Follow us on Goodreads!

The Emerson Library finally has a page on goodreads, where we track what we're reading in the library each week. Become our friend on goodreads, or check out our review here on this blog (if Ms. Claire can manage to update it automatically)!


Brothers & Sisters: Family Poems by Eloise Greenfield


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kindergarteners have learned about families and friendship in the last month or two, and this books combines both in a lovely series of poems, some rhyming and some not. While it doesn't have the crowd-pleasing verve of hip-hop speaks to children, it's a gentle and fun read.

View all my reviews >>

Third grade

Third grade researchers -- click HERE for your African Animals custom search!

Not enough information on your animal there? Try Ask for Kids at www.askkids.com for good information that's kid-friendly and less overwhelming than Google.

Welcome to the new school year!

A great big welcome to our new and returning Emerson students, families, and community members! It was so wonderful to see all of our students yesterday as we kicked off the new school year.

The library was open first thing for the PTA's new parent tea. More than 40 new and returning families spent time in the library after saying goodbye to their Emerson students. Parents heard Ms. Carlson talk about the fun and importance of reading as a family, and got a check-in from Ms. Hodge -- all those kindergarteners had already settled in and were doing well. Finally, I let everybody know that the Emerson Library would love to check out books to parents, grandparents, and other family members as well as students. (More on that in the next post!)

A little while later, our enthusiastic readers lost no time in getting reacquainted with some old favorite books during recess...

... and enjoyed the library's newly renovated Reading Nook!


But that comfy purple new-to-us furniture isn't the only major change in the Fiction section: we've rearranged our book collection to support students in finding "just-right" books, and brought in wonderful new titles, too.

I hope that you'll come visit the library: introduce yourself, curl up and read with your child, check out a book or two, or chat with me about new and old favorite reads in your family. Check out all the exciting things that are happening here at the heart of Emerson School!

Keep Ms. Claire Reading This Summer!

Hey, Emerson students (and families) --

Now that it's summer I've got tons of time to read... and I want to hear from YOU about what you've been reading and what I should read next! Did you just finish a great book or a graphic novel that you really enjoyed? Wondering what to read next and want some recommendations from your favorite school librarian? Send me an email or write about it in the comments! I can't wait to hear from you. And maybe I'll see you in the public library this summer too.

Love,
Ms. Claire
claire_scott @ berkeley.k12.ca.us

The Cabinet of Wonders, by Marie Rutkoski

*Ms. Claire's note: we hope that great book reviews like this will continue to trickle in during the summer! Students (and parents), if you read something you like, write something about it and send it to me - I'll put it on the blog for everybody to appreciate.

The Cabinet of Wonders, by Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Fantasy
Review by Maria, Grade 4, Ms. Weddle's class

I read a book called The Cabinet of Wonders. It is about a girl named Petra Kronos. She lives a simple, happy life. But it is not ordinary at all. Her pet, Astrophil, is a tin spider who gives her advice. One day, her father is called by the prince of Bohemia to build a very special clock. However, he returns home without his eyes! The Prince has stolen them. Petra decides to secretly go to Prague alone, destroy the dangerous powers of the clock and steal her father's eyes back. She makes friends with Neel and Iris who help her. Will Petra ever get her "normal" life back like her father?

This book is full of magic, fun, and heroism! Five stars!



Thanks to Mrs. Dalloway's Books at 2904 College Ave for their generous donations of review copies to our intrepid readers! Look for more reviews coming soon, and please support the community independent booksellers who are supporting our Emerson community!

Books that reflect new readers

Enormous thanks are due to the Berkeley Public Education Foundation for their grant to the Emerson Library this year. The grant allowed us to purchase nearly 70 sturdily-bound Readers, or books that are just right for students in first and second grades, and for struggling readers up through fifth grade.


These new books gave our Reader section a desperately-needed facelift. The books we purchased with the grant reflected the lives of many of our students, written by authors of color with characters living in neighborhoods much like our own Bay Area ones. As we brought in the new books we were able to discard old, battered, dated books and give them new homes in classrooms and with students.

Our students have only just begun to enjoy their wonderful new Reader section, as the books arrived at the end of the school year. We look forward to many more years with these wonderful books.

DEAR Day 2009

On Friday, the Berkeley Public Education Foundation hosted the annual Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) Day celebration at every school in the district. Coinciding with Dr. Seuss's birthday, this year's celebration was fabulous: nineteen readers from the community came to Emerson to share their favorite books with students. These readers had a particular challenge because we chose to celebrate DEAR Day in our Emerson Families this year: so our visitors had to find a book that would be just as exciting for a fifth grader as a kindergartener! They were all wildly successful, as you can see from the photographs below.



Our readers included Berkeley City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak; Glenda Rubin and Devin Woolridge from Community Relations at U.C. Berkeley; Emily Davidow, Emerson parent and supervisor of the Berkeley LEARNS after-school program; BPEF Board Member Carol Olson; Terri Waller, former Emerson parent and spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Loni Hancock; several members of U.C. Berkeley's Kappa Kappa Gamma; and some of our Emerson extended families: Ms. Perenon's sisters, Ms. Gray's dad, and Ms. Parisi's fiance. Plus our own Mr. Lou and Ms. LaKisha from the Mentor program starred again this year, reading hilarious stories that kept their listeners engrossed.

Many thanks to BPEF for this marvelous event and their ongoing support. We're already looking forward to next year!

Extraordinary Women's Museum

This week, in honor of International Women's Day, the Emerson Library is hosting our Emerson Extraordinary Women's Museum. Fifty students contributed posters and exhibits about women that they consider extraordinary, from their grandmothers to Bessie Coleman. During their library time this week, each class has the opportunity to appreciate the exhibits.

We hope you'll have time to drop by as well! The museum will be up in the library all week, open to families from before school until Kids' World closes at 6:00. But in case you can't make it, or if you want to relive the museum at home, check out the slideshow below. Congratulations to all students for their great work!

Feel free to leave impressions (and compliments) in the comments!

family conversations about cybersafety

On February 4th, parents gathered in the library to eat delicious food and have some good conversations about online safety. It can be hard to imagine that elementary school is the place where those conversations begin, but studies have shown that getting into the habit of talking to your child about their online activities should start early.

Before the presentation, I asked fourth and fifth graders some questions about the internet, including their perceptions of danger and their favorite things to do online. Click here to see their answers.

For those of you who wanted to make it but weren't able to, here's the powerpoint part of the evening, with resource links below.



To find out more:

"My Pal, My Bully: greatest internet threat to teens may be teens themselves," an article from the L.A. Times about the recent Harvard study on online safety.

iKeepSafe Internet Safety Coalition

Cyber-safe kids, cyber-savvy teens by Nancy Willard, a practical and thoughtful book and web resource for parents, with guidelines for kids of all ages. I based much of my presentation on principles and suggestions from this book.

Many of you had suggestions and recommendations, some of which we were able to include in the presentation above. I will be putting more resources together on our Emerson School wiki. Please leave other suggestions in the comments or email them to me, or even drop by the library. I will add your suggestions as I get them. Together we'll be able to come up with great resources and tools to share with our community!

Bring an author home to dinner!

All the kids at Emerson know that February is my favorite month: it includes my birthday, a long weekend, AND the opportunity to feature African-American authors and illustrators nonstop. We read books by African-American authors and illustrators all year, but in February librarians really get to go wild with displays and the chance to feature our favorite books even if they don't directly connect to the curriculum.

This year, Emerson School is participating in the African-American Read-In, a national celebration of African-American literacy coordinated by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English. Millions of readers across the country -- in schools, libraries, churches, and homes -- are joining in the Read-In! In celebration of its 20th year, the Read-In is extended for the entire month of February.

At Emerson, this means that students will be reading and honoring African-American authors in the library, in classrooms, at Kids' World, and at home. It also means that was inspired by my favorite blog, The Brown Bookshelf, to create my best display ever. In February, the wonderful folks at The Brown Bookshelf interview new and vanguard authors and illustrators who identify as African-American... and share those interviews with their readers.

If you stop by the library, you'll see that I've created a Read-In calendar featuring a new or noteworthy African-American author or illustrator for each day in February. Underneath the calendar is a basket filled with envelopes. In those envelopes are interviews with each of those authors or illustrators, with new interviews daily. Many of the interviews come from authors featured on The Brown Bookshelf this month; others come from other places, like TeachingBooks. Students, teachers, and parents get to take the envelopes home to share with their families... like a virtual author visit right at your dinner table. Don't worry about losing or damaging the envelopes, because we can always print out more.

Happy Read-In!

--Ms. Claire

Cybersafety survey

Click Here

What do librarians do in their free time?

Read, read, and read! And, if they're lucky, talk about books.

That's what Ms. Claire did this weekend at a Mock Newbery discussion hosted by two wonderful librarians from the Oakland Public Library. What's a Mock Newbery, you ask? Good question.

When we talk about finding a great book in the library, one of the things older Emerson students sometimes look for is a fancy foil circle that shows a book has won a big award. You may remember that students vote for our own award each year, the California Young Reader Medal. But the biggest awards we look for are given by librarians and others who read children's books for a living, like:

• the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature
• the Coretta Scott King Award, which " is given to an African American author and an African American illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream."
• and the Pura Belpre Medal, which "is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."

In just two weeks, a committee will announce the winners of these awards for 2009. But sometimes librarians and other eager readers just wish they could make the decisions themselves. So they get together to have a "Mock," or pretend, Newbery.

This year, a group of thirteen readers gathered at the Oakland Public Library to talk about some of the most distinguished books of the year. We started with five hours, eight very different books to choose from, and a whole lot of coffee. We ended with a clear winner and two wonderful Honor books.

And the winner is...
The Porcupine Year, by Louise Erdrich!

Our two Honor Books were:

After Tupac and D. Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson (an Emerson favorite author!)

and

Alvin Ho: allergic to girls, school, and other scary things, by Lenore Look and illustrated by LeUyen Pham




I'm looking forward to writing more about these great titles later - for now, I'll let you know that I'm pleased and proud that the "Mock" committee came up with such great choices. Keep an eye out for all three books, coming soon to our Emerson library!

Sometimes a book comes along that is short, sweet, and still packs a real punch. My Name Is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada is a book like this. It's the story of a little girl who finds her voice by standing up and saying her name, proudly and bravely.

Click on the player below to hear Ahmirah's great booktalk about this beautiful little book! If you like realistic fiction and stories about kids standing up for themselves, this may be the book for you!

Powered by Podbean.com

Elijah of Buxton

One of my favorite books of 2008 was Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, the story of the first child born in a community of freed and escaped slaves in Canada. But as one of my favorite readers says: you don't have to take my word for it!

Listen to Nazeeza's fabulous booktalk by clicking on the player below.

Powered by Podbean.com

Fourth & Fifth Graders Rocking Technology

Our fourth and fifth grade science explorations have resulted in some fabulous presentations over at Ms. Green's Science Blog. Head over there to check out what Emerson students have learned about Magnetism & Electricity! (Hint: click on a teacher's name to see the work from students in that class.)


We began November with a lot of excitement about the presidential election. Fourth and fifth grade students ended their unit on the candidates and issues and then told us how they would vote... by recording a podcast! Want to hear their well-researched opinions? Click here to find out what they have to say!

It's never too late to return your library books!

Have you ever found a library book years after it was due? Maybe one that belonged to your older brother or sister, or even (parents) from when you were in elementary school? It happens all the time... even to Ms. Claire!

Imagine our surprise when we received a package last week addressed to the Emerson Library. Inside there was a book with a note from a librarian in Portland, Oregon! It said:

This book came across my desk. I am not sure where it came from, but it looks like it has been checked out from your library for over 20 years. Thought you might want it back.

Alana H. Carson
Reader Services Librarian

We are so pleased to have this book back in our library, exactly 33 years overdue! We'd love your overdue books back too. We promise: it's never too late to return those books!

Booktalking at Emerson

Hey, Emerson students! Something new and exciting is happening in our library and on our blog! Fourth and fifth graders already know about our new Booktalking Shelf in the Library. Now we'll have booktalks on the blog too.

Here's our first booktalk from Ms. Carlson. Enjoy!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Duel! Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words,
by Dennis Brindell Fradin

booktalk by Ms. Carlson



Powered by Podbean.com

Election resources

Hi, fourth and fifth graders!

Here are some places to get started on your research about the issues in this election. Click on the blue underlined words below to get to the different sites.

Who did kids vote for in the Scholastic News election? Here's an article from the Student News Reporters.

Voting matters! Find out why by clicking here.

Voting was not always a right given to all people. Click here to step into a Voting Time Machine to find out when this right was given to different people.

Click here to read letters to the Green Bay Gazette from students across the country who have a strong opinion about who should be president of the United States.

When you're finished, explore these sites:

Practice surfing the internet at the Weekly Reader Election Center. Learn about candidates, have some election fun, play on an election word wheel, and more.

You are not able to vote yet, but you will be in 2 to 3 more presidential elections. Click here to learn how youth at one school are convincing their peers to register to vote.

Think you know what the candidates think on the issues? Click here to play a game that will show you how much you know.

Welcome back!

Welcome back, Emerson students and parents!

It's a new school year, and the library is ready and waiting! I am so excited to be back this year for all of the wonderful things we have ahead of us. Keep an eye on this space to see what happens with student and staff book reviews, resources for parents, and library news.

My summer reading was full of mysteries written by Dorothy Sayers: they were funny and smart puzzlers with great characters. How was your summer reading? Let us know what you read this summer by leaving a comment below. Students, remember: just use your first name, and write your best.

Looking forward to a wonderful year,
Ms. Claire

Welcome!

Welcome to the Emerson School Library Blog!

This blog is an opportunity for me to communicate in new and exciting ways with members of the Emerson community. I have lots of ideas for where it might go -- book reviews from students and staff, useful links that relate to student work, and updates on what we're reading in the library, for example -- but we won't know exactly how it will turn out until we get there.

By the way, this entry is dated so that it will always appear on the top of the page: but scroll down to see what we've been posting about.

Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions for what you would like to see here. I'm so glad that you're joining us on this adventure!