For our July meeting of Reading Wildly, we did Reader's Choice again. Summer is such a crazy time for us and my staff and I go home exhausted almost every day, so I want to make reading as fun and easy as possible... by giving my staff a choice! I did not assign an article for this month, but we'll get back into that in August. We were lucky to find a quiet afternoon that we could carve out an hour to talk about books. We're gearing up to reach out to our schools and hopefully set up some additional booktalking opportunities, so every Reading Wildly meeting is giving my staff another chance to practice their booktalks!
Here's what my staff and I read this month:
(Please note, many of these books are not pictured above because it is SUMMER and SO MUCH IS CHECKED OUT!)
- Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
- Don't Tap Dance on Your Teacher (Roscoe Riley Rules #5) by Katherine Applegate
- Fish by Gregory Mone
- Flight of the Phoenix (Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist #1) by R.L. LaFevers
- The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler
- Game Over, Pete Watson by Joe Schreiber
- House of Secrets by Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini
- A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
- Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
- Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes
Next month, we're talking about graphic novels (i.e. comics). This was a "genre" that was requested by my staff as we were planning for the Reading Wildly year. Even though graphic novels are always an option each month if they fit our genre, my staff does not tend to gravitate towards them. Designating a month to discussing graphic novels means they will have to try at least one, and they might find some they love! Plus, lots of our kids LOVE them, so it's definitely good for us to be familiar with popular and excellent comics. Since graphic novels are a little quicker to read than prose novels, I slotted this topic in for August while we're still recovering from Summer Reading.
I assigned the article Using Graphic Novels with Childrens and Teens: A Guide for Teachers and Librarians from Scholastic's website. The article not only justifies using graphic novels with young people, but it suggests some titles, which I thought might help my staff get started.
Whew! We're almost done with the summer rush - and into the fall rush! ;)
