Please come by the library during Open House! I would love to meet the fabulous families of Pennekamp's terrific students!

Scholastic book orders are due this Thursday, May 26. This is the last Scholastic order of this school year. 

The last week to check out books from the library will by June 6 to 10. The last week for class library visits will be June 13 to 17. During class visits that week students will only return books--there will be no checking out after June 10. 

All students and families, please begin returning all your library books. If you have lost a book or damaged a book beyond repair, you must pay to replace it. Please make payment in cash, exact change preferred. Any questions regarding circulation, please contact me as soon as possible. You can email me at bbroka@mbusd.org, phone me at 310-798-6223 x5860, or come by the library when I am not with a class. Library hours are Monday through Friday, 8 to 3.

This week the library will close at 1:15 on Wednesday, May 25, as I must attend a meeting off campus. 

With the opening of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, my thoughts turned to stories of the sea, which I will be sharing with DK this week. K will hear Farfallina & Marcel, by Holly Keller, at the request of a fifth-grade dragon, who remembered loving this book when she was little. In a funny twist, Tadpole's Promise, by Jeanne Willis, which I will read to fifth grade as a send off to middle school, is the same story as Farfallina--but without the happy ending! Incidentally, it so happens that former Pennekamp Library Media Specialist Stacia Costa introduced me to Tadpole's Promise. First grade will hear a funny story, The Great White Man-Eating Shark, by Margaret Mahy; second is finishing Spud Murphy, also humorous but also likely to inspire reading. Third grade and Mrs. Curry's fifth grade class will hear stories in honor of Memorial Day. Mr. Romines's and Mrs. Rumble's classes will miss library this week due to a field trip, so Ms. Hart's class will pick up the picture book biography of Soichiro Honda that the other fourth-grade classes heard last week, when Ms. Hart's students were hearing a Mark Twain biography. Finally, Mr. Warner's class will hear Tadpole's Promise and also take a look at the summer reading selections for students entering sixth grade at MBMS, while Mr. Ahrens's class will finish the short novel Lewis & Clark & Me. 

This week is likely to be the last class library visit for Mr. Warner's and Mr. Ahrens's classes, as they have Friday activities in the month of June. I will miss them, but I wish them great success at their next school and much happiness always. 

The end of the school year is fast approaching, which means it's time to return all library books and resolve any issues related to lost or damaged books. It is the policy of our school district to withhold the report card of any student who has (or whose parent has) unresolved library issues, so please begin rounding up those library books.

Scholastic book orders are due Thursday, May 26. This is the last Scholastic order until school resumes in the fall. Thank you for purchasing from Scholastic. Every order generates points that can be used to acquire books for our school library and classrooms.

The book club for students in grades 4 & 5 will meet on June 15, 1:30 to 2:30, in the library. Our book is Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. This is the last club meeting of the school year.

This week DK and K will be hearing books about eggs, in support of springtime and the study in kindergarten of life cycles. 1st will hear Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox, which is about how an object can bring back memories, since 1st grade students have been working on autobiographies. For 2nd, I will continue with the short chapter book The Legend of Spud Murphy. Having heard a book about Japanese-American history last week, 3rd will be hearing a story set in New York's Chinatown, for Asian Pacific Island Heritage Month. A biography of Soichiro Honda, founder of the Honda Motor Company, relates both to Asian heritage and 4th grade's study of entrepreneurs. The 5th grade classes are doing different but equally interesting things: Mrs. Curry's and Mr. Warner's classes will be introduced to the new library catalog and, if there's time, hear I, Doko: Tale of a Basket, based on a folk tale from Nepal; Mr. Ahrens's class will hear the next three chapters of Lewis and Clark and Me, about the Lewis & Clark expedition.

It is getting close to the end of the school year! The summer reading lists have been posted on the district website and also can be viewed from Reading List Links on my Find a Book tab. The end of the year means it's time to return all library books and resolve any issues related to lost or damaged books. It is the policy of our school district to withhold the report card of any student who has (or whose parent has) unresolved library issues, so please begin rounding up those library books.

The next meeting of the book club for students in grades 4 & 5 will be Wednesday, June 8, from 1:30 to 2:30. Preregistration is required. The selected book is Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Copies are available at the Manhattan Beach branch of the County of Los Angeles Public Library. Ask for a copy at the reference desk in the library; reserving a copy online is likely to take a long time, because copies have already been pulled for us throughout the county system. 

DK will be doing something a little different this week: hearing books about identity and self-acceptance. There are quite a few good ones, and I particularly wanted to try out a new book, Spork, by Kyo Maclear & Isabelle Arsenault, which has gotten very favorable reviews. 

With 2nd grade I am beginning a short, funny novel--The Legend of Spud Murphy, by Eoin Colfer--about two boys who have to spend long summer hours in the children's section of their local library, presided over by a mean children's librarian known as "Spud" Murphy. Will the boys ever safely set foot off the "junior section" rug?

3rd grade will hear Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki, in honor of Asian Pacific Island Heritage Month, which the month of May happens to be. The book recognizes the military service of Asian Americans during World War II and the Korean War.  

The other grades are hearing books related to their classroom studies: K and 1st, about butterflies; 4th, California statehood; and 5th, the Lewis & Clark expedition.

This week we will be focusing on a couple of May events, in particular Mother's Day, but also National Bicycle Month. For Mother's Day, DK will hear When You Meet a Bear on Broadway, by Amy Hest, about mothers; and A Crash Course for Molly, by Eva Eriksson, which is about bicycling. 

The 2011 reading lists compiled by the district's library media specialists can now be viewed from the district's webpage or from this site's Find a Book tab. From that list 1st grade will be hearing A Bedtime for Bear, by Bonny Becker, which is the sequel to A Visitor for Bear, nominee for the California Young Reader Medal this year.

2nd grade will be oriented to the location of popular nonfiction topics in the library. The students will take home a "Popular Topics by Dewey Number" bookmark to remind them of what we've covered.

3rd grade is doing a variety of things this week. Classes are completing their review of research skills (such as identifying the parts of a book, determining which reference book to use, finding topics in an encyclopedia); as time permits, classes are hearing either 365 Penguins, by Jean-Luc Fromenthal (if they did not hear it last week), or The Friend, by Sarah Stewart. 

4th grade will not be coming to library this week because they have STAR testing at their usual library visit times.

For 5th grade, we will attempt a rather long picture book about the Lewis and Clark expedition, which they are studying in their history unit with Mrs. Curry. There are several interesting books that cover the expedition from the standpoint of various Corps of Discovery members, but before looking at those, we will make sure to be well acquainted with the facts of the expedition. 

In other library news, statewide winners for the California Young Reader Medal have been announced: in the Primary category, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, by Carmen Agra Deedy; in Picture Books for Older Readers, the winner is John, Paul, George, & Ben, by Lane Smith; in the Intermediate novels, which were read by the book club for students in 4th and 5th grade, the winner is Zorgamazoo, by Robert Paul Weston. 

The book club will meet again (this year's final meeting) on Wednesday, June 8, from 1:30 to 2:30 in the library. The next book is Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Just a reminder: if you plan to shop for books or any other items on Amazon, click through to Amazon from the library website's home page and your purchases will earn from 5-15% for the Pennekamp PTA. It's a great way to raise money for our school, free of charge to you.