Reading Recommendations

September 20, 2019

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I can safely say I have some KICK BUTT readers in my classroom this year. I. Am. So. Excited.

I am so excited that I just wrote fragments.

I took the kiddos to the library last week, and, again, shoutout to Melanie Roy who is my soul sister in almost every respect, as she nerded out with me about YA fiction and nonfiction and taught the students to utilize the technology to find books that they want to read.

So here is a recap of things that happened last week that make my inner reading nerd heart burst with joy: I was asked for recommendations from my kiddos for books while in the library, and I was privileged to learn more about what they enjoy. Turns out that they want to read a lot of the material that I’m interested in!

I discovered that Meg Cabot’s Princess Diary books are in our library, and I felt instantly reconnected to my middle school years. I even got a young lady to check it out and give it a chance. I’m making it a sub mission to revitalize that series. It’s amazing; I’m serious.

I was given book recommendations from several students, but I got two copies of books from students to borrow— Paper Things, which I’ve heard excellent things about and One for the Murphys by my fave Fish in the Tree author, Lynda Mullaly Hunt. I’m so excited for these treasures (and for the verse novels coming from another one of my dear students).

One of my kiddos donated a BUNCH of books to my classroom library for her fellow peers to enjoy. HOW GREAT IS THAT? Building a culture of sharing books is a dream, and I feel like some major steps were taken this week!

I brought myriads (my kids know this is one of my favorite words) of my own YA novels to put on the shelf behind my desk (YA on the Shelf is happening literally). I need to take a picture and post it, but I digress. Students immediately took a look at the titles and asked to borrow. YASSS!

Needless to say, I am really feeling empowered by this— to keep this going and to continuously encourage reading by modeling my own obsession with books. Friends, this was a hard week in many ways, but these little snippets of joy and hope made it beautiful, too.

I hope you feel some of the inspiration I feel just from reading those memories from the week. 🙂