Monday, January 27, 2014

Award Winners Coming to Dearborn Park Thanks to a Generous Gift

Today's announcement of the Geisel, Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Siebert Awards would have been exciting to my inner book nerd but depressing to my librarian self if it weren't for the generous gift from Tom and Stephanie Barden to our school's library. Thanks to their generosity all of these award winners are ordered and are on their way to our library.


The winners for 2014 are....
Geisel Award
for the most distinguished for beginning readers

Geisel Honor Award


Caldecott Award
for the artist of the most distinguished picture book for children






Coretta Scott King Award
for outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values

Illustrator Award                      Author Award


Newbery Award 
for the author of the most distinguished contribution to 
 literature for children


Newbery Honor Awards


 for the most distinguished informational book


Seibert Honor Awards








Thursday, January 23, 2014

Readers Advisory for Second Grade

Second Graders were introduced to their "Reading Advisers" this week. Five lovely volunteers will be here on the second Tuesday of each month to talk about books with a small group of students. They'll help our students discover new interests, authors, and titles. They will also help students learn to use the library catalog and locate books in our collection!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Mo Willems Rocks and Dances

This week Scholastic News featured an article on the fabulous author Mo Willems. We read several Elephant and Piggie book including Elephants Cannot Dance.  (That doesn't mean they "cannot try".)

Piggie trying to teach Elephant how to dance.

Then we played the Elephant and Piggie Dance Game on MoWillems' Website.

Have some fun checking out all the links on his website.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Easy to read books online!

This is one website I highly recommend exploring:
It is the easiest way I’ve seen to read a book – the complete book- over the web.  No passwords needed.  Most titles are picture books, though a handful of nonfiction offerings are available (mostly from DK). 
I was impressed.  Authors who are included on this site include Ezra Jack Keats, Rosemary Wells, Jan Brett, Judy Schachner, Mark Buehner and many others.
The best part?  Each time a book is read from the site, one is donated to a library in need.  It is sponsored by the Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation.   For more info, check out the F.A.Q. section of the site.

January is Snowy Day Month

Ezra Jack Keats won the Caldecott Medal for The Snowy Day in 1963. The book is still celebrated today. Kindergartners will be learning about Ezra Jack Keats and his many books over the next two weeks in our library.You can watch the book online and play the Snowy Day Game here. I hope you enjoy this wonderful classic.