#IMWAYR June 30 #bookaday catchup

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.





What I've Been Reading-click on the images to go to my Goodreads shelf and see the individual reviews. Missed last week so there are a lot of books!

I liked The Night Gardener. A lot. It's creepy, though. Not sure who the intended audience is. I am pretty sure I won't ever get it for our elementary school collection. Might TELL a few 5th graders "hey, go find this book" but it would not be accessible to most of them. I'm not sure if middle school would pick it up, given the description. But go read! If you like slightly spooky.

Under the Egg is a conundrum. I quite enjoyed it with all of the art and historical references ... but seriously. Can't think of a student age group that would really embrace it, either.

I almost didn't include Holding Fast ... I don't post most religious stuff I read. But you may see them pop up every once in a while from here on out. Not changing the focus of my blog by a long shot ... but I just feel like I should be more purposeful in all of my endeavors. I never want there to be a question where I stand. I've been blessed to not ever have had to doubt many things.

Loved Still Life. The Shadows is a favorite series in our library!

Manhunt was fun. Needs a Google Lit trip to go along with it. All of the Jaguar Society titles are a little predictable but hey. Makes them solid choices for less confident readers. Same with the Sasquatch Escape (or perhaps even more so ... a bit formulaic but still fun). 

Enjoyed The Dyerville Tales. It got creepy at the last third so there's another one that might not really be elementary but I'll tell people about it.

Seriously, the ONLY thing that could have convinced me to read Capt. Underpants is my nephew. And I still didn't really enjoy it or see the appeal. :/ But I loved that he wanted to share it with me. This nephew sometimes calls to read bits of Harry Potter to me. He's going in to the 4th grade this fall.

The Impossible Knife of Memory is an important book. Can't say that I enjoyed it ... but I can see the need for the story to be told. Definitely high school.


Will finish Tinkerlab this week. And am currently working on these two. I also have a Mary Higgins Clark waiting for me at the public library. ;) We'll see what else hits with #bookaday. Actually should get started on Reading in the Wild before summer goes on too much longer, shouldn't it? Click on the pic if you want more info about the books pictured.

Finally Friday June 27

Where did June go?

I'll be real honest with you. I'd like to go back and have a do-over. Didn't see some personal things coming by a long shot. Can't change the past, though. So move forward with faith, right?

Speaking of faith ...



This is actually pretty genius, right? Because while we all know that the search function is not super complicated ... color coding (especially for the little ones who can't spell yet!) would be a super easy way to help the kids know where to find an app. "It's on the purple row."



I am super excited for this. Seriously. BIG help in workflow and collaboration. Even in Google Apps use at the elementary level and definitely at the secondary.




Not much of a selfie poster. But I am thinking about chopping my hair off. Not like I can "do" it, anyway. 8 days out of 10 it's twisted up in a clip. This one's cute, right?



(Why is this formatting so strangely in the preview? Looking at the code it looks the same to me.) Had totally been planning on Hour of Code next year ... only to find out Wednesday that we are getting a new principal. Don't know WHO yet. Just that ours is getting sent to a new school where her bilingual skills were apparently even more needed. We will miss her. She was "good people."

Where I Was

The few pictures I remembered to take.

Ordered a new Mac this morning. Had it with the weird things this one is doing. But ugh ... moving everything over. Oh and finding a desk chair cause I didn't get a laptop this time. #thingsihadntplannedon


Later!

Location:Where I Was

(almost) #IMWAYR June 16

It's (almost) Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.


#bookaday is getting a slow start. This is my first week to really have off and I head out on Tuesday for a trip.

BUT I have read at least a little. Click through because Goodreads embeds don't come through on Bloglovin or Feedly.

I dropped by B&N for a little bit and found this one.

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh ... this might even be a five star. Just for being about a chubby little panda with insomnia. #beenthere #wellexceptforthepandapart

And I checked this one out of our district e-catalog.

The Thickety: A Path Begins by J.A. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEPY!
That said ... quite a lot of fun.

It's long. And detailed. So I will have to think about it for our elementary school collection. Some kids would love it. Some would not deal with it well. Most would check it out and never read more than a few pages.

But a middle school collection? In a heartbeat. Don't let the cover fool you. This is not a kiddie lit title.


How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not really juvenile non-fic ... a contender for a middle school collection but I'm not sure if I'll get this for our strong 4th/5th or not.
Spectacular messes here. Several that I did not know about!


I did start reading Tinkerlab. I'm only about two chapters in. So far I think she has some great ideas ... but she shares a lot on her website. I'm not sure what the value added of the book is. So we will see if that changes as I continue. Won't happen next week as it's stuck on my laptop and I'm not taking it on my trip. But when I get back I'll continue.

I will probably finish The Book of Secrets this week. Not sure why it's taken so long. I do really like this character. I just keep getting distracted. Guess it's OK. Won't officially be released for a while. It's on the Kindle.

I really want to get reading Revolution but like Tinkerlab it's one that I can't put on my Kindle. I can't even get it to move properly onto my old Nook. So it will probably not happen until I get back.

And that's if my computer doesn't DIE. Do I just bite the bullet and get a new one? This laptop is not that old. 40 months? Moving all the files. Ugh. Dealing with this SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW spinning pinwheel of death. Also ugh.

Family time? Not ugh.

Finally Friday June 13

Ha! I did not even notice until getting ready to write this post. Remember if you are reading this in an app like Feedly or Bloglovin you'll need to click through to see embedded content.



I like this! Only will it teach them to spell the word incorrectly?




TIMMY D!




Love, love, love. If only they were that easy to find ...




I just got a Netgalley copy of the Tinkerlab book so we'll see.




I was so confused by this pic until I clicked through and read that it was magic shell. Seriously silly moment. "How can they dip a popsicle into warm chocolate?

#Mouseheart winner and TBT My Top 100 or so Books #bookaday

All week I really did mean to post the winner. I used random dot org after Sunday night's game. When I was all sad about the game but giving away fun books cheered me up.

Then I've either been in PD tech classes or giving PD tech classes. And Tuesday night's game was already fun. Because the Spurs played awesomely. Even me who doesn't really understand basketball could tell they were on fire. But. Back on topic. Loads of tech PD. Until now. I AM DONE. I was going to go to something on Monday but I decided not to. Is that lame?



So without further ado ...

Mrs. Good! You win! I will be in touch with the contact info.







Here is a TBT from last June. I should update it. Suggestions? Or maybe just spiffy it up. We'll see.





"These lists sort of irritate the ever living daylights out of me. After a cousin posted a Top 100 on Pinterest and I saw it and went ... ARGH! over a good 90% of it I decided to write my own. That's thinking pretty highly of my own opinion, I know. ;)



I'm going to list them in groups. Easy Picture Books. Everybody Picture Books (because older kids should read these even when they CAN read harder or longer ones!). Chapter Books and then Middle Grade/Tween Lit that goes right up to when kids might choose YA. I'm sure I forgot something. It's also not in chronological order by release or anything. Just as I remembered them or saw them in my Goodreads profile.

Easy Picture Books (great for read alouds or shared reading ... not necessarily fixed vocab readers)

• Every Piggie and Elephant book ever written! My personal all time favorite is There is a Bird on Your Head but they're all funny. And of course the Pigeon books. Really, just about anything by Mo Willems. A given.


• Interrupting Chicken (David Ezra Stein)


• I Want My Hat Back AND That Is Not My Hat (Jon Klassen)


• The Circus Ship (Chris Van Duesen)


• Shark Vs. Train (Chris Bartlett)


• Blackout (John Rocco)


• Duck & Goose OR Rocket books (Tad Hills)


• Creepy Carrots (Aaron Reynolds)


• Llama, Llama books (Anna Dewdney)


• Where's Walrus (almost wordless ... by Stephen Savage)


• Turtle's Penguin Day (Valeri Gorbachev)


• Good News, Bad News OR Frog and Fly (Jeff Mack)


• anything by Jan Thomas


• Pete the Cat books (the ones done by BOTH Eric Litwin and James Dean)


• anything by Oliver Jeffers


• Suzanne Bloom's Bear and Duck books 


• How to Teach a Slug to Read (Susan Pearson)


• I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (Kevin Sherry)


• A Balloon for Isabel (Deborah Underwood)


• Bunny Days (Tau Nyeu)


• Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown)


• Dog Loves Books (Louise Yates)

Everybody Picture Books

• Over and Under the Snow (Kate Messner)


• anything by Nic Bishop (amazing photographer and non-fic writer)


• anything by Steve Jenkins (amazing paper artist and non-fic writer)


• 14 Cows for America (Carmen Agra Deedy ... and be ready to cry)


• Henry's Freedom Box (Ellen Levine)


• Independent Dames and/or Thank You, Sarah (both historically based and by Laurie Halse Anderson)


• Flotsam (might be wordless but it's so beautiful with possibilities for discussion I'm listing it here ... by David Wiesner)


• Scaredy Squirrel series (by Melanie Watt ... he's actually a "proactive" little guy plus you get some great non-fic text features in a very fiction environment! He's also funny.)


• all of David Elliot's "In the" poetry books


• North, the Amazing Story of Arctic Migration (Nick Dowson)


• "Life Size" books (Teruyuki Komiya ... great photos and FUN because of the size)


• What If? (Laura Vaccaro Seeger)


• Here Comes the Garbage Barge! (Jonah Winter)


• Library Mouse (Daniel Kirk)


• Orangutans Are Ticklish (Steve Grubman ... a fun photography book)

Chapter Books

• any Frog and Toad book (Arnold Lobel)


• Katie Woo books (Fran Manushkin)


• Cork and Fuzz (Dori Chaconas)


• Marty McGuire (two available so far by Kate Messner)


• Clementine books (FUNNY by Sara Pennypacker)


• Humphrey books (all of them are realistic fic (except for the fact that Humphrey is a talking hamster) with great examples of how friends get along by Betty G. Birney)


• 43 Old Cemetery Road (an epistolary slightly spooky series by Kate Klise)


• Melvin Beederman series (Greg Trine)


• Frankie Pickle series (Eric Wight)


• Franny K. Stein series (Jim Benton)


• Gabby & Gator (James Burks)

Middle Grade

• The One and Only Ivan (awesome talking animals story by Katherine Applegate)


• Wonder (remember to CHOOSE KIND by R.J. Palacio)


• A Long Walk to Water (important human rights commentary for kids by Linda Sue Park) 


• The Teacher's Funeral (FUNNY, funny, funny historical fic by Richard Peck)


• Brixton Brothers (great old school detective work! by Mac Barnett)


• Squish graphic novel series (Jennifer and Matthew Holm ... there is some GREAT science vocab "hidden" in these!)


• Books of Elsewhere (great very only slightly spooky series by Jacqueline West)


• Cosmic (ever so funny if you "get" British humor by Frank Cottrell Boyce)


• Belly Up (Hilarious! by Stuart Gibbs)


• How They Croaked (amazing non-fix by Georgia Bragg)


• The Books of Umber (series by P.W. Catanese ... at first I only read because book one was on the state list ... but I'm so glad I did!)


• Bud, not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)


• The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (E.L. Konigsburg)


• Any Which Wall (Laurel Snyder)


• Spilling Ink (Ellen Potter ... this is a MUST have if you have a budding author)


• H.I.V.E. books (Mark Walden ... great adventure in these!)


• Young James Bond (Charlie Higson)


• Wind in the Willows AND Return to the Willows (Jacqueline Kelly)


• The End of the Beginning (Avi)


• Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Kane Chronicle books (Rick Riordan)


• Ranger's Apprentice series (John Flanagan)


• Harry Potter series (DUH ... JK Rowling)

Click on the link HERE to get a downloadable PDF of this list from Google Drive. It's not super pretty but it works."

#IMWAYR or this week more accurately What Do You WANT to Read this Summer? #bookaday

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.




The one book I actually finished this week?

The Thickety: A Path Begins by J.A. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEPY!
That said ... quite a lot of fun.

It's long. And detailed. So I will have to think about it for our elementary school collection. Some kids would love it. Some would not deal with it well. Many would check it out and never read more than a few pages.

But a middle school collection? In a heartbeat. Don't let the cover fool you.


Some of the Books I Want to Read this Summer
I'm not actually QUITE on break yet. And almost as soon as I hit break I'll be on a plane. Early in the morning. Sleep or read? Also I need to find some must read picture books.

How They Choked ... already picked it up from the small town library to which I now belong. It's seriously less convenient than from my old house. #thethingswedoforfreebooks!!!! But how fun. Read about spectacular mess ups OTHER people have made. I loved How They Croaked when I first read it a couple years ago.

Circa Now ... I keep hearing about this one. And while I know it's really different I liked Miss Peregrine. The altered images things is kind of interesting.

Absolutely Almost ... I hear comparisons to Wonder and Ivan. Sold. This usually prefers mysteries and fantasy must read.

Invent to Learn ... I've had this on my Kindle for like six months now. It's time. Everyone says this is the book.

I start more prof. books than I finish. :/

Tinkerlab ... this book comes from a "mom blog" but so far I like the ideas on the mom blog. Sort of mentally figuring out how to tweak them for a school library makerspace.

Finally Friday June 6

The kids are done! I'm not. But the kids are.


There is ... unrest about the 80 boxes that are going out just this week. And the 40 or so the past several weeks. Look at what's STILL HERE, people. How much easier it is to find! #theyllcomearound WAIT! Did I tell you all? I mean, I mentioned the walls. But at the time I didn't know how much they were doing. It's going to be awesome. No window. No office. Barely any space for any personal teaching materials. But in terms of functionality and traffic flow and teaching (i.e. noise and distractions and general hallway chaos)? Wow. SO. MUCH. BETTER. I cried when they finally showed me plans. I cried. Anyway. On to the pins ...



Besides exercise this summer? Better eating/drinking. Less pop.



In light of previous comments? #IRONY #stillaworkinprogress



I love this one! Note to self ... start making lists of has tag subjects and saving book covers in a folder.


I have ... lightning strike earrings. A scarf. A "Keeper" t-shirt. What else do I need ...

#Mouseheart

So recently I received an email asking if I might be interested in taking a look at this book.

Hmm. Animal fantasy. Not usually my pick but I kept reading. It's one the kiddos like.

Hopper is just an ordinary pet-shop mouse—until he escapes. Soon he finds himself below the bustling streets of Brooklyn, deep within the untamed tangles of transit tunnels, and in Atlantia, a glorious utopian rat civilization.

But all is not as it seems. Hopper misses Pinkie and Pup, the siblings he lost in the escape attempt. Atlantia is constantly threatened by roving rebels who wish to bring the city to its knees. And there are cats everywhere, cats who would normally eat a rodent in a second, but leave the rats unharmed . . . and no one can seem to answer why.

Soon Hopper is caught in the crosshairs of an epic battle, one that spans generations and species. As the clashes rage, Hopper learns terrible, extraordinary secrets. Deadly secrets about Atlantia. Painful secrets about his friends.

And one powerful secret about himself.

This one takes place in the tunnels under New York. I know it's weird and random but I've always been fascinated by stories that take place in tunnels. Wouldn't want to be there myself AT ALL but I like the suspense of the location. So I said "Sure, let me take a look!"

And hooray! (Imagine like in the old Life cereal commercial voice) "Ms. O liked it!" And so will my students.

Things I Liked Right Away
Great description. It was very easy to create the images in my head as I read. The characters and settings were right there. My apologies for not saving a quote. I was too busy reading. ;)
Hopper and Zucker. Opposites attract to become friends. Who doesn't like a good buddy story.
300 pages (at least in its current typeface ... that could have changed a little with the final copy). So not super short but not overly long, either. This one will be more accessible to kids than 450 pages plus. Definitely fourth grade and maybe a strong third grader could read it independently. Would also make for a fun read aloud to second grade.
The cats are the bad guys! I am not a cat lady.

Not to forget the lovely cover artwork. The rough sketches in the advanced copy that I saw look great so I'm sure the final artwork will be even better.

I will definitely be getting a copy for our school collection and talking about it when school starts in the fall. I already added the link to the website to our Summer Reading Symbaloo and told a couple kids about "this book I am reading."

Guess what? I get to facilitate giving one of you getting a copy! Along with Belly Up (hilarious!) and The Search for Wondla (great scifi). Seriously. Who wants them? All you have to do is comment below with ... what should the comment be.  Was going to go for something creative but let's go with simple. How about "I want to read Mouseheart! And GO SPURS GO!" I will number your comments and choose a winner after the game on Sunday. Leave your email so that I can find it! US only. Check for the tag #Mouseheart on Twitter to find more ways to win.

This post comes to you courtesy of Safari since Chrome has gone completely ka-blooey on my Mac. Disabled all extensions/add-ons. Tried reinstalling. Chrome is still the one program that gets completely hung up. #techcanbesocoolwhenitsnotbeinglame #itslamealot

Currently ... JUNE!!!!

I'm not out yet. But it's very, very close. ;) Now to link up with Farley.

Listening: to 24. Season 3. I've been on a binge ... more listening to it than anything as I went through the boxes of JUNK from school that were basically in a big pile in a corner of my dining room because I needed the boxes for withdrawn books. I am glad to say that mess is gone. Properly in trash bags or organized in a much more efficient manner. Though whether they ever get to go back to school where they are spur of the moment accessible is another story.

Loving: GOSPURSGO! This pic is all over my FB wall. Don't know who originally made it.

Thinking: Summer! It's almost here! 4 more days with the kiddos (Well ... waving to the kiddos in the hallway as we mad pack/toss the library in prep for the renovations. That I only got some guidance/info on on FRIDAY.) Then one day with campus teachers. Then two half-day "flipped classroom" trainings (I already know how to do most of it. But I thought maybe if I signed up they'd give us time to actually work on some. Sort of force me to do it? Instead of the best laid plans?). Two days of tech camp (teaching one point five of those days ... Google one day and image editing the other half). One day with Kylene Beers talking about literacy. Then Colorado! And W/P/O/A and sometimes D at my house for six weeks! Oh and M/O/Z/C for a visit this week. And WA to see C/F/T/A!

Wanting: A diet cherry limeade. But it's Sunday and I don't shop on Sundays. And even if it was still Saturday I'm not quite desperate enough to drive the 11 miles it would take. Yet.

Needing: So many unfinished things. Packing up all of the storage cabinets in the library (because they are getting ripped out ... I have no idea how much storage will be there when I head back to school in the fall). Still weeding another 2200 books (already done 2000 in the last three weeks ... the first 1800 or so didn't bother me at all as they were GROSS. But it's ... well, have you seen Kid President's Pep Talk video? The part where he says "I took the road less travelled ... and IT HURT, MAN!" The last 200 books hurt. 2200 more?).

Bucket List: I've already mentioned that I really need to get back to exercising this summer. I haven't felt ... right since I got out of the habit. Tired and grumpy and stressed out. Not in control. Then time with the nieces and nephews ... and their parents, my siblings/siblings-in-law. :) And #BOOKADAY! My list is extensive. A post devoted just to the really really top of the To Be Read list is coming.