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Several MISD high school libraries hosted after school parties to celebrate the opening of Twilight: New Moon right before the Thanksgiving break. The parties featured activities such as photo ops with Edward and Jacob, art projects, refreshments and of course a viewing of the trailer! Enjoy pictures of the festivities below:

Partygoers at MHS can’t decide between Edward and Jacob!

Even the principal at MHS couldn’t resist a photo op!

NMHS Library displays new signage for the party.

Even refreshments went along with the Twilight theme.

NMHS students take online quizzes on New Moon trivia and which character they are most like.

A Twilight jigsaw puzzle!

New Moon grafitti wall at NMHS

Such fun in the library!

From The Official Google Blog…

In February we invited U.S. kids to exercise their creativity by participating in our second annual Doodle 4 Google contest. In response, we received more than 28,000 doodles from kids representing all 50 states, a 70 percent increase from last year. Inspired by this year’s theme, “What I Wish for the World,” kids have expressed a variety of wishes, ranging from a world with a pristine environment to a world where imaginations can run free. We were impressed by the incredible spectrum of artwork we received this year, but even more amazed by the artistic talents of the kids who created them.

The Doodle 4 Google contest encourages students to play around with Google’s homepage logo to see what they can come up with. Here is last year’s winning doodle, Up in the Clouds by Grace Moon, Canyon Middle School in California.

Beautiful, right?

Today, Google announced the 40 regional winners for 2009 that were selected by a panel of expert judges. The winner, though, is selected by popular online vote. Take a look at all the beautiful and creative doodles submitted by students across the country, then vote for your favorite!

The Library of Congress now has its own channel on YouTube!

Timeless treasures and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. As the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, we are the steward of millions of recordings dating from the earliest Edison films to the present.

This is a wonderful resource that is now so easy to access!

There are videos of talks by well-known authors at the 2008 National Book Festival, such as this one of Jon Scieszka:

There are also fascinating clips of early film from the Edison and Westinghouse laboratories:

And the Journeys and Crossings playlist, which “[brings] to life some of the Library’s most exciting and historically significant materials through the personal insights of the staff who know them best.”

Have fun sifting through all of these fabulous treasures!

The third annual Teen Tech Week is coming up March 8-14, 2009.

From the ALA web site:

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association and is aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology.

Why celebrate?

Teens, in order to gain the skills necessary to compete in today’s job market, need access to digital and online information and trained professionals who can help them use these resources effectively, efficiently and ethically. Librarians and educators know this and work with teens on a regular basis to ensure they develop these skills. Teen Tech Week is a chance for libraries to throw open their physical & virtual doors and show their communities all the great things they’re doing for teens with technology.

The ALA site also offers lots of resources to help you plan a great celebration, including this Voicethread presentation, “Teen Tech Week in School Libraries and Media Centers”:

The librarians at Mesquite High School hosted author Susan Campbell Bartoletti on their campus last week. Susan spoke about doing research, writing and publishing to selected classes in the school’s auditorium.

Susan is an award-winning author of all types of books for children and young adults. A tenacious researcher, Susan described the process she uses for writing non-fiction for young adults and told some of the fascinating topics about which she has written: coal mining in Pennsylvania at the turn of the century, labor strikes led by young people before the advent of child labor laws, the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, and the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany.

Her book about the Hitler Youth movement was awarded Newbery Honor and a Sibert Medals and has now been translated into German for inclusion into the German history curriculum.

Susan described how her non-fiction writing often flows into fiction. After she has researched and written about a topic, she often continues exploring the topic through a fictional story. Most of her non-fiction books have a corresponding fiction book.  Susan also described how she uses the same story elements commonly used in fiction (setting, character, plot) to make her non-fiction come alive. She stressed, however, that any dialog used in non-fiction must be found in primary sources!

Susan’s latest published book is The Boy Who Dared, a novel based on the true story of a boy who stood up to the Nazis. A non-fiction book on the Ku Klux Klan has just been completed and turned in to the publisher.

The MHS students at the session I attended were a great audience and asked some really good questions. Many purchased books to have signed by the author.

Thanks to the MHS librarians for arranging a great author visit!

Richardson ISD will be hosting their 8th annual Literary Festival on January 29, 2009 from 4:30-6:30.

This year’s festival features Sarah Weeks, author of more than 30 children’s & YA books, including So B. It, Regular Guy and Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash.

Events include a keynote by Sarah Weeks, booktalks of the current 2×2, Bluebonnet, Lone Star and Tayshas lists, author signing, and a book fair where books by Sarah Weeks and others will be available for purchase.

For more information, download the event flyer.

There are a several professional development opportunities coming up this fall! Librarians in the north Texas area may want to take advantage of any or all of the following:

Friday, October 17 – Library Expo

This annual event for school librarians takes place in Plano ISD and is coordinated jointly by Plano’s Learning Media Services department and Richardson ISD’s Library Media Services. This year’s theme is Discover the 21st Century Library and the keynote speaker will be John Canuel, Director of Library

Services for Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado. In addition to the keynote, there are always great breakout sessions presented by local librarians, a vendor exhibit — and, as if that isn’t enough — there is great shopping to be had afterwards at the Willowbend Mall across the street! (wink, wink)

More information is available at the Library Expo web site. The event is free for librarians, but they do ask that you register so they will know how many people to expect. Registration begins online September 15, 2008.

Saturday, October 18 – TLA District 5 Fall Meeting

TLA District 5 will host its annual Fall Meeting October 18, 2008 at El Centro College in downtown Dallas. It looks like there are several programs of interest to school librarians, many of which focus on web 2.0 technologies. Online registration is available at the TLA website.

Saturday, November 1, 2008 – Children’s and Young Adult Book Festival

This annual event is held at Sam Houston State University each year. It is often worth the overnight trip to Huntsville to hear the nationally-known authors that will be speaking and autographing their books. Since it is a smaller venue, librarians actually have a chance to visit with the authors a little more. Featured authors this year are: Kathy Appelt, John Green (Looking for Alaska), Patrick Jones, and David Small. Between author sessions there are workshop programs presented by area librarians. Visit the SHSU web site for more information.

Saturday and Sunday, November 1-2, 2008 – Texas Book Festival

If you’re in the mood for a bigger event with more authors, the Texas Book Festival in Austin will meet those needs. Check out the list of authors expected to attend and get more information here.

Image citation: Playing in the autumn leaves, uploaded on October 20, 2007 by [Northeast Photography] and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.

Jen Robinson’s Book Page blog reviews the fourth and final book in the City of Ember series, The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Du Prau. Sounds like another book that I need to put on my “to read” list!

Other books in this series are: The City of Ember (of course), The People of Sparks, and The Prophet of Yonwood.

Oh, and it you’re a fan of these books – there is a movie in the works, scheduled to be released October 2008. Watch the trailer here.

One of our fabulous librarians alerted me to the news that Dallas is one of the scheduled stops on Jan Brett’s Fall tour. This tour is to introduce her new book, Gingerbread Friends. At each stop, they are doing a “party.” Her web site says that tickets are free, but limited, so you may want to call the book store and find out when they will be available. The Dallas party will be at the Borders on Preston Rd. on Thursday, November 6. Mark your calendars – sounds like a lot of fun!

SLJ reports that The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the Caldecott winning book by Brian Selznick, will be coming to a theater near you – maybe by Christmas 2009! The screenplay will be written by John Logan (Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Gladiator) and the film will be directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots), making his live-action directing debut. Brian Selznick was in Dallas earlier this month for the Dallas Museum of Art’s BooksmART program. Read more about that event and what he had to say about the upcoming movie here.