Book Cover Re-do

Evie, Rosie, and Finn recently had some fun in the maker space re-doing some favorite MCBA book covers!

November readers

This year's MCBA program is off to a terrific start! Hundreds of books have been read, and students are enjoying the range of stories.

We congratulate the first two Varsity Readers, fifth graders Sam and Marco. Their golden stars shine bright in the library!

MCBA20

Kick Off 2020!

On Thursday the Reading Room was packed with students and teachers excited to kick off this year's MCBA program. They learned about all of the fun activities planned and met this year's nominated books. Letting the reading rumpus begin!

Welcome back!

It is great to be back in school and we are looking at the first of October already! Many students have been busy getting a head start on their MCBA reading. I'm looking forward to the Scholastic Book Fair which will take place in the library from October 7-11. MCBA books have been promised, so let's see if they deliver. I just finished listening to the audio book of Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar. It is the story of her recuperation from a tragic accident. It was an interesting memoir and painful to imagine that little girl in bed for months immobile.
A window into a new world--one of the things we love about reading!

Summer Reading

Nothing beats summer reading! The freedom and time to become absorbed in a great book--ahhh!
I'm enjoying this year's list right out of the gate. I just finished Payback on Poplar Lane yesterday during the thunderstorm. It was a really fun story of some entrepreneurial kids---the sixth graders will appreciate it as they start to think of their GLII projects!
Read this before you open your next lemonade stand!

 

Wrapping up another great year of MCBA reading!

A note from winning author Jennifer A. Nielson

State winner announced

We picked it! It looks like readers all over the state loved A Night Divided!

Varsity Readers

Today we celebrate those readers that committed to the MCBA program and challenged themselves to read 20 or more nominees. This year we had a record 22 Varsity Readers! Congratulations one and all!

1. Abbi
2. Agustin
3. Campbell
4. Charlie
5. Charlotte
6. Daisy
7. Elena
8. Ethan F
9. Eva R
10. Ezra
11. Mason
12. Maya
13. Miyu
14. Omar
15. Quinn
16. Sam
17. Sammy
18. Mr. Feitlinger
19. Ms. Gearhart
20. Ms. MacCallum
21. Ms. O’Brien
    and me!

Stories in Action

On Thursday, 60 readers, 8 teachers, and 11 parents filled the library with MCBA fun during our second Stories in Action.

  

Last week's highlights

What a week it was! Our 2019 MCBA program came to an end last week with several big events.

On Monday, the parent team  won the Battle of the Books in their first ever appearance. Amazing!

Also on Monday, voting took place for our favorite book. And the winner was a shocker! I would never have predicted this, but by a large margin, students selected A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen as their favorite.

Honors books were Framed by James Ponti and Ghost by Jason Reynolds 

A Battle for the Books

What a wonderful morning in the Barn! Our new venue proved just right for the high level of competition showcased on stage. These teams knew their books! At the end of regulation, the teacher,  parent and wildcard teams went into a sudden death to determine the winner.
And the parents prevailed! They are were awesome!
Congratulations to Gretchen Loebel, Cheri Karbon, Jaime Billings and Mike Schloat. This is the first year parents have competed and they set the bar high!

Thank you to all 20 teams who competed in this year's tournament. Loads of fun, and a great way to connect over some terrific books. 

A busy week ahead

This is the final week of our 2019 MCBA program. There has been so much enthusiasm around these books, loads of discussion, stretching of readers, and fun!

Here is what awaits:
Monday, February 25---Battle of the Books School Championship 
8:10 a.m. on stage in the Barn.  Six teams compete for the crown: Grade 4 Champ, Grade 5 Champ, Grade 6 Champ, Teacher Champ, Parent Champ and our Wildcard winners. They are all great so this is going to be a white-knuckle nail-biter of a tournament!

Voting for your Favorite Book---ends at 3:00 p.m.
Vote now!

Thursday, February 28---Stories in Action
3:30-5:30 p.m. in the library for students in grades 4-6 who have read five nominees.
Food, games, and activities all tied to the books. We have 63 students signed up! This is going to be a blast. We will also announce the winning book!

(I want to acknowledge the idea for this party stems from my work with some amazing librarians in the Union 28 Schools- Karin Gravina, Robin Shtulman, Georgie Schmidt, Erin Daly, Betsy Bergantino, Jane Urban, Susan Wells- where we hosted "Books in Action" to readers from four schools. This is my spin-off.)

Friday, March 1---the last day to turn in Participation Points
Be sure check in all of your books and projects by Friday so they can be added to your class total. The winning classroom will be announced on Friday, March 8 during Spring into Reading.

The final winner...

This week's trivia winner is Aaron, who knew that the dads in Ms. Bixby's Last Day and Towers Falling were disabled. Their struggles made these two books all the more poignant.
Aaron earned five points for Mrs. Freda's class. Congratulations!

Wowed by our parents!

This morning, we held our first ever parent Battle of the Books competition. Since so many parents read the books with their children, or share the audiobooks, they are doing plenty of MCBA reading too.  Two teams competed and they were awesome! With very few questions missed, the winner was determined by just one point!

Congratulations to our winning team: Jaime Billings, Cheri Karbon, Mike Schloat and Gretchen Loebel! They will move on to the school championship on Monday morning.

Congratulations to our runners-up, they were terrific! Erin Cherewatti, Emily Rich, Sara Ardrey and Anne Lozier. 

Great team work and collaboration!

Trivia Week 15--the finale

This is it. The last week of  MCBA trivia. I hope you have enjoyed testing your knowledge each week. Voting for your favorite book begins next week, with Battle of the Books continuing, and Stories in Action coming up on February 28. There is still time to fit a book or two in--don't stop reading!

For the finale, the winner this week will earn 5 points for their class. Good luck!

Trivia Week 15

Trivia Week 14

Great job, Abbi! You've earned another point for Ms. Gearhart's class with your correct answer in this week's trivia. It was Toby that covered his house with photographs. Have you read this powerful, historical fiction novel? It's intense and covers some serious topics...it's a story you won't soon forget!

Grade 5 Battlers

The snow delay on Wednesday pushed back our fifth grade Battle of the Book to today. With five teams competing, our readers were ready to go!
Congratulations to the winning team:

Mason, Aaron, Josie, and Kale!There is always the Wildcard round, Team 4!

Grade 6 Battles

Another round of great book trivia, as the sixth graders competed in the Battle of the Books on Thursday. Congratulations to Abbi, Sophie, Maddy, And Kamren who proved victorious and move on to the finals!

Thanks to all of our readers who participated:

Presenting your Grade 4 BOTB Champions!

 We  had an exciting morning in the library on Monday, as the fourth graders battled it out. We had  five teas and 21 participants.

The winning team of Maeve, Brooke, Ethan and Fintan will advance to the school championship.
Congratulations!

Trivia Week 14

This week begins the student rounds of Battle of the Books.
Grade 4 will compete on Monday at 10:00 in the library and grade 5 on Wednesday at 10:00.
Good luck teams!

Trivia Week 14

Week 13 winner

Congratulations to Justice, who earned a point for Mrs. Gage's class this week. He knew that it was Nandu who was raised by the elephant Devi Kali in What Elephants Know.  That was a great book, and fun to see the parallels with the classes The Jungle Book.

Battle of the Books Begins!

Today, while students enjoyed a day off, three teams of teachers battled for the teacher title in the Battle of the Books. I knew this would be a close round--our teachers are motivated, smart, and competitive! They have trained hard, reading many, many books.

The legacy team, always competitive and sharp.

Sporting Bement gear, what a great group of readers!

The winners! The gloves were on and they came ready to battle.

 At the end of regulation,  teams 2 and 3  were tied for the lead. They entered into a sudden death playoff and the winner was...
Team 3! Congratulations to the "Black and White and Red All Over" team of Ms. MacCallum, Ms. Temby, Ms. Conway, Ms. Robertson, and Ms. Wetherby! They move on to the school championship on February 25.
Congratulations to team 2, clinching second place: Ms. Dancer, Ms. Boyden, Ms. O'Brien, and Ms. Wisniewski for an outstanding effort!
Congratulations to team 1, our third place team: Ms. Lent, Mr. Feitlinger, Ms. Gearhart, and Mrs. Currie (also Ms. Ames who was away) the original teacher team who have competed fiercely for many years.

Both team 1 and 2 may enter the wildcard round.

Could this be the year of the teachers? Can they possibly defeat the students? Stay tuned!

Trivia week 13

We have entered our final month of this year's MCBA program. There is still time to qualify, but don't delay! These bitter cold days provide some good chances to escape into a warm book!

Trivia Week 13

Congratulations Maeve D!

Maeve has earned a point for Ms. Conways's class with her correct answer in this week's trivia contest.
It was Red Sox great Pedro Martinez who grew up in the Dominican Republic. Be sure to read his inspirational story from poor island life to baseball glory.

Trivia Week 12

Week 12 already? Boy, time flies when you are reading some great books!

I hope you have begun meeting with your BOTB team, writing questions, and quizzing each other to remember all of those juicy details in the stories.



On to this week's question.... TRIVIA WEEK 12

Congratulations, John!

Who was the lucky winner this week. The correct answer was Towers Falling. Two points have been award to Ms. Freda's Class.

Be sure to read Deja's powerful story!

Trivia Week 11

 Let's spice it up---the winning answer is worth two points this week!  
    
                                                     


Trivia Question

Woman with a Parasol

Congratulations to Brady, the week 10 trivia winner, who knew that Monet's masterpiece, "Woman with a Parasol" had been copied and stolen in Framed! a T.O.A.S.T. Mystery. 

If you are a fan of clever, fun, mystery books don't miss this one.

The point goes to Mrs. Freda's class.