Book Bag: Friendswood Youth Services Blog

  In the UK there is a BBC channel that broadcasts children's shows all day (like Nickelodeon or Disney channel but for really little kids). It's called Cbeebies. And the last show every evening is for a bedtime story. Often they have celebrities read the stories. It sounds a bit like Reading Rainbow to me...Anyway! I found out today that most of the cast of Doctor Who has guest starred on it! Here are a few of our favorite people reading books to children, how great is that? Pretty great, if you ask me!                                                             David Tennant (the 10th Doctor)                                                         Christopher Eccleston (the 9th Doctor)                                                           Alex Kingston (River Song)                                                     Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)                                                         John Simm (The Master)

One was an American author born in 1832 who is most famous for  Little Women, her (semi-autobiographical) book about the lives of the March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. * The other is an Irish author born in 1898 most famous for The Chronicles of Narnia, a series set in the fictional world of Narnia.** Well, they actually have a few things in common. Their books are wildly popular with children and adult alike. They have been read and reread for generation and have been adapted to film and stage for years. The other thing they have in common is that today is their birthday! And you know how I feel about birthdays! So Happy Birthday C.S.Lewis and Louis May Alcott! May your books continue to bring joy to readers everywhere! DFBTA, Sti *Alcott was a prolific writer and a really interesting person. Her dad was a transcendentalist and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were close family friends.  **C.S. Lewis was also pretty awesome. Besides his Narnia ser

On Monday I revealed the Maverick Graphic Novel List for 2012-2013. Today I'm happy to introduce the Texas Lone Star List for 2012. There are some seriously good books on here! Lots of dystopias, mysteries, adventures, zombies and paranormal stuff to get excited about! Dionne, Erin. Notes from an Accidental Band Geek. Frost, Helen. Hidden . Gibbs, Stuart. Belly Up. Gidwitz, Adam. A Tale Dark and Grimm. Gier, Kerstin. Ruby Red. Hobbs, Will. Take Me to the River. Lane, Andy. Death Cloud. Maberry, Jonathan. Rot & Ruin. Monninger, Joseph. Wish. Ness, Patrick. A Monster Calls: A Novel. Oppel, Kenneth. This Dark Endeavor. Paulsen, Gary. Paintings from the Cave: Three Novellas . Roth, Veronica. Divergent. Rylander, Chris. The Fourth Stall. Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for Now. Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Stephens, John. The Emerald Atlas. Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. White, Kiersten. Paranormalcy. Young, Moira. Blood Red Road . We already

I'm back again! The first thing I did when I got to work today was watch The Hunger Games trailer. Guys, I think it's going to be really good. Everything looks great and close to the book! I'm not going to lie, I cried. What do you think? Let me know in the comments! DFTBA, Sti

Hey all! This weekend I was in Austin for my Maverick Committee meeting. If you're not aware this committee chooses the Maverick List, a list of notable graphic novels that have been published in the last year. I love serving on this committee, I get to read lots of graphic novels and comics and I get to discuss them with equally nerdy librarians (also, afterward I get to go to Austin's Wizard World Comic Convention!)! Here is the list we voted on on Saturday. Hot off the presses! I've put a star(*) next to those that I particularly love and will do more specific reviews later. 2012-2013 Maverick Graphic Novel List Books for 6th-8th grade Bake Sale by Sara Varon          Astronaut Academy Zero Gravity by Dave Roman  *     Hereville: How Mirka Got her Sword  by Barry Deutsch     Last Unicorn  by Peter Beagle       Lost and Found  by Shaun Tan*           Pirate Penguin Vs Ninja Chicken by Ray Friesen*         Possessions: Book One: Unclean Getaw

Some people have pointed out that this photo from Vanity Fair looks a bit more like a Banana Republic ad then a picture of Hunger Game tributes. But this may be the last time we see any of them look this clean and/or happy so let's make the best of it, shall we? From left to right: Clove , District 2 (Isabelle Fuhrman); Marvel , District 1 (Jack Quaid) Foxface , District 5 (Jacqueline Emerson); Thresh , District 11 (Dayo Okeniyi); Glimmer , District 1 (Leven Rambin [she's from Houston!]); Cato , District 2 (Alexander Ludwig); Rue , District 11 (Amandla Stenbeg); Peeta , District 12 (Josh Hutcherson); Katniss , District 12 (Jennifer Lawrence); Gale , District 12-not a tribute (Liam Hemsworth) If you head over to the Vanity Fair page and scroll over each actor there's a bit of info about their character and how they got the part in the movie. Pretty neat. And have you seen the new posters? They are amazing! Seems crazy we have to wait until March for this

Here are a few hints: It's the highly anticipated 4th book in a series. It's about dragons. It's really, really long! That's right! It's Inheritance by Christopher Paolini! And right now, there are only 9 people on hold, so you should get on the list! I love taking pictures of books before the public has seen them! DFTBA, Sti

I know I already have a list of links on the right toolbar, but I doubt most people have noticed them and I just found this great list of links from Booklist magazine and I wanted to share it with y'all in hopes that you can find help for homework woes or just some inspiration. So here goes, just click on the title to be taken to the site. Astronomy Picture of the Day - I'd file this one under inspiration. Each day NASA posts a new picture of the cosmos, and a professional astronomer explains it briefly (and usually understandably!). Awesome Library - Database that searches lots of carefully reviewed resources for projects and unanswered questions. It's pretty...well, you know. Citation Machine - One of my favorite websites when I was writing papers in college, helps you format all those pesky sources in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian formats. Coolmath.com - The layout may seem a little childish, but I wish this site had been available when I was struggling with mat

Hope you're getting your brains warmed up for our Scavenger Hunt on Friday! Keith is concocting some brain teasing puzzles for you to work out. See you there! 4:30 on Friday! DFTBA, Sti