Summer of 100 Books

Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, issued a challenge to her followers in June. She challenged us to read a book a day during summer vacation.  Being a huge fan, I was excited to join her in what she called the "ultimate staycation."

I began the challenge on June 7th reading two books, If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.   I finished Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater today, and it was my 100th book.

Throughout the summer, I read 33 fiction and non-fiction picture books.  Two of my favorites were Mom and Dad are Palindromes by Mark Shulman and Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. 

I Heart You, You Haunt Me was my first verse novel, and by reading it, I rediscovered my love of poetry.  It led me to choose 4 others:  Carver: A Life in Poems, Crank, Out of the Dust, and Who Killed Mr. Chippendale: A Mystery in Poems.

10 fantasy and science fiction titles made my summer list.  I adored Shiver and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Life As We Knew It is still keeping me up at night.  

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and The Outsiders were my favorites out of the 14 realistic fiction books I finished, and Countdown, Flygirl, and The Book Thief stood out as the best of the 15 historical fiction titles. 

When I looked at my list of books, I was surprised that 17 were biographies, because I'm usually not drawn to non-fiction. However, Driven, A Photobiography of Henry Ford, Up In the Air: The Story of Bessie Coleman, and The Boy Who Invented TV:  The Story of Philo Farnsworth were all fascinating, and I learned something new from each one. 

2 more books, Writing About Reading and The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools: Creating a Culture of Thinking made their way onto my professional bookshelf. 

Although I tried to read mostly middle grade and young adult fiction, I did manage to squeeze in a 4 adult titles.   The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was beautiful, and I can't wait to discuss it at book club this year.   I stayed up all night reading Confessions of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim.  

So there you have it!  100 books in 66 days.  (My complete Book-A-Day list can be found on Goodreads.)   

I want to thank Donalyn and all the other book-a-day readers for their enthusiasm and encouragement.   I appreciated your comments and suggestions.  You have all inspired me to take my passion for reading and learning back to school.   It was a great summer staycation, and it will be a great year in my learning life.

Read-a-Thon Closing Comments

It was touch and go for a while there, but I finished my third book, Out of the Dust at 11:51 p.m.   I had wanted to finish before midnight, I made it with a whopping 9 minutes to spare!

What a great experience this Read-a-Thon has been!   I enjoyed each book, and I had fun following everyone's progress on Twitter.  Thanks to #bookblogchat, my TBR pile is now the size of Chimney Rock. 

Besides book recommendations, another perk has been discovering some cool new blogs.  In addition to Wallace's Unputdownables (the creative force behind this weekend's event) I'm loving Carin's A Little Bookish, Reese's Bibliophile Girl, and Michelle's The True Book Addict.  You all have inspired me to be a better blogger!

With the three books I've read this weekend, my summer reading challenge (more about that in my next post) stands at 75 books.  

Thanks again to Unputdownables for hosting this event, and to Donalyn for sharing it with me.

48 Hour Read-a-Thon

This weekend I am participating in a 48 hour Read-a-Thon.  This event is being hosted by the Unputdownables blog.   I hope to finish  The Watson's Go to Birmingham,  Al Capone Shines My Shoes, and Out of the Dust.    Mmmm, I guess I'm in the mood for historical fiction!

Book in an Hour

It's spring cleaning time, and I've been busy organizing, filing, and recycling all kinds of papers.  The best part of this horrible chore is discovering a lesson or idea that you once loved but had forgotten.

Buried in a pile of papers, I found a packet from a conference titled, "Intriguing, Inspiring, and Innovative Ideas to Make a Difference in Your Reading Classroom by Dr. Deb Wellman and Dr. Madeline Kovarik. As I flicked through the pages, the words "Book in an Hour" jumped out at me.  When I was still in fourth grade, I remember trying this strategy with the book Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman. 

Book in an Hour goes something like this:   Pairs of students choose or are assigned a chapter from the book.  No one gets to read the first chapter or last chapter.  When they are finished reading, partners write down the "gist" of the chapter.  They also write down questions they have about previous chapters and questions they have about future chapers. 

When students are finished reading and writing, the class comes back together.  The first chaper is read aloud by the teacher.  The students then take turns sharing the information and questions from their chapters.  As their peers are sharing,  students have most of their questions answered.   The last chapter is then read aloud.  Any remaining questions or thoughts are discussed. 

Like I said, it had been awhile since I used Book in an Hour, but I thought it might be a good differentiated activity to suggest to teachers.   I was excited to be invited into a fourth grade room to "try it out." 

Unfortunately, it didn't go so well.  The lesson wasn't a total flop, but it was close.   After debriefing with the teacher and reflecting on my own, I madesome changes (more modeling, more practice, shorter book) then tried it again in another fourth grade classroom using the book Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.   I'm happy to report that this time it went much better.   I was pleased with the inferences and questions that the students generated.   Best of all, students were engaged in an authentic task that resulted in meaningful discussion and a wonderful shared reading experience.  

So, "Book in an Hour" turned into "Book in a Couple of Days", but it was time well spent.  Wish spring cleaning was half as fun.

Reading Ideas

Today a teacher asked me if I knew of any good reading websites. She needed something to use as a center activity during her reading block. Thanks to Kelly from ilearntechnolgy for sharing these sites.

Big Universe


In a nutshell: Big Universe has hundreds of non-fiction and fiction books that students can read online. There is a monthly fee, but students can access the free book of the day.



Book Wink
In a nutshell: Through podcasting and video, Book Wink connects kids in Grades 3 through 8 with books that will make them excited about reading. After watching the booktalks, students could create a list of books that they would like to check out from the library.



Ology
In a nutshell: This little gem from the American Museum of Natural History invites students to investigate a variety of "ology" topics including zoology, archaeology, astronomy, and more. It is very user friendly and would be perfect for a reading center activity.