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Happy 10th Birthday to A Year of Reading!
Our blog began as a place to have conversations about books and make predictions about the Newbery winners. Here are all of the winners for the lifetime of our blog:
2006 Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2007 The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2008 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
2009 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2010 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2011 Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2012 Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
2013 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
2014 Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo
2015 The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Our blog has been a place to share book reviews of children’s and profession books, classroom stories, Poetry Friday and Poetry Month, It’s Monday What Are You Reading, Math Monday, #Nerdlutions, One Little Words, #GNCelebration, #PB10for10, #cyberPD…and more in more than 3000 posts, which means we’ve averaged about 300 posts per year! WHEW!
The blog isn’t the only place we’ve shared our reading – we’re both on Goodreads, and have listed over 3000 books there. Between the two of us, we’ve tweeted over 30,000 tweets (probably not all about books and reading)!
The blog isn’t the only place we’ve been writing these past 10 years. Both of us write for Choice Literacy. Franki has published and/or co-published four books, and Mary Lee has poems in six anthologies.
It’s been a fun and productive 10 years both on and off the blog. We’re delighted that we share the Kidlitosphere with you, and look forward to what the next 10 years will bring!
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by Anna Quindlen. Anna Quindlen is a reader and she writes about how reading changed her life in this little book written for adults. Anna Quindlen shares stories from her life as a reader and how important books have been throughout her life. I have read the book cover to cover many times and have used many excerpts with my students. We thought that Quindlen's celebration of reading was one of the best ways to give back to our readers. If you don't have a copy of this book, we highly recommend it. Comment below and you have a chance to win a copy! (But if you don't win, we still HIGHLY recommend this book to all readers out there!)
by Donalyn Miller is a book that for so many of us, helped us remember the important work we do with children. Awakening kids to reading is the work we do and Donalyn shares her own story here. Donalyn Miller is a master at matching kids with books and creating a reading community in her classroom. Donalyn shares her vision as well as the nuts and bolts of how she accomplishes this each and every year. We know that many of our readers already own this book, but we feel like this is a good one to put in the hands of a colleague. We are all about paying it forward this year, so if you already own this book (or a few copies of it as I do:-), please comment so that you have a chance to win and pass it along to a new teacher or someone you know who will love it too!
by Penny Kittle. This book is an incredible celebration of books and reading and how important it is that we, as teachers, commit to helping every child become a reader. Although this book is written with adolescent readers in mind, Penny's stories have messages for teachers at all levels. She spends time telling us stories of reluctant readers who found the right book, she shares routines and strategies that work for her as a teacher. She shares great books. But she also shares the challenges that come with this commitment as a teacher. She knows the struggles we face when grading. She knows that it takes time and energy to build a classroom library that our kids deserve. And she knows that the work of committing to all readers is not always easy work. The book is centered on being passionate about our readers and our classrooms. It is a powerful read and one that I believe all teachers should read. Penny has the right message for us in these testing times and she is the perfect person to share it. Definitely a book that must be added to your professional bookshelf. This is a book I'll revisit over and over again and one that we are excited to give away! Comment below for a chance to win this amazing professional read!
by William Joyce. Franki first discovered the book as an amazing interactive ebook on her iPad. She 