I am really bad…

At keeping up with this blog, that is. So, I have decided to do something a little bit different. I am going to post MUCH shorter reviews. It will basically say how much I liked it and give a very quick summary. Maybe my posting will finally be able to keep up with my reading?!? We shall see………..

Happy Reading!

DONE!

So, I am officially done importing all of my old posts from the Librarina blog hosted by Blurty. So, now, you are able to search my blog to sort through all of my prior posts (in case you want to look for a review and are unsure whether I posted about it). I am sure that search feature will come in more handy for me than anyone else, but the functionality is there, and that is the important part. (yay!)

Happy Reading!

Now A Tween AND Teen Blog!

It’s official… I am going to be a Tween and Teen Librarian this summer, so Librarina is going to be “moving up” in the world of Young Adult literature. All this really means is that I will be posting some books for Tweens AND some for Teens.

Stay tuned for information about this year’s Summer Reading Program — Get a Clue @ Your Library (for kids) and You Never Know @ Your Library (for YAs) — and, of course, many more book reviews.

Happy Reading!

Tweens Book Group

I almost forgot to post about the fall selections for the Tweens Book Group… Shame on me!
In October, I showcased Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer Holm and The Ocean of Osyria by Scott Lobdell. These are two of the graphic novels in our ever-expanding J Graphic Novels Collection. After browsing through several other GNs, we all took some time to draw our own intro pages for graphic novels about ourselves. It was a lot of fun!

On November 16th, I will be showcasing Phineas L MacGuire… Erupts! by Frances O’Roark Dowell and Shug by Jenny Han. After I finish, you get to take one (or maybe even both!) of the books home with you. There will be snacks, of course, and I will provide time to discuss any other books you have been reading.

Hope to see you there. Happy Reading!

Books for Boys

Well, this link is for “Books for Boys,” but I will be so bold as to suggest that even girls can benefit from using this website — http://www.talestoldtall.com/BooksforBoys.html … The best thing, in my opinion, is that there are summaries mixed into the lists of titles — which are broken down into several sections (by difficulty). There is even a link to a list of picture books. Some other helpful links include “tips for parents” and “tips on enjoying a good book.” Hope this helps some of you find a great book this summer!

Speaking of summer — REMEMBER TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY’S SUMMER READING PROGRAM! (East Greenbush SRP sign-up starts on June 19th and ends on July 14th)

Happy Reading!

Reading Lists…

I found this article through one of my librarian listservs. I thought the lists were quite interesting, so I decided to post them here.
(You can find the full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1698548,00.html)

From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses … what the top writers say every child should read

JK Rowling
Author of the Harry Potter series

Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Hamlet William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Animal Farm George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
Catch-22 Joseph Heller

Philip Pullman
Author of the His Dark Materials trilogy

Finn Family Moomintroll Tove Jansson
Emil and the Detectives Erich Kästner
The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens (or other good anonymous ballads)
First Book of Samuel, Chapter 17 (the story of David and Goliath)
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
A good collection of myths and legends
A good collection of fairytales

Andrew Motion
Poet laureate (UK)

The Odyssey Homer Charles Dickens
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Hamlet William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost John Milton
Lyrical Ballads Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Portrait of a Lady Henry James
Ulysses James Joyce
The Waste Land TS Eliot

Happy Reading!

Help me choose!

I am trying to decide the books I will read for the March, April, and May book group meetings. I think I have some good books to read, but I am not sure if the kids in my group would like them as much as I would. If you have any feedback about these books and/or any other suggested titles, please feel free to add a comment! The nominees are:
Toad Heaven by Morris Gleitzman (author of Toad Rage)
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce (has been made into a movie)
The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
Fourth-Grade Fuss by Johanna Hurwitz

Have you read them? Are there any problems with these books? Are there some better books that I should read instead? Thanks in advance for any input!

Happy Reading!

New blog!

Today, while on a school visit to talk to 6th graders at Goff Middle School (Hi guys!), I decided to start a reading blog for my tweens. I like how Jen has a lot of ways to help teens find good books, and I am already addicted to blogging anyway, so this is the next logical step! Basically, this blog will be all about the good, the bad, and the ugly — in tweens literature, that is! Hope this helps all of you would-be readers out there. Feel free to post your own comments about the books. Happy reading!

P.S. “Librarina” was originally a typo made by a librarian friend of mine, but she and I decided that we liked the word enough to keep on using it. We hope to help “librarina” (a.k.a. female librarian) make it into the dictionary someday — like Nick in Andrew Clements’ book Frindle!