Leon Zeisel

Leon Zeisel and his friends at the Classical School in NYC are some of my new favorite characters.  Leon and his mom live and work in one of the only hotels in NYC that allows pets.  (Some interesting side stories there!!).  There are two books about Leon.  The first is Leon and the Spitting Image -- about 4th grade and a teacher aptly nicknamed "the Hag" by her students.  The second is Leon and the Champion Chip -- about 5th grade and a year spent learning about the humble potato.

I LOVE these books!!  They are imaginative, funny, and a bit silly.  The kids are quirky, yet still believable.  These books are definitely worth a read.

The author, Allen Kurzweil, has also written a book called Potato Chip Science.  His website is full of good information and fun things to do.  Check it out!  Leon Zeisel

Reading Two Books at One Time

I don't usually like reading too many books at one time.  I like to have one adult and one kid book going at the same time and that's about it.  On Thursday I started reading The Name of This Book Is Secret and I like it and have every intention of finishing it, but today I found myself with time to read and my current book was not handy so I started another one, The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett and I REALLY love it!

It's the story of Steve who loves the Bailey Brothers mystery series -- a fictional series modeled on the Hardy Boys.  Steve finds himself in the middle of a mystery involving librarians as secret agent, spy, secret keepers and a mystery quilt that holds all the secrets of the world.  What's not to love!

The author has a fun web page to accompany the series.  Take a look -- perfect summer read!!

Brixton Brother Detective Agency

Follett Challenge

I entered our Black-Eyed Susan program in a contest sponsored by Follett, the company we order the majority of our books from. They are looking to reward programs that "use technology and content to engage students and improve information literacy." It also needs to be sustainable and one that other schools could implement.

A part of our submission was creating a video to describe our program. Our video is embedded below. People can vote for their favorite video submission beginning on June 23. The submission with the most votes will win $10,000.

Contest details

Time to Read!

Today is the first day of summer break. I've selected the first book I am going to read. It's The Name of this Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. It's the first book in a series that I've been dying to read. I can tell it's going to be funny. Can't wait to get started!!!