It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/30/13

I'm joining in this meme today. Make sure you visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers to read other book blogs and add more titles to your shelves! 

I love the winter break. It's when I evaluate my reading goals, pull books off of my TBR (to-be-read) stacks, and enjoy a good book without a time limit. It's probably also a good time to go through my personal library and see which titles I can pass on. I've run out of shelf space!

Here are my reading highlights for last week!


An old favorite/middle grade:

THE ENORMOUS EGG by Oliver Butterworth; illustrated by Louis Darling
Published: 1956
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Picture books:

TAP THE MAGIC TREE by Christie Matheson
Published: 2013
Published by: Greenwillow Books

TRAIN by Elisha Cooper
Published: 2013
Published by: Orchard Books

A wonderful picture book about the world of trains. (A reread for me.)


Early Reader:

PENNY AND HER MARBLE by Kevin Henkes
Published: 2013
Published by: Greenwillow Books

This one was a reread. I love this series!

Young Adult  AND a 2014 title:

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart
Publisher: Delacorte Press

Look for WE WERE LIARS in May 2014. I'm still thinking about this one. It's one of those books you want to immediately reread because it was so good!


Young Adult:

ABSENT by Katie Williams
Published: 2013
Published by: Chronicle Books

Series/2014 title:

I also read THE SHADOW THRONE: (THE ASCENDANCE TRILOGY #3) by Jennifer Nielsen. I loved this entire series! Look for this title in February. In the meantime, make sure to check out THE FALSE PRINCE and THE RUNAWAY KING (#1 AND #2 in the series).

What I'm reading this week:

BREAKFAST ON MARS: edited by Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe
Published: 2013
Published by Roaring Brook Press

BETTER OFF FRIENDS by Elizabeth Eulberg
Publication date: Feb. 25, 2014
Published by: Point (Scholastic imprint)

What have you been reading? Hope your 2014 is filled with great books!

On-the-Spot Recommendations

It was the day after Christmas and I could think of no better place to be than the bookstore. Two books I had ordered were ready for pick-up,  and I was eager to get them. As I entered the store, I ran into a teacher friend. She showed me the books she was buying and looked at the books I had in my hand. I mentioned I was going to the children's section to browse, and she said she'd like to follow. We walked over to the picture books, and I asked myself: What books should I recommend to her?

After about two seconds of thinking, these two immediately came to mind:

JOURNEY is such a stunning book.  The readers in my library have loved it, too, and I know this by the comments of praise they make when they open it. I also gave this book as a gift to several on my Christmas list! 

It is wordless and entirely beautiful.  

But when we went to look for it on the shelf, it was gone! Sold out. I was so sad about this. But very happy for the person(s) who bought it. 

Then I looked for this one, hoping I'd have better luck: 

MR. TIGER GOES WILD by Peter Brown is captivating and wonderful! The patterns and intricacies are eye-catching and I could literally stare at this books for hours! I love the story and Mr. Tiger and, once again, I am amazed at Peter Brown's ability to create such a unique and beautifully illustrated work. 

Except when I went to the shelf, it wasn't there either! I was disappointed, yet not surprised. Someone had picked it up. Someone really smart!

So I glanced at the other books on the shelf, and I tried desperately to find something else my friend should buy. (Really, I just wanted to put the previously mentioned books in her hands. Truly nothing else would suffice.) I made small talk, not finding anything else, when I just casually glanced up and saw MR. TIGER GOES WILD perched on a really high shelf! "Oh, look! There's Mr. Tiger!" I said with delight in my voice--almost as if Mr. Tiger himself was there. 

I handed the book to her and said very confidently "You will LOVE it!" She took the book from me without a question, and I could tell she was happy, too! (My friend is a great writing teacher, so I know she will probably use it as mentor text! Hurray!)

After a brief conversation, we said our goodbyes and I headed to the cash register to pay for these books: (I had read library copies, but wanted my own! )

As I took my place in line, I saw my friend waiting ahead of me. "Look what I found!" she said, and as I turned to look at her to see what she was talking about it, I joyfully saw that she had a copy of JOURNEY in her hands. "Yeah!" I said.  I was so very happy at that moment--happy that my friend would be reading these wonderful books, and then happy for her students because I knew she'd be sharing them. I realize now that books continue to bring me joy even long after I've read them for the first time. When I share them with others, the joy gets passed on, and that in itself, brings MORE joy. 

What two picture books would YOU recommend to a friend if you ran into them today? Be ready! 

A Library Kind of Holiday

Making the library an inviting place is very important to me. I want it to be a place that everyone wants to visit! A trip to our library should be a pleasant experience for all! This is my daily goal.

And thanks to Pinterest and my wonderful parent volunteers, it's a little easier to do!

When you enter the library, you will first notice a gingerbread house.

(You should know that this gingerbread house is made of cardboard!) It stands about three feet tall and rests on a table. Around the edges of the table, readers find a legend marked with cards. 

Each card matches a genre/book type with a symbol representing something one might put on a gingerbread house (peppermints, candy, cookies, etc.). These symbols are stickers. When a reader leaves the circulation desk, they tell me or my volunteers what symbol represents the book they checked out. Then readers place the sticker wherever they think it should go on the house. (I'm so thankful to my wonderful volunteer mom who made this for us! Didn't she do a FABULOUS job? ) Since we didn't decorate the library walls completely, I'm saving the house for next year, and we will add to it. It will be a new tradition!

My parent volunteer also assembled a book tree.

It's topped with the book STARS by Seymour Simon! We used old encyclopedias for this! Total: 224 books.

Check out the other holiday decorations:

These book trees were centerpieces for every table. Students were so fascinated with them! I loved having these out when our library hosted parent meetings!

We also had this wall decoration. I think it looks like a Christmas card!

And, our own library elf came to visit, too! His name is George, and he loves books! (Of course!)

I thought this tiny version of THE VERY BUSY SPIDER was a perfect book for George!

I found many paper airplanes all over the library this day!

I'm not quite sure how George managed this! ;-)

My first holiday season in the library was truly memorable! I'm sad to put everything away. I can't wait for next year!

It's on to January and snoman displays. But that is another post!

What holiday displays do you have in your library?

My First Mock Caldecott

I love reading and learning about the Caldecott and Newbery books. I started my own Caldecott and Newbery challenges in 2011,  and although it's taking me awhile to read them, I will read eventually read them all.  As a teacher for the last couple of years, I did share many of the books with my class, and last year, we even did our own Mock Caldecott unit. So now as a librarian, it is especially wonderful to share the Caldecott books in my own library.

Since this was my first Mock Caldecott as a librarian, I wanted to try something different. I read about what some of my awesome librarian friends had done, and then I decided on a format that would work for me. There are many great librarians who have done thiis, and it can be done in so many ways. The key is finding what works for you & your students. 

I wanted to have our winner chosen by the time they are announced in January, so I started this last week. (I am attending the Youth Media Awards for the third time, so I am excited about hearing the announcement in person and sharing the experience with my school!) 

I decided to do the Mock Caldecott with our 3rd and 4th graders. I see them each once a week, and I know they love picture books, too. I'd already read them THIS IS NOT MY HAT and A BALL FOR DAISY, and we took one class period to read through some of the older previous winners. (They really loved SNOW DAY!)

I'm on Goodreads, and I read picture books as soon as I can get my hands on them. So I was confident enough to come up with own shortlist of potential winners. I took into consideration the buzz I'd been hearing, as well as what I thought my students would like. Also , I knew my list couldn't be too long.  

Some of the books on our shortlist:

There were 7 others books on the list that I will reveal in a later post! ;-)

First, we reviewed the criteria for the Caldecott Award: I made sure they understood the word "distinguished".  We talked about how the illustrations needed to help tell the story.

I laid out the books on tables, and students paired up to read them together. We spent a few minutes at each book, then moved on the next. After, each student voted by ranking the books as 1, 2, or 3 with 1 being the book they thought should win. Each 3rd and 4th grade class will vote, and I will ask some 5th grade helpers to tally the votes for me. I know this system will work within the time frame I have available. 

I'll announce the votes after we return from the winter break.

I really enjoyed watching and listening as students examined the books. Their comments were genuine, heartfelt, and insightful. I thought of the authors and illustrators who wrote them, and I knew they would have loved to have been there to listen, too.

If this process works, I will keep it for next year. If not, I will be happy to adapt it! 

More Nonfiction!

I've been reading some wonderful nonfiction lately, but I think I've been reading it too quickly to write about it.

So in this post, I want to share one title I read recently:

THOMAS JEFFERSON BUILDS A LIBRARY by Barb Rosenstock (illustrated by John O'Brien)
Publisher: Calkins Creek
Published: Sept. 1, 2013
Pages: 32

From the title alone, you can see why I was drawn to it. It's the telling of Thomas Jefferson's love of books, and the building of his library. We see how Jefferson started his library and through wonderful pen and ink illustrations, we are told (and shown) interesting facts that depict just how much his library meant to him. I loved reading about how he sorted his books, and about how Jefferson grew his collection. He bought many books! (Something I can relate to!)

It's a biography of Jefferson's reading life.

It made me think about my own reading biography.

I will read and reread this book.

My love of nonfiction picture books grows and grows!

What nonfiction book am I reading now?

I am grateful to the wonderful authors of children's nonfiction. They make it possible for my students (and their librarian) to learn more about the world!

"Discovering" Nonfiction

Listening to an author talk about his/her work has an enormous impact on a reader.

Case in point: Me.

Sy Montgomery at the Children's Literature Assembly Breakfast -- NCTE 2013

At  the Children's Literature Assembly breakfast at NCTE, Sy Montgomery spoke about her book THE TAPIR SCIENTIST. 

She told us interesting stories about the Pantanal and the field work scientists do with tapirs. Montgomery partners with photographer Nic Bishop (who Skyped in from New Zealand) to create award-winning nonfiction books such as KAKAPO RESCUE: SAVING THE WORLD'S STRANGEST PARROT and THE SNAKE SCIENTIST. When you listen to her speak, you walk away knowing how passionate she is about her work: "When you are around cheetahs purring, it is like the ocean is in your heart," she said. As we listened, Bishop and Montgomery exchanged memories of their perilous adventures together. These were stories that made us gasp in amazement and admire them all the more. I appreciated what a privilege it was to be in the audience.

This one session -- all too brief--had its effect. When I returned from NCTE, I had a hunger for nonfiction picture books. (While I have, of course, read non-fiction, seeing something with 'fresh eyes' makes you more grateful for it.) I found as many as I could and started pouring through them. I "discovered" detailed books with authors notes, and sidebars, illustrations, captions, photographs, inset maps, etc. I "discovered" rich, exciting pieces of text that inspired me to learn more. I marveled at the thoroughness, and at the myriads of stories contained in one book. I spent a glorious eternity on each page, writing down questions on sticky notes, doing more research,  devouring the learning, and adding even more books to my to-be-read stacks.

After each book, I felt more connected to the world somehow. I also was very grateful that writers like Montgomery devote their time to bringing us these true stories.

My hope is that the young readers in my library will share this same excitement. I take advantage of author visits when possible, and I do love to bring authors in via Skype (most recently, Jennifer Nielsen, author of THE FALSE PRINCE). I wish I could bring in every author I read! But I will do what I can do. I can provide the books and feature them. And I  can only know the books if I've  read them. Some have told me, "You can't read every book." True, but I definitely want to try.

One Book at a Time!

At NCTE, books were everywhere. I was completely overwhelmed, but in a good way.

Titles flashed at me from booths, shelves, displays. Conference attendees and authors named book after book. Friends discussed book after book. I added to my list. My to-be-read shelves are overflowing. 

I am surrounded by books in my library. Every day I hear about a new book I want to read. 

How can I ever manage to read them all? More importantly,  how can I ever manage to share them all with readers? 

I asked myself these questions and looked at my stacks. And then overwhelmed once again, I just picked one. 

And that is how it must be. We start with one.  It starts with one book, and even if we don't love everything in that book, the experience leads us to another. And another. 

And that, in turn, gives us the confidence and energy to share it. We have that familiarity that emboldens us to share it  with younger readers who look to us for help in choosing. Indeed, imagine! If these endless stacks of books are overwhelming to us, how overwhelming they must be for our younger readers! 

The act of reading helps us guide readers. They count on us. They count on me. 

What ONE book will you choose today?

It's Monday! What are you reading? 12/2/13

During my Thanksgiving vacation, I had some time to read, write, and think. It was really good to have a day open with stacks of books ready for me. I had some trouble deciding what to read at first because I had so many choices, but I think I reached for what I needed. Sometimes I think the books find us as readers, don't you?

I read several books, but the books I want to share with you are:

ELECTRIC BEN by Robert Byrd
DIAL (PENGUIN) 2013

This is a picture book about Benjamin Franklin that is filled with information presented in a very lively way. If you haven't read some good children's nonfiction lately, take a look at this one and you'll get a taste of the great stuff that's being published today.

SERAFINA'S PROMISE by Ann E. Burg
SCHOLASTIC 2013

This is a beautifully written novel in verse. I was captivated by it completely. It reminded me of INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN and HOME OF THE BRAVE. I highly recommend it, and it will stay with me forever. In fact, I know it deserves a reread.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia
HARPER COLLINS 2010

I should have read this one a long time ago. I guess you could call it one of my "book gaps". It's historical fiction set in the late 60s, and when you read it, you'll understand why it has four stickers on the cover. I loved the sisters and especially Delphine (main character)--who told us her story so well.

I connected with each character in these books in different ways. As a reader, I found something in each that I could take with me or make me better. Each also left me in awe of the talent of authors today. I am grateful to them for working so hard to bring great stories to us.

As readers, we find what we need in books. That's why we keep reaching for them.

What are you reading this week?