Giant College Prep Recommended Reading List to End All Lists

Earlier this year, one of my students asked me what they should be reading to prepare for college.  I was telling my kids that one of my high school teachers (Hi, Miss Goldsworthy!) had given me a list of classic literature mixed with modern classics that were designed to make you think and ask the right kinds of questions about who we are and what we can do better.

My kids were amused that I had carried my book list back and forth to college, graduate school, law school and 3 apartment and house moves, before it got destroyed when our garage flooded when I pipe burst a few years ago.  I had been making my way through the entire list of books, a lot of which were ones I read again in college lit classes -- so I was really, really grateful to have read a number of them before I went to college.

A couple of the students in that class asked me if I could remember a list of several of those books and share them.  So I spent some time writing down the ones that I remembered, and then did a little google magic to find some additional lists for some more modern classics that are being recommended today.

Below find my current proposed list, although I'm open to argument on why something else ought to be included or why you think a particular book has no business being on a classics reading list at all, thank you very much.  In other words, this list is a work in progress -- I'm contemplating whether I need revisions before sharing it with my kids next year, and I'd love some opinions from the readers in my audience.

So, what glorious book that you treasure did I inadvertently forget?  What must be there to help shape young minds and make them ask the difficult or important questions?  What do you think I should add or subtract from the list?  Do tell.

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Classic Books to Read Before College

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger

Pandemic Book Club: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Hello readers!

The Pandemic Book Club discussion on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will begin at 4:00 pm EST today -- Saturday, March 28th.   In order to provide a little background and set the table for discussion I offer the following and will see you back here this afternoon at 4 pm EST.

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Mary Ann Shaffer was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1934.  Having grown up from the very beginning facing the threats of the Great Depression, growing fascism in Europe and eventually the difficulties and devastations of World War II, you would think that this is what shaped her decision to write about the island of Guernsey and the German occupation of it during the war.  But it was a whim that brought her to the subject of her novel:

She became interested in Guernsey while visiting London in 1976. On a whim, she decided to fly to Guernsey but became stranded there when a thick fog descended and all boats and planes were forbidden to leave the island. As she waited for the fog to lift, warming herself by the heat of the hand-dryer in the men’s restroom, she read all the books in the Guernsey airport bookstore, including Jersey under the Jack-Boot. Thus began her fascination with the German Occupation of the Channel Islands.

Over the course of her lifetime, Mary Ann worked as a book store clerk, a librarian and even as an editor for a small press publisher.  She was an avid participant in a book club of local friends, who met regularly to discuss favorite books they had been reading and to debate which book of the moment they should read next.  She folded her own experiences and her deep love of a good book into The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which you can see throughout the book, which her book club was instrumental in getting her to write:

Pandemic Book Club -- 3/28 at 4:00 pm EST

Hello readers!

To make this Pandemic Book Club most accessible to as many of you as possible, I did a bit of time zone calculation and tried to find a day and time that might work for the most broad range of readers. What I am proposing is this:

March 28th -- next Saturday -- at 4:00 pm EST

My friend Tracy -- waves to Tracy! -- is in Italy, so her time zone was the paramount one that I was trying to work with for this.  Some of you are as far West as California, so that's a time difference going backward a few hours.  Afternoon on the East Coast seemed the most reasonable way to go, and a weekend maximizes the potential to participate for any of the folks who may be working in essential industries at the moment.

Sorry to any of you who are medical folks -- I doubt there will be much down time for the foreseeable future, but know that you are in my prayers and that we are all sending you lots of love and thanks, and we'll hopefully have a lively chat thread for you to read when you have the time to get there.

We can chat in the comments on this blog, we can chat on Facebook and we can also chat with sound and video on Zoom.  It feels like we could all use a little contact and laughter with each other, so those of you who have downloaded the Zoom app, I'm happy to set up a chat room so we can gab in person about the book and life in general.

As the week moves forward, I'm going to share a few recipes that I think work well with the book, and that also might be ingredients you are likely to have in a pandemic pantry of shelf stable foodstuffs, and we can perhaps set the mood with something yummy to snack on together while we discuss the book.

Does that sound good for everyone?

More Fun With Library Signage

After several requests, it became clear to me that there was interest in more of the library signs I put together yesterday.  Above is the one with Katniss from The Hunger Games.  The rest of the signs will follow.

I like to mix these up over the course of the school year, so there is something fresh every couple of weeks as they come in to class and to check out a new book. 

For each of the ones featured here, if you click on the picture, it should take you to a larger size that you could print off for your own classroom.

As I make more of these for my library, I'll try to share them for other teachers to be able to use them as well.  Am trying to come up with signs that will work for a broad range of ages -- from preK-3 to 6th graders -- and will also catch their interest in reading. 

I would like to come up with more literary-related ideas as well, so if you have a book character you'd like to suggest, I'll see if I can put something fun together in terms of a reading promotion sign.

Pottering Around

Toward the end of the school year, the kids get a little restless:  the weather warms, the sunshine beckons, and keeping a classroom full of pre-adolescents engaged can be rough on the best of days.  This year, after so much snow and ice and arctic blasts of deadly frigid air and cabin fever, that is proving to be true already.

They simply want to be outside in the fresh air.

Frankly, I can't blame them, because I feel the same way.  This winter has been brutal, and we are all longing for some flowers and leaves and fun.

So, in anticipation of this summer break antsy pantsy-ness only growing as the calendar moves forward, I am planning a bit of fun for the end of school that will, I hope, keep everyone engaged while we attempt to still learn a little something.  If nothing else, I'll have some fun with it, but I do hope the kids do as well.

We had planned on having a Harry Potter party for The Peanut this year for her 11th birthday.   While we were at Universal on vacation, we picked up some fun items to use for invitations that you can only get in Hogsmeade, and had planned a surprise way to deliver the invitations by "owl post."  (Bless you, people on Pinterest, for your genius ideas!)

Rather than let all my pins and internal planning go to waste, I've decided to use it for the amusement of my class instead.  Will be posting some ideas as I firm them up, but I wanted to throw out to the crowd the fact that I'm looking for some great, educational ways to use the Harry Potter theme in the classroom over a two week stretch.

Figuring the last two weeks of the year will be a lost cause, am trying to come up with a way to make that not be the case.  Perhaps it is naive of me to think this can be accomplished, but you can't blame a girl for trying, can you?

Any thoughts on ways to do actual lesson planning in a Harry Potter context?

Am thinking about setting this up so that they have "wizarding" classes each day instead of our regular ones.  But I haven't quite figured out how to morph our regular classes into the wizarding ones just yet.  Things I have contemplated thus far:

What Are You Reading Now?

Reading has always been my favorite pastime, my internal refuge and my method of escape to places and worlds beyond our reality or into the minds or lives of the past.  A good book is a doorway to another life or place, and as you open the pages, you step through and become absorbed wholly into a well written story, consumed by the next page, and the next and the next.

A good book allows you to internally live as the characters in it, to feel their joy and pain, to anxiously await their next move, to worry about what fate has in store for them in the end.

The greatest joy is to find a book that will not let you go, that you cannot put down because you must know what happens next...all the way to the end of the story and beyond.  Who doesn't have a book that haunts them still, standing at the precipice that is the end of the written story and jumping off into the imaginary beyond, longing for more.

A good travel book can help you to go places you have never yet been, to smell the air and see the colors of a land far away from where you may be in the moment.  It is more than planning a trip or wishing for adventure, a well-written travel book takes you on an internal journey through your own soul as you walk the path of another across a foreign landscape.

I tend to be voracious in my reading habits:  mysteries, classics, travel, science fiction, fantasy, children's books, nonfiction - especially cookbooks and history treatises - you name it, I am likely to be reading it if it is a good read.  (Since the breast cancer diagnosis last year, my cookbook reading has been along more healthy lines, for obvious reasons.  Any good suggestions for nutrient-filled recipe cookbooks are always appreciated.)

At the moment, and in no particular order, here is what I'm reading:

-- Queen Victoria by Elizabeth Longford

-- Joy of Zentangle: Drawing Your Way to Increased Creativity, Focus, and Well-Being

-- The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Gluten-Aware Plan for Losing Weight and Feeling Great--FAST!

-- Divergent by Veronica Roth

-- The Perfect Husband: An FBI Profiler Novel by Lisa Gardner
 
But I am always looking for something new to add to the "to read" pile.   Are you reading anything good at the moment?  If so, please do tell...

Library Unit On Greek Mythology

The second Percy Jackson movie will open in theaters on August 7th, just before school begins this year.  For an elementary school librarian, this is an event that needs to be used well, because it presents a fantastic opportunity for capitalizing on the interest bandwagon among the 4th, 5th and 6th graders about Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series as well as the underlying mythology stories and characters that permeate the books.

Doesn't it just scream book promotion and myth teaching for the older kids?

Especially if you add in the upcoming winter Olympics, and its roots in Ancient Greece and competition for the favor of the gods.  That is some fascinating history in its own right.

Over the last couple of weeks (as my chemo brain has allowed), I have been planning a multi-week unit to discuss Greek and Roman mythology, as well as to introduce the students to some other myths from around the world.  Am trying to piece this together so that we read a myth together and then work on activities and worksheets to further deepen their understanding of the myth, as well as how it has been used over the years as a story to impact behavior or as a warning or whatever else might be an underlying theme.

What I am hoping to do is have the kids put together their own notebook as we go through this over the course of a few weeks.  Each myth would have its own section for crafts, worksheets, and a copy of a story summary for each one.  That way, at the end of the entire process, they would have their own book of mythology that they built themselves.

There is so much new vocabulary in a lot of these stories, words that we pull from the original Greek and Roman myths that are used every day -- that alone is worth teaching all of this, I think. 

In putting all of this together, I have found some wonderful resources:

-- Literature Pockets, Greek and Roman Myths, Grades 4-6: for the Medusa craft and the Apollo poem and sun wheel craft alone, this is so worth it.  But it also has some great vocabulary worksheets and story summaries that I'll be using as well.

--Greek Mythology Activities: Activities to Help Students Build Background Knowledge About Ancient Greece, Explore the Genre of Myths, and Learn Important Vocabulary: this has a fantastic alphabetical listing of all of the Greek gods, complete with illustrations and some wonderful game and activity ideas as well.

Armchair Travel Ideas For The Sick Or Shut-In

Wishing I were here...

It has finally arrived.  That point in all of this treatment where I want to run away  on some marvelously relaxing trip to an island or a beach or something completely out of my ordinary day to day survival right now.

But I can't, because such a trip would be wasted on me at the moment.

That is just the truth of it:  any big trip would be useless for me just now.  I barely had the energy to sit at the bookstore yesterday and browse for books with my family for an hour or so, just to get us out of the house.  Pathetic.  I know it will get better over time, but still...it grates on me to be this blah.

It occurred to me yesterday, though, that other folks might have family or friends who are in similar situations.  So I thought I would pass along some suggestions for good books or DVDs that have worked well for me under these trying circumstances.

When Mr. ReddHedd's father moved in with us, he was very ill and not able to get out and about as much as he might have liked, and he was desperately grieving the loss of his wife of over 50 years (my much-loved mother-in-law).  I discovered one evening, quite by accident, that one of the things he loved was watching shows about animals or travel in exotic places.  Because I love that sort of show, too, we all watched one together on coral sea islands, and I watched his face light up as the show transported him away from his grief and physical infirmity into a lovely world of wonder.

It was such a fun moment.

The trick, I think, is to tailor the show or the book toward the interests of the person to whom they will be given.

Library Mouse: A Lesson Plan

Over the weekend, we went to Pittsburgh for my birthday and had a lot of fun.  While we were there we went to see Mary Poppins -- which was wonderful -- and did a lot of other fun stuff as well.

One of the things we did was to visit Ikea, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places to find fun stuff for the school library.   And boy did a find some awesome treasures this trip!

Last week, I read Library Mouse to my kindergarten, first and second graders.  It was, as always, an absolutely enchanting read for everyone.  The kids adore the story, and love to think about a tiny little mouse being an author because that translates so well to them being an author, too.

After I read the story to one class, I caught a little boy peering around the baseboards trying to find the library mouse hole in our own library.  Too cute!

My idea for this week's lesson plan was to make some one-page books for the kids, so that they, too, could write a book and illustrate it just like Library Mouse.  You can find some easy directions to make a one-page book here.  I'll be making more than 60 of them over the next couple of days.

Too cute, right?  Just you wait.

Building An Enthusiastic Reader

This morning, The Peanut woke up for school when her alarm went off, brushed her teeth, got dressed, fussed with her hair a little bit...and then crawled right back into bed to read for another half an hour.

Her father, thinking she hadn't gotten up at all, rushed upstairs to get her moving only to find her nose completely buried in the Percy Jackson series.  Which is how she was last night, too, when we had to make her turn her lights out and go to sleep.

It really is every parent's dream to build an enthusiastic reader, isn't it?  But how do you do it?

I don't have the answer for every child, but in terms of my own child I do think this was key:  we have been reading to her and with her since she was tiny.  We never went anywhere without a book -- in the diaper bag, in the back seat of the car within reach of her car seat when she was younger, all over our house in every room, fairy tales on my kindle, good stories crammed on her bookshelves in her own room...first in board books and later in regular books and then on her own kindle.

We wanted her to know that reading is important to us, so that it will also be important to her...and from the earliest age. 

Both of us are big readers -- we read every night before bedtime, and have made it a point to let The Peanut crawl in bed and read with us fairly often.  Also, during the summer on hot and humid afternoons when being outside in the sweltering haze is miserable, she and I will crawl onto the king-sized master bed and enjoy some reading time in the air conditioned splendor together.

Also, each summer, The Peanut and I pick out a book to read together -- something that might have been a big reach for her when she was smaller, but that was a wonderful story.  One summer it was The Cricket in Times Square -- we happened to be taking a trip to New York City that summer, to tag along with daddy to a conference, and I wanted to introduce her to the hum and rattle of the city and the subways before we got there. She loved it, and we spent the time in New York periodically looking for lost crickets, which was very fun indeed for wee girlies.

Another year, it was The Borrowers, a story that I highly recommend reading aloud together. At the time we read it, the vocabulary would have been well past where The Peanut was, but by reading it together she got a wonderful story and a built-in personal dictionary and context explainer right there in the chair next to her, and that was both handy and cozy.

Books To Love: The Borrowers

The Peanut and I choose a different book every summer as "our book," and we read a chapter or so in the heat of the afternoon in the master bedroom, snuggled comfortably in the air conditioning on the big, king-sized bed, reveling in the glorious lazy goodness of summer and excellent storytelling.

We have done this each summer since she was small.  And it is something we look forward to now each year when school is out.  We haven't yet selected this year's story, although I am thinking The Secret Garden may be a good pick, or perhaps Treasure Island.  But it could also be one of the Harry Potter books that she hasn't yet read (she's somewhere in the middle of the series, along with reading a bunch of other books at the same time).

The key is to pick a book that has a really good story that will pull her along day in and day out and make her drag me to read aloud again.  I know that I've hooked her when she is begging for more story the moment she wakes up.

Two summers ago, our read together book was The Borrowers by Mary Norton.  And it was just such a book.

Even now, two years later, she still talks about scenes from The Borrowers. And wants to make presents for The Borrowers in our own house that she is convinced we must have.  Her reasoning?  "Our house is 109 years old, how could we not?"  You can't really argue with that.

Last summer, Studio Ghibli released The Secret World of Arrietty. At our house, it was a much anticipated film, because The Borrowers is all about Arrietty, her family and her world, and the adventures she has trying to stay out of sight from humans while still being close enough to them to borrow what her family needs.

While the movie is enchanting, as pretty much all Ghibli offerings are given Miyazake's amazing gift of storytelling and visual art, it just isn't as good as the original book from whence it came.  If you haven't yet read The Borrowers, you really should -- it is fabulous.

There are several books in the Borrowers series, and we haven't yet read them all, so perhaps this summer will be more of a series read.

What's your read aloud for your kids lately?  We're always looking for our next good read...

Reading Really Is Fundamental

For the last few days, I have been working on a reading list for students to spur a little summer reading.

At the school where I teach, each teacher hands out a "summer reading" requirement list of 4 or 5 books (sometimes more, depending on grade level and type of books) that the kids are expected to read prior to the start of the next term.

For my lists though, I'm striving to come up with something that makes reading seem fun -- I want to hook the kids into books from now through the rest of their lives.  And to do that, they have to want to pick up the books and read.

I'm wondering:  if you were making a list of books that kids ought to read for fun, especially for reluctant readers in the age range of 6 through 13, what would your top 5 books be?


How about if you were making a list of books these kids ought to read before they go to college, what would your top 5 books be?

And, finally, when you were a kid, what was the book that hooked you on reading?  Do you remember it?



It's funny because there are always differing opinions on what is great reading and what is crapola, although there are some books that almost always make the list for everyone when I talk with them about this.  For each child, book recommendations are going to be different based on their own, individual interests, obviously.  But there are certain constants that are classics that everyone generally reads...and for good reason.  Those are the gems I'm trying to mine.

I ask the above questions because I'm working on some end of the year things for the library.

It is a thrilling thing to have a parent say to you that their child is reading so much more because of some effort you have made.  I'm hoping to help create more readers in the years to come.

Bits And Pieces From A Busy Librarian

It's been a busy couple of days, and I have neglected the blog shamefully.  Mea culpa, gang.

Wednesday was a teaching day, and it was a hot, sweaty sprint from start to finish.  If anyone has some tips on dealing with kids who have a serious case of "summer-itis," I'd love to hear them.  My management skills are being tested and, since it is my first year, I'm a little worried that I'm not doing everything I can to succeed.  I'd love suggestions on what worked for you in the past in terms of classroom management as the term comes to a close.

Thursday, I drove a couple of hours south of here to Charleston, WV, because Scholastic was having a huge book warehouse sale.  They had books marked down from 25%, 50% even a "scratch and dent" shelf where really great books with something like a crease in the cover or a tiny tear were selling for $1 or $2 each.

I managed to pick up 46 books -- some hard backed, some classics, several nature/science/animal, lots of beloved series, and a few new picture books for story time -- for less than $130.  Woo hoo!

Slowly but surely, our little library collection is growing and older, battered books are being replaced with newer copies.  It certainly takes a while, doesn't it?

Books To Love: The Sisters Grimm

Sometimes, you find a series of books that are so awesome, you wish you'd written them yourself.

That is true in spades for The Sisters Grimm.

We bought the first book in the series over spring break two weeks ago.  I am now on the last book of the series -- Book 9.  And The Peanut?  Is halfway through Book 6 and chugging away.

UPDATE:  The Peanut finished the 6th book while I was working on this post -- she read it in less than 24 hours even though it is a 304 page book! -- and is already chugging through Book 7 while munching on a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.  I love these books!!

These books are absolutely going in the school library when we are done with them.  The series is fantastic.

Long story short, two sisters appear to be orphaned by parents who disappear, and are then taken in by a grandmother they thought was already dead.  Her last name is Grimm.

As in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm of fairy tale fame.

Hilarity, mysteries, and adventure ensue, as the Sisters Grimm are pulled from one fractured fairy tale into another and another and another.

I am 43 years old and I cannot put these books down.  The same is true for my 9 year old daughter.  Now that is some excellent reading!

Blogger disclosure:  Links in this post may include links to my Amazon account.  Purchases made through these links - or through the Amazon search engine in the right hand column on this blog - contribute a few pennies to me, which are then used for purchases for the school library.  Thanks so much for all of your support! 

Most Loved Elementary Library Books, Series And Authors

Since it is Spring Cleaning season, I've done a little work on a list of the most loved children's book series and authors in the hopes that if folks are cleaning off shelves, they'll think of a library donation.  I've been working on it for school off and on for a couple of weeks now, going through our circulation records and several online and educational book resources.

It occurred to me that my list might be a useful tool for other folks as a jumping off point for their own lists.

I know I'm missing several names, so please chime in with omissions in the comments.

Keeping in mind that every group of kids is different and that likes and dislikes will shift from group to group, year to year, here is what I've come up with as a sort of "wish list" for our own little elementary school library.  Also, I'm still looking for "read aloud" picture book recommendations, if anyone has some favorites to share.

Because our school goes from Pre-K 3 year olds all the way up to 6th graders, it's a fairly wide range of selections and authors:

BOOK SERIES:

-- Any books in the “Great Illustrated Classics” series
-- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
-- Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
-- Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
-- Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton
-- Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne
-- Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
-- Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
-- Hardy Boys by Franklin Dixon
-- Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
-- Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucelli
-- Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel

Calgon, Take Me Away: Travel Reading, Anyone?

This morning has dawned cool and clear, that crisp spring feeling is back in the air.  Last night's light frost has begun to melt into mist on the ground.

And the travel itch is calling to me.  At least, the armchair travel itch is calling, anyway.

Life is not cooperating for any lengthy travel right now -- between scheduling and assorted life craziness at the moment, it would not be advisable. 

But an armchair journey, transported on the pages of a book filled with the imagery of sights and sounds and smells of lands far away from my cozy home?  Now that would be heavenly and perfect.

I could use a little diversionary travel reading at the moment.  Especially with some meaty bits of history and intrigue mixed into the fray.

My favorite travel writers tend to have a lyric writing style that draws the reader in as a passenger alongside their adventures.  The ones where you feel like you've been served a cuppa hot tea in the train compartment right along with the writer as he inks the next page in his travel journal and tries to keep his temper at repeated interruptions from the drunk in the compartment next door.

If it includes some classical or ancient history along the road?  So much the better.  Humor and ancient history mixed together in a travel book is an intoxicating, heady mix for me as a reader.

Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road is an exceptional example of the sort of work that draws me in, beckoning and beguiling with its ancient turrets and secrets that emerge along the the way of a modern day Marco Polo's journey from the present in search of the lessons of the past.

The same is true for his Lost Heart of Asia, which goes right past the meat and into the gristle of a region we in the West tend to have no picture of at all. Which is a shame given its strategic importance over the centuries and our dabbling in its politics in the present day.

I love a book that teaches me while it draws me in with imagery so vivid that I feel as though I am almost there.

One of my all-time favorites for sheer snarky attitude and travel wonkery is Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China.  I have always had a fascination with a train journey, ever since I was a wee child, and his description of the insanity and amazement that comes along with his journey is divine.

I once read the entire book while taking the train to Manhattan's Penn Station from Pittsburgh and back again -- it was heaven.

If You Were The Librarian: Essential Books For Kids

Currently, I've been working on a master "wish list" for my elementary school library.  It is proving to be a much larger task than I initially thought it would be, primarily because the kids are reading so much this year that wear and tear on books has been way more substantial than I expected at the beginning of the year.

As a result, replacement of much beloved and read books -- especially in popular series -- has to take a front seat and adding to the collection will end up being a secondary concern as budget allows.

And when I say budget?  I try not to laugh out loud because, as is the case in almost every school in the country I would imagine, "budget" means mostly out of my pocket with the occasional assist of some much-appreciated book donations from wonderful parents, family and alums who are clearing out their children's bulging bookshelves and think of us.

Without those gently used book donations?  I fear we would be in very sad shape indeed.  Consider this a gentle reminder that your local school libraries as well as public libraries are generally thrilled with donations of well-kept books as you clear out your bookshelves.

All of this has gotten me thinking about what my dream elementary school library would contain, if budget were no obstacle and space were no concern either.

Which made me wonder:  if you were the elementary school librarian, what would be the books -- or book series -- you would consider "must have" material?

Trove of New Fairy Tales Discovered in Germany

Turns out that the Brothers Grimm had another colleague who was also roaming the German countryside collecting folk tales and fairy tales.

The story of how these came to be lost is fascinating stuff all on its own:

Von Schönwerth compiled his research into a book called Aus der Oberpfalz – Sitten und Sagen, which came out in three volumes in 1857, 1858 and 1859. The book never gained prominence and faded into obscurity.

While sifting through Von Schönwerth's work, Eichenseer found 500 fairytales, many of which do not appear in other European fairytale collections.

Apparently, all of his research on all of these tales had been sitting in the back of some vault at a university gathering dust for all these years.

See?  It does pay to do some Spring cleaning after all!

One of the things I have loved most about getting my new Kindle Fire for a Christmas present this year has been how many fairy tale collections I've been able to load on it. No matter where we go -- endless doctor's office waiting room time, bedtime on a trip, boring intermission at a play -- I have fairy tales at our disposal to read to The Peanut.

It.  Is.  Awesome.

I always take a book along with us to the doctor's office -- have since The Peanut was tiny -- so that the waiting room isn't meltdown central.  But with my kindle, I have a plethora of stories to choose from because I've uploaded several of the "fairy books."  Remember those from childhood?

The Blue Fairy Book was always one of my favorites because it has East of the Sun and West of the Moon in it, along with a number of other old favorites told in ways that aren't the child-sanitized Disney versions of the stories.

Library Shelf Talker Book Report Forms

A few months ago, I pulled a print-off form from the Library Sparks website for a "shelf talker" that I used with the kids to do beginning of the year book reports.

It was such a great idea, because I could use the shelf talker on the library shelves directly under a particular book or series.  Then, as the kids were browsing during class, they were getting direct recommendations from other kids on what books were awesome.

These books became highly sought after for several weeks, and several of the kids told me they never would have given a book a second glance but for the nudge from another kid's shelf talker.

Since then, I have been scouring the internet trying to find some new forms to use...but have had no luck.

Today, I finally gave up trying to find something I liked and, instead, came up with my own forms that I'll be using with the kids this week.

Basically, it works like this:

I select some clip art in a black and white line drawing format -- a smaller coloring page version, if you will, that allows the kids to personalize their own page after they do the written book report part.  I'm using some Dr. Seuss clip art this week because next month is Dr. Seuss' birthday, but I've also mocked some up using various pictures of fantasy characters reading books for later in the year as well.

They are adorable.

For All The Tea

I've been reading an intriguing book -- For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History -- about the espionage that went into getting tea plants from China to India back in the 1800s during the days of the British Raj.

It is quite the pot boiler of a read, I have to say, filed with plant knowledge and costume trickery and all sorts of cultural misunderstandings involved in sneaking a valuable commodity and the workers who had the knowledge to process the tea out from under the nose of the Emperor of China.