Become who you want to be…

New video games @WGPL

	De Blob 2	Xbox360 Wii*
	Madden NFL 13	Xbox360* PS3
	The Gunstringer	Xbox360*
	Metroid Prime 3: Corruption	Wii*
	Call of Duty 2	Xbox360*
	Go Vacation	Wii*
	Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands	Xbox360
	PowerUP Heroes	Xbox360*

*these games aren’t available yet–but put a hold on them and be the first to get one!

To Kill a Mocking Bird: Student Survival Guide

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is one of the most commonly taught books in middle school and high school English classes. It also seems to be one of the hardest for students to get into to. I still remember when I read TKAM in ninth grade; even though I was a reader, I had trouble really getting fired up about it. It was so-so.

My impression of TKAM has improved drastically since I taught it – and I think I know why I now like it better than I did when I first read it. The narrative (that is, the story as told by Scout) in TKAM relies on frequent allusions. If you don’t know what Scout is alluding to, you miss out on a third of the meaning!

One way for students to combat this is to use this website: To Kill a Mockingbird: The Student Survival Guide. I recommended this website to all my students. It’s a website created by a teacher – therefore, it’s made to help students with what most teachers think is important.

The site is arranged so that readers can navigate the book by chapter. When you click on a chapter, you will find a (very brief ) summary of the chapter and a list of quotations under the headings: vocabulary, allusions, and idioms. Clicking on a linked word in the quotation will take you to an explanation of that word or phrase.

This site will not explain to you every single allusion, idiom, or difficult word. It does, however, cover some of the most important and most vague ones. It also helps train your eyes to find other allusions and idioms, and should spur you to look up other words you don’t know. The best way to use this website is as an added resource to make reading the book easier. I would say that, as a teacher and a former student, this is one of the most helpful sites I have found related to TKAM.

A final note: to help you get a little more invested in this book, try looking up information about the important issues and the time period. Start with this website: Historical Background. This website gives a good start to your research. Also, watch/listen to the video linked below. The song is most often described as “haunting;” the lyrics use startling imagery to convey the pain of racism and its deadly effects.

If you liked To Kill a Mockingbird, or are interested in reading other books about similar issues or with similar themes try these titles:

Hi all!

This is fourlight221, a new poster on Winston’s Lair. I’ll be helping out our friendly YA Librarian, investigating various topics we think will be of interest. Right now, we’re checking out forum sites around the web; the hope is we will soon have a place for YAs to chat and discuss. If anyone has topics, websites, or books they’d like to see pondered here, please comment!A little about me: I recently completed a graduate program in education. I have an undergraduate degree in English. Currently, I’m working at a local middle school. I enjoy reading and writing (duh, right?); lately, I’ve been reading old-school science fiction (pre-1965… downright ancient!), mysteries, and WWII fiction. My movie tastes run in pretty much the same veins, though I like having new movies suggested to me that are outside my usual scope.

My Dream Job (if I could be anything): a clerk at Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University… lowly enough to escape death and criticism, invisible enough to be privy to magic and intrigue!

That’s all for this post, folks!

Spare Keys for Strange Doors

Your local Specialists are:
Toby Hathaway and Marion Sark.

Highly experienced and skilled professionals, experts at handling the uncanny, supernatural and subnatural. Some experience of the natural, but discussion of your exact needs is advisable.

Specialties include visitations, disappearances, compulsions, manifestations, transformations and removal of uninvited guests. We can be diplomatic or more persuasive as the situation requires.

Extensive and varied contacts within the police force, gifted groups, and the non-human community.

Horse, dog, cat and rodent whispering undertaken. However, there is an extensive waiting list. Please note: no chihuahuas.

Pricing is on a case by case basis; please contact us for further details. Your complete confidentiality is assured.

Not available for speculative seances.

Those crazy kids…

The things kids say can be precious, they can be mean, they can be devious.
Best of all, they can be funny.

Mark Crilley shows us how to draw

Have you ever wanted to draw, but didn’t know how? Check out these YouTube videos from the creator of Brody’s Ghost (a very good series available in the teen section!)

Check out his other videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/markcrilley

If you haven’t read Brody’s Ghost by Mark Crilley, request it by clicking the picture below.

Volume 1                                                       Volume 2

                                

It’s Guy-love (insert music here)…

Do you ever feel like all these suggested book lists are aimed at girls? Well here’s a blog dedicated to pointing out the great books for guys…

(of course, girls can read it too)

These reviews cover books of all ages, from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to older teen books like Trash by Andy Mulligan.

He’s a Bear that looks like a potato… he’s Beartato!

“Freeze. . .or I’ll chop your head off!”

Written by a 5 year-old and drawn by his 29 year-old brother, Axe Cop makes almost no sense—in a hilarious, dinosaur-eats-avocado-and-turns-“Avocado Cop” way. And that’s just in the first 3 pages. Read it all online HERE, or request the book through the catalog and read it in print!