News from Mrs. Anne Corsetti, Central Elementary School Library, Larchmont, NY

Several Central School teachers came together in the library today for lunch, conversation and some tech tips. Teachers brought their lunches and devoted their unscheduled time to catch up on new ways to use some old favorites. Teachers shared lesson ideas for Brain Pop Jr., Discovery Education Streaming, and file storage in our SchoolCenter “digital lockers”. They discussed the best ways to teach their students how to access and use online subscription services. They also planned ways to share online resources with our school families. Online resources will continue to be “spotlighted” in the weekly, “Central Calling” and on the Library News blog.

Most awards for children’s books are chosen by former children (a/k/a adults). At Bank Street, they think that is all backwards. That’s why they instituted the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature, an award bestowed by students in grades 1 and 2.

In brief, students in cooperating schools are given four finalists, books chosen by Bank Street to be considered for the award. This year, Central School is one of the cooperating schools. Our students have been studying the qualities that make good picture books and looking at how these four finalists use the words and illustrations together to tell a good story. The books are:

• Children Make Terrible Pets (written and illustrated by Peter Bown)
• A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea (written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes)
• Dust Devil (written by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
• How Rocket Learned to Read (written and illustrated by Tad Hills)

We have tallied our votes and sent them to Bank Street.  Stay tuned for the announcement of the award in May.

On Wednesday morning, March 30, all of our kindergarten, first and second grade students were treated to a visit with businessman and poet, Robert Forbes. To set the mood, the library was decorated with a half-dozen, full-color, 5-foot cutouts of characters from the poems, delightfully illustrated by Ronald Searle.
In addition to sharing some of the many animal poems from his two books, Beastly Feasts! A Mischievous Menagerie in Rhyme and Let’s Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes, Mr. Forbes shared his love of words and rhymes. He talked with the students about how his writing for business influenced his writing of poetry because each word must be carefully selected for both types of writing.
The poetry readings were accompanied by full-color enlargements of their accompanying illustrations from the book. As they listened to the poems, students intently studied each image as it was projected on the SMART Board, hoping to spot the mouse hidden in the illustration. Students gave a “secret signal” (they touched their noses) when they located the hiding rodent. The revealing of each mouse was accompanied by triumphant cheers of “I found it!”
This enjoyable morning was made possible by the sponsorship of the parent and teacher members of our PTA and by the efforts of our Visiting Author Committee.

Coming Soon! Poet Robert Forbes to visit with K-2 students on Wednesday, March 30.  For more about his work visit BeastlyFeasts.

 Monday, February 28 not only marked our first day back from mid-winter vacation, it was also a special day for students in grades 3, 4 and 5.  Our students enjoyed a visit in the library with children’s author, Maureen Sherry.  Ms. Sherry shared with our students her love of writing, her interest in local history and architecture, and her fascination with puzzles, all elements she has incorporated into her debut novel, Walls Within Walls.   This New York City-based mystery involves overdue library books, clues, secret codes and other puzzles, as well as famous, and not-so-famous landmarks.  She describes her book as one of “painless learning” where one can learn about people, places and events because they are woven into the fabric of a story.

Ms. Sherry also drew upon her business background to give a students a look behind the scenes at how many publishing decisions are made such as page length, type of illustrations, and choice of illustrator.

If you are looking for a good book to read, we have a solution for you. Now our students can read novels online. TumbleReadables offers full-length fiction — from beginner’s readers to YA. And students can read them anytime, from anywhere. Go to the library’s home page  and look for the Catalog and eBooks  link in the left navigation bar.  TumbleReadables is the third item on the page.  Questions?  Talk to Mrs. Corsetti for more information.

Our district has purchased a subscription to PebbleGo Animals. This award-winning K-3 database features built-in reading and research tools, narrated text leveled for emerging readers, highlighting, and more. Added to these features are beautiful images of the animals our students want to know more about.

Curious George wants you to read to your child!  The Library of Congress has joined forces with the Ad Council to create a series of public service announcements featuring Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat.  For more on this promotion, and for hints on reading aloud, visit the Center for the Book.

You’ve seen her graphic novels about Fashion Kitty, and read her novels about Just Grace. You may have even seen her grocery shopping at Trader Joe. But on March 16, students in grades kindergarten 1 and 2 were treated to a visit with author/illustrator Charise Harper at the Central School library.

Ms. Harper focused on different works in her three presentations that morning while sharing stories of people and events that have inspired her to write and draw. Her focus shifted according to the age of the students. Kindergarten students drew new toppings for Cupcake, first grade students learned to draw Fashion Kitty, and second graders learned how to draw Grace and Sammy Stringer. Throughout we learned more about our author/illustrator neighbor (she lives in Mamaroneck), getting story ideas from real life, and having fun with illustrating.   We even learned how she learned French by reading comic books!

It was a great visit for both the students and their teachers (and the librarian).

Our thanks go to the Central School PTA and the visiting author committee for arranging this engaging, informative and fun event.

Would you like to know more about Charise Harper and her books? Visit her Web site at www.chariseharper.com

Scott Mebus took some time out of his wrting schedule to visit with Cnetral’s fourth grade students on Monday, March 1. The author shared some of his writing inspirations, love of history, and great stories as he read an excerpt from his first children’s novel, “The Gods of Manhattan”.