For the past fifteen years The Foote School has participated in the selection process for the prestigious Irma Black Award, given by the Bank Street School in New York City.  Here, we just refer to this award as the Bank Street Book Award. This children’s book award is particularly meaningful, as it is selected exclusively by children.  This year the four finalists were: I Want My Hat Back, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen, You Will Be My Friend, written and illustrated by Peter Brown, What Animals Really Like, written and illustrated by Fiona Robinson, and All the Way to America, written and illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. After carefully reading and discussing the four Bank Street book finalists, every MAG student and 3rd grader had the chance to cast a vote for the book they liked best.

And finally the votes are in!  Drum roll please…….The winner of the 2012 Irma Black award is What Animals Really Like.  Fiona Robinson’s funny and engaging books turns everyone’s expectations on end. Do cows really just like to moo? Think again.  Humor with a message mixed in really works to create a winner in What Animals Really Like. Now we know what Foote students really like!

With the huge increase in the popularity of eReaders, we are trying to decide whether we should invest in eBooks for the Foote School community.  Please help us by taking this short survey.

Click here to take survey.

Is human nature mechanical? “Draw” your own conclusions…

“When clocks were invented and people saw that you can use these mechanics to create a man that could juggle or sing or be on the trapeze, it started people thinking ‘What is life?’ If something can mimic the act of life, why isn’t it itself alive?”

(Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret)

CBS News video

(To watch this on the full screen, click the “screen” icon under the picture.)

As you’re looking for books over the summer, please take a look at our  Suggestions for Summer Reading and Recommended Read-Alouds.

The library will be open Wednesday mornings between 8 am and 12 noon from June 20 – August 5, and then will be closed again until school reopens in September.

We’d love to see photos of you reading this summer — wherever you happen to be!  Drop them off in the library during the summer or in September, and we’ll display them.

Keep cool!

Watch the story! Read the book!

Scholastic and Weston Woods have paired videos and books on a number of nonfiction topics for children.  Topics include animals and nature, music and rhyme, adventure, people and places, to name but a few.

For example, you can watch the story of Curious George Rides a Bike and then read the book Monkeys and Other Mammals.  Or watch Strega Nona followed by the Rookie Read-About Grains.  The child can read along with the first story and can choose to have the second book read aloud or to read it silently.  Some stories are available in both English and Spanish.  Each set is followed by a puzzle/game and a “meet the author” page.

It looks like a great site for kids and we’d love to get your feedback on it.  Give it a try.

To access Scholastic BookFlix:  Click the link in the right-hand column under Great Websites, which takes you to the New Haven Public Library homepage.  Near the bottom of that page, you’ll see the icon for Scholastic BookFlix.  Now this is very important: Do you see below the icon, in very little letters, “Book Flix Home Access?”  That is the link that you want.  If you have a New Haven library card, you can use that number to log in, or you can use 25000020106929.

The Gecko & Sticky: Sinister Substitute

The Sable Quean: A Tale of Redwall

Geronimo Stilton: The Kingdom of Fantasy