_Did you know you can search for library books from home? The MBUSD district-wide library catalog is available online at destiny.mbusd.org. Click on the Robinson link at the bottom of the Elementary School section to access our catalog. (You can also access it by clicking on the Destiny Library Manager image on our homepage.) But, wait -- there's more! You can now search for books on-the-go with the free Destiny Quest app. What's the point of looking for library books away from school or home? I see myself using the app when I'm not on a computer (which is often, at home); when I'm at the public library or the bookstore and I need to find out which books are already in our collection; and when I'm working with colleagues off-site and we're talking about/researching books. The interface of Destiny Quest is user-friendly and I anticipate it being a helpful tool for primary grade students who are still learning how to type and search online. Second graders will be learning how to use the app in March when it is installed on the school iPads.The free app, available through the Apple iTunes App Store or Android Marketplace, runs on iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads with iOS 4.2 or later, and on Android 2.1-2.3.7 phones. To download the app to your own device, go to the iTunes App Store or Android Marketplace and search for Destiny Quest, click on the app name, then click on Free and Install to install it.  _Once the app is installed, you need to set it up by clicking on the "Try Destiny Quest" button and entering our district url: http://destiny.mbusd.org.
Then, select Robinson Elementary from the list of MBUSD schools. You can now access the library as a guest.
 __Here’s some of what you can do with the new app:- Search for books in our collection
- See the top ten recent checkouts
- See recent additions to our collection
- Access resource lists of books on different topics
[Click on the images below to enlarge them.]
_For more information on the app and to view a video on how to use it, you can visit the Follett Destiny Quest App website. You are also, of course, more than welcome to come see me in the library for a short demonstration.[Thank you to Mira Costa Teacher Librarian, Mrs. Lofton, for allowing me to modify her original blog post about the app.]
 _The American Library Association hosts the annual awards ceremony during its Midwinter Meeting in January (held in Dallas this year).
John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature:
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (FIC GAN)
John Newbery Honor Books:
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (FIC YEL)
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:
A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka (E RAS)
Randolph Caldecott Honor Books:
Blackout illustrated and written by John Rocco
Grandpa Green illustrated and written by Lane Smith (E SMI)
Me … Jane illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell (E MCD)
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:
Kadir Nelson, author and illustrator of Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (973 NEL)
Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books:
Eloise Greenfield, author of The Great Migration: Journey to the North (811 GRE)
Patricia C. McKissack, author of Never Forgotten (E MCK)
Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:
Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book:
Kadir Nelson, illustrator and author of Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (973 NEL)
Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Ashley Bryan is the winner of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime achievement.
Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book:
Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider (RL 3 SCH)
Theodor Geisel Honor Books:
I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems (RL 1 WIL)
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (E KLA)
See Me Run by Paul Meisel (E MEI)
Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:
The Jury chose not to award a book in the category for children ages 0 – 8 because no submissions were deemed worthy of the award.
Two books were selected for the middle school award (ages 9 – 13):
close to famous by Joan Bauer (PB BAU)
Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick (FIC SEL)
The teen (ages 14-18) award winner:
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States:
Soldier Bear (originally published in Dutch in 2008 as “Soldaat Wojtek) by Bibi Dumon Tak
Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book:
The Lily Pond by Annika Thor
Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience:
Diego Rivera: His World and Ours illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, written by Duncan Tonatiuh
Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Books:
The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos (E VAM)
Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match / Marisol McDonald no combina illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica Brown (E BRO)
Pura Belpré (Author) Award:
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Pura Belpré Author Honor Books:
Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle
Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children:
Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet
Robert F. Sibert Honor Books:
Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor by Larry Dane Brimner
Drawing from Memory by Allen Say
The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell and Donna M. Jackson
Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzerand
Stonewall Book Award -Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience:
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
Stonewall Honor Books:
a + e 4ever by Ilike Merey
Money Boy by Paul Yee
Pink by Lili Wilkinson
with or without you by Brian Farrey
Odyssey Award for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States:
Rotters produced Listening Library (book by Daniel Kraus)
Odyssey Honor audiobooks:
Ghetto Cowboy produced by Brilliance Audio (book by G. Neri)
Okay for Now produced by Listening Library (by Gary D. Schmidt)
The Scorpio Races produced by Scholastic Audiobooks (by Maggie Stiefvater)
Young Fredle produced by Listening Library (by Cynthia Voigt)
Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video:
Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard of Weston Woods Studios, Inc., producers of Children Make Terrible Pets, based on the book by Peter Brown (E BRO)
Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
The Returning by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan
The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens by Brooke Hauser
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston
The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo
William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens:
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
William C. Morris Award finalists:
Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults, ages 12 – 18, each year:
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalists:
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin
Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults:
Susan Cooper is the 2012 Edwards Award winner. Her books include: The Dark Is Rising Sequence: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark Is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; and Silver on the Tree.
May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children's literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site:
Michael Morpurgo
_Well, I was hoping to have high circulation figures for December, but I think most of us were a bit distracted with the book fair, parent-teacher conferences, and the upcoming holiday season. Riptides checked out 839 books and placed 54 holds during the month, compared to 767 books checked out during the same period in 2010. I hope 2012 is a record-breaking reading year for us ... let's go Riptide Readers!
_Even though November is a short school month, students checked out quite a few books. The library circulated 1,280 books (about 100 more than the same period last year) and placed 53 holds (about half are for the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Cabin Fever). Harry Potter was bumped from the Top 3 this month; our highest circulating books were Al Capone Does My Shirts (read by 5th graders), Guinness World Records 2011, and Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. I'm thrilled that students are really enchanted with -- and clamoring to read about -- Peter Nimble.
Three classes checked out an average of at least four books per student: Ms. Whalley (4.67 books/student), Mrs. Herbert (4.23 books/student), and Ms. Carlin/Mrs. Ibrahim (4.09 books/student). But the three students who checked out the most books in November were fourth graders (with 14, 15, and 16 books checked out each).
 November is Picture Book Month! Celebrate and appreciate fantastic picture books. What are your favorite picture books, whether from your own childhood or from reading aloud to your children? One of my favorites growing up was The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (first published in 1942!); I credit that book in planting the seed for my interest in urban planning. In high school, a close friend gifted me Jon Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which reignited my love for children's literature. It also reminded me that "kids' books" can be smart and funny, and the picture book format is sometimes the perfect way to convey wittiness for all age ranges. Some of my current favorites are the Scaredy Squirrel books by Melanie Watt, anything by Mo Willems and Peter Brown, and books illustrated by Sophie Blackall, Peter Sis, and Shaun Tan. Lately, I've also been interested in picture book biographies. There are so many fantastic ones published in the last few years: What to Do About Alice: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!, Queen of the Falls, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend), Bottle Houses: The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey, and Grandfather's Journey are a few that come to mind. (We have all of these books in the Robinson Library collection, FYI.) When my son was younger, we often read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell because he shared his small stature with Molly Lou. For my daughter, who is currently learning to read, picture books are the perfect medium for her to be an independent reader. Like many other children her age, books by Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, and are particularly helpful and enjoyable. Children's book author and expert, Anita Silvey, recently wrote an essay for School Library Journal about why she thinks the picture book market is the way it is now; she has experience in writing and publishing (and reading, of course). I find that her point about the author needing to be half the equation is incredibly valid: let the author write, don't restrict them on word count, let them tell a story. (By the way, Anita's Children's Book-a-Day Almanac is an amazing resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and book lovers.)
 And in the tradition of November being National Novel Writing Month, there's also Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo). This probably ties in really well with giving authors a bigger voice to develop their stories. The concept behind PiBoIdMo is to come up with an idea a day for a picture book during November, and to use the rest of the year to develop those ideas into a manuscript.
And lastly, I leave you with the Picture Book Manifesto, created by a group of picture book authors and illustrators. As readers, it doesn't hurt to remember some of these points:
 We had such a FANTASTIC visit with Jonathan Auxier last Friday! His presentation about his book Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes was so entertaining and engaging; the kids got a kick out of his yo-yo tricks, his "experiment" about using all of your senses, and his wonderful way of talking about reading and writing. He's truly dynamic, theatrical, and oh-so-likeable! Thank you to our fourth and fifth graders for being an attentive and enthusiastic audience. A special thanks to the teachers for allowing me to take time out of their busy schedules to have our first library-hosted author visit. And I can't forget to thank our volunteers (students and teachers) who were good sports and volunteered to be "guinea pigs" for Jonathan's demonstration about using our senses. Jonathan extends his thanks to those students who went out and purchased his book. He and his wife also said this was the one of the best school visits they've had! We were lucky enough to be his last school visit in Southern California before he and his wife moved to Pittsburgh. All of the pictures from the day are posted at Ms. Yukari's flickr site. Here are some pictures from the 4th grade presentation:
After the 5th grade presentation Jonathan visited the students in Mrs. Lindsay's class to talk about the writing and editing process. It took him four years to write the book and he went through 20 drafts before the book was published! We also got news that he's currently working on two news books, one of which is a sequel of sorts about Peter and Sir Tode's adventures post-Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes.
And some other pictures from Jonathan's day at Robinson, our short visit to {pages: a bookstore}, and his signing at Mysterious Galaxy after school (that kid is my son, who was dressed up as Sherlock Holmes for Halloween): Sorry the following video is sideways; I'm still trying to figure out how to rotate it. In the meantime, please turn your head to the left to watch Jonathan doing one of his amazing yo-yo tricks (I think it was called the Jedi Mind Trick). His, "See, they like it!" comment at the end is directed at his wife, who isn't impressed with this trick for some reason!
If you don't know anything about Peter Nimble, I suggest you check out the book trailer:
October was a busy month in the cataloging and processing department here in the library. With the help of volunteers Mrs. Theodore and Ms. Lepper I was able to process 90 new books this month alone! You can always see what new books are in the library on the New Books page of the library's google website. I wasn't the only busy one during October -- so were our Riptide readers! The library circulated 2,141 books (up from 1,693 from the same period last year) and placed 96 holds (many were for the 2012 Guinness World Records (031.02 GUI) and for Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes (FIC AUX)). Harry Potter continues to be a popular book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone clenched the top two spots as the most checked-out books for October (12 times and 11 times, respectively). I've noticed that, by grade level, third grade seems to check out the most books. They're allowed to check out three books at a time and they're at an age where they read a multitude of book formats (picture books, chapter books (both short and long), graphic novels, joke books, magazines, etc.) that they can finish reading in a week. In contrast, fourth and fifth graders, although they're allowed to check out more books, take longer to finish reading a book because of the book's length (and probably because they don't have as much free time); they're also more likely to concentrate on one book at a time, instead of checking out many books. I think these reasons explain why the top three homerooms in terms of circulation statistics are all third grade classes: Mrs. Tanita (234 books, 9.75 books/student), Ms. Whalley (232 books, 9.28 books/student), and Ms. Whitt-Stopp (176 books, 7.33 books/student).
 I am so excited to announce that author Jonathan Auxier will be visiting our school on Friday, October 28! Jonathan is the author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, one of my favorite books of the summer. He will be making a presentation to fourth grade (8:45~9:40) and fifth grade (10:45~11:30). The fourth graders are already becoming familiar with Peter Nimble because I am reading it aloud to them during library time. They love it and don't want me to stop reading it! We will not be selling the book through school but if you would like to purchase a copy you can get it at the following stores. Whatever store you choose to go to, I suggest calling ahead to make sure there are copies in-stock. If you purchase a book and would like Jonathan to sign it, please bring me your book by Thursday afternoon (October 27). I will mark your book with a Post-It so that Jonathan can sign it to your child and so that I can return your child's book by the end of school on Friday. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, we are not able to have Jonathan sign books while students wait. Jonathan will also be signing his book at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach that afternoon at 3pm.
 Bridge to Books is at it again! They're hosting another fantastic event with a great lineup of authors. So much attention has been given to why boys stop reading, but what about the boys who continue to love reading (my son is one of them)? What about the boys (whether readers or non-readers as youngsters) who grow up to be fantastic authors? They're bringing them all together at The Why Chromosome: Why Boys Do Love Books event on Sunday, October 30 at Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop in La Verne. Six authors will be presenting and signing. Half are Middle Grade (MG) authors and the others are Young Adult (YA) authors: Andrew Smith (YA: Stick), Greg Van Eekhout (MG: Kid Vs. Squid), Allen Zadoff (YA: My Life, the Theater and Other Tragedies), Jonathan Auxier (MG: Peter Nimble & His Fantastic Eyes), John Stephens (MG: The Emerald Atlas), and G. Neri (YA: Ghetto Cowboy). Click here to read short bios about the authors. This is a great opportunity to talk to them about their own experiences as readers and then as writers. You can still purchase tickets ($17.50 each for admission, a swag bag, and snacks), and I hope you do -- I'll be there as one of the photographers, and I know that Mrs. Snively from the Grand View Library and Mrs. Jones from the Pacific Library will also be there.
 Without fail, the second we change the calendar page to October, the students are clamoring for Halloween books. I try to pull out as many Halloween and scary books as possible; please see the display under the bulletin board in the reading rug area. Here are a few of the new Halloween-themed books I purchased this year:- Shadow by Suzy Lee (E LEE)
- Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth (E MUT)
- Vunce Upon a Time by J. Otto Seibold (E SEI)
- Candy Fairies, Halloween Special: Gooey Goblins by Helen Perelman (PB PER)
- The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn (PB HAH)
- Guys Read: Thriller edited by Jon Scieszka (PB SCI)
One of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, is a master of creepy storytelling. (He wrote Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and The Dangerous Alphabet.) He recently started a Halloween reading tradition: All Hallow's Read. Instead of -- or in addition to -- giving out candy on Halloween, give away a scary book to a friend, family member, or stranger. Share the scare!
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