This past week our Maine Literacy Council held its annual Fall Book Bonanza. We wanted to share some of the best new titles for the 2015 school year with teachers and librarians in Maine.  Trying to decide which books made the cut was tough.  There are SO many amazing kidlit offerings and we each had our favorites.  So rather than  offer more in depth book talks with a few titles, we wanted to share a larger harvest of books this autumn.

We decided that a good way to match readers with books was to offer speed dating with titles!  As with speed dating people, where the purpose is to increase your pool of potential “likes” by meeting a large number of people in short bursts, we wanted participants to meet a large number of books, in hopes that they will leave with a lot of potential “matches”.

We started with the Maine Student Book Award nominees for the upcoming school year.  Diana Marc-Aurele from the MSBA brought a copy of each title on display for participants to “meet” personally. She shared the MSBAs awesome website with resources for teachers and readers to preview, review,  and document the books they read. One of my favorite resources are the book trailers compiled in a LiveBinder page.

We shared The Chickadee Award nominee’s for this year.  Ten picture books will be voted on by over 20,000 Maine school children between March 1 and April 1 next spring.  The goal (as stated on their website) is for children to develop an appreciation of outstanding writing and illustration in current children’s picture books through participation in the program.

We shared the book nominees for this year’s GLOBAL READ ALOUD. Pernille Ripp’s amazing project brings kids and books together all over the world, and allows them opportunities to connect with other readers.  This year’s GRA begins October 5th, but don’t worry if you miss that date, it continues on through the month of October.

Then we put on our blitz of kidlit titles.  Organizing by genre, we tried to highlight K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade spans, but we were careful to note that these were only some rough guidelines.  Many books cross over into nearly every age or grade span, depending on its purpose.  We also put graphic novels into a category, but reminded participants that graphic novels are not a genre, they are a format.  We shared nonfiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction graphic novels from primary grades up through high school and beyond.

We wrapped up with some of the newest titles in professional books for literacy and instruction from Stenhouse (59 Reasons to Write, Worth Writing About, The Construction Zone, and Readers Front and Center), Heinemann (I AM Reading, Writers ARE Readers,  Learning from Classmates: Using Students’ Writing as Mentor Texts, The Unstoppable Writing Teacher, as well as Learn Like a Pirate and The Doodle Revolution.

You can see our entire presentation HERE.

We didn’t want to just share titles with participants, we wanted to share actual books.  So aside from raffling off some amazing professional books from Stenhouse and Heinemann we offered lots of gently used, formerly loved books for participants to adopt! One of my goals as a literacy coach is to get books into the hands of kids-either directly or through their teachers and classroom libraries.   I collect discards and unwanteds and find them new homes!  I offer tips for repurposing some older books that might not be “loved” any longer:

• Create new covers with student artwork or photos
• Allow students to annotate close reading evidence/strategies right in the book
• Create “Little Free Libraries” in the community
• Cut out the text, paste it into blank booklets and let students illustrate (visualize).
• Cut out the illustrations, past it into blank booklets and let students write!
• Create “CUT UP” poetry in which students clip text and reassemble into new ideas and meanings.

What ideas can you think of for re-using adopted books?

What’s On My Book Radar?

I’ve heard so much about this book, I couldn’t wait to get it and read it, and I wasn’t disappointed! Suzy Swanson becomes obsessed with jellyfish when her friend Franny drowns with no explanation. Suzy is determined to find out if jellyfish had something to do with her friends death and discovers how interconnected all life truly is. Beautifully written with compassion and everything you’d ever want to know about jellyfish! Recommend 6th grade and up.

HAPPY READING!