Celebrating Mother Reader With a Donation to First Book!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger Pam Coughlan, aka Mother Reader, with a donation to First Book.

Pam also started blogging in 2006 and has been active in the Kidlitosphere over the last 8 years through the CYBILS, KidLitCon, and Kidlitosphere Central. She has written some hilarious posts throughout the years, and heads up BACA (Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors).

But what we'd like to recognize MotherReader for most of all is her 48 Hour Reading Challenge. In its ninth year this year, this read-a-thon has become an end-of-the-school-year ritual for us. We usually gather with local bloggers for breakfast and a trip to our local independent children's bookstore, Cover To Cover, and launch our summer #bookaday with a weekend filled with as many hours of reading as possible.

This year, Pam has taken the 48HRC to a whole new level by focusing on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. She writes,

"I'm hoping with lots of participants over the weekend, that we can saturate the blogosphere with dozens - nay, HUNDREDS - of titles that show the beautiful range of the human experience. That's our challenge."

In honor of all of the reading Pam has inspired over the years with her blog and with 48HBC, and especially because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks focus this year, we are making a donation in her honor to First Book, a non-profit organization that provides access to new books for children in need. In their video "Empty Shelves," First Book states their mission poetically. Because of access to books: 

"Heads fill with thoughts,
Homes fill with works,
Schools fill with learning,
Communities fill with leaders."

Thank you Pam! Thank you, MotherReader, for all you have done for books and literacy and the Kidlitosphere!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts has the link-up. Go check out what everybody's reading!

I'm getting ready for the summer edition of #bookaday and Mother Reader's 48 Hour Reading Challenge. Here are my three stacks:

General TBR

Amulet #6: Escape From Lucien

Manhunt

The Badger Knight

Dangerous

The Meaning of Maggie

Fish Finelli (Book 2): Operation Fireball (you know me...I'll have to find
the first book in the series before I can read this one...)

Nine Open Arms

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy)

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

The Forbidden Library

Room 214: A Year in Poems

How I Discovered Poetry

Under the Egg

Nightingale's Nest

And Short the Season: Poems

Professional Reads/Annual Re-Reads

I'm sure I'll add more to this stack as the summer goes by. I can't wait to dig into

Readers Front and Center: Helping All Students Engage with Complex Text

Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for Analyzing Texts--and Life

For the NCTE Excellence in Poetry Committee

I've already read a couple of these. I'm most looking forward to

Miss Emily

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal

Caminar

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

History -- Graphic Novel Style

Graphic novels count for your summer #bookaday and for the 48 Hour Book Challenge, so put these on your TBR if you teach grades 4-8 or simply if you want to brush up on your American History.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

With a given name like Nathan Hale, how could you NOT write about Nathan Hale? This book is the set-up for the whole series. Nathan Hale is about to be hanged for treason. (On the cover, bottom left is the British officer in charge and, bottom right, the doofus hangman.) When Hale says his famous words, he is sucked into the Book of History and can see ALL of history. He delays his hanging by telling the Brit and the Hangman great stories from history. In this book, the focus is Hale's story, and the big picture is the American Revolution.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad!

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

Big Bad Ironclad focuses on the race between the North and the South during the Civil War to develop ironclad ships. Big picture: Civil War.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 6, 2013

review copy purchased for my classroom

The Donner Dinner Party should also be known as "How Many Bad Decisions Can Be Made Based on Pride, Greed, Stubbornness and Competition?" Focus: surviving a winter stranded in the Sierra Nevadas. Big picture: Westward Movement.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood (A World War I Tale)

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, May 13, 2014

review copy purchased for my classroom

If you're like me, you're a little fuzzy on why World War I was fought. The politics of WWI are extremely (EXTREMELY) complicated, but Nathan Hale does a masterful job of bringing them down to kid level. To help the reader keep track of all of the countries involved, he draws each nationality as a different animal. 

Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast to Kick Off to 48 Hour Read and Book-A-Day

Our last day of school is on Monday, June 2.  We are having lots of conversations in our classroom about summer reading and the joys of having extra time to read. Even by 3rd grade, some of my students already see summer reading as a chore so they looked a little confused the first two times I shared my excitement for the 2014 48 Hour Read and Summer Book-A-Day (#bookaday). 

Mother Reader started her 48 Hour Book Challenge many years ago. Although I have never participated as a challenger, I have participated many years just for fun. For me, it is like a Hallmark Holiday--if Mother Reader says that June 6-8 is the 48 Hour Read, then I have a great excuse to read.  You can read more about the challenge in the link above. Mother Reader also posted 48 Hour Challenge FAQs last week.  If Donalyn challenges me to read a #bookaday, I give myself the gift of reading time each day.

I think one of the reasons I love the 48 Hour Book Challenge is that it is a great way to kick off summer reading and #bookaday..  No matter how much I read in the winter and spring, there is less and less time to fall into a good book during the last few weeks of the school year.  With all of the end-of-the-year things there are to do to close out the school year and to focus on the classroom community's last few days together, taking time for my own reading, always takes a backseat for a while. So, the 48 Hour Read and the #bookaday challenge help me make time to jump back into my reading life.

Another reason I LOVE the 48 Hour Read is that we often kick the weekend off with a Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast and Book Shopping Spree.  (If you are a Central Ohio blogger and would like to join us, email one of us and we'll give you the details!) We started this little tradition a while ago and it is amazing how it has evolved.  Funny thing is that many of us have become great friends through blogging and the fact that we all live close enough to get together once in a while is quite fun.  The morning is always filled with great talk, lots of laughing, delicious food and very heavy bags of books!  In 2008, I began the 48 Hour Read alone, getting my hair colored. In 2009, we decided that in Central Ohio, we might need to change the name of the challenge to the 48 Hour Shop! And in 2011, we discovered the fortifying power of granola, thanks to Bill Prosser.  I am sure 2014 will bring lots more fun and great books!

Now on to the reading plan.  I don't feel like I have a lot of 3rd grade-ish books to catch up on.  I spent lots of last summer reading transitional chapter books and feel like I can keep up with new ones easily. I've also kept up on lots of great new nonfiction as I've been trying to build my library in that area. But I seem to have fallen behind in my middle grade, YA and adult reading. I have already created a mental TBR stack that is bigger than anything I can read in one summer alone. But I do have a stack that I want to read early on in the summer. 

These are my summer MUST READS so far.  

The Forbidden Library

The Crossover

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

Boys of Blur

Another Day as Emily

Circa Now

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) 

The Riverman

We Were Liars

My New Friend Is So Fun! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel

The Quirks--A Must Have Series

I finally had a chance to read The Quirks: Welcome to Normal over winter break.  Since I am new to 3rd grade, I am just getting to know books that are good for this age. I have always believed that series books are so important for this age so I am always on the lookout for new series books.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book and couldn't wait to share it with my kids. This is what I wrote in my "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" post the week that I'd finished it:

I met author Erin Soderberg at #ncte13. Because I've been so far behind on my reading, her new book The Quirks: Welcome to Normal has been on my stack.  I ended up reading it as one of my #bookaday books and loved it. It is a fun new series about a family with unique "quirks".  They move to a very normal town and try to fit in. This book had everything in it that I loved about stories when I was younger.  That whole idea that something magical could be happening. The Littles, The Borrowers, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, I Dream of Jeanie, Escape to Witch Mountain and Bewitched were some of my favorite. I got that same feeling when I read this--loving the idea that someone I know may have magical powers! This is a new series and the 2nd is due out in February.  I think it is perfect for grades 3 and 4. I can't wait to share this one with my students!

Well, I brought the book to my classroom.   And I shared it with a student, who shared it with another student, who shared it with another student. The kids' eyes light up when they talk about it.  

Last week, I picked up a copy of the 2nd book in the Quirks series--The Quirks in Circus Quirkus . I took it to school and it too, is making its rounds.  (I can't seem to get my hands back on it to read it myself but I am hearing all about it as kids are abuzz about it!)  Last week, two students approached me asking when the 3rd Quirks was coming out.  We emailed the author and found out that the third book is due out in January. That is a LONG wait but everyone is still excited.

I have 12 kids in my class waiting to read this series.  I am trying to reserve a few at the library and add a few more to our classroom.  This is a book that is changing our classroom community. It is connecting kids who don't normally connect and it is stretching kids as readers.  It is a little longer and more complex than the things many kids have been reading so it is a perfect next step. And it is so fun!

There are not lots of 3rd grade-ish series books that I read and love as much as the kids. I sometimes like them because I see how they will appeal to 8 year olds. I sometimes like them but am reading them more as a teacher than a reader. But I love this series as both a teacher and a reader.  This is the PERFECT middle grade series. I am thinking it will make a good read aloud early in  3rd grade next year.  

If you teach 3rd or 4th grade, I would definitely recommend this fun new series!