Jenkins and Kelley offer an optimistic alternative to Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our Brains which is filled, as Jenkins claims, with “contemporary anxieties” (p. 10). The book offers instead this explanation: “As a society, we are still sorting through the long-term implications of these [media] changes. But one thing is […]
When Nicholas Carr wrote the infamous article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008), he made waves in the education community who had bought into the Marc Prensky vision of today’s students as “digital natives” (2005). While making impetuous decisions about technology integration in schools, Carr halted everyone into thinking maybe we should be a bit […]
I start off trying to set context for 4 variables in redefining reading: reader, user, hardware and software using myself as the reader/user. Then I add in various perspectives on how digital reading is changing reading and finally I suggest that teachers and teacher-librarians can play a key role in levelling the playing field for […]
Drama by Raina Telgemeier My rating: 5 of 5 stars I am so thrilled that there is a female protagonist who loves theatre and isn’t dying to be onstage. Callie is a great role model for pre-teens and teens alike as she is the master of her own learning of stagecraft in order to help […]
Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 1 by Svetlana Chmakova My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have to admit that this is the first Manga I’ve ever read, although I’m an emerging fan of the graphic novel format. The artwork varies with the characters’ emotions from mysterious and flirtatious, to outraged and scary. The colour […]
“>Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks My rating: 4 of 5 stars I think my favourite thing about the main character, Maggie, is that her personality is so well-developed. Before the ghost is even introduced we find out that: she’s the only girl with 3 brothers, her Dad has a new job, and her […]
Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s not surprising to me that Vera Brosgol, author/illustrator of Anya’s Ghost, has chosen Neil Gaiman’s critique to highlight on her front cover of this graphic novel. I can make a direct comparison between Gaiman’s character Coraline and Brosgol’s Anya who are both ordinary […]
In this article Martha Cornog, longtime reviewer for Library Journal, interviews Graterford Corrections librarian, Philip Ephraim, about the inclusion of comics in his prison library. Ephraim talks about the circulation statistics of comics noting that they are a small portion of the collection but well-used by patrons. As a result, Ephraim has observed an increase […]
Owly, Vol. 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I can’t say this with any certainty but Owly has the feeling of being written for school-aged children. The pictures are sweet and the text is minimal but the stories themselves seem to have a moral […]
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Penny Kittle speak about reading and how complex it is for intermediate/senior teachers to teach. Kittle estimates that in 1st year college/university that the average pages a student reads is 500. She proposed that the #1 reason that students drop out after first year […]
Currently in the Upper Grand District School Board, the installation and maintenance of all software is done at the board facility through a common image for secondary students. An additional need at my school is digital resources for the secondary struggling reader. I define struggling reader as any student who is two levels below grade […]
Book title: The World Almanac for Kids 2013 Author: World Almanac Books Bibliographic entry World Almanac Books (Ed.). (2013). The world almanac for kids 2013. New York, NY: World Almanac Books. Description This almanac is filled with pictures and facts. It highlights popular culture in the year 2012 and is organized by topic alphabetically from animals to […]
threadbare beauty 