Gina Bellisario

Let's Meet a Librarian by Gina Bellisario is a short picture book that introduces preschool and kindergarten aged children to the library.

As the book is meant for children who might have just gotten their first library card, its focus is on the things they will probably see in the parts of the library they frequent (the school library, the classroom library and the children's library at their local public library).

On the positive side, the book shows children that libraries are more than show more just books and librarians do more than just check out books. Also, the book includes a male librarian. It also shows how librarians use and maintain the library computers.

Now as a "behind the scenes" librarian, I'm sad to see that there's not much there for what I do. There's no talk of cataloging (beyond an a brief mention of Dewey classification, which is only one method, by the way) or book repair. Nor is there book acquisition — or interlibrary loans.

But, it is an introduction to libraries and librarians — not a text book. It does include a glossary as well as some suggested reading. show less

Ellie sat up in her seat. She would make a great class president! She would stand for truth, justice, and more story time.

That's a political platform I can get behind. But in the story Ellie decides to use magic to bribe her classmates into voting for her. Not cool, Ellie. In her defense, she's only trying to stop them from voting for her evil nemesis Dex Diggs.

Voting is a superpower. How else can you fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of more story time?

Instead of letting the class show more election take place, Dex steals Ellie's magical wish-granter and takes over the school by wishing it so. Now Ellie has to fight rotten-pineapple-throwing robots to get to Dex and set everything right.

This is decent early chapter book fare. I appreciate the full color illustrations of a diverse group of students. In the end, Ellie learns that being a good leader is about listening to people and figuring out how to help them. Not a bad moral. show less

This book is a narrative that introduces why it is important to exercise. It brings up different types of exercise and why it is important to move every day. I like that this book is a narrative but has big words and a glossary in it. I also like that it has an exercise log in the back of the book that you could integrate into your lesson as well. This is a great way to start normalizing exercise to kids in a positive way early on. I hated PE in middle school but I think that if this was show more taught to me when I was younger and I could see how fun exercise is and why we need it, I would have enjoyed it a bit more. show less

Finally! A book about librarians that focuses on their love of information! Huzzah! And NO SHUSHING! I love how the author and illustrator shows readers a school librarian who does more that read stories... incorporates technology, helps teachers with tech issues, puppet shows, sings/dances!