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Granite School District > Educational Technology > Blog > By the Book

By the Book

Elementary Media Clerks ‘By the Book’

May 2017Josh Whiting

Each day over on Granitemedia.org, our sister site for district library media programs, we are featuring the reading lives of our elementary media clerks with a daily ‘By the Book’ spotlight interview. Below is one recent example. Check out all the By the Book posts to get to know our fabulous media clerks, as well as find some great book recommendations both for kids and adults.

By the Book: Jennifer Porter, Crestview Elementary

Jennifer is finishing her fifth year as a media clerk at Crestview Elementary. She has done incredible work bringing the library into the 21st century and creating an environment that students are excited to come into.

What books are currently on your nightstand?


All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers by Andrew D. Olsen, and Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle

What was the last great book you read?

Boys on the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. I really enjoyed learning about this group of “boys” and all the history that went into their story. Plus, being from Seattle myself, it was fascinating to learn more about my hometown. I wasn’t even familiar with their story!

The last book that made you cry?

True (…Sort Of) by Katherine Hannigan. I read this a few years ago and was completely drawn in. I finished it as our family was driving to Oregon and I was curled up in the front seat trying not to let the rest of the family hear my sobs. It really made an impact on me and was a beautiful story.

The last book that made you laugh?


Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life by Mike Winchell

What kind of reader were you as a child? What childhood books and authors stick with you the most?

I actually was a slow reader- things didn’t click for me re: reading until about 4th grade, and I didn’t enjoy reading all that much. But my mom, an avid reader, kept introducing me to great books. My favorite was <em>The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. My mom challenged me to read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, with the promise that if I finished it she would buy me all the Madame Alexander Little Women dolls. I still have the set. I loved the classics…still do!

What is the best book you were required to read as a student?

Required? I don’t really remember. The only thing I can think of is in 10th grade English we had to read Romeo and Juliet. I was nervous about reading Shakespeare but my teacher was so great and taught us how to understand Shakespeare that I have loved his work ever since!

What book did you hate reading as a student?

I really can’t remember hating anything I read. I’m sure there was something, I just have no memory of it.

What is your favorite book to recommend to children?

I love to recommend Matthew Kirby’s books. He is a great storyteller and each book fits a different genre.

If you could only bring three books to a desert island, which would you pack?


Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen OR A Room with a View by E.M. Forster, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

By the Book Posts compiled by Nikki Gregerson, District Elementary Library Media Specialist, Educational Technology Department

Filed Under: News, Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: By the Book, Elementary Media Clerks, Jennifer Porter, Literacy Promotion, Nikki Gregerson, OverDrive, Reading Resources

By the Book: Jenny Peirce, Kearns High School

December 2016Josh Whiting

Beehive Book Award Display at Kearns High Library

120916_0009_1.jpgJenny Peirce has been the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist for the last 5 years at Kearns High School. Before that she was an STS and eMints Instructional Coach for 5 years. She started her career at Granite teaching 4th grade at Beehive Elementary.

Her faculty says that they love having her at Kearns. She keeps the school running smoothly and is always willing to help. One teacher made the comment, “Jenny is always so patient even when I ask the same question over and over again. We are so fortunate to have her at Kearns HS.”

Jenny is creative, does monthly promotions and makes sure that students feel welcome and that they have all the new releases.  [Read more…] about By the Book: Jenny Peirce, Kearns High School

Filed Under: Library Spotlights, Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: By the Book, Cindy Moyle, Jenny Peirce, Kearns High School, Library Promotions, LMETS, OverDrive, Reading Promotions, Reading Resources

By the Book: Liz Goodwin, Silver Hills Elementary

September 2016Josh Whiting

Nikki Gregerson, elementary library media supervisor, will be spotlighting elementary media clerks throughout Granite School District this year by having them answer a series of questions about their reading lives and favorite books to recommend to students. We will be featuring selections from these “By the Book” spotlights here on the Granite EdTech blog, and all of them will be posted once or twice weekly on Granite Media, our school libraries web site. As they share their recommendations, some book titles or author names in the spotlights will be linked to ebooks and digital audiobooks in Granite’s OverDrive Digital Library, which students and staff in Granite School District can check out to read or listen to from any computer or mobile device. 

By the Book: Liz Goodwin, Silver Hills Elementary

Liz Goodwin has been a media clerk for eight years at Silver Hills Elementary School. She has worked hard to make the library at her school a vibrant place that students and teachers love to visit!

What books are currently on your nightstand?

A pile of books about the American Revolution and the Civil War and The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.

What was the last great book you read?


Bill O’Reilly’s Legends & Lies by David Fisher and Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly

The last book that made you cry?

The Walk series by Richard Paul Evans

The last book that made you laugh?

My Teacher is an Idiom by Jamie Gilson, illustrated by Debbie Tilley

What kind of reader were you as a child? What childhood books and authors stick with you the most?

I was an avid reader, I gained a love for historic books, both factual and fictional. I loved mystery and intrigue books, especially ones by Agatha Christie.

What is the best book you were required to read as a student?


I gained a love for the classics because of my English teacher my senior year of high school. Loved the works of Shakespeare, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Daniel Boone by James Daugherty, and Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire.

What book did you hate reading as a student?

Maybe my mathematics and science textbooks?

What is your favorite book to recommend to children?

The Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hale, the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, the Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald, the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park, the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, the 39 Clues series, books by Roald Dahl, books by Lemony Snicket, books by Jerry Spinelli, and biographies.

If you could only bring three books to a desert island, which would you pack?

Anything historical, fact or fiction, an Agatha Christie book, and a Mary Higgins Clark book.

Filed Under: Library SpotlightsTagged With: By the Book, Elementary Media Clerks, Liz Goodwin, Nikki Gregerson, OverDrive, Reading Resources, Silver Hills Elementary

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