Most of 2020 did not go as planned. There is one thing I planned, however, which DID happen. I planned to read 120 books and review them all in Goodreads. Which I did! Here they are, all listed out. Then I went a step further, and gave out awards! Which are what you see below….
In listening to E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children published in 1905 (audio available for free on Librivox), I noticed something very interesting. British children at the turn of the century, at least according to Nesbit, were not supposed to show emotions, and these emotions were on the whole very embarrassing. In modern American literature for…
I present: lighting reviews! One sentence reviews of all the books I’ve read in 2019 so far. Please note that some of these are re-reads, as I definitely believe in reading books over and over again. Ancillary Justice, by Anne Leckie Gender bending sci-fi with great complexity of plot detail, rewards a close reading. The…
Last week, I went back to a tried and true lesson plan: read aloud and discussion. I chose one book and read it to every class, kindergarten through 5th grade. I chose The Man Who Walked Between the Towers for this exercise. It is a picture book detailing how a street performer named Philippe Petit…
For your enjoyment and edification, I offer you a lightning round of one sentence reviews of the children’s novels I’ve read so far this summer: The Amaranth Enchantment, by Julie Berry Fun fantasy arranged in a standard evil stepmother and girl-finds-a-prince format. The Leaving, by Tara Altebrando YA suspense novel fails to deliver on its promised intrigue….
In addition to blogging here, I post book reviews on GoodReads.com from time to time. Here is one I just wrote, after reading an eARC (eBook Advanced Reading Copy) provided to me by NetGalley. Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is surrealism defined. It’s like reading a Dali…
The Last Tree, written by Ingrid Chabbert and illustrated by Guridi, is a short picture book, elegant and concise, but don’t be fooled by its simplicity. This tale of a boy and his friend working hard to save a tree cuts to the quick. The stunning illustrations display the world the boy lives in, with “roads…
Possibly one of the most purely fun jobs of a librarian is collection development. Adding new materials in a pattern that best builds your collection as a thriving complete whole, no section over-enhanced, no section under-appreciated, is an art. The most important piece of that art is listening to your readers. What do they want…