School Library Showcase

February 2001 Showcase :

FAIRY TALES AT WESTMOUNT LIBRARY

The Library Assistant has captivated the Grade 3s at Westmount Elementary School with tales of “Cinderella”. The multicultural program presented in the library included Princess Furball, Cinder Edna, The Egyptian Cinderella and Cinderella Penguin. All the children enjoyed the variety of tales.

Battle of the books is a reading program sponsored by Woozles Book Store in Halifax. Ms D. MacDonald,

Library Assistant, is helping students at Sir Charles Tupper School and Inglis St. School prepare for the event. Each school enters teams consisting of 4 students who compete with other schools by answering questions about the books they read. Each member of the team reads 25 books. This year Sir Charles Tupper has entered three teams and Inglis St has entered two teams. We wish them luck in the competition.

At 7:50 a.m. each day 1, 2, 4 and 5, a group of students from grades four to six gather in the library with Ms. R. King, Library Assistant, to listen to a reading of one of the books on the Hacmatack list. Students are eager to know where 52 Days by Camel will take them, or how cold it is on the ice roads in By Truck to the North. The Inuksuk Book has us so inspired we are planning to build our own inuksuk at the front of the school when the weather improves. The snow doesn’t keep us from our reading, however, and the faithful arrive eager to prepare for voting for their favorite book. Through independent reading and ou

r group reading we will be ready to make a choice for the best children’s fiction book and the best children’s non-fiction book for the Maritimes this year. We vote in April. Thanks to the organizers, we think a Children’s Choice Book Award is a great idea.

Grade One to Three students at Park West School, keep Ms. J. McEachren, Library Assistant, busy with requests for their favorite books. Here is a list of early chapter books her students ask for. There are a lot of titles in each series. The ones that are starred are the most popular.

1.     The Bailey Street Kids by Debbie Dadley
2.     The Bailey Street Monsters by Debbie Dadley
3.     Pee Wee Scout Series by Judy Delton
4.     Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osbourne****
5.     Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park****
6.     Babysitters Little Sister by Anne Martin
7.     Pony Pals series by Jeanne Betancourt
8.     The Secrets of Droon series by Tony Abbott
9.     A Marc Brown Arthur Chapter Book by Stephen Krensky

If you are looking for an easy way to celebrate African Heritage month, you may like to try something similar to Burton Ettinger’s program. The RCH Committee asked the Library Assistant to use library time to assist with the delivery of their program for Pr-3. The children love these stories.

Primary - African folk tales with African animals

1. Aardema   - Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears
2. Lotteridge - The Name of the Tree
3. Mollel   -       Rhinos For Lunch and Elephants for Supper
4. Kimmel -   Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock

One - Stories with larger than life characters
1. Mollel -    Big Boy
2. Pinkey - Mirandy and Brother Wind
3. Seeger - Abiyoyo
4. Pinkey - John Henry

Two - Biographies of famous African Americans
1. Marzollo -    Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Schroeder - Satchmo's Blues
3. Miller    -       Frederick Douglass and the Last Day of Slavery
4. Pinkey    -    Duke Ellington

Three - Slavery and the Underground Railroad
1. Edwards - Barefoot
2. Kulling -     Escape North, the Story of Harriet Tubman
3. Ringgold - Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
4. Hopkins - Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

The students will find a question relating to one of the stories on their classroom door and must listen each day to hear their question read over the PA. After they hear this question, they send a representative to the RCH committee with the answer and are given a letter or a puzzle piece to help build the RCH bulletin board. It is fun to watch the bulletin board evolve.

In my twenty four years working in School Libraries one of things that I have learned is that teenagers are no different from adults when it comes to reading. They know what good literature is, and although fads come and go, many books remain popular over the years.

CBC radio recently interviewed a group of middle school students on the subject of their all-time favourite books. I was not surprised at their choices, as many of them are books that have been popular with adolescent readers for many years.

Here is a list of what is popular at Cornwallis Junior High School; many of them are the same as those mentioned by students from across Canada.

The Lord Of The Rings/ J.R.R. Tolkien
To Kill A Mockingbird/ Harper Lee
The Outsiders/ S.E. Hinton
The Diary Of Anne Frank
The Once And Future King/ T.H. White
The Nine Days Queen/ K. Bradford
Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry/ Mildred D. Taylor
The Mists Of Avalon/ Marion Zimmer Bradley
Narnia/ C.S. Lewis
Fallen Angels/ Walter Dean Myers
Rebecca/ Daphne Dumaurie
The Druids Tune/ O.R. Melling
The Dark Is Rising/ Susan Cooper
Island Of The Blue Dolphin/ Scott O’dell

There are also a number of recent books that are likely to join this list of all-time favourites.

Harry Potter/ J.K. Rowling
The Giver/ Lois Lowery
Holes/ Louis Sachar
Silverwing/ Kenneth Oppel
The Lights Go On Again/ Kit Pearson
The Golden Compass/ Philip Pullman
The Iron Ring/ Loyd Alexander
Sabriel/ Garth Nix
The Redwall Series/ Brian Jaques
The Immortals Series/ Tamora Pierce

News from Halifax Regional School Board (HRSB) School Libraries, March 2001 :

Northbrook School's Hackmatack Club met on Friday, March 2 to create drawings from the nominated stories. We are also arranging to hold a book talk prior to the voting in April.

In collaboration with the Laurie MacKay, the Resource Teacher at Northbrook, we are resuming the "Spotlight on Reading" program. This initiative recognizes the importance of giving students a chance to read to their
peers. In the quiet of the library, students are invited to share stories or poems they have written, or to read from a favourite book. They especially enjoy sitting on the story stool and speaking into a microphone for the
first time.

At Ian Forsyth School, the library hosted a Scholastic Book Fair Chairperson's Workshop on March 5 with Rachel Boudreau.

Budge Wilson will visit with Grade 2's and 3's on Thursday, March 8. Students are reading "The Long Wait", "The Fear of Angelina Domino", and "The Cat That Barked".

In March we will continue to read folk tales from around the world and stories about families from other cultures:
           Galimoto - Lynn Williams
           Whoever You Are - Mem Fox
           And to Think That We Thought That We'd Ever Be Friends -
           Mary Ann Hoberman
           Mieko and the Fifth Treasure - Eleanor Coerr
           Kenji and the Cricket - Adele Wiseman
           Muslim Child - Rukhsana Khan
           Celebrating Families - Rosemarie Hausherr
           Unicef's Children Just Like Me and The Rights of the Child

Plans for spring include paperbag book reviews and "camp-out" in the library.
         - Sue Hennebury, Library Assistant

News from Halifax Regional School Board (HRSB) School Libraries, April 2001 :

Park West School, by Ms. J. McEachern, Library Assistant, featuring photographs of three visiting authors.

Ms. McEachern holds one of the very few full-time, 100% Library Assistant positions in the HRSB. This means that Park West has a School Library which is open five day per week, every week, and is staffed five days per week, every week, by the Library Assistant.

Author Charlotte Hutchinson talking to a Grade One class.

Author Jenni Blackmore talking to Grade Six.

Author Alice Walsh taking to Grade Fours.

Please click on a thumbnail above to see a full-sized view.

Although there are many terrific things now being done in the school libraries of the Halifax Regional School Board, there are many wonderful or even basic services which cannot be provided any longer.

Cutbacks have drastically reduced the amount of time most school libraries are staffed by teacher-librarians, library assistants or library technicians. Many of the libraries which were open and staffed 100% of the time are now only open and staffed a mere 50% of the time! Library personnel are trying their utmost to maintain circulation, to add new books, videos, etc. to their collections (where inadequate budgets permit), to catalogue any of these new acquisitions, and to assist staff and students with their reading and research requests.

This writer knows, however, that in many instances, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain two full libraries, with all the needs of all the staff and students, when we are only there 2 and a half days a week!

With this preamble, I am asking you to cast your minds back to a time, not so very long ago, when things were better…

·       all the school libraries under the HRSB were staffed by qualified
      library personnel 100% of each and every school day?

·        classroom teachers could get enough time, with library personnel in the library,
      to come in with their classes for reading and/or research time?

·        teachers could bring their classes in at their convenience?

·        students could have 100% access to their school libraries during
      the day and before and/or after school?

·        students could remember which days their school library is open?

·        there were enough hours at each school so that new paperbacks
      and videos could be catalogued quickly to be added to the collections?

·        some classroom teachers were not allowing their students to sign out
      library books in the absence of library staff?

·        there was enough time for library staff to read to their primary
      and elementary students?

·        class time in the library did not have to be shortened?

·        some classroom teachers did not begin research projects with their
      classes, in the school libraries, when library staff are not there
      to facilitate things?

·        classroom teachers and library personnel could find the time
      for cooperative programme planning?

·         library staff had the time to maintain their library’s current events files?

·         library staff could be in their schools at least two continuous days
      so that they could run book fairs to help augment dwindling library budgets?

·         library personnel had the time to decorate seasonal and/or topical
      bulletin boards?

·         library personnel who work in two or more schools did not feel
      like they have “split personalities”?

·         library personnel in the Halifax Regional School Board did not feel
      constantly under stress and demoralized?