The Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois' High School Readers' Choice Award

ISLMA describes the Abraham Lincoln Award:

The Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book AwardThe Abraham Lincoln Award is awarded annually to the author of the book voted as most outstanding by participating students in grades nine through twelve in Illinois. The award is named for Abraham Lincoln, one of Illinois' most famous residents and himself an avid reader and noted author. The award is sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA).The Abraham Lincoln Award is designed to encourage high school students to read for personal satisfaction and become familiar with authors of young adult and adult books.

Linda Straube recently shared the 2012 Abe Lincoln Award Nominees and we'll  have print copies available at both Winnetka and Northfield libraries. Judy Macnab will be ordering the titles in ebook version for the library Kindles.

Recent purchase in hardcover at the New Trier Library: I live in the future & here's how it works

A Highlight and Note from Michael Stephens

Just like me, the generation coming of age in this digital society doesn’t see or perceive much difference in types of media. Video? Words? Music? Computer code? It doesn’t matter. The actual tools used are irrelevant. It’s the end result—the storylines, the messages—that matters. This generation thinks in pictures, words, and still and moving images and is comfortable mixing them all in the same space.

Note: the tools are irrelevant. this speaks well to transliteracy

Shared on February 25th, 2011 from Kindle

The overdone memoir . . .

Everyone's writing memoirs! NYT Book Review

Film Complements Book

Christopher McCandless will not be forgotten. He, his thoughts, and his actions will be discussed from various perspectives for some time. At least this is what I hope. The book, written by Jon Krakauer, presents McCandless in an objective light, allowing for conversations debating his actions and rationale. The film, produced and directed by Sean Penn, presents a different exposure to McCandless.

The "writing" on the screen of his journal entries and the narration of his sister throughout the film provide a greater understanding of why McCandless acted as he did. Some of the relationships he develops during his journey give him a sense of love, importance, and purpose. And he impacts those he meets along the way. His idealism is admirable, and I wish that he would have had the opportunity to continue to act on and fulfill such dreams. I continue to think "if only he was prepared better; if only he had organized his trip in a thoughtful and purposeful manner."

I appreciate that both the book and the film are thought-provoking and allowed me to understand McCandless more fully, as we all are multi-dimensional. May his spirit live in the people who knew him, and may his actions encourage everyone to take flight with a sliver of caution.

More sources to check out....

Here's a link to The New York Times' podcasts of Book Reviews which appear every Friday. This page in turn links to NPR, New Yorker and other podcast book reviews.


For more books to read, check out the Google eBookstore
Enjoy!

Book True to Reality

Theories of Relativity by Barbara Haworth-Attard (2003) is true to life, according to youth who live just like Dylan and the other characters in the book. Dylan is 16 years old and lives on the street; he was forced onto the streets by his mom on his 16th birthday.
He must survive, and will do almost whatever it takes to survive; though, he won't give in to Vulture, a guy who is as conniving and manipulative as his nickname suggests.

Dylan develops his own personal "theories" as he lives on the streets, yet certain experiences challenge these theories, for better and for worse, and challenge his ability to survive physically and mentally.

Haworth-Attard includes an Author's Note to all the young adults who read this book, and it's an important message they need to know: "be aware of that kid on the corner of a city street.....You will grow up to help run this country and inherit the problem. We must all work toward a solution" (230).

Thank you, Barbara Haworth-Attard.