Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Arnold "Junior" Spirit has always been something of an outcast.  Born with various medical conditions, Junior has been made fun of by nearly every other kid on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  With his glasses, abnormally big head and serious lack of muscles, Junior is an easy target.  But while Junior might be goofy-looking and scrawny, he has plenty of good things going for him.  He's got a decent jump shot, a powerful talent for cartooning, a best friend, and a loving (if imperfect) family.  And most of all, Junior has dreams.  He dreams of getting an actual education--from a school where the textbooks aren't the same ones his mom used a couple decades ago.  Even more importantly, Junior dreams of demanding more from life than mere survival.  He dreams about getting off the "rez" and escaping the cycle of unhappiness and disappointment that seems to trap all the adults in his life. 

So when his teacher suggests that he look into attending the all-white, public school in the nearby farming town, Junior decides to take the plunge and give his dreams a shot--even though he's sure the attempt will end in disaster.  Now, Junior must learn to navigate a whole new world where the only other Indian is the school mascot--while everyone on the rez (except his parents & grandmother) have decided that he's a traitor.  Even his best friend refuses to speak to him.  How can Junior escape the bad parts of life on the rez without leaving behind his heritage or his family?  How can he make all the pieces of his identity fit into his divided life?

Brilliant author, poet, and screenwriter Sherman Alexie blew the literary world away when he published his first novel for young adults in 2007.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has gone on earn a National Book Award, a place on many must-read book lists of teens & adults alike, and space in many middle and high school English curriculums across the country.  But what's the best thing about Diary? It actually lives up to the hype--and it has yet to lose its emotional power or relevance.

Told through Junior's alternatively hilarious and heartbreaking words and cartoons, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an engrossing coming of age story that explores identity, family, friendship, and love with unmatched humor and honesty.  Jumping from basketball and girls to racism and alcoholism, the story doesn't back down from taking on tricky topics--but it never becomes melodramatic and the reader never stops cheering for Junior.  While Diary deals most directly and extensively with Native American and male identities, Junior's struggle to sort his own multfaceted identity amidst stereotypes and others' negative (and positive) expectations will resonsate with everyone. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian will make you laugh, cry, smile, and sigh.  Junior's story is one that sticks will you long after you've closed the book.  And it's a perfect book to read as we close November--Native American Heritage Month. 

Run over to the library today to grab our copy of Sherman Alexie's National Book Award winning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, on display in the fiction section!

 

 

To learn even more about Native Americans--both in the past and the present--check out the National Museum of the American Indian, right here in DC!  The museum's website alone has amazing resources, including outside links, online collections, and multimedia presentations about Native American history and perspectives from a huge variety of modern Native Americans. 

Sample Some Deliciously Fresh Reads This Thanksgiving Break!

The first few months have school here at NCS have flown by at an unbelievable rapid pace! Now, Thanksgiving Break is already right around the corner.

For most of us, Thanksgiving will mean a few days off from classes, a lot of good food, and extra time to spend with family and friends.  It can also mean a chance to catch up some non-required reading! Not sure which new book to start first?  The NCS Library is here to help! 

Check out our Thanksgiving Break 2012 book list, chock full of recently published literary gems! Click the link above to see and/or download a pdf of the list OR stop by the library to glance over a print copy.

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Cate Cahill made a promise. She promised her dying mother that she would protect her sisters--at all costs. The task would be a lot easier however if their family didn't have quite so many dangerous secrets. Their small New England town already finds the Cahill sisters' education and reclusive behaviors suspicious but if anyone were to discover that the three girls are honest to goodness witches, their lives would be over.  Especially since every day the priests of the Brotherhood round up more and more girls accused of witchcraft and send them away to the asylum. 

As if that weren't enough to preoccupy Cate, her seventeenth birthday is fast approaching, which means that in just a few months Cate will have to decide if she's going to get married or join the Sisterhood. Neither option seems appealing right now, especially since both might separate her from her sisters.  Then the discovery of her mother's diary throws Cate's world even more off balance: it turns out that being witches isn't the Cahill girls' biggest secret. Now Cate must race to find the truth about her family's destiny before powerful forces find ways to use her or her sisters for their own interests and in the process perhaps finally take the time to discover the desires of her own heart.

As teenager facing the transition into adulthood and a sudden, unusual influx of responsibilities, Cate will be a familiar figure to readers of all ages. She tries so hard to balance and protect her sisters' safety and happiness but she's also forced herself to ignore her individual potential. But Cate is limited by more than her own family responsibilities and worries; she lives in society where women's power and independence have been extremely curtailed by a male dominated religious order led by the Brotherhood priests.

The world imagined by Jessica Spotswood is one of the highlights of the novel. She seeds the information about the society and history into the narrative, allowing the full picture to emerge gradually and through the characters' pertinent experiences. This method, as usual, works well and avoids weighing down the pace of the story with too lengthy descriptions of traditions or historical events. My only problem was that I found the fictional world so intriguing that I keep wanting more detail! Born Wicked takes place in an alternative universe in which witches and magic truly exist and the United States began when witches left other areas of the world to avoid persecution and colonized the eastern coast of the current U.S. As a result, the population is even more ethnically and racially diverse. However, the religious Brotherhood gained influence and wrested control from the female-run Daughters of Persephone; now, women must either get married or join the female monastic branch of the Brotherhood, in order to control their potential evil.

However, it was not just the intriguing setting and the strong protagonist that drew me into this novel. The supporting characters and the relationships between the characters are well drawn; the complicated relationship between the three sisters is especially realistic in its portrayal. The plot's mysteries and tension grow increasingly exciting as the story moves forward and the novel's pacing pulls the reader in quickly. The romance is sweet and swoon-worthy.  Cate's understanding of her desires emerges naturally and her realizations happen as part of her larger awakenings about her world, her magical abilities, and her options for the future. The tension reaches a dramatic peak near the novel's conclusion that will leave readers eager for the next installment of Cate's tale.

I would recommend Born Wicked to readers who enjoy supernatural or paranormal tales (especially those with witches) and fantasy, especially historical fantasy. It might pair well with other historical fantasy novels such as A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce and The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton or with fantasy novels depicting similar family situations (Entwined by Heather Dixon springs to mind).

 

Come by the library today to grab your copy and fall under the spell of Jessica Spotswood's debut novel Born Wicked, the first book in the Cahill Witch Chronicles!

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

If Piper could just learn to keep her big mouth shut, she would not be in this mess. But since she couldn't, Piper is now the manager of the school's suddenly popular local rock band, bizarrely named 'Dumb,' and she's got to get them a paying gig within a month to make the arrangement official and get her share of the profits. However, there are a few problems. Firstly, Piper is deaf. Secondly, and more importantly, even Piper can tell that Dumb does not sound good. But somehow Piper and the other mixed up flavors of people that form Dumb are going to have to learn to make beautiful music together.

Now, there's always a chance that novel with a quirky or catchy premise (such as "deaf girl becomes band manager") will never be more than just that: a good tagline.  However, in the case of Five Flavors of Dumb, the novel not only lives up to its potential; the story actually surpasses it with unexpected depth. Five Flavors of Dumb is a delightful coming of age novel about friendship and family that happens to feature a protagonist who is deaf. Piper is funny, frustrated, sarcastic, angry, and kind. Her deafness is integral to the story in that it shapes Piper's life and motivations; the novel provides a look at the complex social world that Piper and her family live in as part of the deaf community. However, the novel never makes her deafness a gimmick and Piper's conflicts with her family and her shifting perceptions of and relationships with the other members of Dumb are pretty universally relatable.

The novel also includes a plethora of references to famous rock musicians and rock music history.  The practical problems of forming and keeping a band together as well as promoting and succeeding as a successful business venture in the music world are also explored.  The characters are quirky and likable; the combinations of unexpected friendships and a touch of romance hit all the right notes.  Five Flavor of Dumb is a feel-good novel that will put a smile on your face while also shedding light on the complexity within the deaf community and providing a crash course in rock'n'roll history. 

   

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Adaptation by Malinda Lo

In the skies over North America, large flocks of birds suddenly hurl themselves into planes, causing dozens of deadly crashes and forcing airports to shut down acroos the continent.  Reese Holloway, her debate partner and crush David, and their teacher are trapped at an airport on their way back from a debate competition when the nation enters a state of panicked emergency.  During their harrowing drive home to San Francisco, a bird flies in front of their headlights and the car flips, landing them in a ditch along a dark Nevada road.

When Reese wakes up in a strange military hospital a month later, she finds her body mysteriously and miraculously healed of any injuries and her mind confused and full of questions.  What exactly happened in that hospital?  Why can't Reese or David tell anyone anything they remember about the place? 

And after Reese returns home to California and meets the mysterious and alluring Amber Gray, her questions only grow.
What is the government hiding about the thousands of dead birds? What is Amber hiding? And who--or what--has Reese become since the accident?

A large amount of the science fiction recently published for young adults usually fits into the popular dystopian, futuristic, or speculative fiction molds.  But here, in her first foray into the genre,  excellent fantasy writer Malinda Lo, dives right into more traditional, fierce, and frightening science fiction territory: government conspiracies, medical experimentation, and possible contact with forces beyond our planet.  Adaptation presents a scenerio that could happen anytime in the next few years; it's immediate rather than futuristic and in many ways, this fact automatically increases the suspense and the fear factor.  Additionally, novel has a plot that hits the ground running during the opening pages and doesn't stop twisting and turning all the way up to the book's final lines.  The story is action-packed and full of intertwined mysteries that will keep the reader guessing along with Reese as she struggles to make sense of the strange turns her life has taken.       

However, Adaptation is more than a thrill-ride.  Lo continues to demonstrate her distguished ability to create and maintain a richly diverse cast of characters, without ever making any of them seem like a stereotype or a token representation of multiculturalism.  Her characters live in a much more realistically multicultural world than that frequently imagined in fictional visions of the United States.  None of the characters of color or  LGBTQ characters are defined purely by those pieces of their identity.  And in the midst of a science fiction thriller, Lo paints an excellent picture of the fluidity and process of discovery inherent in identity development for young adults.  Moreoever, her characters and their relationships are complex and emotionally resonant. 

Between conspiracy theories worthy of the best X-Files episodes, non-stop action, and truly interesting characters,  Adaptation is a novel you won't be able to put down once you pick it up!   

Do You Dare To Write A Scary & Suspenseful Short Story?

Are you ready to start celebrating Teen Read Week 2012?

 

 

Are you a bestselling author in the making?

 

Do you dare to take on our short story writing contest?

 

 

 

 To celebrate Teen Read Week 2012's focus on horror, suspense, and supernatural literature, our Student Library Advisory Board has opened a short story writing contest to all NCS Middle and Upper school students!  The contest has a few basic rules to keep it interesting and fair, so please come by the library or email Ms. Dickinson at kdickinson@cathedral.org for details!

 

 

All entries must be submitted by Monday Oct. 22,

so tiptoe, sneak, or slither your way into the library

to pick up your guidelines & entry form today! 



Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

"I should probably start with the blood." After all, there was so much blood on the night that Nora's suddenly perfect life crumbled and twisted into a nightmare. Before that night, Nora had two best friends. She had a fresh new storybook romance of her own. She was working on a senior year independent Latin project at the local college with a quirky professor and one of her best friends, Chris, now a college freshmen. Everything in Nora's life was finally falling into place. Now Chris is dead and his girlfriend and Nora's other best friend Adrienne has withdrawn into a state of catatonic shock. Max, Chris' sweet and nerdy roommate and Nora's new boyfriend, has disappeared and the police are convinced that he's the killer.

Determined to prove that Max is innocent, Nora immerses herself in the strange occurrences and cryptic clues surrounding the Book of Blood and Shadow--the mysterious manuscript at the center of their shared research project. Nora's search for the truth leads her deep into a dark world of ancient secrets spanning centuries of bloodshed and terror as she traces the clues hidden in another desperate young woman's centuries old letters across the ocean and into the twisting streets of Prague.

This new novel has been described as the YA Da Vinci Code and rightfully so. Full of mysterious documents, hidden history, elaborate codes, secret societies, and thrills & chills galore, The Book of Blood and Shadow has all the necessary pieces for an excellent intellectual thriller. However, Wasserman goes several steps further than just gathering all the pieces; she's combined those pieces with interesting characters, rich description, and elegantly built suspense. It has all the compulsive readability of The Da Vinci Code but with frankly better writing and more exciting, on the spot Latin translation. Nora is a smart, sarcastic, and fierce narrator. Her relationships with Chris, Adrienne, and Max are complex; she consistently keeps an emotional distance from both Chris and Adrienne yet remains intensely loyal and somewhat dependent on their threesome's stability--especially after Chris' murder. Her romance with Max is sweet and thrilling, which makes the confusing web of revelations about him and his potential involvement in the Book's mysteries even more emotionally fraught. Elizabeth Weston, the stepdaughter of a medieval alchemist who devoted his life to decoded the mysteries within the Book, emerges as an equally fascinating character through Nora's revelatory translation of her letters.

You will be immediately drawn into the story, both by the appealingly human characters and the ever increasing mystery. The plot is full of twists and turns that keep readers guessing right up to the final page. I would heartily recommend The Book of Blood and Shadow to readers of intellectual thrillers and mysteries (such as The Da Vinci Code), especially Latin students and Indiana Jones fans.

 

Come by the library and check out Robin Wasserman's new novel, The Book of Blood and Shadow, on display now in the fiction section! 

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

Fern is sick and tired of her overcrowded and exhausting family.  Between grumpy 18 year old Sara stuck helping at the family restaurant Harry's, unhappy Holden starting high school with new secrets, and annoying 3 year old surprise baby Charlie, Fern mostly feels like she's invisible.  To make things even worse, her dad starts his newest deeply embarrasing marketing scheme for Harry's just weeks before Fern starts seventh grade.  But when a tragedy strikes and turns their lives upside down, Fern must find her place in a world that will never be the same and within a family that's falling apart.   

It was be very easy for a novel narrated by a girl who feels lost among her large quirky family to feel cliche;  the situation is familiar and Fern's embarrasment about her family and nerves about beginning at a new school could easily translate as whiny or repetetive.  But in Jo Knowles' capable hands, See You at Harry's is anything but cliched or overdone.  All the characters stand out as interesting and realistic.  As a reader you can recognize people you've known, loved, and/or been related to among Fern's family, friends, and enemies; they are quirky enough to be unique and familiar enough to be relatable but overall they are also complex enough to avoid becoming flat stereotypes.  As a narrator and protagonist, Fern especially stands out as someone with whom nearly any reader can find a connection.  She loves her family yet they drive her absolutely insane; she's perceptive, caring, and smart but still very much in the middle of figuring out who she is and what kind of person she will choose to become. 

Additionally, Jo Knowles takes on the difficult topics of loss and grief with authenticity and grace. Through Fern's reactions and her observations of her family and friends' reactions, Knowles paints an achingly realistic and sympathetic portrait of the complex and conflicting emotions that bubble up within us in the face of death.  See You At Harry's is an emotionally powerful novel about the pain of growing up, the shocking confusion of loss, and the rocky road to healing.

Come by the library to get a taste of Jo Knowles' new novel,

See You At Harry's 

on display now in our fiction section! 

Living in A Booklover's Paradise: National Book Festival This Weekend!

 This year's poster was designed by
Rafael Lopez.

Living in our nation's capital can have many advantages, especially for those among the NCS community with an interest in international issues and politics.  However, D.C. also happens to be a paradise for booklovers!  Between our extensive public library system and the many amazing independent bookstores scattered throughout the District, rapid readers are very lucky.  This weekend's exciting events are prime examples of D.C.'s exciting literary scene. 

This Saturday and Sunday, September 22nd and 23rd, the Library of Congress will host its 12th annual National Book Festival down on the National Mall.  The festival takes over the the Mall between 9th and 14th Streets, filling the area with a variety of pavillons housing everything from author presentations and book signings to family reading activities and special exhibits about the Library of Congress or the literary traditions of all 50 states.  You can visit the Festival's website to find more information including a map of the pavillions and a schedule of all exciting author presentations and signings.  Over 100 authors, poets, and illustrators of books in all different genres will be at the event over the course of the weekend.  Highlights include John Green (The Fault in Our Stars), Lois Lowry (The Giver), Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver; The Scorpio Races), Jenny Han (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street), and many, many more!  To find out if your favorite author might be there, check out the Festival complete author list here.

The National Book Festival runs from 10am to 5:30pm on Saturday Sept. 22 and from noon to 5:30pm on Sunday Sept. 23 on the National Mall.  It is free and open to the public and the events will run as scheduled in rain or sunshine.   

Additionally, the fabulous independent bookstore Politics and Prose has several exciting author events this week.  Libba Bray (author of A Great & Terrible Beauty, Going Bovine, and Beauty Queens) is presenting and signing there on Wednesday Sept. 20 at 7pm to celebrate the publication of her history fantasy novel The Diviners.  Also, David Levithan (Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist; Every Day) and Jacqueline Woodson (Hush; If You Come Softly; Beneath A Meth Moon) will be stopping by the store at 6:30pm on Saturday Sept. 22 after their busy day at the Book Festival.  Check out their calendar to for details!

Ms. Dickinson's Purple & Gold Pick of the Week: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

On October 11, 1943, a British spy plane carrying two young women is hit by enemy antiaircraft fire while crossing the English Channel.  The determined pilot fights the failing aircraft for control, allowing her passenger to parachute out safely before crashing down in a French field.  The parachuting passenger is a Special Operative with the code name Verity--and the pilot is her best friend Maddie.  Together, they are a sensation team.  But mere days after leaving Maddie and her unknown fate behind, Verity is captured by the Gestapo.  Entering into a spy's worst nightmare, she's faced with a choice: spill her many secrets or face a slow and painful death. 

Reviewing Elizabeth Wein's brilliant new novel is a delicate task, involving some of the same careful way with words and talent for subterfuge necessary for survival as a Special Operative.  The task is so tricky because this thrilling novel is full of so many surprising twists and turns that even the shortest plot summary is in danger of including spoilers.  However, I can reveal that Code Name Verity is one of the most intense and fascinating novels I've read this year.  While it's packed with interesting historical details about everything from planes to ballpoint pens, the story never drags with an overabundance of description.  In fact, even though Verity's narrative jumps back and forth between her horrific present  situation and her retelling of the events that brought her and Maddie to France, the story practically never drags.  Verity's narration, occasionally jumbled or confusing as suits a confession written under threat of torture, is highly compelling and the tension only grows as the novel's multiple plots unfold.  However, while the complex and well-crafted plot and excellent writing are huge factors in this novel's success, it is the extraordinarily realistic and emotionally resonant portrayal of the friendship between Verity and Maddie that truly makes this novel stand out.  As Verity writes, "It's like being in love, discovering your best friend." 

Come over the library to grab of our copy of Elizabeth Wein's thrilling novel of friendship and survival under fire, Code Name Verity!

APP-solutely Fabulous: Pulse

image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

As the new school year begins, the amount of papers, textbooks, assignments, and events to keep organized can be a more than a little overwhelming.  Between old fashioned spiral bound planners and digital to-do lists or calender alerts, it feels like we can never do enough to stay on top of our organizational needs.  So we definitely don't have time to keep track of updates from favorite websites, recently discovered blogs, or preferred digital news providers.  Luckily, there's a great app for that!

In fact there are several different apps that can track and pull together all your favorite online updates into one location.  However, after trying out a few different options, I've definitely found a favorite personalized news reading app.  Pulse, an app designed by two graduate students at Stanford's Institute of Design in 2010, is an easy to use news reading app that works on multiple devices.  Pulse allows you to create a highly visual but clean and organized compilation of updates from all your favorite websites, blogs, social networks, and other online news sources.              

As this screenshot of a Pulse homescreen shows, Pulse differs from a regular RSS feed reader especially in its appearance.  Pulse is highly visual and easy to manipulate using the touch screens of tablets or smartphones.  After downloading the app for free to your iPad, iPhone, or Android device, you simply open the app, read the initial instruction screen, and begin customizing your Pulse news feeds.  The small white cog wheel in the upper left corner of the home screen opens the following screen which allows you to add pages & sources and to manipulate the arrangement of source feeds between pages and within pages.

A screen shot of the set-up screen, accessed by clicking on the white cog wheel in the top left of the homescreen.

 

Pop-up screen where you can choose new source feeds.

If you click on the blue add bars, this screen will pop up.  Here you can browse through Pulse's preselected and featured news sources by category and pick feeds to add to your home screen.  You can also connect to your Google Reader if you use it track RSS feeds already and then add sources from there.  If you're still looking for sources, then you can also click on the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner of this screen to search by keywords or specific web addresses.

 

When you tap on a image or 'tile' representing a blog post or article, a separate screen within pulse should pop up to display the full content.  You can also sync your Pulse across multiple devices; directions about that process are included on the Pulse F.A.Q. page, along with a range of other helpful answers and instructions.

Enjoy and happy organizing!
       

Library Update!

Welcome Back, NCS! We at the library are thrilled to see everyone back on campus and look forward to hearing about your summer adventures when you stop by to see us!  We are also excited to share the recent expansions to our library services to kick off the fall term.  In addition to our usual plethora of fresh books, we have a few other new additions to the library space.  

 

Firstly, Mr. Lucas' office has been transformed into our new Digital Media Production Lab.  This lab now contains 8 new Mac computers, each equipped with Final Cut, Adobe Photo Shop, and other related software.  There is also a new green screen wall, a range of new camera equipment, and a color scanner for student and faculty use.  This lab and its equipment will be available for faculty, staff, and student use during regular library hours, including after school.  The space will provide students (or faculty and staff) with a consistently available work area for projects related to the manipulation, creation, and production of digital media (such as films, video or multimedia presentations, etc.). 

 

Secondly, we've purchased a set of 20 iPod Touches to be used as video cameras, digital cameras, and audio recorders.  The iPods will be available for student checkout or for faculty checkout as a set for classroom lessons or projects.  We also have a few iPads that can be checked out for in library use for students during the school day.     

 

As usual the library is open every week day from 7:30am to 5:00pm.  Stop by and check out our fresh supply of books, our exciting new equipment, and our September display highlighting excellent online sources for homework help!

Ms. Dickinson's Purple & Gold Pick of the Week: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Since birth, Ismae has been marked by death.  The red birthmark running across her body is both a reminder of the dark circumstances surroundign her birth and a sign that her true father is likely Mortain, the god of death himself.  However when Ismae find refuge from an unwanted arranged marriage with a cruel man at the ancient convent of St. Mortain, she learns that her strangeness might mark her for an unusual and dangerous destiny.  At the convent, the old gods of Brittany are still worshipped and women swear to serve as Death's handmaidens--highly trained assassins working to keep the balance of life and death at all costs.

If you're looking for an exciting and rich new fantasy, then Robin LaFevers' debut novel might be just your cup of tea--or, more appropriately, goblet of poison!  Grave Mercy fits nicely into the emerging subcategory of fantasy writing frequently identified as historical fantasy.  Ismae lives in an alternative version of the medieval duchy of Brittany fighting to remain independent from France and the tale winds through dark roadside inns, tension-filled feast halls, and the chilly passages of castles.  The story combines mysterious court intrigues, a thrilling spy and assassin plot, swoon-worthy romance, and richly detailed characters.  Ismae is an intriguing narrator. Her past experiences as a social pariah and the abuse of men like her father and husband have scarred her; while her training at the convent has strengthened her confidence, she remains distrustful of outsiders, especially men.  When beginning her largest mission yet posing as the young Breton duchess's mysterious brother Gavriel Duval's mistress, Ismae is excited to have the opportunity to serve Mortain and to prove her worth to the convent.  However, she soon finds herself both unprepared for the layered intrigues of the Breton court and unnerved by the questions Duval raises about the convent's motives and methods.  The reader is drawn into Ismae's quest for the truth quickly and pulled through a twisting and thrilling journey that is impossible to put down.

This fresh and fierce fantasy has a well-crafted plot full of mystery and romance, fascinating characters, and rich, atmospheric setting.  Best of all--it's the first in a trilogy (titled His Fair Assassin) so we can all look forward to hearing more about Ismae's adventures as she strives to find her own path in a dangerous and unpredictable world.     

APP-solutely Fabulous: Flashcardlet

image credit: adamr on freedigitalphotos.com

It's getting to be that time of year again--the time when the study guide pile up, a rainbow of colored tags poke out of every text book, and index cards supplies start to run low.  We have entered the dreaded exam season.  So for this edition of APP-solutely Fabulous, we're featuring a neat app that might help you streamline your study habits.  For many students, the old fashioned flashcard remains a favorite study method, especially for subjects with long vocabulary lists or pages of facts and dates.  Available for iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, the nifty app Flashcardlet (listed as Flashcards in the App Store) allows you to use this classic memory tool while removing the piles of easily damaged index cards from the process.   With this app, you can flip through stacks of digital flashcards in a variety of subject areas.  You can grab sets of flashcards from the flashcard and study games website Quizlet and add them to your Flashcardlet library in minutes or you can use the app to create your own sets of flashcards.  You can also create a free account on Quizlet and create flashcards there to access online or through the app later.  This app also allows you to view images as part of the flashcards, an advantage especially for art history or vocabulary studying.

Once you've chosen a flashcard set to work with, Flashcardlet also permits you to customize the way you use the flashcards.  You can go through in the original order or have them randomly shuffled.  As you move through the digital deck, you can star cards that you need to review again and you can check off cards with terms or ideas you've mastered.  You can also share flashcard sets with friends via Dropbox or email.

The app has a free version with advertisements running along the bottom of the screeen; for $2.99, you can get a version without advertisments.  It is generally easy to learn and use; I suggest using the Tutorial deck included with the app to get a quick lesson in how to manipulate the flashcards and customize your studying experience.

For more study habits help, stop by the library or the TLC to grab one of the TLC's great handouts on test prep and test taking strategies!

Show Your Library Some Love (And Get A Delicious Thank You!)

Need a break from AP exam panic and end of term crunch time?

Stop by the NCS Library for a sweet distraction!

 Swing by the library all this week, Monday May 14-Friday May 18, to join in our Love Your Library Cookie Campaign and/or to enter your name in our raffles for some free books!

To snag a sugary treat, just venture over to the library and find the yellow bookcart with markers and 'I Love Our Library' pink posters.  Then fill in the heart with the reason (or reasons) you love our library.  Return your library love proclamation to a library and choice a reward from our varied selection of homemade cookies! 

While you're there, check out our book raffles and enter your name for chances to win a copy of several great books.  The prizes include a signed copy of Kristin Cashore's brand new novel Bitterblue and a signed copy of the newest Gallagher Girls novel Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter!

Zite: APPS-olutely Fabulous Returns!

image credit: adamr on freedigitalphotos.com

After a bit of a hiatus, we're bringing back our APPS-olutely Fabulous feature here at the NCS Library blog! The lists of available iPad/tablet and smartphone apps keep growing daily--at almost alarming rates!  It can be difficult to keep track of them and sometimes surfing through the Apple app store can be overwhelming.  So every two weeks, we'll highlight a different app that we've discovered to particularly interesting, useful, and (hopefully) fun!

This week, our featured app is Zite, the personalized news reader that goes above and beyond the call of duty!  While there are many great ways to keep track of your favorite websites, blogs, and new sources on your tablet or smartphone, Zite stands out.  Zite (whose name comes from the word, "zeigeist") does more that simply track your favorite RSS feed in shiny new format; it also gathers new content based on your interests and your use of the app.  In much the same way a tool like Pandora suggests new musical artists based on your stated preferences and your ratings of new songs, Zite's personalized article collecting improvesas you use it.  So Zite not only creates a personalized magazine for viewing on your tablet or phone; it also helps you discover new content daily.

An example Zite homepage!

You can download Zite for free and it is currently available for iPad, iPhone, HP TouchPad, and Android phones.  When you first begin using Zite, you can give the app access to some of your existing methods for tracking content online, including your Twitter, Google Reader, and Delicious accounts.  The app will use information from these sources in addition to content areas you select or add to customize your personalized magazine.   

If you have a favorite app that you think we should highlight, 

tell an NCS librarian or leave a comment here!

Ms. Dickinson's Purple & Gold Pick of the Week: Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

Kit Corrigan came to New York City to become a star.  But it's 1950 and making it big on Broadway isn't easy.  So when her ex-boyfriend Billy's dad offers to give her a little help, Kit can't refuse.  Soon, she's got herself a nice new apartment and new job as a chorus dancer at the hottest new club in town.  It seems like Kit is finally in with the right crowd to make her way to the top.  But Mr. Benedict isn't just Billy's father--he's also a lawyer with mob connections.  Suddenly Kit is in way over her head as she becomes tangled up in a web of lies, love, and murder that digs up some unpleasant pieces of her family's past.

A peek at the somewhat seedy underbelly of glamorous 1950s New York City?  Rich historical details about theatre, crime, and clothing? A sizzling mystery with plenty twists and turns? Judy Blundell's newest novel has all the elements of an exciting and compulsive read for historical fiction fans and skeptics alike!  Like her earlier novel, the National Book Award winning What I Saw and How I Lied, Blundell's new story places a young woman living during a transitional time in America's history in the middle of progressively more complex mystery that forces her to face the dark reality of the grown-up world she's entering.  Our heroine in Strings Attached, Kit, is a determined and smart young performer determined to take her small town stage success and year of dance drills to the big time in New York City.  From the opening scenes, the novel shows the difficulties facing an aspiring artist alone in the big city during the mid-20th century--illustrating challenges and unpleasant realities that remain unchanged today in many ways.  Full of rich historical details but never overburdened by such information, the narrative shifts back and forth between Kit's current life in the early '50s and her childhood growing up during the Depression.  Kit's reactions to the growing intrigue in her life illustrate an appealing combination of worldliness, courage, and naivete.  

The mysteries winding through the plot are exciting and full of unexpected twists, making this a good bet for readers who like mysteries as well as those who want solid historical fiction.  Slowly, the reader learns along with Kit that the chilling chain of events leading her to mob involvement and a murder goes back deep into Kit and her family's conflicted past and their strange relationship with the Mr. Benedict and his son Billy.  The connections between her own and her loved ones' past actions and the present danger and eventual tragedy in Kit's life are slowly revealed, making the mystery both poignant and thrilling.

If you're look for some other glamorous and gritty historical mysteries, try What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell, The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines, or Jillian Larkin's Flappers series.

For a compelling and thrilling historical mystery and a brilliant tale about the way dark family secrets can come back to haunt us, check out Strings Attached by Judy Blundell, on display now in the fiction section      

Looking for a Fierce & Fantastic Read?

Here in the NCS Library, we're very excited and honored to be welcoming famed fantasy novelist Tamora Pierce, author of a plethora of fabulous books, as one of our writers at Writer's Day 2012 tomorrow!  Some of her most popular series include The Circle of Magic novels, The Song of the Lioness quartet, The Immortals series, and the Beka Cooper trilogy.  In celebration, I put together a list of fantasy novels featuring fierce heroines and thrilling adventures.  This list includes Tamora Pierce's novels as well as a range of books with similar themes, characters, and settings!

Click on the link below to check it out!

WARRIORS: Fantastic Tales Featuring Fierce Heroines  

Calling All Hunger Games Fans: Let Your Library Help You Survive Until March 23!

Attention All Hunger Games Fans!

Can't Wait Until March 23?

Trying To Survive Until You Can See Panem On The Big Screen?

Come to the NCS Library & Enter Our DYSTOPIA Trivia Contest!

-Form a team of no more than 5 members.

-Swing by the library and pick up a yellow DYSTOPIA entry packet.

-Answer the 20 trivia questions inside and return the packet to a librarian by FRIDAY MARCH 16 @ 5pm!

There will be winning teams in both Upper School and Middle School and the each winning team will receive a goodie basket (including gifts cards for local theatres) for their inevitable trip to the see the movie over spring break!

Don't Forget! Drop your answers to our bonus Hunger Games geography trivia in the red box in the library by TUESDAY MARCH 13 and you have a chance to be one of the lucky recipients of a special Girl On Fire cupcake before break!

And May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

With Love From Your NCS Library!

Love stories and stories about love of all kinds frequently make some of the most interesting, thrilling, heartwarming, and heartbreaking narratives.  So if you're looking for a book or film to help pass away the time over the long weekend, check out our 2012 Valentine's Day resource list--a mixed bag of diverse romances and love stories!   

All You Need Is Love--2012 Valentine's Day Love Stories List

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ms.Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: all these things i've done by Gabrielle Zevin

Chocolate, coffee, forbidden love, and organized crime--the perfect elements for Valentine's Day read!  all these things i've done, Gabrielle Zevin's third young adult novel (following her 2007 release, Memoirs of a Teenage Amniesiac), is a dystopian novel  set a world very close to our own featuring a highly pragmatic narrator and a story dealing with love of many kinds.

Several decades into the future, caffeine is outlawed and water & paper supplies are limited.  New York City is town rife with crime and poverty where museums have been turned into nightclubs and coffee is sold in seedy speakeasies.  As the daughter of the city's most notorious crime boss, Anya Balanchine is no stranger to the town's underworld.  But with both parents dead from mafiya hits, Anya is more worried about her siblings' safety than her family's weakening monopoly on illegal chocolate imports.  Then her loser ex-boyfriend gets poisoned by a couple bars of Balanchine Special Dark chocolate he begged from her and suddenly Anya's plans for staying out of the spotlight are ruined completely.  Meanwhile Anya's shifting relationship with the son of the new and ambitious District Attorney definitely isn't making her life any easier. 

As I stated, the future portrayed in Zevin's newest novel is much more familiar to readers of 2012 than the more distant worlds portrayed in dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games or Marie Lu's recently released thriller Legend.  The lessening of key resources and the outlawing of caffeine are the most obvious differences.  However, Anya's life is set apart in ways unrelated to the novel's futuristic setting.  Anya has grown up in a world of paranoia, violence, and distrust;  her general distrust of others' motives and her tendancy towards self-denial on behalf of the few people she really loves separate her from her peers.  Her great pragmatism and moral concern make her a fascinating (if slightly disconcerting);  these qualities also make the developing forbidden love story between Anya and the D.A.'s charming and sweet son Win even more sympathetic. 

I also greatly enjoyed Anya' s complicated relationships with her immediate family, including her siblings, her dying grandmother, and even her late father and mother.  Anya's struggles to distance herself from her family's criminal past and present while also relying on the skills and strength she's gained from such a life are as compelling as the larger mysteries and action.  The plot is not obviously action-packed but the novel is full of twists and turns; mystery fans will find a great deal to enjoy in the complexities of the Balanchine crime family and their illicit business.

The combination of a setting both familiar and unfamiliar, starcrossed romance, complex family relationships, and compelling mystery make Gabrielle Zevin's all these things i've done a unique and appealing coming of age story.  Grab a mug of coffee or a chocolate bar and check out this intriguing new novel!
 

Update on Hunger Games Movie Goodies!

For all our Hunger Games fans eagering awaiting the film's release on March 23, the media machine behind the likely blockbuster has produced two new exciting digital goodies to hold you over.  Yesterday, a second theatrical trailer burst onto the Internet to add to the hype.  Check it out here at the Entertainment Weekly website!
Are you more excited to see the movie? Or are you worried that some of your favorite pieces of the book are going to be lost on the cutting room floor?

Lionsgate also recently kicked off another fun online bonus feature: the Capitol Couture Tumblr.  It's a cool peek at the world the film creators are working to develop based on Suzanne Collins' descriptions. 

Also--the library will soon be announcing our very own competition to help pass the last few weeks before the film's premiere at the end of March! Keep your eyes and ears open for updates!   

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

In some ways it's a little bit strange to read a sundrenched summer road trip story in the middle of a very chilly January.  But in other ways, reading Morgan Matson's delightful debut Amy & Roger's Epic Detour was the breath of fresh air I needed over the cold, damp weekend.  The best part, of course, is that in Amy & Roger Matson takes the elements of a classic road trip novel and uses them to create a complex and enjoyable story about grief, loss, healing, friendship, family, and romance.

Amy does not want to go on a cross-country road trip this summer.  But her mother has decided that they're moving to Connecticut to California.  Her twin brother is in North Carolina at camp (AKA rehab) and her mother has already begun her transition to a new life on the East Coast.  But Amy and their car are still on the West Coast and now Mom demands that both of them make their way across the country to start the summer in their new home.

 What's the problem with this situation?  Since her father's sudden death a few months ago, Amy hasn't been able to get behind the wheel of a car without panicking.  The solution, it turns out, is nineteen-year-old Roger, the son of an old family friend whom Amy supposedly played with as a kid (although she definitely doesn't remember him being this attractive as a seven year old).  Roger also needs to switch coasts for the summer and has agreed to drive the car--and Amy--across the country.  It turns out that Roger has plenty of his own emotional baggage and both of them need a chance to take a detour from their lives.  Soon a simple drive becomes an unforgettable adventure as Amy discovers that getting lost in between California and Connecticut might be exactly what she needs to find her way back home. 

This novel combines several types of stories (including the roadtrip, life after the loss of a loved one, friendship evolving into love, etc) into a lovely debut novel exploring both physical geography of modern middle America and the complicated emotional geography of loss and recovery.  Amy, as our narrator, is intelligent, sarcastic, bitter, and a little bit broken and her narration is both sharply observant and emotionally conflicted.  Roger remains somewhat mysterious at first but slowly develops into a very sympathetic three-dimensional character;  the reader's understanding of Roger shifts as Amy's does, with more and more information revealed through their increasingly close friendship.  The diverse quirky cast of supporting characters add another wonderful layer to the narrative and the descriptions of the places Amy and Roger pass through on their trip are full of unique details that bring their beauty and weirdness to life.  The relationship between Amy and Roger evolves slowly and realistically and their increasingly strong bond becomes as satisfying for the reader to observe as it is for the characters to experience.  The novel also incorporates images from Amy's travel scrapbook and both characters' playlists into the regular textual narrative. 

This refreshing roadtrip of a debut novel would be a great fit for fans of quirky musical romances like David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist or stories about finding love after loss, such as Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere or Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever. 

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant

From dirigibles to clockwork automatons, the possibilities contained within steampunk fiction are diverse and increasingly exciting. Steampunk, a subcategory blending science fiction, fantasy, and alternative history, has steadily grown in popularity over that last few decades.  Usually steampunk fiction presents a world in which steam power (rather than electricity) and technology such as clockwork machinery and airship dominate an alternative version of a 19th century American or European society.  Well known fantasy/sci-fi series that use elements from steampunk fiction include Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and the more clearly steampunk Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld and the Airborn trilogy by Kenneth Oppel.

The writers included in this thrilling collection of short stories take the ideas behind this emerging subgenre and bend, stretch, and experiment with them to create a wide range of fascinating new interpretations of steampunk fiction.  While several of the stories involve the standard steampunk trappings of foggy Victorian London and lighter-than-air ships transporting passengers attired in corsets, full skirts, and top hats through the sky, many others transport the steampunk aesthetic to less familiar settings such as alien planets, post-apocalyptic America, colonial Australia, ancient Rome, and modern Appalachia.   The tone and styles are equally diverse and the collection is a delightful mix of tragic, romantic, humourous, and eerie tales that transport the reader to varied and brilliant imagined worlds.  The collection includes two stories told in graphic novel format as well, adding another welcome layer of variety. 

Including pieces by favorite current authors such as Libba Bray, Cory Doctrow, Garth Nix, Holly Black, and M.T. Anderson, Steampunk: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is a perfect pick for any sci-fi, fantasy, and/or steampunk fan during the busy school year!  

Ms. Dickinson's Purple and Gold Pick of the Week: Bunheads by Sophie Flack

As children, we imagine a multitude of future roles and careers for ourselves--frequently many different ones in the course of single day!  When I was in early elementary school, I wanted to be a ballerina.  It did not make a difference to me that I did not take serious ballet lessons or that I was not very interested in anything that involved serious athletic effort or ability.  I briefly took beginner dance classes, wore a pink tutu around the house, and redecorated my bedroom in baby pink with a ballet slipper pattern border (a fact I regretted for the next decade).  Although my ballet career never took off, my fascination and love for this form of dance continues.  The intense and demanding backstage world of professional ballet has always been especially interesting to me so when I heard buzz about a new novel called Bunheads, I was immediately intrigued.

Hannah Ward is not a ballerina.  Ballerinas are the big stars--the soloists in the spotlight.  Moreover, the world calls to mind fluffy pink tutus and porcelein figurines the twirl on top of music boxes. 19-year-old Hannah is a dancer in the corps de ballet in the famous Manhattan Ballet and her life is not pink or fluffy.   It's hours upon hours of hard physical work in sweaty leotards, practicing until her whole body aches.  It's living, breathing, and thinking dance every day.  Dancing has been always Hannah's only focus in life.  The theatre is her whole world;  although she moved to New York at 14 years old to study and dance at the company's academy before moving up into company, she's barely seen any of the city.  She's never had time for an outside social life--or a date.  When she meet sweet musician and NYU student Jacob, Hannah begins to discover the world beyond the stage.  But competition within the company is getting more and more intense and Hannah begins to realize that she's going to have to make a choice between her passion for dance and her longing for a normal, more diverse life. 

Bunheads does more that give readers a peek into the very separate world of professional ballet; it paints a complex and realistically conflicted picture of that world from the viewpoint of an involved insider.  The author Sophie Flack is recently retired dancer whose own path in the ballet world clearly parallels that of her protagonist.  She moved to New York study at the School of American Ballet, eventually joining the New York City Ballet as an apprentice and later a corps de ballet member.  She danced with the company for nine years, including both national and international tours.  Thanks greatly to Sophie Flack's breadth of experience in this world,  the piece manages to portray with equal clarity both the wonder and beauty passionate dancers feel about their choosen art and career and the almost superhuman emotional, physical, and mental pressures dancers work under within a professional company.  Flack works to dispell certain myths about ballet dancers (about ubiquity of eating disorders or the belovedness of The Nutcracker) while also acknowledging the harsh truths behind some of them, such as the very real strict body shape and weight requirements in most professional companies and the potential serious medical consequences for dancers who do not maintain healthy eating and exercise habits while trying to meet them. 

Hannah is a great narrator, determined and passionate about her career as a dancer but also vulnerable and concerned that her sacrifices may not be leading her to the future she might want as an adult.  Her love for and her doubts about her career as a ballet dancer come through in her narration and her coming of age story is one that both dancers and 'pedestrians' (her friends' term for non-dancers) will be able to understand.  Although the novel is filled with ballet and dance terminology, it remains completely accessible for non-dancer readers and the descriptions and explanation are integrated well into the action of the plot.  In all, Bunheads is an interesting debut novel that will appeal to bunheads and pedestrians alike!