http://JanNichols.umesd.net/ RSS Feed http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=8016 Welcome to an old blog - now re-purposed.  This is the summer reading blog for Summer 2008 Back Door Book Club.  Get ready... Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:55:13 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=5681 Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:32:37 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=5639 1.  11/30 - this afternoon there will be a meeting at STARBUCKS of the High School Library Advisory Club meets 3:20 @ Starbucks.   2.  New password to get onto this website, you'll have to call me at the high school to get it. Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:44:18 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=5327 Mariah - Isn't the Faery book the one you got this summer?  Sounds great. Life at the high school is definitely fun.  I miss knowing the collection as much as I did Armand's.  We need new books, we're going to get some this week although not enough.  Let me know when your BookFair might be - I think we need to come over and buy books from you. Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:19:43 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=5016 Here are a couple of books, of the 187 that I read this summer, that I'd really recommend.  If you haven't tried Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher, I'd totally recommend it!  Wow!  Talk about a complex emotional coming-of-age and bumpy ride getting there!  I have now read other Chris Crutcher books and while excellent, this is the pinnacle.  (well maybe not, since he's written so many good novels!)  An example of believable "truth is stranger than ficiton"! Another is Meg Rosoff's book How I Live Now - I just happened on this one, and it, in turn is tied - by subject - to a new series, Jericho.  This made me revisit the genre (?) of post-apocalyptic fiction.  I've  now re-read Alas, Babylon, WarDay, in addition to this one...here's the big premise:  what happens to the rest of us if an atomic bomb goes off?  Think I might have to watch Jericho to see their take on the whole thing?   Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:18:42 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=4924 Okay - I take exception with the "just went up and wrote down the titles of books!"  Here's a blow by blow of what we did...all of us fit into Mrs. Knutz's splendid auto!  We flew north, talked about what we were reading while going up - some of us EVEN reviewed the criteria for book selection in the Hermiston School District.     We decided that instead of snacking first, we'd look over books...and look over books...and look over books!  I counted titles - there are 300 written down here!  After snacking, I asked everyone what the most "provocative" book is that they've ever read.  (Provoke means to find the needed stimulus for...)  Not surprisingly, lots of people said, "the DaVinci Code"!   More book selection, an all too short ride home, part of the way listening to Nick teach himself German!  It was lots of fun! JUST wrote down book titles?  The VERY IDEA!    Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:35:51 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=4863 What about a High School Library Advisory group meeting sometime next week - would July 17, 18, or 19 work? 1:30 @ HHS library?   Fri, 14 Jul 2006 06:21:25 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=4740 Okay, here's a question for you, from something I was reading this weekend.  I belong to a Reading ListServ (nope, didn't forget the e) and they have a theory I'd like to share with you.  They think that kids don't get enough "say" in testing.  They're not talking about whether to test or not.  Rather, the experts at IRA (International Reading Assoc.) think that students have lots to say about books chosen for their library; how they'd like to be taught and  what teachers can do to help them benchmark.  Got any ideas?  Write them down here... (If you're a regular on this site, you may not recognize some of the names here...)   Mon, 29 May 2006 17:01:36 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=4707 Okay, smarty-pants, here's what convolutedness means: "the act or quality of being intricate or complicated" Yes, I think it is intricate and complicated...Trickster's Queen was also complicated, not intricate.  Will of the Empress is both.  I thought it was a (and this phrase will date me) "cop-out" that in Trickster's Queen, the daughter of George and Alanna, who is the main character, became pregnant at 16 or 17, while attempting to do all of the things her mother did at the same age.  Somehow, it doesn't ring true.  I felt that the author manipulated the character into position that while real, didn't fit with either the flow of the story or the reality the story creates.    I do think that Pierce writes about characters who are part of our current reality, with the setting in "fantasyland".  I think that she also writes about independent people who achieve their dreams and goals.  I've always thought of that model as being one of the strongest elements of her stories and also one of the most positive.  Having a baby changes any parent's world from fantasy to gritty reality and I don't think Pierce did a very good job of conveying that.    Should I have let that stop me?  Probably not.  But like I've said before, fantasy isn't my genre.  That element of the story so thoroughly stopped me that I started thinking about what it would be like to strap the baby to the front of the horse and carry it with while fighting and it just didn't work for me.  Could that be what Pierce intended?         Sun, 21 May 2006 18:08:28 PST http://JanNichols.umesd.net/journal.php?entry_id=4555 Happy Sunday!   Not many more days left of school and here are some good things to know: 1.  Yes, I am going to be the Hermiston High Library Media Specialist next year.  2.  The book about Codetalkers is by Joseph Bruchac - a very interesting take on the Navajo Codetalkers of WWII. 3.  I am just finishing Will of the Empress, the newest Tamora Pierce. 4.  Have you got any suggestions for books you might think High Schooler's would be reading/should be reading/in your wildest fantasies you'd like to be reading?     Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:54:16 PST