Hello AISL Families! We hope you are all well and that if you travelled, that you have safely reached your final destinations. For our families who remain in Lusaka, we are planning to offer a limited circulation service as soon as the anticipated lockdown has ended. We have already developed plans to manage this safely and hygienically with an on-line request form and an outdoor pick-up location. Please keep checking the Leopard's Tale for details in the weeks ahead.

For our secondary families and students, please see this #BookLove Libguide (password is the same as for the parent portal- contact tmaguire@aislusaka.org if you need it again). This guide is also linked as a page on our main secondary virtual library page. On this guide you will find:

• Book recommendation resources
• On-line books
• Info about our AWESOME Tales2Go audio book subscription, including a screencast on how to log in
• Other sources for free audio books (including Audible's temporary free books for children, tweens, & teens - though our Tales2Go subscription offers more)
• ​Recommended podcasts for teens
• Resources for writing classes & drawing with renowned authors 

We will be adding to this guide regularly and welcome your feedback on the resources you find most useful and others you'd like for us to develop. Stay safe, stay well, and keep reading / listening!

Dear AISL Community Members,

The AISL Library is adding precautionary measures to keep our space as clean and germ-free as possible in light of COVID-19 concerns. Currently, we are:

• Cleaning all surfaces more often with disinfectant
• Asking students to wash hands with soap and water more frequently
• Asking all staff to wash hands with soap and water more frequently 
• Disinfecting every returned book
• Washing beanbags & cushions with soap and water
• Disinfecting soft items​

In the event of a campus closure, the library will ensure that we continue to support our patrons in a variety of ways:

1. We will follow our long break check-out protocol, which allows patrons with no overdue items to check out up to 10 items per patron prior to closing campus.
2. If your family is moving on next school year, you may still check out 10 items per patron; however, these will need to be returned by Friday 22 May to a drop box by the main primary entrance guard post in order to receive your materials deposit back (should campus remain closed at that time). The drop box will not be outside until the week beginning 18 May.
3. We will be supporting teachers on all their units as they transition format with a wide range of distance learning resources in addition to our virtual library and subscription products.  Extended essay, personal project, and digital citizenship lessons will also shift to a distance learning format.

​Any interested AISL community members are welcome to join our Grade 9 students who will be speaking with local writer Natasha Omokhodion next Wednesday as part of an interdisciplinary unit on the role of the arts in society. We will hold this special session on Wednesday 18 March from 13:20-14:20 in the AISL Palm Pavilion.
 
Ms. Omokhodion recently published her first novel, No Be From Hia (2019). This debut novel - a finalist for the Graywolf Press Africa Prize- explores multi-generational family dynamics shaped by the post-colonial migration of the 1960’s. Identity and biculturalism feature prominently in the novel, which draws on Ms. Omokhodion’s own Zambian / Nigerian / Jamaican heritage. We will have a limited number of books available for purchase and signing (200 cash kwacha each; correct change appreciated).
 
Ms. Omokhodion is also the author of several short stories. The complete text of two of her short stories, including an Afro-futurist work titled “The Doorway" is available on Ms. Omokhodion’s official website.
 
Please consider joining us for this special event if you like! If you have specific questions, please contact Secondary School Librarian Terry Maguire.

Little known fact: from 1960-69 Zambia had a real (albeit unofficial) space program. One of our AISL parents, Ms. Anne Jennings, has designed tee-shirts based on one of Zambia's afronauts, Matha Mwamba. These fabulous tee-shirts are on sale in the library for 250 kwacha a shirt. Some are scoop-necked and others higher-necked. Here is an excerpt from the informational card about Zambia's space program, which is enclosed with each tee-shirt: 
​
"From 1960-1969 the country of Zambia had a real (but unofficial) space program with ambitions of beating the US and Russia in the space race. A retired teacher, Edward Nkoloso, set up training facilities-- a term that can only loosely apply to the plot of land they occupied off Great North Road just outside the capital city of Lusaka-- where exercises consisted of disco-era calisthenics and rolling its "Afronauts" down a hill in a 55-gallon drum to simulate the effects of space travel."

If you're interested in learning more about this program, consider checking out a copy of Zambian writer Namwali Serpell's highly acclaimed novel The Old Drift (2019), available in our library. Feel free to come see the tee-shirts. We have a limited supply but can get more. Correct change is appreciated! All proceeds go directly to the tee-shirt designer.

This week during advisory Grade 6 students have been exploring their on-line identities and learning how to detect internet scams. These lessons comprise part of our Digital Citizenship curriculum, which is jointly taught by Mr. Tony Potts (Primary School Assistant Principal & Tech Innovation) and Ms. Terry Maguire (Secondary School Librarian). Students had opportunities to share their own experiences, learn how to be “upstanders” rather than “bystanders” when they experience digital drama, and practice detecting phishing on the internet. The message we emphasize with regard to tech use is that one’s actions on-line should be no different from one’s face-to-face interactions with others.

​If you would like to see some of our resources for teaching digital citizenship in middle school, please peruse our Middle School Advisory Libguide (password is the same as for parent portal). Our lessons are adapted from materials published by Common Sense Media and are aligned with ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards and American Library Association (ALA) standards. We will be continuing with digital citizenship lessons with high school students after we work with middle school.

​On Monday 26 January the American Library Association announced this year’s Youth Media Awards. For book geeks this is a much-anticipated event! Our library already has many of this year’s award-winners, and some that were published after the date of our big order are on our next order.
 
The Youth Media Awards comprise a large range of award categories. Some of these categories (there are many more categories than listed here!) include:

The Randolph Caldecott Medal: "given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children"*
The John Newbery Medal: "given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children"
The Printz Award: given to "a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature." 
The Alex Awards: "given to 10 books originally written for adults but that have special appeal for youths roughly ages 12-18"
The Coretta Scott King Awards: "given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values."
The Schneider Family Book Awards: "honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."
 
* Award descriptions taken from American Library Association's Youth Media Awards website

The holiday season doesn’t truly start for me until NPR’s (National Public Radio) annual book lists are revealed, beginning in late November. If you are a book geek, and I know for a fact that there are a number of you in our community, you have probably already begun to compile your list of titles to read for 2020.

People often ask me what some of my favorite lists are, so here are some to consider, in no particular order:

NPR’s Book Concierge: easy to search, “best of” lists for every conceivable category

WWB (Words Without Borders) The Best Translated Books You Missed in 2019: there are some absolute gems on this list and I love its inclusiveness and scope. For many in our community, you could read the original work rather than the work in translation.

Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of 2019: great lists divided into the following age groups: under 5, 5-9, 9-12, 12-14, 14 and up. Bank Street College “recognizes the importance of diversity in children’s literature and acknowledges and celebrates the voices and cultures of all of our readers” (from “Bank Street College Diversity Statement”).

Book Riot: “Always books, never boring” is Book Riot’s slogan and they deliver on this mission! BR has fantastic lists for every possible subject with witty write-ups. They recently posted this year’s Read Harder Challenge, which might be a fun endeavor for those looking to expand the scope of their reading or for some of our local book clubs to try.

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019 - easy to search by genre and carefully chosen books. NYT is a great source for book recommendations of all types. This is but one list among many that they publish.

Literary Hub’s The Ultimate Best Books of 2019 List- I like how this list from Literary Hub shows you how many times each work appeared on other “best of” lists. Topping the charts by appearing in 21 “best of” lists are Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (that title!) and Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys. 

GoodReads 2019 Reader’s Choice Awards- Goodreads has thousands upon thousands of lists and is an easy to use site that is also fantastic for tracking your own reading, finding book recommendations, and loads more. Their 11th annual Reader’s Choice Awards is a good source for popular titles.

African Arguments: Best Books by African Writers in 2019 So Far- this list and content on this site is published by the Royal African Society, which has close links with SOAS Centre for African Studies at the University of London. This is a great list that should be updated soon.

Enjoy the holiday and happy reading! Please pass along the names of your favorite reads to our library team and send any pictures of your children or family reading to either me at tmaguire@aislusaka.org  or to the Primary School Librarian, Ms. Jill Daley (for pictures of primary students and their families) at jdaley@aislusaka.org. See you in 2020!

Please come by the AISL Library over the break if you are in town! We will be open from 9:00 to 12:00 on the following days:

Saturday 28 December (9:00-12:00)

Saturday 4 January (9:00-12:00)

Saturday 11 January (9:00-12:00)

Saturday 18 January (9:00-12:00)

Note that this Friday 20 December the library will remain OPEN until 14:30 to give everyone a chance to build their holiday reading stacks with recommendations from our staff!