First full week finished

What a great first week it has been. A bit like a wild roller coaster ride for some students and staff but we've weathered the worst and will continue to make improvements! I've welcomed most classes to the library and we've discussed our expectations (theirs and mine) for library time. In helping students this week I discovered two new books hiding in the shelves.

Cesar takes a break by Susan Collins Thoms (2008) is about a helpful class iguana. The iguana journals for us his adventures while the students are on Spring Break! Who knew class pets had so many fun while we are out of the building! This story is pure fun, great writing and would help students think about writing themselves, after all it is Cesar's journal we are reading!

Dog and Bear; Two friends-three stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a great tale of the simpliest form. Dog wants attention and bear wants to read=they work it out. Dog wants to change his name and comes up with many alternative, typical dog names. Each little vignette has friends working together. Try this one as a read-aloud in your classroom. It focuses on dialogue between the two characters; there is no narrator.

New Picture Books

Available for check out and appropriate for all grade levels!

Patricia von Pleasantsquirrel by James Proimos.

A curious young girl wanna-be princess sets out on an adventure like Max in Where the wild things are by M. Sendak. Included is a long list of rules she is supposed to follow from the hippos who have made her their princess! The rules are too difficult to keep up with and she heads back home, where everything is simpler. Patricia even has her own writing blog which would be great fun for students to see!!

Click here for her blog.

One of those days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

Amy has several fantastic books in our library now-come check them out! This one describes how some days can be not great days but always those days turn into a night and bada bing-morning!! This would be fun to use for a writing lesson-what kind of ho hum days can your class think of together! Amy's examples are "running late day", "nobody's listening to you day", "fun thing cancelled day" and "can't afford it day". I've definetely had ho-hum days, maybe like "way to crazy in the library" days!!

Corduroy turned 40 in 2008 and a new book was published commemorating this wonderful story and its author, Don Freeman. This new Corduroy is unique because the last four pages of the book discuss the editing process Mr. Freeman and his NY editor went through to achieve such a timeless classic! The process is shown with envelopes and reproductions of letters between author and editor! Read this one with your students so they can see even adults like Don Freeman have to redo, rewrite and rethink!!