High School Student Anthony Writes About His favorite Books

Right now, I am reading "The Steel Wave, A Novel of World War II," by Jeff Shaara.  It's a good book.  I have read Shaara's "To The Last Man," and "The Rising Tide," as well.  I like these books because he makes history interesting.  Besides historical fiction I also like action books by Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn.  These are long and complex books where several seemingly unrelated incidents come together and make a complete story.  Vince Flynn's main character is Mitch Rapp, a CIA operative.  Tom Clancy's protagonist is Jack Ryan, a military man who becomes president.  These books hold my interest because they have complex plots and lots of action

4th Grader Patrick Reviews "Deadly Waters"

Deadly Waters

By: Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson  

My favorite book is Deadly Waters, because it is a mystery, it always keeps you guessing, it teaches me about manatees in a way that I can understand, and there is one surprise after another. My favorite part was when they figured out what was making the manatees sick.  My least favorite part was when Gordon stole Jack’s very expensive camera.

Chatham's Budding Photographers

The Library of The Chathams held a photography contest for 3rd to 6th graders.  These were the prize-winning entries.

Best in Show
Jayathi, 5th Grade

Second Place
Marina, 4th Grade

Third Place
Bonnie, 4th Grade

"To the Library" by First Grader Leighton

I like going to the library because there are a lot of books there and I like to read. I like to read because it's fun to feel like you're inside a story. My favorite books are chapter books about made-up things, like The Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. My Daddy reads it to me before I go to bed. I also like the series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I read myself, because they are funny books and sometimes they are scary. Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. He has to go on quests, like looking for Zeus's most powerful lightening bolt because the other gods think he stole it. I think other kids would like these books because they are exciting to read.                                                                      

                                                                     

                                             

4th Grader Elyzia Reviews "Time Stops for No Mouse"

Time Stops For no Mouse, by Michael Hoeye, is an adventure story. There is a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The story is about Hermux Tantamoq, who is a watchmaker. Hermux is also a mouse, and so adventures are pretty big for him. One lonely day, a beautiful, young, adventurous mouse named Mrs. Perflinger, comes in with a badly broken watch. She says she needs it to keep perfect time because every second counts. The story gets exciting when Mrs. Perflinger, the love of his life leaves, never comes back, and he finds out that Mrs. Perflinger was kidnapped! Hermux, the witty mouse goes on the adventure of his life! Once you read Time Stops For no Mouse, you’ll want to read the whole series!

Two Views on "Battle of the Books"

Amanda, 5th Grade

The battle of the books is a program, that I would like to continue next year. It helped me to read different styles of books that normally I wouldn’t pick off the shelf. I didn’t know how good an author Michael Morpurgo was until I read Kensuke’s Kingdom for my team. Battle of the Books also helped me realize how important team work is for a competition. In the home room battle some of the teams performed poorly because certain members didn’t read their books. My team made it to the final round! Then we realized one of our team mates was sick that day. Everyone kept pressuring me to find the answers since I was the captain of our team. We did not move up to the national battle because we were relying on that person to read his books and be there. It wasn’t his fault that he was sick but it was hard to succeed without him. So, to sum it all up, Battle of the books helped me learn to try new things, be a leader and that teamwork is very, very, very important.


Elizabeth, 7th Grade

Not too long ago, my school held its annual "Battle of the Books" competition. Battle of the Books is a contest in which students make up teams of about four to six people, and then they read all of the books on a list. Then, once a week during lunch, the students who are on the teams meet with each other and have a competition to see who can answer the most questions about the books. A question would be like this: "In which book does the main character make up an imaginary camp called "Camp fun and Games"? Answer: Holes by Louis Sachar. All of these practice competitions at my school build up to the final, interschool contest. I was in the number one Battle of the Books team for my grade, so we got to participate in the ultimate contest. We competed against many other teams from different schools. My team was in the top two, and at the end of the competition, we brought home a second place trophy. Battle of the Books is a competition that all students do in Lafayette, but it is a voluntary club in the middle school. Battle of the books is very fun because you are with your friends,and it also introduces you to new books. Some of this year's seventh grade books for the Battle of the Books were:

- They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings M. Burch
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
- Hoot by Carl Hiaason
- Travel Team by Mike Lupica

If you're a kid, think about joining this club!

"In Praise of Chatham" by Elementary School Student Catherine

Chatham

Pretty, friends, grass

Run around, jumproping

Happy, inviting, free, safe, great

Small town

Photograph by Co-ordinating Library Assistant Jaime Sabonya

High School Student & Summer Staff Member Corinne Reviews the Movie Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

Though the books have ended, Potter fans can still get together in celebration for the movies. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince just came out in theaters, and will be out in IMAX 3-D later this month. But how does the movie compare to the book?

Many people are against making any changes when adapting a book into a movie, but something has to be cut when you try to make a 600-page book into a 2-and-a-half hour movie. I think the book was shortened pretty well- and, most importantly, the movie still makes sense to people who haven't read the book. Two of my friends did not read the book before seeing the movie, and they followed the plot of the movie without much trouble. The movie focuses mostly on the romances found in the book, and I was surprised with how much they kept in. The main plot seems to take a backseat- in the book, we see a lot about Voldemort's past by looking at other people's memories, and Harry and Dumbledore try to learn as much as they can about their enemy. In the movie, we only see two of these memories. Still, the movie didn't drag anything out- everything that was left in the movie was at the very least entertaining.

The movie itself has very good special effects. Harry's first trip into the memories looks very cool, with mist and shadowy shapes surrounding the main memory. There's a scene in the beginning of the movie where a broken room is fixed around Harry, with books and broken glass flying around him. The scene in the cave towards the end is as scary as it sounds in the book. During one particularly emotional scene, the sound is muted and everything is slowed down, as if Harry is not sure if the events are real or a dream.

The movie is both funny and exciting, funnier than I thought it would be. There were some differences between the book and the movie- many scenes were left out, a few new scenes were added in, some plots are simplified- but I think the changes make the movie shorter and easier to follow. Personally, I think this was one of the better Harry Potter adaptations, but either way, we greatly look foreward to the next movie.

Mural Painting of Harry Potter by Michael Rex

Book Buddies- A Library Program

Book Buddies was a program we had in the Spring. Kindergartners and first graders honed their reading skills by reading to older boys and girls.

Older Buddy Tommy, 4^th Grade

Book Buddies is a program where little buddies (usually 5 or 6 year olds) come in and read to older kids (usually 4^th or 5^th graders). The way it helps the little buddies is that the older buddies listen and help the little buddies if they cannot read a word. But it isn’t just the little kids reading. The older buddies read to the younger buddies as well. This is basically a Book Buddies session, the little buddy comes in, then he/she reads a book, then I read a book to him/her.

I think it is fun because you get to meet a new buddy each week.

* * *

Older Buddy Olivia, 6^th Grade

I liked being an older buddy because it was fun watching your younger buddy improve on his/her reading. It’s fun because you get to pick out books that you think your younger buddy will like. I guess I picked out all the right books because my younger buddy was awesome and loved the books I read. Your younger buddy looks up to you and listens to you when you read. I would definitely be an older buddy again!! :-)

* * *

Younger Buddy Samantha, KG

What did you like about the Book Buddies Program?

Reading with Olivia because she was nice

What was your favorite book and why did you like it?

Sea Chest. It was about a grandma when she was a little girl. She found a sea chest and inside was a baby who she named Seaborne.

Thanks for a great program.

* * *

Younger Buddy, Maya, KG

I really liked Book Buddies. My favorite part was reading the books and seeing all the different books every week.

Fourth Grader Madison Reviews Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are"

My favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, because it is so imaginative, and the illustrations are really descriptive.  I also like it because it tells what is happening on the whole page and not just part of the page. My favorite part of the story was when Max’s room transformed into the forest. My least favorite part was when Max got tired of living with the Wild Things and being king of them and wanted to go home. Over all it was a really good book!

Photograph by Alice Roche, Children's Department Staff Member.

Fourth Grader Jessica Reviews "The Talented Clementine"

The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker is a story about a girl named Clementine who runs into a problem. Her class is having a talent show and she has no talent! Clementine goes to her friend Margaret and asks her for an easy talent. Margaret goes through all of her talents and when she comes to tap dancing she lets Clementine try it out. Clementine makes her own tap dancing shoes out of beer bottle caps and gets in trouble for all of her creativity! Clementine also tries to bring her brother on a leash because she can really make him smile but that doesn’t work. What will Clementine do?! Once that problem’s solved you’ll want to read all books in the Clementine series!

Photograph by Alice Roche, Children's Department Staff Member.

In Praise of Itunes By Lauren, 12th Grade

Everyone loves music. There are so many genres that interest all different people. Itunes helps finding new music really easy. On iTunes, there are over 30 different genres and many ways to search for your favorite songs. ITunes is great since it has many features that are customized to you based on the music in your itunes library. This feature is great since because of it I have discovered new artists and songs that I love but never would have noticed before. But iTunes is not only for music; you can rent movies, watch TV shows, and download apps for your iPod touch or iPhone. The movie rentals are great since it cost the same as a movie rental from other places but you can watch it on your iPod. Plus you also have 30 days to start watching your rental and 24 hours from once you start the movie to watch it. I have used this cool feature three times and it is great since I was able to see the movies I wanted without having to go to the store and rent them. With the click of my mouse I was able to download them and put them on my iPod. Another one of my favorite features is the app store. It is great because the free apps are most of the time the best. You can download apps that pertain to anything you can imagine. I suggest you download Lemonade Tycoon and Iheartradio. Lemonade Tycoon is an addicting game where you try to build a Lemonade business starting off with one neighborhood lemonade stand. Iheartradio is app that features over 500 radio stations from across the country. It has all the popular ones like Z100 with stations from all different genres. ITunes has changed so much in the last 5 years. I am glad to be able to experiences all the changes it making to make mmusic, movie, TV, and app life more pleasant.

Phaeton and the Chariot of the Sun God

By Jayati, 5th Grade

Phaeton, the son of Helios was teased
For no one believed
That he was the sun god's son.
So Phaeton went to his father’s palace
To get his promise that he was his father.

Helios said he was Phaeton’s father
And to prove it, he promised him anything.
Phaeton wanted to drive his father’s chariot across the sky
He pleaded with his father
Until he obtained permission to drive the chariot.

Helios was unhappy.
His promise he tried to avoid
Phaeton was filled with delight,
He wore his father’s crown of sunbeams,
And the salve to protect him from heat.

He listened not to his father’s instructions.
He was impatient to be away,
He believed that he could drive the chariot across the sky
But his unskillful hands lead the horses astray
The chariot veered away from its path.

The chariot approached the constellations
Who were warmed by the sunbeams
They woke up infuriated and
Lumbered about the heavens
The snake, the bear and the scorpion.

Phaeton dropped the reins
The fiery horses bounded everywhere
They crashed into the stars
And spread the fire on Earth
And the moon, skies, and all else.

Everyone tried to escape the fire
Mother Earth, set aflame, cried out to Jupiter,
“Hurl your lightning bolts and end this scorching death”
And then spoke no longer for she was being choked
By smoke and flames caused by Phaeton.

Hypnotized Jupiter was roused when he saw Mother Earth dying
He rolled thunder and lifted a colossal bolt of lightning
And flung it through the sky where it struck the chariot
Fire put out fire and flame put out flame
The horses leapt free.

Phaeton plummeted out of the sky
His hair was an inferno
Like a shooting star he looked
And fell into a river deceased
Away from his mother and home.

Helios did not drive his chariot
As he was mourning his son
Jupiter went to see him
He said mother earth needed Helios’s heat
And Helios sorrowfully drove across the sky.

Photo courtesy of Free-Clipart-Pictures.net.

The Art of Paper Marbleizing by Luke, 5th Grade

Last summer my sister and I went to the Marbleizing Summer Class at the library; we enjoyed it so much that we bought our own supplies, and we made some Marbleizing stationary and decided to set up a stand to sell our stationary in Schroon Lake, NY. Many people came and bought the art paper, so we sold more the next day and called it “Marvelous Marbleizing”. If you like art or just want to make some cool paper you should come to the Marbleizing class this summer at the library.

Photograph by Fifth Grader Luke.

A Tribute to Our Volunteers by High School Student & Summer Staff Member Corinne

Volunteers are essential to the summer reading program- the program would be impossible to run if we didn’t have the help of the volunteers. I feel the volunteers deserve a special thank you- some of them will attend the picnic or the volunteer pizza party, but many will not get anything for their hard work besides a sense of satisfaction and, hopefully, some fun.

The volunteers do not just listen to the book reports. Some also keep the library tidy and help shelve books. Many volunteers suggest reading materials to patrons at the library and draw members to the reading club. Most volunteers participated in the program themselves when they were younger, so they know how essential the volunteers are.

So, thank you in advance to any and all volunteers this summer- the program couldn’t work without you.

Photograph by Alice Roche, Saturday Staff Member