My 6th Grade Book Club

Last year, I had some 5th grade girls approach me about forming a book club that would meet during their lunch hour.  I was ecstatic that they wanted to read for fun in addition to the work that they were doing in their classrooms.  We ended up reading some really good books including Kate Messner's Sugar & Ice and some of The Shadow Children series books by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

With this year came a change for those students:  middle school!  They moved upstairs in our school building and started having new classes, new teachers, and involvement in extra curriculars that weren't available to them last year.  I never said anything to the girls about continuing on with our book club now that they were in middle school because I know things change and they were now busier than they have ever been.

Well, it seems they hadn't forgotten about our club!  A few weeks before Christmas Break, two of the students approached me and asked if we could start our book club up again.  Imagine my excitement!  They told me that they missed reading books together and talking about them.  I did, too, and I told the girls that.  We set up a meeting during their lunch and I had 9 girls interested in being in the club.  That is the perfect number for a group like this!  We talked about when they'd like to meet, books they like to read and fun things like that.

The girls decided on reading Esperanza Rising for their first book and they are really enjoying it.  We had a book club meeting yesterday and it was so interesting to get their take on Esperanza and her mother's journey to California after leaving Mexico.  While the girls don't always share the same view on the books, they are willing to listen to each other and agree to disagree.  It's fun to see them interact this way.

We're almost finished with our book, so it will be interesting to see what book the girls want to read next.  No matter their choice, I know for sure that we'll have fun reading it!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 1/2/2012

This morning I was reading my Twitter feed and noticed quite a few tweets entitled, "It's Monday!  What are you reading?" so I decided to check those out.  I learned from reading the Teach Mentor Texts blog that this is a weekly posting where people sum up the books they read the previous week and talk about those they'd like to read this week.  Seeing as I'm new to blogging and always looking for topics, I figured, "This is definitely something I can do!"

I have been on Christmas Break since December 23rd, so I've been reading a lot lately and it has been so nice!  I hope to continue this even after school is back in session tomorrow and I start taking classes again at the end of January.  Reading time is so precious and it's time I can share with my two boys or by myself, depending on what I'm reading.

Books I read last week and really enjoyed:

and my favorite book of 2011...



Books I will be reading this week:



I am also participating in the #nerdcott challenge, so I will be reading a variety of Caledecott winners this week, but I'm not sure which ones yet.  I have to see which ones are in my school library before I order them through my local library system.

Now, off to do some reading!

Reading Challenge...Are You Up For It?

This time last year, I was fairly new to Twitter and Goodreads and saw many posts of people committing to a reading challenge for the new year.  Having been in a bit of a reading slump myself, I figured I'd give it a shot and set my Goodreads goal for 211 books for the year.  That number would include the picture books I read to my early elementary classes along with any other books I'd read along the way.

Well, I'm happy to say that I met my goal quite a few months ago.  And I've actually had to up it twice since meeting the goal because I met the new goals, too!  During the reading challenge, I found myself picking up books I've always wanted to read, but just never had the time to.  Having two young boys of my own at home also allowed me to get picture books that we could share together.  We have had many fun adventures at the Lawton Memorial Library during the challenge where it was fun for me as a mom to watch my boys pick out the books they wanted to read from the shelves.

Over Christmas Break, it has been fun to get involved in The Nerdy Book Club via Twitter and keep track of all the great books that people have been reading over break and raving about.  Speaking of the Nerdy Book Club, some of the members are getting involved in new reading challenges for the year including #nerdcott and #nerdbery.  What are these challenges, you ask?  Well, members are challenging themselves to read all the Caldecott winners (#nerdcott) and  Newbery winners (#nerdbery).  Both challenges prove to be stress-free, allowing members to complete the challenges in 1, 2 or 3 years.  Whatever works best for the reader.  I will be participating in #nerdcott so that I can share the books with my boys, too.  I'm looking forward to see how picture books have evolved over the years since the Caldecott was first awarded.

So, I challenge you to get involved in a reading challenge of your own.  It's amazing what great books you discover along the way!

Happy reading in 2012!

A New Book Christmas

As a teacher-librarian, I love books!  Picture books, YA novels, graphic novels...anything that will get a child reading.  I am very fortunate to be married to a man who shares a love of books and wants to pass that on to our two sons, Brock and Jake.

We started something this Christmas with our boys that we're planning on making a tradition in our household and that's the tradition of getting at least two books at Christmas time.  We had so much fun shopping for the boys at our local bookstore, Bramble Books, and we're hoping to frequent there more often!  We'd like to include the boys in our next trip there.  It will be fun to see what books they pick out to purchase.

Books foster a love of so many things.  Our oldest son, Brock, is 5 now and discovered fishing this past summer.  He was able to land a very nice sized small mouth bass while we were on vacation and he's been hooked on fishing and learning about fish ever since!  We purchased the book Adventures With Jonny: Let's Go Fishing for him as a Christmas gift and he loves it!  He's been studying the unique features of a variety of fish in order to better identify them when we get back out on the water.

Our youngest son, Jake, is 3 and a loon lover!  When on vacation this past June, we were able to daily hear and see a beautiful family of loons on the lake in which we were staying.  We had never seen them before and to watch them was truly fascinating.  Jake even wanted to purchase a stuffed animal loon when at a local gift shop and that loon travels around with him everywhere!  When I spotted the book entitled Loon while we were Christmas shopping, I just knew I had to get that for him.  I have really enjoyed reading this book to Jake over our Christmas Break because I have learned a lot about loons in the process.

So, the next time you're puzzled as to what kind of a gift you should buy someone, consider a book or a gift card to a local bookstore.  Maybe giving books is a tradition that you, too, want to start.  We're so glad that we did!

Reading to the Little Ones

Above is a picture of my two little boys, Brock and Jake.  Seeing as I'm a teacher-librarian, you probably aren't surprised to see a picture of them reading a book.  This sight is always something that makes me very happy.  To see them imitate me reading is quite funny and it brings a smile to my face!

It is very important that little children are read to at home be it by a parent, grandparent, sibling or friend.  This reading, even at a very young age, helps children with their vocabulary and instilling in them a life-long love of reading.  For these younger readers, like my boys, I encourage parents to purchase board books which hold up much better to hard use by their little readers.  I know these books can take a beating because I've seen it in my own household!

While reading to your children is important, it is also important that your children see you reading for enjoyment, too.  It doesn't have to be a book.  It could be a newspaper, a magazine, or a newsletter, but let me see you enjoying it.  I know of some families that set aside a specific reading time during the day where everyone in the house drops whatever it is and reads for a certain amount of time.  I've heard students tell me in the first few weeks of school that they are required to read 20 minutes every day, but they like it so much that they read longer than that.  That's great to hear!

My husband and I are both avid readers and we're hoping that our boys learn to love it as much as we do.  It's so easy and fun to "get lost" in a book.  That's something I hope that my students are doing every single day!

Happy Reading!

Off to a Great Start!

Well, I've got the first week of school under my belt already and what a great start it has been!  My schedule has changed this year and I'm working with all of the elementary students once a week instead of just the upper elementary twice a week.  There are a lot of students whose names I am just learning, but I will get there! 

The response to my Read S'more Books! Reading Challenge has been AWESOME!  I can't believe how many students are participating and that's great to see.  Some students have been in every day this week to check out new books because they finished the ones they had the night before.  They are definitely devouring them, that's for sure!  I can't wait to see what our final total is at the end of October.  I think we'll definitely be past our 500 books!

I have a lot of exciting lessons coming up in the next couple of weeks and I can't wait to share them along with some great new books.  It is definitely going to be a fun year in the Library!

Miss Brooks Loves Books...And I Don't!

Today we welcomed back the students of Kickapoo Area Schools and that meant the Library was open for business and I was so excited about that!  I had a lot of new books to choose from in picking my readings for today with my 1st and 2nd graders but I settled on a a great one, Miss Brooks Loves Books...And I Don't!  This is the story of a 1st grader who just doesn't share her librarian's passion for books.  The little girl has never found a book that has been quite right for her until she discovers the book Shrek.  It's amazing to see kids connect with books like the little girl in our story did.

It has been awhile since I have worked with 1st and 2nd graders and their enthusiasm is catching!  I introduced them to our Read S'more Books! Reading Challenge and I am astounded at the number of students who want to participate!  I'm challenging the entire elementary to read 500 books during the first two months of school.  I asked the students if they thought we could reach our goal and they overwhelmingly said, "Yes!"  This was great to hear!  The books were just flying off the shelves after I told them about the challenge.

I will keep everyone updated on the challenge and all the books that our students love...just like their librarian, Mrs. Malphy!