Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's peculiar children are in for quite the adventure in Hollow City as they enter loops in an effort to outwit the wights all without the aid of their leader, Miss Peregrine. She is still in bird form, the state she we left her in after the first book, leaving Jacob, who decided to stay with the peculiars rather than going home, at the helm. Together, the children must figure out the intricacies of time travel and unravel the evil intentions of their pursuers, the wights and hollows, guided by an inexperienced kid with an ancient book, Map of Days (that is lost early on in their travels).

They find that many of the ymbryne have been transformed, like Miss Peregrine, or done away with all together. There will come a point when there will be no hope of reversing the spell, so the kids are racing against time by leaping through time loops. The ability to enter loops is the very thing that the wights are after. By nabbing the souls of the peculiars, quite literally through the soles of their feet, the dark creatures are enabling hollows to enter loops and obliterate the peculiars' world.

As their options for escape narrow, Jacob's feelings for Emma grow. Predictably, she is the main reason he stayed in the first place and why he doesn't want to leave. Why couldn't it have been his love of his grandfather or his yearning for adventure outside of his mundane life back home? Despite this cliche, I liked the circle-of-life symbology of Jacob falling in love with the same girl that his grandfather was so enamored with decades before and the fact that he is faced with the same difficult decisions that come with straddling two worlds.

With the reinstatement of old photographs throughout the book, as in the first, I was struck with the idea of mixing old and new and how time really just repeats itself. We are all in a loop. We live in a time when an endless stream of photographs are taken, sent, and posted online daily. With so many more images out there, they mean so much less. Yet, with all the changes we are still making the same mistakes, falling in love with the same people, and hurting in the same ways that our parents and grandparents did. Jacob comes to this realization as he is trying to decide whether to stay or go, thinking, "There was romance in the unknown, but once a place had been discovered and cataloged and mapped, it was diminished, just another dusty fact in a book, sapped of mystery. So maybe it was better to leave a few spots on the map blank. To let the world keep a little of its magic, rather than forcing it to divulge every last secret." (p.368)

Riggs has captured a lot of magic in this second installment and set the scene for a third book in the series with quite the cliff hanger. Though, there is some predictability, it's the gems of insight and connection to a deeper meaning that will have me cracking open the third book.

Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck

After World War I, four friends, Danny, Pilon, Pablo, and Joe, reunite in Tortilla Flat, a district of Monterey, California, to share wine, girls, money, and lodging. Danny inherits two houses upon his return from his Grandfather. He lives in one and lets his friends “rent” the other. “Rent” is a loose term since all involved know that money will never actually be exchanged.

In the midst of wine and women being enjoyed, the rent house goes up in flames. Though, Danny cares so little that he doesn't even step outside for a glimpse as people rush from all around to see what is happening. While Pablo, Pilon, and Jesus make the woods their home, Danny befriends a mentally handicapped man in town, known simply as the pirate. He is the only one of the bunch that works and buries the twenty-five cents he makes each day to save up for a  gold candlestick he promised to God for saving his dog. Joe, fresh from Army jail, and Pilon decide to dig up the bounty for themselves, but find a government elevation marker instead, which they could go to jail for stealing. Meanwhile, Danny trades stolen copper nails for a vacuum cleaner to give to Sweets Ramirez, the girl he is sweet on, but who has no electricity. These are just a few of the shenanigans that the friends enjoy.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Danny falls into a deep depression after coming to the realization that all that he has in life brings him little or no satisfaction. Thus, he moves to the woods, guzzles more wine than ever, and becomes distant from his friends, despite their efforts to connect with him. They even throw him a huge party that is immortalized, along with Danny’s alcohol consumption and penchant for fighting. Danny falls into the gulch and to his death at the party. Of course, all of Tortilla Flat are stunned and flock to the military funeral in their finest. All, except his closest friends who stand outside as the service takes place since they couldn't afford suits. They meet up around a bottle of stolen wine at Danny’s house. Accidentally, a fire is started, but none make an effort to put it out as they leisurely walk outside and watch as it burns to ashes.

Though, Tortilla Flat received a good deal of criticism after it was written for portraying Mexican-Americans as a lazy bunch of bums, Steinbeck was defensive of his portrayal of the paisanos he portrayed as people he knew and admired from the area where he grew up. In true Steinbeck fashion this simple story is dense with meaning, as the fable of King Arthur is followed throughout.

While I agree that the story doesn't portray this group of people in the best light, I do think it offers an adequate portrayal of how they were viewed by a white male from this area during this time. Also, I think that Steinbeck was often so driven by his theme, King Arthur in this case, that the characters can become distorted in order to fit. Despite the criticism, I still enjoyed it for what it was, and for what I love about Steinbeck’s stories; they offer a glimpse into the lives of a people in a place and time and the complicated inter-working of the relationships between those people. 

Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kodohata

Identifying the theme of a story is mentioned several times throughout Kira-Kira, however, as much as Kodohata attempts to tie her own story together with a number of themes, it feels disjointed and forced. Katie’s life begins in a Japanese-American community in Iowa. Her parents have a grocery store and all is well with the family of five, including her sister, Lynn, and brother, Sammy, until they must move to Georgia for work after having to close the store.

Katie’s parents find work at a chicken plant and Katie and her siblings spend a lot of time taking care of one another since their parents are working all of the time for next to nothing. Kodohata brings forth the horrible working conditions of such factories, but one doesn't feel a real connection with any of the characters. It’s reads more like “a day in the life of…” story. This is true even with the added stress of Lynn becoming sick and eventually dying of lymphoma, Sammy being injured by an animal trap, and their father losing his job.

Kira-Kira means glittering or shining.  Though, some felt that this book was a star, as it was awarded the Newbery, despite the spotlight on the reform of working conditions and pay along with the treatment of Japanese Americans, I did not think it glittered.  

Informing with an Infographic

Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration. This week, my inspiration arrived via the announcement of the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards. These include the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and Coretta Scott King Book Awards. It's always exciting to see the books that did and didn't make the list. Inside, it's always reassuring when books that you thought were standouts make the cut.

Of course, these awards are of no use if the students, the very individuals that the awards are centered around, aren't alerted. While the winners are always listed in a nice orderly manner on a document, I always prefer the posters and book marks that surface a month or two after with more eye-catching graphics.

While these "big" awards are covered, one award/list that doesn't always get as much attention is Texas Library Association's Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List. The Maverick was the brain child of two library students, Alicia Holston and Tuan Nguyen, who released the first list in 2010. "Maverick" was selected as the name since it's the first state created graphic novel reading list.

I decided to harness this maverick mentality and create my first infographic. Though, I have played around with Visual.ly I decided to give Piktochart a try. I know you've heard a million times, "it's so easy," but this Web 2.0 tool truly is a breeze. You can create your own infographic from scratch or choose from a few themes under the free option. I decided to start from scratch and had fun choosing the layout, colors, and graphics. The grid lines were especially helpful in making sure that everything is evenly spaced and there's a great variety of fonts. A couple hours later, this is what I had:

It's not perfect, but, boy, did I learn a lot...and it was fun! I saved this infographic as a jpg, but you can also upload the html version to your website or blog to make links available. This would be such a cool way for students to display a book review, science experiment results, or an historical timeline. The options are endless and I can't wait to use this tool to simplify information in a visually pleasing format for my personal and professional life. 

There's an app for that!

After much trial and tribulation, Montgomery Library finally has an app! Though, the process was a bit difficult, mainly the uploading to Apple's App Store... which was never successful, the end product simplifies access to the most used areas of our library site by way of phones and tablets. One can simply scan the QR code with any QR reader installed on their device or visit http://tinyurl.com/nx2suqv to download the app. 

Donna has worked diligently over the past two weeks to aid all 5th-8th graders in downloading the app to their devices during their designated library time. The students are always excited to use their phones and tablets and were instantly trying out of the features. They were blown away that the library has a Twitter account. Social media is a huge draw for students, so it's a fun way to connect with them. Even the kids that are too young to have a personal account can read the posts. 

So far, the roll out has gone very smoothly. I'll let you know of any app updates in the future!

Biblionasium

I began the year with with the intention of really pushing student book reviews and recommendations for the 5th and 6th graders. While some students seek book recommendations from me and other librarians, there are students that would rather hear one from a friend. I can't say that I blame them. I'm always asking friends what they read recently that was really good, so I wanted to give the kids the resources and knowledge necessary to share their favorites with one another.

I began by doing book talks and showing the kids some book trailers I had made. We talked about how reviewing books can not only help you think more in depth about the book you just finished, but that it's also a good way to exchange recommendations.  Next, the students wrote short reviews on "book tickets" that were posted on the circulation desk. There was a drawing from the entered book tickets and four students won gift cards to the school store.  

Last week we moved on to the next phase of the book review roll out,  Biblionasium. I wasn't sure what the kids would think about the site since I hadn't used it with a group before, but they loved it! It's a safe site for kids, because educators or parents must set up their accounts and there is no personal information required. I set up all of the students' log-ins beforehand in 5th and 6th grade groups, so they were already connected to their peers.

The site is easy to move around with a navigation bar to the left.  They also have the ability to recommend books to their classmates. When they log in the home page let's them know what books their classmates have added and recommended.

Students can add books that they have finished, are currently reading, and want to read.

  

They were really excited about the awards they can earn by reaching certain milestones; like completing their first book, reading for a certain amount of time, or meeting a challenge. Challenges can be set by the teacher or the student. So, one challenge could be for them to complete a book by a certain date and if that challenge is met they would be rewarded. 

I told the students that this is a great way for them to continue to share books with one another over the breaks and that they now have a go-to place when they don't know what to read next. I'm assigning my first challenge in a few days after I have seen all of the classes. I'm excited to see how well they do!

Flora & Ulysses, written by Kate DiCamillo & illustrated by K.G. Campbell

Who would have thought that a book that begins with something as silly as a squirrel being sucked into a vacuum cleaner would turn out to be so heart warming? DiCamillo makes this magic happen in Flora & Ulysses. Flora, an odd girl, takes fast action to save the squirrel, Ulysses, and the the two quickly bond over a mutual disdain of Flora's self-consumed mother who spends all of her time writing barf-worthy romance novels instead of giving Flora the time of day. By chance, it's found that Ulysses also has a knack for the written word, though poetry rather than prose, and can fly (literally) in times of desperation. Just like the superhero Flora has been looking for!

This duo is definitely better together. New friends are made, parental ties are mended, and old hurts are put to rest. The story is accentuated by Campbell's lively illustrations, both full-page and comic format, and leaves you wanting to find a unlikely superhero of your own.