Boys Life Magazine Website

Boys Life Magazine (Website)

Genre: Non-Fiction

Format:  Online, website

Suggested age: Intermediate students +, geared towards boys.

Based on the popular boy’s magazine, Boys Life, this website is an online spin off of this periodical created by the Scouts.  Although developed by the Boy Scouts of America, Boys Life may have started out with Scouts in mind, but has evolved to appeal to all boys (and quite possibly many girls), regardless if they are members of a troop.  The home page is jam-packed with animated gifs and links to draw the audience in to the wide variety of articles, contests, polls, games, projects, and videos.  Boys Life has a rich online presence beyond the website with Facebook updates and Tweets.   

For over 100 years, Scouts have followed a clear vision and method to meet their mission statement and, upon entering the 21^st century, Scouts has evolved to meet the needs of their members by expanding the Scouting experience online.  I must admit, I have not had direct experience with Scouts, or even Girl Guides, but it’s clear that they are organizations that provide hands-on, minds-on experiences for their members encouraging active participation.  This website is no different with many opportunities for users to not only watch and read the jokes, videos, and articles, but are encouraged to submit their own to share on the website.  BoysLife has numerous links to support hobbies and printable PDF files for hands on projects to do at home.  

My own first impression of this website was that it was a little overwhelming with the scrolling sidebar, multiple sizes and fonts of text, animated pictures, however, upon showing this website to a ten year old boy in my library, I quickly realized that it was my own need for order that was influencing my experience.  This boy sat down right away, excited to start exploring, completely unfazed by the seemingly busy landscape of this website.  He was especially impressed that he could print projects to take home to show his parents.  In short, I would recommend this website as a safe and age appropriate site to explore.  It seems very well moderated and has multiple reminders for users to use a nickname rather than their actual names in comment threads and activity submissions.  I always temper my recommendations for websites with the friendly reminder that all websites (however safe and suitable) are linked to the world wide web and it is always best to know what your child is exploring because a website that is not so age appropriate may be just a couple clicks away.

Canadian Points of View Reference Centre

Genre: Full Text Database

Format:  Online

Suggested age: Intermediate students +

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Canadian Points of View Reference Centre is a database geared towards use in Canadian school libraries and classrooms.  The database is organized into broad categories and consists of essays illustrating multiple viewpoints on social and global issues such as animal and human rights, religion, etc.  In addition to the essays, each category provides an objective overview of the specific topics including a point/counterpoint as well as a teacher’s critical thinking guide.

This database is available through a paid subscription.  Many school districts and public libraries have this database and offer access to their patrons.  My own school district purchased this database as part of a bundle from the Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC). 

The interface is considerably user-friendly and easy to navigate with clear search fields and well-labeled tabs for sorting search results.  The sources range from magazines, newspapers, reference books, biographies, transcripts, images, and videos.  Students can log in and save their searches and articles which are either in HTML full text or PDF format.  Reading levels are identified for each article or essay and there is an audio option to listen to each. 

 Although this resource does not lead educators through the site by learning outcomes tied to province standards, which I know is usually considered an attractive option, the broad categories provide enough information for teachers to find what will suit their units of instruction.  While I highly recommend this resource, I am going to recommend it with a cautionary note that all databases need explicit instruction to help students navigate these themselves.  This could be a wonderful resource for students and parents during public speaking units but, as for all research, students need to be guided and taught to be thoughtful and responsible consumers of information.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Format:  Audio book

Recommended Ages: 8+

Author:  Brian Selznick

Read by:  Jeff Woodman

Scholastic Audio

Paris, 1931, Hugo Cabret has been orphaned and left to live with his drunken uncle in the walls of train station where he and his uncle maintain the stations clocks.  Hugo’s uncle mysteriously disappears and Hugo must continue to maintain the station’s clocks to keep his uncle’s disappearance a secret so that he would not be sent to the orphanage.  

Hugo misses his father terribly and vows to finish fixing his father’s automaton.  Hugo is convinced the automaton holds a special message for him from his father.  In an effort to find parts to fix this machine, Hugo must steal from a toy booth.  Once caught by the owner, he must work for the man in order to earn back his father’s notebook which holds valuable notes on the fixing the automaton.  Soon enough though, Hugo finds an important connection between his father’s beloved automaton and the owner of the toy booth.

I accessed this audio book through the Fraser Valley Regional Library’s Overdrive system.  Using my iPad, I was able to navigate easily through the chapters, change the volume and bookmark my progress through the story.  This is my first experience with an audio book and I must say that I had forgotten how nice it is to be the recipient of a read aloud!  Woodman’s cadence and tone are easy to listen to and the transitions in voice from narrator to characters were polished and natural-sounding.  Sound effects were used periodically throughout the reading but in my opinion, there could have been more such as when the automaton begins to write out its secret message for Hugo, I would have loved to hear the scratching of quill to paper at that point. 

 I suggest that this audio book be used as a companion with the hard copy edition as the illustrations in the hard copy are a large part of the experience (and magic) of the story.   Selznick himself states, “the images in my new book don't just illustrate the story; they help tell it."(Selznick,nd)