Mama Librarian: 2015

Monday, March 23, 2015

Title Roundup: Middle Grade Novels in Verse

When I discovered verse novels, I felt like I'd found another piece of the elephant. This was going to be a hook to get more kids reading! Lovers of imagery and short fiction and, heck, rap could appreciate the meter and rhythm of poetic novels. I immediately put together a program for my fifth graders and applied for a grant to buy the very best middle grade verse novels out there.

That was five years ago. I haven't taught fifth graders since. There have been a ton of good ones published in the last five years, but consider that these titles inspired the newer ones. Amidst the buzz this year about Brown Girl Dreaming, Crossover, How I Discovered Poetry and others at the ALA Youth Media Awards this year, don't overlook these titles for your middle grade and young teen readers.

Cover pics from Goodreads, and they all link there. Here's my complete Goodreads shelf of poetic novels. What favorites of yours did I miss?

Other lists of MG poetic novels (with some YA mixed in, because crossover):

Video: Sam and Dave Dig A Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

This is one of those posts that has languished in my drafts since I wrote it in October, and by now everyone knows about the book, of course, so I'm just going to post it.

I had this video open in a tab in my browser for a week before pressing play. I actually squeed when I watched it. It wasn't because of the dreamy Mac Barnett/Jon Klassen combo. It was because of the Burl Ives music in the background. I spent my childhood listening to this album.

If you think that cover is trippy, check out the lyrics:

Saw a flea kick a tree
Fooba Wooba, Fooba Wooba
Saw a flea kick a tree
Fooba Wooba John

Saw a flea kick a tree
In the middle of the sea
Whoa, John, ho, John
Fooba Wooba John

It just gets weirder from there. There's a song about the sow getting the measles, too. Really catchy, though. Go listen. Maybe it doesn't age as well as I think it does, but if Jon Klassen thinks you should listen to Burl Ives, maybe you ought to give it a try?

Olé! Bloggiesta 2015

I look forward to Bloggiesta because I get so much more done when I have a community backing me up. This is really fun for me.

I have been a miserable book blogger over the past three years, but this year I have made big strides back toward being involved in my reading and blogging life, so I'm proud of that. As part of this spring's Bloggiesta, I resolve to

enter the books I've read this winter into Goodreads
sign up for one reading challenge for 2015
read at least one of the books on my TBR shelf.

Now I've begun setting up my wordpress.org site, which is far more complicated than I expected -- but I've done web hosting before and managed my own servers, so I know I can figure this thing out soon enough. I resolve to

sort through the issues around hosting and domain registration
transfer my Blogger site to Wordpress
create my blog banner using the art my mom created for me.

I'm sure there are other things I could be doing, but that's a good start.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy 2015!

I'm returning to school with all kinds of new ideas. Which, of course, means less sleep for me, but... hey, I can sleep when I'm dead.

I was so excited to participate in the Cybils this year! This was my fourth year on the first round panels, but my first time as part of the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book cohort. We read over 90 books and narrowed it down to these fourteen. Good luck to the second round panelists, who have to decide which one is the winner!

Because of the Cybils, I already read more last year than I did in the three years previously. Good on me. In 2015, I want to get blogging about books again. One review post a week, I say! Can I do it?

Back soon with Mock Caldecott news.

Mama Librarian