Tag: apps

Posted in Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

The Death-Cast Universe gets a prequel with The First to Die at the End

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The First to Die at the End, by Adam Silvera, (Oct. 2022, Quill Tree Books), $19.99, ISBN: 9780063240803

Ages 13+

The prequel to 2017’s They Both Die at the End follows two teens who fall in love against the backdrop of New York City during the Death-Cast launch. Orion is a teen convinced he’s living on borrowed time thanks to his serious heart condition. He signed up for Death-Cast – an app that alerts subscribers on the day they are going to die – so that he would know when it was coming. Valentino just arrived in New York; a young model ready to take the City by storm, he signed up for Death-Cast on a lark after almost losing his sister to a car accident. The two meet and the attraction is instant: but one of them receives a call and the other doesn’t. Is Death-Cast real, or is it a hoax? The two don’t have time to mull it over; they have a day to create a lifetime. While it isn’t necessary to read They Both Die at the End before reading The First to Die at the End, you’ll want to. It’s a gorgeous story, and you’ll get a little more context from characters who make an appearance in this prequel. Using the space of one day, Silvera creates a story that is filled with expectation, joy, tension, and longing. His fully realized characters have no time to waste; they spend the most memorable day together, moving through relationship milestones and daring to to love in the face of the unthinkable. Thought-provoking discussions between the characters will translate well to discussion groups, and supporting characters and the connections made over the course of the day expand the Death-Cast universe and make this an unputdownable story that teens will devour. An essential first purchase.

Visit Adam Silvera’s author website for more about his books.

Posted in Librarianing

Padlet is ACES for RA!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Sorry about the mid-day posts these last few days. I’ve been in branch, and too wiped to write posts the night before. I’m working from home for the rest of the week, so I’ll be back to my scheduled flurry of posts during the day.

What’s up in the land of Professional Development? Well, I’ve discovered some more fun tools, thanks to the Library Voice blog. It’s primarily for school librarians, but I love exploring school librarian tools and lessons, because they have some great ideas. Sure enough, the Library Voice’s 25 Days of Digital Tools introduced me to some wonderful new toys to play with – and short videos on how librarians use them! The one I want to holler about today is Padlet. As a colleague put it, “It’s almost like Pinterest, without the ads”. It’s a virtual online bulletin board that you and your colleagues can share and work on together, like a Google Doc. This is fantastic for those of us in Readers Advisory, because how many times have you answered the phone or had a patron come in and ask for books, and have your mind go completely blank? I read over 200 books a year, but if a parent calls me and asks for picture books about dinosaurs, my brain resets to “567.9” or “How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?” What about the days when there’s no children’s librarian available and someone calls for RA? Having a padlet of booklists gives us the chance to collaborate on booklists with our colleagues and have RA at our fingertips when answering reference and RA questions in an area we may not be as knowledgeable about.

 

It’s free to start a Padlet, and you get three boards with your free account. Here, I’ve started my three: YA, Books for Grownups, and Children and Middle Grade Booklists. Once you establish your Padlets, you can add to each of them – and that’s where the fun begins.

 

 

Here’s a glimpse of my Children and Middle Grade Padlet. I can make any number of lists within the Padlet. Think of each Padlet as a binder, and within the binder, you have sections for each of your subjects. Here, in my Children’s and Middle Grade Padlet, I can make booklists with Arts & Crafts, Fun Facts, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, and I can even deep dive into niche things like “Winter”, “Grandparents”, “First Day of School”, and more. You can add pictures, links, text, anything you want to make this resource yours.

I ran this by a few of my friends from our library system, and they loved it! So we’re collaborating on it together, and there are so many ideas, so many ways to work with this. I’m really looking forward to developing this over the next few months.

And now… I know I stick to kids and YA, but I’ll give you a sneak peek at my Romance padlet. Because I’m fairly new to Romancelandia, being a newish reader in the genre, and because everyone, EVERYONE loves Netflix’s Bridgerton, so you can expect to be getting a lot of calls and visits about readalikes (remember Downton Abbey?) I’ve started putting one together, so please forgive the patchiness – it’s in its fledgling stages.

 

Customize your background, how you want your info laid out, and share links for viewing and/or editing, all for free. Three Padlets gives you a lot of freedom to work, so you can get a real taste of it before thinking about whether you want to upgrade.

 

I haven’t started my YA one just yet – just created the list heads, so I’ll share when I have it a little more populated. You can also visit the Padlet Gallery to see other Padlets and get more ideas, and you can follow other Padlet folx! Very excited to play around and learn with this one. If you’re using Padlet, shoot me a link so I can see what you’ve got! You can find me here.

Posted in Animal Fiction, Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Humor, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Tween Reads

Holiday Gift Guide: Books Kids Like!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’m one of those people that believes there’s a book for every person, every occasion. I’m a firm believer in the five laws of library science, after all, and three of those are: “Books are for use”; “Every book its reader”; “Every reader his or her book”. This is very serious business.  So here’s a humble little gift guide for those of you who may want to give a book (or three), but not sure what to give to whom.

For the graphic novel reader who’s a little quirky and fun…

Anna & Froga: Completely Bubu, by Anouk Ricard,
(Sept. 2017, Drawn & Quarterly), $19.95, ISBN: 978-1-77046-292-2
Good for readers 10-13

This collection of comics from French author, artist, and animator Anouk Ricard stars a little girl named Anna, and her group of animal friends: Froga, the frog; Christopher, the worm; Ron, the cat, and Bubu, the dog. The book collects five previously published comics and one new story; each vignette running about 6 pages. Some vignettes end with a two-page final spread to deliver one last laugh, some run the whole 6 pages as a strip, but every little episode in Completely Bubu is loaded with kooky, smart humor. Upper middle graders and middle schoolers will get some good laughs out of this group, and so will you. “Bubu’s Vacation” will make you laugh out loud if you’ve ever considered (or maybe have) lying about going on vacation just to get some peace and quiet, and “The Garage Sale” will crack you up… and maybe, eye some pen caps.

For the kid who needs to know EVERYTHING. Right now.

Time for Kids: The Big Book of How, by James Buckley, Jr.,
(Oct. 2017, Liberty Street), $19.99, ISBN: 9781683300106
Good for readers 8-12

If you know a kid that has the Wikipedia app loaded and ready to go; takes things apart to figure out how they work, or just wants to know why, The Big Book of How is the gift to give. With 11 sections, covering Animals, Technology, Space, Science, Sports, and more, this book carries over 1,000 facts (see the cover?) that kids wants to know. Each section hands readers the reins by offering a How To just for them: learn how to make a paper airplane or a camera obscura; find out how to launch a rocket or grow salad on a windowsill. There are amazing photos and fast facts, Did You Know? boxes and infographics, making this a desk reference that will get read and loved.

For the sports fan who already knows all the stats…

Sports Illustrated Kids All-Star Activity Book, by James Buckley Jr.,
(Nov. 2017, Liberty Street), $9.99, ISBN: 978-1-68330-773-0
Good for readers 8-13

Your sports fan knows all the box scores and stats, but has she or he ever done a Williams Sisters connect-the-dot? Or created his or her own James Harden beard? You can do that and more with this activity book – covering all the major sports, with additional sections for the Olympics and All-Stars, kids can match soccer team jerseys to their players, create their own Olympic logo, and zip through an NHL word search. There’s even a NASCAR coin flip game in here for Race Day fans. Fun facts and great photos make this a great stocking stuffer.

For the time-traveler and history buff…


The BlastBack! series, by Nancy Ohlin/Illustrated by Adam Larkum and Roger Simó, (little bee)
Good for readers 7-10

The BlastBack! series is nonfiction that kids devour. It’s like the Time Warp Trio wrote books after each of their adventures. Each book covers a period in time, giving readers the full scoop: religion and mythology, history, aftermath, all written with respect for the younger reader – parenthetical explanations of terms and facts; callout boxes that look deeper into key people and moments; selected bibliographies at the end of each book. Black and white illustrations and maps throughout keep readers turning pages. There are 10 BlastBack! books now, and I hope we get some more to fill up my series nonfiction section. They’re just good reading.

For the kid you hand your phone to when you can’t figure out an app…

Coding iPhone Apps for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Swift, by Gloria Winquist and Matt McCarthy/Illustrated by Keiko Sato,
(May 2017, No Starch Press), $29.95, ISBN: 978-1-59327-756-7
Good for readers 10+

I love No Starch Press and their tech books for kids. Coding iPhone Apps for Kids is a detailed, but highly readable, introduction to Swift, the language used mobile apps that run on Apple devices. The book walks readers through every step of the process, from the basics of learning how to code, installing Xcode (the code editor), storyboarding, adding art and sound effects, testing, and finally, running the app. (I’m leaving a lot of steps out of the process, but that’s why I don’t write books on creating apps.) There are full-color illustrations, screen shots, and lines of code to guide readers and important troubleshooting tips and tweaks along the way. An appendix and index round out this insanely helpful book that would make a lovely gift wrapped up with a copy of Girls Who Code. Just sayin’.

For the kid who loves infographics… or really likes Seek and Finds…

The Big History Timeline Wallbook, by Christopher Lloyd and Patrick Skipworth/Illustrated by Andy Forshaw,
(Sept. 2017, What On Earth Books), $19.95, ISBN: 978-0-9932847-2-4
Good for readers 6-14

What did we do before infographics? So much info communicated in little bites of space, fully illustrated and eyecatching; it’s a wonderful thing. The Big History Timeline Wallbook isn’t quite an infographic, but it does come with a 6-foot timeline of the universe – from the Big Bang to our Present Day – that you can detach and hang on your wall. There’s even a cute little pocket, holding a magnifier, that you can use to read the itty bitty text on the poster. Hey, there’s a lot of history to chronicle; sometimes, font size has to be sacrificed.

The Wallbook Chronicle is an 18-page “glorious gallop through fourteen billion years of big history”: printed to look like a newspaper, articles include major world events with bylines and dates, like the “Solar System origins clouded in swirls of gas” article by the astronomy editor from Paris, 1796 and the geography correspondent’s 1806 article on Lewis and Clark completing their transcontinental trek. A letters section from “would-be readers down the ages” has commentary on events including the sacking of King Tut’s tomb and the fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945; a quiz tests readers’ mettle. There are three Timeline Wallbooks available: Big History, Science, and Nature; all developed in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History. Definitely a fun gift choice.

 

More gift ideas to come! I hope this helped fill in a few check boxes on your holiday lists.

Posted in Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Click’d: Coding, apps and friendship drama!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Click’d (Code Girls #1), by Tamara Ireland Stone, (Sept. 2017, Disney-Hyperion), $16.99, ISBN: 9781484784976

Recommended for readers 8-12

Sixth grader Allie Navarro is SO excited about the friendship app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. Click’d collects data about user interests and sends users on a scavenger hunt to find other users with similar interests. It went over big at camp, and now Allie is going to show it to her BFFs at school. She’s also presenting her game at the big Games for Good competition, but she’s going up against her nemesis: Nathan Frederickson, who wins EVERY science fair and drives her crazy.

The app goes over in a big way, but it’s not as great as Allie thought it would be. People are upset about their standings on friendship leaderboards, and a technical glitch ends up embarrassing one of her best friends. Things start spiraling out of Allie’s control; even with Nathan’s help, she’s not sure if she can make things right in time for the competition.

I’m excited about the new coding fiction trend that’s emerging in light of Girls Who Code’s nonfiction/fiction releases! Click’d is great to hand to readers who may be ready to move on from the Girls Who Code series fiction, or readers who may not be ready for Lauren Myracle’s TTYL books just yet. There’s friendship drama for sure, as well as positive messages about resilience and friendship. Each chapter contains screenshots of the Click’d app, adding to the fun; readers can watch Allie’s user count change, and monitor different leaderboards to better envision how the app works (and maybe get some ideas of their own). Tamara Ireland Stone gives us realistic characters and an interesting storyline and builds an extended universe of CodeGirls – girls who all met through a Girls Who Code-type camp – that will work for future novels.

Make sure to check out the Click’d teacher’s guide on the author’s website!

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Gamer Squad takes on video game monsters in the real world!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Gamer Squad: Attack of the Not-So Virtual Monsters, by Kim Harrington, (Aug. 2017, Sterling), $6.95, ISBN: 9781454926122

Recommended for readers 8-12

Bex is a gamer, and her game of choice is Monsters Unleashed: an augmented reality game where you hunt and capture monsters using your smartphone and the game app. (Pokemon Go players, you got this.) She and her best friend, Charlie, love playing the game until a mishap with a strange machine at Charlie’s grandfather’s place causes a WiFi gitch and empties Bex’s monster catalog… into the real world! Now, it’s up to Bex, Charlie, and a frenemy Willa to track them all down and get them back before the monsters overrun their town.

Gamer Squad is one of those series you just know the kids are going to swarm when you get them on the shelves. It brings handheld gaming to middle grade fiction with fun and adventure, and author Kim Harrington manages to give us a strong female protagonist, a story about friendship, and addresses bullying all at once. It’s a fast-moving story with likable characters, excitement, and leaves you ready for the sequel, which in this case, released on the same day.

Gamer Squad: Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind, by Kim Harrington,
(Aug. 2017, Sterling), $6.95, ISBN: 9781454926139

A no-brainer for your gamer kids and a nice fiction-y wink to add to your STEM program displays. I’ve just ordered both for my library; the third book hits shelves this Fall.