February

How Can I Share Great Books With My Readers?

It's almost Valentine's Day and I always think about how much I love books and reading during this time of year. With everything that educators are responsible for during the school day, how can we more easily find new and exciting reading adventures to share with our students? Luckily, I have a few suggestions that I hope you find inspiring!

ALA Youth Media Awards

The biggest awards in children's and youth publishing are released annually at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference. These include the Caldecott and Newbery medals along with the Coretta Scott King and Micheal Printz awards. These books are the best of the best! The 2018 winners can be found here and the full list of awards with links to past winners can be found here. These are the books everyone will be talking about! A library program I've always wanted to try was creating a mock awards committee and having students predict the winners. Maybe next year!

Did you predict any of the winners? Which of these books are you excited about reading?

Read Across America

In 2017, NEA's Read Across America program celebrated its 20th year of celebrating reading on Dr. Seuss's birthday - March 2nd. While it might seem that elementary schools would be having the most fun, some changes to the program's focus for 2018 may bring a wider variety of event options for a more diverse audience.

In fact, this year in a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, RAA is going beyond Dr. Seuss to capture a broader picture of reading and readers and they're hoping that Read Across America happens ALL YEAR LONG!

I always say that children need books that serve as both mirrors and windows so that they can see themselves AND what other people's experiences are like. Check out the main RAA site here, but don't miss some of these new resources (including lots of downloadable content)!

What do you think about expanding the Read Across America vision?

Want to Make a Book Love Connection?

Try a Surprise Match!

February is a great time to try a "Blind Date with a Book" or "Book Tasting" program! Even just a display can be very effective and a real attention getter. Older students will definitely be interested in the dating categories since they're got love on the brain this time of year, but "tastings" work all year long! I just did one last month, actually.

I really loved this blog post from a public librarian who has really figured out the "blind date" display. She even includes links to her "Blind Date With a Book Blurbs" to get you started in Adult, YA, and Children's books!

When it comes to Book Tastings, I think these teachers and librarians have it figured out! This blog gives more of a secondary spin on the process (with a bunch of great links) and this one skews a bit more elementary. I've never gone full-costume for a book tasting (mostly because I'm currently on a fixed schedule with very little prep time), but someday I'll figure it out!

I did demonstrate that my students should NOT actually TASTE the books by almost taking an actual bite. They were appropriately horrified.

What programs or displays do you use that are really attention-getters for books in your classroom or library?

And Just A Few Tech Tools!

I tried to resist, but I couldn't help myself! I'm currently debating whether I want to try out Bookopolis or Biblionasium as a new way to introduce books to my students. Both are billed as "Goodreads for Kids" and that's definitely what I'm going for here. I want to start my students on the path to managing and nurturing their reading lives when they leave me and go off into the world. They have to be able to solve their "what do I read next?" kinds of problems!

I love that Biblionasium has Follett Destiny integration since that's what my current district uses for library management. That particular feature comes with a fee - which I don't love. I love that Bookopolis is both FREE and offers Google Classroom integration. The BookQuest feature that is profiled in this Knowledge Quest blog post also has really piqued my interest! I'm thinking that the money factor will probably lead me to try Bookopolis first as a pilot and MAYBE I'll make a change over the summer.

If I was teaching high school, I'd definitely just go ahead and promote Goodreads to my students for this purpose. (If you're interested in what I'm reading you can check me out at THIS LINK) With the notable exception of 2017, it's been an excellent way to keep up with and record most of my recent reading life.

Are you currently using any of these? I'd love to hear your reviews!