Ricki – Page 97 – Unleashing Readers

One Year Anniversary Celebration Week: What We’ve Learned this Year

July 27, 2015June 26, 2014 by Ricki

As we wrap up our first year as blog partners, we can’t help but reflect on all of the lessons we’ve learned—both as a team and as bloggers. Sharing a blog requires a strong friendship, and while we were friends before the blog, our bond has grown much stronger from working closely together. We’ve learned:

Google Drive is a lifesaver.

We have a complex shared calendar. If an outsider opened the file, it would be like entering the Twilight Zone. There are sticky notes all over the place and a lot of jargon, but it makes sense to us. Having a shared file that updates automatically has saved us a lot of time and energy, so thank you, Google Drive.

Emails are not always the best form of communication.

Kellee and I exchange a few hundred emails a day. We have realized that, often, just picking up the phone and calling each other is much more effective when we have important questions.

We share the same taste in books but not in art.

You would think this wouldn’t be a big deal, but when it comes to designing the blog and posts like, “Top Ten Covers We’d Frame as Pieces of Art,” not sharing the same taste in art becomes very apparent. Luckily, we manage to compromise, and we think the end products (e.g. the new blog design) are a perfect blend of our styles.

Regrettably, we can’t take every book that is offered to us.

This lesson has been very difficult for us to accept (and we still struggle with it!). We are often contacted by authors and marketing companies with book review requests. We love to help spread the word about these great books, but we receive more requests than there are days in the year.

Babies do not make good blog partners.

As we both entered motherhood this year, we realized that our blogging habits would never be the same. Now, we both jump on the blog in those brief napping hours or after the babies go to bed. It is too tricky to blog with a baby in a sling.

Friends do make good blog partners.

Even with the stress that comes with co-blogging, having a friend there to do it with you makes it 100% easier and more fun.

What have you learned by blogging? Teaching? Living?

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One Year Anniversary Celebration Week: Why Do We Blog?

July 27, 2015June 25, 2014 by Ricki

Blogging is about building connections, and for that reason, we knew we couldn’t do this post alone. For the past two Monday posts, we’ve posted a request to our blogging friends, asking them why they blog.

Our Blog: Unleashing Readers

Our Blog’s Focus: We work to provide a blog that offers teaching materials and resources for K-12 educators. Our book review format is designed to help teachers navigate great books with their students. We try to write reflections that offer teaching tools for the instruction of these texts.

Why We Blog: Simply put, we love teaching. Sharing our love of literature with our students is incredibly rewarding for us, and we want other teachers to share this joy with us. It is our belief that many of our viewers share this mindset. We are dissatisfied with the current model of traditional classrooms (where boring, inaccessible books are the staple), and we aim to show that there are high quality, high interest books outside of the literary canon. We are not asking school systems to lock classic texts in the closet, but instead, we offer alternatives, such as bridging these classics with other texts and offering other alternatives for the one-text-for-all approach. We love sharing ideas and book titles with our blogging friends and have made some great connections with them and hope you will see what their blogs have to offer.

Alyson at Kid Lit Frenzy

Blog Focus: To share recommendations of children’s and young adult literature to teachers, librarians and parents, and to highlight educational literacy activities.

Why I Blog: I began blogging to simply share my thoughts on books that I was reading. However, it has evolved into much more than sharing thoughts. It has developed into a community in which I contribute to but also learn from.

Audrey, Crystal, Jessica, K. Imani & Jon at Rich in Color

Blog Focus: Rich in Color is dedicated to reading, reviewing, talking about, and otherwise promoting young adult fiction starring people of color or written by people of color.

Why We Blog: We believe that teens (and adults!) should be able to find themselves in the kinds of books they love to read. The discrepancy between books that feature people of color or are written by people of color and the actual composition of the U.S. population is a concern for us. We think it’s important to support these books/authors, and one way we can do that is to talk about them.

Beth at A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

Blog Focus: The theme of my blog is food, books, and travel but I write mostly about books.

Why I Blog: I started blogging because I realized that when I finished a book, I needed to talk to someone about it, and I didn’t really have anyone to do that with. I continued blogging because I found a wonderful, supportive community of teachers and book lovers on Twitter, the Nerdy Book Club, and with the “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?” participants. All of these elements of online community have made me a better reader and teacher.

Carrie at There’s a Book for That

Blog Focus: My blog highlights my addiction to and love of all things in the land of children’s literature. It includes regular updates of what I am reading and often has stories and examples of how I am using books with my primary students.

Why I Blog: I blog to tell stories of my learning and thoughts about children’s literature and teaching in general. Blogging has allowed me to be part of a learning and reading community that shares. The more I write, the more I learn. I also love the opportunity to share little windows into my classroom and the thinking that happens there.

Crystal at Reading Through Life

Blog Focus: I share kidlit and yalit and also share about teaching in my elementary library. I have an emphasis on diversity in literature.

Why I Blog: I wanted to be able to communicate with more than just the teachers and librarians in my area. My blog is also a great place to store things that I can access from my own classroom.

Debbie at The Styling Librarian

Blog Focus: I believe books are your best accessory. I blog about new and old books, celebrate authors and illustrators with interview posts, share technology that I find useful, and share about my life as an expat living in Hong Kong.

Why I Blog: I love connecting with others out in the blogosphere, have developed relationships and gained so much inspiration from them, especially for my professional life. It is fun to express myself and also keep up with family and friends with my posts. Celebrating books, authors and illustrators, and techology is something that keeps me going, appreciating, and following through week to week.

Earl at The Chronicles of a Children’s Book Writer

Blog Focus: My blog focuses on the books I’ve read. I occasionally post about my writing as well.

Why I Blog: I blog because it is such a great way to connect with so many other like-minded people all over the world. I love the give and take of it.

Karen at Ms. Yingling Reads

Blog Focus: I concentrate on books for middle school students, especially humorous, realistic fiction and books with culturally diverse characters.

Why I Blog: I am a school librarian who tries to read all of the books I buy before I purchase them. My blog serves as my auxiliary memory, helps me connect with my students, and is hopefully a good resource for other teachers and librarians who don’t get a chance to read all of the books that I do.

Linda at TeacherDance

Blog Focus: I love to share about literacy in all aspects for helping children learn, integrating across the curriculum. The focus most of the time is reading and writing in the classroom, including book reviews.

Why I Blog: I blog to write, to share aspects of education I believe are important to learning for all children. And I blog to connect to the broader education world in order to meet people everywhere who inspire me when they write of their own personal and educational experiences and practices. An added aspect of my blogging connections has been to read and learn from good writers.

Michele at Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook

Blog Focus: I want my blog to focus on giving practical resources to teachers and parents to support themselves in the areas of reading and writing. My hope is to inspire and get people excited about the wonderful books that are available to us!

Why I Blog: I blog because I love talking about books and having conversations about them with anyone who wants to discuss. I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from other blogs, I wanted to share too. One of my goals is to work on my writing, so for me, this is a chance to do this several times each week!

Thank you friends in sharing why blogging is important to you! We love having you as part of our community!
Why do you like blogging? Or visiting blogs?

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One Year Anniversary Celebration Week: Top Ten Favorite Posts in the First Year of Unleashing Readers

June 29, 2014June 24, 2014 by Ricki

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because The Broke and Bookish are particularly fond of lists (as are we!). Each week a new Top Ten list topic is given and bloggers can participate.

Today’s Topic: Top Ten Favorite Posts in the First Year of Unleashing Readers

For our one year anniversary, we want to share with you our favorite posts during our first year.

1. Launch Week: Our Favorites and the Blog Hop of Other Bloggers’ Favorites

In these posts, we shared our favorite books to use for: Read-Alouds, Literature Circles/Book Clubs, and Close Readings. We also included our favorite classroom library texts and all-time favorite titles.

2. Top Books for Struggling/Reluctant Middle School Readers

When Kellee switched to teaching all struggling readers, she saw a definite trend in what they read and found success sharing these books with her students. She wanted to share them with other teachers to hope they find success as well.

3. Walden Award Finalists and Walden Award Winner

As members of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee, we were proud to share reviews of the 2013 Finalists and Winners.

4. What Being Married to a Non-Reader has Taught Me

Too often “non-readers” are put to shame and frowned upon, but many of these people read more than we do, just differently. We can learn from these “non-readers” rather than judging them.

5. Helping Our Students Achieve the Reading and Writing Flow

After reading Murray’s Write to Learn, Ricki was compelled to reflect about how this might look in the classroom.

6. Genre/Format Introductions

One of the ways Kellee makes sure her students can find the books they need is by introducing them to the array of genres and format they can find within the world of books. This is the lesson she uses to teach these.

7. Balance, Where Are You?

As teachers, balance often feels elusive. Ricki reflects on this struggle.

8. Academic Games

When teaching any child, if you make it fun, they are more likely to retain the information. Here are some academic games Kellee has found to be successful in her classroom.

9. 20 Moments I Will Miss With My Readers

When she decided to pursue a doctoral degree, Ricki began to reflect on the moments she would miss most.

10. Novels with Science Content and Novels with Math Content

As a person with a huge classroom library and extensive reading knowledge, Kellee is often the go-to person at her school for book advice. When a science and math teacher asked her for cross-curricular books, she decided to make it a blog post to share the list.

11. As we blow out the candles of this blog anniversary, we can’t help but add one more post beyond the top ten. After all, we need one candle for good luck and to grow on!

Our Babies’ Favorite Picture Books: Kellee and Trent (first three months) and Ricki and Henry (first six months)

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The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

July 27, 2015June 19, 2014 by Ricki

The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Published: April 8, 2014 by Delacorte Press

Summary: An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world… if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

Review: I particularly loved the first half of this book. While time travel is at the heart of this text, I think it would be a great book to give to readers who love dystopian fiction. Prenna’s memory of her futuristic world was fascinating to me. At times, I found Brashares to be a bit didactic, but overall, the book is very well-written and will entice readers from the first page. I always enjoy reading books about time travel because my mind spins as I try to grapple with the paradox time travel provides. If we change the past, will we exist in the future? And how can this work, if we are living in this previous time? Ah! My brain hurts. I enjoyed this book because it made me think.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Similar to my review of All Our Yesterdays, I think students would have a lot of fun selecting a time period to travel to, and perhaps, picking one event in history they would change and how it might impact the future. This could develop into a research project, and I can imagine there would be fantastic interdisciplinary connections with the subject of history. Alternatively (or additionally), teachers could link this text with the subject of science–where students research ways we are destroying our planet.

Discussion Questions: How are we destroying our planet? Do you think Ann Brashares’ prediction of the future is accurate? What is Brashares’ tone in this text?; If you could travel in time, what is one event in history that you would change and why? How might it change events in the future?

We Flagged: “People here act like the great things have already been lost, but they are wrong. They have so much still to lose” (Chapter Three).

“I guess memory is a deep well, and you don’t know what’s down there until you lower the bucket and start hauling it up” (Chapter Fifteen).

Please note: The above quotes are from the advanced reader copy. The quotes may have changed with publication.

Read This If You Loved: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Legend by Marie Lu, Divergent by Veronica Roth

Recommended For:

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on our Summer TBR Lists

June 17, 2014 by Ricki

Today’s Topic: Top Ten Books on our Summer TBR Lists

Ricki

I can only pick five?

1. Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Kellee mentions this book about three times a week, so I know it has to be good!

2. The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry by Gabrielle Zevin

I have heard wonderful things about this book. My friend just downloaded the audiobook, and we are going to listen to it together. 🙂

3. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

I found this book on NetGalley, and it looks phenomenal. It is set in 1959 Virginia and about two girls who are on opposites sides of the civil rights movement. They are forced to work together on a school project.

4. Hidden Like Anne Frank by Marcel Prins and Peter Steenhuis

This book is a collection of fourteen true stories about children who were hidden in World War II. It sounds like a very emotional read.

5. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle was on my TBR list for the winter. I read Winger and haven’t gotten to this one yet!

Kellee

I am so bad about planning what I am going to read, these TBR lists are so hard for me! So, today I decided to share what I plan on reading Trent this summer.

1. If You Were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor

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Such a cute penguin! I love penguins, and I cannot wait to share this penguin book with Trent.

2. Trucktown: Truckery Rhymes by Jon Scieszka

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I love Jon Sciezska and this poetry anthology is so much fun!

3. Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo by John Lithgow

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My parents gave this to me as a baby shower gift, and I just haven’t gotten to it yet; however, I really want to this summer! It also has a CD with it that John Lithgow reads which I know will be very entertaining.

4. You Can Be Anything by Charles M. Schulz

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What a perfect introduction to Snoopy for Trent!

5. Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Maya Angelou

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I want to share this beautiful book with Trent in honor of Maya Angelou’s life (and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s illustrations are superb).

What books do you plan to read this summer?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 6/16/14

July 27, 2015June 16, 2014 by Ricki

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book!

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join us! We love this meme and think you will, too.

We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

One Year Anniversary Celebration

We are gearing up for our one year anniversary (June 24th) and have a fun week planned with celebratory posts and giveaways! In honor of our anniversary, we redesigned the look of our blog. Because we are so excited, we couldn’t wait to share it with you all, so we are unveiling it a few weeks early! We hope you love it as much as we do. A big thank you to Philip Stetson for this beautiful design!

In preparation for our one year anniversary celebration, we would love to hear from our fellow bloggers! On June 25th, we are focusing on the power of blogging, and we would love to highlight other incredible reading/teaching blogs. If you would like your blog to be included in our post, please complete our survey:

WHY YOU BLOG SURVEY

Last Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Top Ten We’ve Read So Far This Year

Friday: How to Cheer Up Dad Author Interview

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee: I had a great reading week!!! First, I finished The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman which was a roller coaster of a ride! Highly recommend it. I then read the first book in Jon Sciezska’s newest middle grade series Frank Einstein and the Anti-matter Motor, and it is definitely going to be loved by so many middle graders. Next was All the Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry, and I am glad I knew nothing about this book when I began because the cover and description do not do it justice. A wonderful historical fiction mystery with a strong voice. Last was Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott which was probably my favorite of the week. I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down! I fell in love with the characters. SO GOOD!

Trent and I had a good book week as well:

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Salina Yoon (I have really liked everything of Salina Yoon’s I’ve read. This is a fun take on the classic nursery rhyme.)
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle (Classic! I hadn’t remembered that it taught different animals which ended up being a bit of a theme this week.)
My Dad Thinks He’s Funny by Katrina Germein (This was our Father’s Day read, and this is an example of a book that is so much better when read out loud.)
Olivia Counts by Ian Falconer (My friend’s daughter loves Olivia and this was our first encounter with her. A pretty complex counting book.)
This Little Chick by John Lawrence (Another animal book with quite the curious little chick.)
Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox (Another Mem Fox book that did not disappoint. I loved the introduction to different cultures in this one.)
Are You A Cow? by Sandra Boynton (Our final animal book. Sandra Boynton books just crack me up. I don’t know what it is about them, but they do.)

Ricki: I am writing this post a bit early because I am heading on a trip with my husband and son! I am hoping this means more reading time, but all bets are off with a baby! I haven’t finished any of my longer books yet, but Henry and I read a few picture books. We enjoyed Nest by Jorey Hurley (beautiful illustrations in this one, but there are few words, so readers will have to use their imaginations!), Early Bird by Toni Yuly (a nice story with bold graphics), Don’t Push the Button by Bill Cotter (a fun, interactive book that is much like Press Here by Hervé Tullet), Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney (a very loving, warm classic that was wonderful to read as a mama to her son), and The Snatchabook by Helen Dacherty. The Snatchabook would be my pick of the week. It is a clever, beautiful story that was so much fun to read as an adult. I will definitely be buying this one.

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee: I actually am reading two books at the moment (the crowd gasps!). I have Winger by Andrew Smith on my phone to read when I have no light, and I am reading Julie Halpern’s The F It List when I do have light. Both are very good so far. I’m a fan of each of the author’s style of writing. After these books I’m not sure what I’ll pick up. Which of these do you think I should pick up? Golden Boy, Midwinter Blood, Out of the Easy, Wise Young Fool, or Reality Boy?

Ricki: Because I am posting so early in the week, my future books haven’t changed. I am halfway through A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd, which has become one of my favorite books. I am also enjoying Voices of the Sea by Bethany Masone Harar. I haven’t read much of my PD text, We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools by Gary Howard. I am hoping to convince my husband to listen to The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin on our road trip, but he hates audiobooks, so it is highly unlikely that I will be successful!

Upcoming Week’s Posts

top ten tuesday

Tuesday: Top Ten Books on our Summer TBR Lists

Friday: Lisa Martens’ Guest Post: Mental Illness, Brain Disease, and Societal Pressures: Top 5 Books on Brain Matters

So, what are you reading?

Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

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The Merciless by Danielle Vega

July 27, 2015June 12, 2014 by Ricki

The Merciless
Author: Danielle Vega
Published: June 12th, 2014 by Razorbill (TODAY!)

Summary: Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned.

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.

Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls … unless she wants to be next…

In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?

Review: My skin crawls as I try to determine what I should write for this review. I started this book in my car. My son was sleeping in the car seat, and I didn’t want to wake him. Once he woke up, I didn’t want to leave the car. I read through all of his naps and kept reading after he went to bed. I couldn’t handle the suspense! The back of this book says, “For mature audiences only,” and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is a lot of violence and a lot of blood. I am not an avid reader of the horror genre, but I greatly enjoyed getting sucked into this story. It isn’t just a simple horror novel, either. Readers will truly ponder evil and whether it exists within us all.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Danielle Vega does an excellent job showing group think (or mob mentality). I would ask students to research this topic and consider why humans are naturally inclined to follow a group. They might consider times in history when group think was detrimental and dangerous. This is a psychological thriller, and students will likely enjoy investigating the power balance and actions between the girls in this book.

Discussion Questions: How does religion influence the girls’ decisions and actions? What role does religion play in the book?; Which characters are truly evil?; Do you agree with Sofia’s decisions at the end of the book? What might you do differently, and why?

We Flagged: “It’s a cat. A dead cat. Skin’s been peeled away from the cat’s body in strips. Flies buzz around its head and inside its mouth, crawling over its tongue and teeth. Red paint clings to the stiff grass beneath the cat’s body, and candles surround it, cemented to the ground in pools of black wax. It takes a minute for me to see that the paint is in the shape of a star, with a black candle at each point—like a ritual” (7).

Please note: The above quotes are from the Advanced Reader Copy. The quotes may change when the book is published.

Read This If You Loved: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Anything by Stephen King

Recommended For: