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Book Review: The Forbidden Orchid by Sharon Biggs Waller

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Release date: March 8, 2016 Author info: Website | Twitter | Facebook Publisher: Viking Pages: 392 Format: Hardcover Source: Purchased Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository Staid, responsible Elodie Buchanan is the eldest of ten sisters living in a small English market town in 1861. The girls barely know their father, a plant hunter usually off adventuring through China. Then disaster strikes: Mr. Buchanan reneges on his contract to collect an extremely rare and valuable orchid. He will be thrown into debtors’ prison while his daughters are sent to the orphanage and the workhouse. Elodie can’t stand by and see her family destroyed, so she persuades her father to return to China once more to try to hunt down the flower—only this time, despite everything she knows about her place in society, Elodie goes with him. She has never before left her village, but what starts as fear turns to wonder as she adapts to seafaring life aboard the tea clipper T

MUVE

I don't play a lot of games, but I have tried playing Minecraft. It's not something I understand or want to play, yet I can see a value for it. I haven't understood how Minecraft, with its simplicity of design and graphics, has become such a phenomenon, when, leading up to it, the focus has been on more and more sophisticated and realistic graphics. However, I do see how the Minecraft obsession could be used to teach kids. They will see anything involving their favorite game as fun, but there are certainly elements that could be used, and the design elements can be astounding. Minecraft also has an education edition created just for that purpose. Librarians can use MUVEs, gaming, and interactive technologies to teach students how to collaborate (as seen in the Minecraft education edition) and, I think more importantly, kind of trick students into learning through gaming. It's a little like the games I played in elementary school, like Yukon Trail. I was playing on t

Social Networks

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I, like most people my age, use social networks daily. On a personal basis, I maintain Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts. I am also a book blogger, though, so I also have a Facebook and Twitter page for my blog--which can act personally, but are used to advertise posts on my blog. In addition, I am responsible for the social media accounts for my Barnes & Noble store. We have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Needless to say, I spend more time than I'd like on social media! My two favorite social networks to use are Twitter and Snapchat. All social media seems transient, but Snapchat is even more so than the rest. Snaps are sent to the friends you choose or added to your story, but the snaps disappear after a designated amount of time. Stories are available for 24 hours, and disappear as well. It's a fun way to show your friends what you're doing, without clogging up a feed, like could happen on so many of the other social networks, including Twitter