Giggle,Giggle,Quack” by Doreen Cronin
“I took my frog to the library” by Eric Kimmel
“Widget” by Lyn Rossiter McFarland
“Princesses are not quitters” by Kate Lum
“Duck on a Bike ” by David Shannon
“I am not going to school today” by Robie H. Harris
“Click Clack Moo” by Doreen Cronin
Don’t take your snake for a stroll” by Karin Ireland
“Can you guess” by Margaret Miller
“Ten terrible dinosaurs” by Paul Strickland
“In the rain with Baby Duck ” by Amy Hest
“Book! book! book!” by Deborah Bruss
If you give a mouse a cokkie” by Laura Joffe Numeroff
“David’s Father” by Robert N. Munsch
“McDuff moves in” by Rosemary Wells
“Snowmen at night” by Carolyn Buchner

READING WITH CHILDREN May 30, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Reading Recommendations.
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As we said in the Summer Reading Booklet, reading with children is an amazing gift to them that only requires some time and attention from you.  The easiest way to get started is to just take your little sisters or brothers, cousins, or the kids you baby-sit to your local public library and explore the children’s section.  Or take them for story hour and pick up some tips by watching the librarian or story-teller do it.  You can also volunteer to help at story hour or other children’s programs at the library.

If you’re looking for ideas about what to read, use the NoveList database (Res has a subscription).  Click on the ”Award Winners” link under either the “Younger Kids” or “Older Kids” categories in the left-side menu.  The “Literary” section has awards like the Caldecott Medal and Honor Books, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, the Charlotte Zolotow Award and Honor Books, and the Newbery Medal and Honor Books.  Take a look at some of the other lists as well.  Most states, including Illinois, run their own book award programs and many of their lists can be found on NoveList.

Some of the same lists can be found on the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) website:  http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/awardsscholarships.cfm. Click on the “Literary and Related Awards” and the “Children’s Notable Lists” for more than a summer’s worth of ideas.

Sometimes children have some pretty specific ideas about the books they like — and that’s great.  But help them mix it up a bit by exploring fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales and tall tales, and poetry with them.

Kids who are beginning to read or who can already read love the chance to read to someone else.  Your job is just to be a good audience — and maybe help them with a difficult word or two.  It’s good practice for them and it takes most of the pressure off you because, in my experience, the kids can pronounce the names of all those dinosaurs WAY better than we can!  I’m sure my nephew Nathan was motivated to take over the duties of reading his favorite, The Star Wars Dictionary, when I kept pronouncing “Queen Amidala” as “Queen Armadillo.”

Reading with children is one of life’s simplest pleasures, so just have fun with it!

THE SECRET LIVES OF TEACHERS, PART 3 May 29, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Reading Recommendations.
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Here’s the last of our reading ideas from the Res staff.  If you missed them, read Part 1 and Part 2.  Feel free to let us know what you’re reading this summer.

Though he fears students will find his choices “boring,” Mr. Lascon is planning to read The First Crusade : A New History by Thomas Asbridge, The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton, The Apostles by Pope Benedict XVI, and 1453 : The Holy War for Constantinople by Roger Crowly.  He recommends Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and any book by Mitch Albom.

Mrs. Roy has a number of mysteries on her list, including Careless in Red by Elizabeth George, Dead Run by P.J. Tracy, books from the Kathryn Swinbrook series by C.L. Grace and the Magdalene La Batarde series by Roberta Gellis, both of which are set in the Middle Ages.  She’s also planning to read The Worst Hard Time : The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Tim Egan and I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.  (Read more about these books in Mrs. Roy’s post on the Res Library blog.)  And she also wants to read the 8 months of National Geographic that have piled up on her coffee table!

Mr. Mallen awaits the new edition of the NCAA Football Rules and the CCA Officials Mechanics (you need to ask him for an explanation of this one).  Anticipation of exciting rules changes has him all atwitter.

Indulging her love of history, Ms. Lenihan will be reading Basilica : The Splendor and the Scandal : Building St. Peter’s by R.A. Scotti and The Intellectual Devotional : American History by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim.  She will also try to fit in some of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries. If you like historical fiction or mysteries, she says The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher : A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale has received great reviews.  If you’re not historically-inclined, she recommends Tim Gunn : A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style by Tim Gunn and Kate Moloney.

Mrs. McMahon is going to read The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn, both by Debbie Macomber.  Earlier this year she read Back on Blossom Street and decided she wanted to read the two earlier books with the same theme.

Mrs. Elliott likes the adrenaline rush from the scary stuff, so she recommends Stephen King and Robin Cook.

While she’s trusting to serendipity to provide her own summer reading, Sr. Berchmans recommends The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, and the Jan Karon Mitford novels.

Even if you’re not taking her “Understanding and Experiencing Disabilities” course next year, Ms. Riggs recommends George and Sam : Two Boys, One Family, and Autism by Charlotte Moore.  She says it’s a fascinating look at autism.

Ms. Boe will be spending most of her summer reading time on what she calls “mind candy” – fun, quick reads in fantasy, mystery and even an occasional romance! She’s going to start, however, with inspiration in Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. It’s a short but true story about a doctor who used the Islamic tradition of the third cup of tea making you “family” to build schools in Afghanistan. Then on to some of that “mind candy”. Living in Chicago, she recommends you try the Jim Butcher series about a wizard named Harry Dresden who lives in Chicago. Great fun! Julia Quinn is her pick for a Regency period romance with “real women.” She figures she has to read something vaguely historical, so she’s picked an alternative history: One Thousand White Women: Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus. When the Cherokees realized they were going to lose to the whites, they proposed something native Americans had always done to create peace – marry your enemy. A letter to the President didn’t get the 1000 white wives the Cherokees had requested, but this novel pretends that the white women did go West.

Mrs. Giustino highly recommends This I Believe : The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, collected essays originally heard on NPR.  She plans to read Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

THE SECRET LIVES OF TEACHERS, PART 2 May 28, 2008

Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Reading Recommendations.
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We posted Part 1 a couple of days ago.  Here are more reading ideas from the Res staff:

We’ve put Mrs. O’Connell’s full list up on the blog, but here are some highlights.  She’s going to finish Three Cups of Tea and re-read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  She’s also going to read Welcome to the Wisdom of the World and Its Meaning for You by Joan Chittester and Forever Blue by Ann Brashares, the 4th book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, which was a Mother’s Day gift from her son.  She highly recommends a trip to Women and Children First, a bookstore in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago.  They have a great selection of books by women authors as well as author events.  She says, “Have fun reading and, no, reading e-mails does not count as real reading nor does reading your friends’ Facebook pages!”

Although hoping to have time for even more, Mrs. Johann is sure she will read Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is the story of 2 boys growing up in Afghanistan, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult, and at least a couple books by Sue Grafton.

Ms. Heneghan will be reading Three Cups of Tea : One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Relin.  She says the work and life of Greg Mortenson is fascinating and inspiring.  She’ll also be reading My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prudhomme.  Child’s memoir celebrates  the creation of an amazing person and a great master chef. Her last title is Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit : A Return to Wholeness by Donna Farhi, a book to read eagerly the first time and return to again and again.  (Read more about these choices on the Res Library blog.)

Ms. Klemundt will be dividing her reading time between the classics, including Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (a book she inexplicably neglected to read in her wonder years) and mysteries, including Murder in Jerusalem by Batya Gur.  She recommends Singing the Dogstar Blues by Allison Goodman and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner.

Mrs. Berke plans to read The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Nineteen Minutes and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, Bipolar : An Insider’s  Story by Teri Cheny, Angels Fall by Nora Roberts, Murder on Location by Laura Lippman, and Stolen Innocence : My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer.

Mrs. Devine recommends In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien.  She says the plot offers several theories about the mysterious disappearance of the main character’s wife and leaves the reader pondering what really happened.

Mrs. DiSandro recommends Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Jodi Picoult might be our most popular author!  Mrs. Martin also has Picoult on her summer reading list.  She recommends The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, Up High in the Trees by Kiara Brinkman, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, and any of Mitch Albom’s books.

Mrs. Campeotto is going to read Three Cups of Tea : One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Relin.

Mr. Miller is taking an Astronomy class this summer, so he’ll be reading Horizons : Exploring the Universe, 10th ed. by Michael A. Seeds.

Mrs. Ulczak says her summer reading will be “the best of times and the worst of times” as she will be taking her last class towards her Masters degree:  Study of the British Novel : Dickens. Since she won’t be doing any reading for “fun” this summer, you’ll have to do it for her.  She highly recommends The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory for a fun look at “life at court.”

Stay tuned.  We’ll post the last group in a couple of days.