Available on the website at <http://www.oasl.info>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume 20, Number 4 December, 2007
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE PRESIDENT
the "official" letter ----- Gregory Lum
FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
1. BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!---- the states best readers!
2. PORTLAND STATE CLASSES ----- Ruth Murray
3. EBSCO TRAINING RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN 19 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES ---- Patty Sorensen
4. ANNOUNCEMENT FOR OREGON BATTLE OF THE BOOKS ---- Debbie Alvarez
Including 08-09 titles
5. 2008 JOINT CONFERENCE CONCURRENT SESSIONS ---- Sheryl Steinke
Call for Proposals
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FROM THE PRESIDENT --- Gregory Lum
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
December is a busy month for me with our school-wide canned food drive, church activities, OASL board meetings, and other school events.
For the last several years, I have served on the board as treasurer, conference chair, and president-elect. I enjoy working with teacher librarians and library assistants from around the state. At the December board meeting, the OASL board will begin developing the ballot for our upcoming elections. The OASL Executive Board is gathering names for candidates for our upcoming elections. If you or you know another library colleague is interested in serving on the OASL board, please contact me at [ mailto:glum@jesuitportland.org ]glum@jesuitportland.org.
December is the month to give and serve. Donate non-perishables to a local food bank, work at a homeless shelter, give socks and gloves to a homeless person, or donate $50.00 to the School Libraries Political Action Committee. Remember that each person can receive a $50.00 ($100 if married and filing jointly) tax credit from the Oregon tax return. Send your check to School Libraries PAC, c/o Linda Ague, treasurer, 2637 Forrester Way, Eugene, OR 97401.
Have a blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1.BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS! ---- the states best readers!
From Patty Sorensen:
*<<(- Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen All middle school girls should read this book about boyfriend crushes and looking beyond the hunk factor to the person who is within!
From Gregory Lum:
*<<(- Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together By Ron Hall A modern-day slave and an international art dealer are bound together by a dying woman's faith. Will Ron, the art dealer, be able to embrace Denver, who's been homeless for almost 20 years? Will Denver learn to trust a white man? There's pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story.
From Merrie Olson:
***** Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler
This is the story of three generations of Japanese Americans who settled in the Hood River area of Oregon. The story is very well written and fast paced, but the most interesting part is how Americans treated the Japanese Americans during World War II and how that trickled down through the generations. Very enjoyable as well as enlightening. (Merrie Olson)
From Ruth Murray:
*****I love TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyers as much as the kids. It's pretty tame for a vampire book but she has an interesting writing technique and the book is suspenseful from start to finish. I would recommend it to students grade 8-12
From Mary Livermore:
*****What's Going On in There? by Geoffrey Grahn. (c) 2005 If made into a series, I could see this book becoming as popular as I Spy or Waldo. In this book, each page starts with "What's Going On in There?......." The illustration shows a silhouette and gives a suggestive guess about what's happening. The second page shows what's really happening (and it's always silly). The K-2 crowd loves guessing. I'm hopeful he will write more.
*****Probuditi! by Chris Van Allsburg (c) 2006 I stumbled across this at the public library. I didn't know there were any new books by Van Allsburg. This story doesn't have the supernatural twist of many of Van Allsburg's stories, but it is another great story nonetheless. (Mary Livermore)
From Andrea:
*****Speak up and start saying what really matters. For inspiration to speak the truth read Why Freedom Matters: The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence in Prose, Poetry and Song from 1776 to the Present by Daniel R. Katz. Perfect for all political persuasions. Teens, adults.
***** Cracker!: The Best dog in V etnam by Cynthia Kadohata. Dog lovers pick of the year. Told in part from the perspective of a smart bomb sniffing German Shepherd this compelling story takes you to the heart of the Vietnam war era with tenderness and toughness. Ages 10-16.
*****The Wall by Peter Sis. I love every book this man creates. Find out what it was like growing up in communist controlled Czechoslovakia and why I want a bicycle with wings. Wonderful Sis drawings in this picture book biography. For children 8 and up, but adults will appreciate the story more.
From Cindy Bennett:
*****Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson
*****Tequila Worm by Viola Canales
*****The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
From Debbie Alvarez who couldn’t stop at just a few J
The perfect gift for the child to whom you don't know what to give:
World Almanac for Kids 2008
*****Picture Books:
Cowboy & Octopus by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
-Humorous friendship!
Previously by Allen Ahlberg
-Excellent extension of fairy tale picture book.
*****Holiday books:
Toot and Puddle, Let it snow by Holly Hobbie
-great friendship series
I have a little dreidel by Maxie Baum
-Chanukah story
Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo
-Christmas tale.
Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica
-Sports themed Christmas chapter book
Hanukkah at Valley Forge by Stephen Krensky
-Historical picture book.
Judy Moody & Stink : the Holly Joliday by Megan McDonald
-Fun humorous family chapter book.
N is for Navidad by Susan Middleton Elya
- Good alphabet/bilingual holiday book
The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers
-Beautiful pictures for this holiday classic story.
Olivia helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer
-Another cute Olivia book!
Where, oh where, is Santa Claus? by Lisa Wheeler
-Good rhyming and humorous book.
The Snow Queen by Susan Jeffers
-Wonderful winter picture book, a little scary!
*****Favorite chapter books:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
-50% pictures/50% words, excellent, entertaining book.
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis
Peak by Roland Smith
The Book of Time by Guillaume Prevost
Good fantasy, beginning of a series.
Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume -Sequel to The Pain and the Great One, excellent humorous family read aloud!
From Jan Nichols:
*****My favorite book this month? March, by Geraldine Brooks. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2006, this tells the story, begun by Little Women, of Father March's adventures during the Civil War. It is engrossing, emotional, and a sometimes raw look at the dual tragedies of slavery and war. I was completely captivated and totally wrung out by the time I got to the end.
From Stacy Simmons:
*****The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard.
From Kelly Bryant
*****I Feel Bad about my Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
by Nora Ephron.
From Betty Krause:
*****Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Great story about the itinerant
circus life in the depression.
*****Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos. A woman doesn't really start to
live, until she gets cancer and looks at her life so far.
*****A History of Love by Nicole Krauss. The story of a book and two
characters, from Nazi-occupied Europe to present day New York.
*****Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company by Maria Amparo Escandon.
Libertad has been put in a Mexican prison, and her story only comes out
as she "reads" to the other prisoners.
From Lisa Krebs:
*****Skeletons on the Zahara: a true story of survival. (Adult/mature YA) King, Dean. Chronicles the 1815 ordeal of the captain and crew of the American cargo ship "Commerce" after the brig wrecked off the northwest coast of Africa, during which the men were sold into slavery and forced on a torturous trek across the Sahara fighting off warring tribes, starvation, dehydration, and despair. A triumph of the human will to survive. This book is fast-paced and gripping; it was hard to put down until the last page. An especially great read for people who like real-life adventure stories.
From Garnetta Wilker (she also included a picture but every time I try to put a picture in the newsletter, they tell me I have exceeded my space limit):
*****Over a thousand hills I walk with you
by Jansen, Hanna ; translated from the German by Elizabeth D. Crawford
Carolrhoda, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-1-57505-927-3
ISBN-10: 1-57505-927-4
This tale begins with innocence and an almost idyllic life for young Jeanne d'Arc Umubyeyi in Rwanda, but so quickly, thrusts the reader into the experiences of war and genocide. Jeanne is a Rwandan Tutsi and the only member of her family to survive the Rwandan genocide that follows the assassination of the Hutu president in 1994. The tale is well told and deftly holds the reader's attention. The author is Jeanne's German adoptive mother and she has captured the bewilderment and confusion of Jeanne's experience well.
From Meg Miranda:
*****Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – who could ask for more? A love story and thriller rolled into one! Better yet it is the first of a trilogy. Bella moves to Forks, WA from Phoenix to live with her dad. On the first day of school she cannot understand why Edward, an absolute hunk of a guy, seems to hate her. Actually, Edward doesn’t hate Bella, he just wants to protect her from himself and what he is. This is the type of book that you have to be aware of the time or you will continue reading way past your bedtime! This book is appropriate for middle schoolers as well as adults. A love story without sex (at least not in the first volume – I’m still reading #2 of the trilogy) and a not too gruesome thriller.
From Alison Conner:
***For young children (and their parents and grandparents):
KNUFFLE BUNNY TOO by Mo Willems.
Her daddy in tow, Trixie hurries to school to show off her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny. But an awful surprise awaits her: Someone else has the exact same bunny!
***For elementary children, especially any who take music lessons:
A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban.
Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ, instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life.
***For middle schoolers:
THE GREEN GLASS SEA by Ellen Klages
It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father--but no one will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program.
FIRST LIGHT by Rebecca Stead
When twelve-year-old Peter and his family arrive in Greenland for his father's research, he stumbles upon a secret his mother has been hiding from him all his life, and begins an adventure he never imagines possible.
***For high schoolers:
13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES by Maureen Johnson
When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.
***For adults:
THE WORLD WITHOUT US by Alan Weisman (nonfiction)
Assuming all humans vanish from the earth, what will happen to various ecosystems?
THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD by Lionel Shriver (a woman)
Alternating chapters tell what happens over the next five years depending on whether or not a married woman kisses a man she is attracted to.
***Anything by Jasper Fforde. He has two series, the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crime series, and both are must reads for anyone with any knowledge of literature.
From Allen Kopf:
*****The Kite Rider, written by Geraldine McCaughrean, HarperCollins Publishing, Inc., 2001, 307 pages, ATOS Reading Level 6.5, 10 pts. ISBN 0-06-623875-7
Haoyou, a young boy who lives in the port city of Dagu, China during the 13th century, goes down to the harbor to see his father put out to sea on the Chabi. Before it sails, crewmen from the Chabi send up a kite made from a hatch cover to test the wind. The hatch cover, which has a sailor bound to it with ropes, will determine if this ship will reach its destination and return to home port in safety and bring in a good profit. Haoyou is dismayed to see that his father is the sailor tied to the makeshift kite as it is being launched into the air by the rest of the crew. At first the kite falters, but soon it is flying high above the Dagu harbor. As the kite is being pulled back toward earth, the wind grabs the kite and slams it into the bay. When the kite is retrieved from the water Haoyou sees that his father is dead. So ends the first chapter of this book. Haoyou has to deal with a miscreant uncle, a distraught mother, and the despicable suitor of his widowed mother as he becomes a master kite builder, joins a circus, and eventually meets Kublai Khan. The book gives readers a peek into a fascinating time and place – China in the Middle Ages. This is an excellent YA read and is one of the titles on the 2007-08 Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) reading list.
From Susie Hardy:
*****Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
*****Five People you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom
*****Silent Spring By Houghton Mifflin
From Melinda Moorefield:
*****I liked Eat, Pray, Love
*****The Glass Castle
From Jenny Takeda:
*****Accidents of nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson. YA-Grades 9 & up according to SLJ.
I listened to the Listening Library production of this book and thought the reader did an excellent job portraying the voice of Jean, a seventeen-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Having always prided herself on blending in with "normal" people, Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for youth with disabilities in 1970.
From Sue Kelsey:
*****If you love high adventure, humor, pirates and lost boys, you'll love Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Written in a tongue in cheek style, it is fun for kids and adults. I just finished reading the 2nd book in the trilogy, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, which was also fun and exciting. The 3rd book was just released this fall - Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. (It is waiting on my bedside table right now!)
*****Something for the romantic in all of us (???) is the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer. Set in rainy Forks, Washington, take a nice, almost brooding teenage girl who is just moving in with the father she loves, but doesn't 'get' her...add a brooding teen boy who happens to belong to a vampire family (they prey on animals to avoid preying on humans, but human nearness can be agonizing) and toss in a love that cannot be - but cannot be avoided. Loads of angst and "saving the girl". #1- Twilight, #2- New Moon, #3- EclipsE
From Jim Scheppke (For those of you not on Libs-Or):
*****The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century by James Howard Kunstler (Grove Press, 2006).
Kunstler is an engaging writer who presents what I hope is the worst case scenario.
*****Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben (Times Books, 2007).
This book is a good antidote to Kunstler’s book – more hopeful and constructive about what needs to be done to prevent the worst case scenario.
*****Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for American’s Soul by Edward Humes (HarperColins, 2007).
An inside look at the 2004 trial that pitted parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, against a school board determined to teach intelligent design.
*****Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest by Gerard DeGroot (New York University Press, 2007).
DeGroot makes a convincing case that the space race, far from being a great achievement, was a colossal waste of money that produced little of value (yes, Tang, Velcro, and Teflon were actually invented in the 50’s).
*****Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert (Bloomsbury, 2006).
I swear I didn’t look for books with ‘catastrophe’ in the title. If you want to read a sober and interesting book about global warming, this is it.
*****Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass (Harcourt, 2007).
How the great German novelist survived the catastrophe of Nazi Germany.
*****Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (Metropolitan Books, 2007).
Read this fascinating book to gain a new understanding of world economic history in the past four decades.
*****Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them by John Mueller (Free Press, 2006).
If you read only one book on this list, read this one. I also highly recommend Mueller's earlier book, The Remnants of War (Cornell, 2004).
*****Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All 50 States by Pete Jordan (HarperCollins, 2007).
Okay, I had to get some relief from gloom and doom, didn’t I? This book filled the bill.
From Linda Ague:
*****Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan – You will never look at your food the same again
*****The Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich – These mysteries are pure brain candy but they make me laugh so hard I cry
*****Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson – Read it, get inspired, and plan to do something even more important than you are doing now in the next phase of your life.
*****The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester – Did you ever wonder how the dictionary was created in the first place?
2. PORTLAND STATE CLASSES ----- Ruth Murray
Great classes Winter Term at Portland State- They are continuing education courses so you can earn the credits you need and obtain information in classes you can actually use. Many of the classes are online with only minimal face to face meetings.
Multicultural Storytelling- 1 credit
Select and use stories from diverse cultures in the classroom and library. Emphasis is on sharing the oral tradtion in storytelling and creative dramatics.
Jan. 11 5-9
Jan. 12 9-4
Global Literature, k-12- 3 credits
A survey of global literature for use with students in elementary, middle, or high school classrooms. A major focus will be on selecting reading materials and using them in the library and classroom. Footnotes: Graduate level course may be used as an elective in ReadOregon Endorsement program.
Information Literacy and Online Searching- 1 credit
Learn approaches for improving online information searching skills: selection of databases, advanced search strategy techniques, and methods for teaching information literacy skills to K-12 students.
Feb 29 4:30-8:30
Mar 1 9-4
If you are working on an Endorsement in Library we are also offering the following:
Children's Literature k-12 - 3 hours Jan. 8, Feb. 12, March 11, and online.
Collection Development- 3 hours Meets Jan. 12 and March 15 and online
Library Instructional Programs- 3 hours Meets Jan. 12 and online
Planning and Evaluation of Library Media Programs- 3 hours- Meets Jan. 12, March 15 and online
Check out website http://www.ceed.pdx.edu/lib_media/ for more information or contact Ruth Murray at murrayr@pdx.edu or Deanna Draper at draperd@pdx.edu
3. EBSCO TRAINING RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN 19 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES ---- Patty Sorensen
Did you know that the EBSCO Support Site has a wealth of training and documentation resources available in a wide variety of languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Russian, and Turkish? The school level resources are limited and may be only useful to High Schools but they are worth exploring. There are resources for Academic Search Premier and Business Source as well as a poster for EBSCOhost!
In addition to helpful product tutorials available in Flash and PowerPoint formats, the site also offers translated interface and database user guides, as well as help sheets that can easily be downloaded and used by library staff to train users on the features of EBSCOhost and other popular interfaces. Library posters are also available in 10 different languages-use them throughout the library to promote usage of your EBSCO databases!
Please visit the International Resources area http://support.epnet.com/training/resources.php of the Support Site often. We are constantly adding new training materials, and our list of translated resources is growing to include Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Swedish, Hungarian, and Arabic offerings.
4. ANNOUNCEMENT FOR OREGON BATTLE OF THE BOOKS ---- Debbie Alvarez
Please turn in your applications to <mailto:lsta_oema@yahoo.com>lsta_oema@yahoo.com for the OBOB 2008-2009 year. The LSTA Grant was approved and will be funding 100 schools with books to support programs. If your school received a grant for the 2007-2008 year, you will be unable to apply for a grant for the 2008-2009 year. The deadline for applying for the OBOB Grant for 2008-2009, January 9th, 2008.
Go to: Please simply copy the application, paste into an email and send on to <mailto:lsta_oema@yahoo.com>lsta_oema@yahoo.com.
The State Oregon Battle of the Books Competition now has a location! It will be at Chemeketa Community College on April 19th, 2008.
If you are wondering when you will receive your questions as a participant of OBOB for 2007-2008, the will be coming out in LATE December/EARLY January. The committee is working very hard on this process. (Thank you to all the volunteers investing over 200 hours in editing/reviewing questions.)
The OBOB committee made a few decisions recently on the Regional/State Battle procedures:
1. There will be 32 questions at each battle at Regional and State competitions.
2. We will strongly suggest that the local competitions use 16 questions for a battle and reuse the questions for more than one battle.
3. In a battle with 16 questions, the first 8 questions will be "In which book" questions and the second 8 questions will be "Content" questions.
The OBOB Committee met recently and created the first half of the list of books for the 3-5 and 6-9 division for the 2008-2009 school year. The committee will discuss more titles in March/April and finalize the second portion of the list.
Oregon Battle of the Books
Titles Selected: Our specific focus was selecting books that had an Oregon author or an Oregon setting. This is to support the Oregon Sesquicentennial celebration.
3rd-5th Division:
Apples to Oregon : being the (slightly) true narrative of how a brave pioneer father brought apples, peaches, pears, plus, grapes, and cherries (and children) across the plains - Deborah Hopkinson - Historical Fiction
(This is the 2009 Oregon Reads Title.)
Escaping the Giant Wave - Peg Kehret - Realistic Fiction (pb)
Gentle Ben - Walt Morey - Realistic Fiction (pb)
Cryptid Hunter - Roland Smith - Realistic Fiction (pb)
Dark Hills Divide - Patrick Carman - Fantasy (pb)
Gooseberry Park - Cynthia Rylant - Fantasy (pb)
The Black Paw - Heather Vogel Frederick - Mystery (pb)
B is for Beaver - Marie and Roland Smith - Non-fiction
6th-9th Grade Division:
*Alphabet of Dreams - Susan Fletcher (pb 4-08)
*Bat 6 - Virginia Euwer Wolff
(This is the 2009 Oregon Reads Title.)
*Fire on the Wind - Linda Crew (pb)
*Eyes of the Emperor - Graham Salisbury (pb)
*Peak- Roland Smith (10-08 pb)
*Minerva Clark Gets a Clue - Karen Karbo (pb)
* Oregon author
Under consideration (but not selected):
Grand and Humble - Brent Hartinger
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer (pb)
Time Stops for No Mouse - Michael Hoeye (pb)
Into the Wild - Erin Hunter (pb)
Call Me Hope - Gretchen Olson
So B. It - Sarah Weeks (pb)
Stout-hearted Seven - Neta Lohnes Frazier (pb)
Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
Up Before Daybreak - Deborah Hopkinson
5. 2008 JOINT CONFERENCE CONCURRENT SESSIONS - Call for Proposals ---- Sheryl Steinke
Program Chair for concurrent sessions at next fall's Joint WLMA OASL Conference would like you to consider presenting a concurrent session at the 2008 WLMA & OASL Joint Conference. The conference theme is "Elect to Lead - Vote for Libraries, Literacy and Learning!" The conference location is the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Conference Dates are October 9, 10, & 11.
The "call for proposals" strategy will be new for OASL members. In this strategy interested members submit proposals from which concurrent sessions are selected. This strategy is used by a number of organizations including WLMA and AASL, and the joint conference committee agreed that we would use it for the joint conference. Please be thinking about developing a session on a topic to share with other Oregon and Washington school librarians. Don't be shy, each one of you has at least one thing to share with other librarians. Think about how you collaborate with a teacher and ask the teacher to co-present. The teacher would be honored that you asked, and your stature would rise in your school. Sounds like a win-win situation.
INFORMATION ABOUT SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL ONLINE WILL BE SENT OUT ON THE LISTSERV AND IN THE NEXT NEWSLETTER, SO STAY TUNED!
If you have questions please contact Concurrent Session Chairs:
Carol Mackey <cmackey@egreen.wednet.edu>
Linda Collins <lcollins@upsd.wednet.edu>
---------------------------------------------
Oregon Association of School Libraries