Welcome Back!

We're off to a great start for the 2015-2016 school year. There are several key literacy initiatives happening throughout Kalamazoo Public Schools and the libraries are working to make sure all students have access to high-quality books that fulfill their personal interests and curricular needs. In order to connect our students to books and authors, teachers and families are encouraged to have kids meet two visiting authors who will be in Kalamazoo in the coming months.

G. Neri will be in Kalamazoo on October 1, 2015. He will speak with patrons at the Powell Branch Library 5:00-6:00PM--this is a free event and all are welcome. Students from Maple Street's READ 180 classes will have a special chance to meet G. Neri during school on October 1 as well. All of Mr. Unangst's classes will be reading Ghetto Cowboy in order to prepare for the visit.




In addition, Jacqueline Woodson and Jason Reynolds will be in Kalamazoo as part of the 2015 Youth Literature Seminar "Mirrors and Windows." Jacqueline will be presenting to students from Mrs. Hampton and Mrs. McKee's English Language Arts classes who are reading Brown Girl Dreaming and will also speak at the KPL Central Library at 6:00PM on November 5, 2015. Teachers and librarians are encourage to attend the seminar which will include a presentation from each author, as well as some great book suggestions for middle and high school students.

                                     
Maple Street was the recipient of 65 new books from a grant received by Kalamazoo Public Library from the Friends of the Library in order to support this visit. We are grateful for our partnership with KPL and the wonderful service they provide to the children in our community.

Each of the middle school libraries will be receiving new books throughout the year which will include both fiction and non-fiction related to student interests and curricular needs. Please take the opportunity to visit your library and see what's new for 2015-2016.