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The Record in Kitchener, Ontario recently featured story about a student art project which had students creating sculptures from discarded books in honour of Freedom to Read Week. The display will be displayed at the Forest Heights Community Library until the end of March.

Libary Manager had seen a similar project in a Toronto library. She approached Wendy Bonza, visual arts teacher with the idea. The Kitchener Public Library provided students with discarded books to be made into sculptures that express what reading means to them.

Pictured is Kale Hofstetter with his work "For Reference." Kale was thinking about what it would be like to have reference questions answered by a book.

One of the challenged books I read for the "Banned Book Challenge" this year was The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Rather than being dated, I found its insight into the trappings of poverty very relevant. While some things have changed, especially in the area of social assistance, the root causes of poverty remain and people still fall through the cracks when it comes to services.

Telling however, was the emphasis placed on family and the importance of unity -- perhaps missing from our society where families experience divorce or grandparents are not a short visit away.

For student resources on The Grapes of Wrath, see A Research Guide for Students. There are also resources for other banned or challenged books such as The Crucible, The Great Gadsby, Lord of the Flies, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Good news. We've moved one step closer to the Apocalypse today. From Cynopsis Kids:

Among the new shows CBS introduced yesterday at its upfront for the 2007-2008 fall primetime lineup was a reality show titled Kid Nation . Kid Nation stars kids, 40 kids ages 8-15 to be exact. These kids will spend 40 days living in an abandoned "ghost town," without parents or the modern stuff they are used to, where they will try to build their own functioning society. What does that mean? Get out your conch shells out, because the group will need to do their own cooking, cleaning, haul water, deal with each other and choose leaders and make laws (including bedtimes). Nobody will get voted outta town, kids who leave do so because they want to go home. While not targeted to kids, they'll watch, but they'll only be back if the characters are good and there is lots of conflict. The show will air Wednesdays at 8-9p.