The James Logan Courier

By Rick LaPlante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

The Board of Education on Tuesday night received an overview of instructional priorities for 2007-08, highlighting the District-wide focus on literacy and especially the implementation of Writing Workshop in kindergarten and first and second grades.

Citing research showing that improving literacy boosts student performance in all subjects, Executive Director of Elementary Education Glynn Thompson said Writing Workshop creates readers, writers and thinkers. Searles Elementary Principal Debi Knoth and first-grade teacher Maggie Watson offered the Board examples of how Writing Workshop has impacted students in just the first three weeks of instruction at their school.

By Anne Chen, Courier Editor-in-Chief

Students of James Logan High School will participate in its first International Day of Peace this Friday on September 21. Active participants plan to lie down on the football field in peace shirts and spell out the word "peace" with their bodies. This event is made possible by a collaboration between Logan's own Interact Club and Humanitarian Assistance Club.

Students will be able to make the peace t-shirts Monday through Thursday during both lunches in Colt Court. They can either purchase blank T-shirts for 2 dollars each or bring one from home to paint on. Paint will be provided. Although students are free to decorate their shirts however they please, the shirts must include a peace theme. Those who wish to do so will have to stop by Colt Court and make their shirts before Friday. On Friday, student must immediately arrive at the turf in order to have enough time to spell out "peace" and have their picture taken by The Argus.

LUNCH: Baked Chicken Wedges with Steamed Rice,
Milk, Fresh Fruit, “Fun” Chips

ACTIVITIES:
Come by Room 44 after school to buy your all-color yearbook for $70. The price will increase October 1st.

Boys basketball will be having Open Gym every Wednesday in the month of October from 6-8 pm. All young men are welcome to come and play.

Any young man interested in playing basketball for James Logan High School must see Coach Fortenberry in Room 121 for tryout dates and paperwork.

Note: Each week, The Courier spotlights books newly arrived, or expected to arrive, in the James Logan Media Center.

Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307275205
ISBN-13: 978-0307275202

From the publisher:
In this deeply affecting and inspiring memoir, Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and a divorced mother of three, recounts her extraordinary life as a political activist, feminist, and environmentalist in Kenya.

Born in a rural village in 1940, Wangari Maathai departed from the usual path of Kenyan girlhood when she left her village to be educated in boarding schools run by Catholic missionaries. From there she went on to higher education in the United States, earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological sciences. Returning to Kenya, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in East and Central Africa and headed the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Nairobi. Because of her engagement in a variety of progressive political causes, she increasingly found herself the target of harassment by then Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi’s brutal regime.

She was jailed several times, and wounded in attacks by the police.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

Here are the best-sellers for the week that ended Saturday, Sept. 8, 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) 2007 by Reed Elsevier, USA)


HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. Giving. Bill Clinton. Knopf, $24.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
2. The Secret. Rhonda Byrne. Atria/Beyond Words, $23.95
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 36
3. The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About. Kevin Trudeau. Alliance Publishing, $24.95
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 14
4. Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa & Bill Kolodiejchuk. Doubleday, $22.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
5. Quiet Strength. Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker. Tyndale, $26.99
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 9
6. The Dangerous Book for Boys. Conn & Hal Iggulden. Collins, $24.95
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 19
7. Lone Survivor. Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Little, Brown, $24.99
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 13
8. Dead Certain. Robert Draper. Free Press, $28
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
9. Wonderful Tonight. Pattie Boyd with Penny Junor. Harmony, $25.95
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2
10. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. Alan Alda. Random House, $24.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1

Reviewed by Abhishek Saluja, Courier Staff Writer

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Signet Classics (July 10, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451528018
ISBN-13: 978-0451528018

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a tale which immerses the reader into the interesting story. Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead near his home in Devonshire. Since he was the owner of an enormous fortune, questions about his death naturally arise.

James Mortimer is officially responsible for the fortune and decides to contact the only living heir of the fortune, Sir Henry Baskerville. However, Mortimer suspects that there is more to Sir Charles's death than natural causes. Sir Charles Baskerville, when found, appeared to wear an expression of tremendous shock.

Read The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, free from Project Gutenberg.

Reviewed by Sarena Bains, Courier Staff Writer

Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (August 28, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143112287
ISBN-13: 978-0143112280


Set in Hounslow London, Londonstani by Gautam Malkani is a novel which portrays the lives of young Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu men living in a middle class suburb.

The narrator Jas, who is the "angel who's fallen into hell", due to his association with a gang of Southwest London boys.The 19 year old boy Jas is not like the others; he hides his habits to fit in with the crew. Malkani creates a situation which blends the cultures together. The leader of the gang is Hardjit, and the other boys in the crew include Amit,his brother Arun, and friend Ravi.

By Musa Biawogi, Courier Staff Writer

Who ever heard of getting 100 years in jail for a school fight?

The situation in Jena, LA has recently got air time in media because even they believe the sentencing are not fair to the six African-American teens who were arrested for brawling with a white schoolmate. I think the D.A. and the authorities are blowing this way out of proportion.

By Krystal Henderson, Courier Staff Writer

Before school last week, freshmen Rachel Southard and Melanie Chong witnessed an eight-week old kitten being chased and tormented by three students outside the new 300 buildings. Southard and Chong immediately jumped into action, stopping the students and rescuing the kitten.

They could tell the kitten was distressed. Southard recalled trying to coax the kitten out from underneath the lockers, "You could tell in her eyes... She even tried to scratch me." The two girls brought the kitten, wrapped in one of their jackets, to teacher Mary Jo Von Pinnon's classroom. "I knew she would understand," reasoned Southard.

By Samuel Jue, Courier Staff Writer

Barry Bond’s home run record-breaking baseball was sold Saturday night for an estimated total of $752,467. The ball was auctioned off at SCP Auctions and the sum of the money will be paid to the baseball owner, Matt Murphy.