Stacked Shelves

I was both utterly delighted and totally bummed when One Came Home by Amy Timberlake was named a Newbery Honor book this past January. Delighted because I love the book and told a few people (including other librarians) about it. Bummed because I have had “Blog One Came Home” on my Things to Do List since March 2013. And now everyone was going to know about it before I blogged. One Came Home excites me because it’s lyrical, it has an outstanding brave and human heroine, and it’s a quest novel. And it’s a quest novel that is not fantasy or science fiction! In fact, it’s historical fiction set in 1871 Wisconsin. Our heroine Georgie Burkhardt (13 years old) begins the novel by telling us she is attending the funeral of her older sister Agatha (18), but that she knows that Agatha hasn’t died (there wasn’t enough left of the body found on the side of the road for a proper ID), she’s just run away to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison. So, there’s Georgie’s call to act...

I attended the New York State Library Association Youth Services Section 2014 Spring conference a few weeks ago and went to a session called "Essentials of Book Blogging for Youth." But, alas, it wasn't about book blogging. Instead, it was about blogs we should be reading. Essentially the presenter gave us a list of blogs and then told us that blog readers like to read lists. What the heck, I thought, I'll post a list. So, here are the books my fourth and fifth grade book club has read, with some notes. 1. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (May 2013) This Newbery Medal winner is one of my all-time favorite books, so I gave it to all the kids as a gift for joining the club. It promoted a great discussion about time travel and got a few of the kids interested in reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. A great start. I think I had 15 kids for the first meeting. 2. A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff (June 2013) I let the kids pick the second book and ...