"Required" Summer Challenge Reading

So I meant to write up some more apps as my next post but instead ... you're getting a rant. It's not eloquent. I don't have an eye-catching graphic to go with it. Sorry.

I think requiring kids of these ages it is a terrible idea. Required over the summer? Worst. Of course we want them reading. And we want them reading quality literature that will challenge their thinking. But ...

A going in to 5th grader reading Animal Farm?
A going into 7th grader ... well, maybe reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe.
A going in to 9th grader reading 1984?

They're all great readers. But just like every day at school when I'd cringe if a parent insisted on a first semester first grader getting chapter books so they'd be challenged (and so they'd run over and pick out, for example, Skulduggery Pleasant) ... why? Those books will all still be there later. Great reader? READ MORE! Not necessarily UP. UP will always be there. You're not going to go back and read books you missed when you're 17, you know? Had a class of second graders that every week insisted on 39 Clues. Only one of them could ever tell me anything about the story the next week. I know, I know there were social issues at play there, too. It was just a constant delicate dance to get them to get at least ONE book that they could actually enjoy. I kept hoping more would realize "hey, wait a minute. This one is funny (or interesting or spooky) and I know what it's saying. I don't understand a word of 30 Clues. I want more of this one!" A couple did but not all of them.

I digress. Anyway. I know these three. I love these three. And maybe I am wrong and they will love these titles. Do you know of a kiddo that has loved any of these titles?

(And please don't think I am all rude at school and deny kids books they just think they LOVE and embarrass them and make the library an unpleasant place (cause I've had teachers do that and it breaks my heart). I just try very hard to make it a balance. If I know every single book in their hand is not one they are going to be able to finish I just try very hard to get them to change their mind on at least one ...)

So far my suggestions are not changing the "assignment." I just don't see a need for this. There are great, great, great books that were written in the past 20 years that are beautiful. What others would you add to the list?

1984-Want to discuss themes of power, warfare, technology, repression, loyalty, and memory?

The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau … The government that hid supplies from the people. Was that the right thing to do? Did the founders make the right choice sending everyone down below? How/why did everyone “forget” where they’d come from? See more discussion questions here, here, and here. Simple read for a 9th grader so she could concentrate more on the "issues." Plus it's summer. Pick her own books!)

The Giver (Lois Lowry See discussion questions here. Do NOT bother with the movie until after having read the book. They didn’t do a great job of it but that could lead to some great discussion there as well.)

Little Brother (Cory Doctorow … You can download it for free here. Cory Doctorow is one interesting dude. Google him or just poke around his website. Guided reading can be found here. Lots of tech jargon to muddle through but the story is scary in its believability)

Legend series (Marie Lu … See discussion questions here. Actually Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner all have possibilities for the same analysis of theme and making connections, though the actual writing is not as good)

Under the Egg (Laura Marx Fitzgerald … see questions here)

Animal Farm-Want to discuss themes of power, lies, dreams, religion, or equality?

The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate … looks like a simple read but LOOK AT THESE QUESTIONS. Why was it considered to be OK for them to take Ivan and put him in a concrete cage? Are zoos OK?)

Actually Crenshaw fits here as well, doesn't it.

The Family Romanov (Candace Fleming … was on our district summer suggestions. This page links to some great discussion questions and an interesting podcast about the research process. Now that I know who is reading what I wouldn't suggest this for a 5th grader. Or at least this one. But I'm leaving it here.)

The Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park … lost boys of the Sudan. See discussion questions here. Powerful, powerful, powerful story.)

Star Wars and Imperialism. There are some great lesson ideas/discussion questions that could be based around the movies and Rebels TV show (and the books, of course!). How could I not mention SW? ;) Good practice for looking for imagery. But there again … I’m sure some history review would be necessary for his age. It’s just really missing in today’s educational climate.

To Kill a Mockingbird-Want to discuss themes of race, justice, family, compassion, or fear?

Separate is Never Equal (Duncan Tonatiuh … picture book but part of a story that even here in TX. See some questions here)

Echo (Pam Munuz Ryan … I just finished it yesterday. I cried. I hate crying at books but so much of it was just so hard to read in terms of the topics. Nazi Germany? Orphans? Widows? Both Japanese and Hispanic Americans not treated fairly? See author’s note and discussion questions here.)

Revolution (Deborah Wiles … see questions here and an author interview here. Countdown is actually my favorite of the two but it is more focused on the Cuban Missile Crisis)

Brotherhood (AB Westrick … see here and here. )

Glory Be (Augusta Scattergood … I am embarrassed to say it was on our state list a year or two ago but it wasn’t that long ago I finally got to it. And it’s remarkably good! See some questions here and here.)

Every Day After (Laura Golden … still looking for good questions but believe me, it’s beautifully written and shows kids a time and place they wouldn’t know otherwise)

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacqueline Kelly … see questions here and here. More about sex than race but I just finished book two and am dying to find out if Callie will get the education she wants so badly in a time/place that thought she should just learn how to take care of the house. Plus the writing is just so good!)

#IMWAYR June 29

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.




Not as crazy as the week before but still pleased with some great titles.

Definitely the one from last week that I would scream from the rooftops "READ!" I wish it were a little shorter so it would be more accessible to more kids. Like, leave off the fairy tale prologue and epilogue (though that would only be what, about 30 of 550+ pages?). The three inside stories. THOSE are the powerful ones. If it's not already on your TBR list? PUT IT THERE. I cried. I hate crying at books. I don't actively look for that in my reading. Thrill me, usually, is what I look for. But it was just that good.

Figured it was time to actually try an I Survived book since they are the only historical fic I can get kids at school to read. Eh. Better than nothing but not my favorite. The Compound #2 just got weird. Michael Grant's The Magnificent 12 series ... the story is OK. Enjoyable but nothing special. His WRITING style, though. Funny little "asides" sprinkled throughout--those are what make those books a treat. I'd give it a special post in and of itself but when I looked at my reviews for #1 & #2 all I said was "Funny parts!" I didn't stop and notate them like I did for some of them this time. So go to the Goodreads review to see. 

This week I want to finish the Circus Mirandus audio. Got distracted last week by small nieces and nephews visiting. I should have waited to start it until my 7 will be 8 in August niece got here. She is crazy for listening to novels while drawing or playing. Then I want to read Thickety #2. And some other books I have out from the library.

Finally Friday June 26

Little ones visited this week! That's always fun. And my sis and I went to see Jurassic World while Grandma played with them and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So far I've only taken one pic cause of little ones around (oddly enough this time around we haven't done a lot of picture book reading. We usually do! What's up with that!) but there will be more. Are you on Instagram? I posted it there. I am very new and very slow but it's kind of fun.



Just because it was so cute.



Have I already said I want to make this? It's harder to find round balloons, though. And then ... of course the young friends who think it's fun to jump up and hit anything that is hanging from the ceiling. :P



Not that anyone wants to think about the end of the summer. But egads ... 4th of July is in a week! And everything goes SO FAST after that. Anyway. I've loved this one since I first heard about it at the BYU Symposium for Young Readers a couple years ago (wish I was going again! Jon Klassen!). I've never nursed the idea of writing a book myself but I do love this one. Have it in the library collection for kids and I recommend it to teachers. And I know Teachers Write is starting pretty soon.


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Creativity, Inc

This is more than slightly off my normal type of posting. And ended up long ... but this is also sort of where I figure things out and record them so bear with me. Won't always/even usually be like this. So not your thing? Move along today but please come back!


Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

So all of these quotes come from the book by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Still for the life of me cannot remember what possessed me to put it on my Goodreads TBR list. And then to see if my local library had it (because they are small and often don't have what I want). So then when it was there on my hold shelf I had to pick it up and try it, right?


Teaching is creative, is it not? I'm not an eloquent enough writer to do a whole blog post on that.

Just going to post some iPhone snaps of pages that stood out to me. I was too lazy (and kept on reading) to retype them all. If I got the page number, I added that to the image. If I didn't, well ... go read the book! You can find wherever it was! (Terrible teacher librarian of me, isn't it?)

And yes, realize that if I pull bits out of context you are getting MY interpretation and perhaps not what he intended. I hope I didn't do that but I might have.

YAY for research! They are talking about research trips for making movies (apparently Disney got away from that for a while ... which seems very odd to me considering all the little video clips on DVDs that show all the old school animators going to South America. But then, there, we're seeing what we wanted to see. And yes, apparently things at Disney got pretty hairy there for a while! Kind of like, oh, education right now? They pulled through it!) but as a TL I just love the idea of it anyway. Authentic. Inspiring. Creating.

PLNs! I don't always say a lot on Twitter. Or even always comment on blogs I read. But I read them. And learn from them. So thanks!

Don't you wish politicians and the general public would trust us?

And sometimes our own?

This one also had many meanings for me with so much administration change last year and then knowing my beloved assistant of my entire school library career will not be there in the fall. I know the part time replacement. Have known him for years. Just have to figure out how we're going to work together!

Experience failure fast. Go at it! Try! If you fail ... because you went for it you have time to FIX IT! If you hem and haw forever and THEN still fail it's harder to fix things. ;)

The word is rigor. Among many others.

2015 Apps for Teacher Librarians Part 1 General Stuff

Still such a popular pin I thought I'd do some updates.

See the tag iDevice. I talk about apps fairly often but here's another roundup after five months with a cart of 25.
(Go here, here, here, here, and here for the original posts when I only had one iPad in the library. And the updates when I had 6 more as well as more experience? Here are Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

Housekeeping ... getting content on and off of devices
Dropbox: still hands down my favorite. It has the cleanest interface.
Drive: a good possibility if you are a GAFE school or also using Classroom or Photos. I use Dropbox more but have used Drive for times like copying text from a doc kiddos shared with me into our BookCreator pages.
Chirp: quick and easy for photos you don't need at highest resolution. And if you don't know what that means you don't need highest resolution so you're good. :) I can get photos for a lesson onto 6-8 devices at a time. It can also be used to send web links though a QR code would work just as well for that. Just the "wow" factor of funny little beeping noises transmitting info.

Scanners
i-Nigma is my favorite QR code reader but they all work pretty much the same. We use Neo-Reader on the library iPad sign in because you can control which camera it uses and when the iPad is locked in the security stand we need to use the forward facing camera. Pretty much for everything else you'd want the rear camera.
Aurasma: augmented reality. I have a Pinterest board but there are lots of them. Again, not hard. The hardest part is getting parents/other teachers to follow your Aurasma channel so that they can see the content!
Daqri: really only useful if you apply for the educator's account (it's closed right now but I'm told via Twitter it will be back up soon) to create your own. It's not hard once you get the hang of it. And once I realized the step I was missing? Less than 5 minutes (not counting the video creation time) to get it set up to scan! Nice because if others have the free Daqri app they don't have to follow your "channel" to see your content!


Book Apps
I don't have any new ones since it became very, very hard to get paid apps the last two years at school and most of the free book ones I've seen, well ... there is a reason they are giving it away. #appsnob Of the ones I know my favorites are still

The Flying Books of Morris Lessmore: love the story! The first link leads you to a book app. This link will lead you to an augmented reality app to go with a print version of the book.
The Monster at the End of this Book: a bit of nostalgia, yes, but they did such a nice job of balancing the book with interactivity.
Harold and the Purple Crayon (which you can't get anymore :()

Check out the Cybills for a nice list of more current titles. And of course SLJ.

OVERDRIVE: we're super lucky in our district to have a nice collection. Apparently one of the biggest in the nation, actually. It's a constant effort to remind staff and students about what's available. So crazy because I know my students, at least, have much more access to tablets than they do to desktop devices. And yet it hasn't "clicked." YET!!!



Stay tuned over the next couple weeks. I'll do an updated Photo Editing one (and talk about Canva, because they asked me to months ago and I am very, very behind) as well as more Media Creation. Did you see my guest post over on FreeTech4Teachers? It didn't make the "most popular" of his week but oh well.

#IMWAYR (almost) June 22

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.


I read like crazy this week. I doubt much of it could be called careful reading. I'm working on slowing down but there are just so many books in the world I want to read!

Mix of oldies and new ones, picture books, middle grade, YA, and "grown up." That's what #summerreading #bookaday is all about! Most of the "grown up" ones were actually disappointing. Like authors that I've really enjoyed in the past? So so now. The odd one out was the Creativity one. I never read stuff like that but found it pretty fascinating, especially as most of it could be viewed from an education perspective. Anyway, you can click on the pics to go to my "read" shelf for a little more info. And the best ones I will repost/review more in depth here as release dates get closer. Like Piper Green. You'll hear about her again because she is a must get for early chapter book readers. And Stick and Stone is a good one for talking about building a positive classroom community.

And starting Tuesday a revival of what is still a very popular pinned series ... Apps for Teacher Librarians. Finally!

Happy Father's Day. I have the best Dad. He is the one that gave me my love of books. Due to an eye disease it's really hard for him to read but he still does. He's a great fan of audiobooks!

Finally Friday June 19

Funny how it's not so much "finally" over the summer.


I love it and hate it at the same time. Well. I love it about 20 minutes after I'm DONE. I hate it until then. :P



At risk of a bit of language arts and crafts ... could the small size perhaps help move it along to still be creative, still come up with a finished product, and yet get them BACK TO READING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE? Balance. It's a delicate, delicate balance.



Spirit Monkey is on Pinterest! The hats are probably the favorite at my school. Even though the SW-inspired ones are MY favorite. ;) The tags are collected on key rings or loose binder rings. They have all sorts of topics and themes besides reading. Math, character building, manners, mascots, Dad/Mom/Grandparent events, etc. No, I'm not being paid to mention them. Just think they are cool. It would be fun if they would give me some for a giveaway, though.



I do try. Some posts are more successful and useful than others. ;)