📕✎Graphic Novel Showcase: Exploring Stories through Art & Text

Today's Graphic Novel Showcase brought nearly 20 students together to explore the incredible variety of stories told in this format. With six different categories of graphic novels featured, students had the freedom to rotate through groups at their own pace, discovering new titles and styles along the way. From the newest additions in the collection to action-packed adventures, from diverse perspectives to true stories, there was something for everyone—whether they were longtime graphic novel fans or just starting to explore the format.

To make the experience even more interactive, students could participate in a scavenger hunt, working independently or with a partner to find specific elements within the books they browsed. This encouraged close reading and an appreciation for how art and text work together to tell a story. 

What made the event even more dynamic was the mix of participants—enthusiastic graphic novel readers shared their recommendations alongside students who were new to the format. Seeing these conversations unfold, with students pointing out favorite moments or talking about the story, was a reminder of how engaging graphic novels can be for readers.

This event was all about choice, exploration, and community, and it was amazing to see students discover books they might not have picked up otherwise. With so much enthusiasm in the room, it’s clear that graphic novels continue to be a valuable and beloved part of our library’s collection!

📖✨ 6-Word Book Talks: Quick Hooks for Engaging Reads

In a recent advisory session, students were introduced to more than two dozen books in a fast, engaging format—6-Word Book Talks. Each book was distilled into just six words, offering a quick glimpse into its core themes, intrigue, or emotional impact. These short but powerful teasers were presented in a series of Slides, giving students an easy way to preview a wide range of books across all eight fiction genres, as well as graphic novels and nonfiction selections.

After viewing the presentation, students had time to browse the featured books, flipping through pages, reading summaries, and seeing which stories sparked their interest. 

Students looking online or already reading with the featured books in the background.

Other students browsing the cases as time allowed.

With something for everyone—from thrilling mysteries to heartfelt contemporary reads, epic fantasies to eye-opening nonfiction—this session encouraged exploration and discovery. Sometimes, all it takes is six words to spark curiosity, and this format proved to be a fun, effective way to get books into students' hands! 

📕📕English I Book Talks

This week, I had the pleasure of hosting freshman English classes to deliver two engaging book talk presentations. Each session introduced students to an exciting mix of historical fiction, realistic fiction, and fresh titles by both popular and debut authors. From interesting narratives set in the past to contemporary stories that reflect students' challenges and achievements, there was something for every kind of reader.

In both presentations, we explored gripping tales from history—Bluebird by Sharon Cameron and The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson. Other titles spotlighted included realistic fiction mysteries and adventures alongside buzz-worthy new releases that students won’t want to miss. After the presentation, students had time to browse the shelves and connect with stories, checking out books, and sharing their excitement with one another. How awesome it is to match students with books!

🌐 🙌 Celebrating Diversity Through Book Trailers

A celebration of diversity and inclusivity has been underway these last two weeks as the student body celebrates Culture Week. Students could sign up to watch book trailers featuring stories with diverse characters and written by diverse authors. With each click of the play button, students embarked on a journey of exploration, delving into the district voices and experiences that make up the literary world.

To access the document, click HERE.

These powerful narratives--many of them new books in the collection--explored themes of identity and belonging or were heartwarming tales of friendship and resilience. Students were not only entertained but also enlightened, gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diverse perspectives that shape our society.

In our library, diversity isn't just celebrated; it's embraced wholeheartedly as we strive to create an inclusive space where every student feels seen, heard, and valued. When offering book trailers featuring diverse voices, we aim to spark curiosity, empathy, and a lifelong love of reading. So come join us on this journey of discovery as we celebrate the beauty of diversity through the pages of our books this week during Culture Week and every week. Happy viewing! 📚✨

💗📘 Heart Book Recommendations

Our library was buzzing with creativity last week, thanks to an awesome book craft that our students recently took on. (Thanks, Lacey Librarian, for sharing the activity!) Imagine a world where book recommendations take on a whole new shape – literally! 💗✨

During advisory students dove into the world of crafting with enthusiasm, turning their love for books into 3D heart-shaped book recommendations. Each heart not only showcased their ratings for the book but also held a special place for summaries and favorite parts. From fantasy realms to mystery adventures, the diversity of genres reflected in these heart-shaped recommendations was surprising. It's great to see how our students bring their favorite reads to life through art. Not only did this craft unleash their creativity in the short time we had to create them, but it also sparked conversations about the books at the tables where they worked.

These heart-shaped book recommendations are now displayed at the front desk for everyone to read and enjoy. It's a visual celebration of the diverse tastes and interests of our reading community. Swing by the library, take a look at the hearts, and maybe discover a new book to fall in love with. Who knows, you might just find your next favorite read! 💖📖

Keep reading, keep creating, and keep spreading the love for books! 📚✨

Top Ten Books

It's that time of year when we look back at the most checked-out books from the entire school year! Here they are!

What a great representation of students' interests and reading habits! New releases and old favorites? Yep! A variety of genres and formats, along with both fiction and nonfiction titles? Sure! Stand alones and series books? Yes! Screen adaptations? Of course! A celebration of readers and reading, for sure!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

As we enter our last month of school, there's still time to promote reading and some of our newer books. The most recent library display features several of the SEMH titles included in social media posts throughout the year, as well as other titles that highlight responsible decision making, self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills.

Many of the books appear in the Slides presentation below:

It's National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month, so that means a new library display! Inspiration was taken from The Book Wrangler's haiku book review work.

The haiku book reviews are already generating fun conversations, and students are eager to try their hand at creating their own haikus about the books they're returning. Good times talking about books--and a sneaky way to work in some poetry! :) You can see a close-up of two of the haikus below:

Feel free to stop by to share your own haiku! Happy National Poetry Month!

📚 New Term, New Round of Book Talks

With students beginning all new rotations of English and reading classes at the new term, teachers have been bringing groups into the library for check out, as well as book talks. Below is the latest round of featured books, some new to the collection and others that have been included for a while:

Books are showcased "by the numbers," meaning each title has some kind of connection to numbers. Some are obvious--like Five Survive and 3 Things I Know are True--while others are less obvious. For instance, the hotel in Hotel Magnifique changes locations every 24 hours and there are eight players on the basketball team in Dragon Hoops. The final book in the presentation, The Serpent King, shows the number one because it is my Number #1 read in the last semester. :)

See something you might want to check out or learn more about? You're welcome to stop by--and if the book you're looking for isn't available, we'll get it on hold for you and recommend something else! :)

📚😍 New Books!

Back from the holiday break, students can now browse and check out new books that have been recently added to the collection.

Clip art from EduClips

Many of the new books are fiction, but also included in the order are poetry books, narrative nonfiction, and graphic novels. Many are by authors already popular with students. You can see a lot of them below:

Students could also visit the library during advisory to watch book trailers for some of the new books. They accessed a Google Doc with links to YouTube trailers.

CLICK HERE to access the trailers document.

Feel free to stop by to take a look at the new books! Happy reading!

Top 10 Titles in 2022

It's time to get on the year-end bandwagon of Top 10 lists. :) Here are the 10 most checked-out titles from all of 2022:

Several of the titles continue to be popular even with earlier publication dates--word of mouth is a powerful force when it comes to books circulating often. Movie tie-ins and streaming service adaptations certainly help, too! You'll find fiction and nonfiction on the list, along with series and stand-alone books, as well as graphic novels. Likely you've heard of several, if not read them yourself!

Looking to create your own lists or year-end stats to share? This one was created from a template on Canva, where you can find all kinds of templates for your needs.

Wrapping up National Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15 - October 15 is traditionally celebrated as National Hispanic Heritage Month. In the past, library displays and advisory activities have helped introduce students to the people, culture, history, places, and more related to this month of recognition. (You can read an earlier blog post HERE.) 

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager.

Several books in the library feature Hispanic characters or are written by Hispanic authors--you can see a few of them below:

Want to know more about the books or find others that relate to National Hispanic Heritage Month? Check out this playlist of book trailers:

Hope to see you soon in the library--maybe even to check out one of the featured books here! :)

🌞📚 First Meeting of the Summer Book Club

Such a great time to finally meet with students for our first ever summer book club! 

After inviting students from our 7-8 building and high school, we teacher librarians arranged to have multiple print and electronic copies of Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley available so we could read it in June and talk about different aspects of the story.

Given the content and themes of the book, we reached out to our Employee and Family Resources staff to ask about a guest speaker visiting during our meeting to talk about foster care and family trauma in our state and communities. A special thank you to Mary, who not only visited to share information and statistics, but also read the book to be able to join in with our discussion!

We began with favorite moments/characters--like Francine and Friday nights at the grocery story--and questions we had before moving on to an introductory video featuring the author:

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Introduces FIGHTING WORDS from Penguin Classroom on Vimeo.

Next, Mary shared with us several statistics about child abuse in Iowa:

•  In 2021, there were more than 35,500 reports of abuse in Iowa. Nearly 9400 of those cases were founded/confirmed, with the majority of those cases (around 5300) involving children five years old or younger.

• Neglect contributes to 55% of the cases reported.

• In Polk and Dallas counties, where our communities are located, more than 5700 cases of abuse were confirmed in 2021.

Mary talked with us about the foster care system, including placement in emergency care, in a family setting, or in a group home, and she explained how someone like Suki from Fighting Words might age out of a system like the one we have here in Iowa.

Finally, Mary suggested things we can do if we are worried about any of our friends and are concerned for them: be supportive but not hovering; be there and remind friends that you're available; know about available resources; and, ask about today's feelings and actions.

We finished our discussion of the book by talking about our interpretations of the book cover, Della's conversation about superpowers, supporting characters, and adults who help vs. adults who ignore. Many students had already finished the whole book, but we tried to limit our conversation to Chapters 1 - 13, as we plan to meet again in two weeks to talk about the entire book. We'll also talk about our July read--which might be a variety of titles with the same theme. If you couldn't join us this time, we'd love to see you then!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Year-End Edition

How can it be the last week of school and final #TakeALookTuesday post? It feels like we all just returned to the building, and here we are preparing for end-of-year activities. One of the things we often do is run a variety of library system reports to reflect on the year and plan for the future. One of our favorite reports to consider is the Top Titles report.

So what made the Top 10 titles from the school year? Take a look!

No surprises here! Kids can't get enough of Rufus & Mateo or Charlie and Nick, and mysteries rule! Popular authors like McManus and Shusterman continue to earn spots on the Top 10 year after year, and true military stories are always popular. Graphic novels--the fastest growing section in the library--made the list, and LGBTQ+ stories have grown in popularity. Book-to-movie adaptations, both already on the screen and those coming soon, made the list, too. So much to consider and evaluate when looking at the list!

With McManus and Shusterman releasing new titles this fall, along with Cemetery Boys' author Aiden Thomas, students are sure to find something new to enjoy! And with Where the Crawdads Sing coming to the big screen, and Heartstopper currently on NetFlix, students have options to enjoy these popular reads.

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Novels in Verse Edition

During National Poetry Month, the featured books on display include novels in verse. (See previous post.) In today's Take A Look Tuesday post, we'll take a closer look at this popular format.

Currently the library collection has 39 titles that are cataloged as novels in verse. Titles include those by popular authors Kwame Alexander, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Ellen Hopkins.

Novels in verse address a broad range of topics genres. Several in the collection connect to historical events, like these:

They can also reflect family dynamics and highlight relationships in families and among friends, like these titles:

Several titles also have a focus on social, emotional, and mental health:

See something that looks interesting? Feel free to stop by to talk about any of these novels in verse or other books you might be looking for. Remember, many are also available on MackinVIA if the print copy you'd like is already checked out.

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--National Poetry Month Edition

In April we celebrate National Poetry Month, and in the library we're expanding our recognition of it to include novels in verse.

While our poetry collection is in development as we look to add more titles, our novels in verse are an option for students who are looking for a poetry feel in their free reading books. Many titles are available--with just a portion on display--throughout the fiction titles in the collection.

See something that interests you? You're welcome to stop by to take a look or browse for other titles--see you soon!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Graphic Novels Edition, Part II

It's an exciting time to update students, families, and colleagues about the growth in the graphic novels section of the collection! Here are the numbers:

Image created with Canva

So what kinds of graphic novels are now part of the collection? Manga titles, which previously hadn't been in the library, are now included, as well as many graphic novel memoirs and graphic novels series. Not only are the new graphic novels added from student requests, but they've also been included to reflect the diversity of the student body.

While there's so much to be excited about with the growth in this popular section of the library, even more titles will continue to be added throughout the remainder of the school year. Be sure to stop by to see what's available!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Refugees' Experience Edition

World events have brought refugees' stories to the forefront again, and as is often the case, YA literature and nonfiction books can help build knowledge and create empathy among readers. Several refugees' stories can be found in the library.

While many of these stories--both fiction and nonfiction--tell stories of violence and struggle, despair and change, and uncertainty and fear, they are also stories of hope, acceptance, triumph, and love.

The group of books highlighted include several time periods and are set in a variety of places around the world. Some reflect a single refugee's story while others include the experiences of many. While the character's refugee story is central to the plot, other subplots add to the overall telling of the story. Sports, political turmoil, fairy tales, terrorism, bombings, romance, and mental disabilities are featured alongside the refugees' experiences.

Stop by the library to take a look at these titles, and be sure to check MackinVIA for electronic copies of these and additional refugees' stories!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--New Books Edition

Recently several new books have been added to the collection. Titles are both fiction and nonfiction and in multiple formats--graphic novels, novels in verse, and prose. 

See something you like and want to know more? You can watch book trailers for several of the books HERE, or you can access them from the playlist below.

More new books are on the way, so be sure to stop by regularly to see the newest additions! Hope to see you soon--happy reading!

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Iowa Safe Schools Edition

Recently students could attend a variety of sessions offered during our first Diversity & Culture Week. One of the sessions was lead by a representative from Iowa Safe Schools, an organization that works to support any Iowa students who have been bullied.

According to their website, the group's mission is "...to provide safe, supportive, and nurturing learning environments and communities for LGBTQ and allied youth through education, outreach, advocacy, and direct services" (“About Us.” Iowa Safe Schools, 6 July 2021, www.iowasafeschools.org/about-us/).

One of the services they offer is an Affirming Resources Library, a resource for students and parents of school-age children from elementary school through high school. Research shows "... that when students are able to identify a part of themselves in a piece of literature, they are happier, healthier, and better students" (“Affirming Resource Library.” Iowa Safe Schools, 8 Dec. 2021, www.iowasafeschools.org/affirming-resource-library/). 

Students and their families are able to request one *free* book from a list of elementary, middle school, or high school lists. The site features descriptions of each book--you can see the high school selection below:

CLICK HERE to access the order form.

If you or your family would like to order a free title, please visit the website and complete an order form. Some of the titles are also available here in the library; stop by to take a closer look or check out a book.