Tile Competition Results!

Well, the Competition of Awesomeness volume II is over, and we've got the tiles in! They are gorgeous, too! We just wanted to give you a glimpse of what they look like, so here are the 13 entries we got:

And announcing the winners:

1st Place: Ozma of Oz (2nd row down, right column)
2nd Place: Christmas Elephants (bottom row, middle column)
3rd Place: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events  (top row, left column)

Books in Focus: AYA

By Jade Stagg

AYA is set in the affluent Ivory Coast of 1978.  Upon this backdrop, readers experience firsthand the everyday pleasures and pains of a studious, supplemented by the adventures of her friends and family.  The text is inspired by Abouet’s childhood in Abidjan, and Oubrerie’s vibrant drawings bring the story to life.  Additional glossaries offer definitions, dance move instructions, drink and food recipes, and instructions on how to tie a fashionable pagne cloth into a skirt or head wrap. AYA was the 2006 award winner for Best First Album at the Angouleme International Comics Festival.

AYA is just one of the fantastic selections the Goldstein Library has in its growing collection of graphic novels.  Come and take a look at our collection and find something new!

Awesome Patron Art Work

by Rob Stephens

If you don't know, in the back of Goldstein we have some Whiteboard tables in the back of the library for our patrons, YOU, to write/draw on, and lately you've been really knocking our lights out with some AMAZING illustrations that I want to share.

"Holmes" with some crazy awesome characters

The Hunger Games!

Write with the Light / hola me llamo Leo

TROGB ORR!!!!

Carson and A forever!!!

Someone actually doing homework? (I don't know what it means)

 Oh! And the puzzle: it's Mickey and Minnie, but they need your help to figure out where 
they are...

Goldstein Must Reads

Reason #3 to Visit The Goldstein Library This Fall:

by Rob Stephens

Oh yeah - we've got some great collections in The Goldstein, and we want you to check them out! Here are some highlights and new additions that are particularly awesome:

#1: Graphic Novels

Did you know that Goldstein has an entire collection of graphic novels? These awesomely illustrated books and novels are a great way to spend your free time! Here is a favorite graphic novel that's being checked out a ton by all ages and sizes: Level Up by Gene Luen Yang, a Printz Award winner. This book follows Dennis Ouyang as he struggles "with bad grades, a video game addiction, and his father's death." The book is stellar, and as of now... available for checkout too!

On the other side of the graphic novel spectrum, we have a series of books by Saddleback Educational Publishing that retell American History in graphic novel form. One example is The Fight For Freedom, 1750-1783 which traces the turmoil and triumph of the American Revolution. Very educational, and a great way to take a fresh look at US History!

 

#2: Expanded Information Technology Collection

Over the past year, The Goldstein has especially focused on expanding and updating its Professional Collection, in particular with regard to the information technology section. Needless to say, it is important to stay on top of all the latest technological developments if you are in a computer, information, or communication field, and The Goldstein Library is the place for you!

 Pictured right is one of our most recent examples, Programming Android, a resource that teaches "Java programming for the new generation of mobile devices.." If you're considering creating a new app for Android phones, this is a great resource. 


Another example of a recent acquisition is David Powers' Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 : designing and developing for mobile with jQuery, HTML5, and CSS3: Studio Techniques, pictured left. Acquired just in 2011, this book provides information on creating websites and applications that work on mobile platforms using Dreamweaver CS5.5.


And there are tons more where those came from!




#3: Novels for ALL Ages
We've got an EXCELLENT collection here at The Goldstein Library of novels that I'm sure you'd be interested in, including (but not limited to): 

- The entire Harry Potter Series
- The entire Twilight Series
- The entire Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series
- The entire Hunger Games series
- Novels from the Redwall series, including a graphic novel version of Redwall
- Why We Broke Up
- Novels from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit
- Novels from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series
- AND SO MUCH MORE!

If you're looking for something to read while taking a break from studying, come by, and we'd be more than happy to help you find a fun novel!

#4: Award Winners

The Goldstein Library has a few extra special shelves that you should check out: the award winners. Right in the front of Goldstein, there are shelves specifically for Newbery Medal Winners, Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books, and Other Award Winners. If you're looking for a book that you know is going to be an absolute hit, then grab one of these! One example of such a book is Chris Raschka's A Ball for Daisy (pictured right), which won the Caldecott Medal in 2010.  

Are robots cool? Yeah, robots are cool.

Are you curious, or do you want to become an expert at trivia? Look Now: The World in Facts, Stats, and Graphics is a book filled with awesome information. You probably won't ever use this information for work, or school or whatever, but that's what makes it fun to look through!

Chinese is the most spoken language, followed by Spanish, then English, Arabic, and Hindi. (Pages 72 & 73)

A chart on pages 96 & 97 shows where a country lies on a grid where how rich it is runs across the bottom and how happy it is runs up the side. They even color code the big dots to show what continent the countries are from. European countries have the biggest range of happiness and income. North America has some poor and very happy countries, too!

Interested in how citizens are being watched? Pages 134-135 will tell you that! Apparently London has 7,431 cameras watching, while Sydney, AU; Paris, FR; and San Fransisco, USA have a combined total of 493 cameras monitoring the public.

"Japan expects to have 1 million robots by 2025."

How are those for fun facts?

Boating Squirrels

I want to tell you about The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. 

This was a book written by Beatrix Potter and some would consider the book a classic.  A lot of people think that classic books are boring, but the illustrations are so cute and there isn't much text at all!

Check this out, this is what a whole page of text looks like:

"They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts.  Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail for as sail."

What happens when you Google "Google"?

I found out something interesting today.  If you go to Google (the online search engine- that will be important later), anyway, if you go to Google and type into the search bar "do a barrel roll" the Google search results will actually rotate!  It was pretty funny to see.  Go check it out now, if you want.  But open another tab!  We don't want to lose you yet (you're a pretty cool person).

So why am I bringing up this search engine trick?  It could just be because I have a short attention span, but that's not completely true this time.  This time I want to write about The Google Book. WAIT.  Don't leave- the book is not about the search engine.  The Google Book was written by V.C. Vickers and it was published in 1979, which was waaay before Google (the search engine) was created.

 Why should you be interested?  The book is full of verses, but they're not boring like all the poetry that people try to trick you into reading.  Try this and see if you're interested:

"THE FLABBYTOES

But mark!! What is that sound I hear?

Someone in agony I fear! –

Oh no!! It is old Flabbytoes,

You can't mistake his funny nose."

Okay, you didn't really care for that?  Well, there's some pretty rad pictures, too.

A book to Tweet about

The Cuckoo’s Haiku and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen, illustrated by Stan Fellows

The Goldstein Library has a lot of illustrated books - I mean it does have the juvenile collection - but the illustrations in one of these books are pretty amazing.  The Cuckoo’s Haiku is filled with watercolor paintings of birds and bird-themed scenes.  Even if you’re really not into birds, the paintings are pretty spectacular, and the poems are short.  Come check it out and see if there’s something you like about it.  If you end up hating it, let us know that too.  We’ll comp you a free cup of coffee on any Friday you show up!

Gators are Aweful

Alligators are Awful (And They Have Terrible Manners, Too) by David McPhail

So, some of the Graduate Assistants in the Goldstein Library are from northern parts of the country, and we don’t know a thing about Alligators.  We were so relieved when we found this book because it told us everything we needed to know to cope with Gators in Florida.  Check out this gem: “They sit in front of you at the movies and never take off their hats.” I mean, yeah I’m jealous that gators look good in top hats, but come on.  I want to watch the movie, not some shadow.