Monday, March 18, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

There was not a lot of reading happening in my house this week.  My taxes came first.  I had to get them done, because I was meeting with my tax person.

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & TreacheryI finally finished The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin.  I loved this book.  I'm all about learning new things and really learned a lot as I was reading this book.  I've now read two books by Sheinkin, with each book my appreciation of his attention to detail grows.  He really throws himself into fully researching each topic.  I'm so impressed with his ability to turn a nonfiction book into one that reads like a fiction story.  Now just waiting for my public library to get his newest, Lincoln's Grave Robbers.


I'm Looking for a Monster!I also got a chance to read I'm Looking for a Monster! by Timothy Young.  I just loved this book.  It is a pop-up book.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  It has some great examples of monsters.  This book fits perfectly with the mini monster unit with first grade. I read a monster book and then have them create, using PIXIE, a monster.  Then they have to write a sentence or more, depending on their level, describing their monster.  I've been looking for a different monster book because the one that I usually use, damaged beyond repair this year.  I was so excited that I have another book to takes it place.  Now I need to get his newest book I Hate Picture Books!  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  If you are on Twitter, so is Timothy Young (@TimSYoung), check him out.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead SpyUp next for me is catching up on a few graphic novels that I have missed.  Matthew Winner (@MatthewWinner) and some other teacher librarians in Maryland have created a graphic novel category for the Black-Eyed Susan Awards, our state book awards.  Click here for a link to his blog post about the new category.  Matthew gives a lot of great resources for the books.  Also if you haven't seen his blog, it is a really great resource!  I think this is wonderful because graphic novels have become an important genre.  There are five graphic novels on the list that I haven't read yet.  First up for me is Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Ded Spy by Nathan Hale.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  

I'm also reading In A Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz.  I'm not sure yet what I think about this book so far.  I enjoyed his first one, A Tale Dark & Grimm, but I found my mind wandering as I was reading.  I'm putting it aside for now, and I pick it back up in a little while.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Book and Bookmark Swap

The wonderful ladies at Teach Mentor Text, came up with a great idea to brighten up February with a book and bookmark swap.  I was so excited to participate because little did I know that I would need a big pick-me-up at the end February and beginning of March.

It was so exciting to be buying a book and bookmark for someone else.  I found that figuring out what book to buy was the easiest part.  I didn't realize how hard picking a book mark would be!  I saw that my person was a Reading and Social Studies teacher.  One of the genres she liked was nonfiction.  Since I had been reading Henry Cole books, an easy pick was his newest book, Unspoken.  It is a wordless picture book about the Underground Railroad.  Due to the death of a close family friend, I got my dates mixed up a bit.  But because of that mix up, I was able to get the book autographed by Henry Cole.  I hope my person really enjoys the book!


It was so exciting to come at the beginning of March, to find a package Crystal B. (@librarygrl2).  I couldn't wait to open it.  I was so lucky to find not one, but two books.  Crystal had sent me Almost Home by Joan Bauer and a nonfiction book One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley.  I was thrilled to see Almost Home in the book because it has been on my to-read list since September 2012.  I started to read it that night.  The book didn't disappoint me at all.  It was worth waiting for.  Crystal included One World, One Day because I indicated my book gap was nonfiction.  I was so surprised that I had never read this book before.  I had heard of it, but just never read it.  I liked it so much, I'm buying a copy for my school library.  I just loved the bookmarks that she included.  I fell in love with the notecards that she included as well.  Crystal took photos that she had taken, and use them as the pictures on the blank notecards.  I LOVE this idea!!!  I'm going to make some of my own notecards using pictures from my vacations to the National Parks.

Thanks again to the ladies at Teach Mentor Text for putting together this first book and bookmark swap.  I'm really looking forward to the next one!  A huge thank you to Crystal for the books, bookmarks, and wonderful notecards.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Henry Cole's Visit to My School

Back in September I was beyond thrilled when another Media Specialist in my county sent an email out telling us that she was hosting Henry Cole on March 1st and wanted to know if anyone else was interested in joining on to his visit.  After talking to my principal and the school PTA, I let her know that we wanted him to come to my school.

Little did I know than, how much work went into a school visit by an author/illustrator!  I've seen many authors/illustrators speak at conference and even at school, but I was always a observer, not the person in charge.  It is a WHOLE different ballgame when you are in charge of the visit!!

It doesn't help that I'm a Type-A personality, but I had to have everything spelled out and organized.  I made sure it was so organized that if I had to be gone, the visit would run smoothly. (Little did I know, I would have to miss part of his visit.)

I sold his books ahead of time.  I think ordering the books was the hardest part of the whole visit.  In order to order the books, we had to jump through many hoops.  If I had known how many hoops we would have to jump through, I would have started the whole process a little bit earlier than I did.  The other lesson I learned about ordering books, make sure to order extra books.  Many of my teachers who didn't order when we did the pre-sale, wanted books after hearing him speak.





If you have not had the opportunity to see Henry Cole speak, you are missing out!  He is a dynamic speaker who engages children of all ages and adults as well.  His stories will make you laugh out loud, no matter what your age.  Henry Cole also inspires the children to be readers, writers, and illustrators.  I really loved two things that he told all the children.  The first was he always carries paper and pencils with him, that way he can work wherever his is.  The other thing that I loved was when he was explaining to the students how many times he had to draw an illustration or rewrite a book before he got it correct.  It really made an impression that even a great author/illustrator had to do things over and over and over again before he was satisfied.

Henry Cole's visit was an huge success!  The kids had a wonderful time.  The teachers/staff enjoyed his stories.  They all are still talking about his visit.  He got the highest compliment from one of my Second Grade classes, they said that his visit was worth missing PE!

On a personal note, I was so thankful how understanding Henry Cole was because I had to leave in the middle of his visit.  I had to attend a funeral of a dear family friend.  She was like a second mother to me.  I felt I needed to be there for her family.  That is why I'm wearing red in this picture; it was her signature color.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Monday, March 11, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

I did get more reading done than I thought I would this week and weekend.  I didn't meet my goal of reading 10 nonfiction books this past week, but I did read 5 nonfiction books.  Below, I'll talk about the ones I read and my favorites out of the 5 books.  I would have gotten more read, but I had to work on my taxes and I got sick towards the end of the week.  I was starting to develop two ear infections.

I'm still reading The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin.  I'm really just fascinated by rise and fall of Benedict Arnold.  I haven't gotten to the point where he turned against his county.  I'm really curious about what led up to him committing those acts.  I'm reading this book while I'm at physical therapy, so I only read it two times a week.  I have therapy today, so I can't wait to see what happens next!

Dangerous Waters: An Adventure on the TitanicI'm always looking for Titanic books.  My kids are totally obsessed with the disaster.  All of my Titanic books have been well loved.  Dangerous Waters by Gregory Mone will be in my Spring Scholastic Book Fair and I wanted to read it because I know that the kids will be interested in it.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  I'm as bad as my kids, I read anything and everything about the Titanic.  (But I really didn't like the movie.)  I really enjoyed this book, the characters were very likable and the story of the thief kept me interested.  I just loved how Gregory Mone really meshed fact and fiction in this book.  I enjoyed learning more about one of his main characters, who was actually a real person, Harry Elkins Widener.  It was interesting to learn that after he died on the Titanic, his mother paid a lot of money to have a library built and named after him at Harvard.  It just goes to show you there are still some many stories associated with the Titanic that we might never know.

The Runaway King (The Ascendance Trilogy, #2)When I was in Target one day last week, I found The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen.  I had forgotten that it was being published this month.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  This is the second in The Ascendance Trilogy.  I, like many others, was worried that the sequel wouldn't live up to the first one.  Well, I was not disappointed!!  I loved this one as much as The False Prince.  Jennifer A. Nielsen made me love the characters even more than I did in the first one and made me change my mind about one character.  The only problem that I did have, is now I have to wait for last book in this wonderful trilogy.  On an up-note, Jennifer A. Nielsen is writing book six in the Infinity Ring series.  It comes out in December 2013.  If you haven't started the Infinity Ring series, you really need to, it is great!

I'm happy I got through 5 nonfiction books, even though it wasn't the 10 that I hoped for.  The books I read were Insect Fossils by Kathleen Connors, Face to Face with Polar Bears by Norbert Rosing with Elizabeth Carney, Harlem's Little Blackbird (The Story of Florence Mills) by Renee Watson, Zoo Borns! by Andrew Bleiman and Orangutans Are Ticklish by Steve Grubman with Jill Davis.

Orangutans Are Ticklish: Fun Facts from an Animal PhotographerHarlem's Little BlackbirdMy two favorite's were:  Harlem's Little Blackbird and Orangutans Are Ticklish. These books couldn't be more different from each other.  Harlem's Little Blackbird is all about Florence Mills.  I had never heard of Florence Mills before this book.  I learned a lot about this talented lady, who grew up in Washington D.C.  I really want to learn more about her.  Click here for a summary from Goodreads.  Orangutans Are Ticklish is a book of fun facts from an animal photographer.  It was really neat to read the thoughts of Steve Grubman, who was the animal photographer.  I never really thought about the photographers who get those great shots in the nonfiction books.  This book gives the kids a great behind the scenes look at being an animal photographer.  Click here for a summary from Goodreads.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Monday, March 4, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey.  The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.

I didn't get a lot of reading done this week because of the funeral for my friend and my visit from Henry Cole.  I did manage to finish one book and start another.

I Survived #7: I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
The book that I finished was I Survived The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 by Lauren Tarshis.  Click here for a summary from Goodreads.  I just love this series.  I have found that this series has gotten a lot of my reluctant readers to actually pick up a book.  They are short enough to not be overwhelming, but long enough to give a full understanding of the historical event.

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery

The other book that I have started is The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin.  Click here for a summary from Goodreads.  I saw this book mentioned in Steve Sheinkin's Bomb, and I thought that it looked very interesting.  I'm finding his life extremely interesting and I'm learning so much about Benedict Arnold.  I'm also going to be looking for Sheinkin's newest, Lincoln's Grave Robbers.  It sounds like another good one.

I'm trying to get back to reading all the nonfiction books I've checked out from the library.  My goal is to read 10 nonfiction books this week.  I figure if I post it, I'm more than likely going to follow through.

I'll also post, later this week, about my visit from Henry Cole.  A great time was had by all.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)