Tuesday, August 6, 2013

If you host it, they will come!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" to the Tuesday Slice of Life 
sponsored by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers.
This week I share the event for middle school readers hosted by 
myself and Carrie Bowman, teen librarian, on Tuesday, July 30 .   

Our evening at the library for middle school readers was a success. We enjoyed chatting with several groups of readers during this two hour event. These four teen readers enjoyed the cozy chairs that Carrie Bowman, teen librarian, had arranged for our evening chat. Some of our guests attend school on the island, but some attend private schools in the area. They shared books they had read this summer and enjoyed listening as Carrie shared several books from her cart of captivating summer reads.  
That's Ellie and Joe listening to Carrie Bowman, teen librarian, share books.
I didn't snap a picture of the books they checked out, but each of these four
students left with several books recommended by Carrie Bowman.  
   I was excited to see Bridget, one of my students from last
   year.  She checked out The Water Castle, a book currently
receiving some buzz as a Newbery possibility for 2014.
I even recommended a mystery by P.D. James for her mom.
  
Callum, my first guest reader, and incoming 6th grader,
stopped by after soccer practice.  He checked out two
books from my classroom collection,  Navigating Early
by Claire Vanderpool and Kathi Appelt's new book,
The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp.

I neglected to take a picture of one of our readers who dropped by for the evening.  He's going into fourth grade, but has already read all of the Percy Jackson books!  I suggested that he read The Underland Chronicles, a fantasy series by Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games) that begins with Gregor the Overlander.
Our evening of books was topped off with cookies and drinks.  The two hours flew by and we found ourselves going to the library desk over and over to check in the books we had checked out, so that our guests could check them out and take them home.  If you were unable to come, we missed you and look forward to your comments about the books you're reading this summer in the Books Read in August post.    

9 comments:

  1. What a great evening that I would have liked to been at. Too bad we live on opposite sides of the USA, Ramona.
    Thanks for your note, BTW. I sent your email on to Tara. She will love it.
    Bonnie

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  2. What a great idea. I love that you gathered at the library to talk about books. What a wonderful way to cap off the summer and think about September.

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  3. I'm so glad this was successful! What a great way to keep the kids reading through the summer. A teen librarian, now that's just what every library needs.

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  4. Your success is inspiring. I would love to adapt this idea to my school and give our book lovers a forum for "selling" their favorites and learning about new titles.

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  5. You've opened my mind to the possibility of doing something like this at school, too, Ramona. What a great evening it sounds like!

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  6. Awesome.Just awesome. You made their evening special, and you validated their reading lives. How wonderful!

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  7. So wonderful to grow a community of readers with special events like this.

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  8. This sounds so great! I wonder if you could get them all to come again next time and to bring a friend. It seems like they are all readers who could encourage or be role models for other kiddos. Looks like this was fun. :)

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  9. The anticipation of good stories is apparent in those eyes! Love it!

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