It's Monday! What are you reading?

Welcome back from Fall Break, Dillo Readers!  It's my favorite time of the year to revisit stories and books I love.  Here are some from my personal shelves that I'll be reading at home this season:

I'm also reading a couple of books on Advent; these are more for adults:

It's Monday, and I'm pulling out some of my holiday books to revisit over the next few weeks.  What are your favorite holiday and winter stories?

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

Thanks again for supporting the library through our Fall Scholastic Book Fair!  The finances from the fair are wrapping up, and we are very happy with the results.  Ms Margocs was able to take $1100 in cash and another 270 Scholastic Dollars to spend on books and supplies.  The cash will help pay for author visits, Bluebonnet Reading Program supplies, and professional development opportunities. 

We have even MORE new books arriving in the library!

We are very fortunate to live in a school district that provides every campus with book funds every school year.

We have generous authors living in our district, too!  PJ Hoover dropped off some copies of one of her books for a special project we'll have in December.  Thank you so much, Ms Hoover!

Read-alouds this week:

PreK is thinking about all the good things people do every day, as we read Good People Everywhere by Lynea Gillen, illustrated by Kristina Swarner. 

Kindergarten and second graders are comparing Little Red Riding Hood to Federico and the Wolf, one of our Armadillo Readers' Choice books.

First graders are discussing the importance of teamwork and creative ways to use boxes with Boxitects by Kim Smith.

Lessons this week:

Third graders are exploring our databases!  Each scholar is assigned a database and given ten minutes or so to explore what it has to offer, then report back to the class about what they've discovered.  Scholars were given the password sheet for the databases to use at home earlier this semester; extra copies are available in the library.

Fourth and fifth graders are practicing their email etiquette by following proper form in an email to their teacher.  We are also emphasizing good digital citizenship; once emails are sent, they belong to the recipient, so it's wise to be mindful of what we write.

We are asking students to return long-overdue books from this past semester before checking out new books for Fall Break.  Please help keep our collection in good shape by taking care of your books and returning them when they are due!

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, Dillo Readers!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Conversation with a student in the hallway one afternoon--

Student:  Wait, you're the librarian, right?

Me:  Yes.....

Student:  So, you get to be in the library all day, with all those books.

Me:  Yes....

Student:  So, you get to read them whenever you want.  Like check them out and take them home to read.

Me:  Pretty much, yes.

Student:  Wow.

Me:  I know, right?  Pretty cool.  Best job on campus!

That's exactly what I did on Friday--take home a brand new book that I just had to read before putting it on the shelf.

First of all, look at that cover!  The colors are brilliant, and now that I've read a bit of the novel, fit the important details of the story. 

The dust jacket blurb immediately brought to mind The Giver by Lois Lowry--but Donna Barba Higuera takes us even further into the sci-fi realm by sending us into space, onto another planet.  Halley's Comet has changed course and is about to impact Earth;  The Last Cuentista is Petra Peña, almost thirteen, leaving behind her beloved storyteller grandmother as her family boards a spaceship to safety.  Their destination lies three hundred and eighty years away.  Will she be able to remember the stories, the ones the Collective are trying to purge?

The beginning of the story moves quickly; I'm only a few chapters in, and Petra is already buckled into her stasis pod and blasting off.  But she is awake, when she should be asleep...

It's Monday, and I'm reading sci-fi, one of my favorite genres.  What book has you staying up past your bedtime these days?

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

We have even MORE new books to add to our collection!  

Our Bluebonnet readers will be happy to see a few more copies of this year's nominees in our Bluebonnet display:

This is a checkout week, which means our first through fifth grades get the entire half hour of their library time to find good fit books and start reading them!  We are ALL working on building our reading stamina, including Ms Margocs.  

Our read-alouds this week:

PreK is listening to Sort It By Color, aligning with their classroom learning. 

Kindergarteners are exploring creativity and problem solving with Boxitects by Kim Smith:

Ms Margocs will be wrapping up our Fall Scholastic Book Fair details and will share the results next week!

Library events to keep on your radar:

Schlitterbahn's Waves of Pages Reading Program is BACK!  We will begin our reading window on November 29th when we return from Fall Break.  Please look for the details to be shared by teachers and on the library website.

Our December Read-Aloud Marathon was such a hit last year that we are doing it again!  Ms Margocs will be soliciting readers to fill our top-of-the-hour time slots from 8a to 2p for the last three days of school before Winter Break.  In 2020 we had two RRISD School Board Trustees, a Grisham Middle School assistant principal, several teachers, our Library Services Director, and AME Administrators sharing their favorite read-alouds with our scholars.

Enjoy checking out our newest books this week, Dillo Readers!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

 It's been awhile since I tackled poetry written by and for adults.  I've had this book on my wishlist for awhile, and decided it was time to purchase it.

I said "tackle" because some of the entries take me back to Honors English classes, picking apart obscure language, verses and stanzas trying to understand a poet's message.  I may even need to keep a dictionary by the bedside as well to aid my deciphering!  I won't let the verbiage deter me, though.  The editor states that the poems were chosen specifically for each season, each month, and so I am eager to find the connections between the words on the page and the immediate world outside.

It's Monday, and I'm exploring poetry before bedtime!  Do you have a preferred genre to read before falling asleep?

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

Our in-person Fall Scholastic Book Fair has come to a close, but the online book fair continues through November 8th!  Books make great holiday gifts, and your purchase benefits our library program and our scholars.  Click here to shop!

A big THANK YOU goes out to the volunteers who helped with our book fair parent event last Thursday!  The Leclercq, George, and Dancer families, along with our parent support specialist Jackie Cyriac, donated their time and talent while assisting Ms Margocs with setup, monitoring, and returning cases and books to the library.

Now that we've changed back from bookstore to library, we are having class visits again.  Here are this week's read-alouds and lessons:

Read-Alouds

PreK is thinking about feelings, and learning that we can have more than one at a time, as we listen to Theo's Mood by Maryann Cocca-Leffler.

Kindergarten classes are learning about fairy tales in class, and enjoying the bilingual The Three Billy Goats Buenos in the story castle:

First graders are also talking about fairy tales in their classes, so we are comparing Federico and the Wolf with the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story.  It's also an Armadillo Readers' Choice nominee:

Second grade classes are focusing on characters as Ms Margocs reads Saturday by Oge Mora, another Armadillo Readers' Choice book:

Lessons

Third through fifth grades are bringing their laptops to the library to practice logging in to MackinVIA and checking out ebooks using search limiters.  They do not count against our checkout limits in the library, so they are a great resource if you finish reading your books from the shelves, or can't find what you're looking for in our physical collection.

Our displays for the month of November include historical fiction, along with books on Thanksgiving, Diwali, Veterans Day, fall, food and families.

AND, we just received our first big book order of the school year--one hundred seventy-seven new books for our shelves!

Glad to have you back in the library this week, Dillo Readers!