As we head into the summer of 2020, we realize that this is a huge moment. A moment in history, a moment in American culture, a moment of tragedy and fear, but also a moment to learn, to listen, to teach. I am so grateful to be teaching at F.AVE in CSD where our leadership, lead by Ms. Newton, our principal, has made conversations about race a priority. She has lead this work not in reaction to current events, but in an on-going, real effort to help us grow as educators and people, so that we can effectively teach students of all races and work together as a school to have difficult, meaningful, necessary conversations. We have had book groups surrounding Courageous Conversations and other books about race. We have attended Beyond Diversity training and she encourages us to speak our truth on a daily basis.

How can we help our students in this work? I'm going to recommend some resources through the lens of my job, the media specialist. What books can help us have these conversations with our kids? There are tons of lists out there, and these are a few resources that I have found helpful.

I hope these resources help you talk to your kids about race and social justice. I hope you find a book that makes you think, makes you challenge your own biases, makes you want to hold difficult conversations with friends and family, makes you want to take action to make our world a safer, more equitable place for people of all races.

I will leave you with a link to a School Library Journal Day of Dialog keynote conversation between Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, authors of Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You.

Over the next few weeks, I will be coming into your virtual classrooms to talk to you about setting a summer reading goal! You can see more about it in the video below or in your media center google classroom. In this post, I mainly wanted to share your teachers' reading goals! So, click below and scroll through to see what your teachers are going to be reading this summer!

Social media networking can be a wonderful thing! I was on Facebook and saw a post by an librarian friend, Mike the Book Wrangler. At his library, they are reading picture books from all across America on Monday, which is Read Across America Day. Traditionally, since this is Dr. Seuss's birthday, teachers read Dr. Seuss books. But I love this idea!

So, F.AVE is going to proclaim the entire month of March as Read Across America Month. Since we are an upper elementary school, I have gathered books of all types: picture books, non-fiction books, and chapter books. Each state has a book that represents the culture or history of that state in some way. Our country has a richly diverse population, and we should celebrate it through our reading.

I challenge our students to read as many of the books on the map as possible! Each student has their own blank map to record their reading. Use the happy book icon as a sticker, and copy/paste it on each state that you've completed. You could try to blaze a specific path all the way across our country (maybe from Georgia to Washington or California!) or you could just read random states. And if you've already read one of the books....go ahead and put the sticker on your map! You have a head start.

See the map and the slide show below to see what awesome books have been chosen.

How far across America will you travel in March without leaving the comfort of your favorite reading chair?

We haven't been able to keep New Kid in the library since we got it earlier this year! Scary Stories for Young Foxes was a hopeful favorite for Ms. T. Smith, because her 7th grader read it and immediately read it again, proclaiming it was one of the best books he had ever read. Jason Reynolds is one of our all time favorite authors at F.AVE, so we were so excited that he won another Newbery Honor Medal. 

For a complete list, go here to the ALA press release from today's announcement.

We are starting a new reading challenge at F.AVE this year! I have to give credit to Ms. Hanson at Talley for showing me this challenge. I'm so excited to have another media specialist in my district that teaches the same age as me! Having a collaborator makes me a much stronger educator. This challenge has been adapted from a program set up by author Gene Luen Yang, former National Ambassador of Young People's Literature.

Our challenge will run all year, and students may complete the challenge as many times as they would like. I want to challenge students to read something new, something different, something that might open their world to new ideas and possibilities. For students who participate multiple times, I ask that they change up their choices each time they take the challenge.

​So....here it is!

Once student have completed a challenge, they turn in their bookmarks to the media center after having it signed by a teacher or parent. I will be drawing bookmarks for prizes all year long! Students can win autographed books, book fair posters, and other book swag. The more times a student completes the challenge, the more chances they have to win a prize!

I'm excited to watch F.AVE students break down those reading walls!

For the past few years, I have had a little Mock Newbery Book Club, which has limped along not gathering much attention. This year, I am going to fold it back into my monthly Newbery book club. I wish I could get more kids interested in this, because these are the BEST BOOKS of the year! Below is our list of Mock Newbery titles, and in a week or two, my book club students will be choosing one or more to read. 

If you are stuck and can't figure out what to read, there is something in this list for everyone...historical fiction, contemporary fiction, graphic novels, non-fiction, diversity, hilarity, tragedy...you name it, it's there. Plus some of these covers are incredible! Who wouldn't want to read Song for a Whale or Genesis Begins Again with covers like that?!

Check one of these out today, and read it over the break! If we don't have it, try the public library. You'll thank me later, I promise.

On Friday, F.AVE hosted 3 authors for our Decatur Book Festival Author visits! Thanks so much to Little Shop of Stories for bringing these wonderful authors to F.AVE! We really enjoyed learning from these incredible women. 

3rd and 4th grade heard Roshani Chokshi and J.C. Cervantes speak about their books. Both authors publish their book series under the Rick Riordan Presents imprint with Disney publishing. If you don't know what that means, all the books under this imprint are going to be mythology-based adventures books that appeal to middle grades kids, much like Riordan's Percy Jackson books. In addition, they look for books that are about under-represented cultures and backgrounds and tell stories of their culture and heritage. Roshani's series is about a Hindu girl, Aru Shah, who accidentally releases a destruction demon on the world. She goes on a quest to find the descendants to the Pandava brothers of Hindu legend to stop this demon. Jenn's series is based on Maya culture, with a young boy, Zane, who is chosen to save the world from the Maya god of death. What I didn't realize about the books under this imprint is that Rick Riordan is an active editor and mentor to all the authors!

Roshani and Jenn were very entertaining and funny, telling stories about their own pets to the delight of the students. Roshani told the story of how the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha ended up with an actual elephant head. Of course the story involved a beheading, again to the delight of all the students. Both authors discussed that they were inspired to write based on family stories and culture.

During the book signing, they chatted with the students, making personal connections and making them laugh. I heard from a parent that they even remembered some of the students by name at the Book Festival the next day. We truly enjoyed meeting both authors, and I highly recommend both series to all students! Roshani has two books in her series out currently: Aru Shah and the End of Time, Aru Shah and the Song of Death. Cervantes also has two books in her series out: The Storm Runner and The Fire Keeper.

5th grade students had a real treat, a Newbery medal winning author! Kelly Barnhill is the author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, the 2017 Newbery medal winner. This book has been a favorite of both the Media Smiths for years. It is a beautifully written tale full of twists and turns that both adults and kids would enjoy reading. 

Kelly Barnhill had some fascinating insights into her writing process. One of the students asked where she gets her ideas from, and my favorite was how she came up with her novel, The Witch's Boy. She was hiking with her son when he was just a little kid and he got really tired, wanting to be carried. In an effort to distract him so she wouldn't have to carry him uphill for the next few miles, she asked him to come up with 3 things and she would turn them into a story. By the time they reached the car she realized she had started a new novel. 

When asked about The Girl Who Drank the Moon, she said her goal was to write a book with a false narrative. Barnhill seems very influenced by her sense of right and wrong, by an internal activist, if you will. She said she sees people convincing themselves of stories that are simply not true to justify certain behaviors, and out of that grew this fantasy novel that is based about a false narrative. Of course, she said she also really wanted to write a book with a tiny dragon (she loves dragons!) and a swamp monster poet. Who wouldn't?! We were all rather stunned to learn that she had written over 100 drafts of this book before it was published. That is a ton of editing and revising!

As always, author day was amazing! Thank you to Kelly Barnhill, Roshani Chokshi, and J.C. Cervantes for sharing your stories and wisdom with our students.

August is an exciting time for Decatur when it comes to reading! On Friday, August 30th, F.AVE will host two author visits for all of our students. This year, we are so lucky to welcome 3 incredible authors! Kelly Barnhill, Newbery Award winner for The Girl Who Drank the Moon, will be visiting our 5th graders, and 3rd/4th graders will get a visit from 2 authors from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint: J.C. Cervantes and Atlanta's own Roshani Chokshi! J.C. Cervantes is the author of The Storm Runner series and Roshani Chokshi writes the Aru Shah series.

Thank you so much to the Decatur Education Foundation and Little Shop of Stories for providing us with these wonderful author visits.

If your child would like to order a copy or copies of these author's books so that they may meet them and get them signed, order forms went home in Monday communication folders on August 5th. You can also find the forms attached to this blog or on the media center website. If you already own a copy of any of these books, you are welcome to bring in your own copy to be signed. However, if you order from us, the F.AVE media center will receive 20% of the price.