Florida Teens Read 07-08

It's time again to read the Florida Teens Read list. This list of 15 books has a variety of genres, authors, themes etc. to appeal to everyone. The deal is, once you read a minimum of 3 books, you get to vote for your favorite in April. The winning author gets receives his/her award at the annual FAME conference for media specialists in October.

You can find more information at http://www.floridamedia.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=12

This year the fifteen titles are:

Hit the Road by Caroline Cooney, The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, Runner by Carl Deuker, Copper Sun by Sharon Draper, Rash by Pete Hautman, Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs, 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince? by Melissa Kantor, Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David Lubar, Sold by Patricia McKormick, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Becoming Chloe (mature reader) by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Black and White (mature reader) by Paul Volponi, and Glass Castle (mature reader) by Jeannette Walls.

As for my predictions, sci fi/fantasy has always been popular and therefore I vote for Uglies. Just Listen is also extremely popular, and Sarah Dessen's books never remain on the shelf for long. We'll see if I'm right in May. Remember, my favorite usually never wins!

What's New: Playaways!

The newest device to entrance Hurricanes students is something called a Playaway. It is a small device that holds the audio of an entire book. No more changing Cds. At the end of last school year, the School Advisory Council donated some money to start a Playaway collection. This formed the basis of 25 titles, a combination of classics (Hamlet, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, the Odyssey) and more modern titles (The DaVinci Code, Outsiders, Water for Elephants). Out of the 25 titles, 15 have already been checked out.

Surprisingly, the classics seem to be very popular. Many students prefer to listen to these titles instead of reading them, and the English teachers are promoting reading and listening at the same time. Auditory learners prefer to listen as that makes it easier for them to visualize the story, and provides a good introduction to many books they probably wouldn't read otherwise. Several students have checked out the Playaways if they are going on a trip and they can listen on the plane or in the car.

Students provide their own earbuds/headphones, although we do have some available for students who need them. The device runs on a AAA battery, which we provide. Battery life tends to last for about 10 hours of listening time. Listeners can bookmark passages and chapters to come back to. Check-out time is 2 weeks, same as books, and can be renewed if needed.

Most students like the idea of the Playaways. And when I first showed them to the teachers, they were amazed at the idea of having iPod-like audio books in the Library Media Center. With new titles being released, more Playaways will soon join the original 25. Instead of seeing kids just listening to iPods, hopefully they will now be listening to quality literature too!

Hooked on Books Donates to the Media Center

The local bookstore, Hooked on Books, made a donation of $300 to both Coral Shores High School and Plantation Key School Media Centers. A percentage of sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the opening weekend made up the donation.

In the picture are Katie Regelmann, PKS, Penny Bower, Hooked On Books, and myself.

Thank you Hooked On Books!

Passwords

Please forgive the lateness of this post, I am ashamed to admit but I forgot my password to log on. That will teach me to change any settings at 6:30 in the morning after staying up all night to read Harry Potter #7. Can you say brain dead?

I know having lots of passwords is a way of life in the 21st century, but I think so is forgetting them all. A brief (unscientific) survey of several people in the media center shows that this is a wide spread problem. Several people keep notebooks with passwords, others have a file saved. Neither is a fool proof method. What happens if you lose your notebook or your file is hacked into? And using the same password for everything doesn't work either. Of course, to be perfectly safe, each password should be different with weird combinations of letters (lower and upper case), numbers, and symbols. Not only does that make it harder for criminals to steal your passwords, but it makes it virtually impossible for you to remember it. Or, at least it is hard for me. Maybe everyone else has a better memory.

Well, now that I'm back in with my blog, hopefully I'll remember to update it. There is lots going on this year in the media center to share with you.

Good luck remembering all your passwords!