Ringing in the New Year with the ALA Youth Media Awards

The Youth Media Awards will be announced on the morning of January 11th during ALA's midwinter conference!  This is always an exciting time of year for Howe-Manning students!  We build up to the event with our own Mock Caldecott appropriately called the Howe-Mannicott award.  Students examine several books published in 2015 and, based on several criteria, try to predict the Caldecott and Newbery winners.  So...who will win the 2016 Caldecott Medal awarded for the most distinguished illustrations in a children's picture book? There are some great contenders this year.  Here are a few.  Click on the book covers for more information!

Here are a few contenders for the John Newbery Medal awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Database of the Month: Gale's Research in Context

Gale recently expanded its suite of databases to include a resource designed just for middle school students in Grades 6-8. This is a great authoritative, cross-disciplinary, and curriculum aligned research tool.

Categories cover the most-studied topics including cultures, government, people, U.S. history, sports, world history, geography, literature, science, and social issues.

Engaging reference, periodical, and multimedia content includes books, images, biographies, audio, video, magazines, newspapers, creative works, primary sources, and more!

This database is offered free of charge to member libraries of the Massachusetts Library System and may be accessed from the Howe-Manning website on my specialist web page.

The Book Fair Is Coming!

The Scholastic "Monster" Book Fair will be set up in the library Monday, December 7th through Friday, December 11th. All proceeds will benefit the library.  Hope to see you there!

Introducing New Database: Britannica ImageQuest

Need images for your report, project, brochure, website, or slide presentation? Howe-Manning has just added a new database to its electronic collection that can help you out! It is called Britannica ImageQuest. This database offers safe access to over 3-million rights-cleared images from the world's leading collections. Britannica ImageQuest offers a convenient go-to site where you do not have to worry about copyright infringement. Share images and/or organize images into albums and store for future use. ImageQuest will also generate citations for images; an important research skill all students need to master!  Britannica ImageQuest may be accessed from the library specialist website. Please see me for log-in information!

Summer Reading and MCBA 2015-2016

The MCBA list of nominated titles is the summer reading list for students entering 4th, 5th, and 6th grade! Here is the link to the master list:

MCBA Master List 2015-2016

Click on the book covers below for more information about this year's nominated titles!

Interesting Article!

Here is an article detailing a recent study about how good school library programs make a difference in student achievement!

Washington Study

Howe-Manning Students Visit the Flint!

Every class in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade walked over to visit the Flint Public Library last week!  Students were informed about where to find books for summer reading and also learned about Flint's Summer Reading Program.  Students then had the opportunity to put their new library cards to use to check out books. Make sure to visit the Flint Public Library this summer!

New MCBA Nominees Announced for 2015-2016!

Salem State University recently announced a new list of 25 books nominated to win the Massachusetts Children's Book Award.  Students in grades 4-6 will read from this list throughout the school year.  After reading 5 books from the list, students will be eligible to vote for the winner in March.  We center many fun activities around this list including a raffle!   Please visit the Salem State University website for more information on the MCBA program.

Salem State University MCBA Program

Here is the link to the Master List:   

2015-2016 MCBA Master List

Circulation is on the Rise!

Howe-Manning students and staff have checked-out an astounding 8,032 books this school year!  This number is up by almost 1,000 books when compared to the number of books checked out at the same time last year!  Amazing!  Keep reading everyone!

Salem State University Announces the 2015 MCBA Winner

The results are in!  Massachusetts students in grades 4, 5, and 6 have made their voices heard and decided that Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine is most deserving of this year's Massachusetts Children's Book Award.  There were also four MCBA honor books:  Son of Neptune by Rick Riordon, Dewey the Library Cat by Vicki Myron, The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein, and I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis.
We anxiously await the new list of 25 nominated books to be announced some time in May!

2015 MCBA Winners

March is Women's History Month!

Here are some great read-alouds to celebrate Women's History Month!

 

Introducing Two New Databases!

Two new databases have been added to our library's electronic collection.  One is called FreedomFlix and the other is a suite of six databases called Scholastic Go!

FreedomFlix is a collection of eBooks about American History from the best-selling Cornerstones of Freedom series. The database truly brings history to life with primary source audio and videoclips, virtual tours, maps, and timelines.

The award-winning, curriculum-aligned resources in Scholastic Go! include:
Two general reference resources:

• The New Book of Knowledge
• The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia

Two science intensive resources:

• Amazing Animals of the World
• The New Book of Popular Science

Two Social Studies intensive resources:

• America the Beautiful
• Lands and Peoples

Click on the Online Databases tab above to take a look!  All library databases may be accessed from my library specialist webpage or from the library catalog!

ALA Announces 2015 Newbery Winner

The John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature was awarded to Crossover by Kwame Alexander.

Newbery Honors went to Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and El Deafo by Cece Bell.

Visit the ALA website to view a complete list of award winners!

Howe-Manning Students Pick Caldecott Winner!

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded every year to the children's picture book with the most distinguished illustrations. Howe-Manning students recently participated in a Mock Caldecott whereby students examined picture books published in 2014 and rated them based on a list of criteria.  The ALA announced the winners and agreed hands down with Howe-Manning students!  The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend written and illustrated by Dan Santat was announced as this year's Caldecott winner.  There were SIX books chosen to win the Caldecott Honor!  They are:

Winner of the 2015 Caldecott Award

Nana in the City written and illustrated by Lauren Castillo
The Noisy Paintbox by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary GrandPre
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
Viva Frida written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales
The Right Word by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki This one is a graphic novel!

The Legacies of Mandela and MLK

Sixth graders recently read two picture book biographies titled Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson and Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.  We talked about apartheid and segregation and discussed the meaning of the word "legacy." We discussed how these two important historical figures achieved change and left a legacy of nonviolent protest and reconciliation.  Students were then challenged to think and write about their own legacies and how they would like to be remembered at the Howe-Manning School once they move on to 7th grade.

Database of the Month: Kids InfoBits

Kids InfoBits is a database designed for elementary school-age students.  It includes a broad range of authoritative, searchable content from books, magazines, news sources and images.  Broad subject categories include animals, arts, geography, health, literature, music, people, plants, science, social studies, sports, and technology.  Categories and subcategories are labeled with representative images so that students may visually understand hierarchical relationships and connections.  This is a great tool to support 21st century learning and may be accessed from my specialist website or from the library catalog.

Kids Infobits is offered free to member libraries of the Massachusetts Library System through stated and federal funding and does NOT require a username and password to access! Simply click on the link and you are ready to research!