PLEASE RETURN ANY BOOKS YOU HAVE CHECKED OUT BEFORE WINTER BREAK!
December
* Next Club Odin meeting is Thursday, December 5th at lunch in the library, ALL are welcome.
* December 6th during SIG Literary Inquiry: Short Story
* December 11 = Paper star ornaments
January
* Author Visit - Tracy Badua will be visiting MVA on January 16th during Period 4. More details to follow.
FAMILIES - Her books would make great gifts for students (HINT, HINT)!
To purchase one of her books & support our author visit please use this link:
Vikings are Synergetic
Students worked cooperatively to build the 1000 piece puzzle. A group of students calculated that we averaged 30 pieces a day.
Staff members, students, even parents contributed
It truly was a community effort. Here, Mr. Marentes joined in the fun.
Literary Inquiry: Short Story - December 6th during SIG
If you would like to discuss Richard Matheson’s short story
“Button, Button” join us this Friday, 12/6, during SIG in the library.
Please read it beforehand.
Make a Star Ornament - December 11 at lunch and after school
Need a free, thoughtful gift idea? Upcycle some of our old books into handmade star ornaments.
No limit on how many you can make.
If you would like to make an ornament, come to the library on Wednesday, December 11th at lunch or after school. No need to sign up; just show up.
1/16 Author Visit- Tracy Badua, Hosted by Club Odin & AAPI Club
Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. By day, she is an attorney who works in national housing policy, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret candy stash. She lives in San Diego, California.
AND....SHE IS COMING TO MAR VISTA ACADEMY!
Club Odin & AAPI Club are co-hosting Ms. Badua's author visit on January 16th. We will provide more details about how to attend this event. Ms. Badua will give a presentation on her writing & revision processes followed by a Q&A.
Below are brief summaries of three of her books. We hope MVA students read, at least, one of her books prior to attending. We have some of her books available for check out. Students can also borrow one of her books via the LIBBY APP. And, we are hoping that you can help support this author visit by purchasing a book via the website below from a local bookstore Mysterious Galaxy, who is partnering with us.
Purchase copies of Tracy Badua's books in anticipation of her appearance at your school!
Special School discount! Use code BADUA20 for 20% off all middle-grade books by Tracy Badua!
BUY BOOKS HERE:
Freddie VS the Family Curse
A young Filipino American boy must team up with the ghost of his WWII-era ancestor to break the curse that’s haunted their family for generations . . . or be trapped in an amulet forever.
This is Not A Personal Statement
After getting rejected from her dream college, a teen forges her own acceptance and commits to living a lie: breaking into dorm rooms, dodging security, crashing classes, and figuring out how to actually get in next semester before she’s caught.
Library Trick-Or-Treating
Students who trick or treated at the Library got Halloween poems along with their candy.
Book Monster Design Winner
Congratulations to Brandon, designer of the Book Monster Design contest. Remember to return your books and "feed" the book monster.
Virtual Author Talk November 20th
Vikings Never Give Up
Club Odin November Activity- Painting
During the week of November 18th 23 students participated in painting library shelf markers during lunch.
Living Nations, Living Words
https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=be31c5cfc7614d6680e6fa47be888dc3
Joy Harjo a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation is the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Harjo says the appointment is an opportunity to continue a role she has often assumed throughout her career: as an "ambassador" of poetry. The Library of Congress calls the position "the nation's official poet" and assigns a "modest minimum" of official duties in order to enable individual projects designed "to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry." conceived the idea of mapping the U.S. with Native Nations poets and poems. I want this map to counter damaging false assumptions—that indigenous peoples of our country are often invisible or are not seen as human. You will not find us fairly represented, if at all, in the cultural storytelling of America, and nearly nonexistent in the American book of poetry.
Veterans' Day - Letters of Gratitude & Book Display
MVA students had the opportunity to write a message of gratitude to veterans during the week of Veterans' Day. We had samples and suggestions to help you. If you did not get a chance to stop by and show your support for those that have served, it is not too late. We can send letters anytime.
Branches of the Military
The U.S. military is an all-volunteer force that serves to protect the United States, its citizens, and our way of life. There are six military branches: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force.
WHO IS A VETERAN? WHAT IS VETERANS' DAY?
A veteran is someone who has served in the military. Veterans' Day is a time for us to pay our respects to all those who have served in the U.S. military. We celebrate and honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
We've Got Sequels!
Our library has lots of series or books with sequels. This month we are highlighting the sequels Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline and Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman. Students currently reading The Marrow Thieves or Scythe will be familiar with the characters and story lines.
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline
This is the sequel to The Marrow Thieves. Both are indigenous dystopian literature. This book continues the story of Frenchie. We get to know Tree and Zheegwon’s “coming to” story. We find out what happened to Frenchie’s brother, Mitch. This is a rare case where I thought the sequel was a better book than the first.
Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up—or are re-opened—across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams.
Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is—and what it will take to escape.
Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman
Rowan and Citra take opposite stances on the morality of the Scythedom, putting them at odds, in the chilling sequel to Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
Humans learn from their mistakes. I cannot. I make no mistakes.
The Thunderhead is the perfect ruler of a perfect world, but it has no control over the scythedom. A year has passed since Rowan had gone off grid. Since then, he has become an urban legend, a vigilante snuffing out corrupt scythes in a trial by fire. His story is told in whispers across the continent. As Scythe Anastasia, Citra gleans with compassion and openly challenges the ideals of the “new order.” But when her life is threatened and her methods questioned, it becomes clear that not everyone is open to the change. Old foes and new enemies converge, and as corruption within the Scythedom spreads, Rowan and Citra begin to lose hope.
Will the Thunderhead intervene?
Or will it simply watch as this perfect world begins to unravel?