Back-to-School Guest Post: So Long to the Dog Days of Summer

Let's give a big welcome to YA author, Judith Graves to Kid Lit Frenzy.  Judith's debut book UNDER MY SKIN is a favorite of mine from this year.  In addition to being an author, Judith is also an elementary librarian.  She is stopping by today to kick off my September Back-to-School feature. 

So Long to the Dog Days of Summer


As both a library technician, working in an elementary school library, and a young adult author, I freely admit the September BACK TO SCHOOL buzz is a favourite time of year. And I’m not the only one working in education as my husband is a high school social teacher and basketball coach.

Let me put this in perspective for you. We have summers off together. Just us and our two crazy labs. All summer long. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my hubbie, fur kids and summers off. More time to chill. To renovate. To write. To procrastinate. But, and maybe I’m a sicko (more than likely), I relish going back to school.

There are the school supplies lining store shelves. The cool notebooks! (I have a coil notebook obsession, don’t you?) Even when I worked outside the educational world, I used to envy the get-new-clothes, get-new-school-stuff frenzy. September is like January (without the diets). It’s a time to embrace the future – the possibilities in life.

Now, I know this means a return to alarm clocks, granola bar lunches eaten while on supervision, stacks of books to catalogue and shelve, finding rotten bananas squished in said books, choir practice to organize, and drama club kids to recruit. But it also means hanging with the amazing staff at my school, finding out the summer gossip, meeting new students and families, feeling the “we’re back!” charge in the air, setting goals for myself, and planning a ton of cool things for my library world – plus, checking out all the new books and generally being inspired.

While I will mourn the sleepins, lazy days on the beach throwing sticks for the dogs, the travelling and doing whatever I want, whenever I want, I know I wouldn’t be half the writer, or the person, without my fantabulous job that surrounds me with opportunities to grow and learn.

So here’s to those fancy new highlighters and notebooks, bring on the morning announcements, staff meetings, and professional development workshops. But please let us have a few extra snow days this year.

You can find out more about UNDER MY SKIN and Judith Graves on her website: www.judithgraves.com

Thanks Judith for stopping by and kicking off my Back-to-School Month Posts.

Book Review - Day & Night

Author/Illustrator: Teddy Newton
Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 4, 2010)
Ages: 4 to 8 year olds
Source: From Publisher for Review
Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5

Description from GoodReads:

Day meets Night and Night meets Day in this delightful picture book based on the Pixar short, Day & Night, which premiered with Toy Story 3 in 2010. Kids will delight in the way these two characters explore their differences and eventually realize how much they like and enjoy each other. A wonderful way to experience the magic of this Pixar short again and again and—rejoice in the attraction of opposites!

I first became aware of Day & Night through the animated short which aired prior to TOY STORY 3.  The animated short was entertaining.  Watching the interactions between the two characters was humorous.  Consequently, I was expecting to really love the book as much as I did the animated version.  Yet, I am not certain that I did love it as much as the video version.

This is definitely one of those books where the cover and packaging produces an automatic favorable impression.  The black cover, bold white lettering, slick glossy cover, heavy-weight paper - of course it is going to be great.  The text and the ability of the printed format to carry the book to another level should be ensuring success.  However, despite all of those really cool and positive things, I was feeling only so-so when I finished reading it.  

Is this a case where the animated version causes the reader to expect something different?  I know I always say that the book is better than the movie but that is because I typically read the book before the movie.  In this case, I saw the "movie" prior to the book.  Did it spoil the book for me?  Honestly, I don't know.  All I do know is that even after a few read throughs, the book was okay - fun but not necessarily stellar.  

I will say that I enjoyed how Day & Night shared special abilities each one had with one another.  I felt that their message that their uniqueness plus the ability to overlap (even for short times) was part of an important message for young readers.  Along with the sense that they each have a part of the other one with them at all times.  


Will children enjoy looking at the illustrations and flipping through the pages?  Yes.  Will I share the book with my students.  Yes.  Will they like it?  Probably so.  Despite some minor concerns with the book, it is still a book that I would suggest to teachers to check out.
  
-Aly

Book-A-Day Challenge Week 11

The Book-A-Day Challenge was started by Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer) at the beginning of the summer. Most of the teachers and librarians who have been participating in Book-A-Day have wrapped up their Book-A-Day posts since they have already returned to school.  This is my last "official" book a day post, but I will continue to post weekly "what I am reading".

Here are some things that I learned from Book-A-Day...

* I read a lot of books that start with the letter "S" and followed by "B", "R", and "C".

* Graphic novels I have learned to enjoy.  Manga still confuses me.

* Most books for 2nd & 3rd graders seem to contain a lot of humor.

* Picture books are a great fall back when you aren't going to reach your weekly goal. :-)

* Yes, it is possible to read this many books and still have a life in the summer.  (You won't watch much TV but that wasn't an issue for me anyway.)

* There are some inspirational teachers and librarians doing amazing things to get kids to read.  I have come to really appreciate all of my fellow #bookaday tweeps.

Here is the breakdown of books by general categories:

Picture books: 51 (fiction, non-fiction)
Middle Grade: 20 (mostly fiction, early chapter books, graphic novels included)
YA: 19 (includes graphic novels, and manga)
Other: 5 (includes adult books, and 3 full length unpublished manuscripts which I read in order to provide feedback)

Total number of pages: It is unclear but from a general count well over 9000 and that doesn't even consider the pages in picture books. 

To look back on last week's reading:

Picture Books

Fiction:
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts - A wonderfully touching story about friendship and giving.

My Best Friend is As Sharp As A Pencil by Hanoch Piven - A young girl uses unusual descriptions to tell her grandmother about her friends.  Illustrations are multi-media and very interesting.

Our Children Can Soar by Michelle Cook - Simple text, beautiful illustrations, powerful book with a universal theme.  Excellent for Black History Month.

How To Heal A Broken Wing by Bob Graham - Feel good story about a child who helps a pigeon heal from an injury.

Non-fiction:
Redwoods by Jason Chin - As a non-fiction book author friend of mine said "This is creative non-fiction."  Lots of great facts about Redwoods told in story fashion with very complimentary illustrations that make the text come alive.

Middle Grade:
Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo - A favorite find of the summer.  A graphic novel for MG that is fun and touching.  Can't wait to share this one.

A Mouse Called Wolf by Dick King-Smith - A recommendation from a 7 year old friend.  The story is about a Mouse named after Mozart and who may have more in common with his namesake than you would imagine.  A nice early chapter book.

YA:
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (debut author 2010) - A good debut offering from Lauren Oliver.  This twist on GROUNDHOGS DAY (the movie) portrays high school in a very realistic manner.  The main character re-lives her last day of life 7 times.  Can she make just the right changes in the day to influence the final outcome?

Where will I go from here?  Well I won't stop reading books but as I mentioned earlier with the school year returning my reading will likely turn into 1 or 2 books realistically per week.  I will keep you posted with reviews and features.  And I encourage everyone to set a goal of reading at least 1 book a week.  If you were to do that you would read 52 books in the year.

Winners for the Thank You to My Followers Contest

Cue up the drum roll....the winners are in!  Remember there are actually a total of six lucky winners. All winners were generated with Research Randomizer number generator.

For the 2 Clockwork Angel Posters:
# 7 - Lucky Proof
# 15 - Aik

For the 2 Bookmark Packs:

The Debut Author Pack goes to:
#4 - Raven

The 2010 Release Bookmark Pack goes to:
#2  - Lisa

And now for the big winners....

# 12  - Khelsea will be receiving her first choice which is the ARC of Torment by Lauren Kate (and she has claimed it already - yay!)

#1 - Cynthia will be receiving her first choice which is the signed copy of Heist Society by Ally Carter.

I have emailed all of the winners and you have 24 hours in which to claim your prizes. 

Congratulations to all the lucky winners and thanks for following!
-Aly

P.S.  Lucky Proof (Victoria) - Your email bounced back.  I will try again, but if you are reading this can you email me at kidlitfrenzy(at)gmail(dot)com Thanks