Also this week I am going to announce to grades 3, 4, and 5 something new and exciting: the Super Literacy Quiz Bowl (SLQB). Taking place during the PK Literacy Event (February 5 to 26, 2018), the SLQB is a trivia game in which students are quizzed on facts and details from a grade-specific list of 13 books. Participation in this activity is optional! In order to participate, students need to read at least 10 books from their grade's book list by mid-January 2018 and return a signed parent consent form. Teams will be randomly assigned, and competition will take place during the week of February 12 at an assembly. Students who might like to participate can begin reading right away! I will pass out a flyer about SLQB during class visits this week. Parent volunteers are needed, and the contact information is on the flyer. Thanks to the Pennekamp PTA for supporting this event.
Some of the upper-grade students have been asking for scary chapter fiction. (There has been more interest in the Goosebumps series this year than I can ever remember!) If your child is in the mood for something spooky there was a good roundup of such stories in School Library Journal last year. Beware: these books really are rather scary and, furthermore, are written at a pretty high level--I would recommend them for students in grade 5 and up, and only those who really are okay with scary content. I am displaying some spooky chapter fiction here in the library for the coming couple of weeks.
And finally, there are some outstanding events coming up in our town. Pages: A Bookstore is having a special "Spooky Storytime" with Denise Doyen, author of The Pomegranate Witch. The event is intended for younger children, up to second grade (but really, who doesn't like hearing a story and visiting an awesome bookstore?). And there will be Halloween treats! So mark your calendar: October 28, 10:30 a.m., at Pages, 904 Manhattan Ave. in downtown Manhattan Beach.
Unrelated to Halloween, the Manhattan Beach public library is hosting a couple of cool events promoting girl empowerment, both of which are on Wednesday, October 18. At 3:30 that day, the library will show Soul Surfer, about female surfer Bethany Hamilton who survived a shark attack and returned to surfing after her recovery. That evening, from 7:00 to 8:00, there is a girls skateboarding discussion with Cindy Whitehead, who in 2016 was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. She recently authored the book It's Not About Pretty, which features dozens of photos of inspiring, impressive girls who skateboard. The target age for this event is described as "grades 6 to 12, and young skating enthusiasts."