Monday and Tuesday we had Halloween Book Talks with the 6th and 7th graders. Your faithful librarian, Ms. Melinson, talked about each book before the real fun began: Post-It Madness! Students got to stick their names to the books they wanted to check out. They will be processed and delivered by the end of the day by none other than yours truly.
The evolution of the raffle: Tiddles said, “we’re going to need a bigger box! And a giant spoon!”
Teen Read Week came to and end, as did our entry period for the raffle prizes. We had an awesome amount of entries from both middle and high school! Tiddles (your friendly library staff bear) chose the winners of our magical, amazing, and fun prizes:
High School Raffle Winners:
Lunch Prepared by Librarians: Amelia Mystery Prize: Johann Cupcake on a Random Tuesday: 1. Vanessa 2. Brandon P. 3. Elinor 4. Shriya 5. Elie 6. Arvind 7. Gracie 8. Saachi 9. Sydney M. 10. Erin 11. Ryan H. 12. Marisa Advisory Brownies: Joanne's Advisory sharing
with 2nd place winners: Ms. B's Advisory.
Lunch Prepared by Librarians: Emily H. Mystery Prize: Hallie Cupcake on a Random Tuesday: 1. Colin M. 2. David S. 3. Aaron 4. Jack C. 5. Aidan B. 6. Tori 7. Luca 8. Monet 9. Connor B. 10. Joe 11. Anu 12. Seth Advisory Brownies: Mr. Billings' Advisory
Dr. Bell holding down the fort at the Senior Moratorium.
We have a full house today in the Matthews Library! For Senior Moratorium, the 2014 grads will be working with their English teachers and college counselors to apply for universities of their choice.
The seniors not only have a half day of skipping classes to focus on applications, they also get snacks and lunch! Yum.
Our very own Chris Kuipers will also be talking to the kids about college admissions. Chris is a former admissions counselor at Stanford. He’ll be giving handy tips for college admissions essays.
Good luck, seniors!
On Wednesday, October 9, we held our first Leadership Lunch of the school year! Emma W., the Leadership Lunch Series Coordinator, brought some amazing treats for everyone!
For this lunch, Micaela gave a great speech about her choir trip to China over the summer. She told us all about their performances, hanging out at the Great Wall, rickshaw rides, and other adventures in the city.
A good time was had by all. We’re looking forward to the next Leadership Lunch!
Last week was busy in Matthew’s Library! We had the six grade classes working hard learning how to research topics. They learned all about being skeptical readers when looking for reliable websites.
And then on Friday, the competition was fierce for the Friendly Feud game. There was a Green Team and a Blue Team, and both were chomping at the bit to answer questions about content, bias, usability, and authority of the websites they were given to evaluate.
Then things got really intense.
The score was 10-10. Someone had to be the champion.
For the tie-breaker, Anu (Blue Team) and David (Green Team) had a chance to take home the theoretical gold by answering this question: what can you tell me about the organization of this website? 
Family Feud music echoed through the library, and the air was so thick you could cut it with a butterknife, and everyone was in the Friendly Feud spirit. We even had the Family Feud logo graciously provided by Isael.
And–wait a minute–who was the friendly moderator? Why, it was none other than Ms. Melinson as Steve Harvey! Check out that glorious mustache.
In the end, Anu was the champion. She offered a great answer about the website and its layout. The Blue Team goes undefeated, for now…
On Friday, October 4th, we had a Skype visit with Jordan Sonnenblick, the author of Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, which was this year’s required summer reading for middle school.
Jordan talked to us from his kitchen in Pennsylvania about the origins of Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, and how he shaped a lot of the characters from people he knew in real life. He based Steven on himself and said Jeffrey was based on his son.
Many students asked Jordan some really great questions–about his writing process, how he deals with writer’s block (he said he would like “to jump off a cliff” sometimes), and how he manages to be a writer and a dad at the same time. He talked about being a musician and how that also inspires his writing. He had some great tips for all the writers in the audience (query letters, oh my!)
We enjoyed our Skype visit with Mr. Sonnenblick! His new book, Are You Experienced? was released on September 3rd–come on down to Matthew’s Library to check it out.
Books & Bytes 