New Fiction Book of the Week

and the winner is...

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Click here for an sound clip from the audiobook

"Screenwriter, novelist and poet, Alexie bounds into YA with what might be a Native American equivalent of Angela's Ashes, a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful. Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior's desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, 'I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.' He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple ('red on the outside and white on the inside'), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: 'I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.' Readers begin to understand Junior's determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity. Jazzy syntax and Forney's witty cartoons examining Indian versus White attire and behavior transmute despair into dark humor; Alexie's no-holds-barred jokes have the effect of throwing the seriousness of his themes into high relief." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Study Hall Sign In Sheet

Ms. Tuleja and Ms. Kelly would like to commend the students who came to the library last night for study hall. The study hall sign in sheet was almost filled in almost perfectly with all directions on the sheet being followed by most thanks to a Ms. Alison Ann Fornell starting the group off right with her AMAZING sign in.

Let's see if we can get a perfect sign in sheet tonight!

In all seriousness though, the students have been great this semester in the library during study hall. The library has been an overall productive place to work and is left in great shape at the end of the evening. We would like to thank both our student and faculty proctors for their help. Please keep up the great work!

Photos from December Kids Read

A fun time was had by all at the December Kid's Read Event in the library. Stockton Bullitt read from the new Lemony Snickett book, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming. The Snapdragons, the girls acappella group made an appearance and sang Welcome Christmas (Fah who for-aze!) to the kids and then we all watched the cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Enjoy the Photos!

Tina Brown's Favorite Books

At our all school assembly today sponsored by the fabulous Women in Leadership Club, speaker Tina Brown, highlighted some of her favorite books. They are all available at the Nathaniel P. Hil Library. Come by and check them out!

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Often called the greatest nineteenth-century British novelist, George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) created in "Middlemarch" a vast panorama of life in a provincial Midlands town. At the story's center stands the intellectual and idealistic Dorothea Brooke--a character who in many ways resembles Eliot herself. But the very qualities that set Dorothea apart from the materialistic, mean-spirited society around her also lead her into a disastrous marriage with a man she mistakes for her soul mate. In a parallel story, young doctor Tertius Lydgate, who is equallyidealistic, falls in love with the pretty but vain and superficial Rosamund Vincy, whom he marries to his ruin. Eliot surrounds her main figures with a gallery of characters drawn from every social class, from laborers and shopkeepers to the rising middle class to members of the wealthy, landed gentry. Together they form an extraordinarily rich and precisely detailed portrait of English provincial life in the 1830s. But Dorothea's and Lydgate's struggles to retain their moral integrity in the midst of temptation and tragedy remind us that their world is very much like our own. Strikingly modern in its painful ironies and psychological insight, "Middlemarch" was pivotal in the shaping of twentieth-century literary realism. DESCRIPTION EXCERPTED FROM: http://http://www.amazon.com/

Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. DESCRIPTION EXCERPTED FROM: http://www.amazon.com/

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause célèbre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the twentieth century's novels of record not to the controversy its material aroused but to its author's use of that material to tell a love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness. Awe and exhilaration–along with heartbreak and mordant wit–abound in this account of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America, but most of all, it is a meditation on love–love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation. DECRIPTION TAKEN FROM: http://www.amazon.com/

"The conjunction of a sense of humor with a sense of horror [results in] satire of a very special kind, in which vice or folly is regarded not so much with scorn as with profound dismay and a measure of tragic sympathy…The reciprocal flow of irony gives to both the characters and their surroundings the peculiar intensity of significance that attends the highest art." —The New Yorker

Emma by Jane Austen
Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing.Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.
For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. DESCRIPTION TAKE FROM: http://www.amazon.com/

Censorship At It's Best

View The Golden Compass Movie Trailer here

As posted on the ALA website: Decemnber 4, 2007
ALA President Loriene Roy responds to attempts to remove "The Golden Compass" from library shelves

CHICAGO - The following is a statement issued by American Library Association President Loriene Roy regarding efforts to remove "The Golden Compass" from libraries and schools.

"This week, the movie, ‘The Golden Compass,’ based on the first book in Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy entitled ‘His Dark Materials,’ will debut in theatres across the United States. The movie has triggered a boycott campaign sponsored by conservative religious organizations that believe the movie and the books are an attack on Christianity and the Catholic Church. The groups are urging parents not to see the movie or purchase the books.

"The call to boycott the filmed version of ‘The Golden Compass’ has inspired a parallel effort to remove the novel and its companion volumes from libraries and schools. Much like efforts to ban the Harry Potter books, fear and misinformation are driving the effort to deprive students and library users access to Pullman's critically praised books, which are recommended by both religious and secular critics.

"It is one thing to disagree with the content of a book or the viewpoint of an author; it is quite another thing to block access to that material because of that disagreement. Removing a book from a school or library because the author is an atheist, or because a religious group disagrees with the book's viewpoint, is censorship that runs counter to our most cherished freedoms and our history as a nation that celebrates and protects religious diversity.

"We encourage librarians, teachers and parents to resist the call to censorship. Censorship results in the opposite of true education and learning. Young people will only develop the skills they need to analyze information and make choices among a wide variety of competing sources if they are permitted to read books and explore ideas under the guidance of caring adults.

"We realize, of course, that not every book is for everyone. Parents know their children best and should guide their children’s reading. If parents think a particular book is not suitable for their child, they should guide their child to other books. But they should not impose their beliefs on other people’s children.

"By resisting the call to censor and boycott ‘The Golden Compass,’ we send the message to young people that in this country they have the right to choose what they will read and that they will be expected to develop the ability to think critically about what they read, rather than allowing others to do their thinking for them." -from www.ala.org

Lemony Snicket and The Grinch

The Kid's Read event is scheduled for this Thursday from 6:30-7:30PM in the library. Stockton Bullitt will be reading Lemony Snicket's new book, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming. We will also show the cartoon verison of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas and have milk and cookies. Join us for the festivities. Click here for a description of the Snicket book.

World Digital Library

From the Library of Congress Website:

October 17, 2007

Library of Congress and UNESCO Sign World Digital Library Agreement

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and UNESCO Assistant Director for Communication and Information Abdul Waheed Khan today signed an agreement at UNESCO headquarters in Paris pledging cooperative efforts to build a World Digital Library Web site.

The World Digital Library will digitize unique and rare materials from libraries and other cultural institutions around the world and make them available for free on the Internet. These materials will include manuscripts, maps, books, musical scores, sound recordings, films, prints and photographs. The objectives of the World Digital Library include promoting international and intercultural understanding, increasing the quantity and diversity of cultural materials on the Internet, and contributing to education and scholarship.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Library of Congress and UNESCO will cooperate in convening working groups of experts and other stakeholders to develop guidelines and technical specifications for the project, enlist new partners and secure the necessary support for the project from private and public sources. A key aspect of the project is to build digital library capabilities in the developing world, so that all countries and regions of the world can participate and be represented in the World Digital Library.

To test the feasibility of the project, the Library of Congress, UNESCO and five other partner institutions -- the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt; the National Library of Brazil; the National Library of Egypt; the National Library of Russia; and the Russian State Library -- have developed a prototype of the World Digital Library. The prototype is being demonstrated to national delegations at the UNESCO General Conference currently underway. The World Digital Library will become available to the public as a full-fledged Web site in late 2008 or early 2009.

The prototype functions in the six U.N. languages -- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, plus Portuguese -- and features search and browse functionality by place, time, topic and contributing institution. Input into the design of the prototype was solicited through a consultative process that involved UNESCO, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and individuals and institutions in more than 40 countries.

"UNESCO has been an exceptional partner of the Library of Congress during the development of this important global resource," said Billington. "We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with UNESCO as we work with current and future partners in this exciting enterprise to bring the cultural treasures of the world to the world."

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States and the largest library in the world, with more than 134 million items in more than 450 languages. Its collections are universal in scope and available in all formats in which information is recorded. The Library seeks to further understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge and by celebrating human achievement.

Additional information about the World Digital Library can be found at http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/.

AP Photo Archive

AP Photo Archive is a searchable database that contains current and archived news photos and graphics. The database provides a variety of access points for searching. Categories include Domestic News, International News, Financial News, Sports, Entertainment News and a Featured Events section that highlights the most recent AP images.

The database can be accessed by going to the library intranet via Dragon. Follow these steps:

Enter: http://dragon/library

Click on DATABASES located on the left-hand column

Click on ACCUNET/AP PHOTO ARCHIVE

New Non-Fiction Book of the Week

The Slave Ship: A Human History by Marcus Rediker

From Publishers Weekly, Starred Review: In this groundbreaking work, historian and scholar Rediker considers the relationships between the slave ship captain and his crew, between the sailors and the slaves, and among the captives themselves as they endured the violent, terror-filled and often deadly journey between the coasts of Africa and America. While he makes fresh use of those who left their mark in written records (Olaudah Equiano, James Field Stanfield, John Newton), Rediker is remarkably attentive to the experiences of the enslaved women, from whom we have no written accounts, and of the common seaman, who he says was a victim of the slave trade... and a victimizer. Regarding these vessels as a strange and potent combination of war machine, mobile prison, and factory, Rediker expands the scholarship on how the ships not only delivered millions of people to slavery, [but] prepared them for it. He engages readers in maritime detail (how ships were made, how crews were fed) and renders the archival (letters, logs and legal hearings) accessible. Painful as this powerful book often is, Rediker does not lose sight of the humanity of even the most egregious participants, from African traders to English merchants. (Oct. 8) .

New Fiction of the Week

Sofi Mendoza's Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico by Malin Alegria

From Booklist: What's the harm in a little white lie?" wonders Mexican-born, Orange County resident Sofi Mendoza, who attends a classmate's house party near Tijuana against her parents' wishes. On the 17-year-old's return, she's stopped at the border and learns the impossible: her green card is false. Barred from reentering the U.S., she takes refuge with a Mexican aunt she's never met, and while her parents fight legal battles, she gradually shifts from terror and sneering disapproval of her relatives to openhearted love and gratitude. As in Estrella's Quinceañera (2006), Alegria combines chick-lit elements with a girl's struggle to define her Mexican American identity.

The Future of Books

In case any of you are pondering the future of print books like us here in the library, I would like to share with you all the cover article from the November 26, 2007 issue of Newsweek.

The cover claims "Books Aren't Dead. (They're Just Going Digital.)" The article discussed how CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos is releasing his newest component of Amazon.com, the Amazon Kindle. The Amazon Kindle is an electronic device for reading e-books. The Kindle is light and about the size of a paperback book. Bezos believes that it will be the next "it" tech gadget.

Surely we are all moving towards a digital environment but our question is does the introduction of this new and improved e-book reader from a technically savvy company like Amazon.com hold the fate of the printed word in it's hands? Take a look around campus, as everyone walks by with i-Pod earbuds in, imagine everyone reading books on a little handheld screen. Can't picture it? We're having a hard time too, but check out the full article in Newsweek. Like Bezos says "it's so ambitious to take something as highly evolved as a the book and improve on it. And change the way people read." It's defintely Kindled our interest.

NEA Report Finds Teens Are Reading Less for Fun

A report published by the National Endowment for the Arts in November 2007 entitled, To Read or Not To Read, analyzes reading trends for youth and adults, and readers of various education levels. Among the key findings:

Americans are reading less:

• Teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time compared with other age groups and with Americans of previous years.

• Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

• On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading

Source: National Endowment for the Arts website http://www.nea.gov/news

Let's get reading....proove them wrong and read for fun over the holiday break! Stop by the library and check out the Books for Fun display.....all of the books can be checked out and many more are avilable in the Fiction section....come by the library and have a look!

Nathaniel P. Hill Library Closed for Thanksgiving Break

The Nathaniel P. Hill Library will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday break.

Open: Saturday, November 17th: 7:30AM to 11:00AM

Closed: Sunday, November 18th to Monday, November 26th

We will resume our regular hours beginning Tuesday, November 27th as follows:

Monday - Sunday: 7:30AM to 10:00PM

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

New Non-Fiction of the Week

From Publishers Weekly: In this groundbreaking biography of a central figure in the fight to end South African apartheid, O'Malley draws on every aspect of Maharaj's life and the society in which he lived in order to understand South Africa's changing racial and political context over the past 100 years. Based on extensive interviews with Maharaj, this is an often harrowing read, recounting his torture as a political prisoner and the many difficulties and setbacks suffered by underground activists within and outside of South Africa. Maharaj—a first-person narrator in most of the book—comes across as an imperfect and deeply human hero, animated by his stubborn streak to devote his entire life to the cause. (Apr.)

Fiction Book of the Week

From Publishers Weekly: A delightfully dark story of Sam Pulsifer, the accidental arsonist and murderer narrator who leads readers through a multilayered, flame-filled adventure about literature, lies, love and life. Growing up in Amherst, Mass., with an editor for a father and an English teacher for a mother, Sam was fed endless stories that fueled (literally and figuratively) the rest of his life. Thus, the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction, story and reality become the landscape for amusing and provocative adventures that begin when, at age 18, Sam accidentally torches the Emily Dickinson Homestead, killing two people. After serving 10 years, Sam tries to distance himself from his past through college, employment, marriage and fatherhood, but he eventually winds up back in his parents' home, separated from his wife and jobless. When more literary landmarks go up in flames, Sam is the likely suspect, and his determination to find the actual arsonist uncovers family secrets and more than a bit about human nature. Sam is equal parts fall guy and tour guide in this bighearted and wily jolt to the American literary legacy. (Sept.)

2007 Top Ten List of Teen Books

2007 Top Ten List of Books Voted on by Teen Book Groups
source: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/teenstopten.cfm

1. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
2. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Viking Children’s Books, 2006)
3. How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles (Flux, 2006).
4. Maximum Ride: School’s Out – Forever by James Patterson (Hachette Book Group USA/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
5. Firegirl by Tony Abbott (Hachette Book Group USA/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
6. ll Hallows Eve (13 Stories)by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt, 2006).
7. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Harcourt, 2006).
8. River Secrets by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2006).
9. Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe (HarperCollins, 2006).
10. Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks (Chicken House, 2006).

December Kid's Read Event

The Nathaniel P. Hill Library is hosting its second Kid's Read Event, Thursday, December 6th at 6:30PM. A guest narrator will read The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket and we will have snacks and watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
Photo: October 2007 Kid's Read Event