Celebrating the New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The library was so excited to host Ms. Zhao's Chinese New Year Celebration. The library was filled with delicious smells from the dumplings, spring rolls and Chinese pastries. There was a station set up for calligraphy writing and student work from Ms. Zhao's Mandarin class is displayed throughout the library. The most enjoyable aspect of the afternoon was watching the student interaction. Students teaching other students about Chinese culture and traditions. It was a lovely afternoon and such a great way to use the library to celebrate some of our many different cultures at Natick High School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What came first the book or the movie?

Always one of our most popular displays, the "Book to Movie" generates a lot of discussion. Students debate if the movie was better than the book and sometimes we have students who never knew a movie had started as a book!! Often we hear, "I will not see the movie until I have read the book" and still others are inspired to read the book after they have seen the movie....in whatever order they decide to tackle it, as long as they are reading we are happy!!!

 

 

 

Blog Book of the Week: 

Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America / Kevin Cook

I chose this book because freshmen and seniors are working on their third term research projects. They are focusing on social issues and coming up with action plans. One student is passionate about the Bystander Effect. The term first becoming popular with the horrible death of Kitty Genovese. The book, detailing her life and tragic death was a page turner, reading like a novel. And it also brought up many questions about what role society has in taking care and watching out for each other.

Summary: New York City, 1964. A young woman is stabbed to death on her front stoop--a murder the New York Times called "a frozen moment of dramatic, disturbing social change." The victim, Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, became an urban martyr, butchered by a sociopathic killer in plain sight of thirty-eight neighbors who "didn't want to get involved." Her sensational case provoked an anxious outcry and launched a sociological theory known as the "Bystander Effect."That's the narrative told by the Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. But as award-winning author Kevin Cook reveals, the Genovese story is just that, a story. The truth is far more compelling--and so is the victim.Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of her murder, Cook presents the real Kitty Genovese. She was a vibrant young woman--unbeknownst to most, a lesbian--a bartender working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the '60s, a cultural kaleidoscope marred by the Kennedy assassination, the Cold War, and race riots. Downtown, Greenwich Village teemed with beatniks, folkies, and so-called misfits like Kitty and her lover. Kitty Genovese evokes the Village's gay and lesbian underground with deep feeling and colorful detail.Cook also reconstructs the crime itself, tracing the movements of Genovese's killer, Winston Moseley, whose disturbing trial testimony made him a terrifying figure to police and citizens alike, especially after his escape from Attica State Prison