ToMorrow! ToMorrow!

I love ya tomorrow........

Singer I am not. Reader I am.

Tomorrow starts the Shelf Challenge!! I am so excited to be a part of this challenge. As a newbie school librarian I have been randomly reading all school year. I have read Sequoyah winners and nominees, I have read old favorites, I have read the books most checked out, I have read (almost) all the new books I have purchased this year, I have read teacher and student recommendations.

And now----I'm going to read the H section of our everybody books!!! I am so excited!! Ms. Shelly, my amazing assistant, chose the H section for me and I chose the D/E section for her. We have our reading logs posted on the circulation desk and are excited to read our first book tomorrow! We are going to record and rate each book we read and post our results for patrons to see. Which book will be first? What will it be? Should I start with the first or just choose? I think I will have a student choose for me each day!!

Our students get to have a reading challenge as well. They will check out from our challenge letter daily. I hope we make it through the alphabet. We will start with the M's tomorrow. I hope this challenge helps to energize us all as we feel the drain of almost continuous test prep! Our fifth graders will be taking the writing test Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Too bad I can't read during the test!!

Let the reading begin!

How did I miss this??

Christmas break had barely begun for this new teacher-librarian when I was busy shopping cooking wrapping reading a book. Of course chosen from my school library. On the last day of school waiting in the quiet of the shelves, I browsed for reading material for break. I choose Gregor the Overlander(more later when I finish the series)  and The Calder Game.

The school secretary--former library aid--recommended the Gregor series. I only brought home the first because I was too lazy to carry them all!

I chose The Calder Game by Blue Balliett because there were three on the shelf. Now for many that would not mean anything but in my library that means it was once a Sequoyah nominee. One of our past librarians bought the nominees in threes. I don't know why....but it is the clue in our library. Last year's librarian only ordered one copy of each and I have been stressed with that this year so I think I will be ordering two of each....just right!!

On to The Calder Game....I loved this book. Granted it was for elementary to mid school kids, but it is also one of a series. Now I want to read the first two--Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3! A fun mystery that made you think. Of course I immediately had to get on the internet to find out if Calder was a true artist...yep! I recognized the mobiles immediately....there is one in OKC art museum. I loved how the characters created word mobiles.

The wheels in my mind are spinning on ideas to do this in the library!

This is the first book in a long time that makes me want to travel to England!

This was  a great reminder that old books are still good reads!!

Go stick your nose in one...NOW!
Happy break-Kathy

post for class

As an avid reader, the requirements for this class have been manageable. I would rather read a book than….well, just about everything. As a kid I used reading as a way to avoid chores. Mom never made me stop reading to make my bed or do laundry. Reading was more important. As an adult, I have followed that philosophy. Many a day I have spent reading while the laundry piles up and dishes have gone unmade. I could even confess to children (my own) begging me to put down a book and cook supper...PLEASE!!

So now after all this reading for class, I am craving a good book. Not one for class, not one that I have to write a review or summary for, not one that connects to anything. Just a good book—one I can fall into and let the laundry pile up again. Well, I think I found that book. It is waiting for me. Even though it is waiting patiently, it leaves me little reminders. At the theater I saw a trailer for the movie it has become and Saturday I saw it sitting on a shelf. Yes, just sitting there waiting patiently for me on a shelf in Room 137. And, since it was the 10 minute break during the ACT test I was monitoring (another story) I decided to pick it up. In ten minutes I fell in love, I almost even fell into the story, but the timer went off and I got back to work watching fresh faced high schoolers search their brains for answers to many of life’s important questions. I had to leave the book because it wasn’t mine but I am coveting it. I want it for my own. It is the carrot I hold out as I push through these final weeks of the semester. It will be my graduation gift to myself.

I only had time to read the author’s notes before the timer rang. I read it so quickly I don’t even remember the words, just the feeling it left me holding. The author told of writing a book that didn’t work. Each element perfect alone. Each element refusing to blend with the others. The author told this story of failure with such clarity that I wanted to share his words with my students so they would know that all experience failure. To know that this deep failure results in a novel that has become a movie brought wonder to me. I fell in love with this forward.

As I began to research this book for this assignment I have begun to have doubts. See-- I have now lost my book to just read…it is an assignment now! Upon searching the web for this book I have learned that the author is Yann Martel. I have also discovered naysayers, negative Nellie’s, and spoiler alerts. Apparently this forward I had fallen in love with is indeed fictitious. Really! I am not for sure if I am taken aback or just taken in. According to numerous reviews this story, Live of Pi, is about a boy shipwrecked with a Bengal tiger…or maybe not. Perhaps it is a story about discovering God or some form of spirituality. Or perhaps it is just a good book. A book I can fall into. How many days until graduation?         

       

 

Reading.....

Working my way through all my school work.

for Advanced children's lit I had to reread The Giver. Now I am wanting to reread the next two so I can read Son which is new to me. Also read Cinderella variants-Yo Shen and The Talking Eggs. Just wrote a discussion post about Shredderman:Secret Identity. I read that one when I worked at first school and had a bully problem. The kids loved it--even the class bully!

For Young Adult Lit I have reread many old favorites for the big assignment-The Hunger Games, Roll of Thunder,Hear My Cry, Holes, The Outsiders, Harry Potter, Forever, White Water, Ella-Enchanted, Catherine Called Birdy, and a few others that I can't think of right now:(

I also read Dimed and Nickeled for my nonfiction selection.
I reread Life As We Knew It for a book talk.
I reread Tuck Everlasting for a book review. I need to find the same movie to do a movie review. I am going to check the library tomorrow.
My big project is to write about trilogies in YA lit--so lots of rereading over the next few weeks.

I am trying to get a lot done before the school book fair since I am worried it may drive me to the crazy house!!
Keep reading! K.

Library reading

For the first rotation of class with students I covered procedures and read The Shelf Elf.

I read it 31 times. That should explain so much! I learned a lot from this! I will never read the same book to every class again!!!!!(I should put 31 exclamation points:)

LOST IN THE LIBRARY!

With school starting and the new dream job of librarian(while still finishing master's work) I have spent more time lost in the library instead of a book.

BUT  that is finally changing!!! I am working on my required reading for my YALIT class so have been busy reading again.

I started with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. I will admit...I never have read this book. It was really good but I am not sure about the reading interest level. We have it in our library but I think it should be targeted for sixth graders instead.

I also reread the Outsiders by SE Hinton. I remember reading this in highschool and I did not like it then. I'm still not nuts about it....great writing, just not my thing. I do remember being inspired by the writer--she was in high school when she wrote this!

I have also reread Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and Mr. Tucket written by Paulsen as well. This must have been a boy weekend! I read White Water by JP Peterson too. I have enjoyed my weekend of boy reads.

I guess that makes next weekend a girl time---Ella Enchanted, Tuck Everlasting, and Catherine Called Birdy!

I have 16 of these to do so I will be busy. I am still not nuts about many of the themes of YA lit but I will be getting plenty of children's reading in the library classes!!!

ALSO--all that Sequoyah reading has really paid off in my Advanced Children's Lit!
Go read something--Kathy

More boy books

Now I normally hate it when people say this is a boy book and this is a girl book BUT I am starting to realize that sometimes boys need a little more incentive to read a good book. These two have that. I am so thrilled that the Sequoyah list has such an enjoyable choice this year.

Both of these are chapter books even though readers will know Rosemary Wells for her Max and Ruby stories. Let's start with hers---On the Blue Comet. I knew this would be a winner quickly....trains and time travel!!! Makes my heart sing!! Oscar is a boy after your heart. No mom, cooks for dad, and builds trains with his dad in the basement. Then the depresssion hits....dad has to go find job in California and Oscar has to stay with his aunt. Oh yeah...the trains get sold also! The next time he sees his dad he is 21 or is it 11? Jump into this book!

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester is a shorter selection but readers will easily connect to Owen. A bossy older sister, growing more mature than his buddies, and yearning for excitement. Wait I just remembered---there is a TRAIN in this story too! Check out the cover....this story is about a frog too. My past students would love this element.

I can's wait for school to start and I can recommend these selections to my students. I don't know which I will vote for..hmmmm.
Read a book,
Kathy