I hope no one else finds out about this chair

What a good kid. He found a book to read and then he sat down to read it! This is exactly what we want libraries to inspire children to do! And no one told him to do it either!

We are completely absorbed in the new books!!

These are the books from the Laura Bush Collection Development Grant. They arrived the first week of school, just in time for me to process them and make them available to the kids. I purposely leave them on the tables before the classes come in. The kids are immediately drawn to them. These boys were so absorbed in what they were reading that I had to take a picture of them. I know I am successful when kids are reading and not even bothering to ask if they can use the computer. This is exactly what I wanted to happen!

There are too many books to choose from!!!!

This young man was so excited about the new books that he kept pulling out every book he wanted to read. And he couldn't decide which one to take. He eventually brought a pile of no less than 20 books to me and asked me to hold them for him. He wanted to read every one of them. He made such a mess, but what do I care? He's READING!!! And he's excited about it too!

From the collection: Gorillas and Their Infants

Everyone loves baby animals. This new Pebble Plus series highlights the lives of animal offspring, including how they are born, what they look like, how they compare to mature animals, and how they eat, play, live, learn and grow. Pebble Plus offers the same high-quality nonfiction topics and low reading levels of Pebble Books in an enlarged, graphically enhanced format. This series explores and supports the standard "The Living Environment: Diversity of Life, Heredity, Cells, Interdependence of Life, and Evolution of life," as required by Benchmarks for Science Literacy: Project 2061.

From the collection: The Chimpanzees I Love

Jane Goodall might be a household name for most grownups, thanks to her pioneering work with chimpanzees and more recent efforts at habitat preservation. But many kids don't know the Goodall story and will love this chance to hit the ground in Tanzania and learn about the remarkable scientist and her beloved chimp friends. With dozens of vintage photographs, Goodall recounts her early research in Gombe National Park, including a recap of her childhood and how she came to know Louis Leakey and first enter the bush. With clear and careful prose, Goodall explains her findings about chimp communities and communication, the role of hierarchies, and what sort of threats chimpanzees face today. Best of all, Goodall's account always keeps curious young readers in mind, even relating some of her mistakes, such as when she became too close to her subjects and interfered with her own research.

From the collection: Koko-love! : conversations with a signing gorilla

More in the saga of Koko, the communicating gorilla who has pet kittens and continues to learn new language skills, is related by her surrogate mother, Dr. Patterson, and illustrated with good color photographs of various sizes showing Koko's activities and accomplishments in a lively format. She paints pictures, uses a computer, plays with a male gorilla friend who also signs, brushes her teeth, and wants a baby of her own. The simple, clear text traces the gorilla's life to date, cites actual conversations she has had with her human friends, and includes two pages of photos of Koko signing various words, from apple to visit.

From the collection: Koko's Kitten

This is the true story of Koko the gorilla and her kitten, All Ball — how they met, how Koko loved and cared for All Ball, and how Koko grieved when All Ball died. The story is told by Dr. Patterson, the first person to communicate with a gorilla using American Sign Language. Over thirteen years, Koko learned about five hundred words from Dr. Patterson, which she used to communicate her feelings and desires. One of the desires she was able to express through ASL was for a kitten. At first, Dr. Patterson was not sure how Koko would treat a little kitten, but there was nothing to worry about. Koko treated the kitten as though it was her own baby. The affection and caring in the relationships between Dr. Patterson and Koko and between Koko and her kitten are captured in Ronald Cohn's beautiful photographs.

From the collection: Elephants can paint, too!

When Thailand recently began to conserve trees that previously would have been harvested, domesticated elephants lost their jobs hauling lumber. Subsequently, many died of neglect because they could no longer earn their keep. This book highlights an unusual project implemented by the author. In simple text, she explains that she teaches art in two schools, one urban and one in the jungle, and that some of her students have hands. Others have trunks. Then tells how she trains elephants to paint and compares the work of her human and elephant pupils.

From the collection: Owen & Mzee

In December 2004, a frightened young hippo, separated from his family by a devastating tsunami, bonded with an Aldabra tortoise named Mzee. The 130 year-old tortoise accepted Owen as his own, and an inseparable bond was forged. Text and color photos tell the true story of the friendship that developed at a Kenyan wildlife sanctuary.

The Day the Books Went on the Shelves

The fiction section.

The nonfiction section.

The Books Come in "Dewey Packs"

Dewey Packs means that the books are already in Dewey Decimal order. They just need to be taken out of the box and put on the shelves.

The books arrived

152 boxes of books arrived on Thursday. They will be unpacked by a team of volunteers on December 3rd.