So, I now get to say that I am a SECOND year librarian! Looking back, I wish I would have had a year round list of MUST-CELEBRATE events that center around reading at the beginning of the year; it would have avoided much scrambling and burning the midnight oil! I am grateful for the amazing #PLN (Professional Learning Network) I have developed on Twitter, it was a lifesaver! I found out about most of the events I will include in this post through the amazingly innovative Texas librarians that participate in the #txlchat (Texas Librarian Chat) every Tuesday from 8:00-8:30 p.m. starting in September on Twitter.  Without further blabbing on my part here is THE list, according to my humble opinion, that will help any and every elementary and middle school librarian put reading in the spotlight for the whole school:

• Texas Bluebonnet Awards – Read 5 Then Decide -Yearly Campaign

  • Website to get all info: http://www.txla.org/TBA
  • Date: Year round after the current year’s list is announced in October.  VOTING DEADLINE: January 31st.
  • The skinny: The Texas Bluebonnet Award Committee selects twenty books that include novels, picture books, and graphic novels as nominees for the award.  Students must read at least five titles from the list in order to have the right to vote come election time at your school.  The website provides a PLETHORA, yes, that’s right, PLETHORA, of resources to promote the books, including book trailers on their YouTube channel to get kids excited and help them decide which to start with.  You make the celebration as simple or as royal as you wish it to be!
  • Ways to Connect: It’s important to KNOW that you must pay a registration fee in order to have your votes officially counted, it’s a nominal amount, and will give you access to their online voting tools which makes the voting process so much more exciting! It also prints off a variety of reports that will help you analyze the impact of this initiative.  Post pictures and news of your events using the hashtag #TBA17 (for the 2017 election) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  You can also tag @TBABooks on Twitter.
  • How we celebrated last year: I shared with grades 3-5 the online book trailers and went on about how all of these authors were fighting to get their vote.  Some of the picture books I shared with classes, but the brunt of the reading was done by students.  I only had one set of book nominees so we had waiting lists which students were pretty good at managing.  They kept a tally of the books they read with the TX Map created by TBA that has all 2o covers of the nominees.  I kept the classes’ maps together in a pendaflex accordion to avoid any loss of maps, or asking teachers to keep up with them.  When January came around I created voting booths using science fair boards, and set up iPads for voters to cast their votes on.  I made a Voting Registration Card for each student, and hole punched it as they went to their voting booth to vote.  There was a cup of goodies for each voter that included a silicone bracelet, a button, an eraser and a pencil that had reading messages on them.

• International Dot Day – Celebrating Bravery, Creativity, and Self-Expression

  • Website to get all info: http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/
    • Once you sign up you will get a downloadable educator’s guide
  • Date: September 15th-ish! (Sometime during that week is my interpretation)
  • The skinny: Share with your students the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and then become a dot do-er! There are ample ways that go from simple, almost no prep, to complex ways to celebrate the themes of this book: bravery, creativity and self-expression.  This is a reading celebration that will appeal to those who have discovered their reading identity, and those who are still on the hunt for it.
  • Ways to connect: Share pictures and how you celebrated on the website, Twitter, and Facebook.
  • How we celebrated last year: Sigh…I learned about this one too late and didn’t get to celebrate it, but believe you me, it will be a part-ee of self-expression this year.  I will cover the hallway with dot creations, I plan to have the older kids write a script for The Dot and perform it for our younger students, I hope to have a Parent-Dot-Night where we all get to collaborate on a huge dot!

• Power Up at Your Library Day

  • Website to get all info: http://www.poweredlibraries.org/
  • Date: September 15th
  • The Skinny: Showing off your library as the technological stage it is!  This day will be used to celebrate all the virtual, innovative, 21st Century offerings you provide.  Think in terms of Makerspace, Learning Commons, Technology Hardware, Databases, etc.  A guide with ideas, marketing tools, downloadables, and printables can be found on the website.
  • Ways to Connect: Social Media! Press Releases, and surveys are among the ideas mentioned.
  • How we celebrated last year: This is a brand new initiative so we will all be learning from each other as we celebrate the power of our libraries!

• Global Read Aloud – One Book to Connect the World

  • Website to get all info: https://theglobalreadaloud.com/
  • Dates: Early October through almost Mid November. (This year it will run from October 3rd to November 11th)
  • The skinny: GRA comes up with a yearly, grade level specific, list of books that all participants read during the designated dates.  Longer books have a suggested schedule that you follow in order to be on the same page as readers across the globe.  You connect with other classrooms and share your reactions and other reading products over different communication platforms (Skype, Google Hangouts, HaikuDeck, even snail mail!).
  • How do you find classrooms to connect with? The GRA website will provide all the links to the Edmodo groups created by book/author.  From there it’s up to you to connect with another class or library.
  • How we celebrated last year: K-2nd went through the Amy Krouse Rosenthal Author Study. We created pictures, wrote questions, used Apps to share visuals with classes across the country.  We Skyped with a class of 1st graders and talked about our favorite book and shared a visual of our fave book.  We reacted to the HaikuDeck of a second grade class on what they felt the author’s message of one of the books we read was.   Another class participated in a real mail postcard exchange offering one fact about their state and which was their fave book for GRA. This year I will include the upper grades and I hope we create trading cards to exchange based on the stories we read.

• National Ninja Day Story Time

  • Website to get all info:  Celebrate Ninja Story Time – Corey Rosen Schwartz soon to be moved to http://www.ninjasread.com (Follow @ninjasread on Twitter to keep up with the change and developing events.)
  • Date: December 5th
  • The Skinny: Who doesn’t love ninjas? (If you don’t, I advise against sharing your views, kids love ninjas, and your coolness factor will diminish if you don’t too! Trust me on this one, okay?)  December 5th is International Ninja Day celebrated all over the US.  Authors who have written Ninja picture books teamed up to create #NinjasRead and give kids another reason to dress up and read!  The authors have kindly created printable resources on the website and also plan to offer Skype sessions for this year’s celebration.  Want to get your at-promise readers excited about reading? Take a chance on National Ninja Day Story Time, they will be lured by all the ninja coolness and leave ninja readers!
  • Ways to connect: Check the website regularly for updates on Skype sessions and hashtags for social media.
  • How we celebrated last year:  Double sigh… this is another one I was late to the party for but this year: ………… You will  have to imagine the ninja moves I just did because ninjas are silent, no onomatopoeias can describe them.  DOLLAR TREE has Ninja stars, vests, nunchucks, masks. I will definitely dress up for the day and read Ninja picture books all day, write Haikus, teach students how to fold paper Ninja stars, share ninja jokes,and use the resources the authors have so graciously provided.  I will try to get a Skype session with one of the authors because connecting with the outside, greater community  will make this day even more special and memorable.

• World Read Aloud Day

  • Website to get all info: http://www.litworld.org/wrad/
  • Date: Every February (the 2017 date has yet to be announced, last year it was February 24th, 2016).  Register on their website to receive the updated date for 2017 as soon as it becomes available.
  • The skinny: LitWorld is a non-profit organization that is committed to spread literacy across the globe to children.  Their work goes way beyond World Read Aloud Day, but they have created this one special day to celebrate literacy globally.  We read for those who cannot read, we read to enjoy the power of reading, and the organizers provide an Educator’s Guide with activities for every day in the month of February, leading up to WRAD.  Amazing resources in the educator’s guide  will have students thinking about many important themes in literature while indulging in the amazing gift that being literate is.
  • Ways to connect: Register at their website to show your library’s support.  Promote the event using the marketing tools and different calendars and suggested reads with parents and teachers.  Share your pictures and news on the organization’s website, FB page and on Twitter with the #WRAD hashtag.  Ask librarians on Twitter if they would like to collaborate with you and your students.  That is how I learned of the event and also got to collaborate, like I said, #txlachat is the bomb diggety!
  • How we celebrated last year: I was late to this party, but I got to celebrate nonetheless!  I connected with a librarian in South Texas and her middle grade theater students read The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt to our whole second grade level via Google Hangout.  Our 2nd graders had never connected live virtually with others and were so incredibly excited!  It took them a while to comprehend that we were not watching a movie! The teachers loved the experience and it provided my students with a global experience and connecting virtually gave them a glimpse into what collaborating with others who are far away feels like.  I also made sure to read aloud to my upper elementary students on this day.  Throughout the month I also used the WRAD calendar to read and highlight the character strengths they were promoting and classes created mini-murals that were displayed in the hallway of what they thought represented the strength we read about.

• NEA Read Across America – Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

  • Website to get all info: http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm
  • Date: March 2nd, 2017 
  • The skinny: “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read with a child.” – Dr. Seuss NEA has many initiatives to help build a nation of readers, but this just might be the most recognized.  Celebrate reading by having an everything Dr. Seuss Day to celebrate this influential author’s birthday!  The website has incredible resources, including ideas to celebrate, press releases, printables, and Reading Pledges.  You can celebrate for just one day, or the whole week!
  • Ways to connect: Use the hashtag #neareadacrossamerica (I know it’s so long!) when you post on Twitter, Instragram, or Facebook.  
  • How we celebrated last year: THIS WAS THE BIG ONE! We celebrated every day during the week of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday and it was embraced by the whole school.  I’m going to make a bulleted list here, because like I said, we celebrated big time.
    • Dr. Seuss daily dress up
      

      

      

      

       

    • The main hallway’s glass was painted with a Dr. Seuss mural and the library was decorated with character plushies

• • • On Dr. Seuss’s Birthday we had over 15 guest readers from the community come visit our students and read a Dr. Seuss’s book of their choosing.  I started making calls at the end of January in order to ensure every classroom had a guest reader. We had a museum facilitator from The Dallas Museum of Art and a Half Price Books assistant manager come read to our students.  From our city we had firefighters, police officers, the city’s mayor, and the city’s judge come and read with our students.  From our own district I invited the superintendent, one of the assistant superintendents, one of the members of the district’s board of directors, and many of the district employees that used to be in the classroom, but are now in administrative or other positions.  They enjoyed being back in the classroom and the kids loved the attention!

• • • I read Dr. Seuss’s books to all the classes I had that week and we created a Cat in the Hat/Thing One bookmark with a blue pompom made out of yarn.

• Children’s Book Week 

  • Website to find all info: http://www.bookweekonline.com/
  • Date: May 1-7, 2017
  • The skinny: Celebrating the stories students love and the love of reading.  Each year authors are highlighted for this event so you can choose to introduce them as part of the activities for this week.  Also, this is super cool, they have a Children’s Book Choice Awards!
  • Ways to connect: Get your school excited and involved with the beautiful posters you can get for free by sending a SASE to the address on the website in April.  Like their Facebook page and post your pictures.  
  • How we celebrated last year: This was our second biggest celebration of the year!  Here’s what we did.
    • Daily dress up to celebrate books and reading 
    • I dressed up as a book character every day.
    • 

      

      

      

      
    • We had our Scholastic Book Fair
    • Pringles Character Can Contest (See previous post.)
    • Milk and Cookies Reading Night (See previous post.)
    • Book Character Parade (See previous post.)

It has been a marvelous first year and although all of these celebrations are, I won’t lie, a LOT of work, they successfully placed reading in the spotlight as much more than words per minute, answering comprehension questions, or something you “have” to do in school.  Reading was enjoyed as the gift it should be to all of us!

Recently our first grade team asked for book pairs that their readers could connect, text to text.  Here’s the list I came up with, it includes a very short description of the dendrites they share!  Enjoy!

Everyone has a different way of approaching a new idea, project, or risk.  When it comes to implementing a new project in the library, which is now my classroom, my approach mirrors the famous Nike campaign “Just Do It!”.  There are usually at least ten reasons why not to do something, there’s always more research that could be done, more plans to be laid out, the timing could always improve, but here is my reasoning behind following the philosophy of a company who adopted the name of the Greek Goddess of Victory: I won’t necessarily have the kids I have today, a week from now.  In planning amazing feats for the future, I cannot forget that there are children that need to be impacted today, for it might be the last chance I receive to make them discover the power of reading, the love for it, the spark that will set them on their path through literacy successfully.With that mission and the vision of the children I get to serve today, that might not be there tomorrow, this first year as a librarian I have (among other things):

• Celebrated Global Read Aloud Day 2015
  • Students from Lubbock, TX discussed their favorite book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal with students from our School via Skype
  • First grade postcard exchange with schools in various states and Canada
• Campaigned the Texas Bluebonnet Awards Vote “Read Five Then Decide” and had voting ID cards, voting booths, and electronic voting.
• Had fourth graders share a Google Hangout with author Kate Messner
• Had third graders Skype with author Jennifer Ward
• Offered afterschool MarkerSpace with Lego, Engineering and other challenges
• Coached two Battle of the Books teams
• Formed a Library Assistants Club
• Offered Toddler Storytime
• Planned two parent Literacy @ Home Nights where parents received practical activities and created manipulatives with my good friend and Early Childhood Specialist Esmeralda Ramirez
• As part of World Read Aloud Day students from Houston, TX read via Google Hangout “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt to all of our 2nd grade classes.
• Celebrated Read Across America FOR A WHOLE WEEK
  • As part of Read Across America Celebrated DOCTOR SEUSS’S BIRTHDAY with over 15 guest readers from the community to read in our school to our classes
• Hosted a Pumpkin Book Character Contest
• Celebrated Children’s Book Week 2016 FOR THE WHOLE WEEK:
  • Dressed up as a different character every day
  • Students had a daily dress up activity to celebrate their favorite books and stories
  • Milk and Cookies Family Reading Night with more than 12 stations to craft, have fun, and listen to stories
  • Organized our First Book Swap- an opportunity to get rid of the stories you no longer read and find new ones at no cost
  • Hosted a Pringles Book Character Contest
  • Hosted a Grade Level Teacher Book Character Dress Up Contest
• Wrote and got funded a DonorsChoose.org grant.
• Received a Ford of North Texas and First Book Grant of 200 books for our library.
• Wrote an Innovation Grant (still waiting to hear from this one!)
• Celebrated Lunch Hero Day with letters, balloons, paper food with student messages, and posters.

Here is something I jumped into most recently as part of Children’s Book Week, and you know what, I was wearing my Nike sneakers! 

BOOK CHARACTER PARADE!– Was I stressed? Holy cow, totally and absolutely! I invited parents to watch from the sidewalk and prayed that they would respect the boundaries I set for the safety of all our kids.  Did I wonder if maybe myself and 12 more kids would be the only ones dressed up and parading?  I truly did.  But you know what? IT WAS AWESOME! Many of our teachers participated, some had their classes dress up as a book for example: Pete the Cat’s Groovy Buttons: the teacher was Pete and each child was a button!  We paraded once around the school, many parents came, the students who didn’t parade had fun watching, the kids that did parade, were waving as if they were being pranced around on a float, and boy did we have fun and showed that our love of good books, good stories and cool characters is cause for celebration!



The goddess Nike has had my back this year, it’s been amazing to create so many opportunities for my students to see the library as the hive for many of their interests and as a place where reading is for everyone and having fun is pretty much a given.  Just “doing it” also provides a wealth of information for future, improved events while allowing me to care for the children I am responsible for impacting NOW and in the FUTURE! 

Photo taken from: http://sneakerhistory.com/nike/nike-just-do-it/

From May 2nd-6th Cannaday Celebrated Children’s Book Week With Many Activities that Highlighted our Favorite Books and Stories.

One of these activities was the creation of a Book Character out of a Pringles can; we had more than 60 entries!  Check out these amazing creations:

This month of May,  it will be ten months into my new role in education as a librarian.  After more than a decade in the classroom, working at amazing schools, collaborating on grade level teams with amazing educators such as Esmeralda Ramirez, Karla L. Vargas, and Gustavo Pinoargote, I have been feeling…isolated.  See, as a classroom teacher, you share your daily EVERYTHING with your teammates. You have this mind-blowing, crazy idea? You holler at a teammate which is lining up for something or the other at the same time as you, and you share, you plan, you put the wheels in motion STAT!  As a librarian… well I’m the only librarian on campus. We can go on about grade level planning meetings, and many other instances when you collaborate, coplan, coteach, but I’ve spoken to other librarians and they feel the same way: isolated.  It’s the nature of the position, the  job, the day to day operations.

There have been little glimpses here and there that hint at a possible support network that could make the isolation less so, but nothing compares to TODAY, Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016; the first Reading Night I plan, organize, fundraise for, set up, and see through as a librarian.

 I desperately needed teachers to run the stations I had created and was in a panic when I sent out an email asking for help and less than a handful answered.  I asked our feeder high school for volunteers and found some that would help, but not enough to ensure that Reading Night would run smoothly. My best friend and co-educator Esmeralda Ramirez, who doesn’t work in our district, not only volunteered, but told me repeatedly to “breathe” (she tells me this often, but that’s a whole other post) that it would work out.   

Here’s how it went down:

– Marie, one of our custodians, offered to pick up a cookie donation from Schlotsky’s before her shift started at 2pm.

– Amy, the Kinder TA, showed up at 3:45, more than one hour before Reading Night started, and took over setting up the Pringles Can Character Contest (about 30 of them, by grade level), so I could run and setup other stations.

– Ms. McCoy, kinder teacher, had come in to make her teacher book fair wish list and told me she was “mad” I didn’t ask her for help.  I asked her to please pick up cookie donations at two McDonald’s locations and she did! She also came in way early and helped me set up more than one station, then worked the BookWorm Buddy Station.

-Mr. Alvarez, art teacher, did some heavy lifting and when I said “Aaaahhhhh I haven’t made the numbers for the Book Walk!”, went into the office printed the numbers and laminated them.

-Ms. Allen, music teacher, donated yarn (which I had forgotten to buy!) so we could have our Library Spy Maze and was also the sweetest it’s-time-to-go-home door bouncer ever!

-Mr. Stovall. I texted him to please help me create the library maze because I knew I wouldn’t have it on time for the start of Reading Night and although he had a previous commitment, he stopped by the library and set up the maze which was awesome, before he left. The maze station was ready for kids as soon as they walked in.

-Ms. McClendon, kinder teacher, tirelessly read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie… to groups of kiddos and made eating chocolate chip cookies and sipping chocolate milk part of her interactive storytelling.
-Ms. Ramsey, kinder teacher, ran the Book Walk in a way that puts Cake Walks to shame, getting kids and parents to play too.

– Ms. Nguyen tallied votes for the Pringles Can Characters the old school tally mark way because yours truly didn’t have time to come up with a more efficient way to vote. She was a champ for sure, writing down votes like a stock trader takes orders on the floor of Wall Street.
-Ms. Smith handled the Book Swap like a Mergers and Acquisition Pro, making executive decisions as to what a fair exchange was and leaving everyone happy in the process.

-Ms. Grisham who I’m pretty sure single-handedly donated at least 200 of our 500 books for Book Swap, and then proceeded to work the Walk in Pete the Cat’s Shoes Scooter Race.

-Ms. Dewberry surprised me today by telling me she would stay and help. She shared the Pete the Cat Station with Ms. Grisham AND kept the sixth  graders busy when they were getting restless. (Personally, I think they just like having some extra time with their teacher!)

-Mr. Freeman finished his bus route and helped with the outside Minute-to-Win-It Genre Sort Station which wasn’t the easiest of stations because it was outside, it had an obstacle course, and kids were soooooooo excited to be running, hurdling and screaming during Reading Night.
-Ms. Chen, I know testing is coming up and she’s been stressed, but she made the Fairy Tale Sketch-Who? super fun and gave kids a chance to try out a Pictionary-type game which most of them have never played before.
-Ms. Anderson, first grade, got kids excited about the book character button making station AND was so excited to see families from her class spending time at Reading Night.
-Ms. Wemple worked tirelessly, next to Ms. McCoy, at the Bookworm Buddy Station, and didn’t bat an eyelash when we ran out of “worm” beads and I found…LETTER BEADS!, which brought a new wave of “beaders” to their table.

-Ms. Rodriguez and Ms. Gayle, fifth grade, had little pre-schoolers and big sixth graders weaving through our Library Spy Maze to win posters which they presented with such flair they made it seem kids were getting a Royal Proclamation.

-Coach Mac let me borrow his P.E. equipment and tie-wrapped together hula hoops to make our obstacle course fun and familiar for our kids.

-Mr. Pierotti, assistant principal,  expertly cleared the crowd when it was time to go and get ready for PTA and Orchestra Performance.  He also transported over 30 Pringles Character Cans without breaking a one from the cafeteria back to the library.

When it was all said and done, everyone pitched in and pick up was over in a heartbeat!  
This is the”feeling” I want to “Hold On” to, although the isolation will probably always be there, when it really counts, when it’s for our kids, I am not an island, I have a group of loving, caring, dedicated teachers and staff that will stand united with me to make the love of literacy grow in our children.

(To listen to Triumph’s Hold On click here. )

I have completed the very first semester of my career as a Teacher-Librarian and I wanted to document some of my feelings.

I moved to the library in order to have the opportunity to impact more than a homeroom of students each year.  I believe with my whole being that if we love to read, if we see its purpose, if we make it part of our daily life, most of our academic struggles will decrease exponentially.  The idea of being part of the goals I just mentioned was what strengthened my resolve to make the switch, not only would I have the opportunity to influence all of the students at my school, I would see many of them throughout their whole Elementary School careers.  

So, what “blues” am I referring to?  The homeroom-family blues.  When I was a homeroom teacher the relationships I developed with my 20-27 kids was deeper.  I learned about them as learners, as individuals, we grew together, we shared our family history with each other, we became partners, family, community.  I also developed a relationship with their family, visiting all of their homes at least once (one year up to three times!), and seeing them in their day to day environment offered me a wealth of information to help students achieve and the opportunity to offer suggestions to make learning at home more productive.  I miss that, I miss it a lot.  When I refer to my students as “my”, ask anyone who knows me, just how fierce I am in protecting and helping my children grow holistically.  I miss this so much that sometimes my heart physically aches.

It’s the little things I also miss dearly.  On our Holiday Classroom Parties day; I had no class to prepare activities for, to wrap gifts for, to welcome parents to, to take pictures with.  Our Holiday Christmas Sing Along was a blast, teachers were so proud of their classes caroling in front of the whole school after weeks of practice. I didn’t get to experience the little nervouseness of watching them get up on the stage and hoping they didn’t forget the words to their song, hoping that my goofy kids would not use 100% of their goofiness skills while performing.  Yes, I high fived as many as possible as they exited the stage, yes I cheered, sang along, clapped, and loved every performance, but their was a little piece of my heart that was unfifilled, the piece that my homeroom kids used to fill.  I am not going to lie, I spilled a few tears when no one was looking.

To feel a little less blue I visited my favorite kinder class, and took pictures with them and told each one, when they asked, that their Rudolph nose was still painted on, I listened to their explanation of what Santy, their Elf on the Shelf, had done and took pictures with them.  I was also lucky to mand my morning duty post during the Holiday Classroom Parties time, which allowed me to wish a Merry Christmas to the families of many of our students and to squeeze in a hug here and there as they left early to start their holiday break.  

My friend, my shoulder to cry on, Esme, endured my melancholy, offered suggestions that made lots of sense, reminded me of the bigger picture, and was actually the one to suggest I go to Ms. McClendon’s Kinder class to have some “family time” with her students.  I love her dearly because after all that, she was still comforting when I told her that her suggestions were great but I had no “babies” to call my own, and my heart hurt.  Will I ever get over this need to have my own close-knit “student family” ?  I hope not, as an educator it’s part of what makes me passionate.  Will I find some sort of solution to fill this need? I am confident I will, I just have to give it some time and more thought. I love being a teacher librarian, but the teacher part will always long for a class of my own.

I began reading Harry Potter long before my daughter Erika ventured into it. She felt that these books would be too scary for her and that the time commitment would be too great considering all she already had on her To-Read-Pile.  She would however ask me about it, what part of the story was I on, so she allowed me to share my passion for HP characters which was an amazing gift; no one else I knew was reading the series at the time.  

Then one Saturday morning in October, out of the blue, she woke up and told me she was ready to be part of  the world of Hogwarts, and that was that.  In three months time  she had read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  This was amazing for various reasons; first, how in the world did she devour those books while completing all her schoolwork (forget about chores, reading beat chores every day of the week and twice on Sundays in our household!); it was amazing because I had the chance to relive my first five years at Hogwarts, and reread many passages, because my daughter loved to argue that I was wrong about this or that event.

After Erika caught up to where I was currently at, we griped together about how long it was taking for the next book to come out.  We went to all the release parties, waited till midnight to get our copies, then raced home to start reading.  We would holler at each other from our rooms, “Oh my God! What page are you on?  Hurry up! I need to talk to you about what just happened!”  Her friends would call our house to ask what chapter we were on, and again, someone was always behind and we would groan “Come on! We’re getting together on Friday, you need to catch up already!”

When Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was released I cannot put into words the foul mood that enveloped our household.  Harry was being so mean, so despondent, so…. dare I say, almost evil? It took us a while to figure out that Harry was making us grouchy, and when we did, nothing really changed, we kept on being cranky until we finished reading the book.  When Dumbledore passed, my husband, looked at our daughter and me, crying our eyes out and thought something awful had happened.  It had! Dumbledore was no more, how do you go on without the wise, understanding, tender, funny, father figure you had been living with for the last seven years?  It took us a few days of grieving to try and move on, it took us a few weeks to continue reading, we couldn’t fathom more bad news, after the loss of our beloved headmaster of Hogwarts.

I am a reader, if you look at my Pinterest board  Books, Books, Books, you will find many quotes that reflect my love for the written word.  But, one of the biggest reasons I love and feel melancholy, happiness, and fulfillment is thanks to the beautiful memories I treasure, and think of when I’m having an off day.  The memories that include my precious child and my amazing dad, and one more way that our lives are intertwined.

As a first year librarian the Library Department Directors meet with all newbies every week to share policies, procedures, and to answer any questions and offer encouragement.  Today was…the BEST meeting ever!

We met at the Library Services Processing Office where I was introduced to the two lovely ladies that make all of my books shelf-ready when they come to our library.  Here is where the BESt meeting ever part comes in: I learned that we have a REVIEW LIBRARY.  What is this, you may be wondering.  It’s shelves of books that publishers send to our district to preview.  In exchange for a written review the books become…OURS!!!! Hello!

I tried to be still and not show my excitement at the possibility of acquiring new books, but I don’t think I was 100% successful.  You see, we were standing in front of the shelves listening to our processing center experts telling us about the process; I tried to not let my eyes wander over to the shelves, but  I glanced, and tried to make out the titles of some of the books, five times.  I did my best I promise you, but the opportunity to find new treasures for my students for FREE, was a lot to handle.  I’ll try to do better next time, or better yet, I’ll just mosey on down to their office when we are not meeting, that way I won’t have to fight my impulse to POUNCE on all those gems!

Now, the ladies at the processing center, they already know who I am because I’ve worked to get the library, book donations which they have to process, so when I started my tour down the shelves they kindly placed a BOX next to me.  They know me well, I couldn’t resist, I hugged them several times!

How amazing was this discovery! I will now have a wider selection and know personally books that might be the perfect fit for many of my readers.  Today was a good day, bless all the publishing houses who want our opinion about their books so much that they are willing to gift us with them!