Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all followers of the Lockerman Media Center blog! I was wondering if any of you have made resolutions for the coming year. My 2011 school-year's resolution is: to be more consistent with this blog. There are so many books, links, etc. that I'd like to share with you and this is the perfect place!

Over this break I have finished two books so far. The first, The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan is an action-adventure novel much like The Lightning Thief. This series features the gods and goddesses of Egyptian mythology. I give it 4 stars. The second book, Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen is historical fiction with a large serving of drama. If you liked the Luxe series, this is definitely something you will want to try. Both books are available in the media center.

That said, what have you been reading? Please feel free to share what you are reading in the comments of the blog.

25 Books List Challenge

Have you been keeping your 25 Books List up-to-date? Currently, I have read 39 books and have a total of 10,279 pages read. I am issuing a challenge to all LMS students to update their lists and page counts.

THE CHALLENGE: Update your 25 Books list and have it initialed by your language arts teacher. Bring it to the media center and show it to Mrs. Porter between Monday, November 30th and Friday, Dec. 3rd. The first 20 people to do so will win a free book from the upcoming book fair. Ready, Set, GO!

Book Clubs

**NEWS FLASHES**
1. I have updated my Shelfari and accepted friendship requests. I will send out invitations for our closed LMS group in the next day or two.
2. Book clubs will be starting in January! Each club will have a brief meeting in December to distribute the book that we will discuss and to go over the basics of the book club. Listen to announcements and keep reading the blog for details as they become available!

BES 2010-11
The link above will allow you to view the slideshow of the current Black-Eyed Susan nominees. When you go to Scribd.com via the link, click on Full Screen and in the bottom tool bar click on Scroll and change it to Slideshow. Don't forget to fill out a request slip for these books if there are not copies in when you visit the media center!

Service Learning connection on Television!

Mr. Kenny Wood of Lifetime Wells for Ghana will be featured on the Today Show on NBC Tuesday, October 19th. Mr. Wood is a resident of Denton and our 7th grade has held several walk-a-thons to help furnish school uniforms for the children in the towns where Mr. Wood drills wells. Tune in to NBC between 8 and 9 AM to see Mr. Wood interviewed by NBC's Jane Pauley.

New in Biography!

New in the biography section are multiple volumes from the Wicked History series. If you enjoy reading about people who will do anything (e.g. - betray, poison, guillotine) other people to gain power, this is the series for you. Folks featured in this series include Ivan the Terrible: tsar of death, Henry VIII: royal beheader, Cixi: evil empress of China, Robespierre: master of the guillotine. More evil than you can imagine - Check one out today!!

Readergirlz

What a great discussion today about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks! We only got to questions from a few of the tables, but so many people had great observations that we ran out of time. Unfortunate to anyone who did not get to express their feelings, but what a wonderful problem to have. If you have any more opinions about the book, please feel free to post them as comments to this entry on the blog. We'd love to hear what you think!

It was fun to see what some of you wrote to your future selves. I will store the letters in a safe place and will give them to you your senior year. It will be fun to see if what is important to you now is still important then. And, after a rough start, the sealing wax was a great success. Anyone who had to leave early should come to the media center as soon as you finish your letter. I have envelopes and enough sealing wax to complete your project.

Next month's read: The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman. This book is a definite departure from all of our other Readergirl selections in that the protagonist is. . . A GUY!!! I wonder what kind of "opinionating" that will add to our next book discussion. :)

P.S. - Are any of you interested in meeting once or twice during the summer? Maybe at the public library?

Guys Read March Madness

The Lightning Thief was a huge hit. All the guys enjoyed the books and 80% of them had read the next book in the series, with 2 more guys already into the third. Way to go Guys! Interesting dialog about which god or goddess each guy would like as a parent and even more interesting discussion about parts of the plot they liked, would change or would enhance. Lockerman Guys do not lack imagination, for sure!
Of course, what is a Guys Read meeting without making a mess? We trooped outside to try to explode Ziploc bags using a combo of water, vinegar and baking soda. All but 1 bag blew up, but we're not quite sure if it was from the ingredients or the forceful landings some of them made. Next we tried poking pencils through Ziploc bags full of water to see how many we could get through without the bag leaking. Winner was D.S. with a record 12 pencils. Very cool.
Our next meeting will be in April when we will discuss the book Scat by Carl Hiaasen and try our luck at being Mythbusters with Mentos and soda.

Shelfari

At the last meetings of the Guys Read Club and the readergirlz club, I encouraged all members to create a Shelfari Shelf. It's fun to see what others are reading and to read their opinions.

The website is http://www.shelfari.com or you can just click on the Shelfari logo on the right side of the page. All you need is to check with the adult(s) in charge of you to make sure it's OK and an email address. Once you have made your Shelfari Shelf, you can find other readergirlz or Mrs. Porter and be Shelfari friends. My Shelfari name is (surprise) Mrs. Porter.

readergirlz March meeting

Finally! After waiting through snow, sleet and scheduling issues the readergirlz finally met to disuss The Hunger Games. It was unanimously liked, though to varying degrees. Katniss is a strong, independent person, and many felt that there should be more books featuring girl characters like Katniss instead of the "traditional damsel in distress". Wow! Great comment and I will be compiling a list of such books for the readergirlz next meeting.

After eating, discussing, eating more and discussing more, we proceeded to make Oobleck. Usually, the readergirlz do some sort of computer-related cool thing or a craft, but this month we leapt into the world of wacky science. So much fun. Very creative used of food-coloring to create the tie-dye effect was employed by many. The only bummer was that it was not in a very good container for transport so the r-girlz had to dispose of their Oobleck before going home. However, corn starch and water are easy to obtain and hopefully many readergirlz will be concoting Oobleck to their hearts content this weekend.

The next readergirlz meeting will be Thursday, April 8th. We will be discussing The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. See you then!

Lockerman Guys Read

The Lockerman Guys Read club met today. We discussed Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman. It was a great book, there were lots of theories that guys had about the BIG secret and if there was a murder or an accident. We watched the last video together to see if we could figure some more things out. Creepy!!

We also made Oobleck. You need cornstarch, water and food coloring and a place where you can make a big mess. If you get food coloring on your hands, toothpaste will take most of it off. Mr. Oesterle came to the meeting this month and promises to return! Mr. Kotyk stopped in briefly to share his ideas. Sadly, Mr. Angeloni couldn't make it. :(

Our new book is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Come join us and talk about it at our next meeting on Thursday, March 25th.

We're Back!

Welcome Back to School! What a nice mid-winter vacation. Due to the snow days, the readergirlz Club meeting has been rescheduled for March 4th at 2:45 p.m. in the media center. We'll be discussing The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, so if you've read it ladies - come join us! Other big news will be the announcement of our March book.

What a month (so far)

Wow! Here it is, Valentine's Day, and we haven't been in school since February 5th. Hopefully everyone has done at least a little bit of reading. As of today, I've read 7 books (2,008 pages). Hoping to read at least one more before life returns to normal and we return to school on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, the Guys Read Club meeting last week was postponed due to snow. The new meeting date will be Thursday, Feb. 25th at 2:45.

Happy Presidents' Day tomorrow!

Snow Better Time to Read!

Wow! I've lived in Maryland my entire life and cannot recall ever seeing this much snow! While you're snowed-in, don't forget to spend some time curled up with a good book. I've finished three already - a mystery thriller by Caroline Cooney If the Witness Lied; Brett Hartinger's funny novel Project Sweet Life, the story of three15-year-old guys who try to fool their parents to get out of working summer jobs and have amazingly wild adventures instead; and Good Enough by Paula Yoo which is the story of a Patti, a high school senior, who has always tried to be the PKD (Perfect Korean Daughter) but decides to follow her heart with funny, embarrassing, and heart-pounding results! Enjoy the snow, be safe and READ!

Book Club Update/Book Review

All free copies of the book club books for the February meetings have been distributed. If you'd like to join us, please request a copy from the library or borrow a copy from a friend.

Yesterday I finished the book The Big Game of Everything by Chris Lynch. Grampus, a retired marine, owns a 13-hole golf course and his grandsons, money-loving Egon and guy-with-a conscience Onion Jock are going to work there for the summer along with their sister. Their hippie parents who own a barbershop/palm reading establishment jump in to create even more chaos.

The characters in this book were wonderful. If you have brothers/sisters/parents/grandparents or any combination of them, you will be able to relate to the characters in this book. You may even recognize some of them! I gave it 5 stars.

Shelfari and Reading Incentive Update

I hope that students following the blog will join Shelfari so that we can share the books we've been reading. You can click on the Shelfari shelf here on the blog and when you get to the site, click "Home". All you need to register is an email address and it's completely free. Mr. Kotyk has created a Shelfari shelf, you can get there through the friends link on my shelf.

Don't forget to update your 25-books list to see how you're progressing toward your reading goal. As of today I have read 17, 923 pages and completed 69 books. It sounds like a lot, but I've got a ways to go. I just started The Big Game of Everything by Chris Lynch. Thus far it's about two crazy brothers, Egon and Onion Jock, with hippie parents and a grandpa who owns a 13-hole golf course (he's been adding one hole at a time, very slowly). Seems funny about to get funnier. Stay tuned for updates.

Mrs. Porter's Reading Goal

To compare with 6th & 7th grades: 40,000 pages by June 4th.
To compare with 8th grade: 130 books by June 4th.

2010 Book Awards

Last week, the winners of several prestigious book awards were announced. I'm listing below the titles that we already have (black) or will be soon adding (red), (a * next to a title means I've ordered additional copies), to our collection in the media center. (a * next to a title means I've ordered additional copies)If you are interested in reading any of them, please be sure to fill out a request slip.

Newbery Award

• Return to Sender by Rebecca Stead *
  

Newbery Honor

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose *
  
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly *
  
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
  

Pura Belpre Award

• Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez

Sibert Medal

• Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

Printz Award

• Going Bovine by Libba Bray
  

readergirlz

The second readergirlz Club meeting of the year was a roaring success. With 36 readergirlz in attendance, we ate snacks and discussed Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix, the readergirlz readers' choice selection from our last meeting. A variety of opinions were given, making for a very interesting afternoon. Following the discussion, we created origami Samurai Helmet bookmarks. For most of us, the second bookmark came out better than the first, but both should be functional.

The reading selection for this month was introduced via a read-aloud from Chapter 1. This month's book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Many readergirlz had heard some buzz about this book, so expectations are high for next month's discussion.

Next meeting is Thurs., February 18th.

Guys Read Meeting

At our first Guys Read Club meeting of the year the book Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman was selected as our reading selection this month by an overwhelming majority. Looking forward to the interaction between text and video to tell the story.

After selecting the book, we proceeded to wreak havoc in the media center by mixing up Gluep. Gluep, for the unenlightened, is a homemade version of Silly Putty. It's cooler because you can make it any color you want and it keeps longer in a ziploc bag than the little plastic egg things you get at the store. For those who are interested - neon green was the most popular color among the Guys.

Next meeting is Thursday, February 11th.

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to the Lockerman Media Center blog! Check back often for updates on books clubs, book fair, and book news.