It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by Jen at Teach Mentor Text and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.

I was so excited because I finally got a bit of reading in.  The picture book is from a few weeks ago, but I forgot all about it until I got it out for my lesson that I'm teaching this week.  I managed to read a chapter book, which with as much as I have had going on is a small miracle!

The picture book that I read, and fell in LOVE with was The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  If you haven't seen this book, I suggest you run, don't walk, and get your hands on a copy!  Duncan's crayons decided to write him letters.  Some are tired of overuse and some are mad/sad that they are not used.  As an adult, I loved this book, but I think that they letters are a bit long for the younger students at this time year.  This book inspired me to create a lesson for Fifth Grade on book care.  I will be reading the book to them.  The assignment will be to take on the point of view of a damaged book and they will write a letter to the child that caused the damage, giving him/her book care tips for the next time.  Before sending the students to get started we will create a web of damages that could happen and how to prevent the damages.  I'm interested to see what they come up with.  I'll make sure I share!

The chapter book that I read was The Surprise Attack of Jabba The Puppett by Tom Angleberger.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  Once again Angleberger has another hit on his hands.  Since I read the first book in the series, I eagerly await each new book.  I get a bit worried before I read them, because I hope that the new one will live up to others. I wasn't disappointed in this one at all. I think that all teachers will appreciate Angleberger's take on standardized testing. Even though I am an epic failure at origami, I still love trying! I'm too embarrassed to post any pictures of my attempts, so don't ask!

This is my first full week of classes, I taught three days last week.  On Friday I was in bed at 6:45pm and it was only three days of students.  Hopefully this week I will get back into my "school" routine.  If you are going back or have been back, I hope you have a great start to the year!

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday!! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by Jen at Teach Mentor Text and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.





I really wish that I could post about some great books that I have been reading. But I haven't been doing ANY reading in the past few weeks.  I've been way to tired to read.  The beginning of school is always such a busy stressful time, but this year has been busier than usual.  

I've been working on lesson plans for the new Library Media Specialists in my county.  I wasn't expecting to do this job this year, but we had three openings. So it was a lot of work, I wrote six weeks of lesson plans for Kindergarten-5th Grade.  But, I'm planned for the first six weeks of school!

Hopefully since the kids are starting this week, things will calm down a bit and I won't be so tired that I can't read.  Can't wait to see what everyone else is reading.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by Jen at Teach Mentor Text and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.

I've haven't read as much as had hoped I would be able to do since I last posted.  I need to get reading some more because I'm trying to read all the Black-Eyed Susan Books (Maryland's State Award) before school starts.  If I don't get reading it won't happen.

I've got four highlights from the past few weeks. The first stand out is Summer at Forsaken Lake by Michael D. Bell.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  I didn't think that I would like this book when I first started, but it turned into a book that I couldn't put down.  I loved all the action, adventure, and mystery that this book had.  I really loved that the two main charaters were a boy and a girl, so my boys won't think that it is too girly.  I also live in an area where many kids are using boats with their parents, I think all the sailing in this book will appeal to them.

The next one that I read was a favorite from my childhood, The Secret World of OG by Pierre Berton.  I had been trying to remember the name of this book for years.  I loved it as a child!  I checked it out every other time I went to the Public Library as a child.  I still even can picture where it was located on the shelf!  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  There is always a fear when rereading a childhood favorite that it will not stand up to the test of time.  For me this one, this one is still as good as I remember it.  This story was everything to me growing up because I never had the closeness of brothers and sisters that this family had and I always wanted a playhouse.  It was one that was one of the first chapter books that I read on my own, but it didn't feel like a chapter book.


The next highlight was Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein.  Click here for a summary on Goodreads.  I can't say enough good things about this book!  I LOVED it and can't wait to share it with students next year.  It was so much fun to read a book celebrating authors, books and libraries.  I thought it was so inventive to make knowing all about the library a main part of this story.  My students are going to not let this book stay on the shelf long.  I was going to donate the copy that I bought to my library, but I'm going to have to keep this book for myself!

Can't wait to hear what everyone is reading as summer comes to an end.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Where Has Summer Gone?

It seems like just yesterday I was planning out what I was going to do and go over the summer.  And now, I'm getting ready to meet with another Media Specialist to start working on lesson plans for the new year!  

I was planning on blogging a lot during the summer.  Well, that didn't happen because of vacations.  I spent two weeks out in California and then another 5 days in Pennsylvania with my family.  I enjoyed my time out in California so much because it was so different than I had ever seen.  And of course I enjoyed my time with my family.

My father and I have begun to work on our family history.  Don't believe the commercials on TV, it's not that easy.  So many times in the past few months both my dad and myself has said "Why didn't we ask these questions earlier?" 

We both regretting not asking when we had the chance.  The problem that we have run into is the multiple spellings of last names.  I never knew there were so many possible spellings of two names!!  Since I've been talking about my family, I had to post my favorite picture of my dad's parents!

While we were back in Pennsylvania we did a lot of walking cemeteries, which can be a very tedious, frustrating, and exciting process.  It is tedious because of just walking back and forth in front of the headstones.  It is frustrating because since we a looking for a lot of older headstones, many that were done in sandstone have deteriorated to the point where they can't be read anymore. And it is so exciting when you find a headstone that you are looking for.  This time we found my Great-Great Grandfather's headstone.  Up until this last visit we had no idea where it was located.  

This has been a bit of a rambling post, but I wanted to share why I hadn't been blogging.  I will start back up again now that vacations are done, and school is starting.

So my advice, is to ask about your family history while you have the chance, even if you are interested or not because one day you just might be interested.   

Stacey (@libraryjo92)