MHS Library

Happy Holidays

2011-12-08T10:27:00.001-05:00

This time of year is a wonderful time to curl up with a good book. We have recently added hundreds of new books to our collection that all AR quiz ready. Consider stopping by the library to check out on of these great books. Here are some examples:

Set in Stockett's native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids raised white children and ran households but were paid poorly, often had to use separate toilets from the family, and watched the children they cared for commit bigotry. In Stockett's narrative, Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, is a naive, aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they're published anonymously, the risk is great; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension pervades the novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. It may even stir things up as readers in Jackson and beyond question their own discrimination and intolerance in the past and present. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/08.]-Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred by PW and SLJ! Now in paperback, Rachel Ward's gripping debut psycho-thriller that pairs futuristic sci-fi with a tender, touchingly real love story. Includes a teaser to the sequel! Ever since the day her mother died, Jem has known about the numbers. Numbers that pop into her head when she looks into someone's eyes. They're dates, the numbers. Dates predicting with brute accuracy each person's death. Burdened by such horrible knowledge, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. Maybe they can find happiness together, if only in the brief time that remains before his expiration date. But on a trip to London, Jem foresees a chilling chain of events: The city's a target. The clock's running out. The countdown is on to a blowup!

This latest novel in the Gossip Girl series finds everyone who's anyone in New York City suffering from cabin fever after finishing their college applications. Now it's time for the teens of New York's wealthiest private school to run a little wild.

Not so very long ago, Eragon-Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider-was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders. Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances. The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alaga sia? And if so, at what cost? This is the much-anticipated, astonishing conclusion to the worldwide bestselling Inheritance cycle.

2011-09-07T10:03:00.000-04:00

Welcome Back to the 2011/12 School year! We have many new and exciting new opportunities for learning and fun in the library this year. We have added a huge audio book collection through the library website at http://sites.google.com/site/milfordhighschoollibrary/ Simply go to the left of the screen and click on Audio Books Online.

We also continue to offer access to the University of Delaware's Library Search program, a huge database of research materials. Also we are starting our free SAT prep class on September 19 at 6 PM. This class will meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6-8 and help students improve their SAT scores significantly. If you'd like to preview the materials, go here http://sites.google.com/site/milfordhighschoollibrary/sat-prep-class

2011-05-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

Check out these great reads! I highly recommend them and they all have AR quizzes available. Click on the image to read a review on Amazon.

Be the star of your own READ poster!

2011-03-26T11:26:00.000-04:00

We are currently making READ posters in the library. Please stop by and pose for yours. Share your love of reading with the rest of our learning community.

Mrs. Fleming and Mrs. Hiligoss have shared their love of reading. Will you be next? Mrs. Fleming posed with the wonderful novel The Kite Runner, a gripping tale about growing up in Afganistan before during and after the Sviet invasion of the 1980s. Sad, powerful, and gritty, this story stays with the reader long after the final page is read.

Mrs. Hiligoss posed with a Picoult novel called the Tenth Circle. When freshman Trixie Stone accuses her ex-boyfriend Jason Underhill of raping her, everyone is quick to take his side when he claims their intercourse was consensual. Trixie's parents, Daniel, a mild mannered comic book artist from a harsh background, and Laura, a college professor sleeping with one of her students, become involved. Jason, whose life is supposedly ruined, leaps from a bridge. Although first presumed to be suicide, Trixie is suspected of pushing him, and so she flees to the Yup'ik region of Alaska where her father grew up, and Daniel and Laura follow. The resolution of this mystery turns out to be both shocking and satisfying.

Dresscode: Vital Tool of Discipline or Destroyer of Individuality? You Decide.

2011-02-26T20:08:00.004-05:00

Feel free to use the comments section on this post to discuss what you think about the proposed dress code at Milford High School. Consider these questions:

1. What are the positive effects? Negative effects?

2. What schools around us do this?

3. What would this look like in our school?

4. How can we convince the school board that this a good or bad idea?

Just click on the word "comments" to post your opinion.

I Love Sports!

2011-02-16T18:54:00.001-05:00

As you know, I coach basketball. As we are on our way to the playoffs this year, I thought that I would highlight some great sports authors and books. If you love sports, try these out.

Mike Lupica: He is a sports reporter who has written nearly a dozen books now. The center on basketball and baseball and the library owns nearly all of them. He is consistently one of most popular authors, so put one on hold if you can't find his books while you are here.

Tim Green: A new author in the past few years, Green has written several books about Football and Baseball.

John Dygard: Although his writings are little old, they are well done and still cover issues that affect students today. All center around sports with issues like competition, first love, friendship, and growing up as central themes.

I Love Harry Potter!

2011-01-05T20:30:00.002-05:00

Those that know me know that I love the Harry Potter series. It is, in this librarian's humble opinion, the most important series written in the last fifty years. Part Dickens, part CS Lewis, all awesome, the series has made JK Rowling a billionaire. But what was she like before she became the wealthiest woman in Britian? Enter the Internet and it's eternal memory. Recently an interview with the author that occurred when she was writing Azkaban has surfaced. In the video, our then scarlet-quaffed scribe discusses her writer's block and modest success (She sold 30,000 copies of the first two novels) while ordering a coffee anonymously at a cafe.

Double click the video to go full screen.

Double click the video to go full screen.

New Books are Here

2010-10-27T14:23:00.001-04:00

We're adding new books everyday. Stop by and check out our hundreds of new selections! Also, don't forget to visit the webpage and fill out the My Favorite Book Survey. If it's well done, we'll add your review to the catalogue. Here are some of the new books we've added this week!
Acadia National Park : adventure, explore, discover
974.1 GRA Graham, Amy.
Published 2009
Alligator Bayou

F NAP Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948-

Published 2009
The battle of Jericho

PA DRA Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills).

Published 2003

Accelerated Reader® Level: 4.7 / 10.0 pts.
Bites : scary stories to sink your teeth into

F MET edited by Lois Metzger.

Published 2009

Accelerated Reader® Level: 4.4 / 4.0 pts.
Chains

F AND Anderson, Laurie Halse.

Published 2010

Accelerated Reader® Level: 5.2 / 11.0 pts.
The chronicles of Valdimir Tod : eleventh grade burns

F BRE Brewer, Heather.

Published 2010

Accelerated Reader® Level: 5.3 / 11.0 pts.
The chronicles of Vladimir Tod : tenth grade bleeds

F BRE Brewer, Heather.

Published 2010

Accelerated Reader® Level: 5.7 / 10.0 pts.
The clockwork three

F KIR Kirby, Matthew J., 1976-

Published 2010
Confetti girl

F LOP López, Diana.

Published 2009

Accelerated Reader® Level: 4.1 / 6.0 pts.
The cupcake queen

F HEL Hepler, Heather.

Published 2010

Accelerated Reader® Level: 4.4 / 8.0 pts.

What's Going On at the MHS Library

2010-10-04T09:56:00.000-04:00

We some exciting new editions to the library this year. Our cataloge is online now, so students and parents can see our entire collection. We have also upgraded to Accelerated Reader Enterprise service, so now all quizzes are available for all Milford students, even if the school doesn't own the book! We have also added two flip video cameras that can be checked out for the day to make exciting interactive videos. All of these features can accessed at the Library website. Just google "Milford High School Library" and we're the first site to show up.

The book fair is also here at the library this week. We'll be open all blocks and lunches Oct. 4th - 8th and Monday night for open house. Stop by and buy a book; all proceeds benefit the library.

I'm back

2010-03-03T12:31:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I throw this question up here and see what you have to say. So here it is, "If you could add one thing to the library, what would it be?" Leave me a comment to let me know. We're always looking for new ideas.

My Favorite Book

2009-11-04T21:23:00.005-05:00

We're starting the My Favorite Book project at the MHS library. We're asking all and any students to take our survey about what they're favorite book is and why. Everyday students ask the question: "What should I read?" Sometimes we match them with the perfect book, sometimes we don't. Now you have the opportunity to help others find that perfect book! Take a moment to complete survey, because the only thing more fun than reading what you love is sharing it with others! Take the survey here.

I'll get the ball rolling for you. Here is my favorite book.

My Favorite Book is A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. As a teenage, I always dreamed about traveling to far away places. At the time, I'd never traveled much further than the borders of Pennsylvania. An English teacher, Mrs. Rencil, suggested that if I was really interested in travel I shoud read this book. It depicts Hemingway's time in Paris in the 1920's. I loved it.

From that moment on, I knew I would one day travel to Europe. During my junior year of College I finally made that dream come true; I studied in Nancy, France and over a weekend traveled to Paris. Although 70 years had passed, many of the places that Hemingway wrote of were still there. I traced his steps, sat in bars where he wrote, and bought a copy of the book from his favorite book store, Shakerpeare and Co. I've returned four times since, and this spring I'll return again.

This book made me a traveler. And over the past ten years, I've taken hundreds of students with me. So if you love travel, and can't afford to do it right now, read this book. It's the next best thing.

Books that are like this one: To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway; Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt both books have amazing depictions of their settings. Even though the settings can be brutal, they somehow make you want to go there.

Malcolm Gladwell is Super Smart

2009-10-28T18:14:00.002-04:00

http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_12_15_a_teacher.html
Gladwell's latest New Yorker article

And a link to all of them...
http://www.gladwell.com/archive.html

Whenever I see anything by Malcolm Gladwell, I read it. He is simply one of our most brilliant nonfiction writers right now and perhaps ever. MHS library has Blink, Tipping Point, and Outliers, all fantastic reads if you are interested in why the world is the way it is. All three focus on complicated concepts like decision making, success, and group dynamics.

I especially love Outliers-- a study of what makes people successful. Gladwell's theory is that those who are successful all have hidden advantages that, when combined with hard work, intellect, and/or natural ability, create success. For me the most important revelation is that we all need help on our way to success. Having one advocate in you life can be the difference between success and failure, which of course is why our job as educators is so important.

If you'd like to leave a comment think about this question: What makes a good teacher? And if we know this, how can assure that every classroom has one? Finally, do we believe that the US is willing to put forth the money and time needed to make this possible?

Career Cruising

2009-10-26T17:28:00.006-04:00

All 9th, 1oth and 11th grade English classes are currently cycling through the Delaware CareerCruising program over the next few weeks. The link is www.careercruising.com. This program allows every student in these grades to explore career and college options through a state the art web based system. It can be accessed at home 24 hours a day or during school hours.

Students are required to meet certain criteria such as picking three college choices, three college majors, three careers, constructing a resume and creating a plan to acheive short term and long term goals. I encourage all students to log in to your Student Success Plan (SSP) and continue to update your information monthly throughout the school year. Success doesn't just happen; it takes planning and hard work, and your SSP is a big part of this process.

After your two days with Mr. Snyder, you'll have all of the information you need to log in and continue to plan toward your goals using your SSP. For username and password information, see me, Mr. Snyder, or your school counselor.

Finally, parents/guardians need to review these accounts in order to certify that they know what they're student's goals are. They have their own login, so parents need to contact me, Mr. Snyder, or they're child's school counselor for that username and password. The library phone number is 302-422-1616 and I'm available 7:30-3:00 daily. Leave a message if we don't pick up, and we'll get back to you with the log in info within 24 hours. You can also email me at ssnyder@mail.milford.k12.de.us and I'll respond within a few hours.

College should be part of every student's plans, and the SSP can be a powerful tool to help all students get there.

What I'm reading right now...

2009-10-22T16:56:00.002-04:00

Turning the Page http://www.nea.org/home/35939.htm
Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them?
By Tim Walker

Are we ready to finally embrace technology in education? I'm not sure. Even though we do have more technology than we did a decade ago, I'm not sure we use it any differently. How many of us use google tech, twitter (The state just unblocked it), and other web 2.0 tools in our teaching? I've just started, and here's what I've learned: It takes time, and this is the one commodity we all seem to be short on.

If you think you have the time, check out the web 2.0 links on my website. Pick a technology and try it out.

http://sites.google.com/site/milfordhighschoollibrary/

Nicholas Sparks New Book

2009-10-17T21:48:00.004-04:00

When bestselling author Sparks (The Notebook; Message in a Bottle; etc.) receives a brochure offering a three-week trip around the world, it's not hard for him to persuade Micah, his older brother, to join him in touring Guatemala's Mayan ruins, Peru's Incan temples, Easter Island, the killing fields in Cambodia, the Taj Mahal and Ethiopian rock cathedrals. His account of the trip is refreshingly honest and perceptive. At each stop, the brothers, both deeply committed to their families, cover the crucial moments in a life full of familial love and tragedy: Nick's role as the middle child always feeling left out; his marriage in 1989; the loss of Nick and Micah's mother two months later after a horseback riding accident; the death of Nick's first baby and the physical problems of his second son; the death of their father in a car accident; and the passing of their younger sister from a brain tumor. As the brothers travel together through these mythical sites and share candid thoughts, they find themselves stunned by fate's turns, realizing that a peaceful moment may be shattered at any time. Weaving in vignettes of tenderness and loss with travelogue-like observations, Sparks's account shows how he and his brother both evolved on this voyage. "Somehow there was a chance we could help each other, and in that way, I began to think of the trip less as a journey around the world than a journey to rediscover who I was and how I'? developed the way I did."

Accelerated Reader

ATOS Reading Level: 6.0
Point Value: 16.0
Interest Level: UG
Quiz: 84531EN

This is my suggestion for the day. I just finished it and I really enjoyed it. Lots of sad parts, but overall a happy uplifting message. It is on the new books shelf on the circulation desk for as long as it lasts!

Open House

2009-10-12T21:58:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all of those who came to open house. I really enjoyed meeting the parents tonight. Be sure to check out the library website. I've added a ton of new information about the college search, MLA, web 2.0, and staff book sugestions. Keep checking it regularly for more information.

http://sites.google.com/site/milfordhighschoollibrary/

Thanks for checking us out, and remember to keep on reading!

Featured Author: Anna Godberson

2009-10-10T12:06:00.008-04:00

The Luxe Series by Anna Godberson

What's the Luxe all about?

According to Wikipedia: It follows the lives of Manhattan's Upper Class in 1899. The story is similar to the Gossip Girl series, featuring beautiful socialites and various romantic encounters. The introduction centers around two sisters, one of whom is said to have died after being thrown from her friend's carriage into the Hudson. Elizabeth Holland's death is still shady, as no body was recovered and only one person witnessed her death. Rumors fly about her untimely death, the day just before her marriage to Henry Schoonmaker, a rich not to mention handsome bachelor, followed closely by all the debutantes in town.

Splendor will be released on October 31, 2009. MHS Library will have multiple copies Nov. 1st.

Check out the Website for everything Luxe!

http://www.theluxebooks.com/

Also, post your comments about this series. Use the comment section attached to this post.

New Books have Arrived!

2009-10-07T21:36:00.004-04:00

Thanks to a combination of library and district office funds, our library is adding over 500 new books to the library over the next two weeks. The bulk of these texts are non-fiction books in the areas of test prep, environmental sciences, politics, and computer technology. Stop by the library over the next few weeks and ask Mr. Snyder or Mrs. Marcolini about these exciting new texts.

As we add new books, I'll post suggestions as well as a full list as soon as we catalogue them. Also, don't forget to check out the library's new website . We have the results of the teacher reading survey, so you can see what MHS staff are reading these days. The most popular books were Dan Brown's the Lost Symbol and The Shack by William Young. Both are available in our library. Reserve your copy today.

Check out the website of the week. http://www.ipl.org/ This site is a free collection of Internet resources for nearly any topic. Great for research or building general knowledge.

What's new in Libraryland.

2009-10-05T19:16:00.002-04:00

Take a look around the stack next time you stop by the library. There a few new guideposts to help you find books. We have marked all Top 100 books with special Top 100 logos to make them easier to find, and we have placed paper pumpkins next to all of our scary authors. Find a pumpkin, and you find a spine tingling scarefest.

In addition, we'll start our weekly book podcasts in November. We're waiting for the first video cameras to arrive, and as soon as they do, we'll start our broadcasts.

Finally, I had an opportunity to work with Mr. Buford's third block today and I want to give them a quick shout out! Great job! They were a very attentive audience for a long Big 6 presentation.

Don't forget to check out my suggestions below, and as always, keep reading!

Day one

2009-10-03T11:20:00.006-04:00

This blog is under construction right now. Come back soon to see pictures and videos, and read stories about the exciting world of a high school library. While you're waiting may I suggest any one of these great books.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman --Stack Location: F GAI

Hear this tragic tale: a sleeping family, a talented murderer, and an adventurous toddler—orphaned, but not assassinated. Small and alone, by accident and luck he escapes the scene of the crime and climbs a grassy hill to safety. At the top of the hill the boy finds a fence, and on the other side, a dark, quiet place.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld --Stack Location: F WES

Playing on every teen’s passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that use the rider’s skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable -- and fun. Behind all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society -- the Rusties -- visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all petroleum. Teens will be entranced, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them gasping for the sequel. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell

Forged By Fire by Sharon Draper --Stack Location: F DRA

When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, whose irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together.

As a teenager, Gerald finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, while Angel develops her talents as a dancer. Trouble still haunts them, however, and Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson --Stack Location: F AND

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins --Stack Location: F COL

At the end of The Hunger Games (2008), breathless readers were left in the lurch with any number of questions. Will Katniss lead an uprising against the Capitol? Does she fancy Peeta or Gale? Both? Neither? And perhaps most importantly, how in the world is Collins going to live up to the (well-deserved) hype? Without divulging too much, don’t sweat it. The book opens with Katniss and Peeta reluctantly embarking on their victory tour through the 12 oppressed districts of Panem, where they witness more than a few surprising things. And right when it seems as if the plot might be going into a holding pattern between the first and third acts of the trilogy, a blindsiding development hurtles the story along and matches, if not exceeds, the unfiltered adrenaline rush of the first book.