Gossamer

Gossamer
by Lois Lowry

Grades: Late 3 - 6

This gentle little story will appeal to kids who enjoy a combination of realistic fiction and fantasy. It feels like both at times. Gossamer is a dream giver and is quite an enduring little character. Lowry has thrown in a bit of adventure, a bit of mischief and some laughs.

Rating: 8/10

Shackleton's Stowaway

Shackleton's Stowaway
By McKeran
Grades: 6+

I enjoyed reading this story! last year I read the non fiction account, so it was fun to read a "first person" though fictional account of the adventure. this is a rather long read and at times I may have put it aside. what kept me going was the fact that I had read the non fiction account. This would be a good book for all those boys that enjoy adventure stories. I would pair this with some non fiction info on the same event.

Rating: 7/10

Lunch Money

Lunch Money
By Andrew Cements

Grades 3-5

This book was slow going at the beginning, but a fun story once the story actually began. this would be a fun book for a teacher to use as part of an ongoing math lesson. The two main characters represent what I consider a pretty typical rivalry between two bright kids...fun that in the end they use their brains to work together.

Rating 6/10

Thing 4 - Explore Flicker

I understand Tags and groups. I enjoyed looking at the creative edible books from the Edible book Festival @ the Clemens and Alcuin libraries!

We will be heading to Glacier National Park in a week so I searcehd for a photo of a place that I know we will visit. Sure hope it is this beautiful when we get there!!!

This photo was taken by James Neeley on August 21,2007

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpn/1194429094/

Edward's Eyes

Edward's Eyes

Patricia MacLachlan
Grades: Late 3 - 7

Rating 7/10

My 14 year old daughter took one look at this book and said “Edward dies doesn’t he? I can just tell.” All she had done was look at the cover and read the blurb. I had the same feeling the minute I started the book. MacLachlan was able to capture an air of anticipation through her incredibly gentle writing. Readers will simply know that something bad or sad is going to happen. I will admit that I am a bit of a sap and love a good cry and I was not disappointed!! This is an incredibly touching story.

I would recommend Edward’s Eyes as pleasure reading to those students in grades 4-7 that have shown an interest in very human, emotional stories. This is not a book that I would recommend to the die hard fantasy reader.

Thing 3 - RSS Feeds 6/3/08

I will have to continue to work on this one. the sites I visit regularly do not have RSS feeds. I will have to look back at my notes from past MLIS classes and get on some school library media specialist blogs. Interesting concept and very easy to use the google one. One stop shopping on Google...e-mail, blogging, RSS, docs....will it ever end?

Thing 2: What is Web 2.0 and Why Should I Care?

Well, I read through much of the information and watched the video. Lib 2.0 is still a bit of a mystery. I guess that is why I am doing this program this summer.

All in all it seems as if the whole Lib 2.0 is the catch phrase that is being used to encourage libraries to stay current and utilize the technology and web resources that are "out there" and available for all. Are we just scared that our jobs will disappear, or is there really a place for libraries in the next 10-20 years?

I think that the need for information will continue to grow...and librarians will still be the experts in the area of locating reliable info. It they keep up on technology that is.