Summer Reading

Yikes! There is two weeks of summer left and I can't tell where it went. I must even admit that my #bookaday pledge fell by the wayside. Despite it all, I did read 70 books to each of my children and they got their third prize book from our public library yesterday. 

We also got this from the public library yesterday:

I'm not new to Lucille Beatrice Bear, and neither are my children. She is a favorite character. I just love reading it so I can say, "You are right, mom. Children DO make terrible pets." "They really are the worst." 

Funny! Author/Ilustrator Peter Brown is on my list for sure. 

Two more weeks of summer! It's never too late to read AND write. 

Time Out of Time

"Maybe our wishes are rumors of things we are suppose to do."

Santat!

As our school year comes to a close, I'm begging my students to read this summer. I've really been selling Summer Reading to my students in a way I think I've failed to do in the past. This is the poster from the National Summer Reading ad campaign, which happens to be illustrated by Dan Santat. I've thought Santat was cool since "Dog in Charge" came out, but lately he is BLOWING UP. I have two copies of Sidekicks in the library and they never stop circulating. And now we have The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend.

At first I didn't think it was much of a read aloud. But after the third and fourth read I forgot myself and starting noticing how the children were under a spell. And then I just fell in love. I love Beekle. We all love Beekle. 

Friday update, slow reading

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead took me a few days. I'm a little frustrated by how slow my reading has gone, but boy am I READY for summer. 

Liar and Spy was cool, not as wonderful to me as "When You Reach Me" but a neat read. 

I'm interested to see what students think of L&S. Up next...Ordinary Magic. 

Birthday Books: two years old

For my son's second birthday I added to our "baby book" collection. "Kiss,Kiss Goodnight" is a Ken Nesbitt book. He read this to my Kindergartners before it was a published book, straight off his phone. It's adorable. 

This is a wonderful gift for a baby shower.

We also got him "The Goodnight Train", illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith. My son is really into Choo-choos. This was probably his favorite birthday gift. 

 

Rebecca Stead

I finished "First Light" last night. It was dense and didn't really get going until page 150, but it was really imaginative and I plan on recommending it to all my readers who love Gregor the Overlander. 

This morning I began "Liar and Spy", which is a Mark Twain Award Nominee for next year. This book already feels a bit like "When You Reach Me", because of the setting and also the tone. 

If I win the lottery, I'd have Stead be my next visiting author. I love her. 

Paradise in Plain Sight

From the first page, I began to read "Paradise" aloud. And nearly every sentence afterward. Maezen's book wants to be read aloud and if you have ever heard her voice, you will hope she records an audio version. 

"Awaken! Take heed. Do not squander your life." 

I adored Maezen's first two books, but "Paradise" was written by a teacher with her head on fire. This is not a memoir. This is serious stuff. This book is about time. 

"Awaken! Take heed. Do not squander your life." 

Choices

I have a bunch of new fiction in my library right now and I'm kind of paralyzed by the choices. I need to buckle down and get serious about one. I'm going with Rebecca Stead. 

Grounded by Kate Klise

I read the first chapter and put it down. The idea of losing so many family members in a tragic accident bothered me so much, I felt I'd been punched in the face. Somehow, the book turned out to be exciting and fun. This is no Love, Aubrey (sob-fest). Grounded is light hearted and surprisingly optimistic. 

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

"Money talks, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk. Long as I can have you here with me, I'd much rather be Forever In Blue Jeans." - Neil Diamond 

Oh man. Read this lovely book. I closed it hours ago and I'm still grinning my face off. 

History of Books - a lesson with dictionaries

Jeri Chase Ferris's biography of Noah Webster blew our minds today. This story takes us back to the beginning of America, and really, the beginning of books as we know them. And that's a "dictionary lesson" I can get behind. 

First Graders looking at some "historical texts". 

Kate Klise Day!

Not to be gushy or anything...but today was The Greatest Day Ever. Kate taught great writing lessons, told funny stories, and just showered all of us with love. I add this wonderful day with Kate to my list of Days I Wish I Could Live Again. 

Illustrator, Laura Huliska-Beith Day!!

Today Laura Huliska-Beith came to visit! She illustrated The Recess Queen, which is well known, and a bunch of other really pretty, fun books. 

This one is my favorite:

This is the copy I got for my daughter. Laura did such a nice job signing these. My students were so delighted by their signed books. 

Laura was great. She came with so much cool stuff to show us. She brought sketchbooks and a book dummy and she had a great slide show. 

Cheers to a good day in the library!

Grounded, written by Kate Klise, arrived in the mail today, which is just in time because her visit to our school is next week. What a great looking book. 

New Books in the library! Look at all those shiny Newberies!

Biographies with first graders

Reading biographies with first graders today. 

Linda Urban

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about Linda Urban. I'm going to start these pretty little books tonight!

Reading in the Wild

When I read the work of Donalyn Miller, aka The Book Whisperer, she always shows me how painfully misunderstood I was as a student. I was low and lacked study skills, but I was always reading. 

I'm critical of the idea that reading is so important. I'm a reader and a librarian, of couse I think reading is great. But so is painting. And running. And vacuuming. How can I claim my thing is the best thing?

But Miller makes a real case for being a reader. In the first chapter she explains that readers succeed. And it's true of me. I graduated 12th grade a failure. None of my k-12 teachers had any hope for me, but I was a success in college simply because I was a reader. I had been building my reading stamina for years and I could think critically. I got that from simply reading novels I enjoyed.

Cheers to Donalyn Miller. She's a genius. 

Author Study - Patricia Polacco

I completed my Polacco spring break author study, which came out to 25 books. "Thank You, Mr. Faulker" and "Pink and Say" were not available, so the 25 I took home might be lesser known stories.

As I read them I filed it according to how much I like each one. 

My top five were An Orange For Frankie, The Keeping Quilt, John Phillip Duck,For The Love of Autum, and Rechenka's Eggs. 

Dear Genius: the letters of Ursula Nordstrom

I'm reading several books at a time right now, and one of them is "Dear Genius". I got this book for my birthday maybe a year or two ago, but I picked it up at the beginning of spring break and now I'm infatuated. UN was the children's book editor at Harper for like 30 years and was a major force in kid lit. She adored books and authors, and her use of flattery is the real genius. This book of letters is a wonderful read for kid lit book nerds. 

Doing a little bit of pre-spring break reading promotion before a staff meeting.

Plans for Spring Break


Read all the Patricia Polacco books from my library.

We Could Be Brothers by Derrick Barnes.

I have been reading Derrick’s book slowly, but only because I’m savoring it. “We Could Be Brothers” is a really special book, because the story is so sophisticated, but its reading level is about third grade (lexile 600).This book is a treasure for older boys reading below grade level.
Barnes writes the Ruby series as well, which is really enjoyable, but We Could Be Brothers is the real thing. Add this to your classroom libraries.

I’m doing some literary non-fiction reading with my first graders today.

text message book club

The Summer Book is a dream.

Tove’s writing is precise, descriptive, without judgement. The work of a true naturalist. Tove is like V. Woolf, except more gentle and never boring.

Snow Day Reading:
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, an adult book I am reading with some friends.
We Could Be Brothers by Derrick Barnes, the author who recently visited my school.
Sarah’s Key, my book group’s March pick.

February's Bibliography

(A list of all things referenced here in the month of February 2014)

Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo

Bink and Gollie, two for one by Kate DiCamillo

Bink and Gollie: best friends forever by Kate DiCamillo

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

The Show Must Go On – Three Ring Rascals Series by Kate Klise

Ruby and the Booker Boys by Derrick Barnes

We Could Be Brothers by Derrick Barnes

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Library Sparks – March 2014

Flora and Ulysses: the illuminated adventures by Kate DiCamillo

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Penny and Her Doll by Kevin Henkes

Penny and Her Song by Kevin Henkes

This is my third Scholastic Book Fair this year. Yes, I’m that good. And that’s why I get paid The Big Bucks.

The House of the Scorpion has been sitting around my house for awhile. I wanted to read it because it’s a Newbery honor book, but I was a little nervous to start it because A Girl Named Disaster, also by Nancy Farmer, took me a month to read.


Anyway, I’m on page 80 and I started it at 9:00 last night. This book is Captivating! Nancy Farmer is a terrific writer.

This evening I will be introducing a Classic to Ramona. She’s already a big time Henkes fan, having already fallen in love with Penny.

Update: Ramona did not like Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. It kind of scared her when Lilly was naughty at school and wrote her teacher a mean letter. I shouldn’t be surprised. Ramona has a serious aversion to drama of any kind.

Thoughts on Dead End in Norvelt

Dead End in Norvelt is surprisingly folksy. It was strange to meet a more wholesome younger Gantos alter-ego after having previously read Hole in my Life and watching Jack go to prison. I would really love to re-read the whole Gantos cannon and really get down to the bottom of his disfunction.

I LONG to have a Flora and Ulysses tattoo. Is this possible?

At Barnes & Noble, scouting out the new books. We both prefer the library, but this is a good perspective from time to time.

Professional reading at Ramona’s gymnastics class. Really and truly, Library Sparks is a great resource, but only if you read it. My favorite columns are Toni Buzzeo’s Reader’s Theater and So Many Books…So Little Time.

Bedtime reading tonight was a Bink and Gollie marathon. Ramona is mining these books for vocabulary. Mom, what’s Destiny, Film, Inquire, Andes Mountains???
I really love Bink and Gollie. And Ramona, who is a “marvelous companion”.

Author visit day!! We had author Derrick Barnes visit us today. He is the author of the Ruby books and a new middle grade novel,”We Could Be Brothers” which is going on my to-read list. It’s so great to meet authors and always makes me so thankful for my very cool job.

Sunday Read - I revere Gantos. His books “Hole In My Life” and the Joey Pigza books are on my Best Books list. I can’t wait to read this 2012 Newbery Medal winner.

Valentine from my sweet husband. Love the Library

thoughts on The Moorchild

Abandoning books is hard for me. I need to be ok with walking away from books, because there is so much I want to read. I resisted abandoning The Moorchild because I so wanted to love this book. But it literally puts me to sleep. As soon as the author starts talking about the moor I just want to close my eyes and dream of moors.

I’m starting my first Kate Klise book today. She is very popular with my student readers AND she’s visiting our school in April!


Edit: I tried to read it aloud to Ramona. (She’s really game for listening to anything as long as it keeps her from having to go to bed.) But it was a bit over her head. She didn’t like it because “the characters were mean”. Once I began to read it silently I really enjoyed the quick and very sweet storyline. Plus, Sir Sidney has potential to become a much beloved storybook character.
Did I mention she’s coming to my school!!

The illustrations by Patrice Barton are wonderful. The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig.

This is a hopeful story about a quiet boy who finds a friend.

thoughts on The Year of Billy Miller

The Billy Miller family reminds me of the Quimbys. So much of childhood drama comes from being misunderstood and the intense need for love. Cleary understood this as she was writing for children.

This book is worth the Newbery honor. It’s a really neat pick.

early thoughts on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

"He was the loser Indian father of a loser Indian son living in a world build for winners.
But he loved me so much.”

This book is something you fall into and drown, love, and never quit thinking about.

My weekend just got SERIOUS. I had started The Moorchild this morning, but both of these books appeared before me at school today and I couldn’t ignore the cosmos.

I’m beginning a Newbery Honor book today from 1997, which was the same year E.L. Konigsburg won with A View From Saturday.

early thoughts on The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

Almost immediately I see how this book is from the same place as Creech’s other Newbery winner “Walk Two Moons”. A quick shift in the sixth chapter reveals that this story is told by a very unreliable narrator and that this is a story where the journey is not just an epic sea voyage, but also an uncovering of the truth. Similar to Walk Two Moons.
If I taught children’s lit,Sharon Creech would be a whole course.

I’m begining a “Newbery” on this snow day.

I finished Pride and Prejudice this evening. Despite the fact that I was assured to the fact of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy’s eventual marriage, I was still quite anxious to find it all neatly tied up.
This book was fine, but it felt more like history than literature to me. I am now downgraded to having really enjoyed Austen when I was younger.

Happy Snowy Saturday from Bink and Gollie. (This is our Saturday morning read. Ramona and I are developing a deep and lasting love for B&G, tree houses and pancakes/peanut butter sandwiches)