Friday, February 12, 2010

Happy Heart Day!

Hey,

Just had to share this with you



Ingrid

Monday, February 1, 2010

Launch of GriffinSchool on LibraryThing!

Hello everyone.

In celebration of African-American History Month, Lawrence, Jeff and I have coordinated a rotating display of books, etc. in the Room of Words (i.e. the Library).  Each week, the display will focus on particular aspects of African-American history.  This week it's the arts.  Sheet music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, history of African-American art from 1792 to the present, Billie Holiday and other aspects of art are represented.

The BIG news is that I've launched the Griffin School LibraryThing page.  You can add comments, see what other's have to say about books, keep a log of when you're reading titles, recommend books, etc.  Take a look:
http://www.librarything.com
Email me and I'll send you login and password info.  I've also got the info posted at the library.

I've tagged the current books on display with African-American-History-Month-display.

I've been adding existing and new Room of Words books as time allows.  Watch for new additions often!

Explore!  Have fun!

Ingrid

Monday, January 18, 2010

Dr. King in the Room of Words

Hey

While all of you are out marching, I'm in the quiet library appreciating how clean the shelves are. 
Thank you for the fantastic job! 


We've got a couple of good books relevant to the day.:



Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Stephen B. Oates
E 185.97 .K5 O18 1985
Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award and the Christopher Award, this brilliant examination of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., portrays a very real man with a powerful dream that helped shape American history. 15 halftone illustrations.



Some great essays on "The Assassination," "The Memphis March," "The Funeral in Atlanta," "The Time For Freedom Has Come" (by King), "The March on Washington," "I Have a Dream...." "Dr. King in Philadelphia, Miss.," "Marching Out of Selma," "Dr. King in Montgomery," "Excerpts from Dr. King's Montgomery Address," "Dr. King's Statement in Memphis," "'A Drum Major for Justice,'" "The F.B.I. and Dr. King,"  and "Dr. King's Dream Lives on in East Orange" in the book New York Times Great Lives of the Twentieth Century, CT120 .N46 1988.

Finally, just for the fun of it, check out the Playboy Interview with Dr. King and Alex Haley from January 1965.  CT120 .P55 1981

ALSO, I got on the EBSCO databases and stumbled across some very cool stuff. In "Academic Search Complete" try using "King, Martin Luther" as a subject term (from the pull down menu next to the search term).  Once you get your results limit to a "Visual Search" (on the left). 

Or try "Student Research Center" (get to it by clicking on Search other Databases"), enter "King, Martin Luther" as a subject term and limit to "Primary Source Documents"

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention--my Biology Lab partner at St. Ed's is Chrisophe Chahine.  How cool is that?

Your faithful word herder,

Ingrid

Friday, January 8, 2010

Book of the Week

Happy New Year everyone!

A lot of catching up to do today after the long holiday, but I thought I'd offer up this delightful book of the week:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie
PZ 7 .A382 Ab 2007
Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie's first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. He says, "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions about what constitutes one's community, identity, and tribe. The daily struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths of the protagonist's grandmother, dog, and older sister would be all but unbearable without the humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world. The many characters, on and off the rez, with whom he has dealings are portrayed with compassion and verve, particularly the adults in his extended family. Forney's simple pencil cartoons fit perfectly within the story and reflect the burgeoning artist within Junior. Reluctant readers can even skim the pictures and construct their own story based exclusively on Forney's illustrations. The teen's determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a low-key manner. .—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library


Have you seen the orange-crowned warblers or the yellow-rumped warblers blown in from the north  by this cold front?  Sweet, little things.  They eat bugs, but suet will keep them warm in freezing weather.


Check out the the Meebo box and the book art blogs from December.

Warm thoughts to you all,

Ingrid