Steampunk!

Steampunk is a genre-blend of historical fiction (often set in Victorian-era England, but may take place in other countries or past eras) and science fiction (an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets).  If you're looking for more details about steampunk--what it is, some examples--Wikipedia (gasp!) has a pretty nice overview.

 If we allow ourselves to judge a book by its cover, Steampunk books are often easy to identify based on the book jacket.  They usually have a cover with a sci-fi / fantasy feel with lots of gears, clocks, and technology.


Here is a list of some YA Steampunk books and series that have been published recently, although this is by no means a complete list:

• Cameron, Sharon: The Dark Unwinding
• Carriger, Gail: Parasol protectorate series (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless)
• Clare, Cassandra: Infernal devices series (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince)
• Cross, Kady: Steampunk chronicles (The Girl in the Steel Corset, The Girl in the Clockwork Collar) 
• Fisher, Catherine: Incarceron series (Incarceron, Sapphique)
• Harper, Steven: The Doomsday Vault
• Lazear, Suzanne: The Aether Chronicles (Innocent Darkness)
• Link, Kelly &  Gavin J. Grant (eds.): Steampunk: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
• McQuerry, Maureen: The Peculiars        
• Meyer, Marissa: Lunar chronicles (Cinder)                        
• Oppel, Kenneth: Airborn            
• Reeve, Philip: Mortal Engines        
• Telep, Trisha (ed.): Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances 
• Westerfeld, Scott: Leviathan series (Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath)

 Goodreads (to which each title above is linked) also has many booklists, many of which include Steampunk titles or entire lists, such as this.

 

 

Winter Displays...

...that are holiday-neutral!

• "Snow" better time for a good book ("snow" day like today for a good read, etc.)
• Chill out with a cool book
• Season's Readings 
• Books with "winter," "snow," "ice," etc. in the title (or a winter scene on the cover)
• Decorate with snowflakes, penguins, polar bears, scarves and mittens

TodaysMeet

 If you are fortunate enough to be in a classroom or lab where all students have Internet access at the same time, use http://todaysmeet.com/ to create a forum for discussion.  It's a great pre-assessment tool to find out what students already know about a topic before you begin instruction!

October Displays

Looking to do something other than your usual Halloween displays?

Here are two easy displays for October!

Make a display by color.

I chose autumnal colors (red, yellow, orange) for this display.  The books don't have to be from any certain genre or classification, so it's a good way to get some books on display that typically don't get as much attention as some of your favorites or the kids' usual checkouts. 

 

"Time to Hit the Books" display.

Gather a variety of baseball books to arrange for a display during the World Series--fiction, non-fiction, biography, poetry, etc. This is also a great type of display if you have reluctant readers who are boys, since they often gravitate towards sports books when they "HAVE" to read!

Go Go Gadget...

...Librarian Blog!

We are current students/recent graduates of an MSIS program, making our way into the world of school librarianship.  Here you will find our musings and ideas about teaching, books, technology, web 2.0 tools, displays, collaboration, standards--you name it, we'll probably cover it! We hope our blog will be useful for many of you out there in library land!!