Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

My first finish for the Newbery Challenge (aka #nerdbery): Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field.

See what Mr. Sharp and Mr. Schu have to say about Hitty.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Library Logistics: Little Books

I love it when others share the nuts and bolts of what they do and how they make it happen in their libraries, so I'm starting a feature called Library Logistics here on the 5 blog. I'm not going to say that it's a weekly feature - I'm too low stress for that - let's just call it an occasional feature.

Earlier this week I shared a video walkthrough of my school library inspired by Sarah Ducharme of Try Curiosity and the walkthrough of her library.

My first Library Logistics post is about the bins you see on the shorter set of tables in the video.

I call these the "primary tables" because they more appropriately sized for the primary grade students, however even our 8th graders end up sitting at these tables at times.

The bins on the tables are filled with "little books". Yep, it's really just a size thing.

I have a special section for oversized books, and these bins are where I put the tiny titles that otherwise might get lost on a shelf:

There are board books:

Pocket sized fact books:

And other fun little treasures:

There is no order or organization to the bins, so if you happen to be looking for a particular small book you may have to flip through more than one bin.

For the most part these books are heavily used (even by older grades), but not necessarily heavily checked out.

It seems there is often a little time for a little book.

The primary grades love the board books, and there is no feeling that these are "baby books". I often see the emerging readers finding ones they know or can read to share with their neighbor.

Do you have some library logistics to share?

Feel free to use the logo at the top of this post.

I would love to hear about the hows and whats of your library life.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Aren't you hosting a Caldecott Challenge?

Yes, I am co-hosting a Caldecott Challenge to read all the Caldecott medal and honor books.
So far I have read all the titles from 1938-1949.

After that (around the beginning of February) I had some sort of reading challenge breakdown, and I fell into a challenge reading rut.
I couldn't bring myself to open the next title on my challenge list.

Part of what happened reminds me of a Saturday Night Live skit from 1990 called "The Gross Out Family".

In the skit, a family is sitting down to dinner and the dad (Tom Hanks) tries some milk, realizes it is spoiled and then the rest of the family proceeds to say things like "Oh, let me try... belch, you are right that IS rancid!"

"How old is that milk, it is really bad!"

"You aren't kidding!"

"Let me try.... Whoa, baby!"

"Here let me try...Whoa that's bad!"

It goes on with smelling bad fish, feeling Chris Farley's sweaty stomach, sitting on a nail and finally ends with the family members each throwing themselves down the stairs.
(If you have Hulu plus, you can watch the whole SNL episode here.)

There have been a few #nerdcott conversation threads on twitter that have felt like we've been "passing the milk".
"This was meant for kids?"
"These books really make me appreciate today's picture books so much more!"
"They're just soooo wordy!"

Ok... I'm not really trying to say that the 1940s Caldecott medal and honor books are like drinking rancid milk - there have been some gems in the mix that have truly stood out, but for the most part they did require a different kind of reading energy than the titles I have been reading during my recent "challenge break down" phase.

These recent reads have been helping me to build up my reading mojo again.
I needed them.

I needed to read and get lost in a story.
I needed to fall in love with characters.
I needed to feel that crazy excitement at having just read my "new favorite book."
I needed to remember why I love reading.

So I had a Challenge break down and read...

The Mighty Miss Malone

The One and Only Ivan

Hidden

Anna Hibiscus and No. 1 Car Spotter

A Long Walk to Water

The Fault in Our Stars

Wonder

If there is an opposite of rancid milk, these books are it!
With these awesome reads that fed my soul I think I have almost built up my Challenge stamina again and should be ready with a Caldecott book stack for the 1950s very soon.

Thank you for hanging with me through this challenge breakdown, and thanks to the challenge participants who have been blogging and tweeting through my rut. Your posts have been boosting my strength and luring me back.

Click on the links below to see fabulous Caldecott Challenge posts from...

A to Z Library (my wonderful co-host)

Story Time Secrets

Not For Lunch

Picture Book A Day

Gathering Books

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Fascinating Librarian Blogs

I recently received an email saying that my blog was nominated for a Fascinating Librarian Blog award based on my posts about the Caldecott Reading Challenge.

What I find fascinating are the many other wonderful blogs in this list of nominees, like:

and so many others...

Voting for the most fascinating blog happens here until March 06, 2012 (11:59 PM EST).
I copied and pasted a list of all the nominees (from the online voting form) into a spreadsheet with links here.

I hope you will find perusing this list of blogs as fascinating as I have.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Toby Martin Mystery Series by Barbara Grengs

Let me introduce Barbara Grengs, English teacher extraordinaire (at my school!)...

Barbara at last week's school book fair.

... and the author of the Toby Martin middle grade mystery series.

Barbara reading from the first chapter of Toby Martin Pet Detective at Red Balloon Bookshop (May, 2010)

We are so lucky we get to call Barbara our "Resident Author", and I am excited for the next installment of Toby Martin's sleuthing to be set at the Minnesota State Fair.

Find out more about Barbara and the Toby Martin series here:
http://www.barbaragrengs.com/

Monday, February 6, 2012

6 things I love about Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

Some of you know my alter ego, the knitter Orinda5.

So it probably comes as no surprise that Extra Yarn, a picture book about knitting, is a new favorite of mine.

Extra Yarn

Written by Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

6 things that make me absolutely giddy about Extra Yarn

(Why 6 and not 5? I just had to say one of the things twice!)

1. Extra Yarn is an awesome picture book about knitting!

2. Annabelle, the main character, has a magical box that never runs out of yarn.

3. Annabelle is never discouraged when others mock her love of knitting or knitted items, in fact she just considers it an invitation to knit for them.

4. Annabelle "yarn bombs" pretty much everything she sees.

5. The cameo appearances by Bear and Rabbit from I Want My Hat Back.

6. Ummm.... did I mention it's an awesome picture book about KNITTING!!!

The only thing that could make it any better, would be a cute book trailer to close this post.

Instead I will leave you with another favorite, a music video from U900 with a crocheted bear and rabbit (see the connections!).

Monday, January 30, 2012

Whew! First Decade Down

Caldecott Challenge Total so far: 56 Caldecotts Read (not counting those I read before starting the challenge).

At this point I have read all the Award Winners and Honor books through the first decade of the award to the end of the 1940s.

I have to say, I am a little tired of picture book pages that look like this:

and this:

At times it is hard to believe that these picture books won the same award that these did on January 23.

I sorted through my goodreads shelf of Caldecott Challenge titles by rating to see what floated to the top from these early winners, and there were three clear favorites for me:

The Little House

by Virginia Lee Burton

Caldecott Medal (1943)

I remember my elementary school librarian reading this one.
I love the facial expressions on the house, and how the text is not in plain blocks, but more free form on the pages. I also love that it is a circle story with big circles on the front and back cover.