I attended ALA Lib Learn X in January and had a great time at the virtual sessions I was able to attend. I learned about mindfulness-based storytimes, passive library programming, international games week, and much more. I also took some time to look around at the virtual exhibitor booths and signed up for a few … Continue reading First Impressions: Simon and Schuster Spring Books
This past weekend, Jake and I went with his grandparents to western Massachusetts to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform at Tanglewood (featuring Yo-Yo Ma as a soloist). We had beautiful weather, I managed to avoid getting sunburnt (a true feat if you know me), and I got to experience my first professional orchestra concert … Continue reading Three on a Theme: Music
When the longlist for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature was announced clear back in September 2020, I immediately put as many of the long list book on hold as possible. Given that it's four months into 2021, and my last hold wasn't fulfilled until March, that speaks to the popularity of … Continue reading Reading the National Book Award Longlist
I’m the middle child in a series of three sisters, and while I don’t know what it’s like to be a twin, I can certainly relate to the sibling relationships that Katherine Paterson and Sundee T. Frazier have depicted in their middle grade books. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who you are when you feel like you’ve been defined by your siblings for so long. Paterson won the Newberry Award in 1981 with Jacob Have I Loved, and Frazier’s 2010 novel, The Other Half of My Heart, offers diversity to the familiar tale of two sisters. Below is background information, contextual information, reading strategies, discussion questions, activities, and resources to be used for a unit on these two novels. I hope students and teachers alike can find fruitful conversation (and maybe even themselves) in these novels.
Bookishly Bright 