Wolf Hollow

I must have liked this book. Otherwise, I wouldn't have given it as a gift to two of my library volunteers. Yeah, I really liked it and I know these ladies will, too. I believe it's a great "companion" to The War that Saved My Life (which they both adored).  It's one of those, "if you liked that book, then read this" as in both books take place during World War II with strong young, female first person protagonists figuring out who they are and always wanting to do right.

Annabelle has secrets. These secrets are big and for a while she even keeps them from her parents.  Is this the right thing?  I don't know, but it's definitely something to talk about.  Annabelle protects people we believe to be innocent. She is also bullied so badly by a very mean Betty Glengarry.  Then when things go terribly bad for Betty, you struggle internally for your own feelings for Betty and what's best all around.  Oh my.  Another heart clutching, brain spinning story that I can't wait to have long hearty discussions about with kids.  What happens when bad things happen to bad people?  I can picture that ethical discussion going on for a very long time.

And then there is Aunt Lily. She's a character you can never empathize with, even at the end.  How can one person despise someone so much but flirt with his "twin"? Really, Aunt Lily? It's a challenge ever to have kind thoughts about her when she never offers them herself. 

This is the story of Annabelle's strength, Toby's mysteriousness, a heartless Betty, and a family just trying to do the right thing.  All along, WW II is a backdrop with a free Kodak camera and party line telephone playing key roles.

I listened to this book and thought the reader was sweet but don't think this is a make or break audio book. I went ahead and gave the hardcovers to my volunteers feeling confident that the written words are just as powerful as the ones spoken.

#MOST51016

It's like the day after a wedding you have been planning for years. Or that race you have been training months for. Or even that trip across the Atlantic you saved up for years to go on. That's how I felt all day Wednesday and Thursday.  Not so much let down but withdrawal.  What am I going to do now No more daily Sarah facts of the day?  And then there's the pure exhaustion and exhilaration from such a wonderful day featuring a wonderful person.  It almost feels like an out of body experience.

We had been planning this for 11 months, just after I met Sarah for the first time at a conference last May. I have been a fan for years. Yeppers, I do love Oggie Cooder. So a month later we had a date--the book birthday for Save Me a Seat. We ❤️ to celebrate book birthdays at Castleton Elementary School. 

The day was pretty perfect. Sarah showed up at 8 and was able to give her own Sarah fact of the day. She did three assemblies and they were all wonderful. The exciting part of each was that we were able to collaborate with the public library and classroom teachers so that everyone got a signed copy of Cheese (K-3) or Save Me a Seat (4-5). The books came in a fun red backpack that the library purchased. We are calling it our kickoff to summer reading. We hope kids will take pictures and post them or send them to us and we can see what they have read all summer. 

The 2/3 Assembly.  They didn't know yet that they were going to get a copy of this book!

All the K/1 loved this game Sarah played with them!

First graders with their bags and books

And every 4/5 student got a backpack and the book birthday BOOK!

For lunch Sarah ate with the Dewey Duty kids. We ate mac and cheese, rice, pizza apple crisp, ice cream and peanut M&Ms at "Albert Einstein Elementary School." It was super fun! 

Everyone was searching for a double blue!

He put two together hoping it could then be a double!

Then it was time to do all the last minute putting togethers of MOST (Museum of Sarah's Treasures) at school, run back home for quick shower, change into my gown and head back over to our Gala. Words cannot describe how amazing the evening was. We welcomed and squeezed over 150 guests in our common area. Students from The War That Saved My Life book group performed their reader's theatre. We showed our video of "Honey Was Good." Sarah signed her "star" and cut the ribbon to the gallery (library) using a pair of ginormous scissors.

Sarah at our entrance to the museum.

The line to get in and how fancy everyone was! We did say "black tie (sort of)"
Also, the kids behind the sign in (in white and black) are 4th graders
who "worked" the event checking people in,
taking pictures and serving food.

4th grade workers handing out the programs and ballots

Sarah's passion is Reader's Theatre and she just finished The War that Saved My Life so we performed it for her!

Mrs. Kelliher is the creative mind behind this video!

Signing the star.  The stars on the ground are other authors that have visited our school.

Getting ready for the ribbon cutting!

Look at all those people!

The exhibits were amazing.  A replica of Sarah's alma mater, Hampshire College along with her commencement program and Frogbook (yearbook) photo from 1973 and Ben and Jerry's (one of them went there, too). There were so many great exhibits. Jellybeans. A giant nose. Chai latte. "You are my Sunshine." Dum-Dums. Nail polish. Liberty, NY with pictures of me from my childhood visiting my grandparents. Bees. Honey. Crocodiles. Mrs. Pryde's class timeline.  A beach with real sand. A thrift store.  A bandshell. Mrs. Yager's class "Charving Tree." And so much more! 

The song, "You are my Sunshine" is featured in Honey

This exhibit was all about sneezing, honoring the book, Baa-Choo!

Sarah's favorite drink is a chai latte.  These girls had samples for everyone!

The beach exhibit!  It was my crazy idea to bring in sand but look at how much fun they are having!
The custodian didn't love me...

My collaboration with Mrs. Pryde's class--Our timeline!

A three table exhibit on bees!

We had a red carpet photo area, food and everyone was dressed to the nines! It was such a great night.

I had some amazing moms be "co-chairs" for the decorating and refreshments.  This is one of them!

It was just great to see our youngest learners celebrate with us, too!

With Mrs. Pryde! She made the awesome frame!

The Leap! 

Mr. Reischer on the stick with our hashtag in the background #MOST51016
#missedyou Mr. Reischer

The end of the evening with Mrs. Warland. Couldn't have done it all without her!

I owe so much of the success of the event to my collaborating fifth grade teacher, Mr. Reischer, who sadly could not be there. He and I work so well together and this was truly amazing because of everything we did together. He was on my mind constantly. I kept saying all day it was like my best man couldn't come to my wedding.  Then I would wonder, "Am I marrying Sarah?"  So many people chipped in to help out--too many to even name!  I am so lucky to have such a wonderful school and parent community.  Look up this phrase in the dictionary, "Teamwork makes the dream work" and it will say, "See Castleton Elementary School."

So, please, I haven't done the Gala nearly enough justice, come and meet me for some chai latte and let me tell you ALL about it, every single detail...

When your students make you proud...

Today was the Caldecott/Newbery Tea hosted by the Children's Literature Connection at Guilderland Public Library. I was asked to speak about the Newbery honor book, The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Bradley Brubaker.  No problem! We loved that book.  It won our Consensus Club.  We Skyped with the author.  I listened to the whole hour of Kim's interview with Matthew Winner on his Let's Get Busy podcast. Mrs. Warland lead the book group and brought in tea for the kids to celebrate finishing the book. She loved it so much that she shared it with her adult book group and some of those ladies even joined us for our Skype with Kim.  We knew it was a winner.

So when I was invited to speak, I knew I couldn't do it alone.  And I didn't.  I brought along two of my students and Mrs. Warland.  They were awesome!  They shared (in front of a group of about 40-50 adults) why they thought the book was a winner:  Ada was brave.  She persevered.  The settings were so clear and vivid in their minds.  Every chapter was a cliffhanger. They always wanted to read more than was assigned.  It had all the makings of a book that deserves a sticker on it.  We were thrilled that it was recognized on January 11.

It's times like this that I realize that I never want to leave my library classroom.  I love being with my students and it gives me goosebumps to be with them on a Sunday afternoon talking about a book they loved.  They impressed me so much, too, because they read this book months ago and yet when they shared it to the group, it sounded so fresh in their mind, you would have thought they finished it yesterday.  A good book along with a young mind = unforgettable details.

Thanks to Mr. Rogers for documenting the afternoon for us!

Newbery Flags!

It is the eve of the 2016 ALA Youth Media Awards!  I can't believe a whole year has passed since students read, shared, debated, Skyped, made book trailers and just plain got  SO excited about  The Crossover that they missed football parties just to read or make a poster promoting the book. Incredible.  What an amazing year it was for Kwame, but definitely for all of us in Castleton, too.

Hard to believe that tomorrow we will have another Newbery winner.  How exciting!

On this eve of the ALAYMA, I wanted to share the Newbery flags that the fifth graders created.  They are pretty remarkable and are now hanging all over the library.  Is the winning book in there?  In 12 hours we should know!

I love the broken heart between Trent and Fallon.

I am thinking this book will win an honor!  And Cassie promises she will Skype with us to let us know the answer to the question, "What will you do if you win the Newbery?"

The kids in this book group LOVED LOVED LOVED Echo!  I love how they connected the stories in this flag with the harmonica.

It's clever how they made the three books here.

The winner of our Newbery consensus.  This is an amazing depiction of the book.

I love how they put the nicknames first.

The kids LOVED this book!  It got far (championship round) in our debates because they were so passionate about it.

This is a powerful flag.

I love the rainbow socks.  And did you know, today is Victoria Jamieson's birthday?  If she wins tomorrow that would be a pretty sweet birthday present!

I love this book for Newbery or Caldecott or both!  

We love Nikki Loftin and the kids LOVED Wish Girl! What a simple, but great way to depict the valley.

The kids also loved Fuzzy Mud.  Check out the rash going through the flag. Ewww...

So as you can see, the kids worked really hard on these and it paid off.  I love how they are flying throughout my library.  If one or more of these win, I will just have to put a gold or silver sticker right on the flag.

And if this whole 10+ week project (we've been doing it since October!) which has gotten 61 kids totally excited about reading and tomorrow's announcement doesn't show that author's need to go on the Ellen Show, I don't know what does!  #KidLitOnEllen  Pass it on!