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Last week at the Mesquite High School library, librarians Marnie Cushing and Sharon Harman celebrated the opening of the new movie Where the Wild Things Are by hosting a “Wild Rumpus” in the library. The after school event was attended by 26 students who came and acted like kids for an hour and had a lot of fun. Mrs. Harman said that the students “greeted the book like a long lost friend” and credited that to the work that our elementary librarians do introducing books to kids.

Watch the Animoto below for a glimpse of all the fun!

Having just the vision’s no solution,
everything depends on execution,
Putting it together.
–Stephen Sondheim

Last week I wrote about the new vision for 21st century libraries that we have adopted in our district. In the process of creating this vision, we also revised our mission statement.

Our guide in this process was the book, Failure Is NOT and Option: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High Performing Schools by Alan Blankenstein, which lists having a common mission and vision as the #1 principle for success.

Creating a mission statement according to the guidelines in this book was a little bit different than other processes I have used in the past. We all know that a mission statement gives the people involved with an organization a clear understanding of its purpose for existence. Blankenstein, however, finds fault with the typical mission statement. He says:

A quick survey of mission statements reveals a common pattern. They use superlatives and absolutes. Such an approach leaves people feeling as though they had cotton candy for lunch: happy but still hungry for the real meal! Phrases like “world’s best,” “premier,” “largest,” and “first choice of customers everywhere” abound. How “premier” status will be attained and how “best” will be measured are rarely clarified or discussed. Schools and school districts also have mission statements – and they should. Unfortunately, education is not exempt from the tendency toward generic, vague and meaningless mission statements.

In order to create a more effective mission statement, our group discussed and debated the following questions:

1. Why do school library programs exist?

2. How will we know if a library program is successful?

3. What can we do to ensure that our library programs are successful?

The result is a mission statement that describes why school library programs exist in our district and how we will know if they are fulfilling their purpose.

The mission of the MISD library program is to:

• teach literacy skills (reading, research, technology, etc.) and

• promote open access to quality resources for the school community.

The success of the library program is determined by campus student achievement in conjunction with state and national library standards.

MISD librarians ensure success by proactive commitment to continuous improvement of the library program.

Does your library program have a written mission statement?

Jane Claes and Janet Hilbun have been doing research about state book awards and shared their findings with us.

Did you know that 49 states have a state book award? Mississippi is the only one that doesn’t and they are considering it.

Why are state book awards so important? They get kids to read and think critically about literature in order to make their selection. The book lists of nominees are also great collection development tools.

The Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s award is the oldest of the state book awards, first given in 1940. Only 11 of the awards were chosen exclusively (nominated and selected) by children. In most cases, the books are nominated by adults and children, then voted on by children.

Nomination criteria vary, but in most cases there is a publication date, whether or not the book is still in print, and the author is living. Some states say that books that have won a Newbery or Caldecott are not eligible.

Generally, students must read a certain number of books to vote and librarians handle the voting in school and public libraries.

The major difference between state and national book awards is that children participate in the selection of the winner.

Big recent winners are:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini – 21 awards

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – 16 awards

Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo – 15 awards

In the past four years, the top 5 winners have all been considered fantasy or science fiction or magical realism and all of these winners have had movies in production.

It is interesting to note that the top authors who have won state book awards have never won a national book award, such as the Newbery or Caldecott. Some of these authors are Peg Kehret, Andrew Clements, and Dan Gutman.

There are 27 books about dogs that won 47 awards. Five books with the word “ghost” in the title won 11 awards and 16 series books won 21 awards. Ten sequels won 70 awards.

What does this mean for collection development? Taken as a whole, state book awards show clearly what students like and want to read. These books have already been through a rigorous selection process. Looking at these lists also help you keep up with trends in student reading. It is an existing tool that many librarians are not using.

Janet and Jane have a book on this topic coming out this fall: Coast to Coast: Exploring State Book Awards from Libraries Unlimited. Another resource is H.W. Wilson’s Core Collection of state book awards.

A really great and untapped resource for collection development!

PBS Parents has launched a new blog that focuses on “spreading the fun and love of children’s books,” Booklights. The blog’s contributors (Susan, Pam and Jen) have started off by listing their 10 favorite picture books. I loved reading their lists, so I was inspired to try and do the same. Easier said than done! After thinking about it, I discovered that my favorites tend to either be books that I loved reading aloud to students as an elementary librarian (many years ago!) or ones that I have fond memories of sharing with my niece and nephew, who are now 15 and 16.

Here is my list (in no particular order):

1. George and Martha by James Marshall

2. King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Don and Audrey Wood

3. Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss

4. Verdi by Janelle Cannon

5. Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian

6. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

7. Rumplestiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky

8. Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman

9. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

10. Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi and Ron Barrett

What are your favorite picture books?

I’m testing a live blogging tool called Cover It Live today with Kathy Schrock’s webinar on web 2.0 and professional development. If you are watching live, you can see the text come up as I type it, kind of like an instant message. If you come upon this post after the fact, click on the Replay button to see the updates from the webinar this afternoon.

Have you ever wanted to turn yourself into a manga character?

We all created avatars using Yahoo during our Learning Through Play class a couple of years ago, but there are many more online resources for creating avatars. A very easy one to use is FaceYourManga. There are lots of options for face shape, eyes, hair, nose, etc. so that you can create an avatar that looks just like you! There are also various backgrounds, gadgets and accessories that can be added.

Try it!

Thanks to the Dear Librarian blog for the link!

Happy Friday!

Thought-provoking video made by some middle school students as part of the Net Generation Education Project. (Thanks to the Dangerously Irrelevant blog for the link.)

The MotherReader has a great list of ways to give books this Christmas. Here are a few of her ideas:

1. Pair a classic Raggedy Ann or Winnie-the-Pooh book with its character stuffed animal.
2. Pair a book with a related stuffed animal, like Where’s My Teddy? with a teddy bear. Or Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type with a stuffed cow — or if you prefer, a slingshot cow.
3. Pair Bubble Bath Pirates or Beasty Bath with a cool rubber duck, even a huge rubber duck.
4. Pair The Snow Globe Family with a snow globe.
5. Pair Lilly’s Big Day or Fancy Nancy with dress-up clothes.
6. Pair Toys Go Out with a red bouncy ball, or a stuffed stingray or buffalo.
7. Pair a nonfiction book about dinosaurs, like Boy! Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs, with a bunch of plastic ones.
8. Pair Amazing Sharks! and A Shark Pup Grows Up for beginning readers and throw in a shark on a stick.
9. Pair a book like The Spiderwick Chronicles with the DVD.
10. Pair a theme book like Katie and the Mustang with a horse charm and a satin cord from a craft store.

You can find the rest of her ideas here and here.