Tag: Reading

Friday Feature-Book Lover's Books

Today I have three books about one of my favorite subjects…books.  Books about books! Two are new finds and one is a favorite.  I would love to hear your favorites!

1. Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile (2011) by Gloria Houston; ill. by Susan Condie Lamb

This hardcover just came in my Scholastic order and I knew from the cover I was going to like it.  Miss Dorothy loves books and people at a young age and she decides to become a librarian.  Her dream is to be the librarian at the “fine brick library just like the one where she checked out books in the center of the town square in her hometown in Massachusetts.”  She goes to library school at Radcliffe, graduates and gets married.  Her husband wants to live on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mts, far away from her hometown.  Her dream changes but she still becomes a librarian, sharing books with lots of mountain people.  The illustrations are beautiful, capturing the Appalachian countryside with great color.  I read it aloud to one class and they were quiet and thoughtful by the end.  It is based on a true story from the author’s recollections of Miss Dorothy’s bookmobile.

2. The Wonderful Book (2010) by Leonid Gore

I love many of Gore’s books-they are quirky.  This one is no exception.  Several animals find a book in the forest and invent ways to use the object.  Rabbit makes it into a house, bear makes it into a hat and the mice use it for table. When a boy comes upon the book and begins to read it the animals find out the true purpose of the book.  As the animals nestle down to listen to the story it reminds me how many children automatically tuck into your side as you begin to read.  Very charming!

3. Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook (2003) by Michael Garland

If you haven’t experience Miss Smith’s fabulous storybook you need to find it at your library.  She is a funky brand new teacher and she takes the boredom out of any day by reading from her amazing book.  While she reads (and students eyes get big as saucers) the stories come alive and suddenly the characters are next to the kid’s in class.   A perfect way to illustrate how our imaginations work as we read!  When I read this aloud last week one student said “Mrs. Holt, you need to get a book like THAT!” 

What new treasures have come alive for you this week?
Happy April Fool’s Day!  I played one great trick on a class and was delighted to pop back in to their classroom and say “April Fool’s”-they laughed and laughed!!

Peaceful Reading…

Weekend Update; fun library picks and the Oscars!!

Groovy Girl and I stopped at one of the two public libraries we are fortunate enough to have in our adjoining small towns.  She plunked herself down with a stack of interesting picture books while I ventured out to look around.  I am always on the search for chapter books to capture her attention.  She is a struggling reader and as of yet hasn’t really finished a chapter book on her own.  One reading teacher told me I’m enabling her by always reading to her but I did this with our other children-the oldest one was already an accomplished reader by the time we met but she still loved listening to stories.  Teenage Boy didn’t take off on reading until his 3rd and 4th grade years so I’m not worried but none-the-less ever the good librarian I seek a perfect reading fit that will send her to a quiet corner to read and marvel. 

We picked Orphan Train Children; Lucy’s Wish by Joan Lowery Nixon, which I thought would appeal to her American Girl love of history and Amber Brown is Not a Crayon by Paula Danzinger, which is a 3rd grade character like herself and filled with fun. 

I brought home only two treasures from the new section: In the Garden with Dr. Carver by Susan Grigsby; a picture book,  and She Looks Just Like You; A Memoir of  (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood.  Groovy Girl actually picked this last one out as we perused the new adult nonfiction.  I’m not a fan of nonfiction and maybe I was looking for cookbooks but G.G. pulled this one out and liked the mother/daughter on the front cover.  She was thrilled that I decided to check it out! 

Tonight we go off to an Oscar party at a friend’s house.  We usually sit home and watch them with our score pads.  My husband is a bit obsessed with watching all the nominees.  Luckily we can get half of them from Netflix.   I hope that Winter’s Bone, The King’s Speech, The Kid’s Are All Right, and Black Swan do well. I liked Inception, 127 Hours and The Social Network also-so many good ones this year.  

I can’t decide if The Illustionist, How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3 should win for best animated movie-I loved all three!   I don’t understand why Julianne Moore wasn’t nominated at all-I thought she should have been in best supporting actress category.  In will all be over within the next couple of hours and I know it is not the Most Important Thing right now but it serves a purpose, just like going to the movies or reading a book for that matter-to escape, for just a little bit.  

Happy Sunday.
and I’m off to the Oscars…

Peaceful Reading…

Maribeth Boelts

Tomorrow night at our school we are hosting a brand new event; Literacy Night for parents and students.  We will have four stations for everyone to listen to a “story time” come to life!  We are featuring A Bad case of stripes by David Shannon, the entire Fancy Nancy series (Nancy will “be with us”), nursery rhymes and Kate DiCamillo, focusing on her chapter books.  I will be doing a reading of The Magician’s Elephant (click here for my review).  I am excited for tomorrow night because it is all about sharing books with our students, trying to get parents to do more reading at home-all good things-but I’m thrilled because we are hosting a real live local author!! 

Maribeth Boelts will be at our school from 6-7, talking to everyone about writing and reading and she will sign books after.  This should be a wonderful event for all involved.  I will try hard not to blabber and gush to much when I meet her.  I saw on her website she has a new blog-perhaps she will grant me an interview.
Click here for my review of Maribeth’s book, Before you were mine.

Peaceful Reading…

Browsing

Last night I planned on posting something (didn’t have a plan for what as I am still reading Once a witch) but I got so wrapped up in reading down my list of other bloggers-I never made it back to post. I was too sleepy to write but not too sleepy to keep reading all the other great posts out there.
I loved seeing the pictures of Jannsen’s new Boston apartment as she gets ready for her next adventure-you can check out the pictures over at her blog, Everyday Reading.
I scrolled way down to an Aug. 14th post at Reading Rumpus and found some fabulous back-to-school lists of picture book choices!! I made notes ‘cuz there were quite a few I don’t have in my school library and I think they would be worth purchasing. Even though we are officially past the first days of school most teachers are always looking for great read-alouds. Go check out the lists at Reading Rumpus!
Kaye at Pudgy Penguin Perusals had a whole slew of historical books I’ll be searching out to add to my tbr bookshelves. I found The Confidential life of Eugenia Cooper by Kathleen Y’Barbe, A hint of wicked by Jennifer Haymore– then I clicked over to Jennifer’s blog and website and spent a fair amount of time reading her posts. The front cover of A hint of wicked is so well, wicked…check it out on Jennifer’s website and I loved how she had a nice long excerpt of the book there for me to read. I’m not a fan of romance novels but I love historical fiction and this one read very well!! Glad I could sample a little.
Seriously, one thing leads to another great thing out here on the web and my Friday night was gone but well-spent, “visiting friends”.

Peaceful Reading…

Beginning Reading Conference



Last Friday I was able to go to our local Reading Conference at UNI and it was a great day. I enjoyed talking with other adults about reading, looking at all the vendor stuff, and listening to knowledgeable professionals (some) talk about out craft. The guest author was Herman Parish, dressed neatly in a bow tie, and he had lots of good stories to tell. I remember reading the Amelia Bedelia books myself but have never really pushed them in the library and I’m rethinking this now because they are good word fun. They don’t get checked out much so I will have to read one aloud and talk them up. Mr. Parish has added to the 12 books his aunt, Peggy did and a new one is coming out this summer, showing Amelia as a child. I loved Herman’s slide show with old clips of his aunt carrying her purse (pocketbook) with her everywhere! I have memories of my grandmother having a death grip on her purse where ever we went.

Peaceful Reading…

Easter Weekend


What a great and crazy weekend! We’ve run errands, we’ve grocery shopped, we’ve readied the church for Easter service and we’ve managed to relax! Saturday the children and I dyed silk scarves in Easter egg colors instead of trying to dye our beautiful brown organic eggs and having too many hard-boiled eggs around. It was a great project, both children enjoyed their creativity and one inspired by my friend Verda in Little Rock. She was inspired by The Rowdy Pea and when I got ready to do it this is where I found the easy and exact directions. Here is another great site that recounts their dyeing experience.

I did get some knitting done(just about finished with the white washcloth) and since I did not make it to the library on Saturday amidst all my other errands, I pulled a book off the pile of to-reads-eventually by my bed. I chose I have lived a thousand years; growing up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson. I purchased this book a few years ago in DC at the Holocaust Museum. After reading The Devil’s Arithmetic a few of my fifth-graders in our multicultural book club are interested in the Holocaust so I thought I would read this and pass it on to one of them. I’ve read five chapters and am impressed with how well it it written. The author writes a lot about her early dreams of becoming a poet; the one object she smuggled out of the ghetto was her poetry notebook. The dishes are done, my son wore a tie today and the Easter Bunny brought good peanut butter treats and black jelly beans!! The meal my mom and I prepared together was delicious. The day is done.

Peaceful Reading…

Tarah the Barbie snatcher

We love our four-month-old Christmas puppy but we had forgotten how much work a puppy takes and how much a puppy can destroy. Here is a short list of things Tarah has ruined:
1. My cool glasses
2. one brown Mary Jane shoe J. size
3. Countless kleenex
4. Sunglasses
5. Lots of Barbie limbs
6. stuffed animals and Beanie Babies

The Barbie fetish has us really laughing (not the Barbie girls though!) because I have given J. many older Barbies that I have gleaned from second-hand shops. Older Barbies have more movement; their knees bend, their torso sometimes twists around. Newer Barbies tend to be just one plastic piece; boring. The puppy loves the Barbies and chews off their hands and has left several with permanently maimed limbs (click on the photo to see dramatic chews). If you look very, very closely you will see the right hands missing and lots of bite marks on each of these glam dolls. Tarah does not ever choose the variety of Only Hearts club dolls we have. Tarah is only a fan of Barbies and every once in awhile she likes to lick Elizabeth, J.’s A.G. doll. She obviously has her favorites and she is, after all, a girl pup!! What can we expect! J. happily plays with her dolls, with limbs or without…it just doesn’t matter. She is non-discriminatory.
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Peaceful Reading…

I love what I do…

Ya know, celebrities are always saying “I can’t believe they pay me so much to do what I love…”

For me, it is more like I can’t believe they pay me so little to do what I love!! As a public school teacher/librarian we really don’t make enough. I plan on the weekends for my classes during the week. I plan all summer for the upcoming year. The rewards are plentiful though. Some of the time I get to sit in a big comfy chair that used to be my Grandmother’s and read to young children. I just started Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (love her) with three third-grade classes. I just finished a Kevin Henkes unit with 1st and 2nd grade and an Eric Carle unit with my kindergarten classes. Reading, what a great way to get through the day! Lilly would say “Wow”.

Peaceful Reading…

book shopper

The very best part about my job is picking out books. Oh, I love to work with children I really, really do but still the best part is “shopping” for books for them. I get to thumb through Booklist, Booklinks, and LMC copies circling my special choices. I get to look through Titlewave, Bound to stay bound, or Baker and Taylor to choose my selections. My Mom would laugh because I always liked circling things in catalogs when I was little-I guess I never grew out of it!
I have so many books in my back room waiting for me yet I still am busy circling, choosing, picking the right ones for students and teachers. Now I have a new source to add to my searching: blogs! There are tons of blogs out there from addicted readers like myself giving me more and more and more suggestions for great books to add to my collection. It is mind-boggling and yet thrilling!! There is not enough time in my day to read all the reviews and magazine articles I want to read and now blogging sites. Real teachers work all the time…

Peaceful Reading…