WMS LIBRARY

WMS Library Times

V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 2 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 3

TOP 10 BOOKS FOR STUDENTS IN OCTOBER

What Makes a Reader?

Boy, thats a million dollar question. If I could answer it, my life would be so much easier, and I could sell the answer to every school and parent in the nation. Unfortunately, I dont have an easy answer to the question, and I dont think anyone else does either. However, I have been intrigued by Kelly Gallaghers ideas that he puts forward in his book Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. The shorthand version of his argument is that there are 3 main problems with reading in schools: 1. There are not enough interesting materials for students to read. Schools are removing novels and long, challenging works from the curriculum. 3. Students are not reading enough. To fix these problems he recommends the following: 1. Become an advocate for lots of books to be available to students. Not just books, but magazines, newspapers, journals, etc We can afford materials if we set reading as a priority. The research suggests a strong link between reading novels for school and the amount of time spent reading at home. If you assign it; they will read. This last one leads to a serious lack of background knowledge among students making it difficult to make meaning from texts that they read. The author argues that students should be reading things that will catch them up. Things like newspapers, magazines, web articles, etc that will give them the background knowledge to understand the longer, complex works that they are reading. Is this the answer? I dont know for certain, but it is definitely food for thought.
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1. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 2. Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret

3. Cat Burglar on the Prowl by Peg Kehret 4. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

5. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

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6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney 8. Dont Look Behind You by Lois Duncan 9. The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan 10. The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

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What Im Reading Now

The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis Good golly this is a long book. Ive been at it for over a month and still have 100 pages left. Its about the daughter of a diplomat who is nominally involved in CIA covert operations, and she is continually morphing into different personas for a variety of missions in Haiti, Bosnia, etc The story tries to cover nearly every aspect of covert war that the U.S. has been involved in for about the last 50 years from Afghanistan to Haiti. Difficult and intense but brilliant in places. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides There was a time when I went out of my way to avoid this book. It just sounded too gimmicky for me, and it would be if it were written by a less capable writer than Eugenides. It is about a hermaphrodite born to Greek immigrants living in Detroit. It spans three generations of the family and is wonderfully written.

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Professional Resources
Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch Ravitch makes the case for public schools in her newest book. She claims that initiative like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are merely veiled attempts to dismantle public schools and privatize them for monetary gain. Meanwhile, public school dropout rates are the lowest they have ever been while graduation rates and test scores are the highest that theyve ever been. She chips away at the argument that public schools are failing by providing a massive amount of research to the contrary. For the Good of Mankind? This is one of several books Ive ordered this fall. This one is written for young folks, but I think it could be useful in classroom discussions of ethics especially medical ethics. The book is the history of human experimentation that exists in a gray zone of ethics. The results are sometimes beneficial but at what cost?

You raise
your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
-Samuel Johnson

Events-October/November
October 31 is Halloween

Read about witches and other spooky things for Halloween. Call Number 133.4

Veterans Day is November 11

Read the stories of soldiers to honor them this Veterans Day.

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Curriculum Connection
Here are some things coming soon or available now in the library that you may find useful for your class. mathematical thinking.

Related Arts How Music Works

This is written by the former Talking Heads front-man David Byrne and explores the relationship between culture and individual creativity in creating music.

Social Studies The Mental Floss History of the World

From the editors of the magazine this is an irreverent romp through history.

ments. Might require some stirring.

Language Arts The Snark Handbook: Clichs Edition According to Stephen Fry, It is a clich that most clichs are true, but then like most clichs that clich is untrue. What fun!

Math The Math Curse

You probably already know about this entertaining childrens picture book, but for math-phobics it is still a fantastic introduction to simple

Science How to Make a Universe With 92 Ingredients

Want to make a universe? All you need are the 92 ingredients found in the periodic table of the ele-

Technobrarian
Lifehacker Lifehacker is a website devoted to sharing hacks to make life a little easier to live. They have things from the very low-tech like how to stick to a budget to the very high tech of installing software on an Android phone to prevent malware. Fark Be careful when recommending this site to your friends, a slip of the tongue could prove embarrassing. This is a news aggregator of weird, funny, and sometimes just plain stupid headlines from around the Internet.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
-Gustave Flaubert

Judys Junction
Several years ago I was involved in a study of the book, The Five Languages of Love. The author, Gary Chapman argues that emotionally people need to receive love as well as give love. He defines the five languages of love as : Physical Touch, Acts of Service, Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Gifts. There are several quizzes available online that you can take in order to learn which type of love you prefer to receive. Chapman states that in relationship to others, you should chose the love language that others wish to receive rather than the love language that you prefer for yourself. He also addresses the idea that the love you prefer to receive is not always the love you like to give. For instance I prefer to receive Words of Affirmation but I often show my love with Gifts. Chapman thinks we should tailor the kind of love we give to the person on the receiving end. This book helped me better understand my family members and coworkers and has helped me to try to be more specific in the ways that I show others love and appreciation.