Top Ten Tuesday: Friendships

 This week's theme is all about friendship. I love a good friendship story.  Here are some of my favorites:

Some all time favorite friendships:

Some friendships from books I've read this year:

Kids Summer Reading (4): All Together Now

 

The past three weeks, we talked about FRIENDSHIP and COMMUNITY and KINDNESS programs. Go back and check them out if you missed them.

This week I'm sharing art and display ideas:

Kindness Tree or Kindness Branches Out

Friendship is in the Air

Sunflowers

Dandelions

Photo Moment:

Grateful Wreath

This Community Loves Books

Add favorite book titles on the hearts from staff and patrons. Keep growing the display all summer long

Graphic Novel Review: Real Friends

Shannon's best friend moved away. While she found a new best friend, it just wasn't the same. When Adrienne moves back, Shannon couldn't be happier. Everything will be back to normal.

Except it isn't. Adrienne's happy to be friends with Shannon, but she wants to hang out with other girls too. She becomes friends with the popular girls. Shannon joins them, but the popular girls don't seem to like her as much. And they are sometimes mean.

Shannon wishes they could break away from the group. But then she might have no friends. Is having no friends worse than having mean friends?

My Thoughts: A hard book to read, but I devoured it. It's hard to read because it's true and it hits home. Middle school is the worst for friendship and figuring out life. Girls are mean. You're insecure. It's just a cycle. I really liked this book and how it ended. It should be required reading for all middle schoolers because it's that good and that important. 

Cover Thoughts: Cute
Source: My Library

Librarian Recommendation: Buy this one immediately. And give it to everyone!

National Bully Prevention Month

Think about what your and/or your library can do to stop bullying, to provide a safe sanctuary, and to share stories. Do you have a book list for readers - maybe one on bullies but maybe also one about friendship? Do you have programs around kindness? Are you connecting with the schools?  Can you come up with a community project?  Or do something smaller. Hand out a snack one day to all the teens and tweens in the library. Just because. Just to say hello. If it's too late for this year to scramble together a program, write a note in your calendar to plan something for next year. 

These middle grade authors are teaming up and taking a stand.

Kirby Larson - AUDACITY JONES TO THE RESCUE (Scholastic, Jan)

Augusta Scattergood - MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG (Scholastic, Aug)

Barbara O'Connor - WISH (FSG, Aug)

Susan Hill Long - THE MAGIC MIRROR (Knopf, May)

The authors really want to expand the conversation about friendship and writing and reading with a #TrueFriends hashtag. Each author has created a short video talking about her book and the #TrueFriends storyline within it and each closes her video by offering a writing prompt about friendship. We've created a #TrueFriends YouTube channel to host the videos.

They also created a #TrueFriends downloadable kit that features a conversation between these four friends and also a "Friend Catcher" for kids to make.

And if you don't have the books in your library, you're in luck. There's a #TrueFriends giveaway where 15 lucky librarians and teachers will win a set of all four books, and 4 lucky grand prize winners will receive the books and an opportunity to host one of the four authors for a Skype visit with their class, library, or school. Enter before November 30, 2016.

If you want to get involved and do something before then, here are some ideas taken straight from Stomp Out Bullying 

Every October, schools and organizations across the country join STOMP Out Bullying™ in observing National Bullying Prevention Month. The goal: encourage communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying by increasing awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying on all children of all ages.

 TAKE ACTION with A MONTH OF ANTI-BULLYING ACTIVITIES

The Week of October 10^th: Make friends with someone you don’t know at school (or anywhere)

If you've ever been isolated from others at school or you were new at school and it took time to make friends, you know what it feels like to be left out. Or even if you were never isolated, imagine how it would feel.

Make friends with someone at school who you don't know. Invite them to sit at your lunch table or join you in an after school activity. You probably wish someone had done that for you.

Be a leader. Take action and don't let anyone at school be in isolation.

Challenge Others To Be Kind: Pay it Forward

Make kindness go viral with an act of kindness and challenge friends and classmates to pay it forward with their acts of kindness. Make a video of everyone doing acts of kindness and submit it. We'll add it tou our website.

The Week of October 17^th: STAND UP for Others Week

When you see someone being bullied, be brave and STAND UP for them. Bullies have been known to back off when others stand up for victims.

If you don't feel safe get the help of an adult immediately. Be part of the solution -- not the problem!

The Week of October 24^th: Students can participate by

• Creating positive messages on post-its and handing them out to students at school
• Hold a "kindness" dance at school
• Creating anti-bullying videos and sharing them on the STOMP Out Bullying site
• Sharing inspirational stories on the STOMP Out Bullying site
• Create a kindness dance flash mob at school or in your community. Make a video of it and send it to us. We'll share it on our web site.

The more awareness that is created during the month of October -- and all year round, you are one step closer to putting an end to bullying!

What have you done that's worked well for your library? Or have you been able to help certain students on an individual level? I want the students in the town to know that the library is a safe place, where they can hang out, where they can have fun. I strive to create that  environment. And I love it when authors create a movement that helps out.  I hope to spread a little more kindness this month. 

Review: This is Me from Now On

Evie doesn't know what to think of the slightly crazy girl who moved next door. Francesca doesn't live by rules and she has ideas on how to live large and spontaneously. Evie keeps trying to reign in her new friend, who keeps trying to liven up Evie's life.

Evie's two best friends aren't happy with the idea of Evie and Francesca walking to school together instead of doing the traditional first day of school routine. They are even unhappier when Evie and Francesca pair up for a school project. Soon after, Evie, Nisha, and Lily stop talking.

They fight over Evie's time spent with Francesca and secrets shared. Evie's tired of them giving advice about her life. She doesn't know what to do about her crush on Zane. She can't help the partnership with Francesca, which includes spending time together. She can't help she and Francesca are caught up in the this ultra-secret plan involving two of their teachers. Evie certainly can't help straighten out this fight if her two friends only want to talk at a certain time, when she can't talk.

Evie's not sure what to do, but she knows that something must change and get her out of her rut.

My Thoughts: A cute tween novel about friendships, jealousy, life rules and balance. I liked loved the spirit of Francesca - her crazy outfits and the way she turned her nose up at rules. I liked how she wasn't driven by school work or friendships, but by her own ideas. Parts of this book were sad and touching, while other parts were laugh out loud funny and sweet.

The Cover: Doesn't tell you much of the book from the photo, but it's a cute.

Source: Barbara Dee (author)

Books Round up

(Comes out January 13th 2009)

Polly, Jo, and Ama just graduated eight grade. Now with summer looming before them, they're not sure how far high school will separate them. They used to be best friends, before they each started going in different directions. But this summer, they are still tied to each other. Their bonds haven't been broken yet. Polly starts a modeling class with her babysitting money. She wants to become someone, someone that people notice. But is modeling for her, or is she walking down a dangerous path? Jo's spending the summer with her mother at the beach. Her parents are trying a separation and she's not sure what to think. It's not like her dad's been around much these past few years. She's got herself a job at a restaurant and soon she's hanging out with high school girls. Could they be her ticket to the in crowd next year? Ama's spending the summer in a scholarship program. She was hoping for an academic track, but instead, she's spending her days hiking through the wilderness. She's not an adventurous sort of girl and this summer is killing her. In their times of troubles, each girl reverts back to her old friendships and wonder how weak their bond has become. If one of them reaches out, will the other two catch her?

This new book by Ann Brashares takes place in the same town as the Sisterhood. These three girls don't know the Sisterhood, but they worship the girls just the same. The book has similar connections with the Sisterhood books, but it's completely different at the same time. They both center on friendship, but there's a different tone to the new book. The Sisterhood books took their friendship and made it stronger during the time apart. The 3 Willows found their way back to friendship after spending time apart. The new book is also younger and perfect for middle schoolers. I breezed through this book and am eager for the next one...there is going to be one I hope.

Billie used to love competing with her horse Valentine's Kiss, but ever since last year, she's just not interested. During the competitions last year, her fellow horse friend went down on a jump. The horse had to be put down. Billie watched the whole thing, horrified and convinced that she could never risk her horse 's health again. Some say she's lost her nerve. When her father threatens to sell her horse, she starts to rethink her options. Slowly, she gets back to competing workouts. There's a new trainer at the stables and together they work out Billie's mental blocks and her horse. She enters a competition late and hopes that winning this one will earn her an invite to an exclusive event.

This short, yet sweet, novel is a little bit different than King's other sports novels because it focuses a great deal on the mental challenges of sports and not just the sport itself. It's a great read for middle range readers looking for something sporty or horse based or just a fun and quick read.

Margo Roth Spiegelman changes Q's life in just one night. She's listened to the gossip mills and has discovered that her best friend is hooking up with her boyfriend. So she decides to get even. She crawls into the window of her childhood friend Q and convinces him to drive the get away car. Q has the night of his life and adventures to last him the rest of his life. He's anxious for morning to stroll into school and see Margo and how the revenge has changed people. But Margo's not there. She's not there the next day either. In fact Margo's skipped town once again. This time Q feels an empty hole in his stomach. He vows to find her leaving the clues she left behind.

First off, this was a great story. And it's being made into a movie by the same people who made Juno. So that's really cool. Secondly, I have no idea why there are two covers. I really think the blue one suits the book more as being mysterious and dark, but it just occurred to me that the yellow cover might signify fun-loving-adventurous Margo. Good story: adventure, friendship, road trip. John Green ROCKS!

Adult titles:

Third in the series, Jane hasn't used her magic in quite some time - six months and now she's in danger of losing everything. She had no idea that this could happen to her, now Jane must desperately stop the reversing loss of her magic. With her warder's help, she creates a magical servant to regain her power. However, the spell backfires as she loses concentration while weaving the magic. Even without her magical problems, her personal life is a complete disaster. She's dating a man who doesn't know she's a powerful witch, her mother is leaving again, her grandmother is getting married, and her job's slowing dissolving before her eyes. Could her life get any worse?

I love this series (and not just because the main character is a librarian), mostly for the magic, the friendship, the romance, and overall good feeling once I've finished the novel. The third novel is right up there with the first two, leaving me hanging for the 4th book.

It's Thanksgiving in Old Town, Alexandria and two childhood frenemies are going head to head in the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown. Before the competition begins, things start to heat up when Sophie stumbles over the body of the judge - who just asked her out. She's now a person of interest in the case. It doesn't help the while grocery shopping for her family Thanksgiving supplies, she stumbles across yet another body. With family issues (mainly dealing with her ex and his family), discovering bodies, and deciding to clear her name, her cozy Thanksgiving has been crashed.

I picked this book up at the bookstore the other day. It's the first in a new series and just perfect for November. It was fun, cozy, and a fresh voice in mysteries. There were plently of amusing characters, characters that you love to hate, and a tiny bit of romance. I can't wait for the next one.