Celebrating Coraline

Neil Gaiman and Harper Collins are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman this year.  As part of the celebration, a 10th anniversary edition of the book has been released.  The graphic novel version of Coraline is a very popular book at the Marshall Lane Library so I thought I'd share this with you.  You can hear and see Coraline being read by Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, Natashya Hawley, Neal Shusterman, and others at MouseCircus.com

New Books!

I received a shipment of new books yesterday and am expecting two more before Scholastic Book Fair comes late November.  Here is what you can look for in the library:

 

 

 

Be sure to go to the Marshall Lane online catalog to check out our new e-books as well!

Did the crab do the right thing?

I've been reading my new favorite book to the K through 3rd grade classes that have been coming to the library this week - my new favorite book being This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen - and I've stumbled upon an interesting discussion question.  In my last post, I described a little of what this book is about; a small fish steals a hat from a big fish and the big fish gets his hat back in the end. At one point in the book, as the little fish is swimming towards his hiding place, he swims past a crab and he tells us that the crab knows where he - Little Fish - is going but promised not to tell the big fish.  Well, big surprise, the crab rats out the little fish.

The first class I read this to was a kindergarten class and I just out of the blue asked if they thought the crab did the right thing and to my surprise they all said 'no.'  When I asked them why, they said because the crab had lied to the little fish.  So I said 'but what about the fish? Did he do the right thing?' And, of course, they said 'no, he's a stealer.'  So then they decided it was okay for the crab to have told, even though he said he wouldn't.

I found this so interesting that I decided to ask all the classes if the crab did the right thing and a lot of the kids say 'no' because he lied.  In the older grades, more of the kids start out with a 'yes' because what the fish did was worse.  Then there were the few kids who said the crab had to tell because the big fish is so big that he scared the crab into telling.

It's been really fun to see their gears turning as they weigh Crab's moral dilemma.  And so unexpected! I thought we'd be talking about Little Fish's fate - just like Rabbit's in I Want My Hat Back.

This is not my hat

I have to thank Hicklebee's for making it so easy for me to stalk authors.  Today Jon Klassen was there for his new book This Is Not My Hat, a follow up, nay, a companion piece to his first, best-selling book I Want My Hat Back, which I wrote about here and here.  I loved I Want My Hat Back so much that I was inspired to make Bear's hat.  Now I am working on a hat for Little Fish so he won't have to steal Big Fish's hat anymore.  Sadly, I didn't think about doing this until last night and couldn't finish it in time to give to Jon Klassen.

Here is the book trailer for This Is Not My Hat

You can probably guess that everything will not be fine for this little fish.  Whereas in the first book, we shared in Bear's pain and anguish at the loss of his hat, the horror of discovering that it had been stolen by some one with whom he was acquainted, no less, and the needling self-doubt as he ponders his ultimate course of action; in this book, we are privvy to the thief's tale.  And he nearly convinces us that what he's done is not such a bad thing, but in the end, the bigger animal always gets his hat back.

Jon Klassen has long ago given up being coy about what happens to hat thieves in his books but I prefer to leave it ambiguous.

Last time I saw Jon Klassen at Hicklebee's, I gave him the pointy hat I had made.  This time, I gave one to Miss Valerie, the co-owner of Hicklebee's because I didn't want her to feel left out.  Here's a picture of her wearing the hat:

And here she is with Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett who showed up for the heck of it:

Thanks again, Hicklebee's!!

Once again the fabulous Hicklebee's Bookstore is hosting amazing authors.  Now that it's fall, there are lots of great books coming out.  Last week, Lois Lowry's new book Son was released and Lois Lowry was at Hicklebee's today to talk about the final book of The Giver Quartet.  Son takes us back to the time of the first book, The Giver, and tells us the story of Gabe, the infant that Jonas kidnaps and takes with him when he leaves the community, and of Gabe's birthmother and how they each long to find one another again.

I picked up a copy of Messenger while I was there because we don't have that one in the library.  They are both signed by Ms. Lowry.  Tomorrow I will process them and I'm hoping they'll be ready to check out by lunch time.  While you are waiting, go here and read this lovely article about Lois Lowry and her new book.

Kitchen Utensil Anomaly

When the Space Shuttle Endeavor made it's final flight recently, we at Marshall Lane were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it. One of our teachers was able snap a picture.

It was pretty awesome.  I thought it would be a good idea to pull out and display some space shuttle books for the students check out.  One of the books I pulled out was To Space and Back by Sally Ride and Susan Okie from 1986! Today I was considering weeding this book because it's pretty old and we have plenty of up to date books about the space shuttle.  But it's by Sally Ride and I felt kind of sad about weeding it.  I started to flip through the pages and the book is full of really great pictures of the astronauts in space doing their daily routines; eating, sleeping, exercising.  Then I came across this picture:

Yep.  That's a space toilet.  I thought, well, that's interesting.  Then I noticed something in the upper left corner.  That's a spatula.  What do you suppose that is for?