Deborah Ellis is Coming to Town!

Mark Thursday, Oct. 6th on your calendar! Deborah Ellis, the award-winning author of The Breadwinner Trilogy, will be at Acadia Street School from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for An Evening in Afghanistan.

Ms. Ellis will read from her novels about Parvana, an 11-year-old girl living under harsh, discriminatory Taliban rule in Afghanistan. As a girl, Parvana isn't allowed to go to school. She can't even leave her house unless there is a man with her. When her father is imprisoned by the Taliban, Parvana must disguise herself as a boy to go out and earn money to support her family.

Ms. Ellis will speak about her travels to Afghanistan and the inspiration for her books. There will be a chance to have books signed and buy crafts and products made in Afghanistan. The event is being put on by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. To find out more about the event, click here.

Bienvenidas a West Pictou!

Welcome to the eight students and their teacher who are visiting West Pictou from Colombia for the next several weeks. Colombia has the second-largest population of all countries in South America. Did you know that it's one of the largest coffee producers in the world? Or that some parts of Colombia are cold and snowy, even though part of the country is on the Equator? To find out more about Colombia, visit World Book Students online and enter "Colombia" in the search blank. You'll find a map of the country, a picture of its flag, and a photo of Bogata, the city our Colombian students are from. If you're using World Book Students online at home, you'll have to enter the username "ccrsb" and password "ccrsb".

We also have a beautiful book in the library called The Color of Colombia (I/M Editores, 2007). It's full of full-colour photos of the people, buildings, animals and landscapes of Colombia.

Rojas, Cristina. "Colombia." World Book Student. World Book, 2011. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.

Wanted: One Mascot

As lovely as our library is, it could use a little extra something to give it character -- a mascot. Not a wolverine like the school mascot, but one of its very own. Yes, we have Arnold the library ghost, but since no one knows what he looks like, it's hard to put his picture on a bookmark (if you haven't Arnold yet, keep your ears open when you're in the library).


We're having a school-wide contest to design a library mascot. Students who are interested can draw their creations on a piece of white paper (preferably 8 1/2" by 11"), put their name and class on the back, and drop them off to the library by Sept. 30. The winning entry will be announced in October and will be featured on bookmarks, posters, in the newsletter, etc.


Use your imagination. The mascot could be a person, an object, an animal, an alien, an artichoke . . . whatever you can dream up.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!