AASL Standards in Practice: Inquire

I have had the very good fortune to spend five days over the past few weeks with Paula Boston, school

librarian at E. Rivers ElementarySchool in Atlanta.  Paula’s library is vibrant and full of kids from the moment it opens until the end of the school day.  These pre-K to fifth graders are BUSY and full of questions!  So I thought it only appropriate to sit down with Paula to talk about AASL SharedFoundation I: Inquire.

Foundation I is all about facilitating curiosity, questioning, and research, and these activities are ongoing in the E. Rivers library.  Even the set-up of the library – with a chalkboard wall, centers for game play, Lego wall, and iPad table in addition to the traditional storytime rug and bookshelves – encourages children to seek information.

To encourage children to ask questions, Paula poses questions on the chalkboard wall and encourages students to add their thoughts.  She will also often display selections of books with a question for students to explore. 

And students from kindergarten up are regularly learning about the inquiry process through library instruction.  Paula recommends using the strategies from Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison and the SOS strategies from Discovery Education.  She shared how she used “See Think Wonder” to get kids thinking about an artwork showing the signers of the Constitution.  Students added sticky notes to large sheets of chart paper to share what they saw, what they thought, and what they wondered about the image.  She got great questions (like “I wonder why there are no women”) to spur conversations with and among students.

As an IB school, E. Rivers places emphasis on research.  Teachers spend time in their PLC groups focusing on research, and fifth graders complete a capstone research project.  To support this instruction, Paul loves using GALILEO, the Georgia Virtual Library, to help students practice their inquiry skills.  She pairs the databases available in GALILEO with the WISER strategy:

• Wonder
• Information
• Synthesis
• Express
• Review/revise

She also recommends Facts4Me, a database created by librarians that costs $50/year, for kindergarten to second grade students.

To get teachers on board with inquiry instruction, Paula uses organic networking with teachers, often stopping them in the hall to ask “What are you studying right now? What activities are you doing?” and then bringing teachers in to have their classes engage with choice boards that foster development of inquiry skills.  She also offers a menu of choices for teachers!

While I was there, a class of second grade students were sharing Jamboard presentations they had created after asking lots of questions about extreme weather phenomena (tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and more) and then digging in to books, GALILEO, and Facts4Me.  It was so much fun to see the kids in action!

AASL Standards in Practice: Engage

It’s me again, back to talk more about the AASLNational School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries and how librarians in the field are putting the standards into practice every day.

It’s time to share about my chat with Brian Montero, librarian at Midtown High School, about AASL Shared Foundation VI:Engage.  This foundation challenges school librarians to “demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world.

As the person in charge of managing Midtown’s technology, both hardware and software, Brian is involved daily in the interconnected world of high school students, teachers, and families.  How does he navigate helping students develop critical ethical decision-making skills when it comes to finding, creating, and sharing information?  Brian says that a key step is to “position yourself as the support person for providing as much resources beyond the classroom as possible.”  He starts by working with “excited teachers” who come in to the library with their classes and leverages those relationships to promote sharing ethical practices throughout the school.

A number of school resources go into Brian’s daily practice in support of Shared Foundation VI, including Schoology, the school’s online learning management system, and GALILEO, the Georgia online library, which provides reliable resources for student research.  In particular, he finds GALILEO to be a fantastic tool for teaching students about the benefits of reliable sourcing.  During orientation and throughout the year, he reminds students about the databases that GALILEO provides and the value of using peer-reviewed resources from academic journals found in those databases.

While the school’s status as a 1:1 school where each student has a device is a benefit, it does create a couple of challenges for helping students make ethical decisions with information.  For one thing, “now that we’re 1:1, we lose some of the natural contact and opportunity for training [students on ethical practices] because they are not coming in to the library to use the computer.”  Brian finds that he needs “much more of an online presence to plug in library resources” and uses the Schoology platform to share information on ethical information practices. 

In addition, Brian faces the challenge of “making the library relevant” for students accustomed to doing everything online.  He notes that lately he has been “reintroducing the library [to students] because they haven’t been in a physical library space for a while” due to COVID.  He used the annual orientation as a time to re-engage students, spends time engaging students and teachers with one-on-one readers’ advisory to meet their needs, and also looks for opportunities to be an instructional collaborator with teachers and get them into the library so students can learn those critical ethical skills.  In addition, Brian is working to collaborate with the public library’s electronic resources librarian to maximize the value of the Schoology platform with the resources provided through the school district and public library partnership, ClassPass. 

On the whole, though, Brian notes that while things change, our biggest asset is our reading culture, and keeping the focus on literacy is the best way to engage!

Stay tuned as I share a final discussion with another school librarian about how they are putting the AASL standards into practice every day!

 

 

AASL Standards in Practice: Curation

I’m back to talk more about the AASL National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries and how librarians in the field are putting the standards into practice every day.

 This past week, I got to work with not one but two school librarians and chat about the school librarian domains and competencies!  Today, I’ll share with you highlights from my conversation with Christen McClain about AASL Shared Foundation IV: Curate, and then I’ll be back in a few days to dish on my chat with Brian Montero about AASL Shared Foundation VI: Engage.

Christen is one of the librarians at Midtown High School here in Atlanta, which is the high school that my middle school students at David T. Howard Middle School go on to attend.  I have had the extremely good fortune to volunteer with Christen for almost a decade at our children’s elementary school and then to work with her for two years at Inman Middle School (our school’s former name before we relocated).  I know that she is a whiz at curation!

Foundation IV is all about making meaning “by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance” (AASL, 2018, p. 50).  As Christen explains, curation involves making information “user friendly,” and this means that knowing your community is critical!  “You have to be aware of your students’ preferences and pay attention to requests,” she notes.  You then use that information to organize your collection in a way that is logical and sensible to them as well as to make appropriate purchases for your collection.  It’s all about giving students the tools they need not just to find information but to create – to curate – their own learning!

One cool curation project that Christen has managed is using color coded labels to help students locate titles of interest.  As she explains, students often request information by category or subject –

          “How do I find a good horror book?”

                        “Where are the mysteries?”

“I love politics. What do you have?” 

And I have definitely experienced the same as Christen when students then “look at us funny when we say the books are arranged by author!”  Using colorful labels allows all the books to remain in the collection organized by author but also allows students to easily find materials of interest. 

Christen began work on this project when we worked together at Inman, and a library intern and I recently completed the labeling.  Christen is now planning to use the same basic color-coded system to label books at Midtown.  That way, students leaving my library at Howard Middle will walk into the library at Midtown and instantly feel a sense of familiarity with the curation system!

Photo of us back at Inman - our coworker Deborah on the left, Christen in the middle, and me on the right

Colorful labels for the project

Labeled books on the shelf at Howard

A guide to using the labels & finding books

This curation activity supports Domain A: Think by “designing opportunities for learners to explore possible information sources” and by modeling a way that students can organize their own information.

Christen and I also discussed that sometimes the challenge of curation is just not knowing about available resources, or, as she puts it, not “being informed on the depth or features” of tools that are available.  We had a great discussion of how I am using resource lists in Follett Destiny – the library management software used by both of our libraries - to curate information for my readers.  Look at us librarians - learning to curate from each other!

Stay tuned as I share more discussions with school librarians about how they are putting the AASL standards into practice every day!

AASL Standards in Practice: Collaboration

Even though they were adopted in 2018, the AASL National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries still feel new.  I wanted to hear from librarians in the field about how they are putting the standards into practice every day.

I recently had the opportunity to chat about the school librarian domains and competencies of AASL Shared Foundation III: Collaboration with Dr. Zenobia Johnson, school librarian at Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia.  We discussed how school librarians can help students and fellow teachers and staff with maintaining a culture of communication and cooperation.

Of course our conversation was tinged by the topic of the moment: COVID.  How do we encourage collaboration when our focus is on keeping safe by keeping socially distanced and wearing masks?  Thankfully, while collaboration may look different in these COVID times, the need to foster collaboration remains one of the shared foundations of school librarianship. 

One of the key concepts that came out of our conversation?  Collaborating outside the library space!

When our schools here in Atlanta went online for instruction in March 2020 and stayed online for most of the 2020-21 school year, students lost access to a key collaborative space: the library.  Even now, with limits on social contact, collaborating in the library space can be challenging.

During online learning, Dr. Johnson continued to facilitate collaboration as outlined in Domain A: Think using online tools.  Thanks to school resources available through Google, her students could actively work together using Google Meet for virtual face-to-face communications.  In addition, the district provided access to Zoom, which allowed students to continue to meet and interact collaboratively and engage in important digital citizenship lessons with Dr. Johnson. 

Dr. Johnson notes that her students are now “ecstatic that the library is open again!”  But even though students are engaged in the library in person, COVID guidelines still limit their ability to work closely.  Thankfully, the ability of students to exercise their creative muscles continues to extend beyond the library space.  Domain B: Create calls for librarians to help learners “build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.”  During online learning, Dr. Johnson introduced students to tools like Google Slides to collaboratively create projects and share their learning.  Students continue to use these online tools even now that they are back at school in-person.  This year, for example, students will create slide decks for the annual school-level science fair, rather than the traditional tri-fold boards, to share their presentations.

Collaborations with community partners like the local bookstore Brave & Kind bring authors in to chat with students through virtual visits while in-person visits are not an option due to continued restrictions on visitors to the school building.  Through these virtual visits, Dr. Johnson continues to promote students’ access to diverse perspectives (Domain C: Share) and to stimulate group discussions (Domain D: Grow).  

Stay tuned as I share more discussions with school librarians about how they are putting the AASL standards into practice every day!

Wrapping up summer reading... and starting a new school year!

I have been thrilled to be back in the David T. Howard Middle School library for the past few days!  It's been great to be masked up and back among the books, preparing for students to start circulation and library instruction.  Here are a few pics:

More on school soon!

For now, here's a quick look at the books that wrapped up my summer:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm still convinced that Colson Whitehead is incapable of writing a bad book. This intense, creative visioning of the Underground Railroad as a literal railroad kept me turning pages. Cora is a protagonist that will occupy my thoughts for some time to come.

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The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm a big Bones fan, and I enjoyed this latest installation, but I didn't love it. Something about the story just never gelled for me. That said, I'll be looking forward to #21 for my #AnotherDayAnotherTrhiller fix!

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Rabbits by Terry Miles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So much fun! This scifi thriller follows the adventures of K, a gamer geek with a propensity for going down rabbit holes. I don't want to give away any of the plot, but this adult novel would be great for teens as well. Lots of game references (a la Ready Player One) and a solid scifi plot.

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The Slow Undoing: The Federal Courts and the Long Struggle for Civil Rights in South Carolina by Stephen H Lowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A well-written, deep dive into the Civil Rights decisions in South Carolina federal courts that led up to and followed the period of intense Civil Rights action in the state. It evoked Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law for me, and it's well worth a read by my follow lawyers.

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Scythe by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So many of my students dig this series and now I totally understand why! Those who know me know I love a good thriller and am a huge speculative fiction fan, so when they come together in such a good way, I am a truly happy reader! (And, of course, I love authors named Neal - ha!)

What do you do when humanity has conquered death? For Citra and Rowan, the answer is: be tapped to serve as Scythes and kill off random people in the interest of population management. In this first installment in the series, Citra and Rowan compete for a spot as a Scythe and learn that not all is well in the Scythedom.

Can't wait to read Thunderhead!

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Summer reading... had me a blast!

Vacation... ah... 

Sand...

and sun...

and so much reading!

Here's what I took with me on our recent family trip to Jekyll Island:

I didn't make it through every book, but I finished a few that I had going already, read a few start to finish, and started reading a couple of new books.  Here's the summary:

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

File this away under my "another engaging thriller" category. No major surprises here, just a solid, readable plot with an ending that provided just enough of a surprise. I was on the lookout for transphobic depictions based on publicity this book got, but Rowling saves that for her Twitter feed.



The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This solid middle grades novel depicts Nora's fight for survival when she and her father are caught in a flash flood in a slot canyon. Starting and ending with narrative chapters, the bulk of the book is a novel in verse, and that form suits Nora's journey (physical and internal) quite well. Readers will bite their nails as Nora struggles to reunite with her father and survive the challenges of the canyon while also dealing with her desire to return to some normalcy after a year of tragedy. As an adult and a parent, I found Nora's father's thought processes to be heart-wrenching, but younger readers will likely focus on Nora. I think that readers who enjoyed Hatchet and similar books will also like this novel.

In the author's note, Bowling mentions the real-life events that got her thinking about the setting and flash flood that Nora encounters. For readers who want to learn more, this LA Times article is helpful: https://graphics.latimes.com/zion-fla....


Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can't get enough of Renee Watson's novels. It's the summer before her senior year of high school, and Nala is ready to catch up on binge-worthy shows, hang out with her friends, and, oh yeah, maybe fall in love. When she embellishes her activities at her grandmother's retirement home to impress the hot, civic and volunteer-minded Tye, she learns that loving herself first, just as she is - ALL that she is - may be the key to a successful relationship.

I really enjoyed a lot of things about this book:

* the depiction of Nala's deep, loving, complicated relationship with her extended family, including her own mother, with whom she chooses not to live

* Nala's body-positive attitude that makes it clear she is just fine with her physical self coupled with her joy in being her best self through clothing that feels good and hair that expresses different facets of her personality

* the (true and underrated) idea that there are ways for young people to show care and consideration for their communities without being overt activists or constant volunteers (and how the pressure to be activists and volunteers can be a lot for teens).

As always, Watson's book was a joy to read.


Pity Party by Kathleen Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hooray for short stories! Especially for short stories as inventive, sly, weird, fun, and totally plugged in to the middle school experience as these short stories are! Do you feel like you don't fit in? Worry about mean people? Wish for a different life? Feel invisible? Deal with bullies? Well, join the pity party! My favorite story: Behaviorally Challenged. Can't wait to see which ones resonate with my students!

Don't miss this great interview with Kathleen Lane: https://soundcloud.com/user-419678114...


The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am convinced that Colson Whitehead cannot write a bad book. This gut-wrenching, based-in-reality account of two boys, Elwood and Turner, and their time at the Nickel Academy will leave you breathless (and, in my case, in tears). I couldn't put it down. Too intense for most of my student readers, but older teens and adults should check this out.



Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another page-turner from Nnedi Okorafor... Okorafor writes incredible Africanfuturism books and creates worlds and characters that are lyrical, mesmerizing, and memorable. What happens when you become the adopted daughter of Death? In this novella for adults, Sankofa wanders Ghana searching for her box and its mysterious content, a seed that seems to have chosen her as Death's adopted daughter, accompanied by a small fox, Movenpick. As she wanders, she learns to control the deadly abilities that have been bestowed upon her and grows from small child to young woman on her own. Sankofa's world is recognizably our own but in a future where a robot AI brings security to a small city by managing traffic at a formerly deadly intersection and where corporate interests seek to control alien technology. I really can't do the book justice by description. just read it. And anything else that Okorafor writes.


Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I actually started reading this collection a couple of years ago after picking it up at the AJC Decatur Book Festival. The poems are lovely - by turns meditative, realistic, reflective, drug-addled, melancholic, and joyful. I'll be returning to this collection over and over because I am unabashedly grateful for it.



Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Insightful and engaging, Rosling's book explains in clear and uncomplicated language the importance of understanding data. I appreciated his reminder that things in the world can simultaneously be better and bad. Great read for librarians as they plan for information literacy instruction.

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Book Review: The Conductors by Nicole Glover

The Conductors by Nicole Glover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a cool book! I love how Glover combines historical fiction, mystery, and magic and ties them all together with well-written characters and an interesting plot. The references to previous "cases" that protagonist Hetty and her husband Benjy had solved reminded me of similar references in Sherlock Holmes stories. And this book, for sure, had me thinking back to Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, in which Thomas raises the question of how Black people fit into the Potterdom world of magic. I think Glover has a glorious answer. The storyline was a bit slow to get going, but I encourage others to keep reading and get sucked in just like I did. I am so excited that a second book is coming soon!

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#2021 Book Challenge: So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Like having a conversation with a friend who gives it to you square. I enjoyed the Q&A format of the chapters with each chapter having a guiding question. For those who have read widely in the area of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), not much is new in this book, but Oluo has a way of making topics easily understandable with clear examples and frank language. There is some profanity, but this book would still be appropriate to use with teens.

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Book Review: Phase Six by Jim Shepard

 

Phase Six by Jim Shepard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engrossing read, this novel is where realistic fiction and dystopian fiction collide. Heavily researched and well-written, it's accessible for teens and adults but not for anyone seeking a tidy, optimistic ending. I found the characters interesting and fairly well fleshed out, but many may find the topics covered to be "too soon" in light of the last 15 months...

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Book review catch up

Summertime, and the readin' is easy!  Check out my latest reads!

Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can't get enough of Renee Watson, and this collaboration with Ellen Hagan was another great read! Best friends Jasmine and Chelsea provide an inspiring duo for readers as they kick off their women's rights writing club in response to gender discrimination at their school (along with racism and size-ism). An uplifting read with an engaging alternating narrators format, poetry and social media also play a role.

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Slay by Brittney Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Calling all gamers and social justice warriors - this book is for you! Kiera is a hard-working student by day and the creator and leader of the MMORPG Slay in her "off" hours. What can Kiera do when a young player of the game is murdered and critics decry her game - created as a safe space for Black people around the world - as racist? A realistic fiction novel that ties together topics of critical interest to many of today's YA readers.

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Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An exceptionally well-researched nonfiction, historical graphic novel that takes a hard look at a tragic incident. The use of primary sources and excellent end notes would make this an interesting choice for use in a high school history course.

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Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem’s Legendary Theater by Ted Fox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another excellent nonfiction, historical graphic novel on a fun topic. Occasionally, the text was not in a clear order, but the book has a wealth of fascinating information about the Apollo Theater, and the illustrations are well done.

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Book Review: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Onyebuchi's YA scifi novel had me thinking back to the when I first read The Hunger Games. Both books deal intensely with the implications of war within the speculative fiction genre - how does war shape the lives of those forced to fight? What does war do to a culture? To an individual human soul? How are the innocent manipulated by those in power to seek ends they have been taught are righteous but maybe are more mundane?

That is in no way to say that this book is The Hunger Games redux. Onyebuchi, I think, provides a much more nuanced look at war - in War Girls, neither side fighting the war, Nigerians vs. Biafrans, is definitively depicted as the villain, though each certainly considers the other to be in the wrong and both do villainous things to further their respective causes - and also firmly grounds his work in the actual history of Nigeria. (Don't miss the author's note at the end.) It's effective and powerful reading.

I enjoyed the book most when it gets most intimate with its characters. Chapters alternate between the perspectives of sisters Onyii and Ify, with some chapters more introspective and others more action-packed. I engaged with the story most intensely when the sisters are reckoning with their histories, with what made them sisters, and with the strength of that bond. Hardcore techno sci-fi readers will love the action, but I found those sections least interesting (maybe because I had a difficult time envisioning the war tech described).

The final few chapters were a rollicking ride, though I felt like one side character's appearance was a bit of a deus ex machina. The ending felt satisfactory for me, but I imagine that this may not be the last we've seen of Ify, at least.

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Book Review: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This quite possibly may be my favorite book I've read so far this year. I've been thinking about the connections between it and this year's Newbery winner, When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller. Both books deal with issues of loss and grief. In The Astonishing Color of After, Leigh's mother has just died by suicide, and the story focuses on Leigh's grief over the loss of her mother. In When You Trap a Tiger, Lily faces the impending death of her Halmoni and also has the death of her father in her not-too-distant past. The authors present grief realistically and sensitively.

Both books use a magical realism construct that centers and amplifies the girls' experiences. For Leigh, her story begins with her mother's death, and the reader follows her as she struggles through an insomnia-fueled, synesthetically rich, and surreal effort to connect with her mother, who has turned into a large red bird. There are also other magical elements integral to the cultural and physical location of much of the story in Taiwan. When seen through her eyes, these experiences are simultaneously terrifying and beautiful, mundane and magical. Leigh doesn't know quite what is real, and neither do we readers. Lily seemingly has more time to process her grief as her grandmother is ill but alive for most of the novel, but she similarly encounters a giant magical tiger who leads her through a journey of discovery that helps her deal with the former loss of her father as well as with the looming loss of her grandmother. As with Leigh's experience, the reader doesn't so much need to know whether the tiger is "real" as much as to understand that it is very real to Lily.

Both books deftly introduce readers to the experiences of bi-cultural young women in a way that does not pander to white readers but provides an immersion into the experiences of two girls who are an American pre-teen (Lily) and teen (Leigh) but also intrinsically tied to another culture (Lily's maternal family is Korean; Leigh's is Taiwanese). For me, both books provided a rich description of cultures that I feel have often been given only a whitewashed gloss because both authors know what they are talking about and share. Both books also present without a lot of fanfare the tug-of-war sorts of feelings that kids can experience when trying to honor their full selves.

Both books also effectively show the power and destruction that secrets can wield within a family. Ultimately, both books are essentially quest novels, as each young woman strives to unravel the knots of family history created by secret-keeping. When You Trap a Tiger, written for younger readers, is more straightforward in the untangling and progresses chronologically. The Astonishing Color of After tells a more intricately written tale, with Leigh's grief-laden magical experiences in the now tied to meeting her Waipo and Waigong in the immediate aftermath of her mother's death and visiting the places her mother loved in Taiwan interspersed with more realistic fiction style flashbacks to her life in the year leading up to her mother's death.

I particularly liked The Astonishing Color of After. Perhaps because I am an older reader, I appreciated the intricate plotting and the often lyrical text. There were several short chapters that were poetry in all but the formatting. Pan managed to surprise me several times, which happens less frequently the more I read and which I have come to very much value. As soon as I finished, I handed the book to my 15-year-old and demanded that she read it. It is a beautiful and compelling work, and you should read it, too.

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Book Review: The Project by Courtney Summers

The Project by Courtney Summers
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After listening to Sadie in Fall 2019, I was excited to listen to this latest novel from Courtney Summers. Similarly to Sadie, The Project tells its story through the lens of two sisters' experiences. Lo, the younger sister, is the sole survivor of a tragic car accident that kills her parents and leaves her with long recovery and both physical and mental scars. Older sister Bea, who was not in the car, grapples with her sister's injuries and recovery and becomes enmeshed with the Unity Project, a group offering salvation in the form of a charismatic leader, Lev.

Summers alternates the current day story of Lo's budding journalistic efforts to infiltrate the Unity Project after witnessing the suspicious suicide of a member with flashbacks to the time immediately following the car accident and to the years leading up to the suicide. Both sisters' stories are told, and the narration in the audiobook version is effective, drawing the listener into the story. The novel is well-paced, but I ultimately found the story not that compelling and super predicable. After Sadie, I expected something ... well... different and interesting from The Project.

Spoiler alert: while the story is solidly crafted, it's just the same old cult story. I kept expecting something more interesting. Maybe the Unity Project isn't really a cult!? Nope, it is. Maybe Lev really does have some cool mystical connection with his god!? Nope, he's a garden variety creep with mommy issues who plays out his god fantasies on the susceptible people around him. Maybe there's something creepy going on with Lo?! Nope. She's the garden variety vulnerable ingenue who falls for the bad guy and then learns - GASP - he really IS bad!

So... I didn't put it down or fail to finish it, but it left me pretty meh.

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#2021 Book Challenge: A More Beautiful and Terrible History - The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis

A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

History teacher? Librarian? Human who cares about facts? Read this book.

In this well-documented book, Theoharis debunks the fable of the Civil Rights movement as a completed act led by a few, heroic men (oh and one or two women) that has left us complacent in post-racial society where everyone succeeds on merit. As she notes in the afterword: "'Be more like King,' commentators tell protestors today. Be careful what you wish for, this history reminds: disruption; civil disobedience; an analysis that interweaves race, poverty, and US war making; steadfast moral witness; and a willingness to call out liberals for their inaction is what it actually means to 'be like King,' and many follow in his footsteps." In each chapter, Theoharis uses primary and secondary sources - outlined in extensive notes at the end of the book - to document the Civil Rights Movement through multiple lenses, addressing the Jim Crow North, the roles of women and youth, the massive decades-long organizational effort underpinning acts presented today as one-offs, the impact of institutional racism, and the interconnectedness of the Black struggle for civil rights with the efforts of other marginalized populations, women, and people around the globe. It's a sobering look at our history, but one that left me hopeful rather than discouraged.

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Book Review: Unravelling by Karen Lord

 

Unraveling by Karen Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such an interesting read. Dr. Miranda Ecouvo is a forensic therapist who has recently wrapped up a serial killer investigation, but lingering questions nag at her. Her personal investigation of the crimes becomes interwoven with the efforts of twin brothers, Chance and the Trickster, to discover the roots of the crime outside of this world and bring Miranda into contact with the Undying, angels, and immortals.

I do not do the book justice by saying that it's like a great crime novel smooshed with American Gods-style otherworldly characters, but I really like how Karen Lord interweaves the two genres of mystery-thriller and speculative fiction. Even the "this world" setting has an otherworldly feeling - set in a not-quite-full-on-dystopian version of the world where the City in which Miranda lives is walled and open for residence only to Freemen and where the FreeMEN seem free to share their learning, act out their altruistic tendencies, and perhaps engage in other, less beneficial behaviors through guild-like clubs. Lord never addresses how this world came to be, and I found myself wanting more stories from this place and time. Perhaps Miranda has more stories to tell in the future.

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I did a thing...

Thanks to a connection made by one of my MLIS professors, Lucy Santos Green, I am happy to share that I have published my first LIS article!  My article Social Media Inspo: Authentic Digital Learning with Alternative Tools is available to subscribers at School Library Connection's website:

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2262958

It is available in the May/June 2021 print issue and online for subscribers.  Eventually, the article will also be available online without a subscription.  I'll try to post updates here.  If you're interested in reading the article but cannot access it please reach out!

Writing about using social media in instruction arose out of a collaboration project that I did with my sixth grade social studies team.  The whole experience - the planning of the project, implementing the project and seeing the students' work, and writing the article - was a lot of fun.  I hope to be able to share more about my on-the-ground school librarian experiences in the future, so stay tuned!

Summer Reading!

 It's time for summer reading!  I have pulled together a list of recommendations for middle grades readers targeted at my current middle schoolers as well as my rising 6th graders.  Check it out:

David T. Howard Middle School Summer Reading

Book Review: Grits: A Cultural and Culinary Journey Through the South by Erin Byers Murray

Grits: A Cultural and Culinary Journey Through the South by Erin Byers Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm going back to finish a few books that I started some time back and set aside for various reasons (grad school, devouring other books in the meantime). Erin Byers Murray's exploration of grits is a book I picked up at the Decatur Book Festival a few years ago after hearing her speak on the topic. I enjoyed her talk and grabbed the book.

I have to say that I love grits. They are quite probably my favorite food. I grew up on instant grits in packets but now love making pots of locally grown grits from Riverview Farms. I also love food in general, and I always appreciate learning about the history of various foods and preparations and people's views on food.

Murray covers both the historical roots of grits as well as modern approaches to cooking grits that have resulted in their being found (still not easily but found nonetheless) outside the deep South. I particularly enjoyed her conversations with current farmers and millers (and loved that my own personal favorite - Riverview Farms - gets a shout-out in the book). Recipes are scattered throughout, and I look forward to trying some of them. (Even, shudder, making a sweet preparation with grits. I'll try it.)

The only criticism I have is that the chapter exploring the politics of grits didn't quite gel. Lots of great information there, but the theme under exploration wasn't fully developed. Otherwise, I really enjoyed reading and learning from Murray.

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