For the 3rd year running, much fun was had by participants in our summer reading bingo initiative. Here are some key takeaways from this year’s game (with the board for reference):
Atmosphere (Jenkins Reid) was the most cited title
All bingo players except for one read a book based on a recommendation* (82% of players chose books from a display, so keep up the good work putting those together!)
A total of 65 successful bingo lines were submitted: a ballot for each was put into a live draw for gift cards from an independent bookstore in each winner’s neighbourhood. Congratulations to Allison O’Rear, Claire Hazzard, Evelyn Pratt and Rebecca Moore!
After the draw, we had a great chat about favourite summer reads, including:
This time tomorrow
You think it, I’ll say it
Dungeon Crawler Carl
The Correspondent
The Names
A Beautiful Family (audio)
Isola
Ordinary Time
Project Hail Mary
The God of the Woods
Culpabilities
Wild Dark Shores
Tilt
Shark Heart
Thank you to everyone who played, and to Catherine for partnering with me to make this happen!
Like many school librarians, I like to post what I’m reading so the kids can see that I practice what I preach! I especially enjoy posting what I read over the summer, since I have more time to read then. Following a rather too-eventful summer in 2024, I decided to schedule in more down time this year—aka reading time! The AISL Summer Book Bingo provided the perfect starting incentive, and I was determined to fill all 25 of the squares, which I did. I really enjoyed the opportunity to read some books that differed from my usual fare (I mean, Japanese Cat Lit? Who knew that was a thing? ).
I also read a lot of other books, primarily audiobooks. I listen to audiobooks in the car, when I’m getting ready in the morning, when I’m out walking, and when I’m getting ready for bed (that’s cozy mystery time!). While public library is a great source of audiobooks, if you are not familiar with the Libro.FM program for educators, definitely check it out! Every month it offers educators something like 20 free, pre-chosen audiobooks, and I love getting that email and going to the site to see what they have on offer. Though I generally choose the middle school books, as that’s my student population, the site always offers a number of YA titles and several adult books as well. I love that this program leads me to discover books I wouldn’t otherwise encounter or read, like The Mizzy Mysteries: A Skeleton in the Closet by Claire Hatcher-Smith. In this family mystery, the detective has Down’s Syndrome, and the audiobook is read by a person with Down’s. Last night I used LibraryThing to put together a graphic of the covers of all the books I read over the summer, which I will post by my desk for the kids to see when they arrive. One of the site’s useful tools is that after you enter books by title or ISBN into a list, it can generate thumbnail covers of all the books in that list. From there, I used the snipping tool to put together my graphic. Welcome back, and I hope you find some wonderful books this year!
I studied for my MSLS degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1990s, and loved my time there. It’s where I met my forever-friends (we Zoom weekly and gather annually), where I learned how to rent an apartment and pay state income tax (who knew that was a thing? Everyone else but me? Ok, then…), and where I earned the degree that started me off on a 30+ year career in school libraries.
My roommate and me in front of UNC’s library school during our first year. I’m in the hat and blue turtleneck (which I still own!)
My library school forever-friends and me in front of the same building a couple of years ago, when we were all visiting North Carolina.
When I was looking at schools, UNC was the obvious choice. The campus looked gorgeous, the town was small, and the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) offered me not just a graduate assistantship in the art library, but tuition remission to in-state level. Because I have always felt so indebted to the school, I have been a regular if small-potatoes donor ever since graduation.
Nevertheless, I was surprised to be contacted in January by the Assistant Director of Development at SILS, wanting to set up a Zoom call so she could thank me personally for all my years of donations, and “find out more about why you have given to SILS so consistently.” While I suspected she might want to ask for more money—I’ve worked in independent schools for 30+ years; I know what a development office does!—I did feel that a Zoom call was a small thing to ask.
I quite enjoyed the call. The young woman who interviewed me did not ask for money; she really did ask why I donated consistently, and asked for details about my time at SILS. So I talked about the professors, including the one that drove us all so crazy I actually turned into one of those kids who acted up in class for the first time in my life, and the classes, and life at UNC in the early 1990s. It was fun to reminisce, even if to someone who probably wasn’t born until at least 2000!
Some weeks after that, the Assistant Director for SILS let me know that the Assistant Director for the Graduate School at UNC would be in Seattle and would love to get together with me. This assistant director told me: “I am particularly interested in hearing about how your time at Carolina prepared you for your career as a librarian.” At that point, I felt I had to let her know that if she was after a big donation, a school librarian was the wrong person to ask!
She kindly responded: “We truly value our alumni and enjoy hearing about their experiences, particularly learning how their degrees have influenced their lives and careers. We’re always looking for alumni to be advocates for Carolina. There are numerous opportunities for engagement (networking and mentorship, for example) and many ways to support our efforts aside from donating.”
As getting away for coffee during the day is awkward, as you all know (plus I hate coffee), I invited her to visit the school. She did, bringing me a bag of Carolina swag, which I thought was nice of her. I showed her around the school and around the library, then we sat in the back room for an hour and talked. We chatted about how libraries have changed in the years I’ve been a librarian, advice I would give new librarians, and much more that I now forget because my brain is like the metaphorical iceberg with penguins and a few of those penguins got pushed off.
I do know I appreciated the opportunity to reflect on all I’ve done and all I’ve learned since I left grad school. I also appreciated that someone really was willing to travel 3,000 miles to talk to me and other Carolina grads about our careers! Since then, they recently contacted me to ask if I’d be willing to talk to SILS students interested in school libraries. I said if the students are willing to talk to someone at the far end of their career, of course I’d be happy to.
Probably many of you are already involved with your own colleges or graduate schools, but if not, it might be worth checking out what you could do for them as an alum, if you enjoyed/appreciated your time there. No matter where you are in your career, you are probably in a position to offer advice to nascent school librarians, and goodness knows, these days they need all the help they can get!
In September of 2023, I did a blog post about Webtoons. While I don’t want to repeat all the details, I did want to update a couple of my lists.
First, more Webtoons that are now available as traditional graphic novels. This is not an exhaustive list, just the ones I’ve personally read. Though these are mostly aimed at YA and adult audiences, Raven Saga, Cursed Princess Club,Punderworld, and Froggy are fine for middle school.
Nothing Special by Katie Cook. Fantasy, Humor, Drama, Coming of Age
“In the grand scheme of the worlds at large, Callie thinks she’s nothing special. Sure, she’s friends with the ghost of a radish and her dad owns a magical antique shop–but she’s spent her life in the human world. Her dad won’t let her join him on his collection trips in the magical realm “for her own protection”, so she’s only caught glimpses of that world through the gates of the town where her father’s store is. On her seventeenth birthday, Callie goes home with her friend Declan to find her home in disarray and her dad missing. Signs of a struggle point to the portal to the magical realm and when there are signs, you follow them. Now it’s up to Callie, Declan, and Radish to band together and bring him home. As they face creatures good and bad, and all sorts of adventure, Callie and Declan may just find out that they are both special in their own ways after all.” –GoodReads.com.
Acception by Coco Ouwerkerk. Coming of Age, School Story, Humor, Drama, LGBTQ+
“It’s the start of a new school year at Apollo High and Arcus just moved from England to the Netherlands. With his rainbow-colored hair and love of all things fashion, Arcus is anything but your average teenager. He’s an upbeat independent thinker, proud fashionista, and like the rest of us, is looking for a few friends to call his own. This won’t be easy for Arcus, because his best options for friends are prickly goth Maud and self-centered queen bee Iris.” –GoodReads.com.
“Navier Ellie Trovi was an empress perfect in every way — intelligent, courageous, and socially adept. She was kind to her subjects and devoted to her husband. Navier was perfectly content to live the rest of her days as the wise empress of the Eastern Empire. That is, until her husband brought home a mistress and demanded a divorce. “I accept this divorce… And I request an approval of my remarriage.” In a shocking twist, Navier remarries another emperor and retains her title and childhood dream as empress. But just how did everything unfold?” –GoodReads.com.
In the Pastel Kingdom, Princess Maria is so beautiful that birds and animals regularly help her get ready. Princess Lorena is so beautiful that she always wakes up surrounded by flowers. Prince Jamie is so beautiful that he radiates light and sparkles. And Princess Gwen, her family’s beloved treasure, always wakes up with an opossum chewing on her green hair. She looks nothing like anyone else in her family, but because their father is so restrictive (but warm and loving—he adores his children), and because her siblings and her father adore her, the kind-hearted and generous Gwen has no idea there’s anything different about her. That is, not until their father decides to betroth all his daughters to the sons of his crony, the king of the Plaid Kingdom. And his sons are so hot that Maria and Lorena—who have never been allowed to date—are frothing at the mouth to be married. The prince intended for Gwen is equally hot, but when they meet, he’s not as thrilled as his brothers, to say the least. When Gwen finally learns that some people—like Frederick—think she’s ugly, she flees to the forest, and accidentally encounters the Cursed Princess Club. Even though she doesn’t have a curse, they take her in, and her life starts to change.
“Once upon a time, in a land of fairy tales, lived a girl and her grandmother, protected and secluded from the rest of the world. When her grandmother is taken by a mysterious boy, Wen must travel to the outside world to save her, but the world isn’t as magical as she once thought, and danger lurks around every corner. With the help of her friends, will Wen be able to solve the mystery of the boy with the ravens? And more importantly, will she be able to solve the mystery of her past?” –Webtoons.com
Morgana and Oz by Miyuli. Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Romance
“What happens when a struggling witch meets an angsty vampire? Either love or war. Morgana belongs to a long line of witches, and Oz to the rival vampire clan. After a chance encounter . . . and maybe a few stray spells . . . these two need to find a way to work together, or risk all-out war between coven and clan. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story where a boy and a girl from two rival clans, one a vampire and one a witch, meet cute, like each other, but then the girl makes a serious mistake and turns the boy into a cute kitty.” –GoodReads.com.
Punderworld by Linda Šejić. Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Romance
“The classic tale of Greek mythology, but 100% more awkwardly relatable. Hades is the officious, antisocial ruler of the Underworld; Persephone, daughter of Demeter, is an earth goddess of growth and renewal—they’ve been crushing on each other for the past two centuries. But when a festival (and a little liquid courage) present an opportunity to put an end to their Olympian will-they-won’t-they, a meddlesome pantheon and several titanic misassumptions threaten to give every god in the sky the wrong impression… and leave their romance dead before it can bloom.” –GoodReads.com.
Castle Swimmer by Wendy Martin. Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Romance, LGBTQ+
“From the moment Kappa tumbles into existence on the ocean floor, his life’s purpose is already decided for him: He is the Beacon, a light to all sea creatures, and destined to fulfill their many prophesies. In high demand and under immense pressure, Kappa quickly realizes that fame and glory are small compensation for a life of predetermined self-sacrifice. Unable to resist the call of destiny due to a magical yellow cord that appears from his chest and pulls him inexorably to any sea creatures he swims by, Kappa ultimately finds himself drawn to the Shark kingdom, where he is immediately imprisoned. The Sharks’ prophecy states that the curse maiming their people will only be lifted once their prince, Siren, kills the Beacon. But when Prince Siren decides to defy fate and help Kappa escape, Kappa realizes that there might be more to life than fulfilling endless prophesies, leading to a raucous adventure as big and unpredictable as the ocean itself—and a romance that nobody could have predicted.” –GoodReads.com.
Floatby Katie Marchant. Drama, Romance, Coming of Age
YA. “Waverly Lyons has been caught in the middle of her parents’ divorce for as long as she can remember. This summer, the battle rages over who she’ll spend her vacation with, and when Waverly’s options are shot down, it’s bye-bye Fairbanks, Alaska and hello Holden, Florida to stay with her aunt. Coming from the tundra of the north, the beach culture isn’t exactly Waverly’s forte. The sun may just be her mortal enemy, and her vibe is decidedly not chill. To top it off? Her ability to swim? Nonexistent. Enter Blake, the (superhot) boy next door. Charming and sweet, he welcomes Waverly into his circle. For the first time in her life, Waverly has friends, a social life, and soon enough, feelings . . . for Blake. As the two grow closer, Waverly’s fortunes begin to look up. But every summer must come to an end, and letting go is hardest when you’ve finally found where you belong.” –GoodReads.com.
Froggy by Paige Walshe (expected 8/25)Fantasy, Humor, Drama, Adventure
Froggy has hilarious and sometimes touching or annoying adventures with friends and frenemies around his pond. This looks like a book for kids, and it would be fine for kids, but there’s a lot of humor and found family and character quirks that will appeal to any age. I’ve been reading this on Webtoons, and if I see there’s a new episode of Froggy up, I save it for the last of the Webtoons I read that day so I end my reading on a cheerful, comforting note.
I have updated my extensive list of favorite Webtoons, and to add to my 2023 top ten list, here are an additional ten that I have recently loved.
YA. Architecture major Jeb rooms with his best friend Todd. There’s just one problem… Jeb’s secretly a gargoyle! Between studying, partying, and a bad ghost problem, will Jeb be able to keep his true identity a secret? [Completed]
Note: This is hilarious, and also features a delightful platonic bro-mance between Jeb and Todd, who is the best roomie ever!
YA. Hidden from the world for centuries that seemed like years, nonbinary Virgo Elowen learns that magic is illegal, the Fae are stronger, and star-sign-blessed Realta have been forgotten—or have they? [On hiatus]
Note: This has its roots in Celtic as well as Zodiac mythology, and has great LGBTQ+ representation.
YA. Navier was the wise empress of the Eastern Empire, until her husband brought home a mistress and demanded a divorce. In a shocking twist, Navier remarries another emperor after the divorce. [In progress]
Note: This is a highly popular Webtoon, and includes violence that could bother some readers, and fanservice that can get a little spicy!
Lady Liar by Maripaz Villar. Historical, Humor, Drama, Romance.
YA. Adara, a lower class girl whose only love is money, comes up with the perfect plan to get her dream job: she’ll pretend to be a refined lady to be hired as a companion for a wealthy family. [Completed]
Note: This is laugh-out-loud funny, and the romances are sweet and only mildly spicy.
YA. Introverted and grumpy, college student Kang Dae spends most of his time alone, and prefers it this way. Then he gets a friendly and bubbly neighbor named Bo Seon. Suddenly, his life takes a different turn. [Complete]
Note: This is a sweet, mildly spicy, slow-burn romance. There is some trauma in some characters’ pasts.
YA. New girl Eliana befriends Football Captain and most popular boy at school, Levi, as well as lone-wolf and outcast, Marco. She’s finally got the friends she always wanted, but what will she do when she finds out they hate each other? [In progress]
Note: This is high school drama to the max, and includes some serious depression storylines that might trouble some readers. While commenters are urging a throuple, it hasn’t quite happened…yet?
YA. Balls, operas, beautiful ladies in silk and muslin, footmen, cadets, love, champagne, Parisian sunsets, alleys, funny pranks and walks, Schubert’s waltzes, Indian tea aroma, poems in thick volumes and the sparkle of unfamiliar eyes… [In progress]
Note: This was originally on Canvas, but has rebooted to Webtoon Originals and so only a few episodes are available, but it is a much longer story. The artwork is incredibly beautiful!
YA. A shy witch in her quiet forest cottage. A surly dwarf in his blacksmith’s forge. Both seeking solace in their respective refuge, but both aching for more. [On hiatus]
Note: This is a heartwarming story about recovering from trauma through a loving relationship. Ivy is more than shy—she has PTSD from her past.
YA. Lewis has perfect grades and a packed schedule—but no time for himself. Then he meets Fern, a deaf new student who captures his attention and challenges his routine. As feelings grow, Lewis begins to question his people-pleasing ways and may finally learn to love himself. [On hiatus]
Note: It’s unusual to have any disability representation in Webtoons, so this one is welcome!
YA. Reborn as a villain in her favorite novel, Suna—now Edith—vows to live kindly and rewrite her fate. But her marriage to Killian, who loves another and distrusts her family, threatens her hopes for a happy ending amid rivalries and romance. [Complete]
Note: This was recommended to me by a 6th grader! It’s fairly spicy, and does include some violence.
Our seventh grade English teacher, Kacie Simpson, always comes up with great projects connected to the books her classes read. This year, after reading S.E. Hinton’s classic, The Outsiders, pairs of students created these “Body Bios.” Each poster depicts a character from The Outsiders, alongside visual metaphors and quotes to represent their inner character and history. Below is a sample “Ponyboy” poster, by Angie and Yihan, with all of its parts explained.
Kacie says that even the kids who weren’t great artists learned from the work. For instance, one student drew a character as a square, because he thought it was funny (or perhaps had played too much Minecraft!). Ms. Simpson told him he had to have a purpose behind his choice of shape that connected to the book. Giving a presentation was part of the assignment, so when he presented to the class, this student connected the shape to the character being strong like a rock, which showed Kacie that he’d actually put some thought into it. Here are a few more samples of the posters.
Sodapop by Ellie and Lucas.Two Bit by Amber and Phoebe.Dally by Cecilia, Lade, and Angela.Sodapop by Daksha and Riana.Darry by Avni and Ashleen.Johnny by Hannah and Ferris.
When a parent asked if I could contribute some booklists to a weekend cultural fair she was planning, I was thrilled. The event offered an excellent opportunity to further the library’s promotion of reading culture at the school, as well as to share our dedication to building a diverse collection. In addition, it provided motivation to review and reflect on our previous collection development efforts. As I’m passionate about building a diverse collection, I decided to go overboard, knowing I could use the results in future aspects of my work. I focused on two things: 1. Our vision of having mirror, window, and sliding glass door books, as described by Rudine Bishop Sims. 2: Avoiding a “single story” collection, in which, for example, we only had Jewish books about the Holocaust, or Native American books about the frontier.
In the end, I brought the following lists, items, and links to the fair:
Printed articles about mirrors/windows/sliding glass doors, and the “single story.”
Two poster-sized grids, one for middle school fiction and one for upper school fiction. These featured diversity on one axis and genre on the other. I filled the grids with covers of relevant books from our collections, either print or eBooks. I felt proud that out of about 162 books, only three did we not own. I wanted to demonstrate that if you wanted a fantasy book with Native American characters, we had it. If you wanted a horror book with characters with disabilities, we had it. I realize that the categories are broad strokes, and you could get more and more granular, just as with a diversity audit. In addition, what if you wanted a science fiction book featuring a Black character with a disability? So the grid is not perfect, but it was a start to represent what we value in building our collection.
Double-sided printouts of the grids with only the titles and authors.
A LibGuide featuring all of the books in tabbed boxes, with summaries and links to the eBook if we had it. I created boxes organized by diversity and by genre. The LibGuide also included the DEI list for parents and families, and other sources of diverse booklists.
Bookmarks created by my colleague with a QR code to the LibGuide.
A cart with thirty middle school and thirty upper school books, plus a scanner so I could check out books at the event.
I ferried many of the items to our Campus Center on the Friday before, including the cart of books, my easel with the two grids, and the booklists. On Saturday, I arrived early with the parents who were setting up. They assembled a cornucopia of tables representing various cultures, including a ton of delicious-smelling food! The event itself was lively (and tasty!), and I did get on the “stage” to present a one-minute explanation of what I’d brought. Though I didn’t get a lot of attention, I talked to a number of people and checked out a few books. I now have the grids posted in the library, and hope my work will be featured in one of our weekly parent newsletters. I really enjoyed the opportunity to consider the diversity of our collection, and look forward to using what I’ve learned to further build a collection that will best serve our students.
Overlake’s seventh-grade English teacher, Kacie Simpson, is passionate about reading. “Establishing a culture of reading, where students are excited to read, has been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” she says. One issue she considers is how students can find good books to read. She knows parents also wonder about this, as they often request book recommendations for their children. While Kacie loves reading, of course, she knows that, “collectively, my students have read more books than I have.” Thinking how she could harness this resource, she decided to create a classroom “display where students could give book recommendations and share the types of books they are interested in with their peers.”
For her display, she created a large wall poster of a bookshelf. Next, she printed blank book spine templates in different sizes, to vary the height of the “books” and make the shelf arrangement look more natural. Students copied or recreated the spine of a book they would recommend to their classmates, choosing the template that made the most sense for the book. For in-class work, Kacie provided scissors and colored pencils, though several students also worked at home to have more time and add more detail.
While the students worked in class, Kacie noticed a lot of “great conversations about books.” She heard many positive comments, like, “Oh, I love that book!” That worked well for her goal of instilling in the students the knowledge that “the best source of what to read is their peers,” because seventh graders know what other seventh graders tend to enjoy reading. In the finished spines, Kacie found it interesting to see that fantasy was the most popular genre by a mile, and that Rick Riordan scored as the most popular author. The titles that surprised her the most were the non-fiction titles Blue Chip Kids, by David Bianchi, and Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, books that she doesn’t “always associate with 12-13 year olds reading.”
When students finished the spines, Kacie organized them roughly by genre on the poster “shelves.” To add to the display’s welcoming appeal, Kacie added a picture of her cat sleeping on a shelf, as well as some “additional decorative touches.” As a librarian, I love it, and think it was an amazing project!
Partial Booklist
Note: I couldn’t read all of the titles, which is why this is partial
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
The Martian, Andy Weir
Scythe, Neal Shusterman
Space Case, Stuart Gibbs
The hunger games, Suzanne Collins
Catching fire, Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
The ballad of songbirds and snakes, Suzanne Collins
Atherton:the House of power, Patrick Carman
One piece, Eiichiro Oda
The ultimate hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, Douglas Adams
Legend, Marie Lu
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
The lion of Mars, Jennifer Holm
The giver, Lois Lowry
Ready player one, Ernest Cline
Iron widow, Xiran Jay Zhao
Animal farm, George Orwell
Home body, Rupi Kaur
What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Little white lies, Gemma Townley
The naturals, Jennfer Barnes
The inheritance game, Jennifer Barnes
The final gambit, Jennifer Barnes
Spy school, Stuart Gibbs
One of us is lying, Karen McManus
Five survive, Karen McManus
A good girl’s guide to murder, Holly Jackson
The land of stories: the wishing spell, Chris Colfer
The Penrose Series, Tony Ballantyne
Wings of fire, Tui Sutherland
Throne of glass, Sarah J. Maas
The theft of sunlight, Intisar Khanani
The tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
Keeper of the lost cities, Shannon Messenger
The school for good and evil, Soman Chainani
The hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter and the sorcerer‘s stone, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the half-blood prince, J.K. Rowling
Summoner 3: The Battlemage, Taran Matharu
Red queen, Victoria Aveyard
Heartless, Marissa Meyer
The lost hero, Rick Riordan
The house of Hades, Rick Riordan
The lightning thief, Rick Riordan
The sea of monsters, Rick Riordan
The last Olympian, Rick Riordan
When you trap a tiger, Tae Keller
Two Degrees, Alan Gratz
The silent patient, Alex Michaelides
Ink and ashes, Valynne Maetani
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown, Steve Sheinkin
Front desk, Kelly Yang
Seaglass summer, Anjali Banerjee
Out of my mind, Sharon Draper
Simon sort of says, Erin Bow
The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Far from the tree, Robin Benway
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello‘s library, Chris Grabenstein
Blended, Sharon Draper
If he had been with me, Laura Nowlin
The Explorers Academy: the nebula secret, Trudi Trueit
Restart, Gordon Korman
Darius the great is not OK, Adib Khorram
Imogen obviously, Becky Albertalli
Wonder, R.J. Palacio
Posted, John David Anderson
The summer I turned pretty, Jenny Han
Prisoner B, Alan Gratz
Projekt, Alan Gratz
Grenade, Alan Gratz
The book thief, Markus Zusak
Little women, Louisa May Alcott
Pride and prejudice, Jane Austen
World in between: based on a true refugee story, Kenan Trebincevic, Susan Shapiro
Many years ago, our library had the idea to celebrate National Polkadot Day…but as a secret among the adults on campus. We dressed up and decorated the library doors…and waited to see who noticed.
The first year we had a number of employees opt-in.As an oh-so-subtle nudge, we also decorated the doors.
(Fun fact: Jole — our Director of Library Services — just reminded me that this was the first time we realized we could decorate our doors, a permanent tradition now, that changes with the feels we want to deliver….)
Through informal channels it became clear that people loved polkadot day — they asked us if we could do it again. We decided it should not be the same, so secretly celebrated National Stripes Day, instead. We witness the joy it brought our colleagues, because that next year, more people dressed up:
We had an even better turnout the next year!
Over the years (all this was back in maybe 2015-16-ish), we have periodically had another employee National Polkadot Day secret celebration. It is always fun when, partway thorough the day, students start asking questions.
In 2024, our colleagues really wanted to experience some joint, community-building fun, and our numbers grew even more!
This year, Jole proposed the idea of having an employee spirit week. Our colleagues were IN. We sent out a list of themes and selected which ones to use by vote. Because our Edible Book Festival was on Monday, and Tuesday was April 1st, we launched spirit week on Tuesday with monochrome:
Usually we just take a picture of whoever can be at the library at one time. This year, colleagues were so passionate that we ended up taking three pictures — and still did not get everyone!Of course, we also needed a librarian team photo.
Today, we are enjoying denim-on-denim, and will be taking another group photograph, as we will tomorrow with Funky Socks and Sandals Day and on Friday with, of course, Polkadot Day.
Denim on Denim (on Denim?)
Students are starting to give us side-eye, and apparently decided yesterday that it could be nothing intentional (how could All. That. Yellow. not be intentional??) because if we did dress intentionally in monochrome, then wouldn’t we have done Monochrome Monday? Why would we dress in monochrome on a Tuesday? This morning, when a bunch of colleagues in denim were talking, at least one student seemed to have a dawning realization.
Overall, though, it is good for our adult community. It helps us find joy and a united sense of purpose. Enough people are not opting in (or don’t own enough denim, for example) that there is no shame in not doing it.
You can find a lot of ideas by searching for [staff underground spirit week]. It has been a great thing for us, and I think we can all use a little joy!
I’ve been running Battle of the Books for over thirty years, at my various schools. Though the books changed from year to year, the format remained the same: two hours, rounds of twenty questions, each question phrased, “In which book…” with the answer being the author and title.
Over the last few years, though, I have made some changes. First, I joined with two other local schools for the competition, which cycled between the schools for several years. Then, many of my students decided not to participate because they didn’t want to miss any class time, especially the half a day required for a field trip to another school. With the gracious acceptance of the two other schools, we moved to a virtual Battle, but my students declined to participate because a two hour Battle still meant missing a class. So I split the Battle into two parts on two different days, one a preliminary with just my students, and one the virtual final with the other schools. That way, participants only missed study halls. In addition, I shortened rounds to ten questions, and the winning two teams from the prelims went on to the final Battle with the other schools. Problem solved, right?
Yeah…no. I was still struggling for participation.
A couple of years ago, after National Geographic ended GeoBee, our 7th grade social studies teacher devised his own GeoBee. He hosted it during an assembly block, and it was lots of fun! Changing up the formats of the rounds, he also made it team-based rather than individual, which worked well. I wondered if I could do something similar with Battle of the Books.
I started by running a Battle of the Books club in which students would help determine which formats would work best. I surveyed the kids about these possible options, suggestions coming from both me and them:
Jeopardy
Pictionary or charades round with book titles
Relay: Teams at opposite ends of a space, teacher in the middle. One person from each team runs to the teacher. Both get the same question on a slip of paper, then run back to their team to consult. When the team has an answer, someone runs to tell the teacher. Points for most correct answers and fastest time.
Traditional format
Kahoot
Quiz Bowl: Teams, each student has a buzzer, question asked to the group, first to buzz in gets to answer. Correct answer leads to an additional question.
Mini-Rounds: A person from each team starts out, a round of four questions is asked, whoever buzzes in first gets the question. After four questions, a new person from each team replaces former person.
Breakout Box: There’s a box with several locks on it. Each lock is worth a certain number of questions. [I hadn’t worked out any more than that.]
Snowballs: Questions are crumpled into balls and teams throw them at each other. Every question caught is one the team gets the chance to answer.
Academic Whiz Kid: Each student on a team gets a round of questions only they can answer. Individual scores add up to form the team score.
Scavenger hunt: [No clue how this would work!]
Escape-room type clues: [No clue how this would work!]
Blook-It: Online. I haven’t looked into this yet, so it would need some testing out.
Gimkit: Online. I haven’t looked into this yet, so it would need some testing out.
After testing a few of these, I settled on traditional format, Jeopardy, Kahoot, Relay, and possibly Pictionary, depending on time. To further entice participants, we dropped the list from thirteen to eleven books, and instead of requiring participants to read at least three books, we lowered the bar to one.
I usually run a “mock” Battle of the Books during announcements to raise interest, and the mock Battle with different formats went well; I did get more sign ups than in previous years. Time for me, the other librarians, and generous colleagues to start reading the books, writing up the questions, and planning the rounds.
It was when I set about reformatting traditional questions into questions for Jeopardy, Kahoot, and relays that I realized…wow, this was going to take a lot longer than I thought! Because I run a required 5th grade Battle plus the voluntary 6th-8th grade Battle, I had to create eight Jeopardy rounds, six Kahoot rounds, five relay rounds, title Pictionary, and eleven traditional rounds. It took hours and hours, and I would definitely ask for help if we do it again!
I got a test run of the format with my 5th grade, who all participate. Though it was a little chaotic, 5th grade generally is, and the only format that didn’t work very well was the relays. The students participating enjoyed it, but the non-participants didn’t get to hear the questions, as they would with the other rounds, so they were bored. Plus, even though we’d formatted the questions so that every slip of paper listed every possible title and author, with boxes to tick off, the judges checking the slips had to check the answer key for everything. That meant that working out the score took almost as long as the round, so all the kids were bored and the teacher was stressed out trying to finish. I decided that when I ran the relay rounds in my 6th-8th prelims, the non-participating teams would do the scoring.
So, my 6th-8th prelims ran smoothly, right? Yeah, no. Despite as many reminders as I could manage, a third of the students forgot or decided to ghost, which meant the teams were so unbalanced I had to reshuffle on the fly. No one was really happy about it, but we struggled on. Then a few of the missing students actually showed up because they remembered, so we had to shuffle the teams again, and again no one was really happy with it. At least the technology worked!
My plan for the relay rounds failed, because the kids weren’t any faster at scoring than the teachers, and most were completely confused. So, note to self, never do relays again. In the end, we couldn’t come up with any winning teams to go on to the finals, because the teams had been so shuffled. I told the kids to let me know if they wanted to participate in the final, and I put together two teams from that list.
On to the final! As this was virtual, there were all the usual headaches of trying to remember our Pandemic knowledge of Microsoft Teams meetings, Polycom cameras, and sharing screens. One of our new tech staff worked hard to get it sorted out for me, with all the various inputs and outputs, sound, screen sharing, microphones, etc. This time, all of my students showed up on time and the other two schools signed on at the right time as well.
Everything went great until we got to the Jeopardy rounds. No matter how much I tried, I could not get the screen to share without showing all the answers. I ended up reading the questions off my phone, which was far from ideal, but the kids gamely rolled with it. The template I used also had a glitch in that followed links didn’t change color, so I never knew (in any of the Battle sessions) which questions had already been chosen, and the system I came up with instead didn’t work well and students felt it wasn’t entirely fair. The Kahoot went off without a hitch on our end, but was apparently glitchy for the other schools. We multiplied the Kahoot scores by .009 (90 being the highest possible score in a traditional round) to bring them into line with the other scores. In Jeopardy, each question was worth the same number of points, for fairness’ sake.
So, would I attempt multiple format again? Probably not for the three-school Battle, due to the complicated technology issues. For Battles on campus, the kids seemed to enjoy the new formats, so I’d probably try them again if I can solve these problems: 1. The time and effort needed to convert the questions into different formats. 2. Getting students to show up at the right time and place.
And that’s all the wisdom I have, folks! (For certain values of “wisdom,” anyway…)
Good morning! This is just a brief update to introduce you to what I hope to have great news to write about later.
Last spring, I was lucky enough to attend a Bay Area Independent School Librarians meeting at which Brian Thomas, of Saint Mary’s College High School, introduced us to using roll-playing games, specifically murder mystery parties, to let students experience history.
His school schedule (they have a week-long, all-day elective that allowed travel and more) was different from mine, but the idea lit my imagination. I immediately proposed to our new seventh grade History teacher that we try it out, and she was willing.
So began my journey to find a medieval world history topic with enough primary sources to create a unit assessment for seventh graders.
I look forward to sharing this journey, but today happens to be the launch of the project. So.
Cross your fingers and wish me the best.
We will see how this goes, and next time I will share the challenges and triumphs of this endeavor.
