It's Monday! What are you reading?

To be honest, I am just now wrapping up my reading from last week...but here is what I'll be diving into over the next couple of days:

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is going to be another two-fer for me--a historical fiction novel to count towards my summer reading minutes and an activity for the library's America 250 challenge.  It's based on a true story of three women--one from the United States, two from Europe--whose lives become entwined during the events of World War II.  The chapters are titled with their names, so I am anticipating a plot that zigzags between the three perspectives.  There is factual backmatter included at the end of the book that I'll look forward to referencing.

I'll skim through this nonfiction book at my son's recommendation--Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport.

My summer guilty pleasure has been playing solitaire and mahjongg on my phone for far too many hours...but I am also guilty of the mindless scrolling through cute videos of rescued farm animals, educator memes, and workout routines that I save for that elusive someday.  Maybe there will be a useful tidbit in Newport's book to make me avert my eyes from the screen for larger portions of my day.

The kidlit book I'm picking up this week is from one of my last Scholastic Book Fair purchases.

The back cover blurb of Outside by Jennifer L. Holm gave me some Lowry Giver vibes, so I'm curious to see how the two compare.  What freedoms are we willing to give up in the name of safety?  What does it take for us to push beyond boundaries imposed on us...and what will we find out about ourselves in the process?

It's Monday, and I've set some pretty lofty reading goals for myself this week!  What's in your pile?  Do you ever choose books because they remind you of something else you've read?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Summertime, and the reading is easy...it has been fun these last few days pursuing reading for pleasure and personal learning.

Speaking of learning--I attended a presentation at our local library entitled "100 Years of Native American Literature."  After learning about prominent indigenous authors and the historical periods reflected in their writing, I remembered that I had a book waiting on my TBR pile at home by a favorite Native American author, Angeline Boulley.

My fiction pick of the week:  Sisters in the Wind.

Set in Michigan, Boulley's latest novel follows Lucy Smith's journey of discovering her roots as a Native American.  Raised by a single white father who told her she was Dutch and Italian, her birth mother a mystery rarely discussed, Lucy is confronted with the truth when her real tribal family finds her and fills in the missing pieces of her history.

My nonfiction reading for the week is a continuation of Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver.  My ebook expired, and I ended up buying a hardback copy just so I could underline the helpful bits.

I arrived early to a meeting with my library student at the public library, so I wandered over to the children's section to find a new-to-me kidlit choice for this week.  They had a few Jane Yolen books on display, presumably in memoriam of her recent passing.  I picked up a book of her poetry, In and Out the Window, published in 2024.

The poems are brief, and cover the musings of childhood--the smell of breakfast in the morning, school uniforms and backpacks, curiosity about animals and insects.  I find myself reading each poem at least twice, scenes forming in my mind's eye with wistful feelings.  Maybe a future reading goal will be to work my way through Yolen's 450 published works...

It's Monday!  What are you reading?  Do you stick with one genre, or read more widely?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Newly retired from public education, and three weeks into summer--seems like a good time to revive old habits!  I've joined a writing challenge through my local library, and decided to return to regular blogging--Mondays on this platform to talk about books, and Tuesdays on my personal platform, Horizon 51, where I discuss what's on my mind.

So what am I reading these days?  Another goal I've set for myself is one fiction, one nonfiction, and one kidlit book to report on each week.

My fiction choice is a continuation of one of my favorite series, The Harry Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

I've missed a few installments,  but it doesn't seem to matter. I get drawn into Harry Dresden's world easily.  Twelve Months catches the wizard post-battle, in mourning from losses sustained during a supernatural razing of Chicago. The usual political games between the councils of wizards, ghouls, and vampires are in play, and Harry is caught in the middle. This adult fantasy is my favorite mind candy for summer reading!

I've set other books aside to make room for Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver.

My post-retirement to-do list is a mile long. The transition has me feeling a bit discombobulated, and I'm hoping to glean some wisdom from Carver's experience. 

I found this cute story at my last Scholastic Book Fair:

I love books with dragons, and I love to bake. The illustrations are rich and glowing, showing us that treasures aren't always made of gold. This would be a sweet bedtime story--or a lead-in to a round of bread baking with the kids.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's the end of August! What's been happening in the AME Library?

Welcome to the 23-24 school year, Dillo Readers!

Image by Bryan Spear, Austin artist!

We have had a BUSY beginning of the school year!  To support our teachers' professional learning and collaboration time, the library is on the specials rotation this year.  This means that students will come to the library in their color groups during their teachers' planning  periods for approximately forty-five minutes.  

So what have we been doing this month?  Library orientation lessons on book care and shelf-marker use; reviewing library expectations to be safe, respectful, and responsible with each other and with materials; and essential agreements on how we want to be treated have been the focus of these first couple of rotations--as well as checking out books!  

Boosterthon huddles have also been a part of specials this past week, and will continue into next week!  Be sure to have your student log onto mybooster.com to join our school's fundraising efforts.

Interested in volunteering in our school library this year?  Be sure to register as a volunteer with our district first  , and then contact Chris Margocs via email:  christine_margocs@roundrockisd.org .

September library events and lessons will include an author visit, nonfiction text features, use of the online catalog, and introductions to our Bluebonnet and Armadillo reading programs.  Lessons and events vary by grade level.

It's been great to see students excited to check out books already.  Keep on reading, Dillos!

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

 It's our last post of the 22-23 school year!  Ms Margocs is busy hunting down missing inventory.  She will go to great lengths to find books that are supposed to be on the shelves!

The Book Witch was prowling the halls this week!

We have over two dozen students who haven't turned in their books; please be sure to bring them tomorrow so they can be checked in, inventoried, and shelved to be ready for
next school year!

Places to look for those library books:

• under your bed
• at the bottom of your backpack
• in a siblings' room
• in a classmate's cubby
• in another same-grade classroom
• in the car
• at your grandmother's house

Please be responsible and turn in your library books! 

Looking for more books to read and share this summer?  Be sure to check out the resources on our district summer reading page.

There are lots of ways to keep reading this summer to beat the summer slide:  the take-and-keep books you got from the library, MackinVIA ebooks (and Comics Plus on MackinVIA) that you can access through Classlink, books from the public library and pop-up libraries.

It's Summer Break, Dillo Readers--enjoy whatever books you like to read!  See you in the AME Library in August!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

 The only reading I've been able to stick with these past few weeks has been my morning sessions with Gilbert's Big Magic.

I give myself ten to fifteen minutes to read in the morning.  The layout of Big Magic is perfect for this amount of time, with mini-chapters of two to four pages that are easily digested as I drink my morning coffee and wake up my brain.

I'm about halfway through the book, and the content is broadening from a focus on creativity to an outlook on "creative living".  The passage I read this morning was particularly relevant to all professions, with its message on living with the downsides of a profession if you really love the pursuit of it.  That is so true of the calling to be an educator; we all have parts of the job we aren't particularly fond of, but we have our reasons to keep at it.  My passion is literacy for life, and the library is a great place to practice and promote that passion.

It's Monday, and I'm plodding along with my daily morning reading.  Do you have a dedicated time to read each day?  If not, is there a time you can carve out to read on a regular basis?

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

We are deep into inventory season in the library!

We're gathering teaching materials, scanning every book in the library, and collecting those last returns from students.  All books were due last Monday.  We still have about 100 students with library books out--bring those books back, Dillo Readers!  The Book Witch will be visiting classrooms at the end of the week to collect books and remind those who still have checkouts.

We have given out twenty prizes already in our daily clear account drawings!

Ms Margocs uses a random number generator to find five students with a clear library account each day--fifty winners total by the last day of school!

Next week, we'll be talking about summer reading plans.  Start thinking about what you'll read this summer, Dillos.