Book Fair Came to Town

The Scholastic Book Fair was at the MSJH Library for just over one week.  Even though I loved walking into the library everyday and smelling the scent of fresh books, it was a lot of hard work.  I think it was worth it???  The reason I'm still debating the merits of the Book Fair is that even though it was fun pretending to be a book store cashier again (like those bygone days at Pages for All Ages), the students mostly bought cheap, little trinkets.  I mean, I know they're in middle school, and that's what they like, but I wanted to sell more books.

The library was turned into a bookstore for eight days!  It smelled REALLY good.

With a Scholastic Book Fair, the library could take 35% cash or 50% Scholastic Dollars after it was over.  With the Scholastic Dollars I can order books from their online store immediately.  With the cash, I would have to wait for a check, cash it, and then wait for it to be added to the library fund.  It made sense to me to go with the Scholastic Bucks to help with immediate collection development needs.  The selection definitely isn't as big as Amazon, but I think it was the right decision in the end.

 

You have to sell the Scholastic posters.  Who doesn't want a poster of a fast car, kitty cat in space, or sport team in their room???

 

With the display cases, table sets, poster boxes, and trinket store, it "only" took two people 3 1/2 hours to set up! 

The Scholastic cash wrap, where I spent most of my time selling cheap pens and pencils to students.  I need parent help next time, and I need to consider selling only books.  However, approximately $400 of our sales came from trinkets.

Have a look at some of my favorite finds at the Book Fair, and the next time one rolls into your town/library, go check it out.  The books you buy (although not discounted like online stores), helps your school library get funds to buy even more books!

 

The Scholastic Representative who came to help set up the fair said they'd be trying to sell the Twilight movie book until they ran out.  There are still hundreds in Scholastic warehouses across the country.  And, who wouldn't want a book of Superstar Crushes!?  (No one here.)

My favorite book on offer by far.  I wanted to get it for my brother--who HATES mayonnaise and thinks it should be outlawed everywhere--as a joke, but at $5.00 it was still too expensive.

Check It Out! Our FIRST Video Book Talk!

It might not be perfect, but here's our first book talk!  I hope to do more as the years go by, and hopefully production value will only be on the rise!  I also want to encourage students to film book talks for the website, too...with proper signed permissions in place, of course.  

This first, original Library Land book talk is on Colleen Gleason's The Clockwork Scarab.  Here are a couple of notes on method:

1.  I downloaded a free teleprompter app for the iPad, so I didn't have to memorize a script.  Once I did this, my anxiety about filming was alleviated 110%.  The app was great, easy to use, and you could control the speed of the text.  It's simply entitled Teleprompter, and I found it through the Apple App Store.
2.  I wanted this video to double as a readers' advisory/read alikes opportunity, too.  That is why I've surrounded myself with genres I've mentioned in the book talk.
3.  Even though I had other props around, I still made sure the book was the highest element on the table.  

I hope you all enjoy!...Or, at least TOLERATE my first attempt. 

Zombies & Manga

Here is my favorite New Book Combo.

As I have stated before, I am constantly re-working and reorganizing the New Book Displays.  I always try to find new combos that might catch students' eyes.  If zombies paired with Manga doesn't work--and CLASSIC Manga at that--I don't know what will.

On a personal note, these are also two genres I need to get way more familiar with before my first official job.  I have to brush up on these in order to do good Readers Advisory.   I have not read any Manga, but I'll get the chance in two weeks for my Comics Readers Advisory Class.  I've only read one zombie novel, Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  I enjoyed it immensely, but I never read the next two in the series.  I feel like I need to start over with Hands and Teeth before moving on to finish the trilogy.  I am currently reading The Walking Dead for my Young Adult Literature class, and I do not like it.  It is too dark and depressing for me.  I am glad I've read some it, though, so I know what students are reading and enjoying.

I better get to more reading now!  Zombies and Manga...here I come!

First Lines

A couple of weeks ago I created my best bulletin board/display combo to date.  It was so much fun, and everything came together in a totally pleasing way. 

I love first lines of books.  When I was a freshman in college, looking forward to my first semester as an undergraduate at the great University of Illinois, one of my friends came over and looked at all of the literature I had to read for that semester.  I was taking a British Literature class, so there was lots of Austens, Brontes, and Kiplings in the mix.  She said she always loved to read the first paragraphs of books to imagine and predict what might happen.  This has stuck with me for almost two decades (!), and I employed this strategy for my newest board/display combo.

I combed through books in our fiction collection and pulled titles at random.  I read the FIRST LINE only.  Was it interesting, intriguing, gross, outlandish???  Would it get the attention of students?  Most importantly...would it fit on a single piece of paper for the bulletin board?  ;)  I found many titles, but I knew the board wouldn't be able to hold very many, so I narrowed my selection down to a dozen.  As always, I tried to get different genres, time periods, and authors represented.  Then came the fun part.

I recently created an account at Canva.  This is an amazing place to create posters, signage, and any other type of advertisement you could want.  And, it's free.  (I mentioned Canva a few weeks ago in a post.  For more info, see that post.)  I found a simple, yet bold, option to put the first line of the book, along with the author, title, and publication year.  I printed these and put them on the bulletin board.

 The small "bubble burst" sign at top center directs the students to come inside and find the book that matches their 

favorite First Line.

Next, I displayed all of the books on one of our display areas inside the library.  If a line on the bulletin board outside catches a student's attention, they can come inside, find the book on the display, and check it out.

So far I've seen several students looking at the bulletin board and reading the lines aloud, but so far none of checked out any books.  This is an extremely busy time of the year for these Uni students, so I'm not offended.  This was a great board/display combo to put together, and one I will try to replicate in my future place of employment.   

Bulletin Board Fun

It's March.  I've been at the Uni High Library since August.  I just found a third bulletin board to play with.  It only took me seven months, I only pass it as I walk into the library everyday, but I mustn't fret.  No, that wouldn't do.  I just need to be thankful I've found it now and have fun coming up with themes for it until I leave in late May. 

The first totally fun theme for this third mini board (cause it is wee) is Library Memes!  Everybody's favorite, right???  RIGHT!  There are way too many fun Library Memes out there, and I fell down the rabbit hole while looking at them, so I just had to choose a few to go up on the board.

I picked some basic black construction paper, so the memes would stand out more, a fun boarder, and then started stapling like mad.  It was a quick board, a FUN board, and I think it makes the entryway to the library look even better.  I just wish I would have realized that was a board seven months ago!  Wait...I said I wouldn't dwell on that.

I think the next thing I'll post on that board will be Celebrities Reading.  Oh, yeah...that will be AWESOME, too! 

Book List Spotlight: NPR

I love trolling for book lists on the internet.  I usually do this for book displays and book talks...and because I'm a glutton for finding more books that I'll NEVER have the time to read.  Maybe if I stopped daydreaming about all the books I want to read and actually read them...but that's for another time.  Anyhoo...I found three stellar lists today, all via your good friend and mine, N.  P.  R.

They Came, They Saw, They Cooked: Five Food Memoirs

Hmmm...food memoirs.  My weakness.  After recently viewing Spinning Plates (which is amazing, and I highly recommend it), a documentary about three VERY different restaurants in the US, I really want to read Grant Achatz's memoir, Life, On the Line (there IS a double meaning there, if you can't see it yourself after reading this quick blurb).  He created a 3 Star Michelin restaurant in Chicago and then got diagnosed with Stage 4 Tongue Cancer, and doctors said the only way to save his life was to cut out his tongue.  A chef.  Cutting.  Out.  His.  Tongue.  Could he find another option for survival?  Read his memoir to find out.  The other memoirs look awesome, too. 

Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

This one will cause me the most problems for my Want to Read List.  I've only read 16 of these...SIX.  TEEN.  Ridiculous I say!  I gotta get my hands on some of these ASAP.  So much Neil Gaiman.  Have to read more.  I've only read his picture books and YA stuff.  NEED to read Stardust.  And, I've never read 1984.  Never!  I don't know about Lord of the Rings, though.  I've never envisioned myself reading those, but they are #1. 

Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

Oh, I have thoughts about this list.  LOTS of them.  Like John Green having TWO in the Top 10?  He's so new!  We don't know if those will stand the test of time!  I should get over it, but still...I have only read 24 of these, which is even more shocking than the Sci-Fi List.  I thought for sure I would've read half of them, but there is a lot of repeat authors (Ursula K. LeGuin, Tamora Pierce, John Green) and new authors that I haven't read (ok, I've read ONE John Green, and it WASN'T The Fault in Our Stars).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series, Dangerous Angels, made the cut.  About a group of misfits who find each other and make a family together in HollywoodLand, these beautifully lyrical stories weren't around when I was young, but I would have been crazy about them if they had been. 

Anyway, those are my lists for the day.  Very fun, full of excellent reads, and there's something for everyone.  Hope YOU have time to check a few of them out!

Ask the Dragon: Question 2

QUESTION 

Dear Dragon,

Why does sex have such an emotional connotation in society?

Sincerely yours,

Why-Curious

DRAGON’S RESPONSE

Dear Why-Curious,

I got news for you: sex doesn’t just have an emotional connotation in your society.  It has an emotional connotation in all of human society.  This is because sex is emotional.  There are basic ties between sex and emotion that cannot be denied.  Nobre and Pinto-Gouveia have published two articles (2006, 2008) that describe the negative emotions people with sexual dysfunctions experience during sex, while Janice Hiller published work (2004) on the positive emotions men and women experience during sex and sexual arousal, and the hormones triggered during these positive emotions.  Whether good or bad, people are feeling the feelings during sex.

From my perch on high, I see all kinds of examples of people using the positive connotations of sex to their benefit.  This year alone I’ve witnessed half a dozen young guys plotting the best way to ask a young lady to a dance.  Doesn’t this involve emotion?  Aren’t those fellas trying to hit just the perfect emotional note to get those young gals to say yes?  If there’s this much emotion going into one date, you better believe there’d be even more emotion going into the act of sex.  I’ve also seen sex and emotions in our magazines.  There have been articles in Redbook, Men’s Health, and Newsweek, that flaunt the fact that having a stable, emotional connection with your partner will make one’s sex life better.  And, speaking of magazines…Wherever there are ad campaigns, there will also be sex, because sex sells.  It can sell anything from underwear, movie tickets, books, or burgers.  As I already said, Hiller found that sexual arousal can trigger happy emotions in your head, which will make you want to buy a product.  

There are people out there, though, that can separate sex from emotion…for scientific purposes that is.  Some researchers have made a career studying sex without looking at the emotion behind it, and this has been described as sexology.  According to Wikipedia, sexology is “the interdisciplinary study of human sexuality including human sexual interests,  behaviors and function” (with no regards to the emotion that goes along with sex).  Alfred Kinsey started researching sex habits of men and women in the 1930s and 1940s, and Williams Masters and Virginia Johnson followed suit in the 1960s.  Kinsey’s research was later plagued with controversy, since he didn’t have a wide variety of subjects (lots of white guys, several with sexually deviant behavior, like pedophilia), but Masters and Johnson’s work has withstood the test of time and is still revered as some of the most scientific and trustworthy in the field.  They also worked on helping people overcome sexual dysfunctions.

I could spend many more hours trying to formulate a perfect answer for your question, but the truth is, I don’t know that there is a definite answer.  I hope as you read my response you kept in mind that I’m just a humble dragon, doing my best to help out the students here at Uni.  Possible answers to your question can spark controversies hotter than the flames I can spew, so know that the research I’ve done, though substantial, is not the end all and be all of this topic.  Check out the sources I have at the bottom of my board if you want to do even more personal study on this topic.

Alfred Kinsey

Margaret Johnson & William Masters

 Heidi Klum not using sex to sell Thick Burgers...oh, wait...

 Magic Mike (2012) poster employing anything it can to sell tickets to a movie with no plot whatsoever.

References

"Alfred Charles Kinsey". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

Begley, Sharon. "Are The Kids Alright?." Newsweek 150.22 (2007): 52. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Beland, Nicole. "Speak Her Sex Language." Men's Health 24.1 (2009): 112. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

"human sexual behaviour". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

"Masters and Johnson". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

Miller, Jennifer. "The Best Sex She's Ever Had." Men's Health 29.9 (2014): 126. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Nobre, Pedro J., and José Pinto-Gouveia. "Cognitions, Emotions, And Sexual Response: Analysis Of The Relationship Among Automatic Thoughts, Emotional Responses, And Sexual Arousal." Archives Of Sexual Behavior 37.4 (2008): 652-661. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Nobre, Pedro, and José Pinto-Gouveia. "Emotions During Sexual Activity: Differences Between Sexually Functional And Dysfunctional Men And Women." Archives Of Sexual Behavior 35.4 (2006): 491-499. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Sexology. (2015, February 10). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexology#Sexology_as_an_academic_discipline