Fourth 6 Weeks Check In

 

Here we go again.  It's already time for the Fourth 6 weeks report.  The year is going by so fast, right?  I see that our top 5 books reverted back to manga again.  I always like to monitor the trend.  I believe last time, it was fantasy.  Before that was manga, and now we are back to manga.

As far as books checked out goes, the fourth six weeks did decline from the third six weeks in the same year.  However, it is still an increase from this time last year.  Since that is my goal - to raise the number of books checked out from the previous year- I'm still in good shape.  

It does irk me a bit, that my stats last 6 weeks were over 800, and this time it is down by almost half.  However, I will need to get over that, and decide what to do about the 5th six weeks.

Thanks for checking in!  See you next time.

Loving My Sora App!

 

As the title exclaims, I am loving my Sora app.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to get on the audiobook bandwagon, but I am so glad I did not purchase Audible or one of the other platforms for audiobooks.  Now I am enjoying them for free on my school issued Sora app.  I have access to my school district collection, my hometown collection, and the Harris County Public Library as well.  I think if you live in the state of Texas, anyone can apply for a Harris County Public Library digital card.  Looking at mine, it is called the "iKnow Digital Access Card."  Here is more about that . . . https://hcpl.net/library-cards/#iKnowCard 

Now I check out books for my commute to and from work.  I live in Dallas and travel to Mansfield 5 days a week. So that is a good chunk of time I spend in the car.  Here are a few of my more recent favorites.

The Way I Used to Be & The Way I Am Now - the main character is sexually assaulted, and both books document her struggle with living a normal life after the assault. Genre: Realistic Fiction

The Promise Boys - 3 boys all go to the same private high school.  The principal is murdered, and each of these boys are being accused of the murder.  Genre: Mystery/Thrillers

Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance - the two main characters dislike each other when Radha turns up as the "new girl" at the Arts Academy where Jai is the unofficial "king."  They do share a passion for dancing which bring them closer together as the year progresses, and they end up on the same dance team. Genre: Romance

Queen Bee - definitely a Bridgerton story for teens. Lady Dalvi is sent away to boarding school after her best friend Poppy betrays her.  Years later she is back and disguised as an heiress to infiltrate London's High Society to have her revenge. Genre: Romance

All of these are recommended if you like that particular genre.  I have way more recommendations based on my Sora history, but that's all the time I have for today.  Be safe!  Keep reading.

Third 6 Weeks Check in

In looking at the last six weeks, everything slowed down except the number of students coming to the library and the number of book check outs.  Our database usage slowed down to a crawl, but we did have a lot of state testing in December.  I guess that doesn't leave a lot of time for research.  

I also found it interesting that the top 5 books this 6 weeks were mostly fantasy, and the last 6 weeks it was manga.  So funny what the kids read, and how those trends go.

My goals for the 4th Six Weeks is to push Beanstack again.  I did a combo December/January challenge, and it didn't go over as well as I thought.  I think the students were so used to one challenge a month, & I need to stick to that.  Then I can just raise or lower the amount of minutes they need to complete.  Funny how I wasn't really pushing the Dec/Jan challenge yet there were so many more books checked out this six weeks compared to the 3rd Six Weeks last year.  It was 561 books circulated last year at this time, and this year it is 810.  Yay!   So something is going on.  I love students who love to read.