money – Peaceful Reader

Like many book lovers I adore the public library for many reasons one of which is it gives me the chance to preview books! I can fill my library bag up with all kinds of picture books from the new shelves, read them slowly at home, and then put my favorites on my order for our school library. If I could figure out how to make a button I would make a button flair for the public library.

Yes, I love buying books with the school’s money but with dwindling budgets every dollar is precious and I’m wary about ordering books at expensive prices before I’ve thumbed through them. There are many authors that I trust to give me a good product but I’ve had my share of bad order mistakes.

Groovy Girl, with her keen eye, has become a big help in this process. She weeds out the top few for me to focus on. I always page through to make sure she hasn’t overlooked something but she is generally right on about what students will like.

Here are our top four picks from last week’s library bag:

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea and Tom Slaughter. (2011)

Love this book. Bright, beautiful paintings created by Slaughter showcase comparisons like if a duckling grows into a duck then does a car grow into a truck? The illustrations are big with pages that open and I can see a use for this on many different levels. As I lesson planned this past weekend I considered “borrowing” this book and using it as part of a lesson. I decided to wait until our own copy comes in as I will get excited about it all over again when it does and then students will actually be able to check it out.

Jane Brocket’s Clever Concepts; Spotty, Stripy, Swirly (What are patterns?). (2012)

Another brilliantly cool book and this one sits on the nonfiction shelf. The bold photographs make this stand out as the author explains the difference between chaos and order. When things are set in a specific order or repeated they form a pattern. We-and by we-I mean, kids like patterns and repetition and this book shares a huge variety of unique patterns; from knitted stocking caps to garden lettuce, everything can be put in order. Even the title, according to Groovy Girl, has a rhythmic funky pattern to it! As I browsed the author’s website I was intrigued by several of her other concept books like Ruby, Violet, Lime; a book about colors. I can see pre-k, kinder and 1st grade teachers using her books frequently.

ABC Dentist; healthy teeth from A to Z by Harriet Ziefert and Liz Murphy. (2008)

This book makes the dentist seem fun instead of the pain center it really is. This would make an excellent tool to talk about the visiting dentist that spends a day or two at our school. Alphabet books are wildly popular especially when we create them on the computer. We do a lot of comparing and contrasting of ABC texts. And who knows there might even be a kid or two, like Hermie, who want to be a dentist! I see on good reads this duo have another catchy title-ABC Doctor.

Take it from Groovy Girl and I these three titles are worth the bucks you would shell out to add them to your home or school library.

I can’t imagine not having a book in my hand for most of my life. Even in my wild 20’s I read during parties and in my 30’s I read between waitressing and bartending shifts. I’ve never wavered in my love for books and all they hold so it was interesting to have my handsome husband give me this book for a birthday gift.

Synopsis:

When Carley Wells is asked by her H.S. English teacher what her favorite book is, she answers: “Never met one I liked.” Her parents are both horrified when the English teacher passes this information to them and so begins her parents quest to bring literature to Carley. Because they have a ton of money her parents decide to hire a writer who will help Carley create a work of fiction. Through the hired author and Carley’s eyes we see this incredible life of money, boredom, parental error and self-loathing.

My Thoughts:

Carley is an overweight young woman who is in love with her best friend Hunter. Hunter suffers from major depression and chooses to drown his feelings in Vicodin and alcohol. Hunter and Carley have a somewhat toxic friendship as they rely on each other, trying to hide their own negative feelings.

The parents of each of these teenagers is a terrible parental example. Hunter’s mother has a thing for Jackie O and spends more time watching clips of Jackie’s tour of the White House than she does listening to her son. Carley’s mom wants her to be thin and reminds her of it every day. Carley’s dad had a few good qualities until its revealed that he’s having an affair. They seem to think throwing money at each problem is the best solution. It doesn’t work. Carley’s character grows throughout the story and this makes the journey very worthwhile. Does she get a love of reading? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

A sample:

Carley’s father had bought her Choose Your Own Adventures when she was a kid, mazelike books that begin with you waking up places like the planet Zantor and having to make choices like whether to trust a family of six-headed purple Zantorians who tell you to follow them home to safety before sundown when the planet’s carnivorous plants will wake up. Only problem is that the Zantorians, with their six mouths of fangs, are a little vague about what they themselves eat. If you take the Zantorians up on their offer to “have you over for dinner,” turn to page four. If you decide to take your chances tiptoeing through the snapping tulips, turn to page ten. The only thing Carley ever liked about them was working backward from the end, taking the forks in reverse to figure out how to end up on a spaceship bound for home. (39)

Here is Tanya Egan Gibson’s website and her twitter link.
I am interested to see what her next book might be like.

p.s. I read this book way back in August-one of these cold Fall days my reviews will catch up with what I’m reading now.

Tag: money

3 Sweet Picture Books

How To Buy A Love Of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson