Plan Ahead for Poetry Friday

The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core ALL GRADES (K-5) e-book) (The Poetry Friday Anthology E-book Series (Grade-by-Grade)) is now available as an eBook in whole book AND specific grade level Kindle editions.

Why would you want the Kindle edition? Well, if you get the free (FREE) Kindle app for your computer (or iPad), you can project each week's poem for your class to read together and enjoy!

Why else would you want the Kindle edition? You will get it INSTANTLY and be able to start Poetry Friday in your classroom this week!

What's On My Kindle?

About a month ago, Franki wrote about her Kindle reading. Recently, I've gotten a little download happy, so I thought it might behoove me to look through what I've got on my Kindle so I can make a plan to get it all read. Heaven forbid that I become a Kindle hoarder!!

KINDLE DAILY DEAL
If you have a Kindle/Kindle app, I suggest that you sign up for the Kindle Daily Deal email from Amazon. I rarely buy the deal, but when it's a good deal, it's a REALLY good deal. Because of Winn Dixie was the Kindle Daily Deal a couple of weeks back, and so for 99 cents, I got a copy with my school account and loaded it on the 6 school iPads, and for another 99 cents, I got it for all of my own devices. I LOVE reading Because of Winn Dixie as a read aloud, and the movie is one of the few children's book-to-movie adaptations that I really love. Whole sections of text are in the movie verbatim. So I'm reading it aloud, and while most of the children are reading along in the book, eight each day are getting the experience of Kindle reading on the school's and my iPads and on our classroom Kindle. Very fun!

It's getting to be that time in my career when people are starting to ask, "So...how many years do YOU have left before you retire?" The freedom of retirement is starting to sound REALLY appealing to me, but the financial piece scares me witless. When 7 Money Rules for Life by Molly Hunt came up on the Kindle Daily Deal recently...click...purchased.

I can't remember which was the Daily Deal, but both How We Decide and Imagine--How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer are both on my Kindle shelf. I've started Imagine. It's fascinating.

The Best American Short Stories, edited by Geraldine Brooks was an easy sell -- I love Geraldine Brooks, and reading a collection of short stories edited by her seems like a way to read over the shoulder of an author I love. The Best American Sampler will be a fun way to graze the Best American series.

POETRY
Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell opened my eyes to poetry e-books with Poetry Tag Time, Gift Tag and P*Tag. Through Poetry Friday recommendations, I now also carry David L. Harrison's Goose Lake, Diane Lockward's Twelve for the Record, Irene Latham's The Color of Lost Rooms, and Greg Pincus' The Late Bird with me wherever my iPad goes. That lifts Keep A Poem in Your Pocket to a whole new level, I think! Who knows whose poetry might show up self-published in an e-book someday!! (...heh, heh...)

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS
I can't bear to get rid of any of the professional books that fill an entire bookcase at home and a shelf at school. At the same time, I have exactly ZERO room to fit another professional book anywhere... except my Kindle! Here are the professional e-books I have so far. I love having them at my fingertips so that when I am planning a lesson or a unit, I can turn to them for ideas no matter where I am, rather than waiting until I can get to one of my physical shelves.

Opening Minds by Peter H. Johnston
Living the Questions by Ruth Shagoury and Brenda Power
Inside Words by Janet Allen
Everyday Editing by Jeff Anderson
Small Steps, Big Changes by Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez

What's On My Kindle?

So, I am finally addicted to my Kindle Fire.  One of my favorite features of the Kindle is the ability to preview books. Sampling chapters makes so much sense and ordering sample chapters allows me to remember books I've heard about that I want to check out.

But my Kindle is getting filled with sample chapters and I need to sit down and really read these, decide which to order and which to delete.  I am almost using these sample chapters as a TBR list and that isn't working. It feels cluttery. So I need to weed, but I love this list of books. Here are the sample chapters I've added recently to my Kindle--thanks to the recommendations on twitter, goodreads, etc.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern-I actually bought this whole book after reading the free sample. It was recommended by Jen at TEACH MENTOR TEXTS during a Twitter conversations about romances. I fell in love with it immediately but haven't had time to read much. It is one I could read in a day if I could afford to give myself a full day to read....

STORY OF A GIRL by Sara Zarr. I LOVED HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by this author. I recently read a review of this older title and know I have to read it.  I am sure this is one I will purchase after the free sample.

When my 12 year old was looking for a great new book after finishing DIVERGENT (which she loved and I would add to my Kindle except that we already have a hard copy!), my tweeps jumped in and suggested several titles. She found several she wanted to read and so did I! Two that I added during that conversation were NIGHTSHADE by Andrea Cremer and SWEEP by Cate Tiernan

I have a few adult novels that I keep hearing about.  I am dying to read more adult novels but feel so overwhelmed by all of the K-5 stuff I love and want to keep up with for my students.  But the adult novels I am sampling are UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand, THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES by Diane Chamberlain and APE HOUSE by Sara Gruen.

THINKING FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman was recommended by Samantha Bennett. It is really a fascinating read and I need time to digest this one.

I keep meaning to reread A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L'Engle. I think the last time I read it was in an undergrad children's literature class and I am dying to reread it. 

A YA book I have been hearing lots about is THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK by Kristin Levine. I put the sample on my Kindle and read a few pages and can tell I am going to love it. Just haven't had time to go back to it.

An adult nonfiction book that I sampled is HALF THE SKY: TURNING OPPRESSION INTO OPPORTUNITY WORLDWIDE by Nicholas Kristof. I actually read the entire free sample and was glued but it is pretty intense and I want to read this one later in the summer or sometime when I have time to digest it all.

I've also added several books that connect to my running/fitness goals.  These all looked interesting or have been recommended by friends.  They include WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING by Haruki Murakami, RUN TO OVERCOME by Meb Keflezighi, THE GREAT FITNESS EXPERIMENT by Charlotte Hilton Andersen, FORKS OVER KNIVES by Gene Stone, and THE PRIMAL BLUEPRINT by Mark Sisson.

So, the free samples for the Kindle is quite the perk.  I love that I can sample whatever I want and whenever I want. I love that at the end of the sample, I can buy the whole book with one click and in one second the whole book appears. I love the options. The downfall for me has been that I've done a lot of sampling lately and not much reading of whole books.  I often read at night and just pick up the book on my nightstand. But when I pick up my Kindle, there are soooo many choices--and the option of adding even more choices. It is a distraction I need to figure out.  But a distraction that I like as a reader.