The placement of an Exhibit hall booth is a science. Those vendors with the best placement are probably paying the most money and have an established exhibit hall history. But there are other factors that determine where booths of vendors are located. Sometimes there are special rows that are intended to highlight special interests like colleges, international vendors with languages other than English, newby authors, etc. Do those placements help or hurt the vendor? Do they draw more attention to the rows or do they enable conference goer’s to simply… Read More

If you write a blog, participate in Social Media, tweet, skype, or chat on facebook, your life is public. When things are going well, everyone can celebrate with you. When things don’t go as smoothly, you have choices how you can react.

1. You can share it all openly. This could result in several scenarios:
   • Others commiserate and help you get through it.
   • Others empathize and suffer along with you.
   • Others rejoice in your difficulties and make it worse.
   • Others just don’t care and wait for you to move on.
   • Things get

Scholastic put together a list of the 100 best children’s books (and the top 10 as well). We don’t have to agree, but  the list is interesting: http://tinyurl.com/87865qx I think the list is too broad, but I’d love your opinion. Would you have split the list?

Two years ago I asked for your picks for the top 100 teen books. It has come to my attention that the posts of the top two never appeared live on this blog. Oops! What happened?  Guess, I will go back and re-post those if I don’t find them on my… Read More

I’ve been waiting for information on this study so appreciate Patricia Sarles sharing notice of publication on the AASL forum: Three-year study asserts benefits of school libraries on student learning.

An executive summary and the full report, “The New Jersey Study of School Libraries: One Common Goal — Student Learning,” are available online at www.njasl.org.

Take a look at the report and tell me if there is anything there that actually surprises you. Some of those conclusions seem like “no-brainers” for those of us working with school libraries. Now how will we use this… Read More

Artist Robert Sabuda joins us in Practically Paradise today. Robert Sabuda and Michael J. Rosen’s pop-up creation extraordinaire (AKA book) Chanukah Lights is the 2012 Winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Younger Readers category. Have you had a chance to hold this book in your hands? If not, be sure to view this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2SKhAIh7J8&feature=colike

Rest In Peace John Christopher (Christopher Samuel Youd). Christopher’s series, The Tripods, was a popular pick for me to put in students’ hands for three decades to introduce them to science fiction. My students loved his work. Although the Tripods trilogy was released in the 60’s, I didn’t discover the series until the prequel was released in 1988.

As a new school librarian, in 1989 I faced my first challenge when 5th grade teacher Carl asked me to pull a number of science-fiction titles to introduce to… Read More

I almost missed this book while I was in such a hurry to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and 65 degree temps in Tennessee. Into the Outdoors by Susan Gal has appealing illustrations created using charcoal on paper and digital collage. Unusually for me, I didn’t care as much about the story as I did for its instructional applicability. What? Yes, this story does have a  family journeying into the great outdoors on a camping trip and exploring nature and it’s a sweet story.

BUT…. the… Read More

I’m so fortunate to have some of Norwood House new iScience titles in our collection. They demonstrate the scientific inquiry method in complex ways but are easily understood by students. In fact, I find the students understand the titles better than the teachers and are willing to listen to each read aloud. The students don’t care whether the title is on level A, B, or C.

Perhaps this is because the students come to books with the unfailing belief in their own ability to understand and… Read More

“Mommy, my ear hurts!” I swear as a parent and having been a child that those are the worst words to hear or utter. My poor parents dealt with my 7 ear surgeries and procedures since it was discovered I could barely hear in second grade. My poor mother had to put in ear drops that caused such excruciating  pain that I’d scream, and we’d both shake and cry. No wonder I raced my boys to the doctor at their slightest wince or tilt of the head. A statement like “Mommy, my… Read More