177.62 (Friendship)

This post is extremely belated, but I wanted to be able to share these photos in a variety of formats, so to the blog they go.

In November 2013, my best friend Sophia and I decided to have some photos done together to commemorate our friendship as well as our wedding dresses. We had seen photos on Facebook of groups of friends getting together to do this, so we figured why not? Due to some luck and the generosity of random strangers, our session with Olivia Brey of Oh! Photography was free.

I LOVED working with Olivia to get some really fun shots with my BFF. We played around with props, danced around in the woods, and got some really beautiful photography out of it. I can only share a few of the photos here to keep with the license agreement with Olivia, but the 40 or so images we received were ALL beautiful and make their appearance all over my home. I love them. I can't say enough good about them. Olivia was FANTASTIC. I've never felt  so comfortable in front of a camera and have never loved getting back photos more.

Without further ado, the photos!

Besties

I love this photo more than the shots from my wedding day.

Basically, this is us. I'm a shorty.

Parasols make everything better.

A little bit of Elphaba and Galinda (Glinda)

One of my FAVORITES!

Living in the lakeshore area (Green Bay, Sheboygan, Manitowoc)? I recommend Oh! Photography without question.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Seven

Alright, back to finishing the YA Literature posts it is. Let's plow through these and get to book reviewing!

Week Seven's theme was non-fiction, and I warn you, this was the week that my partner (Katelyn) and I were responsible for book talks, so not only did I read the three books required for class, I also read something like 6 or 7 other books, too. It was an intense week of reading and I'm just going to plow through a bunch of books at once. I'm only going to give overall impressions of the books instead of my normal delights and defects model. Too many books, too little time. This post is long, too. Sorry not sorry.

The three assigned books for this week were Steve Sheinkin's Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, Phillip Hoose's Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95, and lastly, Anton Treuer's Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask. Each of the title's holds the link to the Goodreads' description of the book, as always.

My favorite assigned book of the week was definitely Sheinkin's Bomb.

When I initially saw the book, I thought that it was going to be just another Manhattan Project story, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was so much more than that. It was obvious to me within the first few chapters of this book why it won the Siebert Award. Not only does Sheinkin cover the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos, but he also delves into the spying done by Germany, Russia, and the United States surrouding the atomic bomb projects, the missions that were run to destroy the efforts of other nations to create their own nuclear weapons, and a thousand other very interesting details about a HUGE variety of people that helped in the creation of the atomic bomb. Sheinkin makes the subject matter interesting and the book reads much more like a novel than a typical non-fiction text. There are very few photos throughout, but the prose carries the subject matter so well, that they aren't necessarily required. I definitely would recommend this book to just about ANYONE; male, female, adult, teen, pre-teen, it's going to interest everyone and keep them on the edge of their seat. This book would definitely be a great addition to the social studies curriculum when students are studying WWII (and possibly even the Cold War). Great overall, I really enjoyed this one!

Moonbird was okay, but it definitely was more "traditional" non-fiction and definitely for younger readers. I could see purchasing this one for upper elementary kiddos. The photos are pretty fantastic and the graphs and other infographics included in the text are on point, but I felt like there are other comparable "animal" books out there that are of an equal quality.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians is written in Q&A format and contains most of the questions that people might be interested in knowing the answer to. From religious beliefs, cultural information, and a variety of other subject areas. The book reads a little more like an adult book, but it would be great for upper level teens or as a classroom resource for classes that are learning about Native Americans. I enjoyed how frank and straightforward the answers that Treuer provides and he makes the point to really point out that his answers are for some, not all tribes and native peoples. It was great, if a little dry or boring when read as a whole, but if you were picking or choosing individual questions you were interested in, it wouldn't be quite as dry.

The additional texts I read and then book talked were meant to be 'read-alikes' or fiction pairs for the non-fiction text. Working with Katelyn, we ended up going above and beyond (oops?) and including digital resources and more than the 2-3 other texts we were supposed to talk about. If you want a full view of our resource, you can find it here via Google Drive. My books start with the Manhattan Project/Atomic Bomb books.

My fiction pair for Bomb was Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. I love this book and it's a fantastic pair for a younger reader, especially for a female reader, of Bomb. It's basically a kid's perspective on Los Alamos during the build of the atomic bomb and it's a Newbery Award winning book, too! The librarian in me also loves that the main character is named Dewey - yup, like Dewey Decimal System Dewey. The target audience for this novel is definitely 5th/6th graders, though. The main character is only 11-years-old. You might be hard pressed to get an older teen to read it.

Read alikes that I chose included Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting by Jim Murphy and An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming by Ale Gore. Murphy's Truce was done in typical Murphy style: great images, excellent prose, and well produced layouts. I loved it and I had a fiction pair in mind when I picked it for my project. 

I loved An Inconvenient Truth even more, though. The images were breathtaking, the infographics COMPLETELY made sense and really put the global warming crisis into perspective, and Gore's very 'personal' and friendly writing style made the information so very accessible. Seriously. If you haven't read it, it's totally worth it. I read the adult version of An Inconvenient Truth and I felt like the version produced for teens was significantly more interesting and easier to understand. No, I don't feel bad liking the teen book more.

The fiction pairs for the two read alikes were Love in the Time of Global Warming

by Francesca Lia Block and And the Soldiers Sang by J. Patrick Lewis & Gary Kelley. And the Soldiers Sang was a little a-typical for a pairing as it's actually a picture book for a slightly older audience. I did order this book when I was working in an elementary library and it's definitely a tear jerker - the illustrations are beautiful and touching and they fit the text so well. It's a perfect pair for Murphy's non-fiction book about the Christmas Day Armistice, as it covers the same exact subject from different perspectives. Love in the Time of Global Warming is a modern day Odyssey (REALLY REALLY REALLY the Odyssey) with a post-apocalyptic feel. I warn you, like Francesca Lia Block's other works, there is homosexuality, sex, and other 'adult' topics, including violence (hey, in the Odyssey, the men blind a cyclops... and it happens in this book, too!). It definitely has FLB's typical "magical realism", though, and it definitely made me want to read the other books in the series to continue the adventure.

That's it for this week. I'm a big fan of non-fiction texts, though, so it was the right week for me to go read-crazy. Eight more weeks of YA Literature to go. Keep an eye out for future blog posts, which I PROMISE won't be nearly as long winded.

641.3513 (Carrots)

So the post isn't really about carrots, but carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting, of course). I'm sorry about the bad photography that follows - it was night and I was using my phone camera.

The above photos are of my first attempt at a sheet-style cake (12x18), which I made for a retirement party at my husband's workplace. He didn't have a design in mind, nor did his supervisor (who requested the cake), so they got something simple with a little bit of "whimsy". Anything 'white' on the cake is cream cheese frosting; anything colored is a simple buttercream - I wasn't sure how well cream cheese frosting would pipe or hold up.

Next time, I'll make more batter for a taller cake or stack two on top of each other. This time? It is what it is.

371.2912 (School completion) - Part the Last

A quick update...

So, I graduated! Whoo hoo! It's over and done. So why haven't there been more posts? Well, my husband and I bought a house the same week in which I graduated and I've been moving things, painting things, fixing things, and generally taking care of things for the last few weeks. I JUST unpacked my computer on Thursday night. It's been a wild ride. Things are starting to settle again, so I'm coming back to do a quick post about graduation.

No worries - I'll finish the Adolescent Lit posts over the course of the summer along with my most recent reads as well. House updates will happen here, too, as soon as things are "finished" and all unpacked. Yes, we're still unpacking. We just finished the bathroom today. We have a lot more to go.

As for graduation? It went smoothly... and I conquered my nerves to sing a little ditty in front of everyone. Yes, I sang for graduation. The ditty is below, as is a picture of me singing it. That's really it for this post. Let it be known that more updates should happen over the course of this week and next, but not a lot. We're hosting a party on the 21st. Eek!

My Library Things

(to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music)

Metadata, cardigans, and people in glasses,

Hot tea and coffee through all of my classes,

In Allison's classroom, everyone sings,

These are a few of my library things.

Dorothea taught me it's cool to be geeky,

Rebekah's reading lists never left me sleepy,

Rubel, Smith, and Senchyne's theory left me spinning in rings,

These are a few of my library things.

When RDA seems far too tricky

and Drupal has me sad,

I simply remember my library things,

and then I don't feel so bad. 

Photo courtesy of  UW-Madison SLIS (via Facebook)

371.2912 (School completion) - Part the First

So this whole past week has been my husband asking me "Are you done with your homework?" and my consistent answer has been

I spent a lot of time staring at the homework

working on it slowly, late into the night

and submitting it, piece by piece to the appropriate drop boxes. Today, though, I clicked send and realized something

that it was my last submission. I was done. No more grad school homework.

I was frozen, and it took me a moment to realize it, but then

And then I remembered

I still have to pass and graduate. But in lieu of that happening in 10 days, let me just say that I'm done.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Six

Still trying to catch up to the current week (which would be 14, I think?), but we're getting there. Almost half way! I'd like to finish with my YA lit posts before I graduate (May 18th), but that might be pushing it... I'll have a new house as of May 15th! Anywhoo, onto the post!

This week's theme was Historical fiction and war novels and the two books that were on the syllabus were War Horse by Michael Morpurgo and Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys. As always, links take you out to the Goodreads page for the books.

War Horse isn't just a book. The novel has also been turned into a film (starring Benedict Cumberbatch AND Tom Hiddleston... in one movie) and a play, which I saw in workshop when I was in London at the National Theatre. Both adaptations of the novel are fantastic (HOW can you say no to life size horse puppets... or those two previously mentioned hotties?).

As far as books go, here's my quick delights/disdain points for War Horse.

3 Delights for War Horse

1. It is the best book you will ever read where the narrator is the horse... ever. This is a book about WWI, which was a war that changed the shape of wars to come. Having an animal narrator dampens the horrors of war a bit for a younger reader, while still having emotional turmoil over things like character deaths and keeping track of time/plot.
2. I love that this book is such an easy, quick read. The novel is written for a slightly younger audience and meets the ease of reading requirements nicely.
3. This novel is a great tie-in to a unit on WWI as readers will have the background knowledge they need to understand what is going on. An excellent fiction pair for a social studies classroom. This book is also a "must read" in British schools, which I think is completely understandable.

3 Defects for War Horse

1. The narrator is a horse? It's one of my delights, too, but I was never fond of the animal narrator. I do think it's well done though, but personally, I felt the book was a little "flat" because of it.
2. Readers will need a bit of a background in WWI history to fully appreciate the novel. 
3. I kept having All Quiet on the Western Front flashbacks... if you don't know what I mean or what I'm referencing, you've never experienced the psychological horrors that come with reading All Quiet on the Western Front and then reading about horses... A wikipedia summary should get you up to speed.

Between Shades of Gray was right up my alley of reading choices - it's a WWII novel about the Russian Gulag. Most people know a whole lot about the holocaust, but know nothing about Stalin killing his own people. It's a subject that isn't talked about in Russian history and there are a whole lot of deniers out there, even more so than the holocaust deniers. 

3 Delights for Between Shades of Gray

1. I loved the main character (Lina). She's tough, she's clever, and she's opinionated. She perseveres through some really horrible events and finds a way to make the best of everything. 
2. I loved Lina's mother. She was wonderfully 3-dimensional in the text and it's quite obvious where Lina got her brains. The fact that her mother knew how to build friendships and knew how to play the system the way she did was wonderful to. And her ability to instill in Lina the strength to carry on was fantastic.  
3. I felt that, on a whole, the novel was very well written and it gave you a clear understanding of the time period and the settings that the characters live in. From the trains to the Gulags, to tiny shacks that don't keep out the wind, all was described beautifully.

3 Defects for Between Shades of Gray

1. I really don't know how I felt about the ending. A part of me was pleased... and a part of me felt like it was stereotypical WWII novel fodder.
2. I wish that we knew more about some of the auxiliary characters' backgrounds. I think some of it would have made the novel a little more 'round', but overall, I was pleased.
3. The only real complaint I have about the novel is that sometimes it dragged on a little slower than I would have liked. Some of the exposition and description starts to kill the action happening in the novel, which makes the novel feel longer than it actually is. 

That wraps up week six of YA lit. Hopefully I'll post the next few weeks worth of reviews in the next couple of days and get myself caught up.

551.5271 (Solar radiation) - Sunshine in a Box

My best friends birthday is coming up this week and I wanted to send her something in the mail beyond just a birthday card. What did I do? I made her some sunshine... in a box!

I started my box of sunshine with a small priority mail/small flat rate box from the post office. These boxes are free, you just have to stop in and pick them up. I "prettified" the inside of the box with some scrapbook paper and double stick tape that I already had in with craft supplies.

I made sure to leave gaps where the box folded so there wasn't any issues with bubbling paper.

I used a little bit of the double stick tape to fold up one side of the box so I could begin loading it with the goodies I picked up. I wanted to find a healthy balance between things to eat and things to use in the box. What I decided to include is below:

In my "Sunshine" Box:

- Burt's Bees Baby Bee Lotion

- Snack size Lindt's Caramel Truffles

- 2 Burt's Bees Beewax Lip Balms (Original Recipe)

- Box of Crystal Light Lemonade Singles

- Travel Size Clorox Wipes (the microbiologist friend should approve)

- Eos Lip Balm (in Lemon Drop)

- M&Ms Peanut

- Raisinets

- Reese's Peanut Better Egg

- Chocolate Covered Peep

- Yellow Fingernail Polish

As you can see, everything just fit inside the box with enough room for me to shove in a funny birthday card and close it. Barely a bulge in the box when it was all closed, although I did have to remove some packaging and have a special "conversation" with one of the Lindt choclates... it's probably a little squished. Oops?   

I found a cute yellow polka dot address label that I bought from Target some years back that I hacked up and attached to the front of the box with packaging tape.

A part of me wishes I cold have fit a little more in the box or sent a larger box, but the grad student in me knows I have to be frugal for just a little while longer and I'm truly a believer in the old adage "it's the thought that counts". I hope it'll be a drop of sunshine in my best friend's week, especially with the rainy spring we've been having.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Five

Week five's theme for Adolescent Lit. was "Tough Stuff, Risk, and Crisis", which is always a really hard area to read. I chose to read the alternative books from List B this week. List A's books were Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I love, but read in undergrad, and Last Summer of the Dealth Warriors by Francisco X. Stork, which reads like an updated and modified Don Quixote - I mean, it has a character named Pancho for goodness' sake.

The books I chose to read were The Fault in Our Stars, which I love and reviewed earlier this year on its own (click HERE to link to my earlier review), and Boy 21 by Matthew Quick. I had read and reviewed another Matthew Quick book this summer (Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock) and had loved it, so I figured it was time for another novel by the same author.

         

As always before reviewing, a link to the Goodreads page for Boy 21 can be found HERE. Now let me jump into my Delights and Defects for Boy 21  by Matthew Quick.

3 Defects for Boy 21

1. If you don't like sports books at ALL, you're out of luck on this book. Yes, it's definitely about some tough stuff and about friendship, but it's also about basketball. The plot isn't all about basketball, though, and this isn't what I would call a sports book.
2. Some of this book is a little far out there. Would a teenager REALLY accept Boy 21's issues with the ease that Finley does? Irish kids in the hood? The Irish mafia in Belmont? The apparent ability of a kid to get over something SO quickly? Eh, I'll roll with it, but other's might not.
3. Yes, there is swearing. Yes, there is violence. Yes, there is talk about drugs and trafficking. Not the point, reall.

Delights for Boy 21

1. YAY! I finally get a truly happy ending, not a mixed feelings one! And I'll roll with it because I WANTED IT TO HAPPEN. If it hadn't, I don't think I'd feel the same about the book.
2. Seriously, the writing on this book is fantastic, just like Quick's other works that I've read. Quick really has a grasp on what it is to be a teen and think like a teen and act like a teen in a way that other adults writing for teens do not. He also handles really tough issues with humor (black though it might be) and solid emotional writing. Quick makes me believe all the things that are unbelievable and the characters balance each other out so nicely.
3. There are definitely interesting adults in this book that are fully fleshed characters with faults and all. It makes me happy! 

421.1 (Alphabets -- English language)

Edible book festival time has come and gone and there were some really fantastic entries this year, and quite a few more than last year, too. My entry this year was based on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Billy Martin Jr., John Archambult and illustrated by Lois Ehlert. I thought my entry looked pretty stunning when I put it together in the morning...

But the room was SUPER warm (a warm spring days plus a still running heating system 'cuz we don't turn those off until summer in Wisconsin) and everything started melting. By the time the photographers and social media people for the library got there, it looked something more like this...

Photo from the Library News coverage of the event

See the not so hot top? The leaves kept falling out because the cake and frosting were too warm to hold them. One of my fellow librarians texted me each time a leaf fell and I did some emergency surgery a FEW times throughout the course of the day. I was bummed, I tell you! Thankfully, it didn't stop me from being one of the winners for Best Visual Presentation. The judges understood that cake disasters happen.

More coverage of the event and photos of ALL the entries can be found at the UW-Madison Libraries News & Events website. My personal favorite? The entry based on The Book Theif done by a co-worker at the library. I did quite a bit of giggling.

The head of my department at the library forced the winners to have their pictures taken with their entries before they were destroyed (mine fed the "boys" at my husband's weekly guy night and other parts ended up in the trash). So here I am smiling with my entry to end the post. Not to shabby if I do say so myself. Next year? I'm feeling a little Seuss-y. You'll just have to wait and see!

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Four

Slowly but surely catching up - maybe I'll be all caught up before the semester ends... maybe not. Here's hoping. In the mean time, I'm going to be employed this school year, so that's a plus. Also, I'm going to be a home owner in a little over a month. Also a plus. So much going for me right now, it feels pretty ridiculous!

Anywhoo, books and theme for week four of YA Literature, right? Theme this week was Friendships and the books were Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Pinned by Sharon Flake. Links are to the Goodreads descriptions for the two books, as always.

3 Delights for Aristotle and Dante...

1. I love a good love story, especially one that seems so improbable (NOT impossible). I really can't help but cheer for both of the boys in this book. Yay, LOVE!
2. The writing is pretty solid! There's a great use of metaphor/simile and allusion(I mean, come on, the boys are named Aristotle and Dante, how could there NOT be?), and I can't help but smile at how the the author really makes the book a little "magical". No, reality isn't like this, but we wish it was.
3. The book deals with some pretty serious issues in really fantastic ways (including homosexuality, teenage relationships, hate crimes, and racial identity issues). And it's humorous and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. I laughed with this book and held back tears with this book. It was fantastic.

3 Defects for Aristotle and Dante...

1. So maybe the way in which Aristotle figures out he's in love with Dante is a little "fake". It could really rip a person out of the story - it didn't bother me, though, but I could see how it might be a turn off for some readers. I just thought it was funny and as an adult who's seen kiddos in need of this guidance, I could relate with the parents.
2. No, real people don't talk to each other like that. Especially teenage boys, but we'll let it go because both boys are "readers" and "artists", right?
3. There are typos in this book, which KILL ME. Ugh. PROOFING needed to be better for this book, but I overlooked it because I was interested in the story more than I cared about typos.

3 Delights for Pinned

1. The book definitely has voice, I've got to give it that. Flake wrote a main character who definitely has spunk and an emotional background and her writing reflects the character's voice well.
2. A great high-low reader overall. Even though this wasn't the book for me, I could definitely see where the audience for this book is and who I could recommend this book to.
3. It's nice to see a female athlete in a male dominated sport portrayed in a novel for teens. This definitely isn't a subject that come up often in books with a romance story.

3 Defects for Pinned

1. Let me be honest. I didn't like this book much.I think the biggest issue I had with this book was the super aggressive way in which Autumn goes after Adonis. If the roles had been reversed and it had been boy chasing girl, I think quite a few people would say "woah, hold up. He's totally stalking her!" and they'd take issue. Some of my classmates tried to point out that the age of the characters is pretty young and so the relationship is going to be pretty immature, but I really hated it.
2. What was the point of some of the extra characters in this book? No, really. Why did we include some of the teachers or coaches or even parents in this book? They felt pretty one-dimensional and I didn't understand the point of some of them.
3. Maybe it's because I'm NOT the intended audience, but I definitely had a hard time connecting to the characters in this book. 

All said and done, that wraps up week four in YA Literature. More posts to come as time allows. 

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Three

The theme for week three was "Family, health, sex", and the two books that were required reading for the week were Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park and Angela Johnson's The First Part Last. Both books were great picks for the topic of the week. I'll break into my Delights and Defects straight away and just provide links to the books' Goodreads pages so you can read the description for yourself.

3 Delights for Eleanor & Park

1. I love Rainbow Rowell's writing style. There's a nice balance of complexity and simplicity and while it does feel a little fanciful, it isn't any more or less believable than other stories I have read.
2. Parents in this book (especially Park's parents) aren't one dimensional. I LOVE Park's parents and how they treat the relationship between Park and Eleanor. There's something lovely about the family dynamics that really touch me. In the opposite fashion, Eleanor's parents aren't great human beings, but they also aren't completely flat and they play a pretty integral part of the story.
3. I'm thankful for a resolution that isn't resolved. Be prepared for a not quite happy but definitely touching ending to the book. Also realistic in a way, I suppose.

3 Defects for Eleanor & Park

1. The book deals with difficult topics, from abuse to bullying to racial identity to finding your way through difficult times. I personally didn't think it was defective, but I could see why some people may be offended by the book. I DON'T see why people could try and remove it from a library, though. Geez, folks. Censorship just ISN'T cool.
2. So parts of the story are a little "beautified". Normal teenagers do NOT talk or think like that. Not really. I don't think it detracts from the book in a big way, but it's definitely something to think about.
3. The ending. It's one of my delights too, but I wish there was a little more (for my very own, very selfish reasons). I love where Rowell ended the book, but I wouldn't have been upset if there had been more. :)

 3 Delights for The First Part Last

1. This book is a fantastic High-Low - high interest, low reading level. I personally struggle reading some high-lows because the author dumbs down the subject matter in order to achieve the easy readability. This book is definitely one that doesn't do that.
2. Thank you for a book from the teen FATHER'S point-of-view. So many times books about single teen parents are about single mothers. This one is from the male perspective, which I think is very interesting. Johnson does a great job writing from the character's point of view.
3. I can easily understand why this book won the awards it did. Writing is great, subject matter is great, the play with the timeline is interesting, it does a great job discussing a difficult topic, and I feel as if it's fairly authentic as far as urban lit goes.

3 Defects for The First Part Last

1. While it wasn't a problem for me, some of my group members during discussion felt that the book was a little "flat" when it came to character emotions. I could agree with that, but I think its more part of the lower reading level than it is the actually lack of emotion. After reading Eleanor & Park, this book does feel a little flat, but alone, it has the emotion it needs to.
2. I felt like the side story with the mother was dragged out a little too long. It could have been foreshadowed differently or handled a little differently to make the surprise more inpactful.
3. The out-of-order timeline might be difficult for some students (especially students struggling with reading) would have trouble following the story. While the book does use chapter titles like "Then" and "Now", it's sometimes tricky to keep track of where in the timeline a particular chapter falls.

So, we're currently in Week Ten and I have some definite catch up to do on blogging, but we're also purchasing our first home, which is taking up most of my free time! I'll try to get a few more posts up in the next week or two, but no promises. This blog might turn home improvement pretty quickly. Edible Book Festival is coming up next week, as well, so there will be posts about that particular activity as well. AH! So much going on in the next month or two!

976.604 (Oklahoma, Territorial and early statehood periods, 1866-1907) The Musical

LaFollette High School is now in its second week of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and yours truly was the lighting designer. I love working with the musical crew that Pam hires and my favorite "musical spouse", Brian, showed up in the last few weeks of rehearsal to be a simply awesome human being and run spot light with a student and offer actors some direction. Brian and I went to college together and are both education majors - it's always nice to have a comrade for the musical process.

Photos are pulled from the Lafollete Event Photos Facebook Page and are taken by the lovely Jeneene Olson-McConley. These are just preview photos - I'm sure she'll have more up this week or next and her photos always make the yearbook for LaFollette, too. I'll be taking my camera tonight to capture some of the lighting looks that I created, but I always love Jeneene's photos.

Looking on as Ado Annie and Will smooch

Judd killing Curley in the dream sequence.

Will freezing as Aunt Eller shoots her gun.

The Farmer and the Cowman Should be FRIENDS

Laurey and Judd

Aunt Eller saying a word for the cowman.

I just love that THIS is in the show.

People will say we're in love... and they'd be right!

One more week of shows this week and then were finished... and hopefully I can be rid of all of the earworms that have festered in my head for the last 3 months!

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Two

Yes, it's week eight of the semester. Yes, I'm JUST posting about week two. I'm unapologetic. Life is crazy, especially now that Oklahoma is officially opened at LaFollette High School.

Week Two's theme for YA Literature for week two was "Identity and Graphic Novels". For this week, we read two graphic novels: March: Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell and Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol.

March: Book One is a non-fiction graphic novel about Congressman John Lewis' life being a young adult during the Civil Rights era and what it was like to be a part of lunch counter sit-ins and non-violent marches. The graphic novel pops back and forth between Congressman Lewis preparing for President Obama's inauguration and what he experienced as a member of the Civil Rights Movement.

3 Delights for March: Book One

1. The illustration in this book is powerful and done in completely black and white. It really tells the story in a unique way that makes the book more powerful than it might have been as a non-graphic novel.

2. The book does a great job showing all sides of the Civil Rights Movement - not just Martin Luther King, Jr., but also some of the other leaders, how students participating in marches and sit-ins practiced terrorizing one another to learn how to not react when white community members might do similar things, and how to protect themselves in the face of violence. It's also a great way to tie history to the present, as John Lewis is a real-live Congressman.

3. March is part of a series focused on the Civil Rights Movement. I'm excited to see the next few graphic novels when they are released.

3 Defects for March: Book One

1. It's a positive-negative, folks. The illustrations really ask readers to practice some higher visual literacy skills - there are some pages that follow typical panel format, but there are others that blow the typical panel format out of the water. This might be harder for first time graphic novel readers to understand and follow.

2. I wonder what color would have done to the illustrations - I think that the "shades of grey" produced by black and white illustration is great, but I think this could have been really powerful in color, too.

3. There are depictions of violence in this book! It's the Civil Rights Era, and there was violence against African-American citizens, so it's only right. I think it's done tastefully, but it is something to consider when recommending this book.

Anya's Ghost is a supernatural fiction graphic novel, focused around Anya, a young Russian emigre student who is having a hard time fitting in at school. When Anya falls down a deep hole, she finds herself faced with a haunted girl's skeleton. The ghost girl, Emily, trapped in the hole for 90 years since her death, makes friends with Anya and travels home with her when Anya is rescued. Emily the ghost intially starts off as a blessing in disguise - she helps Anya with homework, talks about her secret crush with her, and even helps her learn how to dress better and talk to others. But Emily isn't all sweetness, and Anya soon discovers that she's befriended a spirit more sinister than she thought.

3 Delights for Anya's Ghost

1. This graphic novel deals well with the themes of fitting in and discovering your true identity. It's great to see the immigrant experience dealt with in a YA graphic novel.

2. The illustrations are FANTASTIC - they're all done in a blue/violet tinted grayscale, which for the suspense/horror side of this graphic novel works particularly well. It's also interesting to watch the changes that happen to Emily's character throughout the novel. 

3. Easy to follow panels, this is a great "first-timers" graphic novel. It's very easy to follow the layout and the pictures clearly express what is happening in the story.

3 Defects for Anya's Ghost

1. It's PRETTY girly. You might be hard pressed to get a boy to read this graphic novel. I mean, even the black and white images have a purple tint. Male fans of Babymouse! might pick this up, though.

2. The very easy, basic panel structure might get boring for a more advanced graphic novel reader. They'll fly through this one quickly.

3. I don't know if I love how body image is dealt with in this book. It's find overall, but I wonder if it couldn't be better.

808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Stop Animation

Our second project for class was creating stop animation videos - Rebekah wanted us to know how to do this so that when our public library teen technology event rolls around, we have some choices of what to teach to teenagers.

For my stop animation video, I decided to use my miniature Dalek that I got as a Christmas gift my my husband, and since Valentine's day was quickly approaching, I decided to give the video a Valentine's Day flare. I set up my Canon Rebel T2i on a tripod pointed at my kitchen "island" with a very narrow focus and I used one of my "daylight" lamps from my cupcake photo rig for filler light, as my kitchen is a little dark.

The first time I shot the photos required, I only took about 200 pictures. I took those images to Windows Movie Maker and set each photo to last 0.1 seconds. I was absolutely dismayed at the jerking of my camera and the less than smooth "motion" provided by these pictures. I decided to scrap those photos and reshoot. My second take had a little over 300 pictures and I was far happier with the result. I added music from SoundzAbound (thanks ECB and Badgerlink for giving Wisconsin residents access!) and added a title screen and credits in Windows Movie Maker.

All said and done, the project took about 3 hours to complete, including the upload time to YouTube. The time probably could have been shortened to a little less than 2 hours if I hadn't taken the time to reshoot the photos. For future stop animation projects, I would definitely want to purchase a remote clicker for my camera - there is still more jerk in the images that I would like, but that is due to me having to physically touch the camera to take an image.

For your viewing pleasure, here's "A Dalek-table Valentine".

808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Week One

Okay, so we're technically in Week Five right now... I'm just really really behind in updating my blog. Things have been NUTS and they'll continue to be so for the next few weeks, as I have an interview next week Wednesday for an academic librarianship position. SCARY THINGS!

Week one's theme for Adolescent Literature was "Perspectives on Adolescence and Childhood" and we read two novels on this theme: Sarah Dessen's Just Listen and Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys.

Just Listen is a novel about Annabel, the youngest of three sisters and a model, who has a falling out with her best friend, Sophie, over the summer and returns to the school year to find herself isolated and friendless. In her aloneness, she meets Owen, a loner who is passionate about music and has a habit of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Owen strikes up a friendship with Annabel, one based on sharing music and time together. As they grow closer and Annabel becomes more comfortable with their friendship, Annabel tries to find the courage to open up about what really happened on the night when her friendship with Sophie ended.

Miracle's Boys follows the story of Layfaette and his older brothers, Ty'ree and Charlie, and the struggles the boys go through trying to grow up in New York after the death of both of their parents. Ty'ree, the eldest boy, tries to support the family as best he can, and Charlie has just returned home from a correctional facility. The story focuses on Lafayette's coming of age and how the boys need to make choices to be there for one another to overcome their struggles.

I enjoyed both books, which really surprised me, as I'm not normally a realistic fiction fan. Both books just seemed to have an excellent balance of tough stuff, teen angst, and humor. Both books were successful in their messages as well.

More to come about the other books read in class later this week and over the weekend, at least until I catch up.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Introduction

I'm in an adolescent literature class this semester, which started with us reading about game literacy and the integration of multimedia into teen programming. We were given an assignment to build a video game level with Sploder, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder that is entirely online and doesn't require any type of download. I am rather impressed with the platform overall, and was especially entertained when their introductory email was written as if a child had applied for the account; the email told the "parent" all about Sploder and included a link where they could see what "their child" was doing. I have to give the folks at Sploder props - they really wanted the parents to be involved.

The process of creating a level was entertaining and interesting, and I think that most of us in the class had a whole lot of fun. My level is playable below or at this link if you don't like the embedded play (I don't, personally).

Make a Free Flash Game

I'm going to be doing quite a few blog posts for this class. The posts will have with similar post titles, with each post getting a new chapter heading, or, where I can, the detailed Dewey number for specific types of adolescent lit. There will be quite a few book reviews (we're expected to read 2 or 3 books a week), as well as more multimedia projects. I'm excited to see where the class takes me!