New Books!

Hello!
I just came back from a week out west visiting national parks (promise me you will do this when you grow up!), and now I'm getting ready for school.  Today I am surrounded by new books that I am getting ready for the library.  It can be difficult to put the book titles in the computer without stopping to read them all!  This week, I know I will stop and look at some, and as I do, I'll post the reviews on my Good Reads account (see the link to this on the right column).  Some of our new books look good to me, including Junonia (a new chapter book by Kevin Henkes), Who Was Dr. Seuss (the newest BIG head biography), Monkey (a trickster tale by Gerald McDermott), The Lemonade Crime (sequel to the Lemonade War), The Magic Tree House book of Pirates, and lots of new books in the Daisy Meadows' Rainbow Magic series.  I am sitting with PILES of books today, and looking forward to getting them ready for kids to read next week.  I also have a few dollars to buy some new things for the library--what would you like to see in the library when you come back to school?

Reading in other towns

This week I'm hanging out with my nieces Meredith and Melanie while their mom works.  (In fact, today we are going to Plympton to set up the library for September!)  I've been asking them about what they are reading for their summer reading programs.  They live in Lexington and they don't have any required books for reading in the summer--they can read anything they want!  Meredith is going into 7th grade and Melanie is going into 4th grade.  Melanie is a strict Diary of a Wimpy Kid person and is trying to read all of them.  Melanie also loves Geronimo Stilton.  She'd fit right in at our school!  Meredith read The Giver by Lois Lowry and recommends it highly.  She also read Sent, the sequel to Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix--books lots of our fifth graders liked a lot.  Yesterday we went to a huge bookstore in Boston that is going out of business and bought some new books for Plympton.  I was surprised to see that there were now 10 books in Ann Martin's Main Street series and got some more of those, some easy readers, and some nonfiction books (Rattlesnakes!).  I've been reading a lot too.  Right now I'm reading Double Dutch by Sharon Draper.  It is about kids in a middle school in Ohio who compete in jump rope competitions.  If you want to see all the books I've read this summer, check out my Good Reads account

WHO will you read about?

This summer, I've been working at the literacy and math camp at Plympton School.  All the third grade kids have been making cool books based on biographies they've read.  Through their projects I've learned about everyone from Squanto and Helen Keller to Kevin Garnett and Johnny Appleseed.  I've noticed that in the last few years, lots of kids have been reading biographies.  One really popular series is the "Who Was" books (which lots of kids call the "big head" books because the covers usually show a cartoon drawing with a very large headed person.  I am reading a really good biography right now about the scientist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma.  Mr. Darwin traveled the world in the 1800s on a ship called The Beagle and collected animals from his travels.  What he noticed about animal adaptation in different parts of the world led him to think of a new way of considering how animals and even people change over time.  It is always fun and interesting to read about people who do something big with their lives.  Do you have a favorite biography?

Travel reading

Last week I took my niece and nephew to the Swan Boats for the first time, and then we HAD to read Make Way for Ducklings because it takes place there.  It got me thinking that I love to read about places I visit.  I just read a great book called Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richardson Jacobson.  It is about a boy who wakes up at a campground in Maine and discovers his mom has left him there, and he has to figure out how to get back to Boston without letting the police find him.  I knew exactly where the campground was, as it was based on a real place, and loved following this action story through a place I know well.  My favorite part of the book takes place in an L.L. Bean store, where the main character uses the store's supplies to help him get back home.

As much as I like reading books set in places I know or places I am going to visit.  I also like to read about places before I go on vacation.  This year I'm planning to visit Arizona and Utah in August, and I've been reading all about these places.  I've been reading lots of nonfiction about this area to help me know what I want to see when I get there, and I'm looking for some fiction books set in this area.

Do you have any books that you like because of WHERE they happen? 
And thanks to the kids who wrote last week to tell me about their favorite series--looks like I will HAVE TO read a 39 Clues book this summer to see what you are all excited about!

Harry Potter

If you are old like me, this is an important week because the very last NEW Harry Potter moment is coming as the very last movie comes out.  I think kids know that I think books 1, 2 and 3 are good for elementary school kids, but I think you should wait until middle school to finish the series.  They will be more satisfying then, and you will understand them better.  So don't go see the movie just yet. 
However, since I have been following this series for so long, it got me thinking about other book series that I've LOVED either when I was little or series that I've read with kids.....So here are some I really love (ranging from those for little kids to those for older kids):

• Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
• Little Bear by Else Minarik
• Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Mrs. Pigglewiggle by Betty MacDonald
• Ramona/Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
• Aliens Stole My Homework by Bruce Coville
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
• Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

 THESE ARE FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS--

• The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So tell me--what did I miss?  What's your favorite series?

Summer reading so far

Hello!
I've been traveling a lot since school got out, but now I'm back home and working at the Plympton summer program.  It is a good chance to share some new books with kids.  Today I'm going to read a book called Guyku by Bob Raczka.  It has a whole lot of very funny haikus written for guys.  One I like goes like this:

If this puddle coud

talk, I think it would tell me

to splash my sister

There is also a website http://www.guykuhaiku.com/ that has fun projects, activities, and more!

Let me know if you write a guyku

Ms. Paradis in Library Land

I've been in New Orleans since Friday at the American Library Association meeting with librarians from all over the country. There are many cool things here. There is a HUGE room with book stores and publishers from all over the country. This is where you see authors. I've seen Lemony Snicket, Chris Raschka, Brian Selznick, Jeff Kinney, Rick Riordan and Alan Say (and my friend was talking to Tomie DePaola--so I'm looking for him). You can also get tons of new books here, and my suitcase is full of new things. We go to lots of workshops and meetings. Right now I'm at a workshop about how to do really cool research projects with kids. SO I hope we'll do some cool research projects next year! We have meetings about what librarians should all be doing and share lots of ideas. When we aren't meeting, we are running around New Orleans. This is a really great city and there are cool people in Voodoo outfits, steamboats on the Mississippi, palm trees, and great food. I love it here, but will be eager to get back to Plympton next week and see everyone. What are you doing with your first week of vacation?