Competency 5: Tagging

After searching for multicultural literature I came across these tags.

Library thing tags:2007(1,308) Adult(1,015) adventure(2,572) American(773) Borrowed(718) British(968) Chick Lit(780) Children(1,239) children's(976) Children's Literature(926) Classic(1,380) Coming of Age(1,552) death(811) Dragons(739) England(1,004) Family(1,154) fantasy(25,901) fiction(35,011) friendship(1,903) hardcover(873) Harry Potter(1,320) High School(1,389) Historical(1,094) Historical Fiction(2,633) History(689) Horror(1,657) Humor(1,339) Juvenile(784) magic(3,825) Manga(1,119) Mystery(4,054) novel(1,554) Own(2,287) Paperback(1,155) Read(5,615) Romance(2,797) School(715) Science Fiction(3,248) series(6,024) Short Stories(737) Supernatural(999) tbr(691) teen(1,592) unread(2,985) Urban Fantasy(718) Vampires(1,802) Witches(723) Wizards(774) ya(1,818)

I picked the book: Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Library thing link:http://www.librarything.com/work/6215

Here is the tag cloud for this book.
10) adventure(54) animals(11) borrowed(7) california(17) childhood favorite(8) children(44) children's(141) Children's Fiction(30) children's literature(53) classic(40) classics(22) coming of age(8) dolphins(12) favorites(8) fiction(324) girl(8) historical(20) historical fiction(88) indian(11) indians(10) island(44) juvenile(41) juvenile fiction(13) kids(14) native american(40) native americans(32) Newbery(78) newbery medal(61) Novel(33) o'dell(8) ocean(8) own(18) paperback(13) read(71) school(15) scott o'dell(8) sea(8) sonlight 5(8) survival(98) unread(11) ya(58) young adult(107) youth(16)


I picked Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.
O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island.

I chose this book because it details the life of a Native American girl and how she lived her life. I read this book as a child and want to reread it in order to recommend it to my students.

Competency 4: RSS Feed

I added this RSS feed from School Library Journal. This website/blog is dedicated to collection development in the school library. I added this feed since it deals with children's literature and is a great source for librarians who need to add the best materials for learning and teaching. This site would also be helpful for public librarians who work in children's services.

Competency 3 Podcasts

I used Google.com to perform the search. I found this podcast on the site: http://www. justonemorebook.com. This site is recommended by the ALA.


http://www.justonemorebook.com/2007/06/29/heritage-and-hope-the-lotus-seed//
The name of the podcast is: Just One More Book. The book that is being reviewed on this podcast is called: Heritage and Hope: The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland.

I chose this podcast because it is a review of a multicultural children's book. There are many books to choose from. This particular book was found in the in the June 2007 archives.
Here is a description about the site:

"Just One More Book is a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children’s books.
Each weekday morning, we take a few minutes out of our morning coffee ritual to discuss one of our many favourite children’s books. We also feature weekly interviews with authors, illustrators and experts and enthusiasts in the areas of children’s literature and literacy as well as listener-submiited audio reviews.
Through this podcast and its website, we are building a lively, interactive community linking children’s book authors, illustrators, readers (children, parents, educators and librarians) and publishers."

Competency 2: Related Blog

I used both Google and Yahoo to search for blogs. I used the search "multicultural literature blogs." I found many that were by students who were or are enrolled in a college class on multicultural literature. Many of these were outdated and the posts stopped two or three years ago. After looking through both search engines, I found the site I am using on Yahoo.com. I finally selected a blog called Cynsations. It comes highly recommended:

School Library Journal says of Cynsations:
“If you're going to read only one blog, this is it!”

I chose this blog because it has a lot of support for teachers and many links dealing with literature for children and young adults. It also has extensive information on books that are multicultural in nature. http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/cyalr_index.html

The excerpt that I chose is one of the many multicultural book reviews that are available on this site.

PENNY FROM HEAVEN by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House, 2006). In this rich period piece set in the summer of 1953, eleven year old Penny is beset by family (in the form of a her mother, a former nurse, live-in grandparents, her cousin and best friend Frankie and his slightly illicit schemes, and a whole bunch of Italian uncles), one or two secrets, Dem Bums, her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, and an aged dachshund. A lovely and heartwarming story based on the author's family history that captures both the sense of America of 1953 and what it means to be the child of recent immigrants. Ages 10-up. Recommendation by Greg Leitich Smith. http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/diversity/multicultural/multi_biblio.html

Competency 1

This blog has been created by a student for TWU's LS 5013 Information Storage and Retrieval course.

The purpose of this blog is to help provide an example of the competencies and to fulfill the requirements of this ISAR course.

The type of library that I will be discussing is the public school library.
My topic will be multicultural literature for children and young adults.