One of my favorite things about being a reader and teacher librarian is learning about and reading upcoming books.  Our friends at Capstone have announced the upcoming 2024 Spring Books and I couldn't be more excited to see all of these upcoming titles.  As Capstone shared on the site,  Welcome to our preview of the most anticipated books for fall! Among the books we’re most excited about this season include Author vs. Illustrator, a laugh-out-loud picture book about the not-so-simple process of creating a picture book from Lemke & Lentz, the collab ..read more

  Dear Future Ready Librarian,   As we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, it’s the perfect opportunity to extend our gratitude to librarians. You play multiple roles—as teachers, helpers, collaborators, and supporters. Your work, both within and beyond the library, serves as a vital community hub, fostering learning and support for both students and colleagues.   We have TWO requests to help us with our ongoing and future programming for Future Ready Librarians:   1. We value your input and need your insights! Please take about 5 minutes to participate in a survey tailor ..read more

  I would like to invite you to join me and Literati Book Fairs for a NEW webinar, 3 Strategies to Market Your School Library Program. The webinar is on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 4:00pm CST.  I will share 3 strategies to market your school library program and get more engagement from teachers, students, and families. You will walk away with practical insight you can apply immediately. There will be a live Q & A following the presentation, so have your questions ready.  You can register for the webinar here. We hope you can join us, friends.  If you can't atte ..read more

The results for the TOP PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next Articles for April are in, friends!  How fun to see the Top PebbleGo articles read by kids around the U.S. each month!  When I saw this report for the first time, I circled, highlighted and jumped into PebbleGo to look up several of the articles I hadn't seen before. I also celebrated ones that were my favorites too, like Axolotls and Taylor Swift.  My friends at Capstone and I, were talking one day and thought it would be really awesome to take the information from the reports and turn it into something that studen ..read more

                 I would like to invite you to join me and Literati Book Fairs for a NEW webinar, 3 Great Ways To Inspire A Love Of Reading Within Children.   The webinar is today, Monday, May 6 at 4pm CST.   You will leave with specific ideas for the library, classroom, and even to share with families at home....and it will be perfect for summer reading.  There will be a live Q & A following the presentation, so have your questions ready.  You can register for the webinar here. We hope you can join u ..read more

  The results of the TOP 10 Capstone Interactive eBooks in April 2024 are here!  I am so excited to share them with our readers, and with all of you to share with your readers too.  Our students LOVE reading eBooks in Capstone Interactive!   They go to Capstone Interactive to read eBooks that are connected to content from the curriculum; eBooks for book clubs; eBooks that are interesting to them; eBooks that are new to Capstone Interactive; and much more. Capstone Interactive eBooks is definitely our go-to for all students and teachers within our school.&n ..read more

  As we get close to the end of the school year, we start to think about processes that keep our library collection current, fresh and ready for new books and resources.   Weeding is where I like to start!   Weeding is the process of removing items from our collection.  We have weeding policies that are tailored to fit the needs of our library collection, and are aligned with best practices. Being diligent and confident in weeding is key to a healthy collection.  As we come to an end to circulating books for the year, we need to think about weeding as we r ..read more

                  It's almost time for one of our favorite days coming up on May the 4th....Star Wars Day!  On this day, there are lots of exciting, educational, creative and fun ways to celebrate.  We tie in lots of STEAM, art, coding, reading and learning online to this day and throughout the week.  To kick off our celebration, I created this choice board, Let's Celebrate Star Wars Day With This Choice Board. You will find the link to share with students here.    If you would like to make a copy to e ..read more

  May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.  I am bringing together a display in our library from authors and illustrators to celebrate and honor AANHPI month.  One of the series that I have highlighted is Ben Lee from Capstone.  Hanna Kim is the author of the Ben Lee series. She is also a middle school English language arts teacher.  Hanna wrote this wonderful post, How Identify Shaped My Writing.  You will love reading her story and learning more about the Ben Lee series too.  You can find the f ..read more

Children's Book Week is coming up next week on May 6-May 12, 2024.   As shared on the Every Child A Reader site,  As part of the longest-running national celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading, over 2,300 schools, libraries, and bookstores will celebrate Children’s Book Week from May 6 to May 12 from coast to coast in all 50 states. This year marks the 105th anniversary of Children’s Book Week; the theme for this year’s celebration is No Rules. Just Read. The 2024 Children’s Book Week poster was created by Sophie Blackall. Sophie invites readers yo ..read more