It's Monday! Where are you reading?

My husband and I went downtown yesterday to visit the new central location for the Austin Public Library!

We parked in the Seaholm garage, then walked over to the back entry of the building; it's impressive, even at this angle.

After standing in line to get my library card (I usually frequent the Cedar Park Library during summers, but thought I'd expand my horizons!), we explored the five floors of this newly-opened branch. I bumped into a high school friend who's worked for APL for decades, and we chatted with a librarian in the teen section about the beautiful, purposeful spaces and furniture.  I took lots of pictures for future reference, in case our school library gets a remodel someday!

 The view from the library windows and porches was beautiful as well!

We were glad to find parking in Seaholm, because the library parking was full!  Austin Public Library was the place to be this weekend!

It's Monday!  Where do you like to find great books, and where do you like to read them?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

We just wrapped up our on-site Fall Scholastic Book Fair!  Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers, the support of our administrators and teachers, and the purchases from our learning community, we exceeded our sales goal!  The funds we raised will pay for author visits, books, and programs like the Bluebonnet Breakfast for our students.

Speaking of author visits....we had Chris Barton on our campus last week! 

Photo courtesy of Heather Solis @solisgrade3

Mr. Barton, the author of Bluebonnet nominee Whoosh and several other great books on our shelves, spoke with second and third graders in the morning.  After lunch in the library, he held mini-sessions with doubled-up third grade classes in their rooms.  They loved getting up close to an author to learn more about his life and career!

Classes returned to the library today for our regular schedule.  We put new books out on the shelves, including those purchased upon recommendation of our new Stallion Readers' Advisory Club.  They know what kids want to read!  Here are some of the new books:

Our fifth grade Book Lunch Bunch meets for the first time next Monday; check your email this week for details!

Thanks again for supporting our library program here at Sommer Elementary!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Some call it "reading flow".  I prefer to call it "book coma".  It's that feeling you get when you are reading a really good book, one that's easy on your eyes and invites you into the story from the first page to the last, transporting you with its voice and characters and setting.  That's what happened to me this weekend, reading Catching a Story Fish by Janice N. Harrington.

This book is different than other novels-in-verse I've read. Each poem has its own title, and the author includes a "Poetry Glossary" at the end to explain several different types of poetic forms she employed--this one a haiku, the next concrete, another the blues--yet the story flows from one poem to the next.  The consistency of the speakers' voices holds the narrative together, so that the changes in rhythm and patterns aren't jarring; in fact, I think it makes the story that much more interesting.

At the heart of Catching a Story Fish is a realistic fiction tale of a young girl trying to find her way in a new school and a different culture.  It's a story many of us can relate to, especially this military BRAT.  

If you want to learn more about poetry forms, check out this website from The Poetry Foundation:   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms?page=3  .

It's Monday!  What new book did you pick up this weekend?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Fall blew into Austin this weekend!  Chilly mornings, temperatures below 85 degrees in the afternoon, and the telltale sign of leaves littering our lawns bring welcome respite from the heat of summer.

I have been shying away from cooking these last few months; the thought of turning on a stove after getting into my hot car at the end of a workday just wasn't appealing.  The sound of the leaves skittering across the patio, and a walk on the hike and bike breathing cool air inspired me to break out my cookbooks and plan some meals for the months ahead.

I pored over these cookbooks, and a couple more, for hours this weekend.  My eyes were drawn to the recipes I had starred and  the notes I had written about substituting ingredients, changes in cookware and oven temps.  Soups and stews and baked goods found their way onto my menu templates.

Cookbook reading is a fundamental procedural text skill, and menu planning is the yummiest reader's response I know!

It's Monday; what are your favorite cookbooks?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I usually save my Book Nook reading news for the Wednesday library update...but we've been sharing a GREAT baseball book with the first and second graders:

Featured on both the Texas 2x2 list and our own district's Armadillo Readers' Choice list, The William Hoy Story is a biography that surprised everyone in our Book Nook these past two weeks.  We are using the "Depth and Complexity" icons on our campus this year, and this book easily demonstrates the "Over Time" icon.  I don't want to give too much away, but William Hoy, who played professional baseball in the 1880s through the early 1900s, is thought to have initiated changes in the game which are still in use today, and will likely remain in the future.

The William Hoy Story is a great book to get students wondering about the origin of current practices and digging into history to answer those questions.  It's easy to just accept the many details of our lives as ordinary--but what's mundane these days started as someone's great idea.  Think of the brainstorming sessions you could have with this topic!  When and why did traffic lights come into use?  Who invented the shopping cart, air conditioner, plumbing?  When did drive-through restaurants come into being?

If you've got baseball or history fans in your circles, The William Hoy Story would be a welcome addition to their book collections.

It's Monday!  What books are you sharing with others this week?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This is my fifth year as a librarian and at Sommer.  I inherited a library of 20,000 materials to manage, so it is no wonder that I keep discovering new books as I read shelves and oversee circulation.  One of the books that I've noticed, but never checked out before, is Richard Peck's Here Lies the Librarian.

After recently reading Peck's The Best Man from our Bluebonnet Award Nominee list, I was in the mood for more of his writing, so I checked it out for the weekend.  

Here Lies the Librarian didn't disappoint--though it was more about cars and small town living in the early 1900s than it was about the deceased librarian in the title.  PeeWee and her brother eke out a living fixing the first cars on the road, competing with the underhanded Kirby brothers for business.  A quartet of library science students show up one day, determined to revive the town library that's been closed since the librarian's demise.  Peck's cast of quirky characters in this period piece manage to educate us on the  living conditions of Midwestern towns before paved roads crossed the country, the empowerment of women that access to education and transportation enables, and a bit about the birth of the automobile age.  

I'm glad I took the time to read for fun this weekend!  What did you read?