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Media Center
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Media Center News - Spring 2010
 Students in the lower grades are turning their attention to the 2010 Caldecott Award books. Jerry Pinkney’s The Lion & the Mouse is a very beautiful version of the classic Aesop fable. The amazing thing is that Pinkney achieves this moving retelling almost wordlessly, save for a few lion growls and mouse squeaks. In sharing the book, I found that its wordlessness encouraged students to think more deeply and creatively about the power of a simple act of kindness. All the World, written by Liz Garton Scanlon and beautifully illustrated by Marla Frazee, brought us to the seashore. Each student held beautiful seashells while we experienced the pleasure of spending a simple, yet magnificent day in the presence of a diverse and multigenerational family.
I am saving the third Caldecott book, a richly illustrated poem entitled Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Sidman and Zagarenski, to present next month, because April is National Poetry Month. I highly recommend any of these Caldecott books for your home library.
The 2010 Newbery Award books are rapidly making the rounds among our upper grade readers, with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick being early leaders in popularity. Meanwhile, students continue to develop the library skills necessary to independently navigate through our age of rapidly expanding information. This calls for an interesting mix of class activities, for while the need is growing for students to know how to find, evaluate, and properly use electronic information, it is also critically important that they understand how to use the trusted resources in the hardcopy print world. Therefore, when we turn our eyes to Poetry next month, Library time will include a virtual visit to the Academy of American Poets via www.poets.org as well as a visit to our bookshelves to peruse our own wonderful poetry collection.
As part of the upper grade Library curriculum, students learn how to access the many resources offered through the C/W MARS library system. I encourage them to take advantage of this treasure and I rely on it myself to secure multiple copies of Book Club titles. In order to provide each Book Club member with a copy of the clubs’ current titles, I use the C/W MARS digital catalog to request books from all around the state. Between our school’s two book clubs, there are 50 members, and it is only through the borrowing power of C/W MARS that I am able to provide each student with a book. I mention all of this because there is a very strong possibility that this wonderful C/W MARS service may END on July 1, 2010. I urge you to join the effort to prevent this from happening by contacting your legislators and asking that $3.5M be restored to line item 7000-9401. Email me at cotec@stmarysparish.net or visit www.cwmars.org for more information.
Thank you to Mrs. Kathy Canfield and her parent volunteers for their hard work in bringing the Scholastic Book Fair to our school. The new books our library is gifted with from the fair make us better equipped to serve our students and teachers. The fair also earns us valuable Scholastic dollars redeemable for a wide variety of books and A/V media.
Wishing you a wonderful spring and a glorious Easter.
Cecile Coté
Media Center News - Winter 2010
In the midst of the usual Library activities of story sharing, book searching, information digging and Internet exploring, a couple of special events occur every January. The annual Caldecott and Newbery Medals are awarded for the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children. It’s always a treat to share the news of the announcement with the students and to join in the celebration by featuring the award-winning books in story times and book talks. Another celebration is called for this month…hooray for Thesaurus Day! This provides a great opportunity to visit the books in our library’s reference section and to review the appropriate uses of each resource.
Other than the monthly literary-themed events we commemorate, things follow a fairly routine wintertime rhythm. As I look ahead to tomorrow, I see that I’ll be sharing Steve Jenkins’ Never Smile At a Monkey and 17 Other Important Things To Remember with 2nd Graders. This wonderful new nonfiction picture book is sure to solicit many gasps, chuckles and wide-eyed looks. I can hardly wait for the reactions. During the Grade 7 library visit, students will be reminded of our resources on Japanese culture and I’ll show them companion novels to Yoko Kawashima Watkins’ So Far From the Bamboo Grove, which they are all reading in Literature class. Kindergarteners will be treated to Little Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of crowd pleasers Little Pea and Little Hoot. Witnessing these youngsters eagerly select just the right book to borrow for the coming week is such a joy. Finally, 8th Graders will thumb through a display of books preselected for their Literature class Book Check 3 assignment.
An interesting website we’re visiting in library classes is James Patterson’s www.readkiddoread.com. The site offers age-appropriate reading lists, book reviews, author interviews and book-themed activities. A faithful friend to our school library is the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov. Its Kids, Families link invites you to “log on, play around, learn something.” Try it at home…there’s so much to learn!
Of course, two very safe and age-appropriate websites to access, both here in the library and at home, are BrainPOP and Discovery Education. We are fortunate to have subscriptions to both. I hope your family takes advantage of them. To access these awesome resources from home:
Thank you to Mrs. Susan Lynch, who so kindly and efficiently coordinates the Gift of Reading program, and to all of the families who support the program by purchasing books for the Library. Each book on the Gift of Reading list is carefully chosen to support our curriculum, to expand our collection of high-quality children’s literature and to serve the interests of our patrons…your wonderful children.
Enjoy this winter wonderland!
Cecile Coté
Media Center News - Fall 2009
Classic children’s picture book character Amelia Bedelia is back, this time as a little girl. Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School by Herman Parish, nephew of original series author Peggy Parish, proved a truly entertaining way to begin this school year’s story times.
 Grade 4 students are joining the ranks of older library patrons as they learn to navigate their way through Alexandria, our electronic card catalogue and book circulation system. Already, Fourth Graders are able to review and manage their individual electronic records while checking out, renewing and returning items through the system. With each Library visit they gain ease and confidence with their new-found independence. Soon we will focus on developing their search skills with Alexandria’s Researcher software.
This week students in Grades 5 through 8 are learning how to access the Digital Catalogs of the C/W MARS (Central and Western Mass) and the CLAMS (Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing) Library Systems. A public library card will give one free access to valuable digital media: Audiobooks, eBooks and Video. Via SMARTBoard projection, I am demonstrating the process of downloading an audio book to an MP3 or iPod. While I stress to student that for me nothing measures up to holding the actual book in my hands, there are many occasions when that is not possible. During those times, an audio book is a terrific alternative. Is this not a fabulous use of those iPods?
 The St. Mary School Book Club is off to an awesome start. Due to the large number of students joining the activity this year, we have formed two Book Clubs: one a Grade 5 and 6 Book Club and the other for Grade 7 and 8 readers. Fifth and Sixth Graders will meet on Nov. 4 to discuss Loser by Jerry Spinelli, while Seventh and Eighth Graders will gather on Nov. 18 to chat about Jip: His Story by Katherine Paterson. Students are already familiar with other books by both of these Newbury Award authors so I’m anticipating very interesting meetings.
Have a wonderful fall,
Cecile Coté
Media Center News - Summer (from last year)
As I look back on this school year, many notable things come to mind. One I would like to profile is the multimedia experience our students enjoy when they come to the Library. This is largely due to the tremendous impact the relatively new phenomenon of multi-platform programs has had in the world of children’s book publishing. Before, when you bought a book that was what you got…a book. However with increasing frequency, many children’s books now have electronic companion pieces accessed via website, CD, DVD, and marketing collateral such as collector cards, action figures, and board games. It has become fairly common for publishers to package CDs and DVDs inside the covers of children’s books. Quite popular are DVDs containing animated video of the picture book complete with audio of the author reading the story. The Cardboard Piano by Lynne Rae Perkins is an example of one such author-narrated animated book that the children really enjoyed viewing.
 Author websites also enrich student experience. For example, while recently reading Terry Gilson’s Tillie Lays an Egg to our young students, the children were listening to the story, searching each page to spot Tillie’s egg, and glancing at the SMART Board which was streaming live footage of the real Tillie in her hen yard. Visit www.hencam.com to check it out. As a matter of fact, author Golson was kind enough to place a “Hello St. Mary School in Shrewsbury, MA” sign in the hen yard for the days Kindergarten through Grade 2 enjoyed the book. It gave us a chuckle to later discover that Tillie and “the other girls” had pecked at the St. Mary School sign with such intensity that Golson adjusted her policy on hardcopy hello signs and now sends an electronic hello footer to “visiting” schools.
A good example of a book in which the internet plays a very prominent role is Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carmon. Website URLs and passwords are strategically placed within the mystery book prompting readers to continue the story online. The reader switches back and forth from the written page to the website to view videos that advance the storyline. After sampling this format in the library, students have been scrambling to check out this and other multi-platform books. The 39 Clues Series is probably the biggest hit in this category. This ten-book fantasy adventure series features an online game in which readers compete for prizes. Clues required to advance in the contest are found in the books, trading cards, and online game play. So far, the first three books of the series have been published.
Our nonfiction collection also holds a good and growing number of books paired with CDs and DVDs containing a wealth of internet-based supplementary materials and links to appropriate websites. Multimedia resources on everything ranging from the tiny bug to the grand Shakespeare Globe Theatre are at your student’s fingertips in our Library.
One site I’d like to recommend to parents interested in determining the appropriateness of books and movies their children are interested in is www.commonsensemedia.org. This site is very user friendly and I turn to it often.
Many thanks to the terrific parents who volunteered in the Library this year. The students and I greatly appreciate your kind and capable assistance.
Enjoy a fantastic book-filled summer!
Cecile Coté
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