Your Neighborhood Librarian Recommends

Jarrett Krosoczka is coming to my school! How exciting! I adore this book. In this book farm animals take their punk rock band on tour across America. It is so silly and my students loved singing along with the band's tunes.

I have to read in little chunks of time. It's OK, it's just that season of my life. I read a lot of books for work too, and for the kiddos, so spiritual books have been my go to for "me time" (and knitting books, cook books, and everything by Alexander McCall Smith... ). Reading at least a little each day is super important to me. My last book that I read a bit each day was Thoughts for Each Day of the Year by St. Theophan the Recluse. Which I mostly loved and then sometimes thought, oh man that's why that dude was a recluse (sorry, not trying to be disrespectful). My current book is A Daily Calendar of Saints. I find a lot of inspiration in the lives of the saints.  Understanding their struggles and triumphs in their age and thinking about our modern age is always an eye-opener. We have the saying "it takes your eyes off your shoelaces."

Have you ever read Anne of Green Gables as an adult? I listened to it as a book on tape with my daughter and was shocked at how much sympathy I had for Marilla (since being the mother of a strong girl for the past 7 years). I felt the same feeling toward Sister Anna in this book. I also have a soft spot for teachers that are having a hard time (because I still have those feelings from time to time). So this book made me cry. Eleanor loved it and just took it at face value, as a sweet Christmas story about an orthodox gaggle of kids (a lot like her gaggle of kids at Sunday School). She was delighted with the idea of animals being able to talk at midnight on Christmas Eve. It added a magical element to this story. I would buy this for any kid her age. I actually have both Sam and Saucer books on my gift list for my friends' children this holiday season.

I love being the first person to share certain special books with children, particularly my children. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems is an oldie but goodie, published in 2003. Kids love telling the pigeon "no!" when he tries to persuade them to let him drive the bus. And I love giving the pigeon a (bad) New York City accent.

Once I had a young student who had moved here from Pakistan ask me to help her find a good book to read. I asked my usual readers advisory questions and she borrowed books every few days for a week but didn't seem very happy. I continued to ask her what she liked about them or didn't and eventually she came down to tell me she wanted to read a “Muslim Junie B. Jones.” Children want to see themselves represented in their stories. I am happy to report there is a lot more diversity in children's literature these days. American Girl books especially have been reflecting a lot of diversity. I thought of all of these things as I started reading Shepherding Sam by Melinda Johnson. It is a beautiful story about a boy and a dog who grow together and help each other. The setting is an Orthodox Christian Monastery and as an Orthodox Christian living in New York State it reminds me of New Skete in Cambridge. I think readers who love animals will appreciate Saucer the corgi and hi

Winter Dance is a soft and beautiful story in which the reader can learn about how animals prepare for winter. Young readers will like to follow Fox through the story and might want to make up their own winter dance!

I don't think I will ever stop getting the back to school jitters. This anthropomorphized school story is sweet in dealing with those feelings. It would make a great book for parents to use when talking about their feelings with their children but I could also see a writing activity for elementary age students to think about ways our school might be nervous.

Hello! I am your friendly neighborhood librarian! Well, I may not be your actual neighbor but I am finding myself with more and more digital neighbors.  I love to share with my students and coworkers at school, and I prepare reading list for parents, staff, and special projects.  But I wanted a place where I could mention books that I personally enjoyed as a parent, a teacher, or just a human. I hope this blog will serve as a place where I can share books you might like too.