The Many Hats of a School Librarian

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu My rating: 3 of 5 stars I will change my review when I really read it. soon... View all my reviews

Mike Stellar: Nerves of Steel by K.A. Holt My rating: 3 of 5 stars At the beginning, this book seemed totally crazy to me. A trip to Mars? Moving there? What? Really? But then, as I kept reading, this new future environment began to be totally believable to me. I then could really care about the characters and enjoy the action in the story. View all my reviews

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea My rating: 4 of 5 stars This would be a great read-aloud in any of my intermediate classrooms. There are so many lessons to be learned from Mr. Terupt! The obvious ones are to be nice, forgive, and be there for your friends. Maybe a less obvious one is because I am a teacher. The thing that struck me was that in the few instances where Mr. Terupt gave lessons, redirected behavior, or spoke to his students, it didn't seem that important. However, the reaction of the students after the accident, made me really stop and think about how much I influence my students by the little things. Even though our students test us, I know they care about us just as much as we care about them. View all my reviews

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz My rating: 4 of 5 stars Oh the girls in my school who like fairies will love this story of a real fairy, Flora, as she is forced to take an adventure she didn't plan to because of an accident with a bat. This fairy learns how to love the creatures she ends up to live around. View all my reviews

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper My rating: 4 of 5 stars Wow! This one was so great! I don't know how the MN students are going to choose for the Maud Hart Lovelace award this year! It was so interesting to get a glimpse inside the thoughts of someone who can't speak like I can. This was written a few years ago, so myspace was the web presence of choice and for the first few chapters, I was thinking about how iPads are probably now being used for communication much less expensively than before. I was so happy to follow along with Melody's journey in 5th grade. View all my reviews

Alibi Junior High by Greg Logsted My rating: 4 of 5 stars This one kept me turning the pages quickly! I love anything having to do with spies and the CIA so I was so excited when I read the description for this one. It was kind of cool to see what it must be like to be a kid with so many powerful skills, and it made me thankful for my boring life in MN. View all my reviews

Quarterback Season by Fred Bowen My rating: 3 of 5 stars If you like sports books, this is a good one. it it written in journal format and has lots of technical descriptions of football. It helped me understand a bit more of the game, but I would have liked it better if it was about dance :) View all my reviews

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this! I had to keep Kleenex near by the entire time, not because it was sad, but because it was so inspiring! I have run in races before, so it was easy for me to identify with some of the settings and how she feels about running sometimes. I definitely recommend it! View all my reviews

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass My rating: 3 of 5 stars I listened to this books by checking out the digital audiobook and downloading it to my mp3 player. I listened to it while we took a long road trip. At first, I was kind of bored. Was I really going to sit this whole time and just listen to a story about a girl and her birthday party? Well, I kept listening and then the twist happened and I wanted to keep listening. I didn't even notice how boring the drive through the cornfields of Iowa was because I was busy visualizing the girl's party... over and over again. I even wanted to keep listening once we got to our destination. View all my reviews

Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise My rating: 3 of 5 stars I liked that this is a ghost story - but more funny than scary. It's a series; I wonder what the next books are about? It was cool how the story was told in letters. View all my reviews

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was giggling the whole time. View all my reviews

Dark Life by Kat Falls My rating: 3 of 5 stars I know CV students will love this book. It is full of adventure below the sea. Any book that has fighting with outlaws is a good one for me! It also was fun to imagine what it might be like if scientists could figure out how to use the sea for us "Topsiders" to farm and live. It's the first in a series. I bet my students will be wanting more! View all my reviews

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the type of book that feels like a journey with the lead character. It took me a little while to want to keep reading, but after about 50 pages, I really enjoyed "spending time" with Ida Mae Jones and following her struggles and successes during her WASP flight training. Ida Mae was the type of character I kept thinking about all weekend after I had finished the book. View all my reviews

Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder My rating: 4 of 5 stars A friend told me that I would love this book and it raises some good ethical questions. I immediately looked forward to reading it since someone who knows me told me I would love it, but I also dreaded it because ethical usually means heavy and emotional. While I did cry (in the middle of Caribou Coffee - sheesh) at the beginning because the author painted such a perfect emotional picture of what parents separating could be like, the book wasn't heavy at all. Even though the Lead Character, Rebecca was clearly struggling with her home life, the book was filled with magic and wonder and hope. It felt lighter than the topic. It took about 1/2 the book before I found out where the ethical part comes in. I really liked this book and am excited to get my students and teachers reading it so we can chat! View all my reviews

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate My rating: 4 of 5 stars I would bet that my students would fall in love with Ivan like I did. It took my awhile to get into it, but Katherine Applegate's writing is so beautiful, I couldn't help but keep reading. This book shows, kindness, empathy, compassion, love, struggle, and art. View all my reviews

The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book kept me turning pages! I definitely recommend it to anyone in 5th-6th grade!

Bad Kitty Meets the Baby by Nick Bruel My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have a baby, so I like to read books about babies right now. It was also fun that the Kitty Olympics was going on in the book since I am very excited about the Olympics starting in a couple of weeks. Bad Kitty was annoyed as usual, and it was as funny as the others in the Bad Kitty Series. View all my reviews

Unsinkable by Gordon Korman My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was interesting because we all know about the Titanic. Especially because it is the 100 year anniversary of it's sinking. I liked to get the perspectives of children on the boat - in all sections of it. This is a series of 3 books so by the end of this one, all is still well on the ship. I wonder what happens to the characters in the end. View all my reviews

Stir It Up: A Novel: A Novel by Ramin Ganeshram My rating: 3 of 5 stars I love the food network star show so this one about a kid star on the food network was fun for me. I didn't really know that is what it was about. However, I felt that it took a long time to get to the meat of the story. I did like the west indie recipes, and would consider buying the book just for those. Once things got going, though, it was a fun book to read. View all my reviews

Squish: Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm My rating: 3 of 5 stars It felt like this one was a bit easier to read for me than Babymouse. Not so many big words, besides the ones that go with amoebas, and then I could look them up if I didn't know what they meant. I had no idea how science-y graphic novels could be! View all my reviews