We accepted the National School Library of the Year award in San Fran, and it was awesome!

Last spring we were thrilled to learn that our library had been selected as the American Association of School Libraries National School Library of 2015. The awards ceremony was held in San Francisco at the American Library Association's annual conference, and Ken Stewart and I were happy to travel out there to accept our award. The ceremony was so meaningful, and the conference was awesome! It was amazing to be around so many library professionals who are passionate about what they do, and I will definitely be returning in the future.

Here is picture of us with our (very heavy) award. Thanks so much to the AASL committee for selecting us, Follett for their generous award, our BVHS administration for helping us get to California, our three wonderful paraprofessionals, and the unparalled staff/students of Blue Valley High School!

Purple Hibiscus: The Highlight of my Summer Reading

Every once in a while I feel the urge to read something literary (sort of like when you sometimes crave broccoli). Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus had been chilling on my bookshelf for months, so I decided to give it a little attention. I had no idea that it would be the best book I read all summer!

Purple Hibiscus is the story of Kambili, a 15-year-old girl living in Enugu, Nigeria during a time of great political turmoil. Kambili and her brother Jaja come from a wealthy and highly-esteemed family, and are sheltered from the poverty and political unrest just beyond their doorstep.  But life for the members of Kambili's family is not as perfect as it seems, and her father's unrealistic expectations of his wife and child place great strain on their household. When Kambili and Jaja go to visit their progressive aunt and cousins and return to the house, they are able to look at their situation with new, more critical eyes.

My Summer Reading List! (Sort of)

It's time to go back to school, and I've been pretty terrible about updating the blog this summer (too busy reading!). Here are *some* of the books I read this summer! I've included a "book hook" for each (two statements about the book, a question, and a "recommended for" blurb). What did you read this summer?? 

CONVERSION- And you thought your high school experience was hard.

Let's be honest - we all judge books by their covers. Conversion has one of those covers that just screams "read me." On top of that amazing cover art, this book is about a girl who lives in present-day Salem, Massachusetts (yes, that Salem), and the narrative flips back and forth between the real-life characters who inspired The Crucible and the fictional girls living in Danvers, MA. Sounds good, right?

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN: Yes, I still read vampire books.

“Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty

things that wanted to kill and eat them.” 

E. Lockhart's WE WERE LIARS

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends -- the Liars -- whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies. 
True love.
The truth.

READY PLAYER ONE

“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.” 

This quote pretty much sums up what life is like for most people living in 2044. The income gap is not so much a gap anymore as it is a gulf separating the extremely rich and completely destitute. Wade, one of the have-nots, lives in a dismal world of poverty and lonliness, and the only time he feels alive or connected is when he is plugged into the virtual reality of Oasis, a simulation of the real world. Although Wade is content living in this virtual utopia, his only real shot at any sort of upward mobility in society is through a puzzle designed by the mysterious creator of Oasis himself. The winner of this puzzle is promised fame and riches beyond compare, and people would kill, quite literally, to solve it.