It's Monday! What are you reading?

I finally picked up Keeper of the Lost Cities, first in a series by Shannon Messenger.  My former students loved these books, and I purchased them for my new library.

I am seventy pages in and loving this book, too!  I was expecting it to be science fiction...but it's fantasy, with elves and goblins and trolls, oh, my!  I immediately thought of Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer the first time Sophie, the main character, gets whisked off to the fairy world...but I think that's where the similarity will end.  

Sophie has felt different than others, including her own family.  Those feelings were amplified when she was in an accident at the age of five--and started hearing others' thoughts.  The story opens when she's twelve, already a senior in high school due to her advanced academic skills and photographic memory.  No one else knows about her telepathic abilities, though, until a strange boy named Fitz shows up.  He seems to have the answers to her questions about her abilities, but he's unwilling to answer all of them.  Sophie must first travel to the fairy world with him, where she will be shown amazing lands and creatures and subjected to tests to prove that she is also one of them.

Back in the "real world", strange fires are choking the air with even stranger smoke...and Sophie has a home with parents and a sister, the only home she's known for twelve years.  Where does she truly belong?

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres; I'm really enjoying Keeper of the Lost Cities!  What is your favorite genre to read?

 

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

We hope you enjoyed your four-day weekend, Dillo student readers!  Ms Margocs attended some breakout sessions on equity and Google certification and presented sessions on using databases and MackinVIA with your teachers.  We also got some more cleaning done in the library, making sure materials for classroom use were up-to-date.  (Ms Margocs spent some time looking at pictures in the old AME yearbooks--she couldn't help herself!)

Seasonal books are on display!  

Whether you are learning at home or at school, you can request books online.  Directions can be found on our Curbside Service page of the library website.

Ms Margocs also completed her Pear Deck coach training yesterday!  This week, third through fifth graders will be introduced to some of our Bluebonnet Award Nominees and practice their genre-identifying skills in a Pear Deck session.

PreK students are studying patterns in language, so we're reading Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle.

Kindergarten classes are learning some facts from Skulls!, an Armadillo Readers' Choice book by Blair Thornburgh, illustrated by Scott Campbell.

First and second graders are booktalking this week.  Ms Margocs is highlighting some of those seasonal books on display, making sure that everyone has something to read!

Our library schedule will be changing with the addition of more students returning to campus next week.  We will have a hand sanitizing station at the entrance to the library, and distancing and cleaning protocols will remain in place as we move forward.  Stay tuned for more information on the schedule.

Hope to see you at Grab & Go Curbside Book Delivery tomorrow from 5p to 630p!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I've been doing a lot of reading for work this week, Dillos.  

A lot of emails.

A lot of newsletters.

A lot of articles and instructions, while I was learning how to use Pear Deck.

At school, I read aloud three different picture books:  Round is a Tortilla, Cake, and Skulls!.

At home, I read Facebook posts, news reports, and more emails.  

Last night, I realized that I hadn't opened a book just for me for several days, so I reached for Billy Collins' Whale Day: And Other Poems.  Mr. Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003.  I purchased several of his poetry books on the recommendation of a fellow teacher-writer who quoted his work in a blog post.  

Billy Collins is an observer of the everyday world, making connections between what he sees and hears and what he thinks, writing them down in freeform verse.  The cadence of his lines are soothing to me at the end of a long day of reading work-related text.

It's Monday, and I'm reading poetry as self-care.  What are you reading today that makes you feel calm inside?

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

 We are continuing with our library visits via Google Meet this week!  

Our PreK classes have been learning about shapes, so Ms Margocs is sharing Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong, illustrated by John Parra.  It's fun to hunt down all the examples of circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals and stars in the pictures.

Kindergarten classes will be making predictions when they listen to Cake by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet.  What do you think might happen if a cake gets invited to a party?

First and second graders are learning more about the bones in their heads as we read the nonfiction book Skulls! by Blair Thornburgh, illustrated by Scott Campbell.  It just so happens that Ms Margocs has a skull handy by the computer--a Día de los Muertos skull, that is!

Third through fifth grades are either catching up with genre lessons, or discussing what they're reading for personal enjoyment through the genre lens.  When we use the language of readers, we are able to articulate our book preferences and communicate more clearly with other readers.

Don't forget that classroom and curbside book delivery is still going strong!  Use the hold option in our online catalog or the book bundle request on our library website to get your hands on great stories!  Book returns are quarantined for seven days to keep us all safe.

Teachers will be having staff development on Monday and Tuesday of next week; Tuesday library visitors can make up their lessons the following week.

Keep on reading, Dillos!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I picked up another advance readers' copy this weekend:  The Way Past Winter, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Mila and her siblings have lost first their mother, then their father, in what seems to be a never-ending winter.  The three sisters and one brother are making do in their house at the edge of the woods when a mysterious stranger shows up with a group of boys behind him.  The next day, the group is gone--and so is their brother.  This last loss is more than the sisters can take, and they set off after the stranger, hoping to save their brother.  What they discover is that the stories their mother once told in front of the fireplace may not just be fairy tales, after all.

I can see fans of Frozen being drawn to this book, and hope that they also choose Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" as a read-along.

It's Monday, and I am reading a great story about adventurous girls and fairy-tale creatures against a winter backdrop--perfect for these days when I'm wishing for cooler weather!  What are you reading?

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

 It's the second week of our regular library visits via Google Meet!  On deck this week:

PreK has been talking about community helpers in class, so Ms Margocs is reading Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings.  Arfy asks several community members to take him in, but in the end, a helpful person asks him to be her dog!

Kindergarten classes are Going on a Book Hunt--and if they are at home, they will go on a book hunt of their own!

First and second graders are going to review how to request books from the library and booktalk with Ms Margocs.

Third, fourth, and fifth graders are practicing the language of readers by reviewing book genres using a matching exercise on Schoology.  We're working together during the lesson, and they can have the opportunity to review it on their own afterwards.  We'll be using this knowledge to learn more about this year's Bluebonnet Award Nominees in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of Bluebonnet Nominees...there is a new way to track your Bluebonnet books on our library website--just fill in a Google form!  You must be logged into Chrome with your student account to access the form.

Ms Moss has been working hard to clean up our library; we are about halfway through!  We've also made a new Harry Potter section so all of our Potter fans will know where to go when we get back to in-person library visits.  Rick Riordan's books are on the other side of the shelves, for you Percy Jackson readers.

There will be big news soon about a new ebook resource coming to our library; stay tuned!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

 We are smack dab in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs September 15-October 15.  So what better to add to my personal collection of books about libraries and librarians than Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar.

I've been curious about Pura Belpré since I studied to become a librarian, when we were looking up literary awards to evaluate and enhance library collections.  From the American Library Association:

"The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."

I now work in a dual-language campus, and we already have this book in Spanish in our collection.  I'm glad to add it to my own, and enjoyed reading how Belpré, an immigrant from Puerto Rico, became a librarian who made Latinx people feel welcome, seen, and heard in public libraries throughout New York and beyond.

I am also tackling another Bluebonnet Award Nominee this week:  Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, by Jonathan Auxier:

I feel like I'm reading a modern version of Charles Dicken's Oliver Twist as told from the chimney sweep's perspective in Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins", with maybe a bit of little orphan "Annie" thrown in for good measure.  Nan was raised, and then orphaned by, a chimney sweep; it's the only life she's known.  She becomes an indentured servant of a cruel sweeper who puts a roof over the head of a ragtag bunch of children who work for him but offers little else in the way of comfort.  Nan is an expert climber of chimneys, but it's a dangerous job...and one day, she gets stuck.

I haven't read past that part yet!  I know that there's got to be a magical element about to appear, because of the title and the piece of charcoal that Nan has saved since her early childhood, the one that always seems to be warm...and now looks like it might have eyes...

It's Monday, and I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a new picture book and working through the Bluebonnet Nominee list.  What are you reading this week?