The Rambling Reader

Quarter 3 2024-2025

See what is new at the Dr. Stephen J. Storkel Learning Center for Quarter 3, including:

Summary: Class Visits, Study Hall Visits, Circulation Statistics
Ramtastic Reads
Resources in Focus

Library Class Statistics and Updates

Our library continues its mission of sparking curiosity, creating connections, and empowering learners.

The library had 898 circulated items, 117 class visits in the third quarter, and 2,966 study hall visitors.

Some of the classes this quarter included 10th-grade debate research using Noodle Tools, 9th-grade Digital Citizenship Units, Themes in World History Timeline project, World War 2 History Website research, CEW Mock Interviews as well as Guidance scheduling.

Pictured: Student Origami projects

Pictured: New bridge projects are on display!

Pictured: Mr. Devinney's World War II exhibit allowed students to see uniforms and other artifacts from the time period to accompany a research project.

Pictured: Students vote on a food truck marketing project for AP Microeconomics.

Student Feedback on the "This or That" Display

Students were invited to vote on their reading preferences on our "This or That" display.

Reading on the Beach (5 votes) vs Reading During a Storm (12 Votes). Both (2 Votes):
- Students preferred reading during a storm.
Library (8 votes) vs Bookstore (12 votes):
- Students preferred the bookstore.
The Good Guy Wins (9 votes) vs Bad Guy Wins (24 votes), Both (1 vote):
- Students preferred when the bad guy wins.
LOL Funny (13 votes) vs Grab the Tissues (9 votes):
- Students preferred funny stories.
Stay Up Late Reading (18 votes) vs Get Up Early to Read (1 vote):
- Students preferred staying up to read.
Books Over 300 Pages (8 votes) vs Under 200 Pages (11 votes) Both (2 Votes):
- Students preferred books under 200 pages.

Dog Ear (9) vs Bookmark (22):
- Students preferred bookmarks.
Happily Ever After (7 votes) vs No Happy Ending (12 votes) Both (1 vote):
- Students preferred no happy ending.
Standalone Novels (8 votes) vs Part of a Series (27 Votes) Both (3 votes):
- Students preferred books in a series.
Fiction (16 votes) vs Nonfiction (4 votes) Both (1 vote):
- Students preferred fiction.
Paper Book (15 votes) vs Audiobook (3 votes):
- Students preferred paper books.
Fantasy (14 votes) vs Sci-Fi (10 votes):
- Students preferred fantasy over sci-fi.

Former Northern Tier Pine Center Room Update

One major update to the library has been transforming the former Northern Tier Pine-Center room of our library into a usable space for future library projects.

We are finalizing the last of the titles that will go into our collection from the materials left behind by Northern Tier Pine-Center. After extensive and careful analysis, review, and approval, we now have hundreds of additional titles to add to our collection.

We have also worked with Northern Tier to expand their children's book collection to support our Child Development class.

Our expanded childrens collection for our Child Development class.

Each book left by Northern Tier was analyzed with a rationale to fit a need of our collection and submitted as an information item to the board before processing.

Ramtastic Reads from the Library

Resources in Focus

New Spring Reads for the Aspiring Gardner:

The Light Eaters

by Zoë Schlanger

"It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it?"

Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. LibraryReads Favorites, 2024. National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature, 2024. This title is listed as a Booklist Editors Choice for Adult Readers 2024.

The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

"A beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden."

2024 Kirkus Finalist for Nonfiction, Starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus.

The Junior Plant Lover's Handbook: A Green-Thumb Guide for Kids

By Holly Williams

An interactive, illustrated guide perfect for any burgeoning plant lover!

“Invaluable for young plant lovers or those with an interest in the ecological benefits of plants” (Booklist).

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

"The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass explains how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity and community, based on the lessons of the natural world."

Starred Review from Booklist. Loan Stars Favourites, 2024.

Recent Novel-in-Verse Titles to Celebrate National Poetry Month:

One Last Shot

by Kip Wilson

Sent to Paris after being arrested for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda, Gerda Taro teams up with a fellow photographer to take pictures of military conflict and sell them at a high price but soon loses sight of her own safety.

Starred Reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.

Wings in the Wild

by Margarita Engle

"When a hurricane exposes Soleida's family's secret sculpture garden, the Cuban government arrests her artist parents, forcing her to escape alone to Central America where she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy, and together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba."

Starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Connection and School Library Journal.

And We Rise: the Civil Rights Movement in Poems

by Erica Martin

"A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout."

Starred reviews from School Library Journal and School Library Connection.

African Town

by Irene Latham & Charles Waters

Chronicles the story of the last Africans brought illegally to the United States on the Clotilda in 1860 through multiple perspectives and in poetic verse.

Starred Review from Booklist.

2022 Scott O’Dell award for historical fiction.

Remembering John Feinstein, Popular Writer of Sports Fiction and Nonfiction:

If March Madness piqued your interest in reading more about sports, explore the narrative nonfiction and young adult fiction of popular author John Feinstein.

ESPN News Services writes that:

"Feinstein wrote 48 books, 23 of which made the New York Times bestseller list, according to his website. His first book, "A Season on the Brink," which chronicled the 1985-86 Indiana University basketball season, made him a household name and spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Times' bestsellers list. The book detailed the coaching methods of Bob Knight and was later turned into an ESPN film (Thamel)."

Work Cited

Thamel, Peter. “Sports columnist, author Feinstein dies at age 69.” ESPN,

13 March 2025, https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/44238523/sports-columnist-author-john-feinstein-dies-age-69. Accessed 2 April 2025.