Congratulations Leverett!

Congratulation to the Leverett Elementary School Battle of the Books team for a fine contest on Tuesday. They edged out the SES team of Eric, Luke, Dylan, and Arabella 32-30 in a game played via Skype. So close and well played. We are so proud of our team--they did an outstanding job representing the readers of Shutesbury. As 4th graders, they still have two years of eligibility and will be a force to reckon with next year.

Books in Action pics

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Books in Action

Where else could you play in the World Series of Workup, crawl through Araminta's creepy haunted house, write pizza poetry, eat fabulous diner food, test your presidential trivia with President Obama, do hands-on science in Simon Bloom's lab and toss toilet paper rolls in Patience, KS???? Where else but Books in Action! We had a blast! 125 readers and more than 40 volunteers brought their energy to Shutesbury Elementary for the 9th Books in Action, our unique celebration of reading and the Massachusetts Children's Book Award.

I'd like to thank the volunteers from Shutesbury who did a wonderful job: Kelley Allan, Lucy Gertz, Michelle Rogalski, Jen Davies, Margaret Simmons, Alicia Walter, Marilyn Sylla, Mark Protti, Rachael McLean, Polly Ingraham, Lynmarie Thompson, Laura Thompson-Martin, Craig Martin, Jen Dolan, Susan Reyes, Andrea Rogers, Sharon Davenport, Elena Hayes and Karen Traub.

Special thanks to SES staff members Andrea Elson, Emily Sears and Stephen Sullivan who showed that in addition to being good teachers, they are also exceptional game show hosts! Thanks to the other half of the information literacy team, Debbie Lee, who picked up the slack while I focused on game day.

Thanks to Chef Lonny Ricketts who was amazing at keeping the delicious food flowing in the diner. And to Mr. Bob Mahler for his help in keeping the evening flowing smoothly and his enthusiastic support of MCBA and the library program.

Thank you to the SES staff who allowed us to use their classrooms, endured distractions and provided unending support through the whole MCBA program.

The roar that erupts from the students when the winning book is announced at the end of the evening makes it all worthwhile (this year a tie-Found and Simon Bloom Gravity Keeper- wahoo!)

Congratulations to all our Union 28 MCBA readers!

BOTB Champs!

Oh, what a contest it was at today's Battle of the Books final! I was awake last night trying to figure out what to do if it ended in a 4-way tie; the teams were that strong! And boy it was close. The teacher team of Mr. Mahler, Ms. Lobenstine, Ms. Birtwell and Ms. Sears really held their own against the students...for a while. Then it was clear it was going to be a show down between the 4th grade champs of Eric, Austin, Luke and Dylan and the 4/5 winner Isola, Sage, Aidan and Henry. Regulation play ended in a tie between these two powerhouses. The sudden death playoff looked like neither team would miss a question. The spectators were just about holding their breathe--it was quite intense.

In the end, the 4th grade pulled it off. What a team! They advance to the first round of the U28 championship and will meet Leverett Elementary via Skype on Tuesday. This is Leverett's first time participating in BOTB and we are excited about playing them.

The winners earned an engraved medal and possession of the cherished "Golden Book" for the year.

Thanks to all of this year's BOTB contestants. It was a lot of fun and your thorough knowledge of the books shown through.

MCBA wrap up

Today we held an assembly to conclude our MCBA program for the year (we still have Books in Action coming up on Friday, but needed to fit in a time for the final presentations.)

This year saw wonderful participation among our 4-6 graders with 51 of 59 students reading at least five books. The student average was 14.5 books! The students and their teachers read a grand total of 931 books during the program.

The participation points contest was won by Ms. Klein's grade 6 with a total of 437 points. Each point represents one way to participate - a book, a book project, winning t-day trivia, participating in Battle of the Books or the Green Glass Sea Symposium. Mr. Goldman's class took silver with 408 points and Ms. Lobenstine's class collected bronze with 348 points. Outstanding!

Ms. Klein's class will win a party of their choosing hosted in the library. (Last year the winning 4th grade chose a disco party...in the past we have also done pizza, breakfast buffet, and snack time parties.)

This year we had 15 students and three staff members read all 25 books.

The Perri Sylvester Award for outstanding effort and enthusiasm in book projects and the MCBA program goes to Sage DeChiara. Honorable mention was made to Luke Sedor-Protti, Isola Murray, Dylan Walter, Chris Franklin, Abby McLean and Riley Walter.

Congratulations to all our 4th, 5th and 6th graders. They have read up a storm, tried new genres, discussed what they have read, created beautiful projects and really grown as readers. I'm very proud of them!

The 2010 25 Club is now complete

Congratulations to Nevin Bonak and Ms. Bonnie Adams for reading all 25 MCBA nominees this year. That concludes this year's list-with 18 members. The 25 club members will have their names installed in a plaque in the library. It is truly an achievement to read 25 books across all genres.

Nice job!