Private by Kate Brian

Reed Brennan is living her dream. She is leaving her home in Pennsylvania and is entering an exclusive private boarding school. She was so lucky to win the scholarship. Now she is living and going to school with the rich and famous. And she doesn't have to put up with her mother's constant complaining. But it is not what she expected. And she finds that she struggles with the academics. And she is determined to make friends with the Billiings girls -- an elite dorm full of the best of the best.

Echo by Kate Morgenroth

Morgenroth, Kate.
ECHO
New York : Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007
IL YA
ISBN 1416914382
It started out as just a typical afternoon as Justin and his brother
Mark are home alone after school. Their mom has locked down the
television set in the living room so they can't spend their time just
watching tv. But Mark has an idea. He breaks into his parents room
and the two boys turn on the tv and settle in. As the two wrestle
for control for the remote control, things get out of hand. And Mark
accidently shoots himself with the gun he finds in the
nightstand. Now, a year later, Justin is trying to cope with the
loss of his brother and the loss of everything that used to define
his life. His parents are distant, the kids at school don't know how
to act around him, and his girlfriend has dropped him. But this day
will be different. Justin will relive this day over and over. Just
what is going on here? And what about the voice that Justin keeps hearing?

The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians

OK, I just had surgery this morning and have the luxury of just staying in bed, being waited on and reading all day. Gotta love it!

I really like this picture book about a boy who spends lots of time in the library. I love the librarians too!! They just make me smile!!

Melvin just loves the library. And he practically lives there. Everyday after school, Melvin stops by the library, The librarians love to see him. He always stops to talk with them and asks them questions. Like how many fish are in the whole world. Or what kind of bugs has he found. And the librarians always help him find the answers. Because that's the way librarians are.

The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris. Peachtree Press, 2007

Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Every once in awhile, there is a book that I like so much that I have trouble putting it down. Even when I finish it. Life As We Knew It certainly fits that description. I just can't stop thinking about it. And I was so happy to learn today that Pfeffer has a companion novel coming out. Unfortunately it won't be out until next year. The Dead And The Gone is about a boy going through the same event but he is living in New York City. Now I assumed NY was wiped out by the tidal waves. I'll have to wait and see. I hope I can get an advance copy of this when they are ready. I don't want to wait until next Spring to read it! And Pfeffer says that if that book does well, there may even be a third book!!! What can I say??? WooHoo!!!!!

LibraryThing and booktalks

Thanks to Davinna for sharing this great idea!

"Hi everyone. I'm excited to share that LibraryThing

http://www.librarything.com/ has become a useful tool for me to
catalog my book talks. I type the book talk in the comments
field. I'm also able to
tag a book according to the grade levels I would talk to about
it. So, for example, if a teacher asks me to do book talks for her
6th grade classes, I can click on the tag cloud for 6th grade and see
only those books.
LibraryThing, which is free, provides many ways to customize and
organize your collection (or book talks).

"If you'd like to get an idea of how this works, here is the link to
the book talks I have cataloged so far. I'm still in the process of
entering them.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Davinna

"(Click on Display Style 'D' if you aren't seeing the Comments/book talks)"

Davinna Artibey

Author pronunciations

When I'm doing my daily podcasts, I just sort of wing it when it
comes to how to say the author's name. I am sure I don't always get
it right. I apologize for this! But there are times that I just
don't even podcast a perfectly wonderful book because I can't figure
out how to say the author's name and don't want to embarrass myself
too much by butchering it. Now I find that there is a wonderful site
where the authors pronounce their names for you!

http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronunciations.cgi

I love teachingbooks.net anyway and mention it as often as I can in
workshops but I hadn't seen this feature before. No longer will I be
afraid to say Lara Zeises- or Ron Koertge or even Ji-Li Jiang. Now
if someone can tell me how to pronounce Caroline Desnoettes, I'd be a
happy woman. I love her book and would like to podcast about it!

myspace account

I was intrigued by readergirlz myspace account and learned that I
only could comment on their site if I had a myspace account. So, I
broke down and created one. Sure, at first myspace turned me
down. Don't know why but it is sort of the story of my life. I
can't even join a friendship site that anybody can join. So, I'm
finally there. If you are interested in visiting my myspace account,
it's www.myspace.com/booktalker

I have only one friend now. Do I feel pathetic! But, I hope to add
more. If you'd like to be my friend, simply ask. I really need friends!!

Booktalks March update loaded

I finished up the March update for Booktalks quick and
simple.

http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks

My Internet problems seem to have been resolved. It is so nice to
have reliable connections again. But I think I could have been happy
to do without the phone for a few more days. It seems that every
charity and every candidate has called in the past day. But I really
need to use my last two days of winter break to get things done!!

Booktalkers list being closed

For several years, I've maintained a list called
Booktalkers.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/booktalkers/

When we
first started out, it was used a lot. We had some great discussions
and sharing of information about booktalking.

But like a lot of specialized lists, traffic has declined in the past
year. The only traffic lately has been spam. Last month I put out a
message to the membership asking if the list should go on or was it
time to call it a day. Since I only got one response out of 307
members, I've made the decision to drop the list. I hope that
discussions on booktalking will continue but in a
different venue. I have invited the list members to use this blog
for their discussions. I hope that this does happen. I had great
ideas for the list when I started it 7 years ago but it has outlived
it usefulness.

So goodbye booktalkers list and all the members.

Nancy

Back online

Comcast has finally gotten be back online. It took two trips and
three different cable guys but they got it figured out. It's amazing
how we come to rely on technology and how lost we are without
it. Years ago I would have probably been most upset by not having a
telephone but this week I was definitely missing the Internet. We
did get the tv back a couple of days ago but the phone and Internet
are a different story. Yesterday we even lost the electricity for 2
1/2 hours. I felt like I was back in the woods of Vermont. At least
we still had indoor plumbing!!

So, I've uploaded the podcasts for this week. I hope my connection
to the outside world stays intact so I can get back to uploading
daily podcasts! We are due to have a big storm tonight, so we'll see :-)