Word-search and flash cards support science concepts

Another successful conclusion to high school credit recovery with Santa Rosa City Schools​! Here’s a photo highlighting some of my work on behalf of Physical Science. I created flash cards and word-find puzzles to help reinforce concepts from the textbook. Students were able to earn additional points by completing these activities. (I used “Discovery Education,” an online program, to create the word-finds; I indicated dimensions, input search-terms, and designated the form of output. I then copied and pasted the generated puzzle into a Google document for print-out.)

High school credit recovery with Santa Rosa City Schools

For a third summer, I’m working for high school credit recovery via Santa Rosa City Schools. We’re two-thirds of the way through the second session, which runs through July 25. Each summer that I’ve participated has been a new and interesting experience — and this time around, the program finds me helping in a Physical Science classroom. I’m grateful for this opportunity to work and be productive during the summer months, and appreciate being part of this “second-chance” that’s available to local students.

LINK+ online catalog for more than 70 libraries

Sonoma County Library customers now have a single connecting database that grants them access to the collections of all participating libraries. The LINK+ database is now available to Sonoma County Library cardholders. It’s a catalog of materials from more than 70 participating libraries in California and Nevada.

Who remembers “SuperSearch” that connected several North Bay libraries? I regularly sought items through these libraries’ combined resources until the database went down in 2012.

With that past reliance, I’ve long appreciated cooperative lending among partnering libraries — it greatly expands what each library can offer to their respective customers.

The LINK+ catalog gives patrons access to more than 9 million titles — Books, DVDs, CDs, and videos — from academic, public, and special libraries. You can place requests directly, no forms required, from a single online catalog. To access these resources, you need only log-in with your Sonoma County Library card.

Cuvaison 50th anniversary: Napa Valley Wine Library Association letter

Fifty years ago, my father, Thomas R. Parkhill, co-founded Cuvaison winery in Napa Valley, California along with Thomas Cottrell. Recently, I found an interesting piece of realia from that bit of family history, a letter from the Napa Valley Wine Library Association inviting Dad to be a member. (For those not familiar with the wine library, it’s in the Saint Helena Public Library.) The letter also mentions an article about Cuvaison in the St. Helena Star; wouldn’t that be neat to track down!

(The Saint Helena Public Library has digitized issues of the St. Helena Star from 1874-2014; view them at https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=sthelenastar)

‘The Fire Keeper’ by J.C. Cervantes

With The Fire Keeper, author J.C. Cervantes continues her Storm Runner series that centers around gods from Maya mythology.

Teen protagonist Zane Obispo chronicled his earlier adventure with a secret message for other “godborns” who, like himself, had a god for a parent. In this follow-up, he learns that by doing so, he’s placed those other godborns at risk and, moreover, his father Hurakan is going to be put to death by the other gods.

Cervantes’ books in the Storm Runner series are part of a unique imprint, Rick Riordan Presents, which is published by Disney Hyperion.

The books involves themes and characters from world mythologies, written by authors who are from those cultures and who have a deep familiarity with the legends and traditions.

Rick Riordan, of course, is the bestselling author of mythology-based adventures that combine modern-day characters with figures out of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythologies.

Like Riordan’s own books, the stories in this imprint involve themes and characters from mythology, but Riordan’s role can be described as that of a curator rather than author (“Disney Announces New Rick Riordan Imprint,” Publisher’s Weekly, Sept. 13, 2016).

As related in the article, Riordan had been asked “about a zillion times” by his readers, “When are you going to write about (fill in the blank): the Hindu gods and goddesses? Ancient Chinese mythology? Native American legends?”

As his editor, Stephanie Owens Lurie, explained concerning the imprint’s launch: ”I know he feels that, in some instances, the books his readers are asking for him to write are really someone else’s story to tell.”

Having avidly read each new title as it was released by the imprint, I especially enjoyed a continuation for the saga of Zane Obispo. It populates an exciting and suspenseful adventure with characters that I came to care about.

I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley