What’s New in the Library?

Creating Better Bibliographies

We’re pleased to announce that the Browning library now has a system wide subscription to NoodleTools. Students and faculty are invited to create their own personal ID through the Browning network in order to access NoodleBib, an easy and accurate way to create and save MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations. (Browning’s official style guide is based on MLA, but individual teachers may require something different.)

For Noodle Tools password and login information, please visit the library. Or, login through the Browning website, and find the Noodle Tools link in the main menu. From there, you can easily create your own personal ID.

Follow Us

The library staff is now Tweeting! Follow @LibraryBrowning for quick news on new materials, items of interest, and retweets from some of our favorite library and bookish feeds.

Book Club Shout-Out

Barbara O’Connor, author of The Secret of Owen Jester mentioned the Guys Read 3rd grade Book Club on her blog!

Check it out here.

 

Next up for Guys Read: a discussion of The Flint Heart by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson on January 24th.

 

Tales for a Winter Break

Selected Reads for faculty, Upper School students and parents from the Browning Library Staff. These are available at the library as books or eBooks.

Fiction

Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga
“Aravind Adiga, winner of the Man Booker Prize for The White Tiger, brings readers another look at an India at once simple and complex, as old as time and brand new. . . . Adiga has written the story of a New India; one rife with greed and opportunism, underpinned by the daily struggle of millions in the lower classes.” Washington Post

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
“A standard love triangle? No, it’s an extraordinary, liquidly written evocation of love’s mad rush and the mistakes made in its name.”

Library Journal

  Ed King by David Guterson
“It takes a lot of nerve and perhaps a special brand of madness to take on the classics, and it doesn’t get more classic thanthe ancient Greek tragedies . . . especially when the play in question happens to be Sophocles’ magnum opus Oedipus the King. Yet with his latest novel, Ed King, author David Guterson does what many might consider the unthinkable: brings Oedipus into the modern age. . . .” BookPage

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
“Harbach’s expansive, allusive first novel combines the pleasures of an old-fashioned baseball story with a stately, self-reflective meditation on talent and the limits of ambition, played out on a field where every hesitation is amplified and every error judged by an exacting, bloodthirsty audience.” The New York Times. On the Times list of “10 Best Books of 2011” (and number one on the Sarah Murphy list)

 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
“[A]few pages into this story of a mysterious circus and its two stars, a young man and a woman who are both capable of real magic, and you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary storyteller.”
The Daily Beast

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

“…Murakami’s shining magnum opus, which tells us everything we need to know about the world today.” Library Journal

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett  

It’s not often that a novel leaves me (temporarily) speechless. But Ann Patchett’s new novel isn’t called State of Wonder for nothing, because that’s exactly the state I’ve been in ever since I first opened it.” So begins Maureen Corrigan’s NPR review

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

“Riveting. . . . As much as this book fiercely inhabits our shared online reality, it operates most powerfully on a deeper level, posing an enduring question about American values.” New York Times Book Review  Ms. Schulman was a visiting author at the Browning Book Fair, and the entire library staff can attest to this book’s captivating story and fast-paced narrative.

 Non-Fiction

When the Garden was Eden: Clyde, The Captain, Dollar Bill and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton

“Araton is the perfect writer for the job…. [ When the Garden was Eden] a must for basketball fans and a super-must for New York sports nuts.” -Kirkus Reviews

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
“For years, Steve Jobs courted biographer Walter Isaacson to write the definitive story of his life. When Isaacson learned how sick Jobs really was, he accepted. Here he discusses profiling the tech visionary, a task that often involved reconciling Jobs’ recollections with those of his friends, family and colleagues.” More at NPR.org

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
“Marable, who worked for more than a decade on the book and died earlier this year, offers a more complete and unvarnished portrait of Malcolm X than the one found in his autobiography. The story remains inspiring.” New York Times
On the Times list of “10 Best Books of 2011”

The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football by John J. Miller

“[Miller] is on target with a necessarily selective biography highlighting Roosevelt’s lifelong affinity for sports and physical activity, thereby providing context for understanding why a president would devote valuable time to what was then a minor sport. [An] enjoyable history of a seldom-explored turning point in American sports history.” Booklist

 

Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean
“Deeply moving . . . An unforgettable book about the mutual devotion between one man and one dog.”  The Wall Street Journal

 

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World by Robin Wright
“[Wright] provides invaluable context for what she rightly terms ‘the epic convulsion across the Islamic world’ by listening to voices we don’t usually hear….Anyone seeking deeper understanding of the Arab Spring needs to read Wright’s formidably well-informed book ….Wright’s richly textured portrait of ancient cultures in the throes of wrenching but liberating transformation makes it quite clear that Muslims themselves will decide their future.” Los Angeles Times

 

Meet Me at the Fair

2011 Browning Book Fair

November 11th-14th

Lower Gym

 

There is something for everyone at the Book Fair. A chance to meet authors, start your holiday shopping, and add to your bedside table reading list, the Book Fair is a Browning tradition. This year the Browning library has teamed with the Parents’ Association and Book Fair co-chairs Dianne Batista and Preeti Swani to work with WORD, a phenomenal bookstore in Greenpoint that, according to the New York Times, “not only stocks books but also strives to create a community of people who love them.”

Before the fair even officially begins, the Lower School boys will be treated to a Thursday morning assembly with visiting author and illustrator Paul Hoppe. His books, Hat and The Woods, will be available for sale at the fair on Monday.
The WoodsHat

On Friday morning, Adam Gidwitz will visit the Middle School assembly to discuss his recent novel, A Tale Dark and Grimm. He’ll be back on Monday to meet and sign books for the boys.

A Tale Dark and Grimm

Later on Friday, Grades 2 and 3 will meet in the library with author/illustrator John Rocco, who will discuss his experiences writing and illustrating his own books, as well as doing illustrations for Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and Katherine and John Patterson’s new book, Flint Heart.

BlackoutFu Finds The WayThe Flint HeartThe Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

 

The fair officially kicks off with the Cocktail Party for parents, faculty, staff and alumni on Friday 11/11 from 6:00-8:00PM. The signing authors at the cocktail party include Browning Alum Hicks Stone and Browning Parent Geralyn Lucas. Browning Form III student, Alexander Gottdiener will join author Carol Sheehan to sign copies of The Birding Life in which he is featured. Fiction authors Helen Schulman and Jami Attenberg will join cook book writer Tracey Zabar to round out our evening. Please RSVP to bookfair@browning.edu if you plan to attend the Friday night Cocktail Party.

 

Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary ArchitectWhy I Wore Lipstick to My MastectomyThe Birding Life: A Passion for Birds at Home and AfieldThis Beautiful LifeThe Melting SeasonOne Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes

 

On Saturday, families can come by the fair to catch John Rocco signing books from 11:00AM-2:00PM and children’s book author Michelle Knudson from 12:00PM-3:00PM. Students can also purchase books for their classrooms or for the Browning Library.

Library LionArgus

Monday is class day, when all students will have a chance to visit the gym to shop or get books signed by Fiona Robinson, Paul Hoppe, Adam Gidwitz, and George O’Connor. Mr. O’Connor will also visit Mr. Dearinger’s Form I English class to discuss his graphic novel series, The Olympians.

What Animals Really LikeThe 3-2-3 Detective Agency: The Disappearance of Dave WarthogZeus: King of the Gods (Olympians)Hera: The Goddess and her Glory (Olympians)Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess (Olympians)Journey Into Mohawk Country

 

Hope to see you at the fair!

 

Celebrate Your Freedom to Read

 

The American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week during the final week of every September. It’s a great opportunity to think about our rights as readers. Why do people try to ban some books? Shouldn’t every reader – with guidance from parents in the case of young people – be able to decide for his or herself? Most librarians agree that the freedom to read what you like is an essential part of our First Amendment rights. Librarians everywhere work hard to make sure that books – even those expressing unpopular or unusual viewpoints – remain on the shelves.

At the Browning Library, you can view ALA’s list of banned or challenged titles in 2010-2011. Many of the books are on our shelves. Some of them – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Awakening, Catcher in the Rye and others – will be familiar to many Browning students. Others – The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Nickel and Dimed, Speak – definitely deserve a place on your to-read shelf!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time IndianThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeThe AwakeningThe Catcher in the RyeThe Perks of Being a WallflowerNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in AmericaSpeak

Announcing Guys Read: Third Grade Book Club

A note from Susan Levine

Attention Third Grade parents:

How do I get my son to read, to enjoy reading and to keep reading? The answers lie in giving him great books and good books, the right book at the right time, and showing him that reading is something adults value and want to share with him.  For boys it is particularly essential that they see the men in their lives reading and engaging with them in this activity.  This year I am starting a Guys Read: 3rd Grade Book Club as an opportunity for dads (or uncles, grandfathers, or other close guy friends) to share the experience of reading in a participative and fun way.  This replaces the Father Son Dinner, which exists in earlier grades, with a more intellectually engaging activity for older boys.

Guys Read will meet twice in the fall, twice in the winter and twice in the spring from 6:00-6:45 PM.
Mark your calendars:

  • October 19
  • November 15
  • January 24
  • February 27
  • April 25
  • May 17

I am pleased to announce that our first Guys Read Book Club selection is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  Winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal, and a 2007 National Book Award Finalist, this book has all the elements of an exciting literary adventure.  Grown ups and 3rd graders will find Hugo’s story an exciting one.  Don’t be alarmed by the size of the book–over 300 pages contain gorgeous and mesmerizing illustrations.  The accompanying text would be wonderful as a bedtime read aloud or to curl up and enjoy reading alone.  Guys can have fun reading our book club suggestion together, or independently–it’s up to the reader.  And, yes, the book would need to be read before the club meets!  Hugo Cabret is widely available through independent booksellers, libraries and on Amazon.  It is not available on e-readers – this is the kind of book that needs to be touched to be enjoyed.

Please RSVP to slevine@browning.edu for this first Book Club evening by October 14.

New Books on Our Shelves

Here are just a few of the many, many, many new titles in the Library. Come see for yourself!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar ChildrenRadioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and FalloutPaper Covers RockThe Absolute Value of MikeThe Rogue Crew (Redwall, #22)Addie on the InsideThe Ogre of OglefortTroublemakerJeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake CadetsThe Great Hamster MassacreThe Manatee Scientists (Sitf): The Science of Saving the Vulnerable (Scientists in the Field)

2011 Common Book: the Other Wes Moore

This year’s summer Common Book is The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore. The author is a Rhodes Scholar, Afghanistan veteran, and graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. While studying abroad in South Africa, he learned of another young man named Wes Moore – born in the same Baltimore neighborhood, from a similar background – who had recently been arrested for murder. The book alternates between the Wes Moores and is a fascinating account of two very different lives.

All Browning, faculty, trustees, and students in Forms II – VI were asked to read the book over the summer. We are delighted to announce that Mr. Moore will be visiting Browning on October 14th to speak with Middle and Upper School students. Extra copies of the book are available in the library.

Learn more about the author and the book here.

Grade 1 Talks Books

The first graders promote their reading choices in our video book talk project.

Watch them all here.

How do YOU use Wikipedia?

The founders of the now ten-year-old website are trying to become more involved in the way students and teachers use Wikipedia. The Chronicle of Higher Education says:

Rodney Dunican, education programs manager for Wikimedia, Wikipedia’s parent company, is part of the team working to build the platform, which he said will highlight the ways in which Wikipedia can be used to improve student learning.

“We don’t want them to cite Wikipedia,” he said of students. “What we really want them to do is understand how to use and critically evaluate the articles on Wikipedia and then learn how to contribute to make those articles better.”

Read the whole article here. And if you’ve got a Wikipedia citation on your next bibliography, come see a librarian for some alternate sources!

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