Lego Instructions for the Visually-Impaired

I've been a librarian long enough to remember life before the Internet. In fact I remember the very first internet-connected device I had in one of my schools.....the very first story I received was the news that Dr. Seuss had died in the Fall of 1991. Before the Internet, librarians spent a lot of time clipping and filing newspaper and magazine articles and pamphlets and other small materials by subject that we knew might be of interest to someone in the future in folders stored in alphabetically arranged drawers called a Vertical File. Now Google and the Internet perform the same task. So occasionally I'll drop in a link to a story that might be of interest to someone, that you might have
missed like this.

A Blind Man Fulfills Mission To Make Legos Accessible For Visually Impaired

August 31, 2019 5:17 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

Usually I try to read most of our fiction before the books are available to students, but I knew these were popular, and like you, I knew I wanted to read them all...and in order.

Five young dragons from different tribes have been raised together to fulfill a prophesy to bring an end to the war among the tribes. Each of the dragons narrates the first five books with adventures in the realms of the Mudwings, Skywings, Seawings, Rainwings, Sandwings, and Nightwings.

In books six through ten, a group of dragons meet at a school set up by the prophesy dragons to bring the tribes together. But they soon discover they have unusual powers and band together to defeat a dark power that threatens the dragons.

Book eleven starts a new series on another continent where the Silkwings and Hivewings banded together to defeat the Leafwings, but the peace isn't what it seems and Silkwings Blue, Luna, and Swordtail band together with Hivewing Cricket and Leafwing Sundew to steal the most secret book in the land and then reveal the hive queen's secrets.

If you've read Erin Hunter's Warriors, these books may seem familiar. It shouldn't surprise you that Tui T. Sutherland was one of the authors who wrote under the name Erin Hunter and now she is writing her own series.

Want to learn more? Here are some links for Wings of Fire.

• Wings of Fire Wiki
  --tons of information about characters, locations, and plots contributed by fans.
• Wings of Fire Scholastic Kids
  --including a video trailer for the books and graphic novels, an interview with the author, and an interactive game.

Want to put one on hold today? Click here to log in to your school library.

Where's Mr. Butts?

The Kalamazoo Pipe Band has had a busy summer. I saw some of you at the Irish Fest in June and then at the Fourth of July parade in Schoolcraft. In August we competed at the St. Andrews Highland Games in Detroit. I also competed in solo piping. Here's the band playing our medley for competition.



On September 7th, we'll be playing at the Portage Heritage Festival at Celery Flats. Come say "hi."