The Best Email I Ever Sent

I came back from the School Library Journal Leadership Summit refreshed, rejuvenated and inspired (more on that later) but I also came back with a slew of new books. 

I could have just added them to my Library collection, but I thought I'd get more bang for my books by sending out a simple email to my staff: What can the Library provide to make your Job easier?  

I linked the question to a Google form and told my teachers and staff that each respondent would get a free book for their classroom. 

Um. Responses. Lots. 

And they're not pie in the sky requests (although sometimes those are a fun challenge) and they're not responses I feared like "It's too noisy in the Library" - they were awesome requests for things that had never even crossed my mind. 

Totally worth giving away my books. 

The best email I ever sent.

Book Talkin' Redux

Since my book talks have been such a success, here is my book trailer "parking lot" (need a better name!) for all the trailers I will be showing to my students!!

I AM SO EXCITED!

Eh hem.

Book Talkin'

So this past week I book talked books to my third, fourth and fifth graders.  I have, of course, introduced books to my students, but never in a one after the other, showing trailers, holding up books, drawing names, revealing the glossy new covers in all their glory, kind of way way.

The kids. went. nuts.

Like, Colby Sharp nuts.

Okay, so I know all of you who book talk on a regular basis are asking yourselves what took me so long to drink the book talk Kool Aid?

I don't know.

But things will never be the same around here!

Here are just a few of the links that I used to introduce new books:

  

George's Secret Key to the Universe 

Marty Mcguire 

Ivy and Bean 

Encyclopedia Brown from Kidsmomo

Take Me To Your Library - Rules from a Robot

Thanks to an inspirational presentation by one of our County's middle school librarians, I decided to give Xtranormal a try this year in order to cover some of the more...ehem...drier bits of library lessons.

I signed up for the Basic (read:  free) subscription and was able to create two similar videos with my allotted "XP" (Xtranormal points).  My two videos featured the same robots and background; one was for my primary grade students and the other was for my secondary grade students.

The kids loved the videos!  The younger ones were puzzled by the fact that the robot called me a friendly "robot".  Why did it say that?  It said I was a robot!  What did it mean that I was a robot?  Sometimes I forget how literal and how serious a bunch of first graders can be!  They are so earnest!  I cleared up any confusion and we were on our way to checkout!

If you go to the site in general and type in "library" or "library rules" or even "elementary library" you get quite a few hits.  I have yet to explore them all, but I have a feeling some of them might be "borrowable" and cover some of the same topics I cover in my library.

In the Home Office: Third, Fourth, Fifth Grade Book Menus

This year I have planned my lessons for every class for each week for the entire year.  It's really just a pacing guide because I have found that the end of the year sneaks up on me (hard to imagine in September) and I wonder where all the time went.  

Part of my plans include book talks and book trailers for every class once a month.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but I have to admit that last year my book talks were few and far between.

One problem (or wonderful challenge) with book talks is that there is then a mad rush for the books I've book talked and there are inevitable hurt feelings and discouraged students.  So I decided to create these book talk menus.  Students will leave their menus in the Library (any hints for managing the paper would be appreciated) for all third, fourth, and fifth graders.  Each time I book talk new books or highlight oldies but goodies, students can jot down the books of interest to them.  They will then have a running list of titles to chose from throughout the year.

Any suggestions for the format of my book menu?  I haven't made the photocopies yet. ; )

Hello from the Library, Y'all!

Weeee'rrrrrrreee baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Not quite.  The Library looks like that awkward stage where you've just dumped everything out of your clothing closet because you've decided to "reorganize" it at 11:00 at night and then you get tired and go to bed leaving everything on the bedroom floor.  But hey.  Students don't return until Monday, so I've got plenty of time.  Yeah.  That's the ticket!

This week we have our annual joint meeting with the librarians from our public library system.  We really do share the love.  The librarians are so supportive - I just love collaborating with them and of course, their summer book talks are the best.  Ah, the beginning of summer.  It seems like only two months ago.  Oh.  It WAS two months ago.

How are you doing?

Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy: Another Jewel in the Crown

Title:  Liar & Spy

Year Published:  Available August 7, 2012

Author:  Rebecca Stead

You May Know Her: As the author of the Newberry Award-Winning book When You Reach Me.

You May Find Her: At her website and on twitter at @rebstead.

Review You May Not Have Seen:  A review from the Katie on the Teens at the Arlington Public Library (TATAL) blog.

The Delta/Plus

Liar & Spy, Rebecca Stead's forthcoming work of middle grade fiction, takes place in a different borough from Stead's book previous work, When You Reach Me, but it is, just the same, like a love letter to her beloved New York.  

Georges, a seventh-grader, has just relocated with his father and mother to an apartment, not far from their former house.  Money is the issue, and Georges and his mother seem to pass like ships in the night as she works double shifts as a nurse at the hospital.  Soon Georges meets a fellow apartment-dweller, Safer, who enlists his help in a rather Rear Window-esque situation that involves a man in black and the lobby surveillance camera.

Weaving its way through the book is Georges relationship with his father, his mother, and kids of the wearing, bullying sort.  As the book continues, you realize that indeed Mr. X is the least of this book's mysteries, but that is classic Rebecca Stead.

Liar & Spy is a deceptively simple book, both in its length and in its lean prose.  This, I believe, is one of Rebecca Stead's great talents. But of course her books are extremely intricate, slowly revealing themselves, as the reader peels back the layers.

Many of my fifth graders picked up When You Reach Me after I glowingly book talked it to them three years ago (I had predicted it would win the Newbery - please, please, hold your applause).  This year, I plan to read Liar & Spy to my fifth grade lunch bunch.  I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces as they hang on every detail, find connections to their own lives, and as the book comes to its powerful, yet low-key (can that be?), conclusion.

Liar & Spy will take its place on my bookshelf next to When You Reach Me as a gem to be read again and again.

This book gets five out of five dog ears from me!

15 Second Sell in the Stacks

(This is when I'm in the stacks, a student shows me a book and says, "Have you read this, Ms. B.?"  I have about 15 seconds to "sell" it.)

"Liar & Spy is by my favorite author, Rebecca Stead.  This is a story about a boy names Georges who moves into a new apartment and is quickly recruited by a neighbor to join a spy club.  The two of them together try to get to the bottom of a mystery involving a suspicious-looking man in the building, named Mr. X.  All along, Georges is pretty lonely as his mom works long hours at the hospital and his dad tries to drum up some work after having lost his job.  Not to mention, the bullies at school play a mean game of dodge ball.  You'll love this book."

Thank you to Random House for providing me with a free ARC of Liar & Spy, no strings attached.