Scary Library Substitute Teachers and More

Here's my week...

Scary Library Substitute Teachers

My library assistant and I took off this week and left the library in the scary hands of these two ladies.  We don't know exactly what went on, but we heard reports that these two were pretty strict and didn't put up with any nonsense in the library. 

Italy in 2018

We are starting to make plans for our trip to Italy next summer with my wonderful husband, sister, and brother-in-law! We will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Any must-sees? Any books I should read before we go?

Cybils Nominations Close on October 15

Sunday, October 15th is the last day the Cybils will be accepting nominations from the general public. Anyone can nominate children's or young adult books published in the last twelve months. If you need ideas, take a look at Tiffa's post at The Picture Book Review. Nominate here.


What I Read This Week

I finished up three personal reads:

Charlotte Sometimes (1001 Children's Books You Must Read)

It's Easier Than You Think

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Then I started digging into that huge stack of Cybils this week:

I don't know how I'm ever going to settle on 5-7 winners if the other 200 nominees are as good as these first eleven. Here are my reviews:

7 Ate 9

Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide to New Arrivals

All the Way to Havana

Professional Crocodile

The Antlered Ship

Cookiesaurus Rex

Lines

Circle, Triangle, Elephant: A Book of Shapes and Surprises

A Different Pond

Walk with Me

Wolf in the Snow

I got in a huge stack of new books this week, but I think I'll post those pictures next week. I need to get busy reading some more of my Cybils today, I think....

What was your week like? What are you reading now?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.

Books with Fall Covers

I've got to find a little autumn wherever I can. No fall leaves here along the Gulf Coast of Texas. 

Still we talk about fall at school as if everyone experiences it, and so our children can at least experience it vicariously through wonderful fall books.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists

My Cybils Nominations, I Start to Read the Cybils, and My Busy Week

My 2017 Nominations

Board Books

Category description | Current nominations

Rapunzel (Once Upon a World)

Eligible

Early Chapter Books

Category description | Current nominations

Sprout Street Neighbors: Bon Voyage

Eligible

Easy Readers

Category description | Current nominations

Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! The Good for Nothing Button!

Eligible

Elementary Nonfiction

Category description | Current nominations

Stand Up and Sing!: Pete Seeger, Folk Music, and the Path to Justice

Eligible

Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novels

Category description | Current nominations

The Pudding Problem (Lyttle Lies)

Eligible

Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction

Category description | Current nominations

The Glass Town Game

Eligible

Fiction Picture Books

Category description | Current nominations

Roger Is Going Fishing

Eligible

Junior High Nonfiction

Category description | Current nominations

When the Sky Breaks: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and the Worst Weather in the World (Smithsonian)

Eligible

Middle Grade Fiction

Category description | Current nominations

Karma Khullar\'s Mustache

Eligible

Middle-Grade Nonfiction

Category description | Current nominations

Kid Authors: True Tales of Childhood from Famous Writers (Kid Legends)

Eligible

Poetry

Category description | Current nominations

Forest World

Eligible

Senior High Nonfiction

Category description | Current nominations

Almost Adulting: All You Need to Know to Get It Together (Sort Of)

Eligible

Young Adult Fiction

Category description | Current nominations

The Hate U Give

Eligible

Young Adult Graphic Novels

Category description | Current nominations

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir

Eligible

Young Adult Speculative Fiction

Category description | Current nominations

Warcross

Eligible

So there are my nominations.

You should be able to see the category descriptions for each of the fifteen categories of the Cybils Awards.

You should also be able to easily see which titles have already been nominated.

Then you can easily click here and nominate your own favorite children and young adult titles published in the last twelve months.






I START TO READ THE CYBILS

I've started reading the Cybils as I've been able to locate them. I've found and read 45 of the 104 books nominated so far. I plan to go back and review each of these during next weekend's 24-Hour Readathon.


MY BUSY WEEK

My summer Book-a-Day readers got to enjoy a private showing of Captain Underpants at the movie theater Saturday. Great fun!

My library assistant and I spent the week in Germany, home of many of our classic fairy tales.

After school meetings...four trips to the library to pick up Cybils nominees...dental appointment...a little yoga....Crazy busy week!

What was your week like? What are you reading now?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.

Empanadas

I wanted to be sophisticated.

I was fifteen.

I wanted to cook up something fabulous.

I tried making empanadas. I fried them in a greasy skillet. My mom banned me from ever using her kitchen again.

I didn't give up. I tried again when I had my own kitchen.

    

Now I need to try fruit empanadas, I think.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

BookExpo Fun: I Meet Other Bloggers

From left to right, Sheila DeChantal from Book Journey; Candace Levy at Beth Fish Reads; 

Stacy Millican from The Novel Life; and Deb Nance at Readerbuzz.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Children's Picture Books You Need to Read if You Are Feeling Sad About Our World

Here's the book that inspired me this week:

Come With Me by Holly M. McGhee

The story is about a little girl who is upset by stories of hatred and violence on television. She asks her dad what she can do. Her father takes her for a walk. As the two walk along, they tip their hats to those they meet. And so the story goes on. Little things.

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena

C. J. and his grandmother go every Sunday on the bus to help the world at a soup kitchen. C. J. questions why he has to do this instead of acquiring the things (an iPod, a car) his friends have. It's a lovely and thoughtful story that has won lots and lots of awards.

Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina

Abuela doesn't speak English and Mia, her granddaughter, doesn't speak Spanish. How can they ever find a way to connect?

The Three Lucys by Hayan Charara

Luli enjoys sitting each day with her three cats. When she and her family take a trip and return to the breakout of war in their homeland of Lebanon, Luli is saddened to be unable to find her cats. 

The Water Princess by Susan Verde

Every day Gie Gie must walk very far to get water to drink. She dreams of the day she will not have to do this.

Windows by Julia Denos

There is something so peaceful and calming about a story in which a child walks around the neighborhood and observes the small activities of people at the day's end.

Have you read something lately that gives you hope about our world?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists

The Longest Books I've Ever Read

Nominate Your Favorite Children's Books and YA Books for the Cybils!

It's time to nominate your favorite children's books and YA books for the Cybils Awards! Nominations open at 12:01 am on October 1, 2017 PST. Nominations will remain open to anyone who would like to nominate a great books published in the last year until October 15. Publishers and authors can then nominate books from October 16 to October 25. Nominate away here!

My Busy Week

I've been looney-tune crazy-busy this week, seeing my (normal!) 34 classes a week (the entire school!) for library lessons about fiction and nonfiction, as well as readying our team of 2017 Cybils Fiction Picture Book and Board Book panelists and judges for our upcoming huge task of reading and reviewing 200+ books nominated. 

I did manage to finally finish the latest Sue Grafton mystery (she's up to Y is for Yesterday...leaving only Z, I suppose) and the very, very quirky new book, Sourdough, by the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. 

I got a lot of wonderful books in my mailbox this week:

 Windows by Julia Denos

Night Creepers by Linda Stanek

Living Things and Nonliving Things: A Compare and Contrast Book by Kevin Kurtz

Animal Tails by Mary Holland

Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant by Songju Ma Daemicke

Children of Refuge by Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Longest Books I've Ever Read

Thank you, Helen from Helen's Book Blog, for tagging me to complete The Longest Book Tag! This tag was created by Ditsha @ Betwitchingly Paranoid.

The Rules: 
1. Make a list of five of the longest books you’ve read. 
2. Select two of the longest books on your TBR. 
3. Discuss. 
4. Tag others. 

Five of the longest books I've read...

Goodreads will sort your books by number of pages, it turns out. That's nice. I've read 137 books that have 500 pages or more. Here are the five longest books I've read:

Lord of the Rings (trilogy)...1,216 pages

The Stand...1,153 pages

Hawaii by James Michener...1,136 pages

Gone With the Wind...1,037 pages

The Pillars of the Earth...973 pages 

The longest books in my TBR pile are...

Any Human Heart by William Boyd...480 pages

The Eight by Katherine Neville...598 pages

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara...720 pages

Tag You're It

If you are reading this post, and you'd like to be tagged, then consider yourself tagged.

So that's my week. What was your week like? What are you reading now?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.