The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

In my Readers Advisory class, I am reading a different genre every week (this week, romance - - eeeew!) and then writing a review.  I figured that would be a good thing to include here for many reasons, not the least of which, maybe later I'll want to remember what book I read, but won't have access to the course online anymore.  For now, I want to share the book The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by D.C. Pierson.  I personally hope this becomes a movie because it would be fabulous, as long as it stays true to the book.

THE BOY WHO COULDN’T SLEEP AND NEVER HAD TO, by D. C. Pierson. New York: Vintage Books, 2010. 226 pp. 978-0-307-47461-2. The prologue begins compellingly: “All the newspapers and TV pundits are calling this fall’s freshman college class the ‘Symnitol Generation.’” Symnitol, we find out, is a pharmacological solution to man's desire to stay awake, to have more hours in the day, and this is the story of how this came to be. When the action in this fast-paced, action-driven novel begins, the narrator, Darren, tells about his passion for drawing but also for staying out of sight at high school. This is shattered when Eric, a very strange boy with an oddly mature presence, takes note of Darren’s drawing and they become quick friends as they work on a comic book-movie-video game project. When Eric tells Darren about his “thing” - not having the ability or need to sleep - Darren is incredulous but then a believer. When the two realize the extent of Eric’s powers, their worst fears of "The Man" become reality, and the action really begins. The ending is unsettling and yet satisfying as the book comes full circle. Surprisingly slated as adult fiction, this title appropriately won an Alex Award, as teens will delight in this book. Graphic novel fans that want to read a traditional book will enjoy this fast-paced title with lots of twists and turns.

Author interview can be found here.

PU! What's that smell?

Evening storytime last night was lots of fun!  Started with the welcome song, then introduced the theme - what do you get when you mix melted snow + dirt?  That's right, MUD!  So we talked about dirty, stinky, and smelly stuff.  You might call it the anti-spring cleaning.  I had a fantastic group of kids and parents who were so engaged, you gotta love it!

Dirt Boy by Erik Jon Slangerup

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup

Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemsha, and of course, I had to end with:

I Stink! by Kate & Jim McMullan

We also sang Barney's clean-up song (I didn't call it that - do kids watch Barney anymore?), did wishy-washy-wee from Kindermusik fame, and a rhyme about 5 green garbage trucks (had the kids come up and help with that).  I considered Oscar the Grouch's "I Like Trash," but opted for more fingerplays and less recordings. 

This was my last evening storytime before I start my job in July as a K-12 teacher librarian.  My elementary practicum cooperating librarian is also a K12TL, and she does storytimes with fingerplays in her preschools and kindergarten.  So I will still get to have fun with these little ones!  And not to brag (okay, maybe a little), they actually applauded.  What the heck!  But the greatest was when I got hugs from like six different kids.  That absolutely rocks.

What's new, buckaroo?

I hadn't done storytime for a few weeks and this week I'm doing it four times (two themes)!  My first theme was "What's New?" and it featured picture books all published in 2011.

 

Hello Goodbye and a Very Little Lie by Christianne Jones

Monster Day at Work by Sarah Dyer

Penny Loves Pink by Cori Doerrfeld

Mr. Duck Means Business by Tammi Sauer

Cat Secrets by Jeff Czejak

Rhymes and fingerplays were "Five elephants in the bathtub" which was new for me, from the filing cabinet, and then two fun ones from the ladies at the Hennepin County Librarian up north:

And:

Mmmmm!  Delicioso!

My Wordle

 

Click on this to make it bigger and easier to see.

Obviously, my being a MOM is bigger part of my life than I've put here, but is as it relates to my new job at Manson Northwest Webster Schools in Manson, Iowa, as the K-12 teacher-librarian/technology integrationist!

Library without books?

Well, not without books, but without printed books.  That's what Cushing Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts, has.  It seems to be working for them.  It's a high school with a 1:1 laptop initiative and e-readers with those.  I remember scoffing when I first heard about this school, but students do learn differently now, or should, if we're doing it right.  But reading is reading is reading, is it not?  Does it matter the form it takes?  (In fact, the Wall Street Journal quotes a study saying that people read more with e-readers.)

I wish the Kindle would work with the Overdrive books that are free from the public library already - then I'd buy one and see for myself!

My favorite things

One of the best part of librarianship for me is how varied it is.  Every day is something new! Seriously, at the public library, you just never know what will happen.  I asked my mentor once what a typical day for her was like and she said there was no typical day, and then described what the previous day had been like, which involved all sorts of things you just don't learn in library school.  

My favorite thing about my job, though, is when a child comes up and wants help finding a book to read.  The other day, a girl came up and she totally soaked up every book idea I put in front of her.  (Of course, there's been some who don't like any book I suggest!)

But by far my favorite part of librarianship in general is the idea of information literacy.  I imagine that for those who have been librarians for awhile, it's been amazing to see the transformation from a bricks and mortar institution to one where there are no limits to information.  Seriously, people don't need librarians to find information.  There is no dearth of information out there.  But then that goes into the idea of information literacy - finding, assessing, and using information.  Finding is finding good information which of course is done through assessing.  But assessing is also figuring out if information is good for your purposes - it might be a solid, trustworthy resource but not have anything to do with what you are doing.  Then using information is not only writing a report or making a Power Point - it's using alternative methods like Glogster and Jing and Prezi (or, like I've done here, creating a presentation using HTML - isn't so much more interesting than a Power Point?), and even more, creating content.  My oldest daughter is great at doing things like this.  She made a video for her sister's birthday using iMovie and posted it on You Tube (not listing it, so you have to have the link to see it).  That video totally makes me cry!

I graduate in 168 days! 

Practicum!

I try to be a ducks-in-a-row sort of person.  You might not believe that if you saw my kitchen right now, cluttered with dishes, or you knew that there's two library books I can't find in this house (one an ILL!).  But I do.  So I emailed my advisor in early January about doing my practicum in the fall.  She misunderstood me, and wrote back saying oh sure, there was enough time to get my practicum together yet this spring.  I wrote back and said, "Wha- wha- what?"  I try to be completely on top of things as far as my classes go and I thought I had to have cataloging done before I do the practicum (taking that this semester), but apparently it's 4 out of 5 mandatory classes and I have the others done.  Well this changes things!  This means I can GRADUATE in July!  (I won't walk until December, though.)  This changes career path sort of things too because I can say I'll have my endorsement by the new school year instead of needing a temporary endorsement.  Woo hoo!!!

Here's a great little video that we've been singing all day this lazy Sunday ("Don't you ever interrupt me when I'm reading a book!"):