Come On In!

Come on in! Welcome to the Library!

Twenty to thirty years ago, the role of a librarian was to check books in and out, and to continually "shush" the students. I personally experienced this in junior high and high school. Luckily that has changed over the years, and the expectations are now higher. I feel the most important service I provide my students is my ability to help them find reading material that suits them. I ask questions and learn things about them, and use that information to help locate books of interest for them. I also constantly remind them that if the book they check out is not one they like, that they need to come back to the library so we can find one that they DO like. There is nothing wrong with not liking a book. This helps to encourage reluctant readers especially. It helps me feel that I'm contributing to the good of the student and their current and future learning abilities. It helps the student overcome the stumbling block of reading by making it enjoyable and not a drudgery. It puts them in control of what they read. 

"The Pleasure Principle" by Nancie Atwell 

I Need My Own Country!

I'm not a political gal, but I'm thinking... there are days when I need MY own country!
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Author: Rick Walton    rickcreation.com

Illustrator: Wes Hargis   weshargis.com

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 www.bloomsburykids.com

Hook: "There comes a time in all kids' lives when they need to create their own country."

Our cute main character is having issues with a brother =) she needs to create a space (country) all her own, complete with her own flag, rules, and national anthem. She prepares for civil unrest, visits from foreign dignitaries, and past invaders who now come in peace. 

I love that this story begins in the endpapers, and carries through the title page to the first actual page of the book. The darling illustrations tell even more of the story than the words, and my kids loved finding the funny-faced goldfish on each page (he's the Secretary of the Navy =)

rating:  (5 stars)

I Hate Picture Books!

I really don't - I LOVE picture books, but Timothy Young's "too cool for school" character Max "HATES" them! I can't even begin to imagine what that's like.

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Author: Timothy Young ihatepicturebooks.com

Illustrator: Timothy Young 

Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

4880 Lower Vally Road Atglen, PA 19310 schifferbooks.com

Hook: "I HATE picture books!"

Cute (and frustrated) Max hates picture books. Mainly, because each time he tries to mimic something that a picture book character does HE gets into trouble. For example, after his mom read  Harold and the Purple Crayon to Max, HE drew on the wall and got sent to bed without dinner! When HE tried eating "green ham" he threw up all over the kitchen. I guess I can see where he's coming from =)

My favorite part of the story is when Max is retelling the story "Are You My Mother" and he says "So you know what this book made me do? It made me cry! Like where you think the 'snort' is going to eat the bird, but then puts it back in it's nest...I LOVE THAT BOOK! I MEAN I HATE THAT BOOK! It was the first one I threw away. Wait...I do love that book.
I GOTTA FIND THAT BOOK!"

Cute story, cute illustrations, cute idea.

rating:  12345 (5 books)

LOVE it!

Is this not the coolest rug?? It's perfect for that reading nook of yours (and mine =)

 

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The Miniature World of Marvin & James

The Miniature World of Marvin & James - The Masterpiece Adventures, Book 1

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Author: Elise Broach elisebroach.com

Illustrator: Kelly Murphy kelmurphy.com

Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books  Henry Holt and Company LLC

175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010  mackids.com

Hook: "Marvin is sad."

I would be sad too if my best friend was leaving me for a whole week! 

We met Marvin & James in Elise's novel, Masterpiece. I LOVED that book, so I was thrilled when I discovered this new little series! I say "little" because it's only 104 pages of large print and darling illustrations, just right for your "comfortable with reading" first grader, or your more reluctant second or third grader. This book does have chapters, so they can feel like they are reading a more "big kid" book, but at their vocabulary level. Cute story about friendship, missing important people when they are absent from your life, and the wonderful feeling you experience when they return. PLUS, you get a fantastic adventure inside a pencil sharpener! How can you beat that?

rating: (5 beetles)

 

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Disclaimer =)

Before I set out to "review" books for you, I feel I need to let you in on a little secret about me. I love books and reading. Ok, that's not the secret, but it's part of it. Because I love books and reading, it's hard to find a book I don't like in one respect or another. So...with that said, my "reviews" won't be full of technical lingo and book jargon. Either I love a book or I don't. I might love it because the illustrations are wonderful; I might love it because it reminds me of something from my childhood; I might love it because it's just cute =). If you are looking for technical reviews you've come to the wrong place. I'm just going to tell you I love it, and why. I read books for entertainment; if it's something I have to work to understand I will quickly put it down. Pretty easy and straightforward, right? That's what I hope to share with you.

I'll be working on my rating system...

New Chapter!

It's been quite a while since I posted on this fun blog of mine...lots of changes in my life have happened in the last year! After 11 years as a Media Specialist with a wonderful school district, I made the HUGE jump to university librarianship! I am currently part of the wonderful world of the Harold B. Lee Library on the campus of Brigham Young University! I've had quite the learning curve, and miss my elementary friends greatly, but all in all it's been a great move for me. I've discovered that I am missing children's books immensely, though, so I've decided to revamp the blog a bit and use it to keep myself up to date with what's happening in the realm of children's books. If others enjoy it as well then that's all the better!

Stay tuned for some updates on what I've read, how I liked it, and if I would recommend it to others. I am also working on my MLIS, so I'm struggling to find a balance between studying and reading for fun...bear with me as I slowly work my way into this new chapter of my life!

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There are posts on this blog that I would like to keep (fond memories) so I will just be building up the "new" blog around the "old" blog. Hopefully you find something here that will be of benefit to you.

Read for the World Record...New Record!

This summer we once again, participated in Scholastic's Read for the World Record! reading challenge! Once again we made it to the TOP 20 in the WORLD! We also placed FIRST in the state of Utah! Amazing job Otters!!

Our school goal was to read 1,000,000 minutes over the summer - not only did we make our goal, we surpassed it! We read 1,495,565 minutes! This year was more difficult than last year... the winning school read over 6,000,000 minutes! Next year we will really have to step it up, but for right now we are celebrating!

Congratulations Otters!!
New record: 176,438,473 minutes world wide

Our Library Dragon

 

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Such a fun story! Do we have a dragon in our library? 

I hope not! My job is not to "guard the books," but to teach YOU to guard the books while you have them checked out. To enjoy them AND keep them safe. Media Center manner #3, Be Responsible, right? Be responsible with the library books you have checked out.  Nope, no dragon here in OUR library... =)

Really?

I am in SHOCK. Seriously... is summer over?

For me it is =( but YOU have ONE. MORE. WEEK. That's it? Isn't that crazy? Can you tell my summer just FLEW by? Hope you've had a great one, I sure did!

It's always nice to have a break from school, and it's ALWAYS great to come back! We have some super fun things in store this year, and I can't WAIT to get started!

We will chat all about our summer adventures the first week of school, I have some fun things to update you all on... see you soon!!

In Honor of Earth Day-This Week in the Library

It's Earth Day today! In honor of this great day, and wonderful earth, here's what we are reading this week...

 

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I LOVE Peter Brown's books! We have several copies of his books here in our library, he's a favorite around here! Children Make Terrible Pets was a Beehive Nominated book this last year!

 

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This is one of my favorite illustrations from The Curious Garden, I wonder why...

I'm all ready to plant MY garden... how about you??

Also, at the end of the story, there is an author's note that mentions The High Line in New York City... (which I believe was the inspiration for this story) 

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Isn't it beautiful!! I'm traveling to New York City in June, and this is DEFINITELY on my list of things to see. I can't wait!!

It's National Library Week!

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We are celebrating National Library Week this week, with a fun activity! You can even do this at home! We are playing musical chairs (with a twist...) we've set out enough chairs for everyone (we don't want ANYONE left out) and on each chair is a book. We've selected books that one might not normally take off the shelves and look at/check out. They are from all sections in our library, some picture books, some non-fiction books, and a few fiction books. 

When the music starts, the students walk around the chairs, and when the music stops, they sit in the nearest chair and have several minutes to look at and read the book on that chair. We move several times (as our library time allows) and then discuss the different books we've had the opportunity to look at. It's been SO much fun to hear from the students who were surprised that they actually enjoyed looking at books they wouldn't have normally looked at. Several even wanted to check them out! =) 

It's been a great way to expose students to some new and exciting reading material.

Happy National Library Week!

 

Scholastic Read for the World Record!

 We will be participating again this summer in Scholastic's "Read for the World Record" challenge! Do you remember how fantastic we were last summer? We were FIRST in the state of Utah, and 14th in the WORLD!! Pretty impressive! We plan on doing at least that this summer...

 

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Pre-registration begins today, and the challenge begins May 6th! 

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last years record:

 and Riverview read 884,329 of those minutes! Our goal this year is to read OVER 1 MILLION MINUTES as a school! I know we can do it!!
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From the Scholastic website...

Critical Facts About Summer Reading

* Learning or reading skill losses during the summer months are cumulative. By the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss has accumulated to a two-year lag in reading achievement. 

*  It is estimated that the “Summer Slide” accounts for as much as 85% of the reading achievement gap between lower income students and their middle-and upper-income peers. 

* 3rd graders who can’t read on grade level are four times less likely to graduate by age 18 than a proficient reader. 

* Studies show that making sure there are always interesting books at home can increase the likelihood of a child being a frequent reader.

Happy Spring Break!!

We've got a WHOLE WEEK off school!  What shall we do...? You better be READING! =)

Library Mouse

We have a mouse in our library!!!

And he's SO cute, don't you think?

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We've started writing our own stories as well, just like cute Sam...

 

and we have our very own library mouse, although no one has seen him yet...

(you can get your very own "mouse hole" HERE)

The best part? There are MORE Library Mouse books for us to read!!

Here Come the Girl Scouts!

This week in the Library...

pretty sure you've seen the Girl Scouts out in full force selling their famous cookies - when I saw them, I was reminded of this wonderful book:

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Juliette Gordon Low was quite a woman! CLICK HERE for more information on her, and how the Girl Scouts came to be... it's very cool!

Beehive Book Award Nominees for 2013-14

CLAU has announced the nominees for next years Beehive Book Award... HERE!

Check them out!!

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Dr. Seuss Week!

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 Just like our Cat in the Hat above, we are tired! It's been a fun and crazy week!

Read-a-thon

I won't be able to attend the read-a-thon today =( but I still wanted to share one of my favorite books... (this is NOT a professional video =)

Last day...

Tomorrow is the last day of our Scholastic Book Fair! If you haven't had the chance to stop by, you can still come tonight (until 8:00 pm) or tomorrow after school (open until 4:00 pm) Our next book fair will be in May, to gear up for our summer reading! We will be participating in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge AGAIN this year (because we were so spectacular last year...)

If you are not able to make it to the book fair, but would still like to purchase books for your home library or for a class library here at school, you can order from our online fair until February 15th! Your order will be send to our school, where you can pick it up after the 15th.

Many thanks to those who have come and supported our book fair! Every sale benefits our library, and we are SO grateful for your support! Keep reading!!