June 2023- End of Year Information

SUMMER READING

If you are in grade 6-8, sign up for Summer Reading HERE.

Once you have added your name to the Summer Reading list, any library books you borrow in the month of June will be all yours over the Summer Holiday! Books will be due back the first week school is reopened in September.

Stop by the middle library and check out all the Summer Reading displays. Right now we have “Out With the Old, In With the New” books — old favorites with new book covers, and “Sensational Series” on the book cart! 

HOW TO ACCESS YOUR LIBRARY ACCOUNT

Log into your library account if you want to search the library catalog, and start your list of what you’d like to borrow. If you need a tutorial on how to create a Reading List, please come to the library at Nut Break or Lunch, and I can show you!

If you don’t remember how to log into your library account, please check out the tutorial HERE, or if you just want to log into your library account, click HERE

GETTING YOUR YEARBOOK

SORA SWEET READS

MEI Middle Library also offers the SORA App for eBooks and Audiobooks. SORA is offering more amazing books to read or listen to over the Summer! Simply log into your SORA account HERE and download FREE books all summer long! After 21 days, the books are automatically returned. To sweeten the deal, keep track of your reading on the print out below and bring it to the Middle School Librarian in September, where you will receive a Sweet Prize!!!

May Library Announcements

Click image above for instructions.

Congratulations to the winners of the April 2023 Poetry Challenge! The theme was JOY, and a number of students submitted their poems.

1st place goes to Cadence K. and Japreet C.

2nd place to James T.

3rd place to Kayden D.

4th place to Riya S.

 

 

Bryan Davis Author Visit- February 28th, 2023

To MEI Middle Students: I am pleased to announce that on February 28th, the author Bryan Davis will be visiting our school. He will be speaking for one session in the morning. I have booked the MPR from 10:05-10:55am. We will also be having a book giveaway!

Please plan to come out and hear this famous Christian author speak about his popular novels. He is known for his Raising Dragons and Starlighter books (which we have for Lit Circles). He also has two new series called Wanted: Superheroes and the young adult science fiction series Astral Alliance (which I have read and really enjoyed).

Acquaint yourself with his books before he arrives. We have many copies of books for students to sign out. Please save the date to welcome Mr. Davis!

Library Forms/Questionnaires

The Library would like to hear from you! Please click on the images below to get to the Forms.

If anyone would like to see any particular book in the library, please click on the link below to fill out the form. Thank you!

Feel free to fill out this form if you have any questions.

Please fill out the quiz below. Anyone who fills it out will be entered to win a Bryan Davis novel!!!

October/November 2022 in the Library

Hello! We have certainly been very busy the first semester in school, and I will fill you in on all the details…

On October 24th, it was Canadian Library Day, so we made a week of it. The kids enjoyed themselves! There were prizes, crafts, a movie in the library, and a scavenger hunt!

Bookmark Challenge:

Students were invited to participate in the bookmark challenge, and there were 3 winners!

The winners are:

Janae P, Maddie T. and Cadence K.

Way to go, girls! Below, you can see the prizes they won!

 

Scholastic Book Club:

This year, we aren’t having a Scholastic Book Fair, but students are being given flyers to bring home. If you see anything of interest to you, you can still order. Please click on the title above to have a look around!

Please use the order code: RC131019, and any purchases will also give the Library resource credits! Thank you!

November 21st-25th is “Half Off Library Fines Week”:

 

 

 

New Fantastic Fiction! 2022-23

 

The griffin's featherThe Aurelia curse

Books 2 & 3 of the Dragon Rider Series are here!

v. 2 “After learning that the last Pegasus needs help to continue the survival of the species, Ben and the Greenblooms set off to find a griffin feather, but their mission is complicated by the enduring hostilities between the dragon and griffin worlds.” -quote provided by publisher

v.3 “Ben and the Greenblooms must protect a mythical new creature rising from the ocean — a creature who can bring either light or darkness to whoever it first meets. Now not even baby dragons can keep Ben and the Greenblooms from heading to California where the vast, mythical Aurelia will appear. It’s a race against time to protect it, for if the Aurelia is hurt, all fabulous creatures will vanish from Earth. In the end, though, it may take the arrival of the original silver dragon, Firedrake, to help save them all.” -quote provided by publisher

The star that always stays

“When fourteen-year-old Norvia moves from Beaver Island to Boyne City in 1914, she has to contend with a new school, a first crush, and a blended family, but she also must keep secret her parents’ divorce and her Ojibwe heritage.” -quote provided by publisher

“Amelia Jones always dreamed of attending the Mystwick School of Musicraft, where the world’s most promising musicians learn to create magic.

So when Amelia botches her audition, she thinks her dream has met an abrupt and humiliating end—until the school agrees to give her a trial period. Amelia is determined to prove herself, vowing to do whatever it takes to become the perfect musician. Even if it means pretending to be someone she isn’t.

Meanwhile, a mysterious storm is brewing that no one, not even the maestros at Mystwick, is prepared to contain. Can Amelia find the courage to be true to herself in time to save her beloved school from certain destruction?” -quote provided by publisher

 

The fort

“Five middle schoolers find a fully stocked bomb shelter constructed decades ago in the local woods by an eccentric tycoon and lost until a hurricane exposes the entrance. So, how to keep the hideout secret from interfering grown-ups–and, more particularly, from scary teen psychopath, Jaeger Devlin.” -quote provided by publisher

 

Freewater

“After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world.” -quote provided by publisher

 

Rain reign

“Struggling with the challenges of OCD and Asperger’s syndrome, Rose, a homonym enthusiast, shares an inseparable bond with a beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places in order to search for her pet.” -quote provided by publisher

“Fifteen years ago, eight supernatural criminals fled Estero City to make a new life in an isolated tropical hideout. Over time, seven of them disappeared without a trace, presumed captured or killed. And now, the remaining one has died.

Left behind to fend for themselves are the criminals’ five children, each with superpowers of their own: Birdie can communicate with animals. Brix has athletic abilities and can heal quickly. Tenner can swim like a fish and can see in the dark and hear from a distance. Seven’s skin camouflages to match whatever is around him. Cabot hasn’t shown signs of any unusual power—yet.

Then one day Birdie finds a map among her father’s things that leads to a secret stash. There is also a note:

Go to Estero, find your mother, and give her the map.

The five have lived their entire lives in isolation. What would it mean to follow the map to a strange world full of things they’ve only heard about, like cell phones, cars, and electricity? A world where, thanks to their parents, being supernatural is a crime?” -quote provided by publisher

“When her father’s dream to immigrate to Canada fall through, Rena and her family are trapped in the Ukraine in the midst of the Holodomor, a famine that will kill millions. Then, just when it seems the worst is over, her father goes missing, and Rena struggles to keep her hopes alive.” -quote provided by publisher

 

The barren groundsThe great bearThe stone child

A New Series “The Misewa Saga” by Indigenous author David A. Robertson.

“Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home — until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything — including them.”  -quote provided by publisher

 

“Warrior. Princess. Hero. Diana’s destiny is to be the world’s greatest female superhero… if she can survive this action-packed adventure! Witness young Wonder Woman come into her own powers as she fights to save her island!” -quote provided by publisher 

 

Omar rising

“Seventh-grader Omar must contend with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding school in Pakistan.” – quote provided by publisher

 

Winterkill : a novel

“Despite their political differences Nyl, a young Ukrainian farmer, and Alice, a Canadian girl whose father has come to the Soviet Union, struggle to survive the famine-genocide known as the Holodomor, when the forced collectivization of the Ukrainian farms and hard winters led to mass starvation and death.”- quote provided by publisher

September 2022- Welcome Back!

Welcome to the MEI Middle Library!!! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Taegen Burritt, and I am the librarian at MEI Middle. Please feel free to email me at: tburritt@meischools.com if you have any questions or need help with anything.

Some of you are coming back from last year and have borrowed books for the Summer Reading program. The books must be returned the first week of school. The library is open between 8 am and 3:30pm, Monday to Friday.

For a full tutorial on how to access your library account and place a book on Reserve, please go the The Beakling blog website: https://thebeakling.edublogs.org/catalog-and-account-info/

Once you have placed your books on Reserve, they will be available for pick up in the Library on the 2nd floor. I will send an email to your Office 365 account to notify you that your book(s) are ready, but you are welcome to come by and ask if it is available, too!

New books and magazines are added to the library all year so make sure to check out the Insignia Middle Library home page for updates at: bit.ly/meimidlibrary

Library items are signed out for two week periods and can be renewed from home by logging into the library account. Students may also email or talk to me in person if they need help renewing their books. There is a 25 cent fine for overdue items (per day/per item) so please remember to check your library account.  Information on accessing and managing library accounts can be found on this library blog along with announcements, book suggestions, an Office 365 tutorial, etc.

We are excited to bring Audiobooks and eBooks to the library this year, and I will let you know when they come available! The SORA app will be accessible on student tablets, but parents are welcome to download the app to their smart phone to use. Initially, there will be more audiobooks available than eBooks, but over time they will be added to the collection. If you have any book suggestions, please feel free to email them to me.
Library Tip:
 If you need your password reset, please come to the library and Ms. Burritt will be happy to reset it for you.

 

End of Year Announcements

LIBRARY PAYMENTS 

Please check School Cash Online to see if you have any “Library Overdues”, which were recently added.

Also, if you have a damaged or lost a library book (and need to return it), I will add a separate payment called “Library Fee” if the books are not returned by June 17th. If you find the book and return it to the library by June 13th-17th, I will delete the fee and you will no  longer be required to pay it.

Students who do not pay their overdues or lost book fees will be unable to get their yearbook, so please remember to check your library account.

 

SUMMER READING

TAKING CARE OF BOOKS

 

FVRL SUMMER READING CLUB

 

Interested in a Summer Reading Club?! Go to the Fraser Valley Regional Library to find out more information!

 

 

April 2022 Poetry Contest Winners

Friendship Poem by Hakim R. from 7RO

Friends come and go
Like the tide in the ocean ebbing and flowing under the sun and moon
Like clouds blowing through the sky, sometimes blue and sunny, other times dark and stormy
Like a glacier freezing and melting, freezing, and melting
Like a fire, brilliant red faded into piles of ashes
Like a meadow of flowers once beautiful, lush, fragrant turned into pale dry husks parched by the sun
Like an old and wise oak that met its match with a swift axe
Like a life-giving river tainted by toxic waste
Like leaves on a tree once abundant turned brittle and have fallen to their grassy grave

But faithful friends can bring hope
Like a lone star in the dark sky
Like a single rose in a field of thorns
Like a kite fluttering in the wind a good friend stays there for you

 

How to Find a Friend by Evia L. from 8D

Friends come and go, but some will stay,

Depends on who leads you astray.

When you grab hold, never let go,

For they could be more than you know.

~

Grasp their hand, and hold it tight,

And don’t let go with all your might.

Share lots of laughs, happy and sad,

They ever last, good times and bad.

~

Some days wistful, some bittersweet,

Don’t walk away, and don’t retreat.

Stay positive, and not downcast.,

For bad times fade, they never last.

~

Some qualities, that you should find,

That make a friend, truly divine:

They are helpful, both kind and sweet,

They’re always there, happy to greet.

~

They never bail, they never lie,

They stand up for you anytime.

A special bond, a friend like kin,

Benevolent, and genuine.

~

Days go by slow, and years go fast,

Look for someone so they will last.

So if you want, to find a friend,

Find someone who’s there ’till the end.

 

An Ode to Old Friends by Lilly C. from 7R

Oh Friends,

How I love you so.

You have been there for me

Through the ups and downs.

And even when I had thoughts nobody my age should think.

 

Oh Friends,

Who would know that

Such priceless friendships

Could get torn apart by

Something that you brought upon yourselves.

 

Oh Friends,

The way I look back on how we could’ve been,

How we should’ve been.

Makes me ache to go back.

I tremble the words I miss you under my breath

Every single time I look at our yearbooks.