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.