GSSD Libraries

There have been many requests for material which would appeal to a middle years to young adult reader, but is written at a lower reading level. The following is a list of  series that are working well in some of our GSSD libraries. For more information on specific titles, check out the web links or access the Resource List in the Fairview Education catalog. Check back periodically as new series will be added.

Rapid Reads     (mature language and themes)

Orca Currents  (reading level grades 2 – 4.5, interest level ages 10 – 14)

Orca Sounding (reading level grades 2 – 4.5, interest level ages 12+,  mature themes)

Boldprint

OUR FURRY AND FEATHERED FRIENDS

Canadian Animals

“… the series does introduce a bunch of different animals and is at a useful level, bridging the gap between the very simple “All about…” series and the somewhat more advanced “Nature’s Children.” It should be a useful addition to an elementary school library.”   -CM Magazine

Blink of an Eye: Superfast Animals Series

“Clearly presented information and exciting action photos make these portraits of speedy creatures above-average choices.”
—School Library Journal

Secret Lives Series

“Each volume introduces about a dozen creatures, gathered into groups by some common characteristic–Burrowing Creatures, for instance, profiles underground mammals (aardvarks and naked mole rats, for example), amphibians (Mexican burrowing toads), and reptiles (worm lizards and blind snakes).”  —School Library Journal

Blazers:  Wild Outdoors

“This series will fill a gap in many rural communities.” – SLJ  Reading level is grade 2 – 4.

THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

Cool Science

“Gr 4-8–Colorful, engaging, and sure to get kids turning the pages, these books are packed with facts and human stories. Shocking photos will grab readers’ attention and the real stories will pull them in completely.”  School Library Journal

Yucky Science Series

“Gr 4-9–These delightfully disgusting titles will not sit on your shelves for long. Written in an engaging and conversational style and full of revolting descriptions and entertaining cartoon illustrations, they are sure to turn even the strongest stomach.”   School Library Journal

MACHINES

Extreme Machines Series

“Expect expressions of amazement from children as they pore over these galleries of huge, fast, tough, and oddball machines.”  School Library Journal

Fast!

Ian Graham’s four book series includes:  Bullet Trains. ISBN 978-1-59566-927-8 , Jet Planes. ISBN 978-1-59566-928-5,  Speedboats. ISBN 978-1-59566-929-2,  and Supercars. ISBN 978-1-59566-930-8. For grades 4 – 5.

OTHER WORLDLY

“These books leave no coffin unopened, providing something for every young devotee of the fanged and furry, ghoulish and ghostly. Integrated into all of the fang-fare are curriculum-worthy elements of history, literature, and folklore.”  School Library Journal

Legend Has It

Legends of the Sea

The following resources have been recommended to support the ELA 6 unit on Peace and Conflict. See the Resource List on the Fairview Education Destiny library site for further information.

• One Peace:  True Stories of Young Activists  Janet Wilson
• Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of  the Cambodian Genocide  Icy Smith
• Crazy Man   Pamela Porter  (a Willow nominee from 2006)
• Mina’s Spring of Colors   Rachna Gilmore
• When the Horses Ran: Children in the Times of War   Eloise Greenfield
• Memorial   Gary Crew & Shaun Tan
• Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom   Chris Van Wyk, Nelson Mandela
• My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary   Nadja Halilbegovich
• Yenni and the Children for Peace   Michelle Mulder
• Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak  Deborah Ellis

Follett, the company behind Destiny Library Management, also has a sales department for library books, e-books, and PlayAways. We will look into this more closely in January, but if you want to get started navigate to www.titlewave.ca and set up your account. Click “Log In To Search TITLEWAVE” on the upper right hand corner, and then click on

New to TITLEWAVE?

> Click Here to obtain a TITLEWAVE account.

If you navigate to the Library Journal website at http://www.libraryjournal.com/ and click on the FREE NEWSLETTERS link on the very top upper right corner, you can subscribe to a number of e-newsletters to be delivered to your e-mail accounts. Library Journal is an American publication, but it is a good way to keep abreast of new resources.

   Here are some recommended resources for selection of library materials.

Canadian Materials – free online resource–     http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/

 Available on the Gale Database (from a school computer – Ministry sponsored subscription – use the password   if prompted at school or home or  go through Parkland Regional Library for home access)

http://find.galegroup.com/menu/commonmenu.do?userGroupName=saskplschools

• School Library Journal
• School Librarian
• Publisher’s Weekly

School Libraries in Canada (SLiC) has an excellent online site. The articles are great, and there is usually at least one article devoted to reviews. http://www.clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/

 Teacher-librarian: the journal for school library professionals  is also a good journal.  It is American, but includes Canadian content. $46/year for Canadian subscribers.  (can’t find the # of issues per year) http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/

 Resource Links is especially good for book reviews, and it is Canadian, too.  ($45 / year, 5 issues) http://www.resourcelinksmagazine.ca/

I was pleased to be able to attend an EAL workshop led by GSSD’s English as an Additional Language co-ordinator, for the school division. She stated that one of the most helpful resources for an English language learner is a good picture dictionary. I agree that a picture dictionary would make an excellent addition to every reference section in our school libraries.  The best one is:  The Canadian Oxford Picture Dictionary with either or both the beginner workbook and the intermediate workbook at  http://www.oupcanada.com/index.html

Oxford Picture Dictionary : Second Canadian Edition (Hardcover)  $34.95
Jayme Adelson-Goldstein and Norma Shapiro
ISBN-13: 9780195438093
Publication Year: 2010 | Hardback | 286 pp.

Oxford Picture Dictionary Canadian Edition Low Beginning Workbook $27.95
Jane Spigarelli
ISBN-13: 9780195433517
Publication Year: 2009 | Paperback | 320 pp.

Oxford Picture Dictionary Canadian Edition Low Intermediate Workbook $27.95
Marjorie Fuchs and Margaret Bonner
ISBN-13: 9780195433531
Publication Year: 2009 | Paperback | 320 pp.

Oxford Picture Dictionary Canadian Edition High Beginning Workbook $27.95
Marjorie Fuchs
ISBN-13: 9780195433524
Publication Year: 2009 | Paperback | 320 pp.

Another good resource is Word by Word, a picture dictionary by Steven Molinsky.  However, it appears to be out of print, currently. It is a Pearson product, but does not show up in their list. Chapters only has used copies and Amazon only has one in stock. If anyone else has more information on this one, please share.

As we reshelve our Thanksgiving books for another year, I decided to pursue something that has been churning in the back  of my brain for a couple of years. I have been wondering just how accurate is the portrayal of First Nations people in our Thanksgiving stories I started with a blog that I follow on a regular basis. Debbie Reese is a professor of Indian Studies at the University of Illinois. Her blog is  American Indians in Children’s Literature, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/  She has posted an essay written by Kara Stewart, an American schoolteacher, who due to her own American Indian background has examined these issues. She comments that our Thanksgiving story seems to be based on a “mishmashed conglomerate of ideas that have been taught as ‘the way things were’ to students for many, many years.” They are based on  Eurocentric viewpoints as if the “Europeans’ version of events is the only true version, as if there was no thriving society in America before they came, as if the Indian viewpoint does not matter enough to write or consider.”  She suggests that if you are not sure about a passage try to insert your own ethnic background in place of the Indian reference and see how it reads and how it makes you feel. I tried it with a few passages and was startled by the result.                

 Both Reese and Stewart reference the Oyate organization and its website. Oyate is an American organization which devotes resources to helping teachers to find culturally appropriate resources. You may want to check out their How to Tell the Difference – A Guide at http://www.oyate.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=107 which lists their criteria for selection. Using this criteria, you may want to re-examine some of our popular Thanksgiving titles to see if they should remain in your collections. I could suggest starting with Alice Dalgliesh’s Thanksgiving Story.  Stewart also references a fairly new book by Linda Hayward called the First Thanksgiving published in 1990.  Here are some of her comments:

“In The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward, the ‘Pilgrims’ spend 30 of the 48 pages in this book being afraid of the Indians. The book is peppered with phrases such as,

“They’ve been warned that Indians may attack them.”

“America looks wild and strange. Is it safe? Are Indians hiding in the forest?”

“Suddenly they see Indians! But the Indians are frightened and run away.”

“They know the Indians are watching them. They can see smoke from their campfires. They can hear them in the woods. A guard is posted day and night.”

“The Indians must not know how few Pilgrims are left.”

“Indians are sighted nearby. They come closer and closer. Then one day an Indian walks right into the settlement. The children are terrified. But the Indian smiles and says, ‘Welcome’….

The book then goes on to give an unrealistically oversimplified (and inaccurate) version of how, after that, the ‘Pilgrims’ and Indians were friends. …In addition to the extremely condescending tone of the book towards Native Americans and general feeling it leaves me with (Indians being akin to wild dogs that run and hide in the forest) is a clear message that Indians are not to be trusted. “They want to trust Samoset” (but can’t because he’s an Indian?). That is what will be passed on to every child that hears or read this book. They may not be able to articulate the message they are getting out of this book (just like I couldn’t before I put considerable thought and effort into understanding and articulating why it was so offensive to me), but they will be learning exactly that.”