The Story Spectator: reading challenge

Showing posts with label reading challenge. Show all posts

Monday, January 1, 2024

My Top Reads of 2023

"How do you decide to what to read next?" This is a common question I get asked by my students, colleagues, even friends and family members want to know. One of my responsiblities as a school librarian is to be on-top of publishing trends, award nominees, and participate in global professional learning networks centered around literacy for young people.

Below, you will find my top reads of the year for young adults and middle grade readers. These are all books that I personally read as print books, e-books or audio books. Some were from my public and school library, some I purchased from used bookstores, garage sales and independent bookstores. In my work I get to pre-read books prior to publishing so some of these titles were read as Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) through NetGalley. I'm also in a book review group with fellow educators and school librarians from across the U.S., #BookExcursion. We receive books from publishers and authors with the intention of getting the word out about upcoming titles. Finally, in addition to these professional groups that I am a part of, I am personally a reader in over 4 book clubs.

I hope that this list below helps people who are looking for powerful books to read themselves, read with children, for a book club, read aloud for a class lesson, use with small groups, order for their children, for school libraries or even to gift to others.

Check out my list from 2022 HERE for more book ideas to use with children and young adults.

Young Adult

Nonfiction Middle Grade

Middle Grade Chapter Books

Graphic Novels

See any books that you enjoyed? Let me know in the comments. What should I read for 2024?

One positive effect of a comprehensive booklist like this is that I am able to see what types of books are missing from my reading life. In the year ahead, I plan to read more nonfiction books, as well as graphic novels. There are some excellent reading challenges for 2024:

Winter Reading Challenge

The Candid Cover's list for all ages

The 52 Book Club

BiblioLifestyle Reading Challenge

ShelfReflection

ReaderHaven

Feel free to pick one to help you stay motivated to read and share what you like with others. The best way to find out what to read next is by word of mouth!

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Popcorn Olympics in the Library or Classroom

During the 2018 Winter Olympics I was the school library media specialist at a middle school. I was looking for a way to drive more students into the library while increasing community bonds and connect to the Winter Olympics. I found some ideas online to use popcorn in mini-competitions and award competitors who do the best. What I liked most about this is that athleticism had nothing to do with the events and if a student didn't want to compete, they could send someone else to fill in for them and the rest of the team could cheer each other on.

Here is a copy of the slideshow I shared with the teachers.

First, I assigned one country to each CAT class, which was our advisory, seminar or homeroom classes. In an elementary school this could be each classroom or grade level. After classes were assigned their country, the teachers let them decorate their doors in honor of their countries. So students who wanted to made signs, printed flags and maps and put the colors of their assigned country up in their rooms.

Next, teachers shared the 5 different popcorn events that students could enter. Each country could enter one student per event and the teachers submitted their names through a Google form.

Students could practice the events on their own time and when they were ready they came to the library to do their event. This was in a middle school setting so I was always available for the events. If I do this with elementary students, I would have the competitors come down in heats to compete during a morning meeting or other scheduled time. It could even work during library classes.

Each day I'd post the leading countries on Schoology and outside of the library. On the last day we had a "closing ceremonies" where I awarded the top 3 finishers with medals, candy and a photo. The countries who were in the top 3 of each event won a popcorn party. During the day when the Winter Olympics were being televised we showed the highlights on the library screens and students enjoyed seeing the athletes compete. Some even were cheering on the athletes from their assigned countries during the popcorn olympics!

There are many variations on this that only focus on reading challenges, but if you wanted to only do events and promote books about countries and athletes, you can do that, too. If you have more ideas please drop them in the comments below!

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Bit About Books Winter Reading Challenge 2021

Ever since I was young, books offered an escape. I could travel somewhere else, become a different person and join the characters on their journey for the duration of the book reading, but also, afterwards. When I'd hear something and could connect it to a character, event or storyline from a story, I knew that books were magical because they could become a part of me. It is not surprising that as a teacher and librarian I am constantly on the lookout for the best books to read and share with my students, teachers, and community members.

One way that helps me stay on track with reading is by participating in reading challenges. It's easy to do when the categories for what to read are intriguing, yet broad enough to find books that fit within them. Another way that makes it more enjoyable is to share what I am reading for the challenge with others. I love learning what others are reading and if they like it. With the high numbers of books being published, word of mouth, seems like the best way to catch the best of the best ones.

This is my first year participating in the Bit About Books Winter Reading Challenge. There are points for each category and you can share what you've read on social media with the hashtag, #bitaboutbooks . I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and will participate in future challenges because it pushed me out of my comfort zone to read books I wouldn't usually read on my own:

FREE CHOICE: When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller