Sunday, September 16, 2018

September 16, 2018

Set a personal goal to read more widely.
Donalyn Miller, educator and author of books The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, and co-author of the new Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids is one of my heroes. She has informed my teaching in immeasurable ways. In fact, she said one of my favorite quotes to support last week's tip: Honor your child's reading identity. "We complain that kids don't read then bemoan their choices when they do."
Donalyn Miller created the 40 Book Challenge as a way to get her students to read more widely and have successful reading experiences. We all get stuck in reading ruts and this is a great way to guide us and bring us out of our comfort zones. It is not a contest. In fact, for Open House this week I put out 40 Book Challenge grids with the 2019 RI Children's Book Award list of nominees on the back for some solid recommendations. Students would notice the display, take a paper, and say, "What do we get if we finish this?" My response: "You'll be a smarter, better person than when you started."


This challenge is not necessarily about finishing the whole grid. It is about having more successful reading experiences than the last school year. It is about providing choices for our children. The reading part is not a choice. What you read is the choice. It is about guiding our readers towards more choices. It is about trying a new genre and hopefully realizing you like it more than you had anticipated. This grid is just an example. You could let your children/students customize it based on a genre conversation.
When you build a culture of reading in your classroom, in your school, in your home, you motivate readers and give them a safe place to stretch themselves and try something new. It would be extra awesome if your children/students saw their parents/teachers challenging themselves to read more widely as well. I'm happy to send grids to you if you email me! I do fear that I'm not giving Donalyn Miller's idea justice. To learn more, I highly recommend reading The Book Whisperer. Here is a blog post by Donalyn Miller where she revisits the 40 Book Challenge.

Amazing news! Stuart Gibbs is coming to An Unlikely Story, Jeff Kinney's bookstore less than an hour away, on October 5th for an author event celebrating the release of his latest book in this wildly popular series.When you're on the site, I recommend signing up for email notifications. They always have incredible authors doing events.

Spy School Goes South (Spy School #6), comes out October 1
by Stuart Gibbs
Goodreads summary link

There is no book trailer for Spy School Goes South but here's one for Evil Spy School to give you a feel for this series.

Wow, this one stole a lot of our hearts last year. I'm so glad to see it on the RICBA list!

Her Right Foot, (2017)
words by Dave Eggers and pictures by Shawn Harris
Goodreads summary link




This week's featured festival illustrator has won the Pura Belpre award five times! Her latest picture book just debuted on September 4th and is getting so much praise. I cannot wait to add it to our library collection. 

Dreamers, (2018)
by Yuyi Morales
Goodreads summary link



We don't own this yet but we hope to get a copy soon. In fact, we are starting to think about our "Sibert Smackdown" nominee list and this could be a contender. Want a peek into the "Sibert Smackdown"? Check out this link from Melissa Stewart's blog. 

Saving Fiona: The Story of the World's Most Famous Baby Hippo, (2018)
by Thane Maynard
Goodreads summary link





Fifth grader Samara created a terrific book trailer using Adobe Spark. She recommends last May's 
Kids Read Across Rhode Island choice. 

The First Rule of Punk, (2017)
by Celia C. Perez
Goodreads summary link

Samara's Book Trailer







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