This week the Matthews Library was full to bursting with activity and bustling with students.
The 7th graders in Ms. Kahn’s class came by again this week, although none came be-costumed this time. They continued their research on thinkers during the enlightenment period, this time connecting it to present day issues.
On Tuesday, the second graders of room 2C sang to the library assistant, Ms. Z-S. They were so cute! A big thank you to Ms. Melinson for ordering the singing telegram.
We held a Book Club meeting on Wednesday, and talked a bit about Valentines Day reads. Check out our Book Club post here for a more in depth description of what we discussed. As it was both Valentines Day and Wednesday, we caught plenty of students wearing pink.
On Thursday, the 6th grade got to hear from another professional in a scientific career. Valerie Termini, the chief deputy director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, spoke to the students about working in wildlife ecology.
Most importantly, on Friday we added a new picture to our pets of Country Day wall. Thank you Sarah Parrish for the contribution!
We did it, Country Day! We made it to another vacation. We hope you enjoy the week off immensely. See you back at the end of February, and get ready for Read Across Country Day on March 1st!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Happy Groundhog Day! It may be rainy and grey today, but that big ol’ rodent predicts we’ll be enjoying the sunshine soon enough. The past few weeks here in the Matthews have certainly kept us on our toes.
Ms. Melinson provided tea and cookies for students on the rainiest and dreariest days we saw.
On Monday, January 8th, we hosted a Queer Joy Panel moderated by Mr. Hinojosa. Queer students, faculty, and staff spoke up about their experiences of joy. Mr. Hinojosa has organized a similar event for several years now in conjunction with the culmination of his Senior English class unit on The Laramie Project. Each year, he opens the event up to the community at large, and each year more of the the community attends. This year saw a positively packed audience. Next year might be standing room only!
The Room of Requirement saw quite a bit of club action these past few weeks. The high school restarted the Among Us club and immediately got to business sussing out the imposter. We promise it wasn’t us; in fact, we definitely saw red vent by electrical. Model UN has continued to convene as well. These *model* students sure do impress us! The Glass Knife Staff are ramping up their efforts to complete the school’s literary magazine in time for the Seniors’ last day here at Country Day.
During Finals week, the library pendulum swung between chaos and crickets faster than we could say “good luck!” to those on their way to examinations. Congratulations to the entire upper school for making it through the first semester!
Ms. Perla led several C-Day meetings to help prepare our Juniors for the ever-encroaching college application and high school graduation process. At one such meeting, she asked the students to literally visualize themselves at college through a drawing exercise. How incredible is it that the students have such a helpful guide through this grueling process?
We hosted the Sophomores for another moratorium related to the Sophomore Project. With their research papers in the rearview mirror, they are now embarking on the exciting journey to turn these papers into presentations. Students who did well on their presentations last year stopped by to offer a few tricks of the trade, including Grace who gave presenting tips from Mock Trial. In order to prepare for making the best presentations they could, Ms. Leavy had the students prepare precisely the inverse. These purposefully-horrendous projects gave everyone a good laugh.
The Leadership Lunch series continued on Wednesday, January 31st. Katie and Ishaan conducted an interview with Jenny about her semester spent at Oxbow art school.
Ms. Melinson’s advisory broke from their donut tradition; they had all kinds of other sweet treats. On February 1st, Dr. Pam attended to discuss microagressions and how to respond to them with the group.
Ms. Frandrup’s 6th grade science classes have begun their science careers research projects. They came in on several days to learn how to perform research using databases, websites, and books from Ms. Melinson and Ms. Z-S. They made sure to emphasize proper citation in their research, so these students should be well prepared for academic integrity moving forward. They also got to listen to a real life biology professor from Sac State present to them about the life of a science researcher and professor.
Next week, we’ll have three different authors visiting, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Stay tuned for updates on all our adventures here at the Matthews Library. Cheers and happy Friday! We hope you find some good dogs to pet, beautiful art to enjoy, and a cozy book to read soon 🙂
Welcome back after break Country Day! We hit the ground running this first week of 2024.
With finals season looming for students and faculty alike, the Matthews Library played host to scores of individuals studying, collaborating, grading, and de-stressing. Ms. Adams created a beautiful and helpful finals preparation guide, pictured below. At her advisory meeting, Ms. Melinson provided a copy to each of her advisees. Anyone can feel free stop by the library office for their very own copy.
On Wednesday we hosted our first high school book club of 2024. Check out this post for more info about what we talked about! (Hint: books may have been involved.)
On Friday we hosted the alumni lunch. The classes of 2023 and 2024 gathered together along with faculty to enjoy a meal together before the alumni panel in the MP room. Huge props to Ms. Perla for everything she did to make this event happen.
Happy New Year. For those of you looking to read more this year, consider finding a book bingo that looks interesting to you and challenging yourself to get blackout by the year’s end!
Our first book club of 2024 featured hot apple cider, rich chocolate brownies, and book recommendations galore. It also meandered into a discussion of the human muscular system using Lilya’s Ryan Reynolds collage pillow as a reference. Mostly, though, we focused on books.
Ms. Melinson kicked off the meeting with a surprise. While she usually reads cookbooks in December, this year she read a veritable genre smorgasbord. She began listening to teen mystery novel The Agathas,but her loan expired just as the mystery started getting intriguing, so now she’s waiting for her new hold to be ready. In the meantime, she’s made it most of the way through the novel Tom Lake and the self-help book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Not to disappoint, she still provided us with four cookery-related books: The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking, A New Taste of Chocolate, High on the Hog, and 50 Foods that Changed the Course of History.
Jordyn, too, strayed from her usual by picking up a book set in the real modern world. I Wish You All the Best is a romance with a nonbinary main character. She’s also begun a dystopian sci-fi novel though, titled Hell Followed With Us, so rest assured we haven’t entered the Upside Down. Rachel listened to Be Useful: 7 Tools for Life, read by the author, Arnold Schwarzenegger. She gave us an impressive imitation of his voice as she explained the thrust of the self help book’s advice: work hard. Pax read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, a sci-fi book featuring an adventure between a nonbinary Tea Monk and a robot. The book is a short read and the first in a series. Radha mentioned that her parents would like her to read Bhagavad Gita, a classic epic of Indian Mythology. Suketa said that her folks also advocate for her to read it.
Imani brought up how excellent she finds the new Percy Jackson TV series. Jordyn and Connor adamantly agreed. According to the three, the series does a wonderful job of following the plot of the book while updating certain aspects of it that they recognized could be improved upon from its original publication nearly two decades ago.
We closed out the meeting with a brief discussion of books we heard of being gifted and received recently, including a Hayao Miyazaki biography, a career planning and a life skills book for teens, and a hybrid planner/notebook for shenanigans.
For a list of all the books discussed in High School Book Club, check out our Goodreads here.
We’ve hosted and accomplished quite a lot during these weeks between the Fall and Winter breaks here at the Matthews Library.
Upon return from our week off, the Sophomores delved right into work on their research projects. With support from Ms. Melinson and Ms. Leavy, many made remarkable progress, with a few seeming to finally understand that they would indeed need to both research and write in order to produce a research paper.
Ms. Melinson organized a beautiful and sweet birthday celebration for Ms. Z-S, complete with a delicious berry pie, several adorable mushroom-themed gifts, and matching aprons for the whole library department.
Ms. Perla met with the Juniors at lunch to preview what will come for them with the post-Country Day planning that senior year entails.
That Tuesday, alumni Kaeleigh and Alyssa Valverde met with the BFFs over a tasty lunch. The sisters talked about life after Country Day, the importance of finding a college that works for you over getting the name brand experience, and the challenge of balancing work with school.
Mr. Comer’s Latin classes performed a Toga Walk on Wednesday. If fashion really is cyclical then we can’t wait for these bad boys to come back into vogue.
We hosted a leadership lunch on Wednesday as well. Imani and Jackie presented about their internship with Breakthrough Sacramento’s Substance Abuse Awareness and Policy program. They gave a similar presentation about the dangers of drugs and alcohol on teens at the Elevate Youth California Conference in October.
Ms. Melinson’s advisory returned to their traditional delicious donuts for their meeting on the last day of November.
For Be a Banana Week students and staffulty filled a kindness box with positive anecdotes, vibes, and experiences.
On Monday December 4th we got a visit from Ruby absolutely rocking a new sweater. Some students hunkered down and got a lot of homework done while others spent a bit more of their unstructured time in the library socializing. Students also weighed in on the topic of favorite meals on the Room of Requirement’s whiteboard. Did they miss any noteworthy meals?
English 10 performed scenes from the play Twilight by Anna Deavere Smith on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Octagon lead a roundtable on college admissions in the Room of Requirement, and Ms. Parrish outfitted her cubicle with absolutely incredible gingerbread house themed decorations.
We hosted High School Book Club at lunch on Wednesday. For a summary of what we talked about check out this post.
That Friday, the sophomores had a workday aimed at helping them to complete their research projects, due only a few days from then.
During the final week before winter vacation the Matthews Library remained ever-full of students, stressing and socializing alike.
On Wednesday the 13th of December the Sophomores submitted their *almost* final drafts to Turnitin, a website service which checks for plagiarized and AI-written text. The sophomores then had until Friday to correct any issues caught by Turnitin. Over the next few days, they flooded our office for support from Ms. Melinson to address the concerns Turnitin flagged. As of midnight on Friday the Sophomores should be complete with this intensive research and writing assignment. We can’t wait to read what they’ve produced! Stay tuned for updates on their progress towards presenting their research in the new year.
Ms. Perla hosted another C-Day meeting for the Seniors at lunchtime on Wednesday. As seniors complete their application submissions and those who applied Early Decision begin hearing back from schools, we wish them the best of luck. This process isn’t easy, but you’re almost there!
After school the IDEA committee convened along with students who attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) and adults who went to the People of Color Conference (POCC).
On both Wednesday and Thursday Ms. Melinson prepared tea for the High School students in our offices. Jaq went a bit of an untraditional route by putting a piece of fudge in his hot water to create a “chocolate bomb,” but everyone else enjoyed our selection of teas.
The Santa Paws gift deliverers stopped by our doors on Thursday morning. Lucky us!
Ms. Melinson’s advisory enjoyed Mochi donuts and cookie decorating on Thursday. Double the treats for double the fun! Throughout the week, the students added kind notes and mysterious hints to secret envelopes addressed to another student in the advisory. The secrets were revealed on Thursday!
Mr. Comer lead his Latin classes (and a few volunteers) on a bout of Saturnalia caroling that included a much-enjoyed stop at the Matthews Library.
Both the Matthews and Winters Libraries put up some wintery displays that you can check out below! Ms. Z-S brought some chocolate treats for staffulty to enjoy, and we were honored with a visit from Baby Z. We hope you have a joyful vacation full of laughter, good food, and reading galore. We’ll see you in the 2024!
Ms Melinson accidentally read the fourth book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series called Before We Say Goodbye, but it was still good and it can stand alone. The series is about a Japanese cafe where you can time travel but with some very specific rules such as a strict one about returning before the coffee gets cold. She also talked about a bunch of books that people might want to read over break. Some that are back in the library are Heartstopper, Imogen Obviously, and Killers of the Flower Moon. Warrior Girl Unearthed is the sequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter. Poet Nikita Gill has a new book of poems, These Are the Words, her first one written for a young adult audience. Guardians of Dawn: Zahra has a beautiful cover and it’s been described as Sailor Moon meets Cinder. Jess read a fantasy, He’s Haunted. Dylan read a book that Mr Cunningham recommended called Third Class Superhero. Gabriel is reading the Summer I Turned Pretty books and watching the series. Rachel is reading a book in AP Biology, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, that is both interesting and very sad.
We started talking about gift books (ones you want and ones you give). When Chloe said the book she likes to give is the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Princess Bride, Rachel said that is the book she would like to receive (so we hope the hint was taken;-) She would also like any of the Terry Pratchett books that she hasn’t read yet. She has received and would give the whole set of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Imani would choose theMaze Runner series because she was a Percy Jackson kid and would like to see the other popular series from back then. Noor likes to give the Penguin Clothbound Classics or the Oxford World’s Classics because they have good introductions. Dylan would want to receive the Hunger Games series because with the new movie out, so he needs to catch up.
A lively discussion followed about what are the worst books to receive as gifts. An SAT Prep book, an outdated dictionary, a textbook for a class you’re not taking, “How to Make Your Bed,” an anger management book, and a puberty book from your parent topped our worst list.
Click here if you’d like to peruse all the titles recommended or discussed in Book Club!
The week before any school break tends towards joyful chaos, and this week at the Matthews Library hasn’t been an exception.
The reality that what was once a far-off deadline is now mere weeks away has ramped up the Sophomore’s attention to their semester-long research projects. Ms. Melinson and Ms. Leavy supported their newfound urgency with lessons and a rough draft assignment focused on their in-text citations.
The 9th graders in Mr. Arns’ class continued their lessons on how to use the NoodleTools software. This week instead of zombies they looked into cultural mythologies.
The High School Book Club met on Wednesday. Check out the post about it here.
Ms. Melinson’s advisory mixed it up this week! Instead of donuts they had sweet flaky pastries. Quite the shake-up.
The 6th graders came in for a lesson on curating resources as part of their ongoing leadership assignment. They learned the importance of using keywords in databases. They even got to flex their NoodleTools skills in the process! These 6th graders will be ready for any research project coming their way in no time.
We got to witness the Order of the Spatula get down to business with the pig roast and burrito making extravaganza outside our doors on Thursday.
Happy Thanksgiving break Country Day! We hope the week off leaves you refreshed and ready to hit the ground running when we get back.
Another excellent high school book club meeting in the books! This month Ms. Melinson kicked the meeting off by reminding us of the opportunity to read we all have coming up with Thanksgiving break just around the corner. The seniors in attendance replied that they’ll be a bit too busy with college applications. For those of us without major life changes looming ever-nearer, though, Ms. Melinson drew our attention to the Fall book recommendation Newsletter that Ms. Z-S just put out.
The newsletter features recommendations from the top 3 genres preferred by high school students this year: fantasy, mystery, and romance. Rachel was shocked to discover that romance has edged out humor for the bronze. Jordyn commented that she doesn’t particularly gravitate towards comedy books. Rachel then questioned her appreciation of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, a markedly humorous novel. Jordyn explained that she generally avoids comedies because they’re rather entrenched in reality, and she prefers escaping into fantasy or science fiction, which criteria Good Omens fit. Jess questioned the appeal of fantasy, feeling that escaping into a whole different world goes a tad too far, but Jordyn retorted that she just doesn’t like reading “real life stuff.” Isn’t it wonderful how different genres can satisfy our different interests and desires?
Ms. Melinson told us about The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker. She’s enjoyed her slow read of this nonfiction book, as evidenced by the many annotation tabs she has added. The book discusses all the ways in which people gather (not just dinner parties as she first suspected), and emphasizes the importance of intentionality in such meetings.
Jordyn has been enthralled by Three Dark Crowns, which fantasy novel she picked up at Ms. Melinson’s recommendation during the October book club meeting. She felt that it had a slow start, but that’s to be expected when an author is setting the stage for an entire high fantasy series. The plot is intricate and, without giving away any spoilers, she emphasized that the book gets “really good.” Ms. Melinson questioned whether the triplets in the story reminded her of her own siblings, but as these triplets were separated at birth, Jordyn found little in common. Perhaps that was another point in the novel’s favor for escapism-appreciator Jordyn?
Rachel has been listening to The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and she is loving it. “It’s like listening to a painting,” she explained of the intricate, beautiful, tragic prose. The language and structure have amazed her, and she has equally appreciated the time Dumas takes to follow the protagonist’s life across decades. “It’s a classic for a reason,” remarked Ms. Melinson, who agreed with Rachel that the structure, syntax, and diction of a work compel her just as much as (or sometimes more than) its plot. Chloe added that listening to the novel in its original French was a memorable experience for her.
The current read for Jess is a romance novel about a guy who never gets rejected and the girl who finally does. He seduces her just to prove to his mates that he really is that good, but soon begins truly falling for her. What happens when she finds out his ulterior motives for pursuing her? Jess recommended the book for any romance fans out there, of which we know there are plenty!
Mr. Comer told us about two books he read last weekend. The first was Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Nigerian engineer and novelist Wole Talabi. This Godpunk novel follows the story of two Yoruba gods liberating a Nigerian artifact from London’s British Museum. Mr. Comer highly enjoyed the novel and heartily recommended it. His second read of the weekend was the first of the Viriconium series by M. John Harrison. The Pastel City is set millennia in the future and follows the tradition of dying Earth stories. He felt that Talabi had a much better command of storytelling than Harrison, but enjoyed The Pastel City as well, and has begun the second in the series, A Storm of Wings.
Suketa revisited The Maltese Falcon, which students read in her English class this year. The murder mystery had a very surprising end that she really enjoyed. The blatant sexism of the main character put Jordyn off of the story.
Mr. Wells has started Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. In the story, a 12-year-old boy who has been raised by his grandmother must take a greyhound bus across several states to go stay with different family when his grandmother falls ill. The novel so far reminds him of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, and he is greatly enjoying the wisdom the boy shares as he meets plentiful folk on his bus journey.
Ms. Melinson then turned the conversation towards the upcoming release of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes based on the Hunger Games prequel novel by the same name. Jordyn enjoyed the book when she read it, explaining that she thought Suzanne Collins did an excellent job of humanizing the villain of the trilogy, Coriolanus Snow.
Finally, we discussed our favorite independent and used bookstores, which included Capitol Books, Bookworm, and Ruby’s. Rachel concluded the meeting with a joke about a loyal dog and a poorly placed gravestone.
Books & Bytes 