Goings On Around Town

There are lots of goings on around town this month that would be of interest to HVLA members.

Here’s a round up. Have fun!

Open House New York

http://www.ohny.org/weekend/plan-your-weekend/list-view?title=library

Saturday, October 17th and Sunday, October 18th

There are all kinds of amazing buildings that you can tour on this special weekend, including a number of libraries. Among the offerings are a behind the scenes tour of Central Library in Brooklyn and a tour of the Frick Art Reference Library.

Book Fest@ Bank Street

https://www.bankstreet.edu/center-childrens-literature/bookfest/about-bookfest/

Saturday, October 24th - 9:00-4:00pm

BookFest is an event devoted to the celebration, discovery, and discussion of books for children and teens. This event, designed for adults, features luminaries from the children's literature community. Authors, illustrators, editors, reviewers, and scholars will take part in panel discussions and breakout sessions.

92Y

http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Events/Lectures/YA-Lit-at-92Y.aspx

Fierce Reads at 92Y

Friday, October 16th - 7:00-900pm

Fierce Reads is one of the most popular tours in the world of YA lit and on October 16th, this exciting tour makes a stop at 92Y with four can't miss authors. Don't miss Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows), Leila Sales (Tonight the Streets Are Ours), Emma Mills (First & Then) and Josephine Angelini (Firewalker) all in one night, only at 92Y.

David Baldacci, Cassandra Clare and Holly Black at 92Y

Thursday, October 22nd - 6:00-8:00pm

Don't miss this star studded event as master storyteller DAVID BALDACCI, whose new YA title is The Keeper, joins the bestselling partnership CASSANDRA CLARE and HOLLY BLACK to discuss the new volume in their Magisterium collaboration, The Copper Gauntlet.

NYPL Children’s Literary Salon

Saturday, October 17th - 2:00pm

The Natural World of Winnie the Pooh

Join Kathryn Aalto (The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Woods) for a journey into one of the most iconic settings in children's literature: the Hundred Acre Wood, inspired by Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England. It is here where A. A. Milne lived and set the tender adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh and his merry band of friends. Learn about Milne's extraordinary childhood and how he and illustrator E. H. Shepard became the Lennon–McCartney of classic children's literature. A landscape historian, designer, and writer, Kathryn will present a lively, visually-rich talk and describe how the books are a field guide for the free-range child and a hymn to those days of doing nothing, yet learning everything.

Saturday, October 31st - 2:00pm

The Rise of Latino Literature for Youth

Please join authors Sonia Manzano (Becoming Maria, The Evolution of Evelyn Serrano), Danette Vigilante (Saving Baby Doe), Torrey Maldonado (Secret Saturdays), Adam Silvera (More Happy Than Not) , Crystal Velasquez (Hunters of Chaos) and Daniel José Older (Shadowshaper, Half-reserrection Blues) for a discussion of the past, present, and future state of literature written by and starring Latino-Americans.

Barnes & Noble - Union Square

https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061728099-0

Saturday, October 17th - 11:00am

Educator Appreciation Day

All pre-K to 12th grade educators are invited to celebrate Educator Appreciation Days with a special brunch featuring workshops, discounts and giveaways.

Books of Wonder

http://www.booksofwonder.com/events.php

Tuesday, October 13th 6:00-8:00pm

Launch Event for Ice Like Fire

Don't miss YA star author SARA RAASCH as she come to Books of Wonder to launch the second book in her hit series Ice Like Fire. SARA RAASCH will take the stage with friends and fellow authors AMY EWING (The White Rose), KRISTEN SIMMONS (The Glass Arrow), and HEATHER DEMETRIOS (Exquisite Capitve). This talented panel will engage each other and fans in a lively conversation about their new books and thrilling fiction!

Wednesday, October 14th 6:00-8:00pm

Launch Event for Heroes

Get ready for a supernatural adventure of epic proportions as SCOTT WESTERFELD, MARGO LANAGAN, AND DEBORAH BIANCOTTI celebrate the launch of their latest YA novel, Zeroes! Your teen readers won't want to miss this action packed tale of teens with powers.

Saturday, October 17th, 1:00 PM– 3:00 PM

Fantastic Middle Grade Reads

Get ready for an afternoon of magic and adventure as Books of Wonder welcomes four fantastic Middle Grade authors! 

MICHELLE SCHUSTERMAN for The Kat Sinclair Files

POLLY SHULMAN for The Poe Estate

DAN POBLOCKI for The House on Stone's Throw Island

SUZANNE WEYN for Faces of the Dead

Sunday, October 18th, 3:00 PM– 5:00 PM

Fantastic Teen Reads with Moderator Dhonielle Clayton

Books of Wonder is proud to present Sci-Fi/Fantasy New York Times Bestselling authors ELEANOR HERMAN and COLLEEN HOUCK, and author ALEXANDRA DUNCAN as they share their latest YA novels. Moderated by DHONIELLE CLAYTON, author of Tiny, Pretty Things, this is an event your teen readers won't want to miss!

Saturday, October 24th - 1:00-3:00pm

Go Wild for Halloween Book Bonanaza

Get ready to Trick-Or-Treat early this year as we bring you some Halloween fun a week early! Join us, and these four great authors and illustrators, as we get into the spirit of the season with these spooky, hilarious new picture books.

JOE McGEE for Peanut Butter and Brains

ADAM LEHRHAUPT for Please Open this Book

SAMANTHA BERGER and ISABEL ROXAS for Boo-La-La Witch Spa

EMILY JENKINS and HYEWON YUM for The Fun Book of Scary Stuff

HVLA Fall Meeting

SAVE THE DATE

REQUEST THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY AT THE 2015 HVLA FALL MEETING

TOPIC: DIVERSITY

DATE: OCTOBER 22, 2015

VENUE: ETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOOL  

      3901 FIELDSTON ROAD

      BRONX, NY 10471

TIME: 4:30PM – 6:00PM

SOCIAL: AN BEAL BOCHT CAFÉ (Following the meeting)

How Excited Are Your Teachers About Kid Lit?

I have many dreams (perhaps too many) but one of them is to have the strongest possible community of readers here at Allen-Stevenson. Teachers’ interest in children’s books runs the gamut but sometimes I’ve found myself wishing there were more teachers eagerly anticipating the next book by Rebecca Stead or Gary Paulsen. Imagine the amazing conversations that would take place between students and teachers of all disciplines if they sometimes read the same books. A few years back I decided to make it a goal to see if I could get more teachers in my Middle School (Grades 4-6) interested in children’s literature. It’s still a work in progress - here’s what I’ve tried so far.

Maintaining a Constant Presence

Although our library is centrally located, my philosophy is that I can never remind teachers about us enough! To that end, I maintain a bulletin board on the Middle School floor, advertising our latest titles. (In case you are wondering, the library has bulletin boards on the Lower and Upper School floors too.)

Improving the Classroom Libraries

The library at A-S is filled with shiny, up-to-date, volumes but it dawned on me one day this was not the case for some of the libraries in the classrooms. I could see why teachers would not be attracted to some of the books on their shelves (obviously the same goes for our boys) so I negotiated some funding from the division heads and we rebuilt the libraries in all the classrooms over a three year period. Now when I go to the classrooms to teach I see lots of appealing books but I have to resist the urge to reorganize them!

Displaying READ Posters

Over the years we have made READ posters featuring many of our faculty and staff holding their favorite children’s book (all but the most camera shy). The idea is to inspire the boys but I’m secretly hoping that it inspires the teachers too! We plaster these posters all over the school the night before Allen-Stevenson Book Week in November and then take them down again the minute Book Week is over, in order to preserve the mystique!

Picture of my READ poster

Faculty Meetings

Last year during Book Week it dawned on us that we do a lot of activities for the boys but very little for the teachers. We asked if we could take over the faculty meeting that week so that we could have a little fun with books. 

The result was a speed dating event (dating books, that is!) which we ran in each division. There were red pencils and heart bookmarks, chocolate covered strawberries, Hershey’s kisses and prosecco. Not to mention a tower of (plastic) champagne glasses. It is still being talked about to this day! The fantastic Katie Archambault, wrote about it in a post she did for the AISL blog so if you want to know the details, take a look here http://aislnews.org/?p=2589

We are still figuring out what to do this year for Book Week but we know we are going with a mystery theme. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share them below!

Summer Book Discussion Groups

One idea that the Middle School faculty came up with during the speed dating event was for each teacher to sponsor a different summer reading book. Boys would choose a book and then form a group with the sponsoring teacher and some other boys from the division on the first day back at school to talk about the book and do a related activity. This simple idea entailed a lot more work than I had anticipated but it all proved to be worthwhile in the end. The teachers were amazed at how thoroughly many boys knew the book they had read and quite a few teachers said that they saw individuals in a new light.

To see how I presented the book choices to the boys, take a look at this Voicethread.

https://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/6691352/34998668/36373302

Book Award Challenges

This is our second year of running a Mock Newbery Challenge and to be honest, I like reading and predicting the next winner so much more than reading former winners...and so do the boys! Since there is no official short list I relied on blogs, such as SLJ’s Heavy Medal, for ideas about serious contenders. You can see the titles we are reading on our Pinterest board.

https://www.pinterest.com/aslibrary/newbery-challenge-2016/

There are some cracking good reads here! 

All the boys who read eight or more books get an invitation to a voting party in early January. Pizza is involved and, despite the fact that many boys seem to eat it on a very regular basis, it is a ridiculously powerful incentive.We offer other incentives along the way, as well as a few different ways to show what they know about the books. What has this got to do with getting teachers reading children’s books? Well, we have been talking it up a storm with the teachers and placing book covers of the contenders in their classrooms. What better way to get teachers reading than by presenting them with the ‘best’ of what’s new? The covers of all the contenders are also posted on the wall in the library and everybody who reads a book gets his or her name attached to the cover of the book for all to see. Teachers know that boys will be taking note of who they can discuss the books with and since the teachers enjoyed talking about the summer reading books so much, they are more open to the idea than they were last year. In fact, we’ve checked out a number of books to teachers over the two weeks since we started the challenge!

Place picture of wall?

It has been a few years now since I first developed the goal of adding more adults to our reading community and though it started slowly, I feel that in the last year the momentum has really begun to pick up, due in large part to the terrific team we have in the library, so thanks, Liz, Bonnie and Kate! I’m sure there’s more I could be doing. What have you tried? - Sarah Kresberg

Summer Reading Programs

Here are some ways to get kids excited about reading this summer. Please add any additional programs you know of in the comments. 

• Newsela Reading Challenge

Students coast to coast will answer the call to keep on reading about the world around them. Newsela's Summer Reading Challenge gives them the chance to earn badges, get newsroom promotions and climb in the standings, all while reading news and feature stories hot off the press.

• NYPL Summer Reading

Calling all kids and teens! Join the action and have a blast this summer as NYPL celebrates heroes and cool books, from popular fantasy and graphic novels to the latest in your favorite series. Even adults can join the fun.

• Summer Reading at New York Libraries

Browse through our site for summer reading related materials. "Every Hero Has a Story" this summer at your local library. To join the fun of Summer Reading today, find your local library website using our link, and register!            

• Scholastic Reading Challenge

Power Up and Read! The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge™ is a free online reading program for children. Join today and let’s set a new reading world record for summer 2015! (May 4 - Sept 4, 2015)

• TD Bank Summer Reading Program

Students in grades K-5 are challenged to read 10 books this summer and earn $10 in a Young Savers account.

• Book It! Summer Reading

 Sponsored by Pizza Hut, students will find interactive experiences beginning June 22. The more they read, the more prizes they can earn. 

• Barnes & Noble Summer Reading

K-6 students can read any 8 books, record them in a reading journal, and choose a free book from their Barnes & Noble Store. 

Child-sized T

Last week an article I wrote for School Library Journal got published on their website. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Evaluating Transgender Picture Books

Musings on Harold and the Purple Crayon

Happy Spring, all! I came across this article on Harold and the Purple Crayon completely by accident, and thought it would be a nice way to start my (Kyle's) month of blogging, since I talk about this book all the time. There are a lot of discussions around issue-driven children's literature, and a lot of my ideas about why picture books are so important are nicely illustrated in this.

One sentence that stood out for me, on a slightly different tack, is "I feel squicky when people quote their students’ glitter-genius sentences on Facebook -- it doesn’t seem mentor-like or ethical..." and I'm interested in other thoughts on that, as it's something I think about a lot.

Enjoy!

Poetry Blast at Dalton!

The Dalton Poetry Class holds an Annual Poetry Fest every April at which our amazingly creative, insightful, and brave students come to the library after school to recite their own works.  The celebration is a warm and engaging experience with teachers also either reading their own poems or reciting from their favorite authors.  Our own Tobi Fineberg read a poem about prime numbers that I know you will enjoy, as did our folks here:

Harry Baker

A love poem for lonely prime number

On the TV monitor just at the entrance to the library, where everyone waits for the elevator, is replete this month with poems, including a reading of William Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Daffodils, by Dave Matthews: 

The Daffodils, by Dave Matthews:  https://vimeo.com/98139899

Enjoy the gift of poetry along with us!