Changing of the guard: librarians Emily Fardoux (left) and Linda Sawyer
Visiting authors Jory John (left) and Mac Barnett sign copies of their new book, The Terrible Two, in our library, with the assistance of Ms. Fardoux and Tyrone, our library tiger.
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June 2018: Book Award Updates
In March, we participated in the annual Monarch and Bluestem book contests. These contests, sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA), give students a chance to vote for their favorite books from a list of 20. This year's Monarch Award, as chosen by kindergarten through 3rd grade students throughout the state, went to Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, with illustrations by Jon Klassen. The Bluestem Award, voted on by 3rd through 5th graders, went to the graphic novel Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson. This graphic novel tells the story of a girl who is determined to join a roller derby team. The new list of 2019 Bluestem books is out, and I encourage our rising 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to sample a few of them this summer. The list can be found here. December 2017: New and Overdue Books We have lots of new books that we've added recently to our Acorn collection. Our display area is filled to overflowing! Stop by and see what we have to offer. While we love to see books get checked out and taken home to read by our 1st-5th graders, it's important to remember that we don't get to keep the books forever. They need to be returned on time. Thankfully, most students are very responsible and do return their books on time. Sometimes, though, we forget. If you get an overdue notice, please try to find and return the book so that others can enjoy it. When a book just seems to "disappear," try checking with your local public library. Occasionally, students who use both our library and the public library will return one of our books to the wrong library (or vice versa). Finally, a big thank you to all of the parents who worked to make this year's Book Fair a great success! Your hard work in support of our library and school is greatly appreciated. September 2017 The Acorn Library is back in business! We're looking forward to introducing our students to wonderful books and exciting technology. We're also pleased to welcome our new Head Librarian, Mrs. Jenna Nemec-Loise (or Mrs. Loise, as she is known to the kids.) Watch this space for news about what's happening in our library. May 2017: Book Award Updates In March, we participated in the annual Monarch and Bluestem book contests. These contests, sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA), give students a chance to vote for their favorite books from a list of 20. This year's Monarch Award, as chosen by kindergarten through 3rd grade students throughout the state, went to Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio, with illustrations by Christian Robinson. It is the story of two dog families who seem to be the victims of a "switched at birth" fiasco. Or are they? The Bluestem Award, voted on by 3rd through 5th graders, went to El Deafo by Cece Bell. This graphic novel tells the author's own story of how she lost her hearing at a young age and how she dealt with it. The new list of Bluestem books is out, and I encourage our rising 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to sample a few of them this summer. The list can be found here. January 2017: New Year, New Books The Acorn Library's collection keeps growing all the time. You can see some of the new books in the column to the right, and we continue to add more books on a weekly basis. When choosing books for our collection, we focus on quality titles that have been well-reviewed by other librarians. We also consider books that fit into our lower-school curriculum, and books that are in high demand by students (think Star Wars, Minecraft. Lego, and world record books). New books go into a special display area for several months (see photo on left) to help them get noticed by our choosy customers, before they find their permanent home on our bookshelves. Stop by, have a look, and check out a great new book! October/November 2016: Here Comes the Book Fair! November 7 – 1:30-4:30 p.m. November 8-9 – 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. November 10 – 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Our annual NSCDS Book Fair is coming to the Hall Library from Nov. 7th to the 10th. The Book Fair will feature a wide variety of excellent books for children, and some for adults, too. Lower School students will have a chance to visit the fair with their classes during the school day, and parents can authorize their children to make purchases. Please use this link to the permission form: NSCDS Book Fair Permission Slip The Book Fair will also be open for business before and after school. Please stop by to shop before or after your parent/teacher conference on Nov. 9th or 10th! August/September 2016: Just Around the Corner Corny, the Acorn Library mascot, is getting a little impatient for the new school year to begin. He is quite lonely during the summer when the kids aren't coming in everyday to visit. He likes to see them checking out our books and learning about how the Acorn library (and all our cool technology tools) works. Fortunately for Corny, the kids will be back on Wed., Aug. 31 to begin the 2016-17 school year and the Acorn Library will be ready! Mr. Shaw and Ms. Sumner are looking forward to welcoming our returning students and introducing new faces to Corny.June 2016: Over Already? What happened to the school year? Can it be June so soon? It's flown by, for sure. But before we say farewell, let's do a quick review of some of the year's highlights.
February 2016: And the Winner Is... February is the awards season, and that includes children's books. Recently, the winners of the Caldecott and Newbery Medals were announced, and you'll be able to find them in the Acorn Library. The Caldecott Medal winner for the most distinguished picture book of 2015 is Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, illustrated by Sophie Blackall and written by Lindsay Mattick. Caldecott Honor books for 2015 are: • Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews; • Waiting, illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes; • Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, written by Carole Boston Weatherford; • Last Stop on Market Street, illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de le Peña. The Newbery Medal winner for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature is Last Stop on Market Street, written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Newbery Honor books for 2015 are: • The War that Saved My Life, written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley; • Roller Girl, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson; • Echo, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan. December 2015: Holiday Greetings At this time of year, we want to take a moment to say "thank you" to our parent volunteers, who help us take care of the library in a variety of ways. They help us put books back on the shelves and add labels and protective covers to new books. This year, we have three dedicated volunteers who are part of our Lower School community: Jennifer Larsen, Ravi Lumpkin, and Jennifer Medvin. Our thanks and holiday wishes go out to these helpers. If you're a parent who would like to come and assist us in the library, please stop by and talk to Ms. Sumner (library assistant who organizes the volunteer schedule). Happy holidays to all! Oct/Nov 2015: The Book Fair is Coming! November 2 – 1:30-4:30 p.m. November 3-4 – 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. November 5 – 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Support our school library! Students, parents, siblings and grandparents are all invited to the NSCDS Book Fair November 2-5 at the Hall Library. Students will visit the Book Fair with their class during school hours. In order to charge books to their school account during this time, parents must complete this online form for EACH child you have enrolled in the Lower and Middle Schools. Please respond by Monday, October 26. The Book Fair will also be open during school hours and after school, so please feel free to come and browse by yourself or with your child. If you have any questions about the book fair or permission form, please contact Susanna Ver Eecke at [email protected]. October 2015: What's Happening in the Library? It's already a month into the 2015-16 school year, and we're pleased to welcome our new assistant librarian, Kris Sumner. She is quickly becoming a familiar friendly face to Lower School students as they check out books from our collection. We have a partnership with The Book Stall in Winnetka which enables us to host outstanding children's authors as they visit this area. On Sept. 11th, Gennifer Choldenko, author of Al Capone Does My Shirts, spoke to 3rd-5th graders about her writing. On Sept. 24th, author Salina Yoon, who has written more than 150 books for children, enthralled JK-1st graders with stories and drawings of her Penguin character. August 2015: Coming Soon! We're getting ready for the new school year here in the Acorn Library. We'll have lots of new books, a big change in our computer lab, and a new assistant librarian to join us. Watch this space for more information. April 2015: Changes in the Library We have some bad news and good news to share this month. First, the bad news. Librarian Emily Fardoux is leaving us for a new opportunity at the Lincolnwood Public Library, where she will be in charge of youth and teen services. Emily has been a full-time member of our library staff since the 2012-13 school year. During her stay, Emily was instrumental in the planning and implementation of our new iBrowse organizational system. She will be missed greatly by all who frequent our library. Now for the good news! Emily's position is now in the very capable hands of Linda Sawyer. Ms. Sawyer comes to North Shore Country Day School with over twenty years of experience as a librarian in public libraries and she has worked as an Adjunct Professor of Library Science at Dominican University. She has served on numerous state and national library committees and was nominated this year for election to the Caldecott (picture book award) Committee. We are excited that she has chosen to make the transition to school libraries and is joining our library team. March 2015: Bluestem & Monarch Award Voting For the past six months, we have been reading books from the statewide Bluestem and Monarch contest lists, and finally, the time to vote for our favorites has come! From SK through 3rd grade, we've shared all 20 of the Monarch books, which are mostly picture books but also include a couple of short chapter books. 3rd through 5th graders have had the option to read any of the 20 Bluestem books, with a goal of reading at least four (in 3rd grade) or five (in 4th and 5th) in order to qualify as voters for the contest. On March 9th, the 29 3rd and 4th graders who qualified as voters got together for lunchtime in the library, and then cast their ballots for their favorite Bluestems. Then the 17 5th grade voters met on the 11th to pick their favorites. Meanwhile, all SK - 3rd graders voted for their favorite Monarch books during the week of March 9-13. Watch this space for the official results! February 2015: The Terrible Two From time to time, we are fortunate to host a visiting children's author, usually arranged by The Book Stall in Winnetka. In past years, Lower School students have listened to and learned from outstanding writers such as Blue Balliett (Chasing Vermeer), Amy Timberlake (One Came Home), Brandon Mull (Spirit Animals series), Wendy McClure (Wanderville), and Anna Dewdney (Llama Llama Red Pajama). But none of these experiences prepared us for the hurricane that blew in on February 4th in the form of Mac Barnett and Jory John, co-authors of the new book, The Terrible Two. The main characters in this book delight in playing pranks. And, as we discovered, so do the authors. They pranked our 2nd-5th grade audience by posing as two doctors (complete with lab coats and fake mustaches) who had been recruited as last-minute replacements for the authors. It was several minutes into a presentation on "healthy eating habits" that they revealed their true identities. And that was just the beginning. They went on to share some of their best pranking secrets before having everyone in attendance take "The Prankster's Oath." After that, our students couldn't wait to get their hands on their book so they could read it for themselves! Not only that, but all the other Mac Barnett books in our library collection have been taken home by eager readers. Thank you, Mac and Jory, for helping to make reading a fun and cool thing to do! January 2015: eBooks are here We're pleased to offer 4th and 5th graders the chance to join eRead Illinois, a virtual library with thousands of books to choose from. These books can be read on any computer or tablet (with the free AxisReader app and an Adobe ID). We launched this service at a lunchtime meeting on Jan. 22 for interested students, and over 30 4th and 5th graders signed up. It's easy to search for eBooks. In addition to the search tool that is part of the eRead Illinois site, you can also look up a book in our Hall Library Catalog, and all the eRead titles show up there, too. (You still need to go to the eRead site to check them out, though.) We hope our students will use this resource often. December 2014: 'Tis the Season Running our library is a big job, and we're so grateful for the parent volunteers who give their time to help us out by shelving books, putting our new iBrowse system in order on the shelves, labeling books, and putting protective covers on new books. A big thank you goes out to these Lower School parents who have so generously helped us out this year: Mary Beth Ainsley Jennifer Larsen Christine Major Jennifer Medvin Janet Miller Christine Norton Melissa Smith In addition, we are thankful for ninth grader Rachel Schapiro, who has spent many hours in the library as our "intern librarian student assistant." She has cheerfully performed many of the same duties as our volunteers and we are lucky to have her helping us out. So thanks to all our volunteers, and a happy holiday season to all! And don't forget to check out a book or two for winter break! November 2014: It's Book Fair Week! Come to the Hall Library this week and support our annual Book Fair. We have a wonderful selection of the best in children's books (and quite a few books for grown-ups, too). The fair is open from Mon., Nov. 3 through Thurs., Nov. 6, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with additional evening hours on Tuesday night. Proceeds from the Book Fair go to support our library book collection. October 2014: Bluestem time Any time is a good time to enjoy a book, and we have a lot of new ones to choose from in the Acorn Library. Look to the right to see some of our recent additions to the collection. We'll continue to update the new books as they become available. Now is also a great time to read a book from our Bluestem contest list. Third, fourth and fifth graders are invited to read books from this list and then vote on their favorites next March, along with kids from all over Illinois. You can now find a listing of all the Bluestem books on our brand new webpage. Just follow the "Bluestem" link at the top of this page. Each book shows related links to websites, including book trailers that were created by our fifth graders! Check them out and then check out your next Bluestem book to enjoy. September 2014: iBrowse, uBrowse, we all browse We're excited about iBrowse in the Acorn Library! That's our new way of labeling and organizing books in our collection. It's called "iBrowse" because it makes browsing for books much easier and enjoyable. We've put books together in ways that you would never find in a "normal" (Dewey Decimal System) library. Organize fiction books just by the author's name? Not anymore! We now have fiction books grouped by themes, like friends, family, school, and humor. Looking for a sports book? You'll find all sports books together in one location, with fiction and non-fiction sports books together. Fiction books are clearly marked with an "F" so browsers can easily identify them. There are 27 iBrowse categories, and each one has its own color code. We've added colorful signs on the ends of each row of bookcases and at the top of each bookcase section so browsers will know exactly where to find what they're looking for. Come and check out our new iBrowse system in the Acorn Library. We think you'll like it! |