Latest Books!

I've been grabbing new books from the library and again, almost made the bag so heavy that I couldn't carry it out.

Some of my favorites:

Socksquatch by Frank W. Dormer - This book made me laugh out loud just looking at the cover. It just hit me as hilarious and I loved the quirky drawings and story. Socksquatch can't find his other sock. He asks quite a few other goofy looking creatures in the process. I thought it was a lot of fun and the drawings are simple enough that my students could easily try to have fun drawing them. 4Stars.

ABC Kids by Simon Basher - The illustrations for this book are quite the opposite feel from the last book. They are beautiful, precise drawings, almost anime-looking. Children's names are used for the fun alliteration. "Arthur's angry ant ate apples." I found this book in a top 100 best books for kids list and am not surprised. It would be another great book for an activity with students. Using their own names, they could come up with their own drawings and sentences. They could try to copy this type of illustration, too. This could be used from pre-school on up for reading and creating their own ABC book! 4Stars

Dog and Bear: Two Friends - Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

A "5 Stars Henry and Grandma book"! Great illustrations! So fun and colorful outlined in black! Henry is 2 1/2 and could understand this book easily. Dog and Bear lose something and Henry "walked" his fingers right to it. Grandma loved the book within a book idea. And even though it has three stories, they are just the right length.  Newborns to five year olds will LOVE this book! This grandma and grandson sure did. AND she has sequels! I will be getting this for the school library as well. Just look at the cover and see how easily we can talk about shapes and then draw Dog and Bear. Oh, how the kids are going to love it!

Big Week for Me!

What a treat to meet John and Donna on their Adventure Out West '11 They were kind enough to meet up with me while they were here in Fort Collins. Every summer they take a "book trip" taking favorite characters from children's lit to as many libraries, book stores, and American Roadside Attractions as they can pack in. This year it was Frankie Pickle, Argyle, Owly and Wormy. And of course, MANY books.






John gave me Little Chicken's Big Day by Katie Davis with stickers and postcards. My students are going to love this fun book!

Little Chicken's Big Day book trailer. My students went NUTS over this video!

Below, look close and you'll see I'm holding Darth Paper origami that John made (instructions here) of Darth Paper Strikes Back, cover above. It's the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. Great read for 4th grade and up, about a group of nerdy middle schoolers who come to depend on the advice of Origami Yoda. Can't wait to read the sequel!

John lives and breathes children's books. The man is unbelievable, a hard act to follow. Of course that's why he made the cover of School Library Journal. He was chosen as one of the top movers and shakers of school librarians. Here he's signing my copy. I had him sign it to my students at Bacon. Why did I do THAT? I should have had him sign Little Chicken's Big Day to the students and the magazine to ME! What can I say, I was nervous. Who knows what I said to him during lunch. I hope I wasn't too much of a babbling idiot. Sigh.
 
John and I met on Twitter. He's @MrSchuReads and I am @BookJeannie. He is one of the first librarians I started following. I learned so much from him in a short amount of time, and I started following eveyone he followed and quickly became addicted to Twitter.

Every morning I check out Anita Silvey's Children's Book-A-Day Almanac and John's Watch. Connect. Read. They are both gobs of wonderful, wonderful information about children's books. I get so many great recommendations and titles from them!

I wish we lived closer so I could visit him and his school, and especially the book store Anderson's Book Shop in Chicago! I WILL get to Chicago some day. My daughter is actually on her way there for business. Small world.
It's a fine line for me to follow him and other amazing people on Twitter. I feel like I'm spending WAY too much time there. I must set priorities and go from there. Wish me luck!

Pottermore...SQUEEEEEEEEEE!

And click below for the

Pottermore Website

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

FORGOTTEN by Cat Patrick

FORGOTTEN is Cat Patrick's debut young adult book about a 16 year old girl, London Lane, who at 4:33 every morning forgets her past. When she wakes up, she has notes, her cell phone is her life line, and her mom helps, too. But she cannot remember yesterday but she can see the future. Think about that. Would YOU want to know your future? Not seeing the past for me means I can read books and see movies for the first time over and over and over!

The pic at the right is a photo I took.  We were on vacation when it came out. In England. My hubby and I took a day to go to Oxford (because of Harry Potter and The Golden Compass) and we went to Blackwell's Book Shop.  Cool, right? I was so excited when I found it, I bought it on the spot!

Cat Patrick is the sister-in-law of Katie, a teacher at my school. So, I've been in on all of the excitement long before the book came out. 

How cool is it to have your first book get published? By Little and Brown, no less? They're the ones who published that vampire series. Yes, that one. No, I was NOT a fan. At all. Wanted to throw the second one across the room and did not (and will not) read the rest. No, you can't make me. Ever. But I do delight in making fun of the movies. HA!

Story is that Cat's husband was a little iffy about the idea of her quitting her day job to write full time. But she did it anyway and wrote Forgotten. Then it was published, big deal in of itself. Then she sold the movie rights. Hailee Stanfield will star. Yep, you know, the one who won an Oscar for TRUE GRIT?

I'd say hubby is happier.

But the really good part, is the book. The story. It's so much fun to read and try to figure out. I haven't predicted one thing in this book and to me that means it's top notch! Hubby is reading it right now and enjoying it!

Cat has more books in her bag, sorry, pun intended. We'll have to see what she comes up with next, can't wait!

I Want to Be Like Anita and John!

I'm dating myself here. Remember the old Nike commercial "I want to be like Mike"? Well, I want to be a combination of my two favorite people I follow on Twitter.

Anita Silvey's Book-a-Day Almanac and John Schumacher's Watch. Connect. Read. Every morning I make coffee and then get on my IPad and check both of these informative and fun sites.

Anita Silvey's credits are a mile long. Former editor of Horn book and author herself, each day she highlights a favorite book of hers. Her article is always loaded with wonderful tidbits. She also reports each day about author birthdays, and days like National Bubble Gum day. I find that my day has not started until I've read every single word.

John Schumacher was just named as one of the movers and shakers in the librarain world. If you need to know the hottest and newest books, he's your guy. His specialty is book trailers, the latest and greatest. His impressive goal for 2011 is to read 2011 books, he's nearing one thousand already. I think he's going to SMOKE that goal! A librarian, teacher, and techie, oh my! He brings authors into his school via Skype. He uses QR codes to get his students interested in new books. He hangs posters in the bathrooms of all the new books he's purchased at the wonderful Anderson's Book Store! He is what all librarians want to be. Young. Okay, I'm kidding...well, maybe only a little.

To say that they inspire me is an understatement. Their passion for kids and books are my passions. My hope is that I can glean knowledge from both of them, little by little, and share with my students, fellow teachers, and librarians. If you love kids and books, join me, and take a look at these two amazing people. You won't be disappointed. ENJOY AND KEEP READING!