Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

How do you connect with a book on another level? Well, the sixth graders on the E team decided to have a cultural fair learning more about the countries that the Somerset sisters visited in the book Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Leslie M. M. Blume. The fair turned out to be a visual and delectable one. Here's some pictures from the fair. You can share your comments about the fair on the voicethread.

Never seen a voicethread before? You can make your comments by typing, audio, video, uploading a file or telephoning in. So, you have 5 ways to get your opinion up on the voicethread. You can also doodle on the voicethread to point out a detail on the slide. Have fun!

Station Spirit

We had a great pep rally and the staff surprised the students by closing with a dance. 

Best ad for a library yet!

I would love to have the President hanging out in my library!


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Perks of the Job

Gordon Korman visited the Chicago area last week and I had the pleasure of laughing along with him as he spoke about his books, his philosophy of life, and his writing process. His manner of speaking reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld, deadpan and deadly delivery. I joined all the others in the room as I chuckled through his presentation. Mr. Korman allows his humor to bring us a different perspective on life, and it makes his books favorites among so many kids.

Mr. Korman told us how we got started writing. His 7th grade teacher gave him a free assignment. "Write whatever you want," he said, and Korman did just that. He took the whole semester to complete the writing assignment and it ended up the basis for his first novel, This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall. It ended up getting published when Korman was just a freshman in high school! He's published more than 60 books since then.

As a dog lover, one of my favorite Korman titles is No More Dead Dogs. The main character, Wallace Wallace, has to write about Old Shep, My Pal. So Wallace Wallace delivers his opinion with no holds barred. "Old Shep, My Pal is the most boring book I've read in my entire life. I did not have a favorite character. I hated everybody equally." He rants to his teacher about all the dog books he's had to read and the crime that the dogs all die in the end. So, of course, he ends up in detention. Without giving away the ending, Wallace is able to rewrite history and save us from another dead dog production.

Korman's writing has taken a turn and is now participating in a unique writing opportunity by taking part in the Scholastic Series, The 39 Clues, which is being written by 5 different popular authors. Korman's title, One False Note, has great suspense, wonderful historical connections to Mozart, Ben Franklin. If you are a mystery fan, pick up the 39 clues and dive in. You'll have a fun time figuring out what's what with the Cahill clan.

Mythology Bee Winner

Congratulations to Kate S. for winning the Percy Jackson Mythology Bee. It was a hard fought battle and all the contestants stayed after the Bee was over to continue to answer questions not used in the Bee. They wanted to make it even harder by not giving the multiple choice answers. I do take offense to one question because it asked about a Greek monster and one of the choices was a teacher or librarian! Come on, guys. Monster? I'm not even a shushing librarian. . .

The kids and I had a wonderful trading questions and answers and they were all good sports as they cheered each other on. They even let a boy back into the competition after they all agreed the wording of the question was misleading. I'm all proud of you.

Kate, you have an opportunity to win a trip for you and 3 others to go to the Greek Islands with author Rick Riordan and his family, or a trip to Camp Half-Blood in Austin, Texas for a week, or an autographed set of Percy Jackson books! Good luck on winning the grand prize. Can you adopt me into your family so I can go along?