February Book Club

Happy Valentines Day to all who celebrate, and a happy Wednesday to everyone else! This month’s book club featured recommendations from romance, historical fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, magical realism, self-help, and biography. For a full list of all the books we’ve talked about in book club, check out our goodreads page here.

Ms. Melinson kicked off the meeting discussing her current read: Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, which is a multi-generational story of a magically gifted family. She brought up two books for those disinclined towards the romance genre: The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which is a zombie horror novel, and City of Thieves, a tragic and hilarious war fiction novel set in WWII. In addition, she recommended her favorite books with a romance element, The Night Circus and The Starless Sea, both fantasy novels by Erin Morgenstern.

On the topic of books with romance, Ms. Z-S recommended Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which is the romantasy she picks up whenever she finds herself in a reading slump. She also brought the book club’s attention to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which is a queer historical romance set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare, and The Infinity Particle, a science fiction graphic novel about a budding romance between a scientist and an artificial intelligence personal assistant.

Jess has been reading Twisted Hate by Ana Huang, the third installment in an enemies-to-lovers romance series that she can’t put down. Juliana is in the process of reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Jordyn mentioned that she is reading through our complete Sherlock Holmes collection one bit at a time on any day she forgets to bring a book from home.

Ms. Perla just finished up America Ferrera’s America Like Me, a biography collection of first-person stories from famous people about growing up between cultures. She is also reading The Searcher, a mystery novel by Tana French, and re-visiting Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be, which is what she describes as the guiding light for college counseling here at Country Day.

Several students mentioned titles they look forward to reading, but haven’t cracked open quite yet. Rachel finally ordered A Princess Bride, heralded by some as the greatest love story ever told. She loves the movie (is it possible not to?) and also enjoyed the audiobook, so she’s excited to get started on the physical copy. Suketa wants to read Tiny Habits, a self-help book all about how small changes in your life can have big impacts. Jordyn just picked up Vagabonds! because it contains one of her favorite tropes, that of found family. Hopefully the mid-winter break will give all of us the opportunity to tear through our teetering TBR piles.

Week in Review: 2/5-2/9

What a week we’ve had here in the Matthews Library. The excitement kept rolling in nonstop!

Throughout the week, Ms. Melinson’s advisory helped beautify our campus as part of the Bucket Brigade.

Our 6th grade scientists continued to research careers in science with citation guidance from Ms. Melinson. On Thursday, Dr. Michael Wright spoke to them about his research as a neuroscientist, and about being a professor at Sac State. He brought leeches in to show the students, but don’t worry no one lost any blood they weren’t ready and willing to lose that day!

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The 7th grade historians engaged in an enriching role playing hour this week. Each took on the persona of an enlightenment thinker and debated the hottest button issues of the 1700s. Our favorite moment involved a snarky Benjamin Franklin being put in his place by a profession from Catherine the Great that, “I imprisoned my husband, you know.” Students received extra credit for dressing up like their thinkers.

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At lunch on Wednesday, the Black Student Union and The Glass Knife staff put on a spoken word event. They encouraged all in attendance to read aloud a poem or song by a Black author in celebration of the remarkable contributions Black artists make to our society.

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Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham visited our campus on Thursday as part of their book tour for Lunar New Year Love Story. The author/illustrator duo presented on the meaning of Lunar New Year, their journeys into the graphic novel and picture book worlds, and the importance of the kiss in a romance story at assemblies for the 8th-12th grade students. They also signed a truly remarkable number of books for the Country Day libraries and community at large. Junior Imani is a fan of Yang’s work and an artist herself, so she drew a caricature of Yang to give to him, which he had her sign as well.

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On Friday, we hosted author Lisa Moore Ramée. She presented to our 3rd-7th graders about her story, the power of diverse representation, the importance of perseverance in the face of rejection, the fears she faced, and the magic of storytelling. Ms. Ramée then led a workshop for Ms. Kahn’s Crafting and Culture elective class where she taught the students about how to craft impactful dialogue. Finally, she, too, signed an incredible number of books for our students and libraries.

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Whew! We made it to Friday, Country Day. Just one more week until our midwinter break! Keep up the incredible effort. We’ll see you Monday for even more learning, creativity, collaboration, and reading galore.

Free Books!

Sync Audiobooks for Teens is giving away 30 free audiobooks to anyone who wants to download them this summer. Beginning today, they’ll be giving away 2 free audiobooks each week. Go to their website http://www.audiobooksync.com to download.

Every Thursday through August 11, they will post two free titles for you. You’ll have a week to download them.You can also sign up to have them email or text you when the books are ready for download. Who doesn’t love books? Especially when they’re free!

 

For Fans of The Fault in Our Stars

Favorite young adult author, John Green, will be answering questions about The Fault in Our Stars on Good Reads on January 23rd. You can submit a question on the discussion board or just follow the conversation. It is a great opportunity if you have a burning question about the book. If you have not read the book yet, you might want to avoid the page though, as there will be spoilers!

Also, John Green and his brother Hank had a show at Carnegie Hall on January 15th, which was streamed live on YouTube. Special guest stars include author Neil Gaiman and the band, The Mountain Goats. The show doesn’t start until about minute 35, so you can skip ahead a bit. Enjoy!

(Note: if you are logged in via the student network, you’ll need to log on through a network outside the school to access YouTube.)

Best Books of 2012

It’s that time of year for the best of 2012 lists to start appearing, and School Library Journal has posted their best books of 2012 selections. We have quite a few of them in our collection, so come by the library and check one out!

The United States of YA

The blog Epic Reads put together a map of the United States featuring a YA book that takes place in each state. How many states have you read?