Check It Out

School is out.  Actually, students were excused for summer vacation a week ago.  I have extra days, so yesterday was my last day. 

Of course, I have plans. Lots of plans. Many of them involve reading and listening to audio books.  Here is my list:

Sasquatch/YRCA/ OERCA(Our Evergreen Readers’ Choice Awards):

Misadventures of Maude Marcheby Audrey Couloumbis (finish reading)
Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleischman
Double Identityby Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
Chicken Boyby Frances O’Roark Dowell
Scaewcrow and his Servant by Phillip Pullman
A Dog’s Life by Ann Martin
Whittington by Alan Armstrong (finish reading)
Owen Foote: Mighty Scientist by Stephanie Greene
Airball: My Life in Briefs by L.D. Harkrader
Stumptown Kidby Carol Gorman
The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy by Francess Lin Lantz

But wait, there’s more!! I am planning to re-read the following books:

Island of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O’Dell
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrew Edwards
Harriet the Spy by
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
The White Mountains by John Christopher

And those are only the children’s literature I plan to read.

I am listening to Harry Potter in the car. Love the audio book!! Next week, my husband and I are driving to Idaho.  He will get to listen. I hope to be on book five by then.

I will post for Poetry Friday tomorrow. Then I will be gone for the next two Fridays July is filled with trips and company so I will post when I can.

What are your summer reading plans?

Happy Reading.

MsMac

Today ends our school year.  The fifth graders are off to middle school. They have been a class that has grown a lot since their first day in kindergarten.  They challenged us, kept us all on our toes, and yet, there is something about them that I will miss. I want to see many of them as adults.  There is so much potential if these students will make the right choices.

Many found out in second grade that life is not fair.  In second grade, this class lost a class mate by dog mauling.  That life changing day is with them still as clear as the day it happened. 

I talked with a fifth grade class about it recently. Many feel they are leaving their class mate behind, that he will always be in second grade.  I walked through the memorial garden, noticing that someone had placed two roses on the rock with a plaque in his memory.

I hope they will come back to visit. I want to know what happens to them. What choices will they make a long the way?

It is summer. It is time to read.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

I am weeding the library. It has to be done.  There are some books on the shelves from the year the school opened, 1972.  Thirty-five years in the collection is a long time.  In that time:

Nixon resigned
Mount St. Helen’s blew up
Videos replaced 16mm films
Cassette tapes replaced records
9/11 happened
DVD’s replaced videos
CD’s replaced cassette tapes
Streaming video is taking over DVD’s
MP3 technology is replacing CD’s

And beloved books have remained on the shelves. They look like those old clothes you have hanging in the closet. The ones you hope will come back into style but won’t.

So last week I started in the “Everybody” section. I ran a report of what has not been checked out in two years.  The report was thirty-nine pages.  In that report, I discovered many hidden treasures.  I have been reading them to my students.  I am hoping that they might decide to check one out(next year, we are trying to get all the books in for inventory.) 

These are some titles I found:

The Frances series by Russell Hoban.  I forgot how funny they are.  I cracked up reading  A Birthday for Frances.  I am going to replace them with so they don’t look so ragged.

Leo Lionni books haven’t been checked out in a while.  Note to self: show kindergarten and first graders these at the beginning of the year.

Also the Tana Hoban books aren’t getting checked out. So wonderful for visual literacy.  It occurred to me, that many of these books are tucked away in this little corner and aren’t very visible. 

It may come down to marketing.  My assistant and I were talking last night. Some schools now have a place for just the “princess books” and one for the “dragon books”.   I will be buying some more nifty white baskets from Storables this summer to create special interest collections.   I will replace some of the classics next year so they don’t look so rag tag.

But the one thing I know for sure is that libraries need weeding just like the closet at home.  Room needs to be created for new books.  Something that can never be enough in the library especially for our emergent readers.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

My mother would have been eighty years old today.  I can’t believe that. 

Update on my “48 Hours of Reading”.

I set the past weekend aside to read because I will be gone during the real challenge this coming weekend.  You can still sign up at Mother Reader. 

So my plan for the weekend was to read from 8 PM Friday to 8 PM Sunday.  I had a goal to read eight of the award nominations on the Sasquatch and Young Reader’s Choice Award lists. 

That was my plan.  I think Steinbeck said something once about plans.  I forgot that I had an appointment, followed by grocery shopping,  and not taking into consideration the heat and humidity (which in the northwest, if it goes up a smidge you are miserable. We don’t have humidity issues here).  That was Saturday.  The good news? I got Defiance by Valerie Hobbs, Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan, and Rules by Cynthia Lord read.  (Yep, Rulesis the 2007 Newbery Honor and NOT a nominee yet.  I can see where it might someday).

Sunday. Oh, did I remember that after church my daughter and granddaughter, Estelle, would be at my house for lunch and helping in the garden? Yes, I did.  We had fun though.  The humidity and hazy sun got to us.  So we retreated to the shade.  Played a bit with chalk and bubbles.  Estelle rubbing her ear and eyes let us know that it was time for her to go home and nap.
Me?  I pulled out Ghost’s Grave by Peg Kehret and read in the shady part of our patio. Book number four. 

I really wanted to read the rest of the day but the garden was yelling for me to plant the tomatoes, the basil, the zuchini and dahlias before the croaked. (The dahlis were looking very sad).  So that’s what I did.  I got a few pages of The Misadventures of Maude March by Audrey Couloumbis before the 8 PM cut-off on sunday night.

So in the end I read 4.25 books and about 850 pages.  Not bad but I wished it was more.  There is always next year.

Good luck to all who are playing next weekend.  I will be thinking of you.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

The First Book

Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.

Sure, it’s hard to get started;
reamember learning to use

knife and fork? Dig in;
You’ll never reach the bottom.

It’s not like it’s the end of the world=
just the world as you think

you know it.

–Rita Dove, from Poetry Speaks to Children

I am reading this weekend, my own “48 Hours of Reading”. I will be gone next weekend. I will be “falling into books”, “digging in” and not reaching the bottom.

My goal:
Read a minimum of eight books that are on the 2008 reader’s choice lists for my area.  I started at 8 PM Friday night and will go through 8 PM Sunday. As much as I wanted a clear weekend, some “have to dos” have crept in. Drat!!

What are you doing this weekend? Next weekend, you can participate in the real “48 Hours of Reading” by visiting Mother Reader and signing up there.

Happy Reading.

MsMac