Mock Caldecott Group

Our Newbery lunch group that meets on Wednesdays has morphed into a Caldecott group.  The kids who come are kids who are already reading for The Battle of the Books, kids who have LOTS of homework and extra curricular activities so asking them to read another chapter book wasn't going to work.  Instead I'm getting to do the one thing I miss the most about elementary school-read picture books! So far we've read Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales, My Pet Book by Bob Staake and The Right Word by Jen Bryant.  We also read I Am a Witches Cat by Harriet Muncaster but then realized that the author/illustrator was from England and therefore not eligible for the Caldecott.  Drat!  The tiny little world created for the illustrations in that book is worth the read.  So cool!

The puppets created for this books are beautiful, there is a wonderful video that shows the process Morales took to create the artwork for this book.  I love the message in the sparse words, English and Spanish. 

This was our group's favorite book so far.  The illustrations and story are so much fun!  I love seeing the process and artist has for creating the art work.  I know nothing about computer illustration but I love to see the product.

This was my favorite.  I LOVE Melissa Sweet's artwork.  I love knowing the story behind the "treasure house" of words Roget created and I love knowing how to pronounce his name. Here's a trailer that shows the beauty of the illustrations.

JMS Library Lunch Groups

We have started our lunch groups in the library. Students are still able to come in and read, check out books and work on homework.  In addition we have the following groups:

Monday is Makerspace
Tuesday is Battle of the Books
Wednesday is Mock Newbery 
Thursday is trailers and QR codes
Friday is fun computer games


We have been having a great time getting to know each other and setting up our clubs! Come join us in the library.

The Mock Newbery group (we'll throw in some Caldecott possibilities too) will be looking at the books mentioned here, here and here to find out which books we want to read to prepare for our vote for this year's winner.  Look for guest posts by members of our group and join us in predicting the winner!

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.