Book Review: Write to Me

WRITE TO ME by Cynthia Grady tells the true story of letters written by Japanese American Children during World War II.

As children leave San Diego for internment camps, librarian Miss Breed gives the children books and postcards. She asks her young patrons to write her about their experiences. The short picture book concludes with an author’s note, timelines, historical information, and further reading. The front and end-pages include historical photos.

Librarians will find this new addition to the well-known story of Miss Breed to fill an important niche in their collection. This picture book would be useful as a read-aloud as well as part of a display including other informational books connected with Japanese American Internment Camps.

Published by Charlesbridge on January 9, 2018. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Digital Spotlight: Children's Historical Lit Collection

CHILDREN’S HISTORICAL LITERATURE COLLECTION from the University of Washington contains thousands of digital objects related to the history of children’s books.

Contents: This comprehensive collection includes books from the 18th through the 20th century. A wide range of book types include alphabet books, chapbooks, dictionaries, hornbooks, and spelling books. From manners and etiquette to natural sciences and health, the collection explores all subject areas.

Classroom Connections: Students will enjoy exploring the books that children their age read in the 18th through the 20th century. Looks for ways to connect these historical primary sources with topics throughout the curriculum including science, math, and health. Ask students to compare and contrast life and learning in two different time periods.

Featured Digital Objects:
Health and Hygiene - https://goo.gl/iHZZT9
Manners and Social Etiquette - https://goo.gl/W7L3Dt
Natural Sciences - https://goo.gl/rbvgj2

To visit the collection, go tohttp://content.lib.washington.edu/childrensweb/index.html.

Website Review: Scholastic: Librarians

LIBRARIANS from Scholastic is a website specifically designed for school and public librarians.

The librarians section of Scholastic’s website features specific resources of interest to those working with children. In addition to featuring new books, the website provides direct links to major services such as Go!, TrueFlix, ScienceFlix, FreedomFlix, and BookFlix. Dozens of videos feature author interviews. Of particular note is the Idea Share section featuring resources and discussions related to holding book fairs. Be sure to download the “Scholastic Supports Librarians” PDF containing research about the importance of libraries and librarians.

Librarians will find this website to be useful in collection development, lesson planning, and book fair planning. Although it’s focused on works by Scholastic, it contains useful ideas connected all types of materials. Their research on libraries is also useful in preparing to meet with school boards.

To visit the website, go to http://www.scholastic.com/librarians/.

Website Review: MapStory

MAPSTORY is an online tool for creating local, regional, and global scale maps.

The MapStories website contains hundreds of maps to explore. Conduct a search or explore categories such as geopolitics and human settlement. Users can become part of the online community and contribute data and stories to existing projects. Students can also combine narrative elements that include images, text, and video to explain how and why changes happen in specific locations in their own projects. The maps can be connected with social media including Twitter and Facebook.

Librarians will find that students enjoy exploring existing maps along with creating their own. Use this tool in geography lessons along with map-related activities in science and social studies.

To visit the website, go to https://mapstory.org/.

Book Review: Black Panther The Young Prince

BLACK PANTHER THE YOUNG PRINCE by Ronald L. Smith tells the origin story of this popular superhero.

Twelve-year old T’Challa is a young prince living in the hidden African nation of Wakanda. When he and his friend M’Baku are sent to a private academy in Chicago, T’Challa soon learns that his experiences have not prepared him for life in America. To protect his friends, he must face evil and become a hero.

Of particular interest is how the author deals with T’Challa’s conflicting emotions related to America’s history of racial inequality and African heritage.

Librarians will find this book to be a popular extension of the Black Panther universe. Feature this engaging fantasy adventure along with other recently released Marvel superhero origin stories.

Published by Disney-Hyperion on January 2, 2018. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: TimelinesJS

TIMELINEJS is an easy-to-use tool for building timelines.

TimelineJS is an open-source resource for creating professional-quality, interactive timelines. Users create a Google spreadsheet including short narratives and visuals. The images and videos from social media sites can be incorporated into the timelines. Users then provide the URL of the spreadsheet at the Timeline website. It’s then transformed into a timeline.

Librarians will find this an excellent way to teach both Google spreadsheets and the basics of building timelines. This tool can be applied to content across the curriculum.

To visit the website, go to https://timeline.knightlab.com.

Website Review: Library of Congress: Free Sets

FREE TO USE AND REUSE SETS from the Library of Congress provide dozens of useful teaching and learning resources.

The Library of Congress contains millions of digital objects. Their free sets of materials makes it easy to locate useful content based on themes. Because the materials have no known copyright or are copyright cleared, they can be used by students in products such as web-based reports and presentations.

This section of the Library of Congress website currently contains over a dozen collections on themes such as dogs, classic children’s books, travel posters, and holidays.

Librarians will find this theme-based resource to be useful in introducing primary source documents. Of particularly note is the set called “Your Favorites” from Flickr.

To visit the website, go to https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/.

Website Review: TED-Ed Series

TED-ED Series are connected videos exploring educational topic across the curriculum.

The TED-Ed Series provides a quick way to locate nearly 50 educational video collections. For instance, Periodic Videos contains 118 videos focusing on topics relating to science and the periodic table. Users click on an element for a lesson and video. The series titled The Way We Think explores nearly 100 topics related to psychology, sociology, thinking, and learning. The Mysteries of Vernacular explores dozens of odd and interesting words.

Librarians will find this website to be an excellent way to seek out useful videos for the K-12 curriculum. Browse through the sets of videos and connect them with the communications, STEM, and social science curriculum.

To visit the website, go to https://ed.ted.com/series.

Book Review: Silent Days, Silent Dreams

SILENT DAYS, SILENT DREAMS by Allen Say tells the compelling true story of a talented and unusual artist.

James Castle was born deaf and never learned to read, write, or speak. Despite his challenges, Castle found peace in drawing. Say tells the extraordinary story of this artist’s life through vivid drawings and concise text.

Librarians will find this amazing story to be an excellent addition to the biography collection. Weave the title into discussions about the challenges people overcome to follow their passion.

Published by Scholastic. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Digital Spotlight: National Baseball Hall of Fame

The NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME website contains a growing digital collection of photos, audio, video, and text.

Contents: Users can browse thousands of items related to the history of baseball. In addition to using the search tool, users can also browse collections including 3-D artifacts, cartoons, oral histories, scrapbooks, photo archives, World Series materials, and more.

Classroom Connections: Librarians will find this website to be a fun way to introduce digital collections. Share the website as part of a display that includes both fiction and nonfiction books about baseball.

Featured Digital Objects:
Jackie Robinson https://goo.gl/Q8RAxy
Scrapbooks https://goo.gl/S1LtG3
Oral Histories https://goo.gl/oiSb1g

To visit the collection, go to https://collection.baseballhall.org/

Technology Review: Yiddish Book Center

The YIDDISH BOOK CENTER is a comprehensive website providing information about language, literature, and culture.

The website contains access to collections, information sources, educational programs, and more.

The Digital Library and Collections area provides over 11,000 titles including oral histories, lectures, audiobooks, and other materials in Yiddish. Of particular interest are 800 children’s literature titles.

The Language, Literature, and Culture section provides articles, podcast interviews, and short films.

Librarians will find this to be a useful resource for students interested in exploring Yiddish and modern Jewish literature and culture.

To visit the website, go to https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/.

Technology Review: Endangered Archives Programme

The ENDANGERED ARCHIVES PROGRAMME from the British Library is a global project focusing on preservation of archival material.

Dozens of countries have participated in this project that helps preserve endangered historical materials. Grants are used to provide financial assistance. Users can access ten years of projects by year or by country. The collections include a wide variety of primary source documents including wills, contracts, correspondence, diaries, maps, and other materials.

Librarians will find this website to be a unique way to talk with students about the importance of preserving cultural heritage. Connect this website with a social studies project focusing on the culture of a particular country. Ask students to explore the digitized items from one of the dozens of countries represented in the project. Then, connect the primary source materials with the country’s history.

To visit the website, go to https://eap.bl.uk/.

Book Review: From Here to There

FROM HERE TO THERE: A BOOK OF MAZES TO WANDER AND EXPLORE by Sean C. Jackson is a stunning book that combines beautiful art with engaging puzzles.

This engaging book provides an excellent introduction to art, architecture, and 3-D puzzles along with dozens of engaging mazes to complete. The author's introduction includes background information about mazes in general and also the 3-dimensional approach taken by the author/illustrator. The variety of mazes and the illustrator's use of color add to the book's appeal.

Each maze contains a starting point, ending point, and name. While most of the mazes are single pages, a few are two-page spreads. The combination of rural and urban settings along with natural and human-made landscapes make the book particularly appealing.

Librarians will find this book to be a popular addition to the nonfiction collection. Young people will enjoy how the mazes seem to define gravity. When sharing the book with children show images of M.C. Escher and discuss this technique.

ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Digital Spotlight: Qatar Digital Library

QATAR DIGITAL LIBRARY is a free digital collection exploring the modern history and culture of the Gulf region.

Contents: Users can choose to explore the archives or read articles from experts. Exploring the archive provides access to over a million items. The expert articles can be filtered by topic, location, and time period. The See, Watch, Listen option provides a quick look at interesting topics. A list of popular topics is provided along with a search tool with filters.

Classroom Connections: Use this website as a starting point for an exploration of the Gulf region. Ask students to choose a topic, place, or time period of interest from the expert section to jumpstart their exploration.

Featured Digital Objects:
Introductory Articles https://goo.gl/BzsvhD
History of the English East India Company https://goo.gl/Ue7RnZ
Science and Medicine https://goo.gl/KwpWio

To visit the collection, go to https://www.qdl.qa/en.

Technology Review: Pixabay

PIXABAY provides access to over a million free images and videos available online.

Providing access to images and videos labeled with the Creative Commons CC0 license, this resource makes it easy to locate and use a wide range of resources.

Users can locate photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. An advanced search option provides more detailed searching. Although the search results display sponsored images in addition to free materials, the sponsored images don’t distract from the free materials. Images can also be accessed by category such as animals or sports.

Students can access the visual resources through the website or download the app through the App Store or Google Play.

Librarians will find this to be an effective tool for students working on class projects. Although Google offers a similar search for free images, this resource provides different and additional results.

To explore the website, go to https://pixabay.com/.

Technology Review: 101 Videos

101 VIDEOS from National Geographic on YouTube explore natural and historical phenomena from around the world.

Containing nearly 60 short videos, this National Geographic series focuses on fascinating topics from around the world.

Each three to seven minute segment explores a different topic. Recent programs include Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt and The Protestant Reformation. Science topics include Climate, Lunar Eclipse, the Sun, and the Human Body.

Librarians will find this series provides an excellent introduction to key topics from the curriculum. Mine the resource for history and science topics. Suggest that teachers use the videos as springboards to classroom activities. Or, use each video at a library learning station to draw attention to nonfiction books connected with the theme.

To visit the website, go to https://goo.gl/GMEkKQ.

Book Review: Hey, Baby!

HEY, BABY! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer introduces children to a collection of pictures, poems, and stories exploring animal babies.

From mountains and plains to oceans and seas, each of the eight chapters explores animal babies from a different region of the world. Anecdotes and short stories are told through poems, folktales, short narratives, and descriptive passages along with fact boxes and high-quality photographs. The book concludes with a map, additional resources, and an index.

Librarians will find this adorable collection to be popular with children of all ages. Parents would find this coffee-table sized book useful for short, bedtime reading, while teachers could use excerpts for information reading activities. The index provides easy access to particular animals for students doing reports on animal babies.

Published by National Geographic Children’s Books, an imprint of Random House on November 14, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: SolveMe Mobiles

SOLVEME MOBILES provide a fun and engaging way to explore math and problem-solving.

Designed to support algebraic reasoning, this interactive experience presents users with colorful puzzles that help algebra and pre-algebra students strengthen their skills at solving equations for unknown values.

The project contains two sections: play and build.

The Play section asks users to imagine a hanging sculpture. Participants can explore three levels of built-in puzzles, share their own puzzles, list saved puzzles, and like favorites. A variety of tools are available including an electronic hand, pencil, and eraser.

The Build section provides tools so users can create their own mobiles by selecting and placing shapes of specific colors. These puzzles can be saved and shared. The website also provides information for parents and teachers.

Librarians will find this appealing website to be a fun addition to the library along with the math classroom. Consider building the interactive activity into a learning station or maker space featuring books and manipulatives to explore math puzzles.

To learn more, go to http://solveme.edc.org/mobiles/.