It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

The Past Week: 

Revolution was definitely my favorite book of the week. Deborah Wiles put together a fantastic collection of primary source images and narrative that really dropped me back in time. I learned more than I expected to during the journey. I am not sure how many upper elementary students will be up to the task of reading this lengthy book, but it is truly amazing. It also led me to Andrea Davis Pinkney's book Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters since I had never heard of Dorothy Irene Height before reading Revolution. Twitter was helpful here as I asked if there were any children's biographies out there about her and I got these replies: 

@librarygrl2 @J_S_Dub Hey history buffs! Height and Bethune are featured in my book Let it Shine. Dorothy was a friend of my late father...
— Andrea Davis Pinkney (@AndreaDavisPink) September 25, 2014

So interesting to learn more about Height and many other female freedom fighters.

Overall, it was a great week of reading.

The Coming Week: 
I am still listening to a David Sedaris book, When You are Engulfed in Flames and just started reading Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes. In just a few pages, I am already hooked. I am also looking at sugar in a different way. I am about to start reading an ARC of Kekla Magoon's newest book How it Went Down. Beyond that, I am not sure what will make it into my hands, but I am sure there will be more. Happy reading!

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day.

I am sitting here rather exhausted from a long week. I am certain there are things to celebrate, but my mind is rather foggy about what has happened this week. *thinking*

Still under wrap, but you can see the tennis ball design.

* My daughter and I made a three layer cake. I decorated it with light green frosting and piped on white lines so it looked like a tennis ball on top. This was her wish for the senior tennis party. It turned out to be a very yummy cake.

* I ran three miles two times this week in preparation for my 1/2 marathon this weekend. That's also a celebration - that I am able to run a 1/2 marathon at our Oktoberfest. It's usually pretty fun.

* We got to watch our daughter march in the Applefest parade and her band got first place.

* I attended Hmong New Year again. I had six students that agreed to take pictures while they were there. I sent cameras home with them on Friday. Between my students and myself, we took over 200 pictures that we will use to create a non-fiction picture book about Hmong New Year since such a thing doesn't seem to exist as far as I can tell. You may see some of their pictures here in our announcements below. All of the people in the video are students or family members from our school.

I know there were more things to celebrate, but my brain is tired. I am going to sleep to be ready for my race. Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Trailer and Review: Frank!

Title: Frank!
Author: Connah Brecon
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Pages: 32
Review Copy: ARC from publisher
Availability: September 30, 2014

Summary: 
Try as he might (or might not), Frank is a bear who is always late. And when he starts school, the trouble really begins. 

Frank has very good reasons, like the time he had to save a cat stuck in a tree and the morning he found himself challenged to a charity dance-off, and even the time he had to rescue a family of bunnies from a huge, smelly ogre.

Frank's teacher has heard enough of Frank's excuses, but what happens when a giant zombie lizard king really does attack the school? 

Sometimes there is truth to the most unusual of circumstances, and being helpful can pay off in the most unexpected ways.

My Thoughts: I have a large measure of sympathy for Frank. I am quite often five to ten minutes late everywhere I go. Things have a way of taking longer than I expect or distractions appear at the very last minute. There are surely many readers in the same boat, but even people who manage their time a little better than that can appreciate the humor in this quirky book.

The illustrations are fun and have a few hidden treasures. The first two-page spread has a store that is a "One-Stop Watch Shop" and the newspaper boy hints at things to come as he announces the headline "Reptile Rampage." The pictures are childlike and imaginative.

Frank arrives to school late every day and tells stories of wild and crazy adventures. I wasn't certain  whether readers were meant to believe them or not. As an adult, I wasn't sure I understood the subtext or the conclusion, so younger readers may be a bit confused. In the end, children will probably enjoy the silliness of the story, especially the giant zombie lizard king, and likely won't care if they know what's true or if the resolution is clear. Adult readers may be left scratching their heads though.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

The Past Week: 

I had a pretty good week of reading. I was excited to finally get to a few books that I had been hearing about, Sisters, Absolutely Almost, and The Fourteenth Goldfish. I am sure that there are students at my school that will love them. I did enjoy meeting Albie, but I was not as excited about Absolutely Almost as some of my Nerdybookclub friends. It was good though. 

I really loved On My Block: Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists and will be ordering it for my library. The other art book I read, When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, was also quite good. Goal! was another interesting non-fiction book. The photographs are fantastic and the facts are fun. I enjoyed Pig Park and reviewed it over at Rich in Color.

The Coming Week: 

Currently reading

I'm listening to When You are Engulfed in Flames and One Year in Coal Harbor and am reading these other two the old-fashioned way. I am not sure what else is up next, but maybe Sugar and/or The Year of the Rat. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day.

Here are some of the fantastic things that happened this week:

* A child discovered the book Stick Man's Really Bad Day and belly laughed almost uncontrollably. While he was being way too loud for the area he was in, I couldn't help but smile. I have had tears rolling down my face as I laughed while reading that book.

* I was interviewed for an article in the Fall Teaching Tolerance magazine. Eek!

Want to get help boosting cultural responsiveness at your school? Ask your librarian! http://t.co/klXuLC9Tuk #tlchat HT @librarygrl2
— Kathy Kaldenberg (@scsdmedia) September 15, 2014

* I detest getting up early, but had to take my daughter to school twice this week at 6:45 for meetings. As I was driving, I wondered if there would be anything to celebrate about this. There were beautiful sunrises, but it was still hard to be happy about being awake earlier than normal. Thinking about this post made it easier though.

* We got to see our daughter inducted into the National Honor Society. I liked learning about their four pillars: Scholarship, Service, Leadership & Character.

* We had a two fun Skype visits this week in honor of International Dot Day. A first grade class chatted with another class in Texas and a second grade class did a reader's theater of The Dot with a fifth grade class near Madison. My students were very excited to connect with other students.

* One evening I ran five miles in just under 43 minutes. That was fast for me.

* This morning I ran just over nine miles at a really cool event in along backwaters of the Mississippi. It was beautiful.

* I have had a hilarious time reading Naked! with classes at school. They love the playfulness and I love seeing their smiles.

Whew! That is a lot to celebrate. It's been a good week.

Poetry Friday

Amy is hosting Poetry Friday over at The Poem Farm today. Be sure to visit and explore the many wonderful poems and poetry related posts there. Here is my offering for the day. I wrote it this afternoon in response to my hurried week and this lovely book by Rana DiOrio that reminds me to be present.

A Lesson from My Dog

Hurry, hurry, hurry
What's the rush?
Trying, trying, trying
To fit it all in.

Sometimes I resent sleep.

Sleep keeps me
From reading all the books,
Writing all the stories,
Seeing all the places,
Connecting with all the people
But,

Sleep, sleep, sleep
Is marvelous.
My exhausted body craves it
After the hurrying worrying days.

Today I crawled across the floor
To lay down with my dog.
My body thanked me
For being still.

Slice of Life

The Slice of Life Challenge was created by the people over at the blog Two Writing Teachers. The challenge is to write about some part of your day and share it each Tuesday.

As I started out on my run, I planned to go over the big blue bridges like I had the past week. I changed course though and headed towards the art center. This lead to several discoveries. There were bird shadows painted onto the sidewalk squares. That slowed me down just in time to see this poem:

There were many poems along my way and many more sights to see that were new to me. A mural that I had been wanting to find was right there in front of me when I turned a corner.

"Confluence" mural in La Crosse

I discovered a playful pair of footprints too. 

Kiss or Hug?

The sun was setting and lights were winking on as I continued on my run. Three ducks were swimming up river and lights were sparkling on the water as I passed many people enjoying the evening.

What I loved most though was running through the Moon Gate into the International Friendship Garden where we wandered earlier this summer with our exchange student. She and my daughter embodied the spirit of the garden as they posed on the Friendship Bridge.

The garden is a place dedicated to celebrating and encouraging connections between people. We were blessed to meet our student, but it is difficult knowing we won't be together again for a long time. Still, the memories brought a smile to my face.

Changing my course for the evening brought me many moments of joy and I am thankful for that.

** All of the photos are my own, but I took them before or after my run. At the time I wished for a camera, but was also glad that without it, I could just enjoy myself and be present.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

The Past Week:

All of these are books I would recommend. My favorites were Wild Things, Relish, Meet Danitra Brown, and Becoming Naomi Leon, but I really enjoyed all of them. 

The Coming Week: 

I am almost finished with the audio of Traveling with Pomegranates. I just started the ARC of Kiss Kill Vanish and I am looking forward to the release of Pig Park later this week. I am sure I will pick up a few other books over the course of the week. I wish you a wonderful week of reading.

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day.

Here are my celebrations from the past week in no particular order.

** I had two fantastic runs this week. One was along the Mississippi and the arts area in La Crosse. There are poems printed into the sidewalks and I took the opportunity to blend my love for running and my love for reading. It was a beautiful crisp evening and my run was pretty close to perfect. The other run was this morning with a good friend. We ran in the wetlands seeing ducks, geese, a blue heron, and many other fun birds. The company was even better than the scenery.

View of Capitol building from the race start in Madison, WI

View of the finish line from Capitol building

** My husband completed his second Ironman. I was a seasoned spectator so we were able to plot our way through. We saw his entire swim, found a sneaky spot near the bike transition, saw him twice out on the bike and many times on the run. We even found an awesome viewing spot from high up on the capitol building and watched the first two finishers arrive.

** Oh, the food! Yum. We had a fabulous breakfast in hobbit style. We ate before the swim portion of the Ironman and since we got back to the hotel so quickly, we were lucky enough to have second breakfast too. We stopped at a Korean market after cheering out on the bike course. There we bought ice cream treats, drinks and cookies. After we cheered some more at the run, we found a greek place for a late lunch. With more hours to go, we eventually stopped for Jamba Juice (the kids), coffee (my mother-in-law) and bubble tea (for me) and contentedly rested on a bench.

** Classes at school have been going very well. I have shared some great books with students, The Pigeon Needs a Bath, The Adventures of Beekle and Naked! along with What Do You Do With an Idea? and Meet Danitra Brown. I have enjoyed getting to know the new students and reconnecting with the others. I especially liked meeting my tech crew for the first time and preparing for our first video announcements. The tech crew students are always so eager to create.

** My daughter typically plays singles in tennis, but it was a treat to get to see her play doubles this week. It's just always a treat to see her play, but her teammate was also a librarian's daughter. That made me giggle.

** A book celebration this week was reading Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature. I laughed out loud and had so much fun while reading it.

** My husband and I got to hike for a little while in a nearby forest. This is a really nice time of the year with pleasantly cool temperatures. Our hike would have been a tad longer, but we got a call from my daughter saying that we had an exchange student coordinator at our house and had we forgotten she was coming? Yup. We had. I was sad that she had to wait for us, but truly, I was glad I had forgotten or we wouldn't have hiked and I would have spent time cleaning when the house was actually fine.

I hope you had some great things to celebrate this week.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

The Past Week:

Last week was the first week of school, a visit from my mother-in-law and my husband's Ironman race, so not a lot of reading was happening. The books I read were great though. I listened to The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and had a lot of fun. I didn't know what I was getting into, but enjoyed the vampires and the very interesting storyline. What Does it Mean to Be Present? is a fantastic picture book about be conscious of the moment you are inhabiting and appreciating that time and space. It was a good reminder for me and I think it will be meaningful to many readers both young and older. Many thoughts from the book popped into my head during my very busy week.

The Coming Week:

Currently Reading

I am listening to the memoir and reading the other too the old-fashioned way. I am not sure what else I will be reading, but I am almost finished with these three so will surely grab a few other titles during the week. By the way, Wild Things! is freakishly good. 

I hope you have an excellent week of reading.

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day.

Here are my celebrations from the past week in no particular order.

* Today while I was out on my run, I heard a band playing so I wandered in that direction. There was a charity walk going on (Stepping Out in Pink) and a local university band was playing to support the walkers. It was a fun atmosphere to be around and I also bumped into one of my students and his family.

Photo credit: Punk Toad via Flickr http://bit.ly/1lNQgqQ CC Attribution License 2.0



* Another thing that added to my run was that I was running in La Crosse while my daughter was at orchestra. I don't often run there and it is always a treat to be able to run over the big blue bridges across the Mississippi.

* We finished our first full week of school! Lessons went smoothly and there were way more smiles than tears from all concerned. That is always a good thing.

* My mother-in-law arrived safely and is here to witness my husband's second Ironman race. She went to our exchange student's soccer game, watched my daughter's tennis match and got to see her march in the band at the high school football game too.

* I get to see my son today as we are traveling to Madison for the Ironman and that's where he goes to college.

I hope your week has had many good things in it to celebrate. Have a wonderful weekend!

Slice of Life

The Slice of Life Challenge was created by the people over at the blog Two Writing Teachers. The challenge is to write about some part of your day and share it each Tuesday.

Today was the first day of school and I arrived with a smile. It was energizing to see the many shining faces streaming into the building. There were lots of hugs and squeals as friends found each other.

This year I had determined that I want to spend more time listening to others - both staff and students. That's not an easy thing though. It's especially difficult in the early days when there are so many procedures to explain and demonstrate. I found it challenging to make space for students to do more of the talking. It wasn't perfection, but my voice is doing okay after nine classes so I must have been quiet at least a little bit of the time.

The other goal I have is to be brave and encourage students to do the same. I want us all to be more willing to take creative risks and even be willing to fail at things as we learn together. 

Remembering to see myself as a learner within this community of learners will be the first step to meeting both of these goals. Wish me luck. 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

The Past Week:

Middle grade came out on top this week. I loved brown girl dreaming and reviewed it over at Rich in Color. I also really enjoyed Kinda Like Brothers. I will review that one soon. Jarrett and Kevon were solid characters in a unique story. Little Elliot Big City is super cute. I actually liked all of the books this week. It was quite a mix of topics and styles. 

I also finished reading Celebrating Writers. I look forward to sharing it with the staff at my school. It also energized me to do a bit of my own writing.

The Coming Week:

I will finish up Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I'm reading it via CDs and have one more to go. I am also listening to a memoir by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter so may get to that. I have the graphic novel Relish coming through interlibrary loan so I might get to it. Otherwise, with school starting, reading will be hit and miss. I hope you have a great week of reading!