Missing my People

This week brought to the forefront of my mind that I miss my people. 

We taped our 40th (?) #AuthorFanFaceOff episode featuring an 8th grader from Illinois with the sweetest smile ever vs. the amazing and wonderful, Rita Williams-Garcia.  I look forward to seeing "my people" every Monday. Our show gives so much joy to both the young challengers (although sometimes it may be hard to tell), the authors and to us, the hosts. The line up continues to be stellar.  Shameless plug--please subscribe and share if you don't already. 

This week reminded me how much I miss sitting side by side with my people and getting wow-ed by a keynote speaker. We learned about Jacqueline Woodson in third grade.  We watched her read The Day You Begin, illustrated by our Castleton Elementary School friend, Rafael Lopez, and researched her from one of my favorite databases, FactCite.  I love her recitation of the book. It never got old, even on Friday.  Unrelated but related, the fifth grade ELA teacher was looking for a new read aloud.  I met up with her with a pile of amazing books in my hands (many AFF episodes and or authors: One Crazy Summer, The Crossover, 14th Goldfish, The Parker Inheritance) and some not. Coincidentally, she chose Woodson's Harbor Me. Who knows? Maybe someday she will move into the AFF category...

Tuesday I was on a virtual panel through School Library Connection with four AH-MAZING school librarians.  It really made me wonder how I landed there, honestly. But I reminded myself the message from Woodson's reading of The Day You Begin that we are all fabulous. So yeah, great to be with my people on the panel and "see" folks in the chat, too.  Don't worry if you missed it! Check it out here.

It's been a long while since I took my hair down with my fellow librarians.  Slight tangent here--Just on the topic of hair, one third grader told me this week that it is time for me to see my hairdresser. Indeed, my hair needs to be colored and the appointment was rescheduled twice but alas, Wednesday is the day! From the mouths of babes, eh? Thursday night, the New York Library Association sponsored a fundraiser with Big Ditch Brewing Company in Buffalo.  It was fun to see familiar faces, including a guy who was in my very first graduate school class. At the time, I wasn't sure I was ready to take the leap into librarianship.  He and the other cool, smart and kind folks in that class definitely had an impact on my new career path.

I miss book festivals and conferences with my people. About an hour before it was to begin, I registered for the "Anderson's Book Shop Children's Literature Breakfast" yesterday morning and am so glad I did.  I multi tasked and only missed about 15 minutes of the whole event. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is amazing period. Dan Santat had me laughing out loud in my not-Prius while I was driving to not buy some quinoa. Gary Paulsen had us all in tears. And the conversation between Meena Harris and Andrea Beaty was inspiring. I plan to spend a lot of money on books later today.

Today is Sunday. I am looking forward to this week (and not just because I am planning to get my hair cut and colored with turquoise highlights).  We have two great AFFs scheduled Monday and Tuesday.  My second grade lesson plan is about Teresa Carreno, a Maragita Engle book illustrated by Rafael Lopez. My Newbery Navigators chose to begin reading one of my all time faves, Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. So even though I may not be seeing my people in person, this week's virtual challenges alongside the written and illustrated pages of friends will definitely do for now.

BONUS:

The 38th Episode with Lisa Graff and three former students of mine:

The Day You Begin:

From Dan Santat's Twitter, a glimpse into A New Day by Brad Meltzer (book birthday Tuesday!):

A NEW DAY by me & @bradmeltzer comes out this Tuesday (March 2)

Sharing an early draft where SATURDAY, who is styled after the Dude from the movie, #TheBigLebowski, was actually drawn as @thejeffbridges in the 1st draft. Publisher came back with notes saying it was too weird 😂 pic.twitter.com/c51Ab1wZWt

— Dan “DANley Tucci” Santat😷 (@dsantat) February 27, 2021

The War I Finally Won

I literally cried myself to sleep last night.  Not just a weep, an all out bawl. You know, the kind you can't breathe, you almost can't move. My husband woke up.  He tried to console me. I don't even want to know what time it was--way after midnight.

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley has done it again.  Another masterpiece.  If you thought she deserved gold in 2016, that's totally ok now because this book, if you can imagine, is even better. She was distinguished then; she is a complete 100% master now.

I wanted to just soak this book in and that I did.  By doing so meant that I didn't take notes and I didn't have a pile of sticky notes by my side.  You must believe me when I tell you this, the words are beautiful, the plot is strong, and the themes play out even more this time around.

As the War played a role in the first book, this time it becomes another character. The book takes place right after the first book ends.  With no place to live, Susan, Ada and Jamie move into the Thorntons' gamekeeper's cottage.  Then, because of reasons related to the war, Lady Thornton must move in with them, along with Ruth, a German Jew. As challenging as all this sounds, Bradley makes this not only a story of what is lost in war but what can be gained. So much: Love, family, friendship, courage, forgiveness.

Of course, the question is, "Can it stand alone?"  Definitely.  But it would be read so much more deeply if you had the background knowledge of how horrible Mam was, what it was like to live imprisoned in Mam's world, how Ada and Jamie got to the country and met Susan, Ada's life with her clubfoot, Ada's relationship with her horse, Butter...and yet, if you haven't read the first book and want to dive right into this one, you can.  Bradley does such a phenomenal job picking the reader up from where she left off and filling in the blanks if it is read as a stand alone.  In fact, my friend who gave me the arc didn't even know it was a sequel until during or after she read it and still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The War that Saved My Life has been one of my go-to books for recommendations. My mom read it. My mom's friends. My adult cousins.  Mrs. Warland's book group. Grandma Dottie. My 10 year old niece. They all loved it and wouldn't stop talking about it.  I cannot wait to pass The War I Finally Won on to them all and then some. I cannot wait to read it with my students. I cannot wait for you to read it as well.

Yesterday I went to a Newbery-Caldecott prize prediction party. Since this book isn't released yet (comes out tomorrow, October 3), it hadn't received much buzz.  Please, if you were there and are reading this, The War I Finally Won is at the top of my list.  Fortunately for Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, I don't take off points for lost sleep and wailing that wakes my family.

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!

We've Come to a Newbery Consensus

This afternoon from 2:30-4:30, 15 students and 3 adults sat in a circle attempting to come to a consensus about which book should win the 2016 Newbery Award and which, if any, should get honors. We had never done this before and had no idea how it was all going to turn out.  Would we be twiddling our thumbs by 3:00?  Would we need more time? Who knew? We probably could have used another half hour or so.  We did, however, manage to come to a consensus.  The "Starbucks" helped along with the pile of sweets.  Isn't that what they will have the weekend of January 8-10 in Boston this year?  Now we are totally DYING to know what they decide!

Private meeting.  No one disturbed us for 2 hours.

Cupcake in the ice cream cone

 Does this look like the real committee or what?  I went to Starbucks yesterday and asked for the red cups.
I brought in hot cocoa mix and voila! We are the authentic committee!

 Check out the SmartBoard.  We used images of the covers of the book to guide us.  Once a book was eliminated we deleted the image.  We started off with 30 books.  This is pretty early on since there are still 22 books up there.

 Busy at work discussing good books!

 Could we have any more snacks?!

Hot cocoa with a glimpse of someone's list.  

At the "midnight hour" this is what we came up with:

2016 Newbery Gold

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

2016 Newbery Honors

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

The Marvels by Brian Selznick

The Two Hold Outs

Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff*

Winne: The True Story of the Real Bear that Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh by Sally Walker**

*This is where we got a glimpse of how challenging it must be to come to a consensus.  One boy really felt strongly about Lost in the Sun.  He was not going to budge.  We could see him getting emotional.  He was attached to that book, and that was perfectly ok, except that we ran out of time.  So, we kept it on the table.  

**Another student said "Winnie is such a sweet story" and it deserved to win.  No budging there, as much as we tried and again, we had to leave.  My prediction?  Maybe we would have been swayed to include Lost in the Sun as another honor but I don't think Winnie would have made the cut.  Perhaps it will get a Sibert and we will all be happy.

I'm pleased!  A great experience with a great outcome!  Looking forward to our debates beginning on January 4, and of course, the true reveal on January 11.  Happy Reading!

The War that Saved My Life--WOW!

I could not move out of bed this morning until I finished this incredible 5* book by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  This one is going to stay with me for a long time.

[DISCLOSURE:  I am still new at figuring out how to write coherent book reviews...please forgive...Also, please forgive because I realized that my blog is so simple looking and I need some help jazzing it up but have run out of time.  I'm glad that I at least have a blog.]

10 year old Ada and her 6 year old brother, Jamie, live in London with their mother, Mam.  Mam is so ashamed of Ada's clubfoot that she keeps her inside all day, every day.  She is not even allowed to crawl to the shared hallway bathroom.  She sits in a chair looking outside to a place that she can never appreciate. When she crosses Mam, she is sent to the reeking tiny cabinet where all the roaches roam. Ada's speech and vocabulary are limited because of her seclusion from the outside world.

Then World War II hits England and children are sent out to the country to be safe and are called "evacuees."  When Jamie goes to the train, Ada sneaks out with him.  When no one chooses them, they are taken to live with Miss Susan Smith, a single woman, who ends up benefiting as much from their placement as they do with her.  And so begins a long, hard journey of trust, friendship, love, perseverance, heroism and ultimate joy during the War that saved more than one life.

I cannot wait to share this book with my students beginning on Tuesday, our first day of school!  I will be meeting with the whole class of fifth graders not once, but twice!  I can see myself holding this book in my hands and telling them it will be at the top of my Newbery list.  I will stumble with my words because I will be almost too excited to describe it coherently.  My only regret is that I didn't pick it up when it first came out in this past winter so I could have shared it with last year's students.  And it will definitely be a fifth grade book group selection!  If you have students reading it, please let me know and maybe we can chat about it virtually together!  It's a winner! It will bring anyone who reads it hope and JOY!

The book paired perfectly with my cup of joe yesterday morning.

PS-Look! Another Junior Library Guild selection! If there is one vendor I feel most strongly about promoting, it is definitely them!  Save on collection development time, great customer service and excellent book selections!