Long Time No Blog

I welcome my classmates from EDU 566. I started this blog as a project for another class I took in our program. I used it for a while and have it linked to a page I have on my school library wiki.

It has been a while since I have added anything. I find myself thinking of things that I might say to an old friend I have not spoken with in a while. "Life has been busy, but all good." "I miss you." "I've read so many great books while I've been away." All of those things are true, but seem silly to put here. Yet, it's the best way I can think of to reconnect to this blog of mine. I write for myself, and for any past readers, or new readers who find they want to "talk" about good books you have read, want to read, want your children to read, or want to read to your children.

To start I will share a book I recently read for myself, but would recommend it to younger readers perhaps eighth grade and up. The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent, is a novel based in Puritan New England around the time of the Salem Witch Trials. It is told from the point of view of a young girl, Sarah, who appears to have a distant relationship with her mother. She struggles to understand her mother during the story. However, through the accusations that are made against her mother and the ensuing events, Sarah comes to a deeper understanding and a stronger bond develops. I think this story is both beautiful and tragic. There is such love and respect between the mother and father that is an amazing lesson for all. Through the tragedy of what happens to Sarah's family she comes to learn the true love her mother and father have had for her always. After I read the book I rented the movie, The Crucible based on Arthur Miller's play. It shares the historical time frame setting with the book and I enjoyed watching it fresh off reading this book. I hope you can find some time to take both in at some point.

Another wonderful book I read recently was World's End, a novel for young readers co-authored by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski. This book is second in a series, the first was Dormia. It describes the many adventures that Alfonso Perplexon has as a Dormian, a person who can do superhero type moves in his sleep. His mission is to save Dormia, the land where his father comes from. The catch is he finds all this out when he is just twelve years old and living a somewhat normal live in Minnesota. What I mean by somewhat normal is Alfonso goes to school, plays, has friends, but crazy things happen to Alfonso when he falls asleep in class! I met Jake when he visited my school last school year (fall 2009) to talk to students about being a writer and his books. He came back and visited us again in January 2011 to talk more about where his ideas come from. I found this video on YouTube of Jake and Peter talking to some kids. This is a pretty much the same type of event my students experienced with Jake last month.

Last year Jake and Peter offered up a contest called The Blank Page contest where kids were invited to fill a blank page with a story, an illustration, a movie or more that could have been a scene in the book but was not. The winning contestants would have their name put into Jake and Peter's second book that they were writing at that time, The World's End. Several students from my school entered and two won. Here is one of the students entries, a movie about a scene that could have happened in Dormia.

It was very exciting to see what could come from a student inspired from reading a good book and a little competition.

Keep reading your books and I'll try not to stay away so long. Thanks for reading my work.
Beth

Summer Reading

What a wonderful summer it has been! I have really taken advantage of the break from work to read as many books as I could. I don't know about you but, everytime I am reading a book I feel like I have been away. I love those little trips!

I will likely add to this post over the next few weeks. I also will bold who I think will most enjoy the books. Some of my favorites for adults:

Sarah's Key - if you like stories about the Holocaust this one is very good. It mixes modern time (2002) and past (1942) using an every other chapter strategy for a bit. As well as the historical connection there is a mystery that the main character is trying to solve. I do like books about World War II so I really enjoyed this story.

The Red Tent - I believe the author is a Biblical scholar. She gives voice to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, who is mentioned briefly in the Book of Genesis. This is the second book that I have read that is fiction yet weaves in stories from the Bible. It was one of those books I couldn't put down.

How to Hug a Porcupine - the subtitle of this book is Negotiating The Prickly Points of the Tween Years. I am a big reader of parenting books. I find that what they tell you for the most part is common sense. However, most of the time it is stuff you either forgot and end up saying to yourself, "Oh yes, that is what I am supposed to do in that situation" or maybe it's something you really never would have considered until you read about it. I found this easy to read.

Books in a Series

I want to share some benefits of reading books in a series that I have observed over the last few years in my house. My son, a second grader, really enjoys reading. I am happy for him that he is able to find the pleasure in reading. For him, one of the hooks was finding a series that he connected with and would challenge himself to finish once he got started. One series that he enjoyed was the Magic Tree House Series. Mary Pope Osborne is still writing about the adventures of Jack and Annie traveling off to far away lands in a magic tree house. We read many of these together before my son was reading books on his own. He has since gone back and reread all of them now that he is a more capable reader. He is one of those series readers who has to go in order, which was sometimes a challenge for the public librarian to find the next number! Another series that he enjoyed was Ron Roy's The A-Z Mysteries. Again, he had to go in order, but was determined to read them all. The challenge of reading the whole series was motivating for him, but the familiarity of the characters, setting, and plot was also comforting as he gained more confidence in his reading abilities. Each time he settled in to a new title he would inform me of what was new or different in this book compared to the last one. It was the similarities that I think made it feel like he was connecting with an old friend.

My daughter, pre-k, also enjoys series books. We own and have read many times every Fancy Nancy book published to date. Now she is into the American Girl books. She finds an "American Girl" that she likes and has me read each book in that set to her. Right now we seem to be focused on Felicity. Unlike my son, my daughter does not care so much about order so we have been reading them randomly. What has been interesting for me to observe with her is how she is able to connect what has happened in one book to what is happening in another. She will often use what she heard in one book to explain why she thinks Felicity is doing something in the book we're reading.

There are many other benefits with reading books in a series that we can delve into more later. The idea of finding that hook for your child to motivate and hold his or her interest is worth investigating so you can help your child build reading stamina and confidence in his or her reading abilities.

Benefits of Local Libraries

Finding time in your life to do things that are important to you is always tricky. Reading is important to me and making time to choose books is a necessity to keep my reading life going. At the beginning of the school year I usually pick one afternoon where we don't have any other after school obligations to make our library day. Weekly visits are great because if my children choose a video or DVD to watch they are usually only given out for one week. There are many wonderful benefits to making regular visits to your local library. The savings on DVD rentals is one that we enjoy. I haven't been to video store to actually pay to rent a movie in a long time. Our public library has a wonderful and large collection of audio books that we are making our way through. As a teacher and school librarian I always check out the new books they get in their children's room. This year I also have made an effort to get to know and use my local library's website. Through that website I have signed up to receive some online newsletters where I can learn more about authors, illustrators, and what's new in children's books. In addition our library website has a number of online databases for research in many areas. While there are many benefits from regularly visiting your local library the one I enjoy most is seeing the librarians. My children know them and they know my children by name and they all seem so happy to see us all when we come walking in the door. Do you think you can make some time in your schedule?

Audio Books

Last summer I caught the audio book bug. My children and I started taking audio books out of our public library before our vacation. We listened to Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and we started The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis as we traveled on Route 95 from Connecticut to Rhode Island and back again. It was truly miraculous the way a peace settled over our car as the reader kept us on the edge of our seats with these two fabulous stories. We didn't actually finish the second story on our trip, because my husband insisted on listening to some music as well, so we had to finish when we got home. We listened to the rest of the story on our daily drives around town to the grocery, or the library and that sort of thing. We would pull into our driveway and the kids would say don't turn the car off until the end of the chapter. It was wonderful. Since then we have taken out dozens of other stories, long and short, and we listen to them every day whenever we get in the car. If there is ever a night that gets really busy and I just find I don't have time to read out loud to my children I don't feel as guilty because I know that we were able to share out books in the car.

My five year old daughter reports that her favorite books we've listened to so far are: Little House on the Prairie and Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Fudge-a-Mania by Judy Blume, and The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.

My 7 year old son reports that his favorites that we've listened to so far are: The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, and Frindle by Andrew Clements.

The Read-Aloud Handbook

A lot of my posts will be about reading and children. I do have a lot to share in that area. If you are interested in reading to children and how reading aloud to children has a positive impact on them I would encourage you to read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. In the first several chapters he provides both anecdotal and data driven research on how important it is for children to hear literature being read to them by a caring adult. He suggests that reading aloud to children is beneficial through high school years. The benefits vary from enabling children to develop the special bond that forms with a caring adult who is sharing time with them to helping a high school student score higher on their verbal SATs because of the increased vocabulary the student has developed from years of being read to.

I know a lot of times parents think that since their child is already reading long chapters books by fourth grade that they are too old to have books read aloud to them. This book, and my own experience as a classroom teacher, suggests otherwise. I know first hand that children in grades 4-8 love to be read to; you just need to find the right book. At the end of Jim Trelease's book you will find chapters devoted to book suggestions along with summaries to help you choose the right book to read. Jim's website is also filled with a lot of information on reading aloud and even more book suggestions.

Enjoy reading aloud to your favorite young person! My next post I'll write about audio books so both of you can enjoy being read to.

2009 Newbery Award Winner

I read a lot of books for children and young adults for my job. I love that part of my job! I always pay attention to the latest award winning books chosen by the American Library Association (ALA). Of particular interest to me is the Newbery Award given to an author for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. You can check out the ALA site for the list of this year's Newbery Medal winner and honor books.

I just finished this year's Newbery Award winner, The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. The beginning of the book was really creepy. The book begins with a description of an assasin with a bloodied knife slowly walking up a set of stairs intent on killing a baby boy who should be in his crib. Of course the baby gets away and that begins the rising action for this exciting story.

If you've read the book or once you read the book I'd like to hear your thoughts on the prophecy that one of the Jacks tells the protagonist, Bod, about in chapter seven. To me the idea of killing the child who might stand in the way of their power was rather Biblical. I enjoyed the book and once I got going on the story it was certainly one of those books that I had trouble putting down. I hope you enjoy it too.