Annual Annals - Books We Re-Read Every Year

An hour or so ago I posed a question to my tweeps via Twitter:

Is there a book you read annually, for a special occasion, perhaps? I read Summer's Lease by Mortimer.

The responses I received (and continue to receive) are too good to just mark as favorites, so I'm listing them here as a kind of Annual To Be Read (Again) list.  I hope you discover some new bookish traditions!

@nicoeatsbooks One of my most favorite books is Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos and I reread it at Christmas

@playthrutheday We read The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson every Christmas.

@AnIowaTeacher Before each basketball season I read this: "Leading With the Heart" by Mike Krzyzewski. Gets me in the right frame of mind!

@rachelwrites007 Whenever I'm upset I read A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Betty Smith. It's my favorite book in the world. <3

Ignore the Common Core?

Hey Alaska!  What's up, Minnesota?  Hellllloooooo, Nebraska!  Howdy, Texas!

It's me!  Virginia!  Welcome to one of the most exclusive clubs in the United States of America!  But what shall we call ourselves?  The We-Don't-DO-Common-Core Club?  The Un-Common Cores?  The Rotten to the Cores?

From twitter to the book vendor tables at conferences, the world, it seems, is ga-ga over the Common Core.  And by "ga-ga" I don't mean they necessarily like the CC; I just mean that it's all about the CC.  So where does that leave the states that are not official adopters of the CC?  Where does that leave school libraries?

Of course, my state of Virginia has its own Standards of Learning and the State has demonstrated how they align with the Common Core.  But with so much of the literature we're seeing now, from recommended nonfiction series to lesson plans now proclaiming that they "Align with the Common Core!", what are you, non-Core states, doing with them?  Ignoring them entirely?  Forcing a fit with your state standards?  Concentrating solely on your state standards?

Hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,

Virginia

Teacher Requests - Book Lists

Some of you read my post about The Best Email I Ever Sent.  I took the responses and made them into a giant To-Do list.  It feels really great to have projects that are eagerly awaited for by my teachers!

So last week I created two book lists using GoodReads.  The first was a list of books about art and the second was a list of books about music.  They aren't comprehensive lists of all the titles I have in my collection.  I chose titles that I think have been overlooked or titles that are fiction and have an art/music connection.  The real purpose of these lists is to have a place to list new books as they come in to my library.

So far my art and music teachers have been very thankful.  Next up is a list requested by a fourth grade teacher for grade-level reads.  This is such a difficult topic to address.  By reading level?  By age appropriate-ness?  How do you handle requests for books by grade level?

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.