Top 50 books for children

The Independent published an article on the top 50 books every child should read in response to the British Secretary of Education saying every child should read a book a week.  The Independent asked three leading British children's authors and two of their in-house experts to each pick ten books for 11-year old children.  This suggestion was made after visiting a Harlem school in New York.

Digital Reading

I found this blog post very interesting:  What if reading on the computer means we don't get it?  My reading comprehension is certainly better when I have a printed copy  of whatever on my desk.  I think I take more time to read rather than hurrying to read the computer screen quickly so I can get on with my clicking!

I chose three different articles that are about the level that I would normally assign for current events, two of them from the New York Times. For Grade 6, this can be a fairly challenging reading level. Each article was followed by five questions related to comprehension of the key information from the article. The subject of each article was familiar but the information was ‘new’ to the students. I did the experiment with both of my Humanities classes – about 40 students.

For article one, students read entirely online. They could take notes on paper or using an online tool.

For article two, students read a pdf version stripped of all ads (using the ‘READER’ function of Safari). They could then take notes on paper or using Preview (which allows them to take notes and highlight the text easily).

For article three, students received a paper copy of the article and could write on it if they needed to. If I am being honest, this article was in fact the longest and most complex.

The results?

For the first article (reading online), the class average was 68%, a D+.

For the second article (a pdf version that allowed note-taking), the class average was 72%, a C-.

For the final article (a paper copy), the class average was 89, a B+.

Were you a fan of the television series, Diagnosis Murder?   If so, you will love the Diagnosis Murder website created by Lee Goldberg, "who was an executive producer and writer on the long-running show and is also the author of the exciting novels based on the series."


The site has scripts and outlines from the series along with book information, interviews and a forum.  All you want to know about Dr. Mark Sloan!

Top 100 Authors downloaded from Project Gutenberg

Top 100 Authors last 30 days

1. Dickens, Charles (78364)
2. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir (75838)
3. Twain, Mark (74747)
4. Shakespeare, William (56503)
5. Austen, Jane (54921)
6. Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) (51128)
7. Verne, Jules (39705)
8. Johnson, E. Pauline (36709)
9. Wilde, Oscar (36663)
10. Carroll, Lewis (36462)
11. Poe, Edgar Allan (34060)
12. Burton, Richard Francis, Sir (32715)
13. Dumas, Alexandre (29373)
14. Vatsyayana (27241)
15. Indrajit, Bhagavanlal (26731)
16. Bhide, Shivaram Parashuram (26731)
17. Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville) (26706)
18. Burroughs, Edgar Rice (26297)
19. Tolstoy, Leo, graf (25772)
20. Stevenson, Robert Louis (25529)
21. Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank) (24840)
22. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (21664)
23. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (20747)
24. Joyce, James (20594)
25. Christie, Agatha (20503)
26. Plato (19481)
27. Grimm, Jacob (19028)
28. Grimm, Wilhelm (19028)
29. Doré, Gustave (18864)
30. Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) (18594)
31. Aesop (18280)
32. Swift, Jonathan (18265)
33. Kipling, Rudyard (18240)
34. Kafka, Franz (17874)
35. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (17498)
36. Melville, Herman (17378)
37. Dante Alighieri (17150)
38. London, Jack (17033)
39. Conrad, Joseph (16794)
40. Jowett, Benjamin (16736)
41. Defoe, Daniel (16636)
42. Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud) (16567)
43. Benedict, Elsie Lincoln (16501)
44. Benedict, Ralph Paine (16501)
45. Garnett, Constance (16280)
46. Sunzi (6th cent. BC) (15922)
47. Homer (15920)
48. Hugo, Victor (15869)
49. Potter, Beatrix (15736)
50. Giles, Lionel (14620)
51. Leonardo da Vinci (14388)
52. Stoker, Bram (14170)
53. James, Henry (14019)
54. Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (13946)
55. Richter, Jean Paul (13839)
56. Alcott, Louisa May (13512)
57. Brontë, Charlotte (13102)
58. Alarcón, Pedro Antonio de (13060)
59. Dick, Philip K. (12707)
60. Balzac, Honoré de (12686)
61. Sterndale, Robert Armitage (12605)
62. Wyllie, David (12567)
63. Lang, Andrew (12519)
64. Pope, Alexander (12506)
65. Widger, David (12294)
66. Maude, Louise Shanks (12016)
67. Russell, Bertrand (11948)
68. Vernon Jones, V. S. (Vernon Stanley) (11814)
69. Maude, Aylmer (11755)
70. Haggard, Henry Rider (11737)
71. Hawthorne, Nathaniel (11536)
72. Whitman, Walt (11464)
73. Bierce, Ambrose (11279)
74. Giese, W.F. (11170)
75. Voltaire (10707)
76. Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew) (10408)
77. Hardy, Thomas (10399)
78. Cary, Henry Francis (10098)
79. Darwin, Charles (10098)
80. Townsend, F. H. (Frederick Henry) (10092)
81. Berens, E.M. (10010)
82. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (9970)
83. Machiavelli, Niccolò (9908)
84. Scott, Walter, Sir (9802)
85. Milton, John (9707)
86. Brontë, Emily (9631)
87. Burnett, Frances Hodgson (9512)
88. Eliot, George (9503)
89. Maupassant, Guy de (9490)
90. Collins, Wilkie (9481)
91. Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian) (9340)
92. Gibbon, Edward (9301)
93. Thoreau, Henry David (9266)
94. Milman, Henry Hart (9189)
95. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich (8898)
96. Henty, G. A. (George Alfred) (8776)
97. Marriott, W. K. (William K.) (8749)
98. Hapgood, Isabel Florence (8651)
99. Shaw, Bernard (8635)
100. Trollope, Anthony (8589)

The Google lawsuit has generated a lot of publicity the last few days.  The Scholarly Kitchen summarizes the lawsuit and decision with a few added suggestions.

Lendle gone, Lendle back!

Lendle is back.  The Lendle webpage states the following:

"Amazon revokes Lendle’s API access (Update: We’re back!)

Update, March 22nd, 2011: We’re thrilled to report that Amazon has reinstated our API access, and Lendle is back up and running. Welcome back, Lendlers!"  For more information, go to Lendle.

Making Books video

Oh my, how times have changed in so many ways!    How books were made in 1947 -- a video from Encyclopedia Britannica:  Making Books


I love the fashion and vocabulary.

Tiny Trees

This post has nothing to do with books or libraries.  I just think these tiny trees are adorable!!

Overdrive's Most Popular Downloaded Books -- Juvenile titles

Below are the lists of the most popular downloaded juvenile titles on Overdrive:

Download Audiobooks - Juvenile Fiction		Months On List
1.	The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Audio)	40
2.	Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Audio)	44
3.	Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Audio)	33
4.	Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer (Listening Library)	46
5.	Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer (Listening Library)	36
6.	The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (Listening Library)	29
7.	The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan (Listening Library)	15
8.	Matched, by Ally Condie (Penguin Audio)	8
9.	Theodore Boone, by John Grisham (Penguin Group (USA), Inc.)	10
10.	The Maze of Bones, by Rick Riordan (Scholastic Audio)	36

Download eBooks - Juvenile Fiction Months On List 1. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (HarperCollins) 15 2. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 29 3. Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 19 4. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Random House Children's Books) 15 5. The Angel Experiment, by James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 22 6. Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 25 7. New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 27 8. Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead (Penguin USA, Inc.) 18 9. Virals, by Kathy Reichs (Penguin Group USA, Inc.) 12 10. 3 Willows, by Ann Brashares (Random House Children's Books) 29

Overdrive's Most Popular Downloaded Books

Overdrive has posted the most popular downloaded books as of March 1:  (audio and ebook)


 Download eBooks - Adult Fiction                                      Months On List 
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) 12 
 2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) 11 
 3. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Penguin USA, Inc.) 10 
 4. The Confession, by John Grisham (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) 11 
 5. The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) 12 
 6. Dead or Alive, by Tom Clancy (Penguin Group USA, Inc.) 4 
 7. Port Mortuary, by Patricia Cornwell (Penguin Group USA, Inc.) 4 
 8. Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett (Penguin Group USA, Inc.) 6 
 9. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (Algonquin Books) 3 
 10. Happy Ever After, by Nora Roberts (Penguin Group USA, Inc.) 7


 Download Audiobooks - Adult Fiction                 Months On List 
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Books on Tape) 16 
 2. Tick Tock, by James Patterson (AudioGO) 4 
 3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (Books on Tape) 10 
 4. The Confession, by John Grisham (Books on Tape) 17 
 5. The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson (Books on Tape) 20 
 6. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Books on Tape) 13 
 7. Hell's Corner, by David Baldacci (BBC Audiobooks America) 9 
 8. Cross Fire, by James Patterson (BBC Audiobooks America) 12 
 9. Treachery In Death, by J. D. Robb (Brilliance Audio) 5 
10. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (HighBridge Company) 18

New question and answer sites seem to be popping up.  The New York Times ran an article, 'The Answers Are Out There, and The New Q. and A. Dig Them Up'  .


One of  the new sites is Quora (find and follow your friends' questions and answers).  You can have Quora check your email address book for friends using Quora.  I received an email stating a friend was following my Quora activity.  I haven't posted a question yet.  I'll have to post something to see how this works.

Book

If you have not seen this video, Book, watch it.

Read children's books online at International Children's Digital Library.   The ICDL has thousands of books in 54 languages online allowing you to browse by language, genre or age group.  You are not required to register either.  


"The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world.  Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community."

goodreads challenge

Did you sign up for a reading challenge?  If not, try goodreads.

71,875 people participating 

Motivate yourself to read more books: Enter the 2011 Reading Challenge!

Total goal for all participants: 5,173,274 books

534,671 of 5,173,274 (10%)

Average goal for all participants: 71 books
Total challenges completed: 77

Librarian (quote)

As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her.        (Erma Bombeck)

ebook lending clubs (an incomplete list)

From ALA Tech Source:    http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/02/e-book-lending-clubs.html

The article, ‘Ebook lending clubs’ gives a little background on lending ebooks and information on five lending clubs.  Be sure to check out the clubs listed in this article.  

The clubs/sites listed below are not included in this article.  I have not borrowed from any of these clubs – this is just information not a recommendation for use.

Lendle   http://lendle.me/how-it-works/

Lendle states they are the “easiest, fastest,  fairest and best way to lend and borrow Kindle books.”

BookBee   http://www.bookbee.net/

“A Beginner's guide to ebooks - simple guide/comparison to device, software, format, buying and help.  Info on Kindle, iPad, Nook, PC (Windows), Mac (OS X), iPhone.”  This site also offers Book Ant (search for books with prices at B&N and Amazon) and an ebook exchange.  I registered on BookBee to see what is offered.  At the time, only four books were available, but this was a few weeks ago.

Ebook exchange     http://www.ebookexchange.com/

Lend or borrow ebooks (Kindle or Nook).  Complete step-by-step instructions and registration is free.  I did see a spot for a $3 donation, but I’m not sure this is required.

Open Library   (Internet Archive )    http://openlibrary.org/

“Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published….  Just like Wikipedia, you can contribute new information or corrections to the catalog. You can browse by subject, author or lists members have created. If you love books, why not help build a library?”

Wikipedia    http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries

List of worldwide lending libraries

Book Sphere

This is so cool!  

 

Artist, John Marshall, created this sphere made of books.  Photo by Tom Dolon.  Another picture can be found here.