Friday, March 25, 2011

Reading update

It's been a little while since my last post, but I have still been reading. A lot. As part of a New Year's resolution my mom-in-law proposed a book club for the ladies in our family. Much of my Read and Response efforts have been focused at anoveltea for the last few weeks.
We've recently read and talked about:
Dianne Warren's Cool Water and
Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists

I have also been focusing on developing a summer reading list for Grade 5 students. The library I work at puts on a summer reading game for students who have finished grades 1-6 each year. We visit all the schools in the city telling them about the game and booktalking a few suggestions. Last year I visited the grade 4s, but someone else chose the books. This year I get to make-up my own list. I need 12-15 books for my list, and so far have chosen 4. These books don't take long to get through, but I want to choose books that will get the kids excited to come to the library and check these books out. The library will order an extra 3-5 copies of each book I choose, so I also want to make sure that the extra funds for this project are worth it. Plus, if I have to talk about books to a group of grade 5 who are beginning to believe reading isn't cool -well, I have a responsibility to let them know about some great books.

I have also been on my honeymoon! We went to the province of Samana in the Dominican Republic. We spent loads of time on the beach (and didn't get sunburns!), we saw wild dolphins within arms reach of our motor boat, and we made some cool pals. Of course we read a lot (Alan Bradley's The Weed that Strings the Hangman's bag), and spent a lot of quality time together. My first full day back at work, I sure missed my husband.

It's a busy time, and while I haven't been updating here, I do often update my goodreads account.