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Category Archives: Events

Dewey’s 24-hour readathon: Part II

26 Apr

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It’s so hard to say goodbye. Parting is such sweet sorrow. It’s not goodbye but see ya later. However you say it, the readathon is over for now. I’ll patiently await October and then if there’s a reverse readathon in the summer- I’m there. In the meantime, I’m celebrating my successes for the readathon and hope you’ll share yours if you participated too.

Here were my stats:

Time spent reading:

22 hours 38 minutes 02 seconds

Books read:

Junk Boy by Abbott (Digital)

Grown by Jackson (Digital)

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Krosoczka (Digital)

The Season of Styx Malone by Magoon (Audiobook)

Ginger Kid by Hofstetter (Print)

Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History by Chaline (Print)

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (Young Readers Edition) by Kilmeade & Yaeger (Print)

The Cool Bean by John (Digital)

My Neighbor Seki by Morishige (Print)

Chicken Every Sunday by Taylor (Print)

Part of Girls of Paper and Fire by Ngan (Print)

Almost all of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Callahan (Audiobook)

Snacks and food consumed:

Saturday kickoff breakfast: overnight oats and tea,

Snacks: homemade chai tea biscotti, Sour Patch Kids, copious amounts of tea, Stewart’s Shops’ limited release peanut butter cookie ice cream,

Saturday dinner: Pulled pork and cabbage slaw tacos, Amaretto and cranberry

Sunday celebratory breakfast: chocolate milk, biscotti, and tea

Locations for reading:

Couch

Kitchen table

On the patio

On a bike trail

By the fire outside

Bathtub

 

Thank you to all who put it together time after time. There will be a change in lineup for next time as Heather and Andi will both step back while Gaby and Kate take the reins. Au revoir and welcome all in the same breath.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2020 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 

Dewey’s 24-hour readathon: Part I

25 Apr

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It’s here.

The Dewey 24-hour readathon. Several times a year a collective group of like-minded individuals put together an amazing twenty-four marathon reading session to engage readers across the world. There’s usually mini-challenges, discussion posts, BINGO cards as well as general cheerleading of other readers by following hashtags and plugging in to the Goodreads group and their website. It was born from a woman named Dewey who was inspired by her husband and son’s 24 hour comics day yet sadly she only ran a few before she passed away. That was over 10 years ago.

I’ve been doing them for only the last several years, when I had first heard about them and if you read my blog or know me IRL, I love a good challenge. You can see my edublog posts, my foray into making every sandwich in the Sandwiches! book, and even my challenge to myself to blog every day in April. So it’s not a stretch to think I’d enjoy this. Plus, I’m always going to try to break my previous time. And I also try to recruit people when I can.

I actually have two special guests joining me for this one. While my sons’ have routinely sat and read with me at the very beginning or very end of the readathon, this year, at 11 years old and while social distancing, they asked if they could really participate (which was really code for can we stay up past our bedtime or potentially skip sleeping altogether Mom, please?) And as the great meme goes:

Community I'Ll Allow It GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

I also think a few of my colleagues will pop in for a little which is part of it’s beauty too. For the relaxed reading types, they’ll sit to read for a few hours just to do it. For the hardcore reading types such as myself, it’s a new teacup or t-shirt, a book pile, planned and prepped snacks, and a wide-open calendar.

Depending on where you are in the country or world, you may be a little late to the readathon party, but you can check out the reading start times on the website if you’re unsure. All I know is that I have overnight oats and a mimosa planned to start my day after a morning workout and at 8am I will happily ignore you until 8am on Sunday morning.

Join us!

 
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Posted by on April 25, 2020 in Blogging, Events

 

Coincidence, I think not

21 Apr

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Today is both National Library Day (it’s National Library Week) and National Tea Day– coincidence? I think not. It’s a stereotypical thing I know, but for me, it fits. I’m a tea drinker to the core and a librarian, and I wouldn’t trade either thing.

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Why libraries?

  • Endless learning from endless stories
  • The smell
  • Books
  • It’s free to those that need it
  • Pretty interesting people work there

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Why tea?

  • Soothing warmth
  • A storied history of creation and continued enjoyment
  • The feeling of wrapping your hands around the mug
  • A minor jolt of caffeine

And the list can go one, but these are just some of the reasons that they go together– a mutual feeling of warmth and enjoyment. I’ll be celebrating by visiting amazing libraries across the world in pictures and steeping endless pots of tea.

 
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Posted by on April 21, 2020 in Blogging, Events, Miscellaneous

 

Virtually yours

15 Apr

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Santa Monica, California is usually a hotbed of book activity during the YallWest Festival. It features a beautiful backdrop and beautiful authors sharing their beautiful books, but this year needs to be different. Thus, they’ve re-branded for their sixth year: YallStayHome. What does that mean? All of the content they were building toward will now be yours… virtually.

YALL stay home imageOn Saturday, April 25th and Sunday, April 26th, they will be putting on virtual panels, smackdowns, and keynotes that you can individually register for based on your interests and author obsessions. Likewise, as noted in the graphic, they will provide giveaways, special events, and share live content via Instagram so it is best to follow them on their social media platforms in addition to checking their website. They can be found on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram.

I have to admit that I’ve always loved the videos and photos that come out of an event that’s across the country that I’d probably never attend in person, so to be a part of it is a boon. Though I’ll also admit that I won’t be plugged in for the two-day event because I’ve already committed to the Dewey 24-hour readathon which I take very seriously.

Whether you’re going all in or just picking a few sessions, consider also sharing with the teens you serve (as I already have) the three contests that teens aged 13-19 can enter until April 19th. There’s one for fan art and two for writing.

When so many activities are at your fingertips while everyone is staying at home, choose this one because the content is rich and deep while bringing a much needed dose of happiness.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2020 in Authors, Blogging, Events, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

Monday inspiration

06 Apr

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Anyone else love a good bookish quote? I have an entire board of book and library quotes to inspire me, motivate me, or simply make me smile.

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In a few weeks, the Dewey 24-hour Readathon will be running it’s April event which for east coast Americans like myself begins at 8am on Saturday, April 25th and ends at 8am on Sunday, April 26th. I’ve done several of these and blogged about preparing for one and completing my first one (that was actually a reverse readathon) which lines up nicely with Dunham’s quote. How I truly would wish one extra day each week!

I’ve heard comments that it is hard to concentrate on reading with everything going on, but consider it a gift to be with other readers for one twenty-four hour period where they will root you on, talk books, and allow you to peek into the food and drink preferences of other bibliophiles. Sign up here. And let me know in the comments below if you’ll be joining whether it’s your fifth time or your first.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2020 in Blogging, Events, Miscellaneous, Quotes

 

Remember

09 Jan

Remember

I made an Instagram story yesterday evening. It was a picture from the back of the Photography II classroom of a dozen kids looking at Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pena, the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide that I blogged about in 2019 alluding to this collaboration. Above it I said “I f*ing love what I do” with a bouncing heart emoji over the Smartboard projector in the photo and a gif of a girl waving a book next to the words “school librarian”.

Because, I f*ing love my job as a school librarian and days like this remind me of that exponentially.

I’ve spent about a month in and out of this class working with the teacher and students to include the graphic novel into their identity unit that teaches them about portrait taking where they photograph six different portraits for the project.

Remember and remind yourself of days like these above on the days that I feel like this below:

GoslingMeme

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2020 in Authors, Events, Graphic novels, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

National Book Lovers Day

09 Aug

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I’m grateful to live in a world where there is no shortage of reading material to satisfy curiosity, escapism, and the beauty of the written world to evoke a range of emotions in readers.

Thank you to all authors for feeding the book lovers of the world.

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Posted by on August 9, 2019 in Events, Miscellaneous

 

Bringing it together

06 Aug

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I regularly contribute to a few other blogs in addition to this one. This has taken shape over the last several years and focuses on a different kind of audience though ultimately it still boils down to books, reading, teaching, and librarianship. So in an effort to share out some of the other posts that often don’t make it back to this one, here is a post to bring it all together.

  • YALSA’s The Hub
    • A division of the American Library Association the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) uses The Hub to share out current recommendations for some of their virtual committees. This year, I sit on the Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) 2020 committee. You’ll see several of my posts alongside other committee members’ and the other committees as well.
  • Times Union‘s Books Blog
  • Nerdy Book Club
    •  A national blog that celebrates a love of reading when it comes to children’s and young adult literature and is the brainchild of Colby Sharp, Donalyn Miller, Katherine Sokolowski, and Cindy Minnich.
 
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Posted by on August 6, 2019 in Blogging, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction

 

Ballet biographies and the real thing

20 Jul

This post originally appeared on the Times Union Books Blog. 

Confession: It took me three decades to see a ballet; I’ve never even seen The Nutcracker. But last night, I attended Coppelia at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center amid the humidity for their 8pm performance with my two elementary-aged boys and husband. 

I was better prepared for a few reasons: my Pilates instructor, a former ballerina, gave me a Cliffnotes version of what Coppelia was about. And second, I’m a book nerd and had read Misty Copeland’s biography Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.* Like my post about a beer class connecting to reading, I read to learn as much as I find experiences to learn from and both came together last night. 

The biography balances her personal and professional realms allowing amateurs to understand the world of classical ballet. Copeland had a roller coaster life moving often based on her mother’s new love interest and entered ballet later than most. She battled against prejudice while working hard to perfect her skills to access the elite schools and companies to showcase her talent. 

What I liked is that she name-dropped sparingly. When reading celebrity biographies there is nothing worse than reading pages and pages of names of people I could care less about: I’m reading their biography because I want to know about them. I also liked that she focused on being a black woman in art by finding her voice and also celebrating it dancing on stage with Prince at his concerts to bring ballet to a different audience. Her audience widened again when she did an Under Armour commercial showing off her grace and athleticism that I discovered online afterward. 

And that athleticism is on full display with the breathtaking cover as it is on the stage watching any ballet. I guess aside from looking at a performance like Coppelia as a wordless picture book (I am a librarian after all) that was my other takeaway. I am more astounded by the power and grace of their execution than I am about the moves themselves (or their actual French names). In the book, Copeland regularly shared how arduous the practices were alongside maintaining her body for peak performance. This was a culmination of that appreciation. 

Whether I’m reading books about dead bodies or animals, it’s apparent that I love learning through books. Copeland’s biography is an entry point for those who like me haven’t ever seen a ballet. So I ask you, have there been books that you’ve read that have prepared you for an experience or activity? Share in the comments below! 

 

*Young reader’s editions are adapted books for a teen or tween audience adjusted for both interest and reading level from the adult version. Many adult biographies have been adapted including Sonia Sotomayor, Trevor Noah, Malala Yousafzai, or Ibtihaj Muhammad. 

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2019 in Authors, Events, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

The joy of author visits

09 May

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I find myself writing a post yearly if not more after coming down from an author visit high. But as I walked with Dashka Slater to the car at the end of her visit with us at our high school, I said that my co-librarian and I know it’s a successful visit when we’ve teared up: over a student comment or powerful statistic or thoughtful interaction with a kid. Slater can check that box.

The New York Times writer, journalist, author of young adult narrative nonfiction and picture books just spent four days in our area visiting three local high schools and one elementary school. Programming looked different at each of our schools, but all were changed by her visit. At our school, programming was a visit to our alternative high school program, lunch with a book group, an open presentation for any interested students, then a teacher-focused after school session about a topic addressed in The 57 Bus: restorative justice. No one walked away without something to ponder. Plus her personable nature and presentation style endeared her to everyone “on stage” and off. How flexible and Swiss-Army is she that she can speak with a group of 2nd graders in a snail costume after discussing institutionalized racism or helping freshman understand the myriad of terms in the LBTQAI+ community the day before?

Do I wish more students and staff attended? Absolutely. Learning is never-ending and relationships are integral to a healthy society. When we bury ourselves in being busy/hectic educators and over-scheduled teenagers, we don’t see the opportunities that are right in front of us, myself included.

But what are the joys of an author visit? I will count the ways.

  1. Student response– everything from “I got to meet a real live author!” to “Man, you wrote that?” Or the doodler who shares his sketch of them while they’re speaking and they ask to keep it.
  2. Adding to school climate and culture– we want our students to love reading and we promote that every day and use author visits judiciously.
  3. Books! The authors wrote the books then readers get to read them.
  4. Seeing the culmination of planning and preparation– I’ve been thinking about this visit for a year. Others not so much. But as much as visits create sleepless nights and nervous energy, they bring so many groups together.
  5. Did I mention student response? It’s all about them whether they become “Insta famous” being on an author’s Instagram story or take a selfie because again, they met a real live author!

Then all that’s left are the emotions of the day, the pictures, and the personal, lasting memories.

 
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Posted by on May 9, 2019 in Authors, Events, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 
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