Book: Captain Superlative

CAPTAIN SUPERLATIVE by J.S. Puller tells the story of a seventh grader who becomes a superhero’s sidekick.

Janey’s goal is to avoid conflict and fly under the radar. However when Captain Superlative arrives bearing acts of kindness, Janey decides to team up with this superhero and take action. This fast-paced and endearing middle school drama explores social themes such as bullying and childhood illness. Elements of humor and authentic characters add to the appeal of the story.

Librarians will find youth drawn to this story of courage and kindness. Feature it along with other positive school stories with a message.

Published by Disney Book Group on May 8, 2018. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: Teen Ink

TEEN INK is website that encourages youth to express themselves through poetry, essays, stories, reviews, art, and photography.

For more than 25 years, the nonprofit group The Young Authors Foundation has provided a website, magazine, and books all written by teens for teens. Aimed at young adults ages 13 through 19, the website works with English and Art teachers to encourage teens to submit their work for publication.

The website is divided into nine sections.

The Poetry section is organized into free verse, song lyrics, sonnets, haiku, limericks, and ballads. Users can view the works by today’s best, top voted, most discussed, or more recent.

The Fiction section includes action-adventure, fan fiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, romance, sci-fi/fantasy, scripts/plays, and thriller/mystery.

The Nonfiction section is divided into types such as memoir, interviews, and essays. There’s also a hot issues section with topics such as bullying, environment, and health.

The Reviews section provides book, movie, music, TV, and video game reviews. Summer program and college reviews are also posted.

The Forums section provides two areas for youth to interact. There’s a writer’s workshop as well as regular forums.

The Art/Photo section posts artwork by medium and the Video section posts video work by theme.

The Summer Program section helps youth identify summer programs of interest across subject areas and the College Guide section features resources to help youth learn about college and university options.

In addition to the main sections, a Submit Work area provides guidelines and suggestions for youth wishing to submit their work, a Contests area features opportunities across writing and art genre, and the Other Teen Ink Goodies links provide many additional resources and opportunities.

Teen Ink also features a Library Advisory Board that serve as volunteer liaisons and advisors. This is a great way to get involved at the national level.

Finally, be sure to make use of the many social media features infused into the website including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Librarians may wish to suggest this website to youth seeking to get their work published. It’s also a great source for short creative and nonfiction works for reading activities.

To learn more, go to the website at http://www.teenink.com/.

Website Review: Frontiers for Young Minds

FRONTIERS FOR YOUNG MINDS is an open-access, non-profit scientific journal aimed at youth ages 8-15.

What makes this journal unique is that young people sit along side experts on the editorial board. As such, youth work directly with leading scientists to shape the cutting edge articles. Each article includes brief bios of both the authors and the reviewer(s).

The high-quality, scientific articles include age-appropriate text, figures and references. These papers would provide great models for librarians partnering with language arts and science teachers on STEM research activities.

Articles are published in four areas including Neuroscience, Earth and its Resources, Astronomy and Space Science, and Health. Both core concept articles focusing on the fundamentals of the field as well as articles exploring new discoveries are published. Website users can select articles from one of the four sections or do a key word search.

The People section of the website provides contact information where you can get your students involved in hosting an article review.

The open access articles are freely available. Articles can be downloaded in the PDF format for easy sharing and printing. They can also be shared through popular social networks.

Frontiers for Young Minds also maintains a blog at Scientific American. This blog is an excellent way to introduce youth to the value of blogs and social media in the sciences. Go to http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/frontiers-for-young-mi…/.

To learn more about this exciting scientific journal for youth, go tohttp://kids.frontiersin.org/

Website Review: Commonsense Media

COMMON SENSE MEDIA is a website providing information related to media and technology for parents and teachers. In addition to a great place for educational ratings and reviews, it’s also an effective way to keep up with the movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music of interest to youth of particular ages.

Their K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum and interactive learning games are outstanding. The free materials are available as iBook textbooks or as printable lessons with online videos and interactives. Topics include internet safety, privacy and security, relationships & communication, cyberbullying, digital footprint & reputation, self-image & identity, information literacy, and creative credit & copyright. You can even download colorful posters for library displays.

Graphite is their new service that helps educators find the best apps, games, and websites for the classroom. This website is aligned with the Common Core State Standards and provides lots of tools for searching and organizing websites.

To learn more, go to COMMON SENSE MEDIA at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/.