The Library

Reading Marathon is this Saturday!

What is the Reading Marathon?
• An annual competition between three middle schools (Aki Kurose, Mercer, and Washington) sponsored by The Seattle Public Library.
• Students and staff from the three schools can visit any of three library branches (Columbia, Douglass-Truth, or Rainier Beach) any time between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm on Saturday, December 5, 2009.
• Participants will log in and out of the program in the library meeting rooms so we can keep track of how much time is spent reading. There will be pizza, other snacks, and prizes in between reading sessions.
• The school with the most hours of reading (after adjusting for school size) wins a dance party with a DJ from KUBE 93.

The Reading Marathon is a fun, relaxed event with lots of great reading material provided by Seattle Public Library. Students can read for ANY amount of time—fifteen minutes, or all six hours. While only student and staff hours will be counted for the total, parents/guardians/family members are welcome to join in the reading.

And the winning school wins a dance! Will Washington beat Aki and Mercer? Only if readers show up on Saturday. Hope to see you there.

Erin Hunter (Warriors series)
Saturday, April 28, 11:00 am at University Book Store, Mill Creek
Saturday, April 28, 1:00 pm at University Book Store, Bellevue
Saturday, April 28, 4:00 pm at Secret Garden Books

More events:

Nancy Pearl (Book Lust, Book Crush)
Monday, April 30, 7:00 pm at Central Library

Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief and sequels)
Tuesday, May 8, 7:00 pm at All for Kids Books and Music

Suzanne Collins (Gregor the Overlander series)
Monday, May 21, 7:00 pm at All for Kids Books and Music

Just wanted to let visitors know that, yes, this site is active and yes, you are encouraged to visit. 06-07 school year is in full swing! Welcome, new students! The library is super-busy! Third lunch yesterday was jammed with eighth graders frantically finishing their social studies homework! New cookbooks are on display in the library! Kids are checking out many, many books! Soon I will have time to post on this site! In the meantime, if you send in book reviews, I’ll get ‘em on here.

Most popular in the library right now: Warriors series by Erin Hunter, which is about tribes of feral cats on the prowl. Newest book arriving soon.

This article in Publishers Weekly mentions upcoming new movies adapted from children’s/YA books. Most likely to interest middle school students: Hoot, Stormbreaker, and Eragon.

Thanks to Ms. Peterson at Mercer Middle School for the link.

Interesting article on MSNBC about a plagiarism charge involving the novel Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty. I read this book a few years ago and remember enjoying it, but I checked and it’s not in our library. I think I may have decided the content was too mature. (We do have books with mature content, but every now and then I decide against something.) I’m not sure, though, so I think I’ll re-read it and see. In the meantime it’s available through the public library for anyone who’s interested.