The James Logan Courier

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer,
Gertrude Gregorio and Gwen Estes were sworn in Tuesday night as members of the Board of Education - Mrs. Gregorio for her first term and Ms. Estes for her fourth - and the new Board elected Jenn Stringer as President and Kevin Harper as Clerk.

By John Chau, Courier Staff Writer

Last Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that his nation, after a meeting with Bush on Thursday, would take charge of its security in six months. This event is eclipsed by the fact that both Iraqi and Syria rejected a joint meeting with the U.S. president just days ago.

ACTIVITIES:
Check out Hip Hop Elements’ Mayhem show today during lunch in the Pavilion. Come by the Health Center if you want to perform.

Join Hopeconnection and help sort and box food for the needy on Saturday, 10 am. See Ms. Rodrigues in Room 527 for directions. Community Service hours.

Editor's Note: Each week The Courier spotlights new arrivals, or materials soon to arrive, in the Media Center's collection.

Changing Bodies, Changing Lives: A Book for Teens on Sex & Relationships by Ruth Bell
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 3rd Rev edition (September 8, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN: 081292990X

From Library Journal:
Written by members of the Teen Book Project and inspired by the classic Our Bodies, Ourselves, this third edition of a book first published in 1981 provides information about health and sexuality for teenagers. Presented here is the latest information on the physical and emotional aspects of puberty, sexuality, healthcare, sexually transmitted diseases, safer sex and birth control, living with violence, mental health, and eating disorders.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

Here are the best-sellers for the week that ended Saturday, Nov. 25, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by Cahners Publishing Co., a division of Reed Elsevier, USA. (c) 2006 by Reed Elsevier, USA)

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. Cross. James Patterson. Little, Brown, $27.99
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2
2. For One More Day. Mitch Albom. Hyperion, $21.95
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 9
3. Dear John. Nicholas Sparks. Warner, $24.99
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 4
4. Lisey's Story. Stephen King. Scribner, $28
Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5
5. Wild Fire. Nelson DeMille. Warner, $26.99
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3

By Carmen Shiu, Courier Entertainment Editor

In the vernacular, Logan rappers, emcees, slam poets and hip hop dancers will drop some flows and go dumb at the Pavilion one time Thursday.

Hip Hop Elements’ Mayhem 2006 is will be held in the Pavilion on Thursday during both fourth and fifth lunches. Presented by the Logan Health Center, students and staff are able to come and see this live showcase of student talent.

Admission is free.

By Jenna Garard, Courier Staff Writer

All The Way by Andy Behrens
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (May 18, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0525477616

These days, people can pretend to be anyone on the internet. For Ian, he pretends to be your typical teenage football player with the perfect hair, body and tan. But, in reality, he's just another teenage boy who girls think of as just a "friend".

Wanting to break the barrier, he meets a girl online, Danielle in a chatroom, who lives in Southern Carolina, while he lives in Chicago. He believes that she could possibly be the girl who thinks of him more as a friend, possibly a boyfriend.



Warning: Spoiler below

PopMatters.com (MCT)

This year saw the release of enough good books to really cram a bookcase full. Following is just a sample on a list comprising the year's most gift-worthy collections, novels, and non-fiction tomes. There's something here for readers of all tastes and persuasions, and, let's fact it, aren't books just the easiest gifts to wrap?

"Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers" (Palgrave Macmillan — $49.95)
This hefty, richly illustrated book provides deliciously high-end thinking about that which embraces our lowest ends: from the most minimal of sandals of Classical Greece to the coarsest military boots worn in World War I; from the tiny shoes made for a Chinese woman's cruelly bound foot to the impossibly towering, tottering "chopines" shoes of renaissance Venice; from the coveted suave of hip-hop trainers to the high tech running shoes of modern day marathoners. How we are shod throughout time and place speaks volumes about class, sexuality, and personality. This book is as meticulously crafted as men's finest Italians, and as entertaining to contemplate as the most impossible of stilettos. Call it "foot for thought" for the cultural historian you love. — Karen Zarker

Reviewed by Jessica Stewart, Courier Staff Writer

“Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

This description of Scrooge brings to mind the body of a corpse, which is probably what Dickens was trying to get across to the reader. In the beginning of the book, Scrooge is dead on the inside, and it shows on the outside. He is the neighborhood grouch no one dares to mess with. He is the stingy customer who leaves no tip. He is the tight-wad boss who refuses to give a Christmas bonus. Basically, he is the guy everybody loves to hate. As the book goes on, though, Scrooge slowly becomes a better person as spirits of Christmas show him his tragic past, his dreary present, and his unhappy future. By the end of the book, Scrooge has transformed into the kind of guy everybody loves. Although an old classic, A Christmas Carol is the perfect book to get one into the spirit of Christmas, even if you don’t actually celebrate this holiday.

Read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, illustrated by George Alfred Williams, free from Project Gutenberg.