PLEASE don't worry about overdue books: 

June 3: The online book club is preparing for a second meeting. We will be choosing a book this week. It's not too late to be a part of it. Contact Mr. Kline if you are interested. I would like to get a middle school club going. Contact Mr. Kline if you are interested in starting that up.

I added a review of Victor LaValle's The Big Machine to the book review page. I will be adding a review of We Were Liars later this week. Currently I'm reading Mermaids in Paradise and listening to The Gone-Away War.

May 27: Joe is back with another review. He takes on Toy Story 4. Is it worth playing with these toys anymore?

May 20: Check out Joe's latest movie reviews.

May 14: Formative (or GoFormative) is now available for free. It seems like a valuable resource. Check it out.

May 11: The online book club is up and running, but it's not too late to be a part of it.

We are reading We Were Liars. You can fill out the survey on this page or send an email to Mr Kline if you want to join. 

I posted a review of Parasite (the book) on the book reviews page. I stared listening to The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

May 6: In Joe's latest movie review, he wants you to know that Bloodshot is based on a comic book. Check out his full review.

May the Fourth be with you: Reading updates. I just finished the Rabbit Back Literature Society; check out the review that will be available soon. I'm currently reading The Big Machine by Victor LaVelle and listening to Parasite by Mira Grant.

May 1: Check out Joe's review of The Invisible Man. The Massachusetts Library System is providing free access to Teen Book Cloud and Audio Book Cloud.

April 29: A new movie from Joe is available. See what he thinks of Marriage Story.

April 28: Book trailer for The Giver.

April 23: I have added a review of The Giver to the book reviews page.

April 22: If you are interested in being part of an online book club, please complete the survey at the bottom of this page. Also, a new movie review is posted on the Joe Reviews the Movies page. Be sure to check it out. And, as promised, I have added a book reviews page. It's a work in progress. Be sure to visit as it grows.

April 21: I will be posting a one question survey today or tomorrow regarding an online book club. If I get two or more interested, I'll start it up.

April 20: I'll be adding a book review page soon. If you want to add a book review, please send it to me and I'll add it. I will be starting with As She Came across the Table (good) and The Deep (bad). I would love to see some of your reviews. I'll happily publish the anonymously. I just started The Rabbit Back Literary Society and Parasite (not the movie). So far, so good.

April 13: I am starting/continuing to read books that are "lost" on the shelves. Books that we have in the library that have been overlooked. The first book is Reality Check by Peter Abrahams. I will be posting reviews of these as I finish them. 

I am also reading The Giver with my daughter and Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table for me. I'm also listening to The Deep by NIck Cutter.

I just finished reading American Dirt, and I'm listening to Hollow Kingdom. American Dirt is about a mother and son who are forced to immigrate illegally to the US after tragedy strikes their family. Hollow Kingdom is told from the point-of-view of a domesticated crow during a zombie apocalypse.

BIG LIBRARY READ

The current Big Library Read is Funny, You Don't Look Autistic by Michael McCreary. This is a really funny book that I highly recommend. As the Big Library Read, the eBook is made available for all via CW Mars and Boston Public Library, no wait. It only goes on until mid-April. Take advantage of this opportunity.

Online Book Club Survey located at the bottom of the page.

READING RESOURCES

Sora by Overdrive: Murdock owns many eBooks and a few audiobooks. These are free resources that you can check out when you are looking for a book to read. For phones or other handheld devices, the Sora app is available through most app stores. On a computer (i.e. chromebook), you can access Sora through the Sora website. The website is linked above. HELP

The Massachusetts Library System is providing free access to Teen Book Cloud and Audio Book Cloud. These are Tumblebooks products. If you are asked for a username and password, use: username: matumbles and password: trial.

With over 60,000 free titles, Project Gutenberg is likely the largest database of its kind. These are titles that are in the public domain. There are audiobooks as well as eBooks.

Open Culture offers 800 free ebooks. These are primarily classics but there seems to be titles a bit more recent than Project Gutenberg. The "read online" option does not seem to work, but the epub books, books for Kindle, and iBooks seem to be viable options.

Please take some time and get a Boston Public Library eCard. It's free and anyone 13 or over can get one. You have access to tons of eBooks and Audiobooks via Overdrive. Also, you can check out movies, TV shows, books, and music using Hoopla.

Scribd.com offers a 30 day trial of their ebook service with no credit card required.

Comixology and VIZ Media are your homes for graphic novels and manga. You can find some free titles there.

Audible has a small selection of free audio books in their Audible Stories section.

BookBub offers free and drastically reduced books. Definitely unsubscribe from their emails. 

How to Get Books When Bookstores and Libraries Are Closed

TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES

General: Formative (or GoFormative) is now available for free for a limited time. Check out this article on the many ways to use Formative.

General: 42 Free Online Resources

General: Amazing Educational Resources A growing collection of companies offering free resources.

General: NYTimes Learning Network Our free subscription to NYTimes does not extend outside of the building, but the NYTimes Learning Network is now available for teachers for free.

Math: WPI's ASSISTments--designed for math teachers, and there is also a guide for transitioning to online teaching.

Math: Ascend Math is free through the end of April. Go here for details.

HIstory: The University of Richmond's New American History program. Khan Academy

Reading: ReadWorks.org

Computer Science & Engineering: Amazon is partnering with edHesive to provide free computer science and engineering classes.

General: If your classes use the Adobe suite in your classes, you may have free access to the Creative Cloud through May.

Science: 25 Nature Webcams for Science Learning at a Distance

General: Seneca learning. "Learn 2x faster for free with Seneca"

General: Edpuzzle  EDpuzzle is an incredible-easy-to-use video platform that helps teachers save time, boost classroom engagement and improve student learning through video lessons. EDpuzzle also collects data as students watch and interact with the video.  

Science: Amoeba Sisters YouTube Channel

General: Explain Everything is available for free during the current school closures.

Computer Science: Create with Code-Unity Learning is available for free for three months during the current school closures.

Science: Keep Science Ed Real from REALScienceChallenge.com

Computer Science: Both code.org and MIT's Scratch site offer free lessons on coding.

Kamiis offering a free premium account for teachers during Coronavirus outbreak. "Kami is the leading PDF & document annotation app for schools. Improve engagement and interaction in the classroom with Kami as your digital pen and paper." 

SPECIAL OFFERS

(Sources report issues with availability and hold times for Internet services.)

Internet: Comcast is offering two months of free internet service for qualifying homes.

Internet: Spectrum from Charter is also offering free internet for 60 days, but unfortunately Spectrum does not serve the Winchendon area. However, if you are currently staying somewhere where Spectrum is available, you can see if you are eligible by using the link above.

Hotspots: Xfinity is opening up hotspots for free. Xfinity hotspots in Winchendon can be found here.

Transportation: MART Services free beginning March 24. (Only travel if you absolutely must.)

Newspapers and magazines:Some major national newspapers are offering free access to their online coronavirus coverage.

NYTimes
Washington Post
The AtlanticThe Wall Street Journal
The Philadelphia Inquirer

More newspapers and magazines are sure to follow this lead.

We also have access to the full NYTimes and Boston Globe via our databases.

THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU ARE BORED

Puzzles (Don't have one. There are online puzzles and puzzle apps for your phone.)

Learn a language. Try Duolingo.

Start a journal or a blog.

Online Board Games (no pun intended)

Learn to play an instrument (instrument not included).

Build something. No ideas? Try a little free library.

Listen to a podcast*. Where to start? Try The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. It's a little like Stranger Things. Interesting is stepping up, try Blackout, an apocalyptic thriller set in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Watching Tiger King, check out the podcast that started it all, Joe Exotic. If your therapist stole your house, try The Shrink Next Door. If you dare, try The Edge of Sleep featuring strange sleep disorders, talking whales, and a YouTube star.
*Note that podcasts are, like books, not rated. Please check out full descriptions of any podcast before listening to see if it's right for you.