My Summer Reading List

As a librarian and member of the Nerdy Book Club, summers = reading.  While I have school until June 13th, Memorial Day Weekend feels like the beginning of summer.  Like any respectable book nerd, I have a planned list of books I want to read.  I know I'll read graphic novels and picture books, but my favorite books to read are MG fiction with a little bit of YA and nonfiction thrown in.  I plan to participate in the #bookaday challenge (Donalyn Miller will tell you all about it) and review/list/tweet about what I'm reading.  Here's a visual representation:

Of course there will be many additions to the list throughout the summer.  I've already preordered Revolution by Deborah Wiles and Circa Now by Amber Turner. I lucked out and won a copy of Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson from Mr. Schu's blog giveaway.  When book nerds are not reading, they are adding books to their TBR list.  Here is the list on GoodReads.

I also plan to continue my Newbery Challenge, reading all medal and honor books beginning with the present and going backwards to 1922. I'm starting on year 2000, which means I'll finally get around to reading Bud, Not Buddy.

What are your summer reading plans?  Any recommendations?

No Limits

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Nerdy Book Club, but a post I read last week did cause me to feel ashamed. It was this post from May 2nd.  Sara Kieffer Kizzier, a reading recovery teacher from Iowa talks about her "take-a-book, leave-a-book" program for struggling readers with no books in their homes.  While, I certainly applaud her efforts, her words about the school library caused a lump to form in my throat:

"As a teacher who works with struggling readers I had first-hand experience with children who had no books at home.  They could borrow one book at a time from our school library, but they could only visit our library once every six days.  If they lost the book or forgot to return it….well, to mangle a famous Seinfeld episode quote, “NO BOOK FOR YOU!”

Should school libraries (or libraries in general) be guardians of books, denying access to children who through the process of being children lose or damage a book?  Are we sending a message to our poorest students that books, reading, literacy and success in life are inaccessible to them because they cannot afford to pay a book fine?

Sadly, I was one of those librarians for the first ten years of my career.  Even sadder, I wasn't taught that way.  My library professor proclaimed that we should throw out circulation limits and fines.  And, behind her back, we called her crazy.  A place where students can take as many books as they want and lose them, tear them up, draw in them, get food on them, etc.  How IRRESPONSIBLE!

Fortunately, I have broken free from such a system.  Not sure where the epiphany happened. As with any change, this happened a little at a time, not all at once.  Through the years, I have steadily increased the amount of books students could check out. From two to five.  This school year, as I read professional books about reading and met Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading In the Wild, I thought to myself, why limit book checkout to five?  One day a student asked me if they could check out six books. I said yes.  Then they asked to checkout seven. I said yes.  Now I say on a daily basis, "You can check out as many as you want."  I am no longer the gatekeeper to reading; I'm the welcome wagon.

The results?  Amazing.  Things like this:

These statistics come from a second grader's patron status page.  She has already checked out more than 3 times the books she checked out last year.

There are still library fines, but they never keep a student from checking out another book.  And if they can't afford to pay them?  We ask for book donations and I'm setting up a service program that students can participate in to eliminate those fines.

The librarian of my recent past felt shame at Ms. Kizzier's comment.  The librarian of my future: shame free.

School Lunch Hero Day

Today we celebrated School Lunch Hero Day!  I read students in second, third and fourth grades Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villains and showed them the videos posted on the School Lunch Hero Day website.  The dancing lunch ladies were a hit!

Here are some of the great cards my students made:



We presented the cards along with flowers and cupcakes this morning.

Here is a picture of our lunch ladies and some of our students.  Unfortunately, we had some bad lighting and I'm a poor photographer.

 

 

Thank you to Jarrett Krosoczka for his great graphic novel series and his encouragement of a day dedicated to celebrating our child nutrition professionals!

Poem in My Pocket Day

Today is Poem in My Pocket Day!

I heard about this day from Librarian Superhero John Schu.  Here is his post.  Like Mr. Schu, I plan to have two poems, one in each pocket.

Left pocket:
I shared my love of Jack Prelutsky in a post last week, and knew I would choose one of this poems.  It is the title poem from this collection:

Here is the first stanza:

I'm making a pizza the size of the sun,
a pizza that's sure to weigh more than a ton,
a pizza too massive to pick up and toss,
a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce.

The other comes from one of my favorite children's book series:

It is the poem the sorting hat recites:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see, 
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat then me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat 
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry,
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff 
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind
;Or perhaps in Slytherin,
Where you'll meet your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means,
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none
)For a Thinking Cap."

Newbery Challenge: Paperboy

My Newbery challenge is to read every Newbery and Honor book.  I've been working on this for a couple of years now.  My goal is to read one book per month.  This is the first book I have finished so I have some catching up to do, which will happen over the summer. 

Paperboy won a Newbery Honor in 2014.  It is set during the summer of 1959 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is the story of an 11-year old boy who takes over a friend’s paper route during part of summer vacation.  The boy lives with his parents and his black housekeeper who calls him “Little Man.”  Being a paperboy isn't too hard until it comes time for collecting, when Little Man has to talk to his customers.  The reason this is a challenge and why we do not know the boy’s name is because he has a stuttering problem.

I had a stuttering problem in elementary school, but it wasn't severe and all I can remember about having it was my mother telling me to slow down while talking.  Little Man deals with his stuttering by adding an “s” sound before lots of words and completely avoiding words with certain sounds because he cannot pronounce them, including the sound of his own name. 

I enjoyed Paperboy.  I appreciate how the time period was handled; the discrimination Mam faces under segregation laws is mentioned, but is not the driving force of the story.  Mam is a strong, loving presence in Little Man’s life, and reminded me of the black maids from The Help.  Kudos to the 2014 Newbery committee for selecting such a diverse group of books for this year’s medal and honors.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

So last week, I read two great middle grade books from popular series.

Tom Angleberger is a genius!  This book is so delightfully funny and I feel like Angleberger champions real students and teachers caught up in a world where the only thing that seems to matter is standardized testing.  Princess Labelmaker continues the story from The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett, where the kids of McQuarrie middle school in the “Rebel Alliance” are battling the evils of the Fun Time curriculum, which eliminates electives and focuses on test prep all the time.  The book contains lots of Star Wars references and puns; my favorite is “What the Hutt?”  Kids love this series, and I know that firsthand. I received it as a birthday gift, and my 5^th grade daughter squealed and took it from me.  I had to demand it back so I could read it.

My favorite movie is Back to the Future, and I am fascinated with anything focusing on time travel, so I love Haddix’s The Missing series.  In the sixth book, Jonah and Katherine travel back to Russia in 1918 where they have to save Alexie and Anastasia Romanov.  Haddix is a master of suspense and these books never disappoint.

I am currently reading:

The Meaning of Maggie Review

So my absolute favorite book character of 2014? Maggie Mayfield. I am 36-years old, and as I age, memories of my childhood become increasingly more foggy.  This book took me back to being an 11-year old, which is a good thing because I have one of my own and I’m not sure that I am as always patient and understanding as a parent should be. I felt like Maggie WAS me.  She is in middle school during the late 1980s.  She is a spectacular student.  She loves books and sweets, and running is her nemesis.  She is outspoken, funny and a character I will remember for a long time.

I enjoyed the depiction of the relationship Maggie has with her two older sisters.  I grew up with one sister and now I have three girls.  My sister and I were polar opposites growing up, and we shared a room just like Maggie does with Tiffany.  I could relate to the fighting, both as a child who fought with my sister and as a parent who has to deal with children fighting.  Despite the seemingly ceaseless bickering, there are those sweet tender moments between Maggie and Tiffany when you know they love each other.  This rings true for my sister experience as well.

The biggest plot point of the story is that Maggie’s father has multiple sclerosis.  I think the way that everyone works together to deal with her dad’s condition is a great lesson of family support.

Oh, and I loved the footnotes!  They added to the authenticity of Maggie’s voice.  You never have to wonder what she is thinking because she tells you exactly!

Thank you Megan Jean Sovern for writing such a wonderful book!  Thank you to Chronicles Books for the Advanced Reader’s Copy.  I will purchase this book for my library and I can’t wait to share it with my students.

Release date:  May 6, 2014

Mr. Schu interviews Megan Jean Sovern