#IMWAYR June 30 #bookaday catchup

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.





What I've Been Reading-click on the images to go to my Goodreads shelf and see the individual reviews. Missed last week so there are a lot of books!

I liked The Night Gardener. A lot. It's creepy, though. Not sure who the intended audience is. I am pretty sure I won't ever get it for our elementary school collection. Might TELL a few 5th graders "hey, go find this book" but it would not be accessible to most of them. I'm not sure if middle school would pick it up, given the description. But go read! If you like slightly spooky.

Under the Egg is a conundrum. I quite enjoyed it with all of the art and historical references ... but seriously. Can't think of a student age group that would really embrace it, either.

I almost didn't include Holding Fast ... I don't post most religious stuff I read. But you may see them pop up every once in a while from here on out. Not changing the focus of my blog by a long shot ... but I just feel like I should be more purposeful in all of my endeavors. I never want there to be a question where I stand. I've been blessed to not ever have had to doubt many things.

Loved Still Life. The Shadows is a favorite series in our library!

Manhunt was fun. Needs a Google Lit trip to go along with it. All of the Jaguar Society titles are a little predictable but hey. Makes them solid choices for less confident readers. Same with the Sasquatch Escape (or perhaps even more so ... a bit formulaic but still fun). 

Enjoyed The Dyerville Tales. It got creepy at the last third so there's another one that might not really be elementary but I'll tell people about it.

Seriously, the ONLY thing that could have convinced me to read Capt. Underpants is my nephew. And I still didn't really enjoy it or see the appeal. :/ But I loved that he wanted to share it with me. This nephew sometimes calls to read bits of Harry Potter to me. He's going in to the 4th grade this fall.

The Impossible Knife of Memory is an important book. Can't say that I enjoyed it ... but I can see the need for the story to be told. Definitely high school.


Will finish Tinkerlab this week. And am currently working on these two. I also have a Mary Higgins Clark waiting for me at the public library. ;) We'll see what else hits with #bookaday. Actually should get started on Reading in the Wild before summer goes on too much longer, shouldn't it? Click on the pic if you want more info about the books pictured.

Finally Friday June 27

Where did June go?

I'll be real honest with you. I'd like to go back and have a do-over. Didn't see some personal things coming by a long shot. Can't change the past, though. So move forward with faith, right?

Speaking of faith ...



This is actually pretty genius, right? Because while we all know that the search function is not super complicated ... color coding (especially for the little ones who can't spell yet!) would be a super easy way to help the kids know where to find an app. "It's on the purple row."



I am super excited for this. Seriously. BIG help in workflow and collaboration. Even in Google Apps use at the elementary level and definitely at the secondary.




Not much of a selfie poster. But I am thinking about chopping my hair off. Not like I can "do" it, anyway. 8 days out of 10 it's twisted up in a clip. This one's cute, right?



(Why is this formatting so strangely in the preview? Looking at the code it looks the same to me.) Had totally been planning on Hour of Code next year ... only to find out Wednesday that we are getting a new principal. Don't know WHO yet. Just that ours is getting sent to a new school where her bilingual skills were apparently even more needed. We will miss her. She was "good people."

Where I Was

The few pictures I remembered to take.

Ordered a new Mac this morning. Had it with the weird things this one is doing. But ugh ... moving everything over. Oh and finding a desk chair cause I didn't get a laptop this time. #thingsihadntplannedon


Later!

Location:Where I Was

(almost) #IMWAYR June 16

It's (almost) Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.


#bookaday is getting a slow start. This is my first week to really have off and I head out on Tuesday for a trip.

BUT I have read at least a little. Click through because Goodreads embeds don't come through on Bloglovin or Feedly.

I dropped by B&N for a little bit and found this one.

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh ... this might even be a five star. Just for being about a chubby little panda with insomnia. #beenthere #wellexceptforthepandapart

And I checked this one out of our district e-catalog.

The Thickety: A Path Begins by J.A. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEPY!
That said ... quite a lot of fun.

It's long. And detailed. So I will have to think about it for our elementary school collection. Some kids would love it. Some would not deal with it well. Most would check it out and never read more than a few pages.

But a middle school collection? In a heartbeat. Don't let the cover fool you. This is not a kiddie lit title.


How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not really juvenile non-fic ... a contender for a middle school collection but I'm not sure if I'll get this for our strong 4th/5th or not.
Spectacular messes here. Several that I did not know about!


I did start reading Tinkerlab. I'm only about two chapters in. So far I think she has some great ideas ... but she shares a lot on her website. I'm not sure what the value added of the book is. So we will see if that changes as I continue. Won't happen next week as it's stuck on my laptop and I'm not taking it on my trip. But when I get back I'll continue.

I will probably finish The Book of Secrets this week. Not sure why it's taken so long. I do really like this character. I just keep getting distracted. Guess it's OK. Won't officially be released for a while. It's on the Kindle.

I really want to get reading Revolution but like Tinkerlab it's one that I can't put on my Kindle. I can't even get it to move properly onto my old Nook. So it will probably not happen until I get back.

And that's if my computer doesn't DIE. Do I just bite the bullet and get a new one? This laptop is not that old. 40 months? Moving all the files. Ugh. Dealing with this SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW spinning pinwheel of death. Also ugh.

Family time? Not ugh.

Finally Friday June 13

Ha! I did not even notice until getting ready to write this post. Remember if you are reading this in an app like Feedly or Bloglovin you'll need to click through to see embedded content.



I like this! Only will it teach them to spell the word incorrectly?




TIMMY D!




Love, love, love. If only they were that easy to find ...




I just got a Netgalley copy of the Tinkerlab book so we'll see.




I was so confused by this pic until I clicked through and read that it was magic shell. Seriously silly moment. "How can they dip a popsicle into warm chocolate?

#Mouseheart winner and TBT My Top 100 or so Books #bookaday

All week I really did mean to post the winner. I used random dot org after Sunday night's game. When I was all sad about the game but giving away fun books cheered me up.

Then I've either been in PD tech classes or giving PD tech classes. And Tuesday night's game was already fun. Because the Spurs played awesomely. Even me who doesn't really understand basketball could tell they were on fire. But. Back on topic. Loads of tech PD. Until now. I AM DONE. I was going to go to something on Monday but I decided not to. Is that lame?



So without further ado ...

Mrs. Good! You win! I will be in touch with the contact info.







Here is a TBT from last June. I should update it. Suggestions? Or maybe just spiffy it up. We'll see.





"These lists sort of irritate the ever living daylights out of me. After a cousin posted a Top 100 on Pinterest and I saw it and went ... ARGH! over a good 90% of it I decided to write my own. That's thinking pretty highly of my own opinion, I know. ;)



I'm going to list them in groups. Easy Picture Books. Everybody Picture Books (because older kids should read these even when they CAN read harder or longer ones!). Chapter Books and then Middle Grade/Tween Lit that goes right up to when kids might choose YA. I'm sure I forgot something. It's also not in chronological order by release or anything. Just as I remembered them or saw them in my Goodreads profile.

Easy Picture Books (great for read alouds or shared reading ... not necessarily fixed vocab readers)

• Every Piggie and Elephant book ever written! My personal all time favorite is There is a Bird on Your Head but they're all funny. And of course the Pigeon books. Really, just about anything by Mo Willems. A given.


• Interrupting Chicken (David Ezra Stein)


• I Want My Hat Back AND That Is Not My Hat (Jon Klassen)


• The Circus Ship (Chris Van Duesen)


• Shark Vs. Train (Chris Bartlett)


• Blackout (John Rocco)


• Duck & Goose OR Rocket books (Tad Hills)


• Creepy Carrots (Aaron Reynolds)


• Llama, Llama books (Anna Dewdney)


• Where's Walrus (almost wordless ... by Stephen Savage)


• Turtle's Penguin Day (Valeri Gorbachev)


• Good News, Bad News OR Frog and Fly (Jeff Mack)


• anything by Jan Thomas


• Pete the Cat books (the ones done by BOTH Eric Litwin and James Dean)


• anything by Oliver Jeffers


• Suzanne Bloom's Bear and Duck books 


• How to Teach a Slug to Read (Susan Pearson)


• I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (Kevin Sherry)


• A Balloon for Isabel (Deborah Underwood)


• Bunny Days (Tau Nyeu)


• Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown)


• Dog Loves Books (Louise Yates)

Everybody Picture Books

• Over and Under the Snow (Kate Messner)


• anything by Nic Bishop (amazing photographer and non-fic writer)


• anything by Steve Jenkins (amazing paper artist and non-fic writer)


• 14 Cows for America (Carmen Agra Deedy ... and be ready to cry)


• Henry's Freedom Box (Ellen Levine)


• Independent Dames and/or Thank You, Sarah (both historically based and by Laurie Halse Anderson)


• Flotsam (might be wordless but it's so beautiful with possibilities for discussion I'm listing it here ... by David Wiesner)


• Scaredy Squirrel series (by Melanie Watt ... he's actually a "proactive" little guy plus you get some great non-fic text features in a very fiction environment! He's also funny.)


• all of David Elliot's "In the" poetry books


• North, the Amazing Story of Arctic Migration (Nick Dowson)


• "Life Size" books (Teruyuki Komiya ... great photos and FUN because of the size)


• What If? (Laura Vaccaro Seeger)


• Here Comes the Garbage Barge! (Jonah Winter)


• Library Mouse (Daniel Kirk)


• Orangutans Are Ticklish (Steve Grubman ... a fun photography book)

Chapter Books

• any Frog and Toad book (Arnold Lobel)


• Katie Woo books (Fran Manushkin)


• Cork and Fuzz (Dori Chaconas)


• Marty McGuire (two available so far by Kate Messner)


• Clementine books (FUNNY by Sara Pennypacker)


• Humphrey books (all of them are realistic fic (except for the fact that Humphrey is a talking hamster) with great examples of how friends get along by Betty G. Birney)


• 43 Old Cemetery Road (an epistolary slightly spooky series by Kate Klise)


• Melvin Beederman series (Greg Trine)


• Frankie Pickle series (Eric Wight)


• Franny K. Stein series (Jim Benton)


• Gabby & Gator (James Burks)

Middle Grade

• The One and Only Ivan (awesome talking animals story by Katherine Applegate)


• Wonder (remember to CHOOSE KIND by R.J. Palacio)


• A Long Walk to Water (important human rights commentary for kids by Linda Sue Park) 


• The Teacher's Funeral (FUNNY, funny, funny historical fic by Richard Peck)


• Brixton Brothers (great old school detective work! by Mac Barnett)


• Squish graphic novel series (Jennifer and Matthew Holm ... there is some GREAT science vocab "hidden" in these!)


• Books of Elsewhere (great very only slightly spooky series by Jacqueline West)


• Cosmic (ever so funny if you "get" British humor by Frank Cottrell Boyce)


• Belly Up (Hilarious! by Stuart Gibbs)


• How They Croaked (amazing non-fix by Georgia Bragg)


• The Books of Umber (series by P.W. Catanese ... at first I only read because book one was on the state list ... but I'm so glad I did!)


• Bud, not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)


• The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (E.L. Konigsburg)


• Any Which Wall (Laurel Snyder)


• Spilling Ink (Ellen Potter ... this is a MUST have if you have a budding author)


• H.I.V.E. books (Mark Walden ... great adventure in these!)


• Young James Bond (Charlie Higson)


• Wind in the Willows AND Return to the Willows (Jacqueline Kelly)


• The End of the Beginning (Avi)


• Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Kane Chronicle books (Rick Riordan)


• Ranger's Apprentice series (John Flanagan)


• Harry Potter series (DUH ... JK Rowling)

Click on the link HERE to get a downloadable PDF of this list from Google Drive. It's not super pretty but it works."

#IMWAYR or this week more accurately What Do You WANT to Read this Summer? #bookaday

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.




The one book I actually finished this week?

The Thickety: A Path Begins by J.A. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEPY!
That said ... quite a lot of fun.

It's long. And detailed. So I will have to think about it for our elementary school collection. Some kids would love it. Some would not deal with it well. Many would check it out and never read more than a few pages.

But a middle school collection? In a heartbeat. Don't let the cover fool you.


Some of the Books I Want to Read this Summer
I'm not actually QUITE on break yet. And almost as soon as I hit break I'll be on a plane. Early in the morning. Sleep or read? Also I need to find some must read picture books.

How They Choked ... already picked it up from the small town library to which I now belong. It's seriously less convenient than from my old house. #thethingswedoforfreebooks!!!! But how fun. Read about spectacular mess ups OTHER people have made. I loved How They Croaked when I first read it a couple years ago.

Circa Now ... I keep hearing about this one. And while I know it's really different I liked Miss Peregrine. The altered images things is kind of interesting.

Absolutely Almost ... I hear comparisons to Wonder and Ivan. Sold. This usually prefers mysteries and fantasy must read.

Invent to Learn ... I've had this on my Kindle for like six months now. It's time. Everyone says this is the book.

I start more prof. books than I finish. :/

Tinkerlab ... this book comes from a "mom blog" but so far I like the ideas on the mom blog. Sort of mentally figuring out how to tweak them for a school library makerspace.