Get smart(er) & help feed hungry people!

It’s simple…test and expand your vocabulary and help the United Nations World Food Program feed hungry people. While you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

The rice is purchased and distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy.”

Visit the United Nations World Food Program to learn more about their work to end world hunger.

Off the bookshelf…catching up (October 2011)!

Yikes…it’s been awhile since I have been able to post here for numerous reasons, mostly due to access/technology/bandwidth challenges, I’ll just take advantage of this window of opportunity to pick up where we left off and see if we can continue to move ahead!

We have LOTS of great new books in the library, and I am busy reading them as fast as I can, as are many students and teachers! Here are some of the latest I have been enjoying (and recommend):

Fiction:

• 90 miles to Havana / Enrique Flores-Galbis
  
• Bamboo People / Mitali Perkins
• Blue skin of the sea  / Graham Salisbury
• June Bug / Chris Fabry
  
• The last summer of the Death Warriors / Francisco X. Stork
• A long walk to water  / Barbara Sue Park

Nonfiction:

• Blind descent: the quest to discover the deepest place on earth / James M. Tabor
• Knucklehead : tall tales & mostly true stories about growing up Scieszka / Jon Sciezka
  
• Technically, it’s not my fault : concrete poems / John Grandits

 

Off the Bookshelf (Apr 2010)

Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to read, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with them as they leap off the shelf into my hands. April was a month of discovering some new authors and enjoying good reads!

Fiction

• Deep in the mountains: an encounter with Zhu Qizhan / Terrence Cheng
• Eyes of darkness / Jamake Highwater
  
• The bark of the bog owl / Jonathan Rogers
  
• The story of the seagull and the cat who taught her to fly /  Sepulveda, Luis

Nonfiction

• Reclaiming the future of Christian education / Albert E. Greene
• Black and white airmen / John Fleischman
  

Off the Bookshelf (Mar 2010)

It was a good month for reading some good books!

Fiction

• Benny and Omar / Eoin Colfer
• I is someone else / Patrick Cooper
• Morning morning true / Ernest Herndon
• Phoenix rising / Karen Hesse
• How it happened in Peach Hill / Marthe Jocelyn
  
• The rifle / Gary Paulsen
  
• Piercing the darkness / Frank Peretti
• Useful Fools /  C.A. Schmidt
• Voyage of plunder / Michele Torrey
• One good punch / Rich Wallace
  

Nonfiction

• Accidents may happen: fifty  inventions discovered by mistake / Charlotte Foltz Jones
• Caught by the sea / Gary Paulsen
  

Off the Bookshelf (Feb 2010)

Fiction

• Revolution is not a dinner party / Ying Chang Compestine
• Chasing Redbird / Sharon Creech
• Eragon / Christopher Paolini
• This present  darkness / Frank Peretti

Nonfiction

• Crazy Love / Francis Chen
• Phineas Gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science / John Fleischman

Off the Bookshelf (Jan 2010)

We have passed 1984, 2001, and are now in 2010 (yes, those are literary references!).  With some extra, unexpected (and unwelcome) down time from the daily routine of school, this month’s list of books is a bit longer. It’s good to have a key to the library to be able to replenish my supply “as needed”!

Fiction

• Feed / M.T. Alexander
• Holes / Louis Sachar
• Small steps / Louis Sachar
• The last knight /  Hilari Bell
• Whose voice the waters heard / Robert Vaughn
• Stick & Whittle / Sid Hite
  

Nonfiction

• The man in black / Johnny Cash
  

Off the bookshelf (Dec 2009)

It’s hard to believe that one year ago I was spending two days shoveling 18″ of snow out of my driveway! This December it is (still) 80+ degrees at 10pm at night in the part of Nigeria we are visiting (Cross River State). No roaring fire in the fireplace (just the wildfire that jumped the fire break and came through the compound!) to sit beside while reading a book, but still some relaxing time to enjoy “catching up” on a few books. Is it possible to ever be truly “caught up” reading…I don’t think so, since there are always more good books to read than there is time to read them!

Fiction

• A Treaure Deep / Alton Gansky
• Paradise / Joan Elizabeth Goodman
• Earthquake at dawn / Kristiana Gregor
• The horse hunters / Robert Newton Peck

Nonfiction

• Mistakes that worked: 40 familiar inventions and how they came to be / Charlotte Foltz Jones

Off the bookshelf (Nov 2009)

Fiction

• A year down yonder / Richard Peck
• The legend of Bass Reeves: being the true and fictional account of the most valiant marshal in the West / Gary Paulsen
• Summerland / Michael Chabon
  
• Under the blood-red sun/ Graham Salisbury

Nonfiction

• Animal grossology / Sivlia Branzei

Off the bookshelf (Oct 2009)

Hmmm…October must have been a busy month for doing things other than reading, even with a week off for October Break.  Numerous books started, not so many finished (yet)!

Fiction

• A long way from Chicago: a novel in stories / Richard Peck
• The car / Gary Paulsen
• Eyes of the Emperor / Graham Salisbury
  

Nonfiction

• Three cups of tea: one man’s mission to promote peace — one school at a time / Greg Mortenson and David Relin
• Women daredevils: thrills, chills and frills / Julie Cummins
  

Women daredevils : thrills, chills, and frills

Off the bookshelf (Sep 2009)

Here’s my reading list for September. In spite of being a busy month both in the library and with school events needing sound/light support,  I found (made!) time to read some books off of the new book shelf that have been on my “to read” list, as well as browsing through the stacks for things that look interesting that I can recommend to others. And being sick in bed over the weekend gave me a good start for the October list, too!

Fiction

• Car trouble / Jeanne DuPrau
• The number devil: a mathematical adventure / Hans Enzensberger
  
• A ship possessed / Alton Gansky
• Vanished / Alton Gansky
• Distant Memory / Alton Gansky
• Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
• Skybreaker / Kenneth Oppel
  
• Dancing Carl / Gary Paulsen
• House of the red fish / Graham Salisbury

Nonfiction

• Blizzard: the storm that changed America / Jim Murphy