5th grade book report: December

This month's book presentation will be on a book of appropriate length and difficulty which is not a biography and which was selected as a medal or honor book for one of the American Library Association awards shown below.

We have dozens of titles on display in the school library or you may follow the links below to choose one yourself. Remember to run your selection past Ms. Russell for her approval!

The Batchelder Award is "awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States. ALSC gives the award to encourage American publishers to seek out superior children's books abroad and to promote communication among the peoples of the world."

The Pura Belpré Award is "presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."

The Coretta Scott King Award is "given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream of a pluralistic society."

The Newbery Medal is "awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year. There are no limitations as to the character of the book considered except that it be original work."

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal "is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year."

Cyberbullying: what you can do

The Bully in the Backpack is a valuable, balanced article that I highly recommend all parents and teachers read - show it to your teen too!

From a parent's perspective, one of the most important lessons I took from this article was that many teens view their parents as technologically incompetent and prone to over-reacting. Therefore, they often prefer to suffer cyberbullying in silence rather than tell a parent out of fear that the parent will take away their cell phone or kick them off social networking sites.

Instead, we should help young people learn to "stop, block and tell": stop responding so they do not escalate situations, block the perpetrator, and tell an adult. Technology is a daily reality in young people's lives. As in many other situations, they must learn to behave safely and responsibly rather than eschew the tools altogether.

The article also features many useful links to sites for kids of all ages, parents and educators.

Want to read and discuss a great book? Check out The Truth about Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler, a great read for students in grades 5-8 about an online middle school newspaper that starts off with good intentions but rapidly spirals out of control.

Meet Christopher Paolini!

The young author of the immensely popular series that started with Eragon will be at the Redmond Regional Library on Tuesday, November 29th at 7pm! He will be promoting the release of his latest book, Inheritance, coming out tomorrow and concluding the series.

Check out this and other author events on the library's website!

NPR's book club for kids

If you haven't heard about it yet, check out the Back-Seat Book Club just for kids! It started in late October with Neil Gaiman's Newbery winner, The Graveyard Book, which is both spooky and heartwarming! This could be a fun activity for those too busy to get out to traditional book groups.