Rainbow Party
website accessibility-children's literature: A great book Another suggested book in my YA lit class is a controvercial one- "Rainbow Party" by Paul Ruditis. I had never heard of this one to, and had to order it- Borders will not carry it in their stores. If you want to get it for your teen, a WARNING ...it is about sex. And not just sex- a bunch of teens are planning a 'rainbow party'. So? A rainbow party consists of 6 girls and 6 guys. Each girl wears a different lipstick color (red, yellow, orange, green, purple and blue) and they take turns giving each boy oral sex so they have a 'rainbow' around their....well, you get it. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2005-05-22-rainbow-usat_x.htm is a general article (many others are similar) on the book. Of course the book (and its language, which I have heard 14-year-olds say many times) will be controvercial. I found it interesting, not that it was particularily well-written (it isn't) or the characters interesting (except for the sex-ed teacher, they are superficial), or the language shocking to me. It was that, as a 40-year-old who has been around, I had never heard of a rainbow party, and to find out that this is a supposed growing practice among young teens (according to Oprah). Yikes-and I wasn't allowed to even date til I was 16..... Anyways, it is an interesting book, and how to handle this in a library setting would be interesting......cannot wait til we have our lecture on banned books in class!!! When I was 14, "Forever" by Judy Blume was the book to sneak home to read. Seems tame in comparison.....
A great book
website accessibility-children's literature I have a Young Adult Lit course this semester, and one of the ladies in my reading group recommended a great book to me. I had never heard of it, but as she is a teacher, she has more experience with childrens' lit than I do as a LIS student. The book is "The Giver" by Lois Lowry , and it won the Newbery Award in 1994. The site for Ms. Lowry is www.loislowry.com and is a very user-friendly site. What a interesting book! http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/give.html is a good site in explaining the book....has comments by the author, including audio...and suggestions for the classroom. Another good one is http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/giver.html. Check out this book- I really enjoyed it, and will use this in the future.
website accessibility-children's literature
Been out of commission for awhile...
Boy, has this been a rough year for me so far! Right after my birthday (Jan. 23), I got HIT by the flu! I was out of work and school for 2 weeks, which REALLY set me back. I had the flu, no appetite at all (OK- that was a good thing- I lost 12 lbs), and I had an extreme case of tonsilitis. I also had insomnia very bad- I did not sleep a wink for 4 days running. Well, I slowly started to get better, but with so much homework to catch up on (thank goodness my profs are very nice and understanding) and being so far behind in income, I was working 6 days a week and trying to catch up on my work and SURPRIZE I got the flu AGAIN last week-end, just in time to complicate my midterm!!! I still have this annoying cough and stuffy nose, but I took some more time off work to hopefully shake this thing for good!! UGGG!!! Anyways, this is why I have not done any more enteries since my first.
Website Accessibility
For my Information Technology course, our first assignment is to create a Blog. Now, I have to admit that this is my first one, so please be kind! We had to pick a topic on technology of some type, and one of the suggestions, website technology , intregued me. I am not a big techie, to say the least! However, I do have to use search engines alot at work to help patrons with their needs, and I know that, as a youth librarian, I will be asked by countless parents, grandparents, caregivers and children on what books do I reccomend. Website accessability is essential in this area, for many adults, let alone children, really do not know where to start. A parent may remember a favorite author that they would like to introduce to their child, but what if the child has to do an authors' report? Websites on these authors can be very helpful, but many do not have their own, personal website. If they do not, how does one find the information? That is where I, the librarian, will come in handy. I can easily pull up lists of authors (Newbery and Caldecott winners; banned authors; best sellers, ect.), and I can have many suggestions as to helpful websites. Childrens' literature is not really a difficult area to investigate on the web, if you know where to start. A great site to begin is www.ala.org. This site will guide you to many great childrens' books and authors. It is alos wonderful for general information on so many other books. A must to set to your favorites! Another good one is www.mnstate.edu/cmc/Bibliographies/NewberyAuthorsAlphabetical.html. This has a nice breakdown of the award winners. www.carr.org/read/newberyauthors.html is another. If you want a very good official authors' page, check out www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com. She has audio clips, project suggetions, q& a about her books, and helpful hints for children on how to write their own books. If one wants information and photos of Laura Ingalls Wilder, then www.liwms.com is the best. This memorial society, which runs the LIW museum in DeSmet, SD, is full of great information of this classic author. Links to many other sites, including the other LIW homesites, are availiable. Margurite Henry does not have an official page, but two links have alot of info on the author and the horse Misty. www.mistyofchincoteague.org/mhenry.html is good, as is www.imh.org/imh/bw/chinco.html, the Chincoteague pony home page. These are just a few that I have discovered, and rather easily. I will be adding more in the near future! Happy reading!!
About me....
Hi!! I thought that I should first introduce myself. My name is Lori, and I am a Library Science student at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I have worked in the WSU library system for more than four years now, and I love it! I am currently in my first year as a Masters student, having received my Bachelors in Fine Arts (painting) last May from WSU. I have always been an avid reader, and so working in a library made perfect sense. I enjoy children alot, and I plan on writing and illustrating my own children's books one day. Becoming a youth librarian is a natural fit. My favorite authors as a child were Laura Ingalls Wilder, Margurite Henry, and Jean Craighead George. I highly recommend then to any parent, teacher, childcare-giver or child to read! I will post several nice sites that I found on those authors. Besides work and school, I loke to fill my time by painting wildlife, traveling (Yellowstone is my favorite),watching movies (Star Wars and LOTR), being in the out-of-doors, antiquing, walking my collie Luke and, of course, reading. Thanks for checking in and I hope that I can be of help!
