The Book Search

As a school librarian who teaches 8 classes each day, I need to have a certain tolerance for repetition. I certainly COULD read different books to each class each day, but after awhile, I'm bound to hear "You already read that one".  So for me, it works better to read the same book to the same grade level all week long.  What I have come to understand is that there are some books you can read a million times in a row and never be sick of and some that after the third day you want to hide behind the reference books and never look at ever again.  It occurred to me that parents of small children might feel the same way (except that you might be hiding the books behind the couch instead of the reference books).  So here's a short list of some the books that I don't ever get tired of reading. The one that made me think of this post was the one I was reading this week.  It's kind of a funny little book that apparently didn't get much press when it was publishe...

We just finished our Scholastic book fair.  I love the book fair.  I love how exciting it is!  Brand new books!  Lots of colorful displays!  Books I've never heard of before!  Shopping!  But as much fun as it is, I'm always happy to pack it up and go back to the regular media center where its peaceful and fairly quiet and I know where (most) everything is.  And I don't have to handle money. One of the best things about the book fair is getting to read all the new books.  I had a head start this year since I've been using Netgalleys.  Netgalleys.com is a free website that allows you to register and then read books (using an electronic device) before they are published in exchange for reviewing them.  I'm always happy to give my opinion (just ask anyone around me!) so for me, it works out pretty well!  But at the book fair, there were several books that I hadn't seen (in book stores or on Netgalley). The first one is by one o...

One of the "it" books this year for middle grades is called "Rump" by Leisl Shurtliff. It's a chapter book with the back story of Rumplestiltskin, how this little guy learns to spin straw into gold and why he wants a baby (it's not as creepy as you think). It's a great story filled with interesting characters and great writing and good lessons about believing what "everyone says", the power of our choices, and what is destiny. I really liked it. I thought it would be great to pair with Paul Zelinsky's version Rumplestiltskin (and there is a Reading Rainbow episode based around it!). It would also be great to compare with a story like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszcka and any other version of the Three Little Pigs or if you wanted to go bigger, compare it to the Wizard of Oz and Wicked. Here's book trailer about it. I really love fairy tales and there are some great ones out there that you might never he...