What’s happening in the library?

As the end of the year is coming, we’re displaying a lot of new books this week. As always, one week on display, then borrowing begins — next Monday.

The teachers’ reference collection also has new books on display, including:

• Kath Murdoch’s Classroom Connections: strategies for integrated learning (1998). This book lays out her well-known inquiry cycle, with chapters on “Strategies for tuning in”, “Strategies for finding out”, “Strategies for sorting out”, etc.
• Focus on Inquiry: a practical approach to integrated curriculum planning — by Jeni Wilson & Lesley Wing Jan (2003).
• Stirring the Head, Heart, and Soul: redefining curriculum and instruction, 2nd ed. — by H. Lynn Erickson (2001).
• The Rights of the Reader — by Daniel Pennac (1992). This is a new (British) translation of the French classic (which has been previously translated as “Better Than Life”). Note: this is the book that the Quentin Blake illustrations (on the pink background, above the Reference Section) come from, e.g., 1. The right not to read. 2. The right to skip. 3. The right not to finish a book., etc….

A few highlights for older kids:

• The New Policeman — by Kate Thompson. Winner of the 2005 Guardian Children’s Fiction prize as well as the Whitbread Children’s Book Award.
  “Set in Kinvara on the west coast of Ireland, where Thompson lives, The New Policeman makes the impossible credible in a seductive story about 15-year-old JJ, who visits the land of eternal youth, in search of Time – the perfect birthday present for his mother, whose constant lament is the shortage of it in her life.” (taken from a Guardian interview with the author)
• Thura’s Diary — by Thura Al-Windawi (2004). Subtitled: A young girl’s life in war-torn Baghdad.
• Letters from a Nut — by Ted L. Nancy, introduction by Jerry Seinfeld. My favorite collection of correspondence. Actual letters sent to American businesses and organizations — and the actual responses. In one he tries to convince a major department store to sell him one of their mannequins because it resembles a recently deceased neighbor of his. In another he writes to Kinko’s, a chain of photocopy centers, asking for a job for him and his Siamese twin (”We are connected at the shoulders. We do not face each other, so we both can do TWO DIFFERENT jobs at the same time.”) In yet another he writes to a fish restaurant and asks if he can dine by the garbage area of their restaurant because he has a personal odor problem that he can’t cure, yet he would really like to eat at their restaurant. (You get the idea…) Creative letter writing at its most bizarre.

Picture books for everyone:

• Owen & Mzee: the true story of a remarkable friendship — by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu (2006). Photos illustrate this true story of two great friends — a baby hippo named Owen and a 130-year-old giant tortoise named Mzee — both living in Kenya. Owen was sadly orphaned in the 2004 tsunami and taken to an animal sanctuary near Mombasa where he bonded with Mzee. The two animals are inseparable and their friendship has become both a mystery and an inspiration. The sequel is also on display. Heart-warming, is all you can say.
• Tibet: through the Red Box — by Peter Sis (1998). An award-winning picture book based on the experience of the author/illustrator’s father who, as a Czech soldier in WWII, was sent to make a documentary film of the construction of a highway that would open Tibet to China. Sis has reproduced parts of his father’s diary as well as illustrating and commenting on it.
• Mom and Dad are Palindromes: a dilemma for words… and backwards – by Mark Shuman & Adam McCauley (2006). A book of wordplay with more than 101 palindromes hidden inside.
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: why, commas really DO make a difference! — by Lynne Truss (2006). Based on the adult best-seller. Phrases with-comma and without-comma are illustrated, e.g., “Slow, children crossing” and “Slow children crossing” / “Go, get him doctors!” and “Go get him, doctors!” / “The kids, who got ice cream, were very happy.” and “The kids who got ice cream were very happy.”

For younger readers, we have a huge array of new picture books, as well as these three additions to our collection, all classics by famous author/illustrators:

• Through the Magic Mirror — by Anthony Browne. Surreal fun.
• Where’s Julius? – by John Burningham. A child’s imaginative life supported by adults.
• The Nickle Nackle Tree — by Lynley Dodd. An absurd rhyming, counting book.