New Picture Books

All Things Bright and Beautiful - Ashley Bryan
An illustrated version of the well-known hymn, which describes the marvels of God's creation.

Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies
Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, have hand-selected a wonderful mix of their most cherished poems, songs, and lullabies in this rich and diverse poetry collection.


Beatrice Doesn't Want To - Laura Numeroff
On the third afternoon of going to the library with her brother Henry, Beatrice finally finds something she enjoys doing.

Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever!
Corduroy must decide on his costume in order to enjoy one of his favorite holidays with his friends.



Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers - Lura Numeroff
In a child's imagination, animals do wacky things, including ducks riding bikes, yaks skiing, and fish eating bagels.

Corduroy's Easter Party
As he and his friends get ready to celebrate Easter with a special party, Corduroy wonders if the Easter Bunny is real. What better time for Corduroy and his friends to throw an Easter party? They've got their Easter hats, they've dyed their eggs, and now they're waiting on one special long-eared guest. Will the Easter bunny show?

The Chicken of the Family - Mary Amato
When her older sisters tease her into believing that she is actually a chicken, Henrietta runs off to a farm to be among her own kind. Buckeye Children's Book Award, 2010

The Best Story - Eileen Spinelli
When a contest at the local library offers a prize for the best story, a girl tries to write one using her family's suggestions, but her story does not seem right until she listens to her heart.

Would I Trade My Parents? - Laura Numeroff
A young boy considers what is special about all of his friends' parents, and realizes that his own are the most wonderful of all.

What Aunts Do Best; What Uncles Do Best - Laura Numeroff
Read one way, this book describes all the wonderful things aunts do, and when turned over, it depicts why uncles are special.

Hedgie Blasts Off! - Jan Brett
When the spectacular, sparkling explosions at a popular tourist sight slow down, Hedgie the hedgehog is the only one capable of flying to tiny planet Mikkop to see what is wrong.

New YA Books

After Ever After - Jordan Sonnenblick
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome after effects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

Back Home - Julia Keller
Thirteen-year-old Rachel Browning understands that her father will be different after being injured in the Iraq War, but no one is prepared for the impact that his traumatic brain injury and other wounds have on the entire family.

Dragonfly - Julia Golding
When Tashi, the rigidly formal sixteen-year-old Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands, reluctantly weds roguish eighteen-year-old Prince Ramil of Gerfal, their religious, cultural, and personal differences threaten to end their political alliance and put both countries at the mercy of a fearsome warlord.

The Brothers Story - Katherine Sturtevant
In the late seventeenth century, fifteen-year-old Kit, driven to desperation by the starvation of one brother and mistreatment of his own simple-minded twin, realizes his dream of becoming an apprentice in London but feels drawn by duty to return home to Essex.

Dragon Games: Book 2 of The Books of Umber - P.W. Catanese
Having learned more about his mysterious past, Happenstance accompanies Lord Umber on a daring journey that could affect the future of Kuraharen.

New Valentine's Day Book

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! - Laura Numeroff
Join Mouse from 'If you give a mouse a cookie' as he celebrates Valentine's Day with all the friends he loves.

New Picture Book

The Easter Egg - Jan Brett

Hoppi the bunny wants to win the egg-decorating contest so the Easter Bunny will choose him to help distribute Easter eggs, but instead, while everyone else is working on their decorations, he finds himself guarding an egg that has fallen from a robin's nest.

New YA Books

The Viper's Nest (Book 7 of The 39 Clues) - Peter Lerangis
Shaken by a shocking loss, Amy and Dan flee to an exotic land and trace the footsteps of their most formidable ancestor yet: a military leader of mythic proportions.

The Chestnut King (Book 3 of The 100 Cupboards) - N.D. Wilson
Twelve-year-old Henry York, finally reunited with his family, works with them and the Chestnut King, the long-deposed and mythic leader of the faeren people, to destroy Nimiane and her forces of evil.

Cosmic - Frank Cottrell Boyce
12-year old Liam looks like he's thirty. Sometimes it's not bad; for example on the first day of school the principal mistakes Liam for a teacher or when he convinces a car dealer to let him test drive a Porsche. So feeling like he's stuck between two worlds, Liam cons his way into being the adult chaperone on the first space ship to take civilians into space. But when the ship is stuck 230,000 miles from home, being mistaken for an adult is not good.

New Pop-Up Books

God & Heroes - Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda
A volume of centuries-old myths and legends that takes the reader from the banks of the Nile to the clouds above Greece to Mount Olympus; up to Odin's frozen north and into the Far East; into Oceania and many more lands and times.

Everyone Says I Love You - Beegee Tolpa
How to say "I love you" in America, Italy, Holland, Japan, Kenya, and France.

February 2010 Newsletter

ALA Book Awards Announced

The American Library Association announced the winners of several coveted awards in January.  The Caldecott Medal, awarded to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book, was Jerry Pinkney for his book, The Lion and the Mouse, a nearly wordless book based on the Aesop fable in which an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle.  The Newbery Medal, awarded to the author of the most distinguished book for children published in the United States during 2009, was Rebecca Stead, for her book, When You Reach Me.  Most of the award winners are already part of the CMC collection, and the others have been ordered.  A complete list of the award books in the CMC can be found at the CMC website.


Website of the Month

Edheads is an educational website that helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. The site contains free, high quality educational activities for the classroom or for individual use.  Most of the activities are science-related, and include virtual hip and knee replacements, weather, and simple machines.

Education News

Several textbook publishers, including Houghton-Mifflin and Pearson/Prentice-Hall, have signed deals to adapt their print textbooks to digital formats that could be used on devices such as Apple's new iPad.  Read about it here.

New CMC Materials

Nearly 100 new items were added to the CMC collection in January.  New resources include Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs, trade books, computer software, the movie the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and much more.

New Activity and Idea Books

Teaching green : the high school years : hands-on learning in grades 9-12

Forms at your fingertips. Grades 1-6 : over 150 timesaving forms to manage your classroom 





How to make super pop-ups

From The Historian's Apprentice series:

Garrison and Douglass : abolitionism in Black and White

What happened at Ellis Island?

Manifest Destiny and its critics 

How "Radical" was the American Revolution? 

Jefferson vs. Hamilton : two visions of a nation

 

New YA Books

Winter's End - Jean-Claude Mourlevat
Fleeing across icy mountains from a pack of terrifying dog-men sent to hunt them down, four teenagers escape from their prison-like boarding schools to take up the fight against the tyrannical government that murdered their parents fifteen years earlier.

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux - Geraldine McCaughrean
Having been raised believing he will die before he reaches the age of fourteen, Pepper Roux runs away on his fourteenth birthday in an attempt to elude his fate, assumes another identity, and continues to try to outrun death, no matter the consequences.

A Faraway Island - Annika Thor
In 1939 Sweden, two Jewish sisters wait for their parents to join them in fleeing the Nazis in Austria, but while eight-year-old Nellie settles in quickly, twelve-year-old Stephie feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who is as cold and unforgiving as the island on which they live.  2010 Mildred L. Batchelder Award

New Children's Books

Amelia Bedelia's First Valentine - Herman Parish
Literal-minded even as a child, Amelia Bedelia muddles through Valentine's Day with her heart on her sleeve, trying to make sense of strange greetings at school and home, and ever on the look-out for the arrows of Cupid.

Henry in Love - Peter McCarty
On the first day of school, Henry the cat vies for the attention of the most amazing girl in class, Chloe Rabbit.

Henry Aaron's Dream - Matt Tavares
Biography of Henry Aaron's young life - from his sandlot days through his time in the Negro leagues to the day he played his first spring-training game for the Braves.

Only One Year - Andrea Cheng
Nine-year-old Sharon has conflicted feelings towards her copycat little sister and rambunctious toddler brother, who is sent to China for a year to live with relatives.

New DVDs

Anne of Green Gables series:

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel

Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story

New Phonics Software

Reader Rabbit: Reading Builder
Uses story reading, skill-building games, and writing activities to develop core reading skills in phonics, spelling, rhyming, reading comprehension, and writing. Provides practice with identifying beginning and ending consonant blends, digraphs, long and short vowel sounds, word families, vowel combinations, compound words, syllables, prefixes, contractions, and suffixes. Builds vocabulary. Helps meet Reading First mandate for reading proficiency by third grade.

New Social Studies Activity Books

From the series "The Historian's Apprentice":

Why Did the Civil Rights Movement Succeed?

What Did It Mean to Be a Puritan?

The Consitution and Slavery

Happy Trails: The Appeal of the Frontier in 19th-Century America

FDR and the First Hundred Days

The 1920s: Golden Age or Age of Illusion?

The Emancipation Proclamation: Political Ploy or Courageous Gamble?

The Great Society and Its Critics

Urban Disorder and Progressive Reform

New Books

Supersister - Beth Cadena
A young girl does all kinds of things around the house to help her pregnant mother, proud that when the new baby comes she is going to be "a super sister."

Calamity Jack - Shannon and Dean Hale
In this graphic novel interpretation of "Jack and the beanstalk," Jack is a born schemer who climbs a magical beanstalk in the hope of exacting justice from a mean giant and gaining a fortune for his widowed mother, aided by some friends.

Christian the Lion - Anthony Bourke
Recounts the story of a lion cub purchased by two friends from a London department store.

Oh, Rats! - Albert Marrin
Get ready to look at rats in a whole new way. These intelligent, compassionate creatures are greatly misunderstood.

New Audiobook

Trouble - Gary D. Schmidt
When fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, fate adds another companion, the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin, and reveals troubles that predate the accident.

New School House Rock! DVDs

Science

Earth

America

New Bill Nye DVDs

Electrical Current

Light and Color

The Planets

Probability

Sound

Rocks & Soil

New Children's and YA Books

Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep! - Maureen Wright
As winter comes and Big Bear prepares to hibernate, he keeps thinking he hears Old Man Winter giving him exhausting orders that prevent him from sleeping.

The True Gift: A Christmas Story - Patricia MacLachlan
While spending Christmas at their grandparents' farm, Lily becomes convinced that her younger brother Liam is right about White Cow being lonely and helps him seek a companion for her, leaving little time for Christmas preparations or reading.

Welcome Fall
A touch-and-feel book that helps babies and toddlers learn about the fall season.

Mercury - Hope Larson
Tara is forced to move in with her cousins after her house burns down. She faces a difficult adjustment while her mother is away trying to earn money. Interwoven with this story is that of Tara's ancestors, who in 1859 were convinced by a mysterious stranger to put all their money into searching their property for gold.

Does God Know How to Tie Shoes? - Nancy White Carlstrom
As a young girl walks with her parents through the countryside, her questions elicit responses that help her to know God better.

The Unfinished Angel - Sharon Creech
In a tiny village in the Swiss Alps, an angel meets an American girl named Zola who has come with her father to open a school, and together Zola and the angel rescue a group of homeless orphans, who gradually change everything.

Happy Halloween, Curious George - N.T. Raymond
Halloween is here, and Curious George is getting ready for the big night. There are so many costumes to try on, treats to share, and games to play! George has so much Halloween fun picking out the perfect pumpkin, decorating his house, and celebrating with his friends that he's not sure he's ready for the day to end.

Animals Babies in Polar Lands -  Jennifer Schofield
A simple introduction to the baby and adult animals that live in polar regions.

The Good-Night Blessing Book - Nancy Willard
In this book of twenty blessings, a community of angels invites us to treasure the details of daily life and the people we love.

The Spirit of Christmas - Nancy Tillman
Despite the arrival of the Spirit of Christmas, who brings all sorts of trimmings and reminders of seasonal joys, something is still lacking.

The Milestones Project: Celebrating Childhood Around the World
Inspired by The Milestones Project, a living, growing archive of more than 22,000 photographs of children, this book pays tribute to the core experiences shared by every person on the planet. Original writings from beloved children's book authors and illustrators, activists, and kids are included.

Knights and Castles - Alex Martin
Reveals details about the lives of medieval knights with the use of artwork from such artists as Jean Fouquet, Pieter Bruegel the Younger, and Paolo Uccello.

Where in the Wild? - David M. Schwartz
Ten creatures wait, camouflaged in artful, full-page photographs, while playful poems offer clues about each animal's identity and whereabouts. Includes ten gatefolds that readers can lift.

My Big Book of Spanish Words - Rebecca Emberley
Introduces children to English and Spanish words and pictures for colors, numbers, animals, and more.

Life-Size Zoo - Teruyuki Komiya
See life-size photographs of various animals, with fold-out pages and charts of interesting facts.

Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library - Vicki Myron
When librarian Vicki Myron finds a young kitten abandoned in the Spencer Library return box, she nurses him back to health, deciding then and there that he will be their library cat, and naming him, appropriately, Dewey Readmore Books.

Go, Go America - Dan Yaccarino
A collection of odd facts, including festivals, contests, and laws,about the states of the United States.

New Children's Book

Christian the Lion - Anthony Bourke
Recounts the story of a lion cub purchased by two friends from a London department store, written from the point of view of Christian, the lion. He is ultimately sent to Kenya to be rehabilitated by George Adamson, for release into the wild.

New Pop-Up and Toy Books

Chanukkah Bugs: A Pop-up Celebration - David A. Carter
Pop-ups, flaps, and pull tabs illustrate events at a Chanukah celebration.

Color Train, Color Train! - Martin Kelly
A train takes shape on printed ribbons in the center of the book as pages are turned.

Alice in Pop-up Wonderland - J.otto Seibold
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters.

New Professional Resource

Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature (9th edition)

New Phonics Software

Ultimate Phonics Reading Program
Complete self-teaching, interactive multimedia learning tool that teaches people of all ages to read with phonics.

New History Alive! Textbook

History Alive! Communist China and Modern Japan
1. Communist China -- 2. Modern Japan -- 3. Asian cultural connections with the United States -- 4. Asian journeys: creating stories about changing times

New YA Book

Powerless - Matthew Cody
oon after moving to Noble's Green, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Daniel learns that his new friends have super powers that they will lose when they turn thirteen, unless he can use his brain power to protect them.

New Ohio Books

Ohio Plants and Animals

People of Ohio

Uniquely Ohio

All Around Ohio

Reading in the Content Areas

Strategic Reading in the Content Areas: Practical Applications for Creating a Thinking Environment - Rachel Billmeyer
http://library.cedarville.edu/record=b1282162Content-area teachers hold the keys for helping students understand how to think as they read. Teaching students how to read strategically in every subject and grade level helps them know how to think in order to successfully master the content. This practical guide examines current information about the role of metacognition (thinking about thinking); three interactive reading ingredients (context, reader, text); and current research on vocabulary and concept development.

New Activity and Idea Book

Ten-Minute Field Trips: A Teacher's Guide to Using the Schoolgrounds for Environmental Studies - Helen Ross Russell
For teachers in all school environments--urban, suburban, or rural, this book includes more than 200 short, close-to-home field trips that explore new dimensions of familiar spaces and objects. Brick walls, rock outcrops, lawns, broken pavement, weeds, and trees are all targets for exploration. Each topic section (plants, animals, interdependence of living things, physical science, Earth science, and ecology) includes pre-trip classroom activities, teacher preparation, and a list of trip possibilities. For urban areas, a special cross-referenced list of field trips for hard-topped school grounds is included.