Thank you, teachers, for the incredible gift of dedication you give to your students. The work you do for kids is life-changing. I hope you have a great week and realize the powerful impact you have on your students. You are appreciated!

Storyvoice is hosting live author events, celebrity guest appearances, and interactive read-aloud shows throughout May! Click on the image to the right for the full schedule. Click here to join live from a computer, phone, or tablet.

The Assistance League of Eugene (ALE) donated $1000 worth of graphic novels to every middle school in 4J! The books arrived this spring and students are loving them!

Four lovely volunteers from ALE reached out last fall with the offer to inspire striving readers at the middle school level by providing them with new, engaging, diverse graphic novels! We spent the next couple of months building lists for each middle school collection and ordering the books. The books arrived in early spring and were delivered personally to each school by ALE members.

The Assistance League is a wonderful organization that supports our community in a variety of ways. From their site:

"Assistance League of Eugene is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that puts caring and commitment into action through nine philanthropic programs in Lane County, Oregon. Our 250 member volunteers are dedicated to providing ongoing support and a long-term presence in the community through hands-on involvement and innovative philanthropic programs."

They have a thrift shop at 1149 Willamette Street in Eugene that raised the majority of the funds they use to support their efforts. If you haven't been, stop in and check it out, it's a fabulous store!

We are grateful for the generosity of these folks! Thank you, ALE!

April was School Library Month and schools around the district celebrated! Gilham's library manager, Maricela Hernandez, created a cute display inviting students to share what they wish for in their library. Sheldon's teacher librarian, Kori Kunz, created interactive library displays where students created magnetic poetry and got to choose a pocket poem to take with them.

At Howard, teacher librarian, Debbie Pfeiffer, and library assistant, Julie Hopkins, set up a reading challenge for the month in Beanstack. Students had a goal and were challenged to read a certain amount of minutes for the month. The top classes earned a STEM challenge day in the library. Students were engaged as they worked collaboratively to solve the challenge.

Several schools participated in our March Reading Madness Beanstack challenge and Chavez earned the most minutes read for the month. As a result, Sluggo came to visit and lead an assembly on Championing Our Own Learning during the month of April. The top three classes and top five readers were announced at the assembly and classes got to take their picture with Sluggo. Overall, it was a great event that encouraged reading throughout the school.

A handful of 4J libraries received equity/diversity/inclusion (EDI) ESSR grant money to enhance their library collections with diverse, engaging, high-interest books. Some of the libraries haven't had new books since the pandemic and students love having new books at their fingertips. Students at ATA enjoy having diverse reading options and fantastic new titles.

As the school year nears its end, we are in the midst of brainstorming ways to promote summer reading and engage students throughout the summer with books. Stay tuned for June's Library Lowdown with summer reading ideas and resources.

Amy Seto Forrester, Eugene Public Library's Youth Services Supervisor, published her first book in April and it is fantastic! Search for a Giant Squid is a Pick Your Path book, similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure book from back in the day😉.

From the publisher's website:

Take a journey to the ocean's twilight zone in Search of a Giant Squid! An exciting mixture of action and nonaction, this choose-your-own-adventure-style story allows readers to take on the mantle of a teuthologist looking for a giant squid in its natural habitat. Once readers pick their submersible, pilot, and dive site, the adventure begins!

This book is a partnership between the author and her brother, Andy Chou Musser, who illustrated the book. Because the book has so many options it can hold readers captive for hours as they choose different paths throughout the book to see where it will lead. Search for a Giant Squid highlights a STEM career and readers will learn about the many people it takes to make this sort of expedition successful. It's unique and engaging and showcases a broader range of inclusivity than many STEM titles.

This is a book worthy of adding to our library collections, classrooms, and personal collections. The best part, it's the first in a series are more Pick Your Path books planned for the future! Happy reading!

Here are a few K12 resources to help celebrate and learn about the culture of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. There are booklists for all grade levels, classroom resources, and interviews with authors. I also created a choice board for K-5.

Check out the AAPI collection in Sora! To log in, select Eugene School District and log in with your 4J username and password. This video demonstrates how to log in.

Here are some fun activities to help celebrate Star Wars Day on May 4th!

AudioFile Sync is offering two free fabulous audiobooks for teens starting now through the end of July! Students register with an email address here and they can use it with Sora! The directions are easy to follow!

Free Comic Book Day
All ages are invited to celebrate Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 6, noon to 5 p.m. Drop by the Downtown Library to pick up a free comic book; meet and get books signed by G. Willow Wilson, the award-winning co-creator of Ms. Marvel; enter a free cosplay selfie contest; and more. Find additional authors, giveaways, raffles, and activities up the block at Books With Pictures. Learn more.

For Parents: Money Matters

We're partnering with the personal finance educators of St. Vincent de Paul to offer two workshops packed with practical tips at the Downtown Library. Create Your Budget by understanding the roles of values, decision-making, and tracking on Thursday, May 11, 1 p.m. Or Learn About Credit, including how to get credit reports and protect yourself from ID theft and scammers, on Thursday, May 15, 5:30 p.m. The library also offers books and other resources to provide information and support on these topics every day, including free access to Consumer Reports online. Not to mention the money-saving power of using your library card!

Wondering what to read this summer? Get a head start on 2024 OBOB books. Find all the lists here and check Sora for titles over the next few weeks.

Email: page_a@4j.lane.edu
Website: https://wakelet.com/@AmyPage5788
Location: 200 North Monroe Street, Eugene, OR, USA
Phone: 541-790-7765
Facebook: facebook.com/4jlibrarymediaservices
Twitter: @AmyPageTL