School Library Summer Hours: The KMS library will be OPEN Wednesdays, from 9am-1pm in July and August.

King's library hosts a number of noteworthy visitors every year. Claudette Colvin, along with author Phillip Hoose, give students a first-hand account of civil rights history.

King Middle School Summer Reading Program 2011

Last year, half of the students at King Middle School handed in Summer Reading Logs which documented 4-16 books read over the summer, and for every four books read, each student earned 1-4 A's in their Language Arts class. What a great way to begin the new school year!

Select the reading log for your 2011-2012 house/grade; each teacher has slightly different rules about how to keep track of your summer reading.

Windsor 6, York 6, ELL

Windsor 7

Windsor 8

York 7

York 8

Suggested Reading Lists:
The BEST in Publishing for Young People (up to age 14) in 2010
African American History Reading List (for Windsor 7)
Maine Student Book Award 2011-2012

Walk & Read: pack a lunch, choose an audiobook, and join us us for a walk along the Portland Trails this summer (Permission form required.)

~ Library News from the Past ~

Student Library Aide Applications Now Available
Download an Appliction for Grade 6 or for Grade 7 and 8
Library aides are an essential part of the KMS Library Program. We depend on our library aides to run the check out desk. Library aides also run errands, make deliveries, answer the telephone and do other clerical tasks, including assist students and staff with the photocopiers. There are approximately forty (40) slots available, including before school newspaper delivery, after school Late Library, Supervised Study and DSSR. Applications from 7th and 8th graders are due Thursday, September 10th. Applications from 6th graders are due Friday, September 18th.

Genre Punch Cards: A New Reading Incentive Program
Download the Genre Punch Card Instructions
Never read a graphic novel? Scared to try science fiction? Afraid that biographies are boring? Expand your literary horizons. Stretch your reading comfort zone. All KMS students are encouraged to participate in our new reading incentive program. Pick up a Genre Punch Card from the KMS library. Use your punch card to keep track of 10 different books--from ten different genres--that you read over the course of the trimester. Each time you finish a book and fill in the book's information on your Genre Punch Card, bring it to the library to be "punched". When your punch card is full, redeem it at the KMS library for 1) a FREE LIBRARY SNACK, 2) a ticket to an end-of-the-trimester Ice Cream Celebration, and 3) your name in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore.

News from Last Year

Claudette Colvin: Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Era March 12

Claudette Colvin was the first African American to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus and, when she was arrested, to plead not guilty. Her refusal as a 15-year-old in 1955 to give up her seat on a city bus, as well as her role the following year as the star plaintiff in the federal court case Browder vs. Gayle set the stage for the desegregation of public transportation throughout the Jim Crow South. Claudette Colvin and author Phillip Hoose, whose new biography, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, tells the story of this Unsung Hero of the Ciivl Rights Era recently visited King Middle School to talk with students about Claudette's acts of courage

In January, King Middle School students were invited to apply to participate in a special project to honor Claudette Colvin. Ten students were selected to read and discuss Phillip Hoose's new biography of Claudette Colvin with KMS librarian Kelley McDaniel. Then, working with art education students from the Maine College of Art (MECA), they choose quotes from the book and designed posters illustrating Claudette Colvin's acts of courage. The posters are currently featured on a Greater Portland Metro city bus as an art exhibit entitled: Understanding Courage: An Art Exhibit on a METRO Bus Illustrating Teens' Reactions to Claudette Colvin's Acts of Courage. This project was generously supported by the grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

Visit Understanding Courage for more information.

Other Goings On at the KMS Library

Last year, Ms McDaniel won an author visit with Jeff Stone and we are planning his upcoming visit--February 5, 2009. He will give two large group presentations and then enjoy a catered Chinese lunch and spend the afternoon with a class that has been reading his Five Ancestors series and studying medieval China and martial arts.
Jeff Stone's website - includes links to an educators' guide for book one as well as one for the entire series
The Five Ancestors website - which includes various online games, including tangrams.

Ms McDaniel is planning a Friday afternoon movie with dinner discussion on February 6th for Neil Gaiman's horror story CORALINE. Space is limited to 10 students who are interested in reading the book--either the novel or the graphic novel version. Books will be available in the library next week. We will go see the movie and then come back to Portland and have dinner at ... Flatbread Pizza. The only cost is $6 for the movie ticket. Permission slips are available in the library. This event is FULL.

Two years ago, a group of KMS students began working with author/illustrator Anne Sibley O'Brien and her son Perry on a book about people around the world who, inspired by Gandhi, fought injustice using non-violent resistance. The group of students called themselves Gandhi Publishing. They helped research, decide which stories to include in the book and how the book would be organized, as well as gave suggestions about the illustrations and general design of the book. The book, After Gandhi: 100 Years of Nonviolent Resistance will be released this month. It is dedicated to these KMS students and includes a long acknowledgment of them by name. Now the authors would like to invite another group of KMS students to create a video about the book. Mr. Grant and Ms McDaniel will select approximately six (6) students to be a part of this project. This event is FULL.

We have been invited to participate in a very special project with local author Phillip Hoose, the Metro Bus and the NAACP. Phillip Hoose's new book is a biography of a young Civil Rights leader that he first profiled in We Were There, Too: Young People in U.S. History. Claudette Colvin helped ignite the Montgomery Bus Boycott as the first person to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat and to plead not guilty. She was also a plaintiff in the court case that eventually declared bus segregation Unconstitutional. We will read the book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and create posters about the de-segregation of buses and Ms Colvin's historic role. Our posters will be displayed on the Greater Portland Metro buses. Ms McDaniel will select approximately twelve (12) students to be a part of this project. This project is being funded by a generous grant from the Maine Humanities Council. This event is FULL.