Summer Reading Week 2: Visual Arts

It's week 2 of summer reading...I hope you all had a safe and happy fourth of July. I made it down to the fireworks display here in Newport, did you have a chance to go? I thought they did a great job and it was lots of fun, if a little bit cold (Sadly, I did not dress properly...)

I thought this week we'd take a brief look at visual arts. This is a super broad category and includes things like painting, drawing, sculpture and photography just to name a few. It's almost impossible for me to cover everything here, especially when I usually recommend 3 - 5 books in these posts. So I've decided to include a couple of non-fiction titles and a few art mysteries I'm sure you'll enjoy. Remember though, we have many, many arts-related books on display and on our shelves in the library, so come on by for a more comprehensive look at the visual arts!

Painting by Donna McQueen (j751.4 McQ)

Part of the Arts & Crafts skills series, Painting includes tips on getting started, supplies you'll need and how to mix colors, as well as instructions for different kinds of painting: drop, splatter, dry painting, painting on fabric and much more!

Cool Rubber Stamp Art by Pam Price (j761 Pri)

Stamps are a lot of fun and they make great art! This book will show you basic techniques as well as creative techniques and gives you interesting ideas for some fun projects including a cool canvas beach bag.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach (j Broach)

After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception by Wendelin Van Draanan (j Van Draanan)

Seventh-grade sleuth Sammy Keyes investigates mysterious happenings at a local art gallery.

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (j Balliett)

When strange and seemingly unrelated events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

And now some art-y websites:

ArtEdventures from Sanford: A Lifetime of Color Activities - games that explore art concepts and history.

The Artist's Toolkit - watch an animated demonstration & learn about visual elements like line, color and shape.

Global Children's Art Gallery - view kids artwork from around the world!

Inside Art: An Art History Game - Tour art history and get sucked into famous paintings. Good luck finding your way out!

And check out these Visual Arts links on our Summer Reading Website.

Book 1 of the Summer Reading Book Challenge

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've created a little book challenge for myself this summer. I am planning to read a book a week during the Summer Reading Program and I will write a review of the book here on the blog. I'll be reading a variety of books, new and old, that might be good choices for our Book Buddies Book Club. You can look for my reviews each week on Fridays.

Book 1: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis

Emma-Jean Lazarus, the quirky girl protagonist we first met in 2007's Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, is back and experiencing rather alarming symptoms of Spring Fever. Yes, Emma-Jean has developed a crush - her first - on none other than Will Keeler, one of the most popular boys in her seventh grade class at William Gladstone Middle School. The Spring-Fling dance is fast approaching and this time the girls have to ask the boys. Emma-Jean isn't sure if she should ask Will since they seem so unsuitable for each other.


To make matters more complicated, Emma-Jean's friend Colleen, has received an anonymous love letter in her locker and begs Emma-Jean to find out who wrote it. Will Emma-Jean be able to solve the mystery and find Colleen's boy in time for the dance? And will she resolve her feelings for Will and survive her first crush?


I really enjoyed Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. All of my favorite characters from the first book are back: Ms. Wright, Vikram, Mr. Johannsen and all of Emma-Jean's friends: Colleen, Kaitlin, Michele and Valerie. Even the mean Laura Gilroy is back but this time Colleen finds the confidence to stand up to her, which was thrilling to read. Emma-Jean is as quirky and logical as ever, using her keen observation skills to find Colleen's anonymous letter-writer. She also takes a second-stab at match-making for Ms. Wright and intercedes on Vikram's behalf when she fears his love for her mother has clouded his decision-making ability.


I would highly recommend this book to fans of the first one as well as those who like confident girl characters who don't mind standing out from the crowd. My one reservation is that I'm not sure most middle-grade girls will find Emma-Jean relatable - but does that matter? It's nice to find characters you can relate to but it can also be very inspiring to read about those who are different from you, too.

Summer Reading Week 1: Culinary Arts

It is officially Week 1 of summer reading and I am back from vacation and ready to go! I thought we'd begin by looking at Culinary Arts. (We can't go wrong starting with food, right?) Here are some literary cookbooks you don't want to miss and some sweet websites to check out:

Ratatouille: What's Cooking?: A Cookbook for Kids (j641.5 Wha)

Featuring characters from the movie Ratatouille, learn to create simple dishes and desserts including "Gusteau's Ratatouille" and "pizza rats" made from English muffins!


(Pizza Rats photograph copyright 2004 by Deborah Jones)

Fairy Tale Feasts: a Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters - Tales retold by Jane Yolen & Recipes by Heidi E.Y. Stemple (j641.5 Yol)

Includes recipes for breakfasts, lunches, soups, dinners and desserts that match up with classic fairy tales. Read "The Runaway Pancake" and make "Runaway Pancakes" for breakfast or enjoy some "Carrot Soup" while you read the story of "Brer Rabbit." Also included are fun facts; for example while you're making your Runaway Pancakes you might be interested to know that "Pancakes probably came originally from China or Nepal. They came to Europe in the twelfth century with Crusaders, who were returning from the Middle East." (p44)

The Redwall Cookbook by Brian Jacques (j641.5 Jac)

The Redwall Cookbook is the perfect companion to the Tales of Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Divided into sections representing the four seasons, you can find recipes you'll enjoy all year long. This summer consider making "Rosey's Jolly Raspberry Jelly Rock Cakes" or "Summer Strawberry Fizz." A new tale from Redwall brings together all of these delicious recipes into one delicious feast.

Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Dr. Seuss (j641.5 Bre)

Among other scrumptious recipes, I'm sure you won't be surprised to find the recipe for "Green Eggs and Ham!" If that doesn't make your mouth water, try "Flapjack Flapper's Flapjacks" or "Hoop-Soup-Snoop Group Potato Soup."

Cooking Art: Easy Edible Art for Young Children by MaryAnn Kohl (j641.5 Koh)

This comprehensive book will make you a culinary master!

And check out these links to some great Culinary Arts websites!

A Little Downtime...

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about the Book Buddies blog I'm just taking a little downtime here. We have a teeny, tiny lull before Summer Reading gets going and I am taking full advantage of it! I will also be on vacation the last week of June so it's likely that posting here won't resume until June 29th. (unless of course something noteworthy comes up between now and then...in that case I will, of course, let you know).

However, come June 29th you can expect lots of Summer Reading posting. Our reading theme this year is "Be Creative @ Your Library" and celebrates the arts. Each week of Summer Reading I will post about a different art - reading suggestions and websites to check out. So stay tuned for that!

I'm also conducting a little book challenge of my own. I have challenged myself to read a book a week during summer reading and post a review of it here on the blog. I plan to read elementary and middle-grade novels (stuff that might be good for book club) so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

I've been enjoying visiting the local public and private schools to promote Summer Reading and thanks to all the students who listened attentively to my Summer Reading Presentation and asked a lot of great questions. So far I've been to Carey School, Cranston-Calvert and St. Michael's Country Day School and next week I will be at Sullivan School. You've been terrific - thanks!

Finally, good luck to all my Book Buddies members and blog readers as they finish up the school year. It's been a terrific year and you've done a great job. Now, on to summer!

Summer Reading 2009

Summer Reading is fast approaching (the official kickoff will be Tuesday, June 30th) and in order to better promote the programs and events happening this summer at the Newport Public Library, the librarians in the Children's Department will be making the rounds and visiting the local public and private schools. Watch for me and my fellow Children's Librarians around town in the next few weeks and be sure to say hello! We will be visiting as many K - 5th graders as we can to get the word out.

Don't forget, you can register for the Summer Reading Program now by visiting the Children's Department, calling 401-847-8720 ext. 204 or by registering online.

Book Buddies: Year 2 in Review

Another fantastic year of Book Buddies has come to a close and I wanted to take a moment to reflect back on how far we've come!

We began the year with 6 members (many returning from last year) and over the last 9 months we've seen the number grow to 16! I love that we had such a diverse group of kids and I hope we will be able to maintain that in the years to come: 9 girls and 7 boys with all five Newport public elementary schools represented as well as members from St. Michael's and Cluny. We also had one homeschooler! This kind of diversity is exactly what I hoped for with our book club - bringing together kids from varied backgrounds who might not otherwise ever meet and get to know each other. It has been wonderful to see how everyone has gotten along so well.

We read some amazing books this year beginning with Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay in September. We read three books selected by the club members: The Demon of River Heights (Nancy Drew), The Ocean of Osyria (Hardy Boys) and So B. It. We conducted three more author interviews with Marlane Kennedy (Me and the Pumpkin Queen) in October, Nancy Springer (The Case of the Missing Marquess) in January and Sarah Weeks (So B. It) in April. The authors were fantastic and we had a wonderful time interviewing them. A big thank you to each of them for their time and their willingness to participate in our book club. It was such a thrill!

Finally, we read more widely this year than ever before! It was important to me that we branch out and read different genres and types of fiction and we did just that with mystery, fantasy, realistic fiction, two graphic novels and a novel in verse. My hope is that we will continue to try new things in the years to come.

Thank you to all of the club members who showed up each month having read the books and with an eagerness to discuss them. You are what made our book club great! I hope that all of you will return when the book club starts up again in September. It's sure to be another fantastic year of reading with more author interviews and excitement to come!

I want to also thank everyone for reading this Book Buddies Blog. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about everything our club has been up to this year as well as posting literary-related items of interest. It's nice to know that people are out there reading this blog and paying attention to all that we are doing. I will continue to post to the blog all summer so check back for updates on summer reading 2009 and the theme "Be Creative @ Your Library!"

Have a great summer!
Cathy

Meeting Wrap-Up: Punished by David Lubar

The Book Buddies Book Club met this past Monday for our end-of-year party and to discuss our final book, Punished! by David Lubar. It was a fantastic meeting with a great turnout - we had 10 book club members present!

We had a great discussion about word play and about our new friends, anagrams, oxymorons and palindromes. Some of us were familiar with these terms before Punished! but for others they were brand new! I asked everyone about the statement Professor Wordsworth made to Logan when they first met in the library: "Words aren't always enough." (p14) Everyone had ideas about this but we agreed that one example to consider is saying you are sorry. Sometimes saying sorry isn't always enough and it does not necessarily mean that you are being sincere.

We talked about puns and why everyone groans (especially Logan's teacher, Mr. Vernack) when Logan makes a pun. We talked about the three quests and how Logan was able to solve them.

Overall, our club members really liked Punished! and would recommend it to their friends. We found it funny AND educational, a great combination.

Following our discussion, I put everyone's newfound knowledge to the test with an activity packet of oxymorons, anagrams and palindromes. Everyone did very well solving the riddles and proved themselves masters of language!

To celebrate our second year of Book Buddies, we had cake and ice cream which everyone enjoyed. We talked about what kinds of books we might want to read next year and popular choices included the Chronicles of Narnia series (specifically The Magician's Nephew) and the Spiderwick Chronicles. You'll have to stay tuned to see what books we take on next year!

It was a great meeting and I will miss everyone over the summer. Thank you for a terrific year!