Day of Tears by Julius Lester

The first book our team is going to talk about is Day of Tears by Julius Lester. The story is compelling and utterly painful. Having lived in Brunswick, Georgia I remember passing by the Butler Plantation on my way to work in Darien, Georgia. I also remember the topic of the Savannah slave aution as one that was discussed in 8th grade Georgia history classes. While not talked about much in this story, Butler's wife, Fanny Kemble was an abolitionist and famous English actress. Fanny and daughter Sarah opposed slavery while Pierce and the other daughter Frances believed in it. Ultimately this is painful but powerful story is worth reading.

Day of Tears by Julius Lester

The first book our team is going to talk about is Day of Tears by Julius Lester. The story is compelling and utterly painful. Having lived in Brunswick, Georgia I remember passing by the Butler Plantation on my way to work in Darien, Georgia. I also remember the topic of the Savannah slave aution as one that was discussed in 8th grade Georgia history classes. While not talked about much in this story, Butler's wife, Fanny Kemble was an abolitionist and famous English actress. Fanny and daughter Sarah opposed slavery while Pierce and the other daughter Frances believed in it. Ultimately this is painful but powerful story is worth reading.

2006-2007 Georgia Peach Teen Book Award Nominees

Wow! I've already read 12.5 books for the 06-07 school year. By this time I usually have a favorite book picked out yet this year I am not ready to choose one. I am looking forward to the professional development class that I have developed jointly with Kate Lyons that will be offered at Osborne High School from June 12-14th. It will be for other media specialists and teachers who are interested in developing competition reading teams for students in grades 4-12.

Oprah's National High School Writing Contest

Oprah announced on January 16th the book and question for high school students who want to enter her contest. The book is Night by Elie Wiesel and the question for the essay is "Why is Elie Wiesel's book Night relevant today?" The official entry form is ready and waiting for you:)

Oprah's National High School Essay Contest

On January 16, 2006, The Oprah Winfrey Show will announce a National High School Essay Contest along with a new book club selection. The entry deadline will be February 6, 2006. Study materials for students, parents and teachers will be available on Oprah's Website.

Netiquette and posting guidelines

As you compose your post to this blog please be conscious of our audience (teens, teachers, school library media specialists) when you write.

The goal of this project is to encourage a conversation among our participants about reading please keep the following ideas in mind:

• Students should use only first name and last initial when posting or may use a pseudonym.
• Keep your language within the boundaries of what is acceptable by your teachers at school.
• Content should also follow the same guidelines. Keep it clean!
• Be considerate of other people with other views and remember that we live in a multicultural world with a variety of viewpoints.
• No flaming (harsh, scathing words) allowed. Please be respectful.
• Be sure to obey all copyright laws and post only your own written work.
• Use standard English.
• Think before you post.

For more information on netiquette see the following link:

http://www.burbank.com/netiquette.shtml

Teen Read Week 2005, Get Real! @ your library

YALSA and ALA have some good materials to plan for Teen read Week. School library media specialists can register to participate in Teen Read Week for free.
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenreading.htm


Recently I saw an interesting idea for promoting teen reading that come across the AASL electronic mailing list. The discussion posting mentioned a school library media specialist who had a motorcycle displayed in the library in order to promote reading. Since I have a motorcycle I began to think about using this idea. When I approached my principal he wanted to hear what I had in mind. If I come up with a good enough idea I may be allowed to do this. Last year our reading team decorated a truck and my motorcycle with posters promoting the books we had read and as a team we walked and rode in the parade proudly carrying our reading team banner.

So as I plan for Teen Read Week, 2005 I may be considering riding my Honda ST 1100 to school and leaving it in my school library during Teen Read Week. If you have any ideas for promoting reading with a motorcycle please post them here and help me brainstorm some possibilities.

Starting a Helen Ruffin reading bowl team

If you are interested in starting a Helen Ruffin reading bowl team here are some ideas to get you started.

• Buy 2 to 3 copies of each book if you can afford to. If not you can try to manage with one copy of each book. We have been successful in writing grants that fund all of our team expenses
• Encourage your local public librarians to purchase copies of the book titles as well. You may find that they already have some of the titles available for checkout.
• Buy a game locout device buzzer system to practice with. Purchase one that has individual buzzers for two teams of five students. We purchased the Quick Pro basic from Patrick's Press.
• Plan a promotional campaign to recruit students. Be sure to inform your teachers about what you are doing. Ask your teachers to encourage students who like to read to consider joining the team.
• Plan your practice sessions. We meet after school and always provide refreshments. This is also one of our grant expenses.
• Plan for transportation to the regional competition. The 2006 North Georgia Regional competition is slated for Carrollton, Georgia.
• Be sure you look at the competition rules and practice according to the rules

These are some ideas to get you started. If you have any questions about starting a team you can post them here.

East by Elizabeth Pattou

East by Elizabeth Pattou

This was a book tht I wanted to read the minute I saw the dust jaket. The artwork is beautiful and features a young woman walking aside a huge white bear. This beautiful teenage fairy tale full of mythology... Pattou tells a story that is packed with adventure, perserverance, and love. This is one book I'd like to read again someday.

Teen Zone provides a brief review of East.

Revenge of the Whale by Nathaniel Philbrick

Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

Wow! This is not my type of book... I typically prefer fiction yet I found this book hard to put down. The story was captivating, interesting and made me want to read Moby Dick again. I don't guess I'll be doing that until I finish reading eight more of our Georgia Peach Teen Award nominees. So far I've read twelve and will be posting on some additional titles as time allows. This is an amazing story of survival at sea in 25' whaleboats.

Whaleship Essex - drawing of the ship done by Thomas Nickerson
Author bio from the Library of Congress
Author bio from the Smithsonian
Nantucket Historical Society

The Afterlife by Gary Soto

This is the first book I read from the Georgia Peach Teen Award list for this year. It starts with a fast pace as Chuy describes his own murder! The rest of the book is Chuy's recounting of what happened to him after he died. It is an engaging story with vivid imagery of what could happen to a person upon their death. Soto's Mexican-American background is quite evident in the book.

Gary Soto has written poetry as well as fiction, picture books as well as young adult novels. If you want to check out other titles by Soto (some published in both English and Spanish) try Gary Soto's official web site is http://www.garysoto.com/ or this link: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/sotobib.htm.

Fault Line by Janet Tashjian

Fault Line by Janet Tashjian

Janet Tashjian wrote this book in 2003 between The Gospel According to Larry (2001) and Vote for Larry (2004). Personnaly I enjoyed The Gospel more than Fault Line yet Fault Line had its moments. The main character in Fault Line is a 17 year old high school student who is a stand up comedian. She falls in love with Kip and then things get complicated quickly.

I think I have to buy a coy of Vote for Larry and add it to my reading list.

Teen Book Reviews

R.L. Osborne's Ruffin Readers at the 2005 North Georgia Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. 

Trophies for the 2005 North Georgia Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl 

How Angel Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen

How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme Sports by Gary Paulsen


Gary Paulsen has my vote for writing this clever and hilarious quick read about extreme sports before their time. Oh... Excuse me... I mean extreme sports in the era that Gary Paulsen grew up (the 1950's). This book of short stories had me laughing out loud.

Gary actively advises readers with this Note of Caution...

1. We were quite a bit dumber then.
2. There wasn't any safety gear.

Read the book and comment here! Some ideas for discussion include sharing information about extreme sports and any books, magazines or Websites on related topics.

For example here is a book review (this is a little on the academic side!)

Extreme Sports Reads from the Ocean County Library

Books to make you laugh out loud

Stupid stunts

Teens Talk About Books

Read, Compete, Achieve! What is this blog about?

I am a high school library media specialist in Marietta, Georgia at R.L. Osborne High School. I co-sponsor an extra curricular reading competition team. Our motto is Read, Compete, Achieve hence the title for this blog. Each year our student members read selected titles from a list of book nominees for the Georgia Peach Teen Book Award. There is a state wide competition in Georgia for the team that can score the highest number of points in a round robin style, face-to-face competition. The regional competition for 2006 will take place in Carrollton, Georgia. The competition originated in DeKalb County Schools and three years ago the competition went state wide.

My goal for this blog is to open up a discussion of the books and authors on the title list for the 2005-2006 school year and ask student participants and their sponsors to contribute their ideas about the books that they have read.

• Brief book reviews


• If you liked this book you might like...


• Something about the characters


• Share author Websites


• Share published book reviews