Need to Know for Friday, February 26

• The first official day of Campus-Based Instruction (CBI) is Monday, March 1 for Re-Orientation! Green a is Monday; Blue a is Tuesday; Green b is Thursday; and Blue b is Friday. All February, US students have been on campus for advisory-based Studio time in order to help them get used to simply being in classrooms with other kids. Now the fun begins! Students will come to campus from 12:00-3:15 pm PT for an interactive orientation at which they will learn the new safety protocols, the technology needed for hybrid classes, and how to make the most of learning on campus. To keep track of everything, put this handy visual calendar on your fridge! And most importantly, please reach out with any questions at all.
• This week, your child received a survey about CBI lunch. Bon Appetit will be making upwards of 800 sack lunches each day, so in order to reduce food waste, we'd like to get an approximate count of how many US students will be opting for the sack lunch beginning on March 30. The kitchen cannot accommodate dietary restrictions other than vegetarian and gluten free; students are welcome to bring their own lunch (as long as it is allergy aware!). 
• Aardvark Science Expo is February 26! Check out the first-ever SRP webpage, which features many Aardvark research projects. 
• On March 3, YA author Brandy Colbert will be speaking to the Upper School about her books, her writing process, her activism, and her experience as a black woman in publishing. 
• This week's Chapel celebrated Black History Month with, among other things, a playlist the Black Student Union created.

Jelly Rec: Book Recommendations from US Librarian Erika Jelinek

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Strange things are pretty much always afoot in New York City, but things get super weird and tentacle-y (it's a word now!) in N.K. Jemisin's brilliant The City We Became. A lot of the fun of this book is riding along with each of Jemisin's borough-embodying characters as they figure out why there are suddenly ghostly tentacle creatures taking over the city, and why they can feel this alien invasion in the core of their souls, so I'm not going to give much of a plot synopsis. The less you know going in, the better. Instead, let's just say that it is one of the best fantastical books I have read, ever. It's endlessly inventive, bizarre, campy, and laced with razor-sharp social commentary. Jemisin captures New York beautifully, sharpening and illuminating the nuances of its different boroughs. It's the ultimate New York novel from one of the most celebrated voices in contemporary SFF writing, and this former New Yorker can't recommend it highly enough.

We're in This Together: Resources for Parenting Teens During Covid-19

• How Parents Can Help Kids Who Are Scared and Anxious During The Pandemic via Mind/Shift
• America's Mothers Are in Crisis. Is Anyone Listening? via The New York Times
• How Friends Influence One Another In High School via Mind/Shift
• Teen Vaping Rates Are Leveling Off But Still High via Health Day