MotherReader: 150 Ways to Give a Book

Many of us are in the process of doing holiday shopping. Mother Reader has made a list of 150 ways to Give a Book. I know that I have a whole new set of gift giving options.

MotherReader: 150 Ways to Give a Book: For all of your holiday shopping needs, here are 150 Ways to Give a Book , grouped by (approximate) age. They are all MotherReader-approved ...

NaNo's Eve

I haven't been posting on any of my blogs lately. I've been completely focused on the work of reconfiguration of schools, serving a wider age range of students and catching up on middle grade reading. Revamping a library to serve a new range of students is certainly time consuming, but very exciting at the same time. 

My writing has been mostly of the school related sort. I was delighted to see that one of the goals of my new school is to foster the writing skills of our students. So I suggested that NaNoWriMo would be a perfect project to have our students not only writing, but also excited about writing. Don't know about NaNoWriMo? It's National Novel Writing Month. If you don't already know this, NaNoWriMo has a curriculum of lessons that align with the Common Core. Sweet. 

I decided to have students have the option to sign up for NaNoWriMo or be critics. Before I left school today there were 142 students signed up and ready to write. 

To figure out word count for each student I assigned them a 10 minute writing test. They wrote story for 10 minutes. Then I developed a formula to calculate the number of words they could write during their library block during the month of November. Lastly, I conferenced with them and allowed them to choose to set their word count higher, lower or exactly the same. I thought it was interesting to note that most students elected to set it higher. 

Tomorrow we start writing our novels. It's going to be a crazy ride. Not only will I be writing my own novel, but I will be cheerleading 142 students as they write their novels. Coordinating extra writing time   before school, during recess and lunch and providing incentives. How I'll juggle it all, I don't know yet. 

As if that isn't enough, I've signed up for PiBoIdMo as well. 

I'm excited for this month. The writing samples students have shared with me are inspiring. I can't wait to see how it will all unfold. 

So tonight is NaNo's Eve and tomorrow I'll wake early to jot down a few words before I have to head off to school. 

Hoping your writing is sweet!

I finally decided to sign up for the Good Reads Reading Challenge. I generally like a challenge. I love reading. So it seems like it would be a natural step to join. I found myself, however, worrying about whether I could read as many books as I set out to. I worried about whether it would be embarrassing to fail. This morning as I saw that button on my Good Reads account, I thought of my students. How they feel about reading challenges. Some of them may love them. Some of them may dread them. While I can't change their feelings about this summer's challenge, I could at least take the plunge. So here I go, in the middle of July setting an arbitrary goal of 200 books for 2012. 


I realized that the additional benefit of declaring my goal is the incentive to remember to log in books that I have read. When I remember to log in books I don't usually take the time to review them. My reviews are more like notes to help me remember how I want to use the book. Occasionally a book will inspire me to write a review, but the lack of a review does not mean that I did not like it or that I was unenthusiastic about the book. I know that I spend time on social networking sites and I've learned to put limitations. I use Good Reads as a way to track my reading. It suffices at the moment. 


Want to see my progress? The widget on my sidebar is my goalkeeper. 

The Bolduc House Earthquake Exhibit

The Bolduc House Museum's exhibit to commemorate the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811 begins on December 16th. The thoughtful, varied ways they have chosen to commemorate the earthquake are intriguing and make me wish I lived closer so I could visit during the exhibit. 


The aspect of their commemoration that is close to my heart is the exhibit of Debbie Davidson's etegami. Etegami is an art form I have always admired and wanted to try. I had seen plenty of beautiful artwork in Japan, but I remember first identifying Etegami as an art form when I went to mail a postcard. The post office was a large one and had a etegami exhibit. Etegami art is striking. It is common to fill the page and spill over the sides. I feel a certain kinship to it as I feel like I spill over the sides quite a bit of the time. 


Debbie's work is remarkable. After the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster I found myself visiting her blog daily. She was a voice in those terrible days that followed that spoke of strength and unity and love. Her series Humanizing the Quake brought hope during a very fearful time. The images from Humanizing the Quake are on display at the Bolduc House Museum. The proceeds will assist those who have had to relocate after the disaster.


If the story ended there it would be enough. For me, there is more. My own response at the time seemed inadequate. Too far away. Too little. The poem I offered up was all I had to give. Debbie was inspired by it and (with my blessings) created an etegami. In fact she created two. This piece is part of the collection. So in my small way, I too, have a connection to the exhibit. 


We are all connected. We all make a difference. You never know how far your actions may ripple. 




Visit Debbie's blog Dosanko Debbie's Etegami Notebook and follow her on twitter @dosankodebbie

Our words take on a life of their own

I am reflecting on the fact that our words, once let free, take on a life of their own. Last year I wrote a poem during the Month of Poetry. When Japan suffered the great tragedy of having earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster I offered my poem up right here. 


Enter Deborah Davidson, Etegami artist based in northern Japan. Her artwork is beautiful, delicate and meaningful. I became a fan. Through some twist of fate, she read my blog and asked if she could make artwork of my  poem. I was delighted. Not only was the result beautiful, I had never seen my words through someone else's eyes. 


Months have passed and I received a comment from Deborah. Turns out she's part of a earthquake-related exhibit at The Bolduc House Museum in St. Genevieve, Mo. I'd never heard of the place. Her artwork will be for sale to raise money to relocate victims of the earthquake. She wanted to know if I would give permission for the image with a fragment of my poem to be used. My eyes misted over. Yes, a thousand times, Yes! What a beautiful thing to watch my words go out in support of this project. If you would like to see the announcement you can view it at:
http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/591095/a6771c7698/ARCHIVE


All this got me thinking of how one action leads to another. I wrote the poem during Month of Poetry so I really need to thank Kat Apel for the inspiration. I met Kat Apel through National Picture Book Writing Week and strengthened my correspondence with her through Picture Book Idea Month, so I guess I really should thank Paula Yoo and Tara Lazar. I found out about those events through NaNoWriMo from reading Paula Yoo's blog so it comes down to Paula again. And Paula, I have no idea how I started reading your blog, but it might have been from a link from Mitali Perkin's blog. 


These words of ours. We write them down. We cherish them. We raise them until they can go out into the world alone. We hope they will not be led astray by hucksters. We pray that they will reach their blissful without despair. From the cradle of an idea to the moment of graduation we love them. But at some point we set them free. 


And what a beautiful thing it is to see them bloom. To blossom. And to bring joy back to us in unexpected ways. 

Participate in Picture Book Month

This last six weeks have been all about picture books for me. Learning about them, reading them, evaluating them and trying my hand at writing them. So when I learned about Picture Book Month I wondered if I really had time to check this out as well. I thought I'd wait until December 1st, but my curiosity got the better of me. So glad it did. If you love picture books you'll want to take a visit to read all the great things these giants of the industry have to say about them. If you don't love picture books already, get over there and see what you are missing!

Guess I'll have to wait until January before I dig into those novels I've had my eye on.

Want to Write a Picture Book? Sign up for PiBoIdMo!

If you write picture books or have been thinking about giving it a try, check out PiBoIdMo. Brain Child of Tara Lazar, PiBoIdMo stands for Picture Book Idea Month. That's just what it is. Tara got tired of hearing novelists having all the fun in the month of November as they attacked their novels during NaNoWriMo. So she took matters into her own hands. The challenge of PiBoIdMo is to come up with an idea for a picture book for every day of November. You finish the month with 30 ideas to work on through the year .

Now that might sound like an easy thing to do if you haven't done it. Sure, some days the idea hits you over the head. Some days you are looking at the clock approaching midnight and your muse has left town and you have to turn to some other inspiration, like a dictionary.

This is an event that I look forward to each year. Great people have signed up for the event, Tara gives away prizes and inspiration abounds. Not only that, but you get this fabulous, funny badge for your blog created by the talented Bonnie Adamson.  It feels like homecoming weekend for picture bookies. Hope to see you there.

(Post also shared at my picture book blog, Picture Book Inspirations )