Being the Elementary Librarian at Shanghai American School for a decade now, I have learned so much. Every day is a new day to improve and learn from mistakes, and while yes, I might make less than I did as a newbie, I still make them. However, students are a very forgiving audience and they make me want to do better. I am fortunate to have a budget where I am able to cater to new trends, replace popular books when they are too tired to turn their pages anymore and continue to build a diverse collection that represents all readers.
Children RUN into this library, they pull at my arms, talking all at once, telling me how they loved x book, asking me if we have x book, showing me their own writing.
Can you believe we’ve been doing Books to Eat at SAS Pudong Elementary for ten years? No?Well, that’s because we haven’t. It’s actually been 9 years. In 2011 and 2012 my friends and I participated in an Edible Books competition at a local restaurant and that is where the idea for Books to Eat began. Since 2013 we have had well over 1200 entries including ones from former teachers and students. We’ve seen other schools take up the challenge in Japan, Hong Kong, China and the UAE. We’ve celebrated the imagination and creativity of students all over the world. All through our love of Books, Cake and Creativity.
Below are linked videos showing many of last years entries in our 2021 Books to Eat Event.
On Friday March 4th, Puxi Elementary 1st grade teacher Noah Flesher is going to be our one and only in-person visiting author for this school year. Noah has written a book about a former Kindergarten student he taught at Saigon South in Vietnam, which he then had illustrated by a different former Pre-K student Noah taught in 2003 in Shanghai, at SCIS.
Not only will our students see themselves in his book “Hally and the Sideways Tooth”, they will also be inspired to know where their art and creativity can take them.
The hardcover version of the book is for sale in our library starting Thursday February 24th for 100 rmb.
If you would like a signed book for your child or a gift for a friend, please send in 100 rmb per book in an envelope with your child’s name and class on it between now and March 4th. Your child should bring that envelope directly to the library please.
We look forward to welcoming Noah on campus as he shares his story of not only Hally, the main character, but also the journey of his idea to the end result of his book.
Now that Winter Break is over, and Chinese New Year is over, we are ramping up in our Battle of the Books preparation. Battle of the Books is a fun and interactive reading activity that has happened at SAS for almost ten years, and for the last 6 years in our Elementary School. Back in 2017 Pudong ES entered one team to compete alongside MS students at Concordia, since then we have built up to the point where we can have our own Elementary School competition.
However, until this year, that Elementary competition has only included 5th grade students. This year for the first time, we have extended the invitation to our 4th grade students. We have asked students who are curious, in 4th and 5th grade, to attend information sessions if they were interested in participating. EVERY STUDENT who WANTED to participate has been accepted, and now it is up to them to attend one session in the library for the next month, and then probably two per week for the month leading up to the TBD date somewhere between April 18 and April 22nd.
56 students are participating in this years Battle of the Books; 40 5th graders and 16 4th graders. We have students from each of the 7 4th and 5th grade classes. Students are tasked with finishing all 8 books chosen by librarians in Shanghai from other international schools as well as SAS.
Everything you need to know about the Battle of the Books including links to great resources about the books can be found here.
My name is Kimbra Power and this is my 17th year at SAS. Ms Joji, Ms Stella and I are your library team, and this is our 10th year together. My husband Simon and I have two daughters, Hannah and Mimi, and they both started PreK at SAS. My older daughter Hannah is now in her 2nd year of university in Melbourne, and my younger daughter Mimi starts High School this year.
Joji Kimbra Stella
Library Catalog To access your school library account, follow these instructions and before you begin, know your school ID number.
For students, this will be a 7-digit number, beginning with 235 following the letter P (for patron) You do NOT need to put the letter P in. That 7-digit number is your username AND password to access our school library catalog.
For parents, this will be a 6-digit number, following the letter P (for patron) You do NOT need to put the letter P in. That 6-digit number is your username AND password to access our school library catalog.
*Under Elementary Libraries on the left of the screen, click on Shanghai American School Pudong Elementary. You MUST do this before you click on ‘login’, otherwise the site won’t recognize your ID number.
You are now looking at the PD ES catalog, and can search for books from here, in any of our 4 libraries, just by typing their name in to the search bar, where it says ‘Find’
*Click on Log in at the top right of the screen. Once you are logged in, you can put books on hold, renew books as long as you have nothing overdue, click on ‘My Info’, see your check out history and more.
Overdrive/Sora We use the Sora App to access our digital library, Overdrive.
*Download the Sora App.
*Open it and find your school by searching for Shanghai American School (even though it says the Puxi campus address, click on that, it is correct)
*Every student from grade 3-12 has their own Sora Account (with their school ID) If your child is 2nd grade or below, use YOUR ID number as a parent.
*Your ID number is your username and password, type those in, and you are good to go.
Elementary Databases Linked is a wonderful resource for you to bookmark regarding the huge amount of incredible digital resources you have access to. Details on how to log in to them can be found linked in the LibGuide. https://libguides.saschina.org/c.php?g=930560
This is the first year we have done Summer Checkout in our library. It had never been done when I inherited the wonderful job of Elementary Librarian back in 2012. Our campus is way out of town for most people, not a place you hang out near by, or just pop into, so parents only really come on campus when they have to for something, and, the main reason we’d never done it, seemed to be that from day 1, to day 60 of Summer Vacation, most of our kids were NOT in China, and there was a fear of the books being left all over the world.
A few years back I remember seeing how well Tamara Pretz over at ASIJ was doing her Summer Check Out and i thought, I want to do that. My partner at the time on our other campus thought it was a good idea too, we were excited.
Fast forward a couple of years, that partner changed schools, a global pandemic rocked our world, and the next librarian and I were out of the country last June when school had been physically in session for our ES students for only 2 weeks in 6 months with a handful of students. Now, here we are, 12 months later…and our Pudong Elementary Library Team did it!
I am SO glad that we did. It was busy, exciting, sometimes a little stressful and certainly hectic, BUT, mostly it was AMAZING seeing kids RUNNING into the library with bags brought from home, and even some suitcases. There was serious book shopping to be done and I was so happy to be bustling around pulling books for kids and trying to help 4 year olds understand what 60 days at home would look like. Hardly any of our students will leave China this year, and some won’t even get out of Shanghai, so it was the perfect time to launch this initiative telling them they will (hopefully) have plenty of time for PLEASURE READING!
I set a limit of 20 books per student, from PreK-5th grade, so the potential was 7400 books could go out with our 370 students. We die have almost 20 kids leaving us, so that took it down a little, and some parents put their own restrictions on their child’s check outs, and I was pleased to see, some kids did too. The difference between 20 picture books and 20 thick chapter books is a lot, so I just wanted EVERY child to have options. I was really proud to see how the kids handled themselves and we ended up checking out close to 5,500 books in 6 days. Hooray for children, Hooray for reading.
Leaving students, you will be missed, and don’t forget you can still contact me anytime for book recommendations and you’ll still have access to Sora and Databases all Summer.
Have a great holiday everyone and remember if you need to check out our Digital Resources, you can now find links to everything housed here on our Destiny Home Page.
This was the first time we’ve ever run our Cardboard Challenge in the Spring, (Northern Hemisphere Spring that is). We normally co-ordinate it around the Global Cardboard Challenge initiated by the Imagination Foundation and inspired by Caine’s Arcade which went viral in April 2012 when Nirvan Mullick stopped by at his local mechanic and discovered something wonderful.
Feedback from teachers said they preferred the day later in the year now that they’d seen how much better their students were at collaborating and connecting with each other. It is true, that when we’ve run it before our October break, most students have barely been on campus 6 weeks, so, point taken. I think it might be best in Spring from now on.
I love the Cardboard Challenge so much. I enjoy hearing the excitement build with the students as they start bringing their cardboard in, and the parents too. So many messages “When can we start bringing in all our cardboard…we have so much?” I love hearing the students discuss ideas, and chatting about what they can make, what else they can bring, and who they might work with.
My main message to the students are that this day is more about the process than the product, or the journey rather than the destination. It is the fun they have WHILE they are planning, plotting, creating and playing, THAT is what the day is all about. This is partly in effort to stem the tears when we tell them they need to break everything down at the end of the day.
There were over 100 entries for this final books to eat round, with contributions by well over that number, with many Prek, K and 1st grade classes all working together on class entries. I’m always awestruck by the creativity of some of our students, parents and teachers. It makes me smile so much when I hear a student sharing why they added what they did to their entry, and who helped them, and how long it took. I’m so proud of what this Books to Eat Celebration has become, something to look forward to as it highlights creativity and connection, collaboration, and of course, cake!
I couldn’t end this post without highlighting one very special baker, who whether she is in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, or now New York, enters EVERY SINGLE TIME. Bravo for Lizzy who has wowed us this year with her delicious looking entry for Harold and The Purple Crayon. Check out Lizzy’s Instagram account, @lizzybakes212 to see her video post from April 28th showing how she put this entry together as well as many of her other incredible creations.
What have I missed? Tell me after you’ve had a look at the Books to Eat entries from round one of Books to Eat. The first week we had over 40 entries by 50 people, mostly 4th and 5th grade students. It was WONDERFUL.
Hooray for Books to Eat. Hooray for Creative Kids.
the barefoot librarian 