For Teachers

The Silver Blades Scholarship lands unassuming skater Claire Boucher in Lake Placid. No longer is ice skating a winter activity in the neighborhood skate center that she affectionately refers to as "Cow Pond." No longer is skating an ancillary activity to the rest of her life. Four-hour long practices dominate Claire's life as she perfects jumps and attempts to please her new coach, Mr. Groshev. Claire is his "next big talent." Her best friend Natalie resents being "dumped" by Claire for ice and all of its glory.

At the New York Public Library's Adult Learning Centers, where adults work on basic English and literacy skills, we're often asked for recommendations of websites for adults to practice English at home. Below you'll find eleven sites, some with a focus on listening, some on vocabulary, others on grammar, and some with a range of activities. Happy learning!

We were lucky to have Betsy Bird and NYPL host the Kid Lit Con on September 29, 2012. Kid Lit Con is an awesome experience, and I completely recommend it.

The afternoon session on Critical Book Reviewing was especially scintillating and enlightened me to realities inherent in the author-reviewer relationship that I was completely unaware of. I previously was unaware that authors contact reviewers and try to sway them into not being critical about their work. I think that is unethical.

I was extremely excited when I heard that Kid Lit Con was coming to NYC this year, and that it was to be held in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building ("the library with the lions"). I could not have been happier. I do not travel much for conferences, so I was very happy to be able to experience a conference just for bloggers about children's literature. Thanks to Betsy Bird and NYPL for hosting the conference on September 29, 2012. Betsy Bird gave the official welcome. She said that blogging used to be considered the ultimate self-indulgence, but now it is simply what we read. Publishers are interested in what bloggers have to say. Blogging has not replaced print 

Shelter by Harlan Coben, 2011

Sniper by Theodore Taylor, 2007

Imagine lions and tigers in your backyard and a house cheetah to guard your family. Thanks to an endowment from a wealthy widow his parents met in Africa, this is Ben's home.

Booktalking Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers, 1975

Somehow he became known as "Stuff." Anyhow, one of the funniest things he ever observed was Cool Clyde, aka "Claudette" jiving with Fast Sam, who was "getting into his thing" on the dance floor in a competition. One by one, couples were asked to sit down by the announcer jovially saying, "Hey, hey. Let's give a big hand to..." and then he announced the couple's names. The pace of dancing would rise to a frenetic pace in the few seconds before the announcement, each couple throwing a few more daring moves in fervent hope that it would not be them to drop next. As 

We were very lucky to have Matt Myklusch, author of the Jack Blank adventure trilogy, speak at the 67th Street Library's Dream Big Imagination Academy on July 31, 2012. He delivered a 60-minute talk about his story (how he came to be a writer) and his Jack Blank Books: The Accidental Hero, The Secret War, and The End of Infinity. He then answered questions from the audience. The kids then took a short break, then received help from Myklusch in developing their characters and stories in their own fiction.

I was delighted to hear from members of the Children's Book Illustrators Group in New York City (CBIG-NYC) in the Margaret Berger Forum of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on June 2, 2012. I do not draw that well, but I appreciate art. I love photographing my cats, and my drawing teacher in college told me that I have a good eye for composition. My mother also takes good photographs. CBIG-NYC was founded by Brooklyn illustrators in 1987 as a forum in which to share publishing information and industry experiences.

The Cruisers: Checkmate by Walter Dean Myers, 2011

Alexander, "Zander" for short, is a student at the elite Da Vinci Academy for the Gifted and Talented. There, he belongs to a club known as the Cruisers that publishes an alternative newspaper, The Palette. Each member of the Cruisers has a special talent. Kambui, Zander's best friend, is into photography. LaShonda designs clothing, Bobbi is fascinated with numbers, and Zander wants to be a writer.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack, 2011

19-year-old Hannah is a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet company. Jacob is her musician boyfriend who goes to NYU, and Otto is the one who hands out promotions and demotions to the dancers in the company. He's the one to impress. Like all of the other dancers, Hannah jockeys for a prominent position in the dances. Glimpse in this world the injuries of the uninitiated, the stress fractures and the illness-producing dieting.

All the Right Stuff by Walter Dean Myers, 2012

Paul DuPree figures that working in a soup kitchen over the summer isn't a bad gig, especially since he gets to mentor a kid on Friday mornings. Little did he know that there's more to just throwing some ingredients together because someone has got to eat it, and the kid he's mentoring, 17-year-old Keisha, has a toddler girl of her own, and she wants to improve her hoops, not her grades. Paul meets Elijah in the Soup Emporium, who educates him about the social contract, a philosophical construction of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. People who are in jail, Elijah tells him, "wipe their feet on the social 

Jermaine Browne: We were lucky enough to have a dance talk at the Mulberry Street Library on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. I love dance, so I was very excited to meet an international choreographer, dancer, and teacher, Jermaine Browne. Respect My Step is an online community where teens and people of all ages can post their one-minute YouTube dance videos. No comments are published so that negative comments are not made about the dance videos. Chris Shoemaker, Young Adult Programming Specialist at NYPL, introduced the speaker. Shoemaker asked the audience, "Are you ready to move? Are you ready to shake?"

Booktalking The Black Stallion and the Lost City by Steven Farley, 2011

The waiting... waiting... and more waiting. That's the central theme of this Black Stallion novel set in the middle of a movie production... Alec aboard the temperamental Black, of course — Alec being the only person who can ride the Black. Alec plays Alexander the Great, and the Black is Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's horse. The Black, of course, does not want to wear his race costume, and some of the other animals do not always do what their trainers want either. Lots of different animals inhabit the tents on the set when they are not being used for scenes.

To Ride the Gods' Own Stallion by Diane Lee Wilson, 2000

In 640 BC, in an ancient Assyrian kingdom, 13-year-old Soulai created horses and other animals out of clay and decorative harnesses. Soulai's father said that he should never have been born, and continues in that vein when he sells Soulai to a king in order to repay a debt. His father's apology does little to mollify Soulai's shock and pain as he is wrenched away from his family. It is every boy's worst nightmare, sold into slavery at age 13 and freed at 18. Five years of bondage to repay a father's debt. Beaten and bloodied, Soulai nurses his wounds. Five years of looming incarceration weigh on 

Booktalking Duchess by Ellen Miles, 2011

In the wonderful Kitty Corner series by Ellen Miles, Mia and Michael and their family foster cats and kittens who need a temporary home, much like people foster children. Mia met Duchess through her friend Logan, who alerted her to the fact that Duchess's owner Abby was moving to Iceland, and she did not want to subject the gorgeous white Persian to weeks and weeks of kenneling. Mia and Michael's parents let them foster cats to determine if they are ready and willing to accept the responsibility of caring for a permanent cat.

Introduction of Speakers

Elizabeth Bird started the Children's Literary Salon, as usual, with an introduction of the speakers: Constance Vidor, Sharon Elswit, Pnina Moed Kass, and Rebecca Linde. Linde is the director of sponsorship and marketing for the New York International Children's Film Festival. She explained that the program would be started by a presentation on the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) from Constance Vidor, who is the director of library services at the Friends Seminary.

Black Storm Comin'  by Diane Lee Wilson, 2005 

12-year-old Colton first becomes entranced by the Pony Express when travelling in the 1860 westward expansion on a wagon train. A horse and clinging boy sped past him and did not look back. Got him to wonderin' what kind of excitement it would be to taste that speed and urgency. So, he tries his luck and gets hired (even tho' the manager would have preferred if he were 14 years old). And to prove his meddle, he tames a black demon. But that demon ends up waking Colton up when he was 'bout to die of hypothermia. Horse wasn't much to look at, but Colton says the following about 

Gravity by Leanne Lieberman, 2008

Ellie, a 15-year-old Orthodox Jew, is happy to go to Bubbie's (her grandmother's) cottage this summer to learn about the flora and fawna. There, she meets Lindsay, a beautiful, provocative blond girl, whom Ellie is attracted to. Unlike boys, whom she is supposed to like, Ellie is captivated by Lindsay. They swim together in a canoe, and she visits Lindsay at her cottage.