School Library Journal offers a page called The Buzz. It's full of new "Tools, trends and gizmos." During the month of March, they featured The Librarian in Black. She wrote an article called "13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology." Dive in and check it out. You'll find great leads to fantastic technology you can use in your classroom or school.

  At the suggestion of PTO parents and teachers, in 2008, the Children's Dept staff developed 24 kits called Author Adventures focusing on children's book authors and illustrators...and they are ready for you to check out! Each kit contains 8-10 titles by the author, biographical info, websites and, in some kits, activities to go with some of the titles. Selected kits also include video biographies, stories on video and audio cassette stories.

 Kit Authors are:

Verna Aardema ~ Alma Flor Ada ~ Aliki ~ Frank Asch ~ Jan Brett ~ Marc Brown ~ Eve Bunting ~ Virginia Burton ~ Eric Carle ~ Nancy Carlson ~ Donald Crews ~ Roald Dahl ~ Tomie De Paola ~ Kate DiCamillo ~ Lois Ehlert ~ Susan Elya ~ Denise Fleming ~ Mem Fox  ~ Don Freeman ~ Gail Gibbons ~ Paul Goble ~ Eloise Greenfield ~ Kevin Henkes ~ Tana Hoban ~ Pat Hutchins ~ Ezra Jack Keats ~ Steven Kellogg ~ Arnold Lobel ~ Patricia McKissack ~ David McPhail ~ James Marshall ~ Bill Martin ~ Mercer Mayer ~ Bernard Most ~ Robert Munsch ~ Bill Peet ~ Marcus Pfister ~ Patricia Polacco ~ Cynthia Rylant ~ Maurice Sendak ~ Dr. Seuss ~ William Steig ~ Nancy Tafuri ~ Bernard Waber ~ Martin Waddell ~ Rosemary Wells ~ Vera Williams ~ Audrey and Don Wood

Just stop in to pick a kit off the shelves near the Teacher Tower or call the Children's Dept to reserve a kit with your teacher's card and we will ship out to public schools via your MJSD van. To check availability online, go to our cataloge and search under "Author Adventure Kits" in the title search.

Our Parent/Teacher section in the Children's Room is constantly changing. Here is a highlight of a few books we added this November...

At Daddy's on Saturdays written Linda Walvoord Girard and illustrated by Judith Friedman

Katie's daddy moves out of the house when he and her mommy get divorced. Katie is angry, sad and most of all, afraid her daddy will never come back. But on Saturdays he's there. and Katie comes to understand that even though her parents can't live together anymore, they both still love her and will always be her mommy and her daddy.

Scholastic 50 Fill-In Math Word Problems: Multiplication & Division for Grades 2-4 by Bob Krech and Joan Novelli

These interactive worksheets are instant math motivators! Each hilarious fill-in story gives students a fun way to practice solving world problems, build vocabulary, and decelop automaticity in multiplication and division facts. Perfect for partner and small-group learning, or as day starters or homework.

Scholastic The Great BIG Idea Book MATH for Grades 2-3

This learning-packed resource features teacher-tested ideas, reproducible activities, delightful games, and easy-to-make manipulatives that teach inportant concepts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, measurement, time, money, and graphing. Includes writing, art, music, and movemtn connections for kids of all learning sytles, plus assessment ideas and tips for working with English Language Learners.

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation seeks to assist, educate and inspire actors and actresses. SAG has also committed themselves to championing children’s literacy. On their website Storyline Online, celebrities read picture books to you!

With Halloween around the corner, check out Guji Guji, by Chih Yuan Chen; read by Robert Guillaume, Sophie's Masterpiece, by Eileen Spinelli; read by CCH Pounder, Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon; read by Pamela Reed, or The Night I Followed the Dog, by Nina Laden; read by Amanda Bynes.

Besides reading books, the website offers information about the reader and activity guides you can download. Each book also gives a running time, so if you have a schedule you need to keep it's easy to work it into your school day.