Skyping with Roland Smith

Galloway seventh graders are Skyping with author Roland Smith right now and asking him questions about his book Peak.

Poetry, the Read In, and Summer Book Clubs

The Upper Learning Poetry Reading was a big success. Thanks to everyone who came and to those who read poems. We will definitely have more poetry readings in the library! See the photo gallery here.

We had 43 middle learning students spend the night in the library Friday night. It was a blast as usual. Click here to see our photos.

And last but not least, sign ups for the all new Upper Learning Summer Book Clubs start this Thursday, April 25 at 3 p.m. See the website here. UL students, look for the registration code in your e-mail on Thursday afternoon.

All Night Read In

It is 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and most of us are still awake. The 3rd annual All Night Read In has been lots of fun. We had 43 kids, four teachers, and one high school chaperone here in the library all night. I think only about six of us are asleep. We've done a lot of reading and a lot of other activities, too. A huge thank you to Ms. Starkman, Mr. Dyer, Mr. Emmons, and Darya for volunteering.

Nutella and Poetry

Used under a Creative Commons License
from Wikimedia Commons

Come to the library this Friday morning from 8:30-9:00 for our National Poetry Month poetry reading. UL students are invited to read poems or just listen to other students and teachers reading their favorite poems. You won't want to miss hearing poems read by Mr. Mathis, Mr. McCandless, and Mrs. Klein (reading poems she wrote when she was in eleventh grade!) Thanks to the Creative Writing Club for helping us get organized and for suggesting that we serve lots of Nutella.

April is the Busiest Month

Author Neal Shusterman talking about Unbound and Unwholly

It has been such a busy week! We are planning a poetry reading for Friday, April 19. Eleventh grade CTR Reports were due on Monday. We had a pizza party for the 22 Middle Learning students who read at least 5 of the Georgia Children's Book Award Nominees. Unbound Book Club had some great discussions about The View from Saturday, The Westing Game, and Tangerine. Ms. Lander's eighth graders took on the characters of Civil Rights leaders and had dinner parties to discuss their lives. Ms. Salter's students are giving their presidential briefings about African countries. The sixth graders had a beautiful day for their Field of Streams field trip. And the UL book club is meeting to talk about Starters by Lissa Price on Thursday. We also had a fantastic Google+ call with author Neal Shusterman and all of our eighth graders. The kids asked such excellent questions that the conversation went on for an hour and twenty minutes and Neal wrote this to me via e-mail: "Glad it all worked out!  I really enjoyed speaking with your students today.  I was actually feeling a little under the weather this morning, but chatting with your students really energized me -- now I feel great,and ready to get out there and write!"

Pizza Party Today

Congratulations to the middle learning students who read five or more of the books nominated for the Georgia Peach Children's Book Award. Today we'll have pizza and dessert in the library and vote for our favorite books online. When you're ready to vote, click here.

Spring Break Reading

Every year we have a spring break photo contest for Middle Learning students. We get a lot of great photos of people reading wherever they are on spring break. All the photos are on display in the Middle Learning Commons, but you can also see all the digital submissions in our 2013 photo gallery here.

Science Experiments

This week the library is full of science experiments and ninth graders are giving presentations about their findings. Come take a look at all the fascinating work they have done.