12 Days of Books and Tech Tips - Day 2

 

12 Books in 12 Days In honor of the traditional Holiday song, the 12 Days of Christmas, we will celebrate books with 12 Books in 12 Days. Titles were recommended by school librarians throughout the country on the AASL Forum, best seller lists, best books of the year lists, and professional book reviews. As our 12 days rush by, we hope you find something worth reading as a holiday treat for yourself. For the second book of Christmas, a good friend gave to me: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr‘s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we‘re gone. Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna‘s will cross. Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon‘s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet. -From Simon & Schuster Gimkit Goes FREE! Game changing announcement! Gimkit is wonderful and engaging but I have hesitated recommending it because of the fees, but Gimkit has changed their model. Click HERE for more details. Over a dozen different game modes exist in Gimkit, with more coming soon. With the new free plan, you'll get unlimited access to the currently featured modes. Woot! 12 Days of Books and Tech Tips List Day 1 May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter.