Newbery Hopefuls

There are so many books I want to read. I have a list of books that I "should have" already read, I am a librarian after all!  Lately I'm loving reading new books, specifially Newbery hopefuls.  I guess every book for a young person is a Newbery hopeful but I get my list in a couple of places.  One is Betsy Bird's great blog A Fuse #8 Production the other is the Mock Newbery group on Goodreads. 

I just finished reading Revolution by Deborah Wiles.  It's the story of Sunny, a young girl living in Mississippi (finally being able to spell that comes in handy!) in 1964 when the "Invaders" come to her small town to help register black voters during "Freedom Summer".  The book is written spot on from Sunny's point of view as a smart, tough girl who is so confused about what's going on.  The grown ups around her discuss the events but don't talk with her directly about it, leaving her to come to her own conclusions and make up her mind about what's right and wrong.  Sunny's growth through the book is timed wonderfully, just when I was getting annoyed with her for being a kid she starts to open her eyes and see things that change her.  The non fiction elements in the book-pictures, articles and back story really add power to the plot.  I enjoyed Revolution and I hope it gets some recognition.  I loved Countdown, the first in the 60's trilogy that Deborah Wiles is writing, and was sad to see it not at least get an honor sticker. 

I read Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy aloud to my 4th grade son and we both loved it.  The voice of Ophelia and the story of the Marvelous Boy is pure magic.  The scene is set with beautiful description, Ophelia alone on her quest to save the boy in the grand and mysterious museum run by the icy Miss. Kaminski.  The book was funny without being silly and had suspense without being too scary.  I loved reading it out loud, the words were perfectly chosen and the story was paced well, marching right along to get us to the end.  If you enjoy mystery and magical characters, this book will be a treat! 
I'm not sure if it meets the Newbery criteria but it was much enjoyed in our house.

New Digs!

I love a good project.  My goals for the physical space of the library are:
Weed- this is a process that librarians both love and hate.  With the help of a great district team we will take out books that have out of date information, books that are not being checked out after living in the library shelves for more than a decade and books that are broken or damaged.  This will give us more space for new books, updated material and room for students to look through the shelves.  Make sure to visit the atrium at the entrance to the library to get some free books from our weeding project!

Decorate-We had a couple of gracious donations of posters for the library.  Candlewick Press sent us some beautiful posters with artwork from some of their recently published books.  Spineless Classics sent us three of their amazing posters, the entire text of a book printed on one page to create a lovely image.  You have to come check them out in the library, they are awesome and would make a great gift for any book lover! We are hoping to get new shelving and paint in the years to come, new carpet is already ordered for the summer.  This project is off to a great start!

30 Years Later

I am so excited to be back in middle school!  As a teacher of course.  Not a student, you could not offer me anything that would make me return to those three years of my life.  I was a Jefferson Jet 30 years ago, a nervous 11 year old trying to navigate a big school and make new friends. One of my first best friends had a mom who was a librarian.  It was through her that I fell in love with Judy Blume, I read all of her books I could get my hands on.  I still remember passages and descriptions that meant something to me then.   Now, here I am all these years later hoping to be able to get THAT book into the hands of these Jefferson Jets.  This time of life which is fraught with  moods and hormones, questions and trouble lends itself so well to my desire to help make information easier to access and understand in the library.  So glad to be here.