It's Getting Heavier

I finished two more titles over the weekend that might see awards in January. Neither made the Heavy Medial shortlist, but one of them came up over and over in the comments and the other was mentioned on the blow and I wanted to have a look at it due to its representation of diverse characters. I will say that both made me cry a few tears and gave me some things to think about.

Apple, an American middle schooler who was born in the Philippines, wants a guitar more than anything else. Her mom says no way and is not willing to budge. The chapter titles all refer to songs which creates a playlist for the book. Apple also tracks "IFs" (interesting facts) about the people around her--she believes each person has three IFs. I love the idea of having students come up with their IFs while reading the book. The trials Apple faces in middle school make Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly a story we can all relate to.

Ada was born with a club foot and has spent her entire life looking out the window of her London flat. When the war threatens, she and her brother Jamie are evacuated to the English countryside where they learn about all the things they have been missing. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War that Saved My Life was a different perspective on World War II than I had read before--and one that made me cry both sad and happy tears.










I have a few more titles from the shortlist to read--most of which I am waiting for from a recent order. Over the long weekend, I'm planning to squeeze in a few of the titles mentioned on the Printz spectulative blog, Someday My Printz Will Come as well, including:

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (recent winner of the National Book Award)
Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
Lumberjanes Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson
Zeros by Scott Westerfeld
Untwine by Edwidge Danticat

Just when I think I've read quite a bit for the year, shortlists are presented . . . and I realize how little of the surface I have scratched! What books do you think might end up with medals in January?

More Medal

As I mentioned before, I have been following Heavy Medal's Newbery shortlist and trying to read the titles they selected before the award announcement. The comments on their post have also provided some great suggestions for books that might nab an award come January. I finished two titles this week. I enjoyed both in different ways and would love to see either one honored by the committee.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan is five gorgeous stories woven into one: the mythical tale of three orphaned sisters, stories of three children as various points through World War II, and the story of a harmonica that connects them all. At nearly 600 pages, this story drew me and I marked several places where I wanted to read the beautiful words over and over again.

I'm an avid fan of roller derby and anticipated this book from the first review I read. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson is the story of Astrid as she joins a junior roller derby team. The storyline includes the tough parts of a transition from elementary school to junior high, as well as lessons about friendships. It's cool that Jamieson herself is a roller girl which makes this story more authentic.











Next up are Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly and The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Both of these escaped the official shortlist, but have been mentioned in the comments or earlier in the blog year. I'm also looking forward to My Seneca Village by Marilyn Nelson which just arrived at our main office after being ordered through on-demand printing. I shared this Curriculum Connection from School Library Journal with the assistants at our other middle schools and I'm hoping teachers will be as excited about this title as we are.

Working Toward Our Goal

As we continue to work toward our goal of moving our sixth grade group forward as readers, we try new activities each week. Last week we had the students choose new books, settle in, and read them. Their stamina has grown in just a few weeks to the point where they didn't become restless until almost 25 minutes into reading. We were so thrilled to see them reading and enjoying their books.

Following reading time, we asked each student to sketch the cover of the book they read and write at least one reason they chose the book. They completed this pretty quickly and then used the microphone and document camera to share their books and reasons with the class. It was fun to listen to the students compliment one another on their sketches and comment that they were interested in one another's books. We are building a community of readers with this group--and they are reading at least 90 additional minutes per week!

This activity worked well and went quickly. I have been thinking about several variations we might use in the future: sketch a scene and write about its importance to the story, sketch a character and write about why he/she is like you or not like you, make a Thinking Map using an idea from the book . . . the possibilities are endless. What quick activities have you used to foster a reading community?

 The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

 Clash of the Demons by Joseph Delaney

 Dear Julia by Amy Bronwen Zemser

 The Titan's Curse: The Graphic Novel by Robert Venditti

 The Usborne Introduction to the Second World War by Paul Dowswell

The Ascension by Michael Carroll

Heavy Medal

Award season is coming and, with it, a host of mock award blogs are guessing what books might earn medals for the 2015 year. I tend to follow both Heavy Medal and Someday My Printz Will Come because books discussed on both blogs are likely to be popular with my students. Heavy Medal recently posted a shortlist of guesses as to which books might be in the running for the Newbery this year. I'm trying to read all of them before the awards are announced. I finished two this weekend (both by authors who have been touched by Newbery magic in the past):

Written in diary format, The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz follows Joan as she runs away from her father's farm in order to better herself in the city. I giggled and cringed at the same time as a young Catholic girl works to fit into--and learn from--her Jewish employer's family. Joan is optimistic and funny--I loved her voice throughout the story.

Told in second person, Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead is the story of Bridge, Em, and Tab, three longtime friends going through the trials of middle school. My eighth grade daughter picked this up when I brought it home and finished in less than 24 hours. When I asked her what she thought, she just sighed and said, "So great." We all have a little bit of each of these girls in us and this book reminded me of what it is like to be in seventh grade.

I started Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan this morning and am hoping to also read Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson this week. What books have you read in 2015 that might be in the running for an award?

NetGalley for the Win!

I have used NetGalley on and off for many years. I love that I can get galleys of books without having to worry about what to do with the physical copy when I am done, but I also miss having copies to pass on to kids when I finish. The biggest bonus for me of having access to e-galleys is being able to preview books that I might consider for MS, but am not sure about. Sometimes books end up slanting more toward the HS range, so I'm glad I have previewed them instead of ordering and hoping.

This is a roundup of my NetGalley reads from the past couple of weeks:

Bennett, Jenn The Anatomical Shape of a Heart Two artists: one who draws cadavers, one who is a notorious graffiti artist. They meet by chance one night at a train station and form an instant connection.

Coutts, Alexandra Young Widows Club Just weeks after getting married to her high school sweetheart, 17-year-old Tam becomes a widow. This tear-jerker follows Tam as she goes through therapy and picks up the pieces of her life.

Huang, Charlotte For the Record After losing a reality singing competition, Chelsea is recruited into a band. The most important rule? No hook-ups between band members. What happens if someone breaks the rule?

Redgate, Riley seven ways we lie Seven high school students, seven perspectives, seven deadly sins to avoid. I just started this one and am looking forward to untangling the plot.

NetGalley allows librarians to enter their ALA membership number so that publishers know they are professional readers. You can be pre-approved by publishers so that you can be automatically download their titles. How have you used NetGalley or other professional preview sources to enhance your practice?

Focus on Bulletin Boards

The bulletin boards in our main hallway represent a lot of real estate. One of my small goals this year is to keep them updated. I spent some time on Pinterest in order to get some ideas (I barely made it out alive from that rabbit hole!) In the end, I decided to start the year with a few things that I have seen posted around the Internet.

Our teachers do some work on Mindset with our students, so I thought a bulletin board in the main hallway highlighting what this concept looks like would be a good way to start the year. I found several versions on Pinterest and, ultimately, settled on this one because I could print PDF files from this blog which made the creation of it so much easier. There are a lot of great ideas on teacher blogs and Pinterest pages--I'm grateful that others are willing to share their work.

I am also concerned about how our students are using technology. I want them to take advantage of their devices for good instead of evil, so I created a version of the popular "Before You . . . Think" bulletin board using social media icons. However, I also added several options of great ways to utilize devices as well. My suggestions include signing up for their teachers' Remind notices, following our PTSO on Facebook, and using the online resources (e books and audiobooks) from the school library. I added QR codes to the posters to make it simple to find the resources. The icons, images, and fonts for this one came straight from the sites themselves and it was pretty simple to create. 

My other displays are located right outside the library doors. I use one to keep students and staff updated about community activities that might be of interest (it was author visits earlier in the year and will be updated to reflect the Social Justice Book Bowl this month). The other display is currently a "Read Box," the librarian's take on Red Box. I was able to use a font and poster created by another librarian/blogger. I then added several book jackets. I will continue to rotate and update the book covers throughout the year. 

I will be changing the larger bulletin boards soon and am always looking for new ideas. What sorts of displays and/or bulletin boards have you created to focus on learning and keep your school attractive?

Our Visit With Jacqueline Woodson

When I first started my job here, I began working with several teachers to bring diverse books to the library and classroom shelves. We created core collections that every classroom would have, focusing on authors that displayed diversity and addressed our students' interests. All of the collections included several Jacqueline Woodson titles, and I wrote an article for Knowledge Quest about how this transformed our school. We dreamed of one day having Jacqueline visit and talk to our students. It seems crazy that ten years later, our students were gifted a visit that we had spent years hoping for.

Several groups of sixth and eighth graders read Brown Girl Dreaming in anticipation of Jacqueline Woodson's visit to Kalamazoo. She spent an hour with us last week and her words continue to resonate with me. During the visit, Jacqueline read from Feathers and Brown Girl Dreaming, as well as referencing Each Kindness. She wove stories of her life and how her books came to be between questions from the students and passages from the books. Jacqueline's responses to the questions created a space in which the students could connect to the stories, as well as her life.

One of the students asked about perseverance in the face of doubt and she encouraged the students to believe in themselves--that way it does not matter if anyone else believes in them. What powerful thinking. She also talked about just having time to do nothing--or, "being bored." Having grown up as a Jehovah's Witness, she had hours of religious study each week. This became time to think and create stories. I wonder if my students have time to just do nothing--to think, create, daydream, play, and just be? This time is invaluable. I hope they do.

I was not able to attend the evening presentation at KPL or the seminar at WMU due to a conflict with the AASL National Conference. However, I've already heard lots of positive feedback about Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, KT Horning, and Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan. We are so fortunate to have a public library that brings amazing author guests to speak to our students and community. I am thankful for KPL's ongoing service to Kalamazoo.

Jacqueline reading to us from Feather

A few students had books for Jacqueline to sign. We limited book signing so that the students could enjoy the experience and learn more, rather than just standing in line.

We Need Diverse Books Because . . .

If someone had taken

that book out of my hand

said You're too old for this

maybe

I'd never have believed

that someone who looked like me

could be in the pages of the book

that someone who looked like me

had a story.

-Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I have been following the We Need Diverse Books campaign and wanted to connect with my students regarding diversity in our library. I decided to create an activity for seventh graders that would allow us to talk a little about what being diverse means to us, as well as looking at some of the resources available in our collection.

In order to facilitate a discussion, I had the students start with a Circle Map. Each Thinking Map has a thinking process that students must go through when completing it. A Circle Map is meant to help define a word or concept. I created a map with "diverse" in the center and students were asked to define it using synonyms and/or words that remind them of diversity. After a short period, students shared their ideas with their shoulder partners and then we shared as a class, adding to our own maps and checking for words we already had written down.

Following the mapping process, I displayed a series of book covers and asked the students to decide if they thought each one was diverse or not and tell why. This was a fascinating look into how kids view book covers and diversity. We discussed how sometimes it is possible to discover diverse attributes from the cover alone and how we often have to look beyond the cover to find out more before we decide.

After our discussions, students wrote exit tickets that are now displayed on a bulletin board in the library answering the prompt, "#Weneeddiversebooks Because." The answers vary from not wanting to be "bored" by the same types of books, to wanting to read a variety of genres, to wanting to see myself, to wanting to learn about other cultures. In other words, the students viewed diversity through a variety of lenses and then responded with their personal viewpoint.

 I am planning to follow up this activity with a series of displays that will help the students see diversity in all of the forms they mentioned, as well as other views. As we continue through the year, I'm hoping that my students will have the opportunity to experience both windows and mirrors in the books they choose from our library.