Watching the aha moment… seeing the light bulb turn on… those are the moments educators savor.  And helping students navigate the waters of research is one of the things I love about being a teacher librarian.  I love circulating among the students, questioning, guiding, and steering them toward information.  Providing information does not create Information Literate students; providing them opportunities to manipulate information, however, does build Information Literacy.

Inserting ourselves into the student projects is what school library media specialists do.  Francis Jacobsen Harris, Uni High Media Specialist in Champaign/Urbana did a wonderful job contrasting the roles and expectations of public librarians and school librarians in a 2003 article for Reference & User Services Quarterly.*  Frances describes how she volunteered to help when her son’s class went to the public library to do research.  Harris says “while I floated from group to group, inserting myself into conversations and checking on progress, the reference librarians stayed at their desks and waited for students to approach them with questions.”

“Inserting myself” – That IS role of the school librarian during research projects!

It was interesting to note, also, that Harris thought the students welcomed her help and responded better to her while they remained timid with the reference librarian.  I don’t doubt it.  Kids don’t say what they want or need because they often do not know!  The art of being a teacher librarian is to ask a lot of leading questions and allow the students to discover answers for themselves.  But sometimes what you discover is that the student does not have enough background information to discover their answer without your direct intervention.  This was the case last week.

Eighth grade history classes have been in the library researching colonial topics.  The history teacher is a master at creating excellent group research projects – she’s the best I’ve ever seen.  She and I both circulate among the students.  Even when no one seems to need my help, I check in with each group and remind them that they can approach me for help at any time.  One young man finally told me he needed a book on religion.

The questioning began:

Me:  “Why do you need a book on religion?”

Student:  “I need to find out about religion in our colony.”

Me:  “You are less likely to find information about a specific colony in a religion book.  You are much more likely to find the information on religion in the book you have on the colony.  I’m sure it includes a discussion of religion.”

Student:  “No, it doesn’t.  I’ve been reading it.”

Me:  “What is your colony?”

Student:  “Pennsylvania”

What I wanted to say but DID NOT -  “Pennsylvania?  Pennsylvania?  Is there a more religion based colony than Pennsylvania?  How can you NOT have found that information?  Did you really read anything?”

But you do NOT say these things.  Ever.  And the longer you work with students, the more you reject this initial response in yourself.  This is where the teacher librarian must remember that all students are fragile.  If you ever want them to approach you for assistance again, you must tread carefully.

What I say is, “Let’s look at it together.”

We open the book together.  The first sentence says that “William Penn, a Quaker from….”

Me:  “Read the first sentence to me.”

He reads.  “What is that word,” I say, pointing to Quaker.

Student:  “I don’t know.”

Me:  “Quaker is a religion.”  (It is important to say this in just the right tone – not mocking nor with any hint of superiority.  This answer has to be about information sharing only.)

“Oh-h-h-h,” says my student.  It talks about Quaker all through the book.”  Light bulb.  Aha!

But my student is a little embarrassed.  I have to make him feel safe.

“There you go,” I say, like we discovered it together.

With young readers, what they don’t know hurts them!

This student was lacking critical background information and it hindered his information seeking.  He didn’t know the word Quaker and that impacted everything.  But that is why I am there…  and why I love my job!

* Harris, Frances Jacobson, Lori Arp, and Beth S. Woodard. “Information Literacy in School Libraries.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 42.3(2003): 215.

The Way by Joseph Bruchac is “the way” more books for middle and YA readers should be written. It has a fast paced, simple story line. (Only 156 pages) It includes topics of interest to young readers (martial arts and the military). It realistically includes real issues facing young readers such as not fitting into the cliques, lack of self-confidence, parent conflict, divorce, parent dating, bullies, and school violence.

Cody LeBeau, the main character in The Way, truly develops as the narrative progresses. As his uncled begins teaching him native AND martial arts philosophy – “The Way” – he learns that we are all connected to the earth and to each other. Cody learns that changing his own attitude can change everything. Bruchac doesn’t use one of my favorite bits of wisdom, but he well could have with Cody: “You can’t change the actions of others, but you can change your reaction.” When Cody begins to develop focus and self-confidence he sees not only himself in a new light, but his enemies as well. And his enemies respond to the change. The book has a riveting finish, as Cody’s fantasies of being a martial arts hero are confronted with the challenges of real heroism.

Without being moralistic in tone, The Way contains great insight and wisdom. I’ve made similar comments in previous posts on Bruchac’s books, but I’m impressed over and over. Books should entertain and capture the interests of our students. This one does. But books can also broaden our minds and leave us better people for the reading. This one does.

One of the distinctions in Bruchac’s books is that while the adult characters are flawed and human they are important and active participants in the life of the protagonist. The adults are not all evil or ineffective as in so many YA novels; most of the adults in Bruchac’s books are respected and seen as an important resource in the young adult’s life…despite their personal flaws.

Another Bruchac strength is he doesn’t write books about Native Americans, he writes books with characters who are Native American. There are legitimate concerns within the children’s literature world that students will think of Native Americans as historic only. Bruchac’s books have no apparent political agenda in this vein, yet they unassumingly portray modern young people who happen to have a native heritage. No agenda. Just people. This is “the way” it should be.

Kindergarten students stand in front of the circulation desk, many with their noses barely over the top.  These children are new to us, and getting them to say their full name so you can check books out to them is interesting.  When asked their name the responses range from the little buster who blurts out “Jacob Paul Miller” to the whisperer who has no idea what you are asking them.

In recent blog posts I’ve bemoaned the fact that I’ve been in my school district long enough to be well into my second generation of students.  One little guy this morning had a surname I recognized.  “What is your Dad’s name?” I asked him when he stood at the circulation desk.  “His name is Joe,” said this little spectacled, blond, and freckled young man.  Then in a very matter-of-fact manner he added, “His name is really Joe, but we call him Daddy.”

You couldn’t pay me enough to teach kindergarten… but I sure love their library visits!

In our school district students attend K-3 in one building, and then move to a different building for fourth and fifth grades.  Fourth grade can be a pivotal year in reading.  Students are transitioning into longer books and they need encouragement and support.  But some students do not want to leave the safety of the picture book format and we have to encourage them gently to diversify their reading.  Fourth grade truly is a transition!

My aide, while encouraging a new fourth grader to consider some of the chapter books appropriate for his reading level was given this rebuff:

“I can’t read chapter books.  I’m allergic to the ink in them.”

Where is Art Linkletter when we need him?  It made me smile when I was told.  I hope it did the same for you!

Mary Amato has written a witty book about a spunky kid.  It is funny and sad and…  and I learned about naked mole-rats and I didn’t notice!  Her website shares that the novel was inspired by her own childhood but didn’t exactly mirror it.  Her mother died, and her father’s remarriage began with a chance meeting and then developed by mail.  (Snail mail – not e-mail in those days.)  But Amato gave her character Frankie (Francine) more chutzpah than she had herself.  “Sometimes authors write the books they wish they had lived.”

The novel is told in a series of e-mails, diary entries and narrative sections.  It flows easily and is a hard book to put down!  Amato has managed to write a heartfelt book about a realistic kid, with realistic problems, emotions and reactions.  Unlike Caroline Cooney’s Code Orange which beat me about the head with facts about smallpox and information literacy (see July 14 post), The Naked Mole-Rat Letters seemlessly blends information into the narrative. 

It also provides some pretty good counseling and advice, likewise quite seemlessly.  (Unlike Twice Upon A Marigold!)  Frankie’s problem avoidance techniques get her into trouble.  She is a good kid, but once the lying and the hiding start, the web is indeed tangled.  And the emotional roller-coaster ride Frankie is on I found extremely realistic.  I remember one of my daughters who showed up at my desk at school sobbing.  Nothing happened, nothing was wrong… she just couldn’t quit crying.  Sixth and seventh grade girls sometimes just have to overreact!  I let her go home and sleep it off. 

The book made me laugh, the book made me cry, the book was inspiring, and I learned something new.  What more can you ask from a middler novel?  I recommend you add this book to your next order… and in the meantime, you can watch naked mole-rats on live web cam at the National Zoo website!  But be quiet!  They were sleeping when I tuned in…

This is my 28th year as a school library media specialist.  I love my job.  It isn’t easy, it is often frustrating, but I love what I do.  I have served in my current district since 1987.  I knew I had been around a while when a new faculty member was also a former student.  It happened again this year.  The new kindergarten teacher was a former student.  (A year older than my daughter, she was also a guest at my daughter’s fifth birthday party at the local McHamburger place!) 

This young woman, Ms. B. (we’ll call her), is already doing an awesome job from what I can see.  Today her class was in the LMC checking out books.  She held up a book by Jan Brett and told her kindergarten students that it was one of her favorite authors.  “Ms. B?” I broke in.  “Did you know that Jan Brett always hides a hedgehog somewhere in the book illustrations?”

Privately I was thinking, “I wonder if they teach them stuff like that in their kiddie lit class in college.”

“I DID know that,” said Ms. B. with a genuine smile,  “I learned that from YOU when YOU read me this book.”

Jan Brett and I have clearly been around for a while. 

Once was enough!  Love may be lovelier the second time around, but the sequel to the clever, fresh and funny Once Upon a Marigold just doesn’t blossom.  Queen Olympia is back (as I predicted after reading the original novel. )  Ferris at least doesn’t beat around the bush – the reader learns straight off that Olympia survived being swept downstream in the river, albeit with amnesia.  But after a year, Olympia recovers and returns to Beaurivage her nasty self.

I loved the original and was quite excited to revisit the characters and setting.  But Marigold and Christian, now King and Queen of Zandelphia, remain flat in this sequel.

There are few clever bits… The pace of the story keeps you reading.  (Plus I kept thinking it would get better!)  But the plot just doesn’t work; Olympia may be pushy, but her return to power is poorly explained and unbelievable.  The “something in the air” device is never fully developed.  And the ending for Mr. Lucasa, Susan and Olympia is contrived.  It is a sweet story, but it is borderline didactic, constantly espousing sage wisdom and platitudes.  (Lazy Susan?  Give me a break.)  All in all, this sequel just isn’t as clever, quirky, fresh or funny as the original.

Olympia should have stayed downstream and Ferris should have left Marigold and Christian living “Happily Ever After”.

• Good school librarians read their collection so they can make valid recommendations.
• Good school librarians work to get to know their students so they can make valid reading recommendations.
• Good school librarians build a trust with their students so students will take their reading recommendations.

In “Poor readers, poor choices” I wrote about guiding students toward good books for them, and about building trust.  It takes time to build that trust.  I serve grades Kindergarten through eighth.  It is a pretty big range and it would be easier as a librarian to serve fewer reading levels, but the silver lining is that I get the opportunity to know my students and to build trust.

So when I ask my students to trust me when I recommend a good book, how can I refuse when they bring ME a title?  “Mrs. Brandt, you HAVE to read this book.”  I just finished such a title.  An avid reader brought me her personal copy of Chosen by Ted Dekker.  I usually don’t read book blurbs… (too many spoilers!)  I just start the book.  I began reading skeptically, since I’d never heard of the author or the series, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was good YA fantasy, comparable to Ranger’s Apprentice or Robin McKinley’s Damar books, yet it had its own unique elements making it fresh and different (unlike Eragon).

Chosen is Book One in The Lost Books series published by Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville, a Christian publishing house.  As I read I kept waiting for the book to become overtly didactic, but it did not.  This book was indistinguishable from YA fantasy published by the mainstream houses.  All good fantasy is actually good versus evil, with distinct moral overtones.  “May the force be with you!”

When I noticed the publisher and asked my student if this was Christian fiction she looked puzzled.  “I don’t think so,” she said.  “It’s just by a guy named Ted Dekker.  I LOVE his books!”  But it is indeed contemporary Christian fiction.  My online research into Ted Dekker revealed that The Lost Books are considered too “dark” in some Christian circles, but as my husband quipped, “Have they ever read the Old Testament?”  (He just finished – the whole OT – so he should know!)

Of course, I noted that the Roush (white bat-like creatures) had leaders named Gabil and Michal.  (Gabriel and Michael?)  The story’s heroes, the Forest Guard, are followers of Elyon.  (”El Elyon” is Hebrew for “God Most High”)  The enemy of Elyon is a formerly beautiful creature named Teelah who rebelled against Elyon.  (Sounds a lot like the biography of Lucifer!)  And black bats called Shataiki serve Teelah (fallen angels? demons?).  But it is the Sunday School teacher in me who noted those things, not the librarian.

I think I’m going to have to borrow the rest of the series from my student… she better have them!  These books (assuming the rest of the series is as good as the first) deserve a place on school library shelves.  If our libraries are truly inclusive, we should include well written contemporary Christian fiction.  C.S. Lewis may be there already… but he shouldn’t be so lonely.

Check this series out for yourself…   and “Elyon be with you”.

No two books by Lois Lowry are ever the same!  Well… I guess she had a few sequel/series, but The Willoughbys is another unique entry on the Lowry shelf. 

I would like to say that fans of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” will enjoy The Willoughbys.  But I am NOT a fan of Lemony Snicket’s negative, no redeeming qualities, and depressing series so I can’t truly say whether they will like Lowry’s book.  (I’d venture to say Lowry was taking a jab at the Snicket books in creating this more literary work.) *

Like Snicket’s books, Lowry’s book assaults the sensibilities by including parents who are so uncaring that wicked isn’t an adequate description.  And there are oddities in it, such as Commander Melanoff’s desire that “if he were not such a decent man, he might be tempted to pat her [Nanny's] large behind affectionately as she bent over.” (p131)  Somehow I can set these aside (as I couldn’t with Snicket).  In “Unfortunate Events” all adults are either evil, or at best totally ineffective.   The Willoughbys includes the evil adults (in what feels like a not so subtle negative nod to Snicket), yet The Willoughbys offers the contrast of the good and decent adults in the Commander and Nanny.  (Commander Melanoff IS good despite his momentary preoccupation with Nanny’s bottom.)  And Lowry’s book slyly references all the classic orphan tales; in playing with themes of classic literature it is something akin to Fforde’s adult novel, The Eyre Affair.   Additionally Lowry’s book has an incredible vocabulary.  I admit, I’ve never used the word “lugubrious”!  The glossary and bibliography in the back are entertaining reading in themselves. 

I know I will be recommending this book to my teachers to read, however, I’m not sure how students will react to the narrative.  I know I won’t describe it to them as “funny”, for The Willoughbys can be called amusing or humorous, but not “funny”.   And it vascilates between fairly sophisticated humor and Napoleon Dynamite humor.  Perhaps Lowry was amusing herself with this book more than she was writing to an audience.  Yet it is my hope that students will ask me for Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, or the other classics after readingThe Willoughbys.  It should peak their interest.

* Snicket’s review of The Willoughbys in Publisher’s Weekly IS worth reading.  (Scroll to the bottom of the PW page for the review!)