Library & Literary Miscellany

Here’s what caught my eye on the Web this week…

Library

• Discovery Skills Versus Evaluation Skills by Librarians Matter: discusses whether we are focusing too much on teaching discovery of information resources to the detriment of providing instruction on strategies for evaluating said resources
• ALSC’s Kids @ Your Library Public Awareness Campaign: see especially the tool kit which includes sample materials and activity suggestions
• Recent Library Presentations compiled by iLibrarian: provides links to myriad recent presentations from notable presenters such as Steven Abram, Sarah Houghton-Jan, David Lee King, and more
• Reference Question of the Week by Swiss Army Librarian is not actually a reference question from the week like it usually is; instead, it’s a compilation of links pointing to other places where reference questions are archived

Literary

• Booklist Online: Top 10 Biographies for Youth
• Futuristic, Speculative, Science Fiction and Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page is a thorough list to which many contributed, making it diverse list with a lot of substance
• June carnival of Children’s Literature - Fathers in Children’s books: from Susan Taylor Brown at Susan Writes offers a meaty overview of contributors’ posts discussing, well, fathers in children’s books
• June edition of the Edge of the Forest (after June, you’ll want to check the archives to view this edition; you may want to check the archives anyway to view past editions); as per usual, it is full of interesting interviews and reviews making it a sound destination for maintaining current awareness of kidlit world happenings
• Times Online: Critics choose their most-loathed book (thanks to Fuse #8 for the link)
• Summer Books Season at Worth Reading includes links to a plethora of booklists (USA Today, the Telegraph, Library Journal, Wall Street Journal, Salon, etc.) for your summer reading pleasure (the USA Interactive is particularly fun if you’re looking for an interactive means of choosing adult fiction or nonfiction for your summer reading)
• Last week I pointed to Fuse 8 Production’s Newbery/Caldecott predictions. A couple more I found this week (although they aren’t from this week) are from Literate Lives: Newbery/Caldecott Short Lists and Anokaberry: Anokaberry 2009 Short List
• Still More Booklists over at Semicolon provides links to a variety of timely summer booklists that provide reading suggestions for fiction, nonfiction, writers of faith, etc.

Miscellany

• 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes by Deke McClelland (thanks to Digital Inspiration for the link); if not perhaps useful in the sense that much of it is likely to be retained, it’s entertaining nonetheless
• Library Thing: Member Home Pages: Tim Spalding writes, “The basic idea was to give members a ‘center’ from which to visit the rest of the site.” Library Thing just keeps getting better and better!
• Tech’s 15 Turning Points by Neil McAllister at InfoWorld (not technically from this week either, but it was in American Libraries Direct this week)

And to all those who are fortunate to be at ALA this week, have a blast!

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The Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) chose Catch the Reading Bug (kids) and Metamorphosis@Your Library (teens) as the 2008 theme, and it’s now in full-swing (it almost being July after all). A couple of recent posts I particularly enjoyed relating to the CSLP are By the Cover: June Bugs at Proper Noun (which also links to a longer insects booklist at Mindy’s Book Lists wiki) and Speaking of Crafts and Bugs at Library Voice (includes multiple images of some really fun looking bug crafts and displays).

A few sites offering related resources include:

• A to Z Kids Stuff: Bugs–songs, crafts, snack ideas mainly for bees, ladybugs, and caterpillars/butterflies
• Librarian’s Internet Index–Insects and Arachnids links
• LibraryPalooza–this is the site that I was led to the link to download the 2008 theme song that you hear in the videos by Billy Gorilly
• NetState.com’s Official State Insects list
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s 2008 SLP Training Workshop–includes display ideas , myriad downloadable breakout session handouts, and more

So you can see that there’s a plethora of buggy fun and/or information out there, but I thought I’d add a couple of 30 second promotional videos in case anyone needs any more ideas. I created them using Animoto just like my previous Mysteries at Your library video.

Animoto’s simple and it’s fun, although the Animoto shorts don’t allow for quite as many pictures as I’d like. But for the cost of free, it’s a great resource to spark creativity and create content for a variety of purposes.

Enjoy and feel free to remix, embed, or create your own (Video Production: Animoto; Songs: Billy Gorilly). Also feel free to leave comments if you have any feedback and/or resources to share relating to enticing people of all ages towards libraries and summer reading. Without further ado, here are the video shorts for kids and teens respectively (you’ll notice that I chose the instrumental version for the teens video : ))…

Catching the Reading Bug

Metamorphosis @ Your Library

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Here we go again with Library & Literary Miscellany links from this week…

Library

• The Actionable Blog by David Lee King speaks to the idea of intentionally creating content enabling/requiring action (his example of an actionable blog that requires action is his library’s posts titled “What’s in Your Top 5?” where the library begins the conversation and then patrons add their own ideas)
• Information Overload: the Problem (Part 1) and Information Overload: What Can We Do (Part 2) by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb
• More libraries using delicious by mélange: Angela has added to her libraries using del.icio.us list; the list links to numerous library-created Del.icio.us accounts, thus, providing examples of ways Del.icio.us has been used (and perhaps stimulating ideas for how it can be used in the future) in a library setting to enhance library services and guides
• On the Information Experience: An ALA TechSource Conversation with John Blyberg by Michael Stephens: discusses Blyberg’s Library 2.0 Debased article from months back and delves further into these ideas (particularly interesting is the notion of hiring 51% employees–49 % skills, 51% intrinsic desire to serve and to create fulfilling customer experiences)

Literary

• 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature: announced June 18, 2008 for the categories of Fiction and Poetry (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney), Picture Book (At Night by Jonathan Bean), Nonfiction (The Wall by Peter Sís), with a Special Citation (The Arrival by Shaun Tan); click the link to view the honor books as well
• 2009 Newbery and Caldecott Predictions - Halfway Mark by Fuse News where Elizabeth Bird moves beyond 2008 awards to offer her ideas regarding the best Newbery & Caldecott eligible titles of the year so far (from all that I’ve heard The Underneath by Kathi Appelt must have quite a shot at the Newbery. I’m quite looking forward to reading it)
• 12th Bookworms Carnival: posted over at Things Mean a Lot this is a wonderful summation of a bunch of posts about the month’s theme–fairy tales (the next theme is relationships for those who are interested in submitting posts to be included submit posts via her contact page by July 11 to Jenn at Mixed Metaphor)
• Great Early Elementary Reads: The Association for Library to Children (ALSC) bibliography Great Early Elementary Reads, features recommended book titles for children who are just learning to read and beginning to read on their own (featured in American Libraries Direct this week)
• What’s the Deal with all these mice? by Library Voice with a follow-up over at Lisa Chellman’s blog with a post entitled Mice Are Nice: these are library and literary really since they pertain to patron interaction and children’s literature; you may find yourself able to relate to the first post and you may also find some nice mice reading recommendations in the latter post
• YA is Awesome: post over at YA Fabulous! with links to a great many recent  reviews of YA books from across the kidlit blogosphere

Miscellany

• 4+ Ways to Quickly Create Excellent Presentations Online by Corvida over at ReadWriteWeb; the post discusses Zoho Show, Google Docs, 280 Slides, and SlideRocket (with brief mention of reZentit, Empressr, and Preezo).
• Boston Globe: How to Nap (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• Totlol: provides access to the kid-friendly YouTube content while omitting the rest (thanks to Lifehacker for the link)
• College@home: 57 Useful Google Tools You’ve Never Heard Of and 100 Useful Niche Search Engines You’ve Never Heard Of
• Thing 62: PDF Form-Topia: PDFEscape.com at Learning 2.1: Explore…Discover…Play–discusses PDFEscape as a useful tool for filling out locked PDFs (e.g., for a job applicaton)
• Zoomii.com - The “Real” Online Bookstore: Zoomii presents Amazon books on shelves as if viewing books in a real bookstore. The mouse zooms in/out and left/right to peruse different shelves.

Does anyone have any thoughts on any of the above or anything else you’d like to share that you found to be useful/interesting/worth passing on this week?

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Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton (July 01, 2008)

“If I hide from the day, maybe it’ll go away, he thought.”

Splat the Cat has an extreme case of first-day-of-Cat-School nerves. He lays wide awake with his tail wiggling “wildly with worry”. After a sleepless night, he tries to hide from the new day, but his mom rousts him with her “Time to get up.”

Splat tries every trick/excuse/rationale in the book to get his mom to let him stay home, but his mom has an answer for everything. A sample:

“I’m having a bad hair day Mom. Maybe I should go to school tomorrow instead?” said Splat.

His mom combed his hair. “Purr-fect!” she said.

Splat begins to see that opting out is not an option, so he determines to make the best of the whole Cat School thing and to pack reinforcements. Reinforcements, in this case, means that he packs his pet mouse (yes, that’s right, Splat the Cat’s pet mouse) Seymour into his bright yellow lunch box, and off they go.

There are a few more hitches and glitches on their way to school (for example, the gate won’t let go of his fingers and the lamppost gets in his way, don’t you hate it when that happens?). But eventually Splat, his mom, and the smuggled Seymour arrive at school. Mom leaves with a, “You’ll be fine,” but popeyed Splat’s eyes tell us he’s not yet convinced that his classmates won’t eat him alive.

Interestingly, Splat’s the only unclothed cat in the story, perhaps referencing the classic nightmare of standing in front of the class naked with everyone laughing at you. Splat’s fears, however, prove baseless as the class welcomes him warmly. Splat quickly begins absorbing the fundamental competencies of being a cat: Cats are “amazing…cunning, clever, and quick…” and “cats climb trees, drink milk, and chase mice…”

All is going smoothly, too smoothly, until lunchtime. Bedlam erupts when Splat opens his lunchbox and Seymour bursts out. Having recently digested their cat characteristics lesson, the other cats begin to do what cunning, clever, and quick cats do–they give chase.

Splat is momentarily nonplussed, but, fortunately, Mrs. Wimpydimple and Seymour both apply their own wits to get things turned around. By the time Splat’s mom arrives to pick him up at day’s end, he’s flying high again and, the next morning, he finds his tail wiggling wildly again…with excitement.

Splat the Cat joins the ranks of useful books for helping to alleviate the first day of school jitters. The story’s not word heavy, so it makes a fun read aloud that will fit well into back to school storytimes. Through speaking to the first day of school nerves, the story unobtrusively and wittily touches on fundamental fears of childhood and life in general such as fears of the unknown, of not fitting in, and of change. New lessons are learned as age-old modus operandi are altered. The class concludes, “Cats don’t chase mice…”

As for the illustrations, the cumulative effect of the detail work–from the mouse slippers, fish table, and bookshelf full of books such as C is for Cat in Splat’s bedroom to the fish wallpaper in the other rooms in his house to the menu in the window of the Cat Cafe (fish fingers and cream anyone?) to Mrs. Wimpydimple’s chalkboard drawings–is a fancy feast for the eyes.

Colors are capably employed as well, what with Splat’s black fur standing out (and sticking out) amongst the greyness of the other cats. With so much grey on the pages, Splat’s bright yellow lunch box and equally eye catching red school bag also draw the eye to him. But beyond just his black color, it is Splat with his big eyes and expressive, wiggly, constantly-kinked tail who page-after-page draws readers into his emotional highs and lows and adds the most merriment to the tale.

Splat the Cat springs from the mind of Rob Scotton (who is also the creator of another insomniac and equally demonstrative character, Russell the Sheep). To enjoy this tale, you need to be able to buy into the Splat/Seymour strange friendship. For those who do, Splat the Cat may help to create some future ailurophiles, or at the very least, some Splat the Cat lovers as Splat is a most winsome cat. I already found two new fans as I tested this story out on my niece and nephew; re-readings were immediately requested and procured. Splat was a hat…I mean, Split was a hit…that is, Splat was a hit (consider the phonics fun to be had ).

Visit Rob Scotton’s website to find out more about his works (select pages from Splat the Cat are available for viewing). HarperCollins Children’s also has a 13 page PDF available for Splat the Cat that comes complete with activities and downloadables.

Note: Advance review copy provided by Harper Collins Children’s Books.

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Beastly by Alex Flinn (2007 hardcover, 2008 paperback)

“What’s going on here?”

“I told you. Comeuppance. You will know what it is like not to be beautiful, to be as ugly on the outside as on the inside. If you learn your lesson well, you may be able to undo my spell. If not, you will live with your punishment forever.”

All his life Kyle Kingsbury has gotten special treatment because he looks good on the outside–physical beauty, wealth, intelligence (albeit frequently not applied to school). When he decides to invite Kendra Hilferty, the new scholarship student at his privileged school to the upcoming dance (as a joke with the intent of humiliating her and not in sincerity mind you), his special treatment works against him. Post-dance humiliation scene, Kendra turns up at Kyle’s house. Kyle quickly discovers Kendra is actually a witch with the power to treat him the way he has treated others most of his life–as less than human–as beasts. She turns him into a beast (the run away screaming, lots of fur and claws kind).

At first Kyle and his famous newscaster father try to “fix” his outer/inner ugliness by pleading with medical specialists to do something, but they plead to no avail. Unfortunately for Kyle, his beastliness is a part of him–a manifestation of who he has been on the inside for many years. Fortunately for Kyle, Kendra saw him perform one kindness the night of the dance when he gave a rose to the ticket taker (neither he or his date found a mere rose worthy), so she gives him a chance: “You’ve lived your life being cruel. But in the hours before your transformation you performed one small kindness. It is because of this one bit of goodness that I see fit to offer you a second chance, because of the rose.”

Since it wasn’t much of a kindness, it isn’t much of a chance, but Kendra does tell Kyle that he has “two years to find someone willing to look beyond your hideousness and see some good in you, something to love. If you will love her in return and if she will kiss you to prove it, the spell will be lifted, and you will be your handsome self again. If not, you’ll stay a beast forever.”

When Kyle’s dad washes his hands of Kyle and ships him off with a housekeeper and a tutor to a house in a more rural locale, Kyle begins to change (some may argue a little too quickly and unrealistically, but change he does). He changes his name (who knew that one meaning for Kyle is “fair and handsome“?) to Adrian, he changes his lifestyle (he takes up gardening and reading as pastimes), and he changes his attitude (adding a dollop of humility and a smattering of empathy and compassion).

He also joins a chat group from which transcripts of the chat sessions are interspersed throughout the story. Joining BeastNYC in the chat room are SilentGirl, Froggie, and GrizzlyGuy. Having creatures from other tales populate the group and share their own worries and woes creates entertaining discussions. These sessions add comic relief and help reveal Kyle/Adrian’s changing attitudes and feelings.

The longer Kyle/Adrian exists as a beast on the outside, the less beastly he becomes on the inside. Of course, there is the whole kidnapping of Lindy (who incidentally was the impetus for his good deed involving the rose), but that’s a necessary plot point paving the way to the inevitable happy ending. After all, it’s going to take a girl awhile to adjust to that much hair on a guy, and he’s only got two years.

As mentioned, it is an inevitably happy ending and a retelling that lacks much in the way of surprise elements and plot deviations, so it may come off to some as a bit predictable. Still, for those who enjoy retellings in general, retellings from new points of view, modernized retellings, and/or for those who enjoy stories with character transformation (physically and attitudinally), then Beastly will be a quick and enjoyable read (it was for me anyway ).

If you’re looking for more, try some Donna Jo Napoli (e.g., Beast (B & B), Zel (Rapunzel)), Robin McKinley (e.g., Rose Daughter (B & B), Beauty (B & B), Deerskin (Donkeyskin), Spindle’s End (Sleeping Beauty)), or Jane Yolen (Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)). Or take a look at Little Willow’s Fairy Tales Retold Booklist which has some useful suggestions for a variety of age groups.

Update: Booklinks Casting a Spell: Fairy Tales in Novel Form (July 2008) offers another list of related-reads

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Each week I come across a great many interesting links from other bloggers, newspapers, journals, etc. Many of these I share on my Tumblr tumbleblog, but I’ve decided for weeks that are just bursting with post/article/presentations/new release goodies I’ll link to them in a Library & Literary Miscellany Links of the Week post (of which this is the first; I’m just testing it out to see if anyone finds this useful).

So without further ado, here are my top Library & Literary Miscellany items of interest this week:

Library

• Building Academic Library 2.0 by Meredith Farkas who tackles the issues involved in creating 2.0 libraries for her presentation at the Association of Christian Librarians Convention (her post contains embedded presentation that’s also available on Slideshare)
• Fusenews: Library V. Library by Elizabeth Bird who takes a look at two innovative library spaces for the young (doesn’t indoor literacy playground just have a nice ring to it?).
• 50 Tips and Resources to Implement User-Generated Content at Your Library by Jessica Merritt at CollegeDegrees.com
• 10 Universal Truths About Teaching: humorously relayed ideas on the truths of teaching (thanks to Instructify for the link)

Literature

• Children’s Literature Alphabet: growing collection of images of children’s literature characters and ideas for how to use the images; brought to you by the Children’s Literature Book Club
• EarlyEmergingBeginningInterChapterMediateReaders from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast; this post offers oodles of reading suggestions for, well, early-emerging-beginning-inter-chapter-mediate readers
• Play the Elephant and Piggie Dance game which, of course, stems from Mo Willems Elephant & Piggie series (for example, I Love My New Toy! (Elephant and Piggie) and I Will Surprise My Friend! (Elephant and Piggie)). A way to make a delightful series even more delightful and engaging (thanks to Cheryl Rainfield for the link).
• J.K. Rowling’s “not a prequel” 2 pager of Sirius Black and James Potter motorcycle rendezvous with a pair of officers available on Waterstone’s website. Click: “read our authors’ stories” and then click “J.K. Rowling” (thanks to Wizards Wireless for the link).

Miscellany (by misc, this week mainly means technology)

• The Basics of Using Google Analytics from The Edublogger; a “just the facts Jack” approach to navigating and putting to use the googols of information within Google Analytics
• Docstoc Kills Email Attachments with New Desktop Utility by Adam Ostrow at Mashable; DocStoc offers a simple, useful way to share files privately or publicly via URL (does require software download and registration). There are numerous ways to share large files depending on what you want (e.g., file size needs, privacy options, downloads or web based, registration or no, both parties registration required, etc.), so this one will be interesting to watch, particularly now that they’re offering OneClick.
• Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nick Carr at The Atlantic (also check out Carr’s book The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google (who knew so many parallels could be drawn between the historical development of electricity and the Internet?))
• Key Differences Between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in First Monday (thanks to iLibrarian for the link)
• 100 Best Products of 2008 edited by Mark Sullivan over at PC World
• 100 Useful Web Tools for Writers by Laura Milligan at College Degree
• 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner | College@Home
• Tidal TV Beta: similarities to Hulu and Joost in that it offers access to television and video programming, but more like Hulu it requires no application download but rather runs on a streaming, browser-based platform
• 280 Slides: another option for creating presentations (TechCrunch says 280 Slides: Like Apple Keynote, but Online)

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Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park (2008)

“She could never be a Yankees fan. Or a Giants fan, either, except for cheering for Willie Mays. It was impossible–like saying she should be a dog instead of a girl.”

Maggie loves nothing more than hanging out at the firehouse and listening to Dodgers games on the radio. Maggie’s love of baseball runs in the family–her mother and brother are Dodgers fans, her father is a Yankees man (his fandom going so far as to name both his children (Maggie-o and her brother Joey-Mick) after his favorite player, Joe Dimaggio).

Maggie enjoys listening to the games at the firehouse so much because all of the firehouse employees are Dodgers fans too. That’s why she’s somewhat taken aback when the new fireman Jim turns out to be a Giants fan. Nevertheless, Jim and Maggie become fast friends, a friendship galvanized by Jim’s agreement to teach Maggie the ins and outs of keeping score. Maggie even becomes a somewhat clandestine fan of Willie Mays, although she remains true to her team as she tracks play-by-play their progress and regress each game for the duration of each season.

Maggie feels that her efforts factor in to the Dodger’s success, and she tries everything to help her World Series Championship-challenged Dodgers to win the championship. She dutifully listens to their games on the radio, scores the games, reads the newspapers articles about the games, clips said newspaper articles, and adds the Dodgers as a whole to her prayer list.

Her new nightly prayer becomes, “Please God bless Mom and Dad and Joey-Mick and me and all our friends and relations and the most abandoned souls in Purgatory and–and the Dodgers. Amen.” Talk about a prayer that covers a lot of bases (pun somewhat intended).

Maggie’s baseball-centric view of the world begins to expand when Jim is drafted. He leaves to serve as an ambulance driver in the Korean War (or Conflict as it was then labeled). Maggie writes to him and he writes back, for a time. Then Jim’s letters stop coming.

As Maggie struggles to understand Jim’s silence, she becomes increasingly interested in understanding the war. She goes with her mom to do some research at the library, and her mom tells her, “War is about land, territory. One side trying to control more than the other.”

The story continues with Maggie throwing all of her efforts into following the war and following baseball in hopes that the former will help Jim return safely and that the latter will help the Dodgers win the championship. When she discovers that both of her efforts seem to be to no avail, she’s forced to re-evaluate her role–what she can do and what’s beyond her control.

She also comes to a new understanding of the importance of hope–for herself, for Jim, for the Dodgers, and for all of their futures. She thinks, “But hope is what gets everything started. When you make plans, it’s because you hope something good is going to happen. Hope always comes first.”

Keeping Score follows Maggie’s life in New York in the early 1950s, from age nine to thirteen. Maggie’s coming of age encompasses so much–baseball history and lore, the Korean War, loyalty, grief, friendship, and hope–that inadvertent learning is likely to take place (for instance, I know that I learned quite a bit about baseball history, and who knew the scoring could be made so complex?). The story flows smoothly and the historical detail flows around it in a way that Parks has accomplished before (remember A Single Shard?) and we can only hope will accomplish again.

At the end of Keeping Score, Park’s author notes and list of websites for nascent scorekeepers add to an already worthy piece of historical fiction for young readers. For those looking for additional baseball-related literature, the following are links to a few lists of baseball literature that have been put together.

• Cincinnati Library: Baseball–America’s Love Affair (more for adults, but it does have some ideas for interesting nonfiction and biographical books)
• Harris County Public Library: Baseball (a mixture of picture books, easy readers, fiction, and non-fiction)
• Logan Library: Picture Books About Baseball
• UIUC Education & Social Science Library Blog post: Baseball Anyone?
• University of Wisconsin CCBC: 40 Books about Sports ( a mixture of sports )
• Waterford Public Library: Baseball Books (A mixture of picture books, easy readers, chapter books, nonfiction)

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts on Keeping Score or on other favorite baseball literature, (recently updated) baseball booklists, or moments in baseball history.

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Mother Reader hosted a 48 hour book challenge this weekend (2008 marks the third annual). It looks like much fun was had by all, so I wanted to recognize some of the participants by linking to their reading summaries (the reviews of their reading choices make for interesting reading too).

Here are a few of the participants (Note: some of these link to the main blogs if the 48 hour challenge wrap-up had not been completed as of time of posting; I may change the links when all the wrap-ups are in):

• Mother Reader
• Abby the Librarian
• Becky’s Book Reviews
• Biblio File
• Book Nut
• The Reading Zone
• Slayground
• A Year of Reading

If I missed your summary, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll add it. As for my own reading, I fear I only got one paltry qualifying book read this weekend (Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park, which I’ll be reviewing in my subsequent post). I read a bunch of picture books too, including an old one that was new to me and was such an absolute hoot I just have to throw it in here–There are Rocks in My Socks Said the Ox to the Fox by Patricia Thomas, illus. by Mordecai Gerstein.

At any rate, congratulations to all of the challenge particpants. I enjoyed reading the reviews, and I’ll surely be picking up some of those books soon.

Update: Here’s a post from Mother Reader about the Winners and the readers (with many more participants than were previously mentioned above).

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Bullyville by Francine Prose (2007)

* spoilers appear in the review

“What’s more important even than college,’ Dr. Bratton continued, ‘are the lifelong friendships that Baileywell students form, relationships that are not only sustaining in every way, but are incredibly helpful as our graduates find their path through a world that gets scarier and more threatening every day”

“And what’s most important…is the kind of young men we are graduating. Men who feel sympathy for the underdog. The little guy. Who can see things from the little guy’s point of view. Our hope is that the Baileywell experience will produce the sort of compassionate, feeling, deeply, human men who will lead us into a brighter and more caring future.”

Dr. Bratton (Dr. Bratwurst to Bulleywell insiders) has high hopes for his students. Unfortunately, his sentiments seem to pertain to some alternate universe as they don’t reflect the reality of school life for Baileywell’s students. Just ask Bart Rangely.

Bart’s eighth-grade year at Hillbrook Middle School in northern New Jersey begins just like his previous school years–school’s the place to go to hang out with friends and to fly miles under the radar, just like he likes it. However, flying under the radar becomes impossible after Bart stays home from school sick on 9/11/2001.

On that day, Bart’s father (who has not been home for six months anyway since he left them to live with another woman) goes to work on the ninety-fifth floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. His mother, who works in the North Tower also, remains home to take care of Bart.

When they receive news of his father’s death, Bart’s whole world turns upside down. Not only does he have to deal with the instant fame created by his “saving” his mother’s life; he’s also coping with the death of a father who deserted them before his death. He’s also received a full scholarship to Baileywell. His mother believe this scholarship to be the good coming out of the bad, but Bart’s not so sure.

Bart’s matriculation into Baileywell Prep (better known as Bulleywell but also known as Bullyville or Bullyreallywell) signifies his transition from “Miracle Boy” of 9/11 to “bully-ee.” Bart is assigned Tyro Bergen as his Big Brother, Big Brother like Big Brother in 1984 that is. Tyro’s watching Bart and thinking about Bart for the sole purpose of thinking up new methods of psychological torture to inflict upon him.

Despite Bart’s misery at Bulleywell, he endures because his mother seems so happy that he has such an “opportunity.” She clings to his Baileywell education as if it proves that 09/11 didn’t completely shatter her, her son, and their view of the world and humanity itself. However, when Tyro’s nastiness reaches a new level, Bart snaps and retaliates.

Repercussions ensue for the both Bart and Tyro, and they end up in community service. From there, they both find that outward appearances can be deceiving, that change can be very difficult indeed, and that one’s past impacts one’s future. Bart’s year at Bullyville changes him indelibly, and, as Dr. Bratton envisioned from the get-go, the Baileywell experience helps turn him into “the sort of compassionate, feeling, deeply, human men who will lead us into a brighter and more caring future.”

While the ending felt too neat and jarringly retrospective to me (it wraps up with Bart as a father looking back on his Bulleywell days), on the whole Bullyville creates an emotionally complicated and seemingly realistic picture of an underdog’s life. Bullyville covers what it’s like to be bullied and suggests possible responses of the bully-ee, but also it depicts a young boy’s coming to terms with loss, change, friendship, and his place in this world.

For other YA read-alikes about bullies and bullying that have equally disturbing pictures of bullies, try Brock Cole’s The Goats or Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. And for even more ideas on this topic at all age levels view the recently posted booklist compiled by Tessa Michaelson and posted at website for the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Thick-skinned, Thin-skinned, The Skin I’m In: Books about Bullying, Teasing, Relational Aggression and School Violence. Does anyone else have any suggestions on this topic or thoughts on Prose’s novel?

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Here are some links to useful overviews of Adobe’s Acrobat.com (I’ve included a sample from each post, so you can get the gist before clicking):

Mashable: Adobe Launches Acrobat.com; Email Attachments Go On Death Watch

From Mashable’s post: “At the heart of the new launch is Buzzword, the web-based word processor that Adobe acquired last year…Different permissions can be assigned to each collaborator, and edits all tracked and saved with version control. Of course, since this is all done over the Web, these documents can be accessed by anyone from anywhere – a big shift from the days of emailing documents back and forth – much like what Google is attempting to do with Google Docs, and Microsoft with Office Live Workspace.”

PC World: First Look: Adobe’s Acrobat.com Document Collaboration Service

From PC World’s post: “Acrobat.com has four principal components: a word processor called Buzzword; online file sharing via a feature called Share; a file converter that lets you convert up to five documents per month, free, to PDF format (offered within Share); and ConnectNow for personal Web conferencing. Adobe also makes APIs available for developers so they can create service mash-ups more easily.”

ReadWriteWeb: Adobe Launches Online Office Suite and New Flash-Enabled Acrobat 9

From ReadWriteWeb’s post: “Adobe is has just launched their version of an online office suite available at Acrobat.com, complete with word processor (Buzzword), web conferencing/whiteboard app (ConnectNow), online file sharing (Share), file storage, (My Files), and PDF converter. To complement this launch, Adobe has also announced a brand-new version of Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat 9, the biggest release since the initial one that introduced Acrobat to the world. The remarkable change in this new version is that Adobe is now incorporating Flash into the PDF experience.”

TechCrunch: Adobe Launches Acrobat.com

From Tech Crunch’s post: “Acrobat.com is a combination of three recently launched online services: Adobe Brio (online meetings), Adobe Buzzword (online word processor), and Adobe Share (online file sharing). Thus with the public beta launch of Acrobat.com, Adobe is taking on Google Docs, Microsoft Office Live Workspace, WebEx, and GoTo Meeting—all at the same time.”

ZDNet: Adobe’s Acrobat.com could be an Office killer; Will interface matter?

From ZDNet’s post: “Adobe has tied together its online office suite with the beta of Acrobat.com and the user interface is the big differentiator. What remains to be seen is whether online office users care about aesthetics.”

Also, here’s one from C-Net News about the release of Adobe Acrobat 9: Adobe Acrobat Takes Big Online Leap

From C-Net News’ post: “Adobe unveiled an online community Monday with a word processor; file storage and sharing; and deep tie-ins to a newly Flash-enabled Acrobat 9.”

And, finally, from the Acrobat.com Blog: Welcome to Acrobat.com - Work. Together. Anywhere (you get the idea of the post from the title).

Basically, it seems that Acrobat.com offers some interesting features that will compete with extant offerings from other large (e.g., Google, Microsoft) and smaller but still significant (e.g., office-Zoho, ThinkFree; documents-Scribd, DocStoc; web conferencing-WebEx, GoTo Meeting). And as others have pointed out, Acrobat.com does have a nice look and feel to it, so you might want to check it out.

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