Meet an author in these upcoming events!

Who: Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
Where: Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, California 94925
When: March 6th, 2012 10:00am
What: (from the site's description)
"Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen talk about Extra Yarn ($16.99). With a supply of yarn that never runs out, Annabelle knits for everyone in town until an evil archduke decides he wants the yarn for himself!"
More: http://bookpassage.com/event/mac-barnett-and-jon-klassen-extra-yarn

Who: Ashley Wolff
Where: Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, California 94925
When: March 8th, 2012 10:00am
What: (from the site's description)
"Ashley Wolff talks about Baby Bear Sees Blue ($16.99). Baby Bear has so much to learn about the world! From the moment he wakes until it’s time to curl up and go to sleep, he explores outside with his mama. They see green leaves, blue jays, brown trout, and—best of all—a patch of yummy red strawberries."
More: http://bookpassage.com/event/ashley-wolff-baby-bear-sees-blue

Who: Ally Carter
Where: Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025
When: Wednesday, March 21st, 7:00pm
What: (from the site's description)
"With more than a million Gallagher Girls books sold, a legion of fans have fallen in love with the New York Times best-selling spy-girl series, and the fifth book delivers the most nerve-wracking, high-stakes adventure yet."
More: http://www.keplers.com/event/youth-event-ally-carter

The Tuskegee Airmen have been in the news lately with the release of the movie Red Tails.  The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is a truly inspiring one that deserves to be shared.  Not only did they combat the prejudices of the era by shooting down enemy planes, proving that African-Americans could fly in combat missions for the Army Air Corps, they also saved thousands of lives with their escort missions.  They earned the nickname “Red Tailed Angels” because of their discipline and commitment to protect the planes they were escorting instead of peeling away to look for individual glory.  If you’re looking for more information about these heroes or you’d like something appropriate for young children, try the library resources below.

Wind Flyers by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Loren Long.  This colorful picture book tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen with beautiful illustrations and lyrical language.  It’s a perfect choice for sharing the story of these heroes with young children.

The Tuskegee Airmen Story by Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly Homan, illustrated by Rosalie M. Shepherd.  This picture book contains more information on the history of Tuskegee program including the women who worked at the station and non-pilot members of the group such as mechanics.  

Red-Tail Angels by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.  This non-fiction book contains chapters full of detailed information and pictures of the Tuskegee Airmen for older students interested in their story.

Flying Free: America’s First Black Aviators by Philip S. Hart.  This book provides context with chapters for Bessie Coleman, William J. Powell, James Herman Banning, Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, and The Chicago Flyers in addition to the Tuskegee Airmen.

The site Awesome Stories also has a great article by Carole D. Bos on The Tuskegee Airmen that includes many links to primary source information and a description of the challenges the Tuskegee Airmen faced and their accomplishments.  You can access it at http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/red-tails

For more resources on African American history, look at the books on display this month throughout the LRC.  

Last month the playground in a box took up residence in the LRC.  It's been great seeing the way the students interact with it as a class and during recess.  In the short time it's been available as a recess activity I've already seen a lot of progress with the way the students work together to build structures, play with the blocks, and then put them back away again.  This Friday in particular I was pleased to see about half of the students peacefully working together to make a large structure and the other half creating houses for the felt creatures they made inspired by the visting artist Steph Cortés.  Cross-curricular connections like these are what the LRC is all about.

Series fiction reigns supreme again in January.  The top five searches were for characters in a series and the top five titles are all books in a series.  I’ve placed the series name in parentheses.  Comics are also popular with three of the top five titles.  The top homerooms are spread out this month with two kindergartens, a first, a second, and a third grade.  I’ve changed the favorite areas this month so that the number of items a section contains is reflected as well as the number checked out.  The 700’s beat out picture books for most popular section this month for the first time this year.  With the popularity of comics it makes sense.  The 700’s also contain sports, books on movies (such as star wars), art, theatre, and joke books.  The 600’s  did well, taking third despite its smaller size.  This section contains such popular areas as cookbooks, books on technology such as planes and robots, and books about domesticated animals including dogs, cats, and horses.  Leave me a comment if there’s any other information you’d like to see in next month’s infographic.