Another Busy Week, the Friday Countdown

It's been another busy week in the library, after closing down the book fair and getting the room back to normal, we were able to visit Wonderopolis again.  If you haven't looked at this free web site yet, you really need to.  Every day is a new wonder and they run the gambit.  This week alone, we wondered about leukemia (awesome, goose bump video), going on a quest, predicting the future and wrist watches.  Lots of great predicting,  wondering and questioning by all grades.

In THE PIT we enjoyed the book Paul Meets Bernadette a story of goldfish love by Rosy Lamb.  Paul's life is pretty boring, swimming in circles all day until Bernadette "drops in" and shares her view of the world.  It's fun to look at the world through a gold fishes eyes and one 4th grader came up with an interesting observation about the final thoughts, I love it when kids see through the words and think on a higher level.

Last weekend was the Dublin Lit Conference and I got some big news to share with the 3rd, 4th & 5th graders.  While talking to Tami from Fundamentals Book Store in Delaware, OH I learned that Natalie Lloyd, author of A Snicker of Magic, one of my all time favorite books, is coming to the Delaware Library.  I mentioned that I would like to get up to hear her and Tami mentioned that she would like to visit a couple of elementary schools while she is here and I mentioned that Bailey would love to host her!  So now, we are in the preparation stages to host Natalie Lloyd on her visit to central Ohio, very exciting!

We've been observing a run on the Who Was...series of biographies, so my super aide Yvonne and I made a move.  First we ordered about 25 new titles that we didn't have and then we found an empty shelf where we can feature them.  They tend to get lost in with the other biographies so by pulling them out the kids will be able to find the ones they are looking for more easily.  I love that they will read any book in the series regardless of who it is about.  They are learning about great people from history that they wouldn't normally be interested in.  I really love it because as a kid, the biographies were my favorite books at the Ashland Public Library.  I think I read every one of the junior biographies on the shelf several times.  I still love a good biography.

That pretty wraps up the week, now we are all on Storm Watch to see if yet another blast of the white death is headed our way over the weekend.

Barnstormers Game 3 Surprise Find

Don't you just love the small independent bookstores? I recently visited my favorite one, Cover to Cover to Cover Bookstore in Columbus, Ohio and found several things I wasn't looking for, and one I didn't expect to see for several more days. I was very excited to find Game 3 of the Barnstormer series by Loren Long and Phil Bildner on the shelf. If you're not familiar with this series, it involves the Payne family, Griffith, Ruby, Graham, and their mother Elizabeth. They are traveling with a barnstorming baseball team around the turn of the century. The players all served in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders along with the Mr. Payne who died under some mysterious circumstances. Each book involves a different game in a different city that played an important role in the beginnings of baseball. Game 1 is in Cincinnati, Game 2, Louisville, and Game 3, Chicago. Each book includes history, not only of baseball, but also the cities in which they are played.

The team is being followed by the mysterious Chancellor for reasons that are not completely clear yet. Magical things happen during each game that also reflect the history of each city and have something to do with a mysterious baseball with a hole in it that the children possess. All in all, great stories, outstanding illustrations and enough suspense to keep you reading.

I found the series while looking for some good chapter books for second or third grade boys, but these books can be enjoyed by all elementary kids. I can't wait for Game 4 coming sometime in the spring of 2009. Hopefully I'll spot it earlier than expected too, on a future visit to my favorite bookstore.