The One and Only Ivan

Last night I had the oppertunity to particiapate in a great chat on Twitter about the book The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate! It was hosted by two great educator John Schu and Colby Sharp. It was wonderful to be able to disscuss this wonderful book with others. I've had many great discussions about this book with many of my students who have read it, but not many adults. If you havn't read this book, I would highly recommend it. 


The One and Only Ivan is about a gorilla named Ivan who lives at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade.  He has gotten use to living among humans and rarely thinks about his former life in the jungle. He instead thinks about his animal friends Bob, a stray dog, and Stella, an elderly elephant, and his "art".  Then Ruby, a baby elephant, comes to live at the Mall.  This single event makes Ivan begin to question where he is living and what he can do to make it better.


This book was incredible!! It is written from Ivan's point of view.  Many times throughout the story I forgot that I was reading a gorilla's point of view.  I tend not to read animal stories, but this one sucked me in and found a place in my heart.  I have so many favorite lines from this book, but my ultimate favorites are from the first page: "I am Ivan. I am a gorilla.  It's not a easy as it looks." I used these lines to get many kids to read this book.  A few of them were a hard sell, but those where the ones who came back and said that Ivan was their favorite book!


One of the questions that John Schu and Colby Sharp asked was: "How did you hear about the book?"  I heard about it on Twitter.  Just one more reason for you to join Twitter if you haven't yet.  It is such a great resource for educators.  John Schu also provided two great resources for this book.  The first is a link to the real Ivan (http://theoneandonlyivan.com/ivan/) and a link to the discussion guide from Harper Collins.


Happy Reading!!


Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Wow, have I been doing a lot of reading the past week!  It is due to #summerthrowdown!  I posted about it in the post below.  I've been a regular at the Public Library!  It was so great when I went on Saturday because I ran into three of my students.  Two of them I was not surprised to see at the library, but the third one I was shocked to see him there.  I was quite happy and really made a big deal about him signing up for the summer reading program and checking out books!


I came across a really great new to me series, Lucy Rose by Katy Kelly.  I the second one in the series, Big on Plans.  I then had to go and read the rest of the series!  I loved this series because of the main character Lucy Rose.  She reminds me of a mix of Ramona and Junie B.  I found her to be such an interesting character to read, I was always wondering what she would do next.  I have most of this series at my school library and will be promoting it next school year.


I finally got a hold of Robot Zombie Frankenstein! by Annette Simon.  Loved this book so much!! I have to get a copy for my library and one for myself.  It is such a fun read and one that I think will even draw in the reluctant readers that I have in my younger grades.


I'm still reading Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins.  I have found this to be a very interesting read.  It has given me such great insight into the Common Core.  Once I've finished I'm going to be going back through before school starts.


Up next for me is Melonhead and Melonhead and the Big Stink by Katy Kelly.  Melonhead is a character from the Lucy Rose series.  I can't wait to see what adventure Katy Kelly has written for Melonhead. Another one that I'll be reading soon is Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies.  I've been looking at this since I got it at the book fair saying that I really want to read it.  Well now I have the time.


Happy Reading!!


Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Summer Throwdown Update!

Wow the #Summerthrowdown, Librarians vs. Teachers is on!!  To find out more about #Summerthrowdown go to Heise Reads & Recommends, a blog created by Mrs. Heise, for more information. Of course, I'm Team Librarian!

I've really been doing a lot of reading because of the #Summerthowdown!  I've now started to divide my books into piles as I read them based on the points.  I've read some great books.  I'll post about them on Monday.

It been a long day, so I'll post more on Monday about the great books I've read.

By the way, I finally was able to seporate my two blogs, so I'm back to my regular sign in.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey and the kids' version borrowed from the wonderful ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.

I must confess that I have not been doing a lot of reading at all in the past two weeks!  I have not had the time.  The last week of school with the kids was such a busy week.

I started the week off by having a School Spirit Night at our Public Library.  Students, their families, and staff were invited to come out and sign up for the summer reading program sponsored by the Public Library.  Once they were at the Public Library, they also had a craft to make, were able to enter to win a backpack and 5 new books to put in the backpack, and of course check out books.  I had about 29 students come to the library to sign up along with younger brothers and sisters.  I also had about 9 staff members that turned out to support me.  A great time was had by all!  I got permission from the parents to post the two pictures below.  The pictures are on my Media Center blog as well.


Jeff and his mom sign up online for the Summer Reading Program.



Shelby has found a lot of books, to start her summer reading.

We had a week of meeting after the kids last day.  It is no fun having to go for a full week with no kids.  The only upside about having to work for a week, is that I was able to get all the teachers checked out and still got all of my stuff cleaned up.  Usually I have to go back to school for a week after all the teachers are gone, but I don't have to this year.  (Picture in your head, me doing a happy dance!)

I have managed to fit in a bit of reading these two weeks.  I've started Lucy Calkins' Pathways to the Common Core.  I feel as a Library Media Specialist I need to really be familiar with the Common Core, so this is my homework for the summer.  My fun reading has been Christopher Healy's A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom.  I am really enjoying this book so much.  It is such a fun read, that I'm taking my time!  I was thrilled to find out that book 2 is in the works! 

Now that my summer has started I'm going to be doing more reading.  And I'll be doing more reading because of #Summerthrowdown.  See my previous post to find out more about it!

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (libraryjo92)

Summer Throwdown!!!

So excited that tomorrow starts the #Summerthrowdown, Librarians vs. Teachers!!  This was all started on Twitter!!  (Can't say enough about all the wonderful things that I've become a part of because of Twitter!) To find out more about #Summerthrowdown go to Heise Reads & Recommends, a blog created by Mrs. Heise, for more information.  Of course, I'm Team Librarian!

I was up having dinner with my parents for Father's Day today, so I'm able to use their computer to post to the blog.  I've been without a computer since Friday! On Tuesday night it gave me the blue screen of death, so after a short prayer that it turned back on, I backed up all of my data.  This was a comedy of errors!  As I was in the long process of backing everything up, the automatic updates wanted to restart my computer, so I had to sit in front of the computer and click "restart later" every 15 minutes!  Not my idea of a fun night!!  So my computer is getting all the data transferred over to a new computer.  I'm hoping to have it on Tuesday.

Still waiting for my county to get everything straight with our gmail accounts before I start bugging them about letting my account access blogger.  It has been a nightmare to switch over to gmail!  Not one that I want to repeat anytime soon.  So until that happens, my account will say Miss Hazuda.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey and the kids' version borrowed from the wonderful ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.

I did some reading this weekend.  I read a few pictures books, Jo MacDonald Saw A Pond by Mary Quattlebaum, Sunday Love by Alison Paul, and Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie by Judy Sierra.  I really enjoyed Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie!  Such a cute story!  I also caught up on the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett Krosoczka.  I just love this series!! One of my favorite graphic novel series!! I also finished Mr. and Mrs. Bunny - Detectives Extraordinaire! I was glad I stuck with this book.  At the beginning I wasn't too sure what to make of it.  It's still a little out there for me, but I can see some of my students really liking it.  

I'm getting ready to start The Adventures of Nanny Piggins by R.A. Spratt.  I haven't heard a lot about this book, but I watched the book trailer on Mr. Schu's site Watch.Connect.Read and I was interested.  I'll try and post an update later on in the week.  But it is the last week of school for my kiddos, so it is a crazy time.

Also I'm still waiting for my county to change over my email account to Google.  Once that gets done, I can separate my blogs and go back to my original name on this blog.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)