Heather Vogel Frederick Visits Tanglewood!

Mothers and daughters gathered to hear Heather Vogel Frederick, author of the Mother Daughter Book Club Series, discuss her writing process and her book ideas.  Many of our students have read (or they are reading) her novels.  It was a pleasure to get to know her and her writing style.

Thank you Amy Pettitt for all your hard work in planning the event, and thank you to our wonderful PTA for funding this special time!

Round Up for RIF

It is time for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo - so that means it is time for RIF (Reading Is Fundamental)!  Preschoolers selected a free RIF book at Kindergarten Round Up on January 31st.  Now it is time for Tanglewood students to Round-Up a Good Book.  We set up stations for the students to enjoy:  Pick A RIF Book, Pick A Library Book, Play Bull Hockey on the iPads, and Make a Bookmark. Here are some photos of students enjoying this special event in the library.

4,954 Thank yous!

 The Tanglewood students checked out 4,954 books in the month of December (even though we had two weeks off for Winter Break!)  Thank you, volunteers, for helping us shelve the books, check out the books, check in the books, and shelve the books again!  In addition to all the check out, over 100 classes came to the library for a lesson, a read-aloud, and/or an activity. 

The Tanglewood Library is a very busy place!!

A New Year in Books!

Students will return to school on Tuesday and I look forward to finding out what everyone has been reading over the holiday.  I have been reading some of our new books, just to get acquainted with the new titles/authors. 

One new book I have been reading is written by the visiting author Heather Vogel Frederick, who will be visiting our school on February 12.  Ms. Frederick will be presenting her "book club" books to the girls in grades 4 and 5.  Hopefully, we have many "book clubs" reading her books together.  (If you need information about the "Book Clubs", please let me know.) Click here for a link to her website that includes a list of her titles. Mothers, grandmothers, neighbors, or whoever has been reading a book in a "Mother-Daughter Book Club" are invited to come to the presentation.  I will have times and details in the next few days.

We will have another visiting author on February 20 - Jungle Jim.  Jungle Jim's website is under construction at this time, but here is an article about his presentation.  He is very enthusiastic about insects, arthropods, centipedes, etc.  We will have details regarding his visit soon.

I am also reading the Newbery Award book from last year, Dead End in Novelt, historical fiction about Jack who lives in a small town during the post-World War II era.  Boys in grades 4 and 5, would really enjoy the book.  The Newbery Award for 2013, will be announced soon, and I look forward to reading the next award winning book.  I will post the award winners (Newbery and Caldecott) when I find out!

I am excited about all the new books for 2013, aren't you?

The Best of 2012 With Kirkus Review

As described on the website: "The Kirkus Review was founded in 1933, Kirkus has been an authoritative voice in book discovery for almost 80 years. Kirkus Reviews magazine gives industry professionals a sneak peek at the most notable books being published weeks before they’re released. When the books become available for purchase, Kirkus serves the reviews to consumers in a weekly email newsletter and on KirkusReviews.com, giving readers unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust."

Every year the Kirkus publishes a Best Children's Book List.  This year's list is found here.  I found some wonderful books on the list.  Maybe you will find some good suggestions too!

Reading With Your Child

I am passionate about reading with your child.  As a parent, I made a commitment to read with my children, but my four sons remember best and fondest the read-alouds with their dad.  My husband had a favorite book that he loved to read to the boys: The Greatest Sandwich Ever.  Now as young fathers, they have found copies of the book and are now reading it aloud to their children (and many other books too).  Our youngest had a hearing loss until he had surgery to implant tubes in his ears.  He loved for his father to read aloud because he could FEEL him read to him.  He would cuddle up to his dad and the vibration of his deep voice would comfort Jordan. 

As a grandmother, I have read-aloud sessions with my grandchildren.  One regret I have is not continuing the read alouds past preschool and early elementary with my sons. My eldest granddaughter and I read some harder chapter books this summer and discussed some of the issues presented in the text.  We had so much fun reading together that we have more books picked out to read.

The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma is about the reading relationship between a father and daughter that lasted nearly nine years.  Alice and her father tackled hard books and hard times together through their reading journey.  Here is their story from an article published in June, 2011.

The poster below describes 7 ways to build a better reader from birth to age five, but I think it can be applied to a child much older.  "Good readers are made on the lap of a parent".

New York Times Best Illustrated Book List 2012

The NY Times Best Illustrated Book List 2012 has been announced.  It is always a good list to follow.  More lists will come in the next few weeks.  For a good look at some of the books on the list, I have linked the posting of a blog I follow 100 Scope Notes.  Author/illustrator Steve Jenkins has a new book on the list.  I really like his outstanding nonfiction books.  House Held Up by Trees looks fasinating too.  The Horn Book website offers book reviews, opinions and news about books for children and young adults.  One article I found particularly interesting "Absorbing Pictures and What They Say" by Barbara Bader, emphasizes the skill of "intellectual language of images." 

Book Fair Success!

Thank you to each volunteer, parent, student, teacher, and grandparent who made the book fair a huge success!  We had a great week, filled with books, sharing books, talking about books and best of all buying books!  The best conversations to overhear are those discussions about books and authors.  It is music to my ears to hear students recommending a book to a friend!

If you missed out on a book and would still like to purchase a book, please go to online book fair.  You may go to scholastic.com/fair or click <here> for a link.  Tanglewood Book Fair will be open until October 25 (Thursday), so you will need to make an online purchase this week.  All the purchases will benefit Tanglewood library.

Once again, thank you for participating in our book fair.  I would like to personally thank Angie Herdman, the PTA Book Fair Chair, for all her hard work in preparing, planning, setting up, cleaning up, and contacting the many volunteers who helped!  Thank you, Angie!