GreenBeanTeenQueen

My husband, aka, Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan just started his first year of teaching this Fall. He's teaching middle school geography. I asked him what his students were reading in school and here's what he's noticed as the most popular: Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling -This series is standing the test of time and a new generation of readers is discovering it for the first time. It's one of the most popular choices among students. The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan  -Students were excited about the most recent release in this series and it's been circulating in my classroom. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -Not many of my students were as excited about this series-I'd say only about 15% of my students went to see Catching Fire over the weekend, but those that did see it were excited to talk about it and enjoy the series. Other popular choices- The students in my class also seem to be reading whatever is one our...

Can you name all of The Hobbit characters? I am a big geek and one of the things that I love about working in the library is that I get to work with people who share my love for geeky pop culture-both staff and patrons. I've been wanting to do a geeky storytime for awhile and finally hosted one a couple of weeks ago. Here's what I did: To help set the mood, I had the kids walk into Hedwig’s Theme Opening Song: Clap Your Hands by They Might Be Giants Book : Star Wars ABC-I had the kids help out and call out the characters they knew when they came across them. They knew most of them and I had quite a few Star Wars fans in the group which made this book fun. Song : Soft Kitty-when I announced this song, I got a big laugh from the parents in the room Soft kitty, Warm kitty, Little ball of fur. Happy kitty, Sleepy kitty, Purr, purr, purr. Book : Robot Zombie Frankenstein by Annette Simon Song : Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants...

Since I've been hosting this series, I've been thinking a lot about middle grade books. I love middle grade and when I look back on my reading, I always have loved middle grade-even before they were called middle grade! They are as popular as ever, so I thought it would be interesting to keep track of what middle grade books I was asked for while working in the library one evening. Here's what I was asked for from tweens: - Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - Ivy's Ever After by Dawn Lairamore - Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan - Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling - The Cupcake Diaries by Coco Simon And some non-fiction subjects: -Books on gaming-specifically Minecraft and Halo -Astronomy -The American Revolution -Peyton Manning Biography

For the God of Mankind?: The Shameful History of Human Medical Experimentation About the Book :  Experimental incidents such as these paved the way for crucial medical discoveries and lifesaving cures and procedures. But they also violated the rights of their subjects, many of whom did not give their consent to the experiments. The subjects suffered excruciating pain and humiliation. Some even died as a result of the procedures. Even in the twenty-first century—despite laws, regulations, and ethical conventions—the tension between medical experimentation and patient rights continues.  How do doctors balance the need to test new medicines and procedures with their ethical and moral duty to protect the rights of human subjects? What price has been paid for medical knowledge? Can we learn from the broken oaths of the past?  Photo Credit: Joel Greenberg What inspired you to write this book? The words that first come to mind are anger and sorrow—anger a...

Today I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about getting over my nervousness about origami to present an Origami Yoda program for tweens . Come check it out!!

Tess Hilmo is the author of With a Name Like Love. Find her online at http://tesshilmo.com/ The industry calls them “middle grade novels” but I call them “wonderful books you can adore and then pass on to your friend, mother, child, grandmother and teacher”.  My description is probably too long for publishing catalogues though, so I don’t push the issue.  I feel so lucky to be able to write for this audience.  Honestly, young teens are the most fun, most creative, most accepting group of people I have had the privilege of meeting and it is the coolest thing in the world to sit in my pajamas, eat ice cream and write stories for them.  As hard as you try – I bet you couldn’t come up with a better job description than that! Some of my very favorite Middle Grade novels include… The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  This was one of the earliest novels I remember reading and it started my love affair with historical fiction. ...

Anna at Future Librarian Superhero  and Amy at Show Me Librarian  both recently posted about their path to librarianship-and invited others to do the same. Here's how I became a librarian. (The front page of one of my favorite books from childhood) Although I didn't realize it as a child, I was born to be a librarian. My first word was "book." I had my favorite book, Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff, memorized at age two and would "read" it aloud with all the correctly timed page turns. I played library as a child and checked out books to my stuffed animals and imaginary library patrons.  Reading Rainbow was my favorite TV Show and I would practice giving my very own book talks in case I ever appeared on the show-"but you don't have to take my word for it!" I loved reading, I went to the library on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis, but the thought of being a librarian never crossed my mind. In addition to reading, I also ...