Slam!

Thanks to all the participants, our first ever P9 Poetry Slam was a HUGE success! Congratulations to grade 5-6 winner Brynda Terry and grade 7-8 winner Naliek Garrett, and to all the students who wrote amazing poems and were brave enough to stand up and read them. All the poems were excellent, and the judges had a hard time making our final decisions. Special thanks also to judges Officer Roberson and Coach, and organizers Mr. LaScala and Ms. Weinstock. It was a terrific morning, and we will definitely hold another slam next year!

POETRY!!

Poetry month is techically over, but the poetry celebrations continue. Our first poetry slam will be held this Friday, May 8th, in the library. Anyone is welcome! To participate, you must bring an original poem and be willing to read it out loud. Poets will be judged on their writing and performance. Two winners will be chosen -one from grades 4-5-6 and one from grades 7-8. Each winner will recieve a $50 gift card! A workshop will be held on Thursday at 10:25 for anyone who wants help with composing their poem.

Stop by the library during Open Access periods to write a poem on the whiteboard, type up a small poem for the Poet-Tree, or . . . write your short poem as a blog comment!

New Books!

Pokemon, Magic Tricks, DragonBall Z! Bluford High, Wimpy Kid, superheroes and more! Come in and start borrowing! These books are on the HOT! list and can be borrowed one at a time, for a period of one week (with a few exceptions for the longer books).

For the first time, I'm setting up a Waiting List for the most popular books. This means you might have to wait a little longer to get the books you want, but it will keep things fair - some classes don't get to the library every week, while some classes come more often. This way, I can make sure that everyone who wants a book gets one!

Book Reviews Wanted!

Have you borrowed a great book lately? Don't keep it to yourself! Share a review with the rest of the school by posting to the comments section of this post, or to the library bulletin board. To leave a comment here, sign in using your Gmail login name.

Remember that a book review has 3 important parts:

• A summary of what the book is about, without giving away the ending.

• What you liked about the book: Characters, humor, information, etc.

• A recommendation: Who should read the book? Kids? Adults? Fans of horror movies? People who liked Harry Potter? Everyone?

Get started now!!

Themes for the Month

Last month, we celebrated Black History in the library with tons of classes borrowing history books and reading poems by famous African-Americans. This month, I hope we'll see the same type of interest for Women's History. Come in and see our display of Women's History Month biographies, or pick up a list of websites that can direct you to even more interesting women.

It's also not too soon to start planning for Poetry Month, coming up in April. The library will be hosting our first ever (hopefully annual) Poetry Slam, and we hope to see everyone sign up! Slammers bring an original poem and read it out loud; points are given for the quality of the poem AND the way you read it. We haven't decided what the winner will get, but if you have prize suggestions, post them in the comments!

What IS That??

This is possibly the coolest little thing to hit the library yet - the "playaway". It's an audiobook mp3 - each playayway is its own book. It's the size of an ipod nano, and can fit in your pocket or be worn around your neck with a lanyard.

Right now, the only available title is Walter Dean Myers' incredible memoir, Bad Boy. If people like the playaway, borrow it often, and return it in good condition, we can order some more titles. Come in and check it out!

New Books Are In!

Come and get 'em! I've added some requested titles as well as some stuff I thought you guys would like. Sadly, we didn't get all the books we asked for, but there is plenty of great stuff to look through. In fact, some of these books are so great, you can only borrow one at a time and I can only lend them out for a week instead of the usual 2. These books are part of a new category called Hot Books. Some of the titles include:

Simpsons Comics Belly Buster

Simpsons Comics Big Bonanza

Simpsons Comics Unchained

How to Draw Pokemon

Naruto Readers 1 & 2

Goosebumps Graphix Creepy Creatures

Goosebumps Graphix Scary Summer

A Child Called "It"

See a book you want? Reserve it today! If you can't get to the library, post your reservation request to the comments section of this post. I will do my best to get everyone the books they want as quickly as possible.