The past two weeks of school have been busy with library orientation for all grades. Seventh and eighth graders noticed the, changes in the library that happened over the summer right away so that was fun. And of course, the sixth graders were completely overwhelmed with the transition to middle school.
When I talked to them about the books they'd encounter in middle school, I said that they might encounter books with curse words in them. AND books with ROMANCE! (Insert groans and eye rolling here.) And I let the kids know that if anything made them uncomfortable, they should just return the book and choose something else.
One little girl asked me if she should report those things to me. Alarmed, I said, "NO! I'm reporting it to you right now! Don't report it to anybody!" Gotta love those sixth graders . . .
Friday, September 15, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
National Book Festival 2017
This year was my second year attending the NBF at the Washington Convention Center. When it moved locations, I was disappointed to hear that it wouldn't be held on the national lawn anymore, so I boycotted for a year. But I have to say, last Saturday was an UGLY day in DC--humid and rainy all day. It was a pleasure to be inside, getting to meet authors and seeing friends as we waited in lines snaking around the convention center.
I stuck with middle grades authors, while my sister and nephew transversed children's authors up to YA. Here are the highlights of the day:
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| The ride to DC was miserable. |
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| Meg Medina signing her Yacqui Delgado book for me. |
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| Melissa de la Cruz signing Alex and Eliza for my niece. |
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| Jack Gantos using a fancy Montblanc fountain pen to sign books. |
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| Kelly Barnhill, author of thisyear's Newbery Award winner. |
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| One of my favorite authors, Nicola Yoon. |
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| My sister took and tweeted this photo of Angie Thomas, and the LOC retweeted it! |
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| Condoleezza Rice passing by with her entourage. |
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| My sister got this pic of Jesmyn Ward, who is more YA than MG. |
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| My nephew with Lincoln Peirce (pronounced Purse!). |
Sunday, May 14, 2017
A special student
It's just not right that I haven't blogged in so long. Everything has been good, and I get caught up in the day-to-day things and forget to reflect on it all.
Our school district created its own Battle of the Books program for middle schoolers, and most of the winter months were spent preparing for the competition day. Interested students met weekly with me during lunch, where we'd discuss the books, do practice questions, make lists of key words, etc. It was a fun part of the day for me. We started with dozens of kids at the sixth grade level, a nice handful at seventh, and a few at eighth. The good news is that most of them stuck with it until it was time to pick a team, which made it pretty difficult!
One of our seventh graders (one of my favorites-shhhhh!) has such a great sense of humor. She routinely cracks us up. During her sixth grade year, I was obsessed with the baby eagles that had been born in Washington, D.C., and I would live stream the eagle cam during lunches. As the babies grew, we would watch them eat and well, sometimes, poop. If you have never seen an eagle poop, I highly recommend trying to catch it. The eaglets lifted up their behinds and would shoot poop out of the nest. We were able to see it a couple of times, and well, you know middle schoolers--we loved it. Right then this student decided that our unofficial team name would be the "Pooping Eaglets."
This year, one of our books mentioned a band named "The Mystery Pissers" and this, of course, became our unofficial name, thanks to this same student. What a delight she is! When I mentioned this in a note to the student on the back of a photo, she said, "Now I'll never be able to show this to my mom! She doesn't get my humor!"
Last year, as a sixth graders, this student posed for pictures with the team, and as I pulled out my phone to take their pictures, she immediately threw herself on me, yelling "selfie!" This year, our group picture featured her free-falling to the floor just as I snapped the photo.
I wish I could show the whole photo--every one of the other students were looking at the camera. Her timing was perfect!
Our school district created its own Battle of the Books program for middle schoolers, and most of the winter months were spent preparing for the competition day. Interested students met weekly with me during lunch, where we'd discuss the books, do practice questions, make lists of key words, etc. It was a fun part of the day for me. We started with dozens of kids at the sixth grade level, a nice handful at seventh, and a few at eighth. The good news is that most of them stuck with it until it was time to pick a team, which made it pretty difficult!
One of our seventh graders (one of my favorites-shhhhh!) has such a great sense of humor. She routinely cracks us up. During her sixth grade year, I was obsessed with the baby eagles that had been born in Washington, D.C., and I would live stream the eagle cam during lunches. As the babies grew, we would watch them eat and well, sometimes, poop. If you have never seen an eagle poop, I highly recommend trying to catch it. The eaglets lifted up their behinds and would shoot poop out of the nest. We were able to see it a couple of times, and well, you know middle schoolers--we loved it. Right then this student decided that our unofficial team name would be the "Pooping Eaglets."
This year, one of our books mentioned a band named "The Mystery Pissers" and this, of course, became our unofficial name, thanks to this same student. What a delight she is! When I mentioned this in a note to the student on the back of a photo, she said, "Now I'll never be able to show this to my mom! She doesn't get my humor!"
Last year, as a sixth graders, this student posed for pictures with the team, and as I pulled out my phone to take their pictures, she immediately threw herself on me, yelling "selfie!" This year, our group picture featured her free-falling to the floor just as I snapped the photo.
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