It’s been a minute since I’ve posted to this blog, but I am still alive and kicking. I’ve missed this community of readers and appreciate how you’ve reached out through Twitter, Facebook, etc. So for anyone I’m not yet connected with on other social media, I’ll give a brief recap of my last 12 months. Just over a year ago, my family made a crazy last-minute decision to start moving down to Texas, in stages. Almost all of our extended family lives in Texas and the kids were missing out on a chance to see their grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, etc. And while we initially enjoyed raising our ..read more

Tap! Tap! Tap! Is this thing on?? We’re fully into SUMMER break and I figured it’s time to hop on and give a quick reading update on some new K-12 reads I’ve enjoyed. Feel free to follow or “friend” my Goodreads account where I update my reading, almost daily. With the extra craziness this spring, I’ve only read/reviewed 145 new books since January. However, the good news is that I’ve nearly finished all of the 93 Cybils Awards 2021 Finalists. I am working on the very last one this week and I’m a bit sad this challenge is coming to an end. Beth of Library Chicken created an amazing finalists ..read more

I’m happy to be participating in the #MustRead challenge again in 2022. My thanks to Cheriee of Library Matters and Leigh Anne at A Day in the Life for hosting this community (previously created and hosted by Carrie at There’s a Book for That). If you want to link up, join the 2022 round-up before January 31st right HERE. We are invited to publish updates on our “must read” progress in April, September, and then one final post in December (or January for those of us who keep going through December 31st). Here’s my list in graphic form (in no particular order): And here’s my list in print (I ..read more

Happy Monday! If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! I regularly participate in a weekly #IMWAYR meme. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give Kathryn’s (at Book Date) “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” meme a kidlit focus, reviewing books in children’s literature (picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in the world of kidlit). If you enjoy this type of reading, join us every Monday to share what you’ve been reading! I’m going to be real for a moment, here. I’m ..read more

Happy Monday morning and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! It’s been an unusual past week for our family for two reasons: First, we tested positive for Covid and had to stay in quarantine for the week. Hubby and I were both vaccinated, so after the first 24 hours of fever, headache, and body aches, we mostly just had mild upper respiratory symptoms and fatigue. In fact, the one thing that finally tipped us off that it was possibly Covid was when I spilled a bottle of essential oils on my hands and suddenly realized I couldn’t smell anything (including straight rubbing alcohol, which I tried ..read more

Well, I’m here today. Barely! I’m happy to say, I completed my #MustReadin2021 list, finishing all 49 books that I considered mandatory. YAY! I also met my yearly goal of reading 365 books. Whew! I’ve let my Goodreads account go in recent months, so there was a lot lot of catch-up over the last two weeks. If we’re not yet connected on Goodreads, please feel free to friend me. I love the connection and accountability over there. I really believe it helps me keep better organized knowing my reading buddies are often popping on and off all week on that platform. Oh yeah. I thought I’d mention ..read more

Last Monday, I quickly posted my #imwayr entry late, late Sunday evening. Then I walked away from my computer almost the entire week to bake, watch movies, finish wrapping presents, and to send out the last of our local cards (mostly just hand-delivered cards since they’re neighbors and I wanted to make sure they made it before Christmas). And then we watched our entire family get sick, one-by-one, like dominos. We’ve had everything from stomach bugs to respiratory crud to headaches to severe ear aches to entire body aches. We had to take one of the kiddos to the ER on Christmas Eve and again ..read more

If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! Today is Monday, and I regularly participate in a weekly #IMWAYR meme. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give Kathryn’s (at Book Date) “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” meme a kidlit focus, reviewing books in children’s literature (picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in the world of kidlit). If you enjoy this type of reading, join us every Monday to share what you’ve been reading! This week I’m only sharing two middle ..read more

I’ve sure missed this community the last two weeks. It seemed Monday was coming ’round far too quickly each week with company in town and our holiday preparations, so I just put it off while enjoying family. We had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving with my mom having flown in with my 11-year-old niece, from Texas. We played games, went swimming, cooked delicious foods, watched movies, decorated our tree, and went out to eat on our last night together. It was terribly sad to have to say goodbye! This year has unexpectedly provided some turbulence in my reading schedule. Nevertheless, I am fi ..read more

I’m still on book cover sharing for the time being. But first… in school library news last week, I was surprised to find this article in my Facebook feed this week. The surprise came from the fact that the two Texas school districts mentioned are ones with which I have an intimate history. I attended Leander Independent School District as a student from 2nd grade into high school. Then years later I became a classroom teacher for the Keller Independent School District (and later completed my school librarian internship there). In any case, we are pretty much guaranteed that these two books wi ..read more