Tales from the Seabury Library

A belated welcome
to the 2008-09 school year in the Seabury Library.

The library looks great; we have some beautiful new shelves to accomodate our formerly bursting at the seams picture book collection thanks to Ken Fox. Check them out. (The upper level of blue shelves.) They are firmly bolted to the wall, thanks to Joe Ward.

Library days are in full swing. The children are excitedly exploring. They're finding new books to read for fun and learning. (Most of the time learning and fun is the same thing for these kids.)

I've read quite a few books to various classes. A favorite has been President Pennybaker, by Kate Feiffer. It's about a boy who runs for president on the "no more homework and no bedtime" platform. The Beacons cheered just like the kids in his fictional audiences.

Of course, now we're reading Halloween books – just scary enough – depending on age level.

I'm reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart, to the Explorers. That class pretty much insists I have a chapter book going with them at all times. The heroes of this book are gifted kids and it's grabbing us right away. (My daughter has been bugging me to read it for a long time. This is a great excuse.) The only problem; it's long. At once a week, we might finish by May.

I did my traditional "What We Read This Summer" poster, writing down a book each from students and staff members. I was once again impressed and inspired by all the summer reading that gets done by the Seabury community.

Here's a sampling:

One of our sixth graders read The Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter; another read both Eragon and Eldest. Fifth graders read House of the Scorpions, by Nancy Farmer, Maximum Ride, by James Patterson and The Navigator, by Eoin McNamee.

A couple of students read The Lightning Thief and other books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Navigators read Redwall and Nory Ryan's Song, by Patricia Reilly Giff.

Second graders read Judy Moody: Around the World in 81/2 Days, Trumpet of the Swan and Spiderwick Chronicles.

Three first graders read Encyclopedia Brown books. A kindergartner read a Bailey School kids book and another read The Dr. Seuss Sleep Book.

As for the staff? Here are a few of the books we read:
Three Cups of Tea, by Gary Mortensen (Kids versions of this great story are coming out soon.)
The Anthropology of Turquoise, by Ellen Meloy
Run, by Ann Patchett
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kinsolver
Lipstick Jungle, by Candace Bushnell
Lucky, by Alice Sebold
Sound of Waves, by Yukio Mishima
Sundays at Tiffanys, by James Patterson

I hope you had the chance to see the poster when it was on the front wall of the school. If not, I've still got it.


For those of you who don't know, I write a weekly children's book column for The News Tribune in Tacoma. Here's a link to this week's reviews of new election books. If you want to see more columns, you can do an advanced search for my byline (Rebecca Young).



I'll try to keep this updated more often. No surgery this school year!

Talk to you soon ...