January 2, 2012

Book Talk Tuesday 2012

I have been searching the web for a great place to post book reviews for librarians and teachers to use in the classroom. Well, I am going to try hosting my own Book Talk Tuesday! I invite teachers and librarians to link to a recent book talk or book review that can be used by others- to help purchase new books, learn about new books and to help give us book talk ideas. 


My rules?
1. All content must be appropriate for children in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. 

2. Please link to your original content, not the content of others. 

3. Websites that you link to must be child friendly since lots of kids visit this site and if they click on your link, I want it to be appropriate for them. 

4. Positive reviews only, please... we only spread love here at The Lemme Library! 

5. Books must be available in The US. (you are welcome to link to ARC reviews)

6. I reserve the right to remove any reviews that don't meet criteria 1-5. 

In the link title field, be sure to include the title of the book you are reviewing and your site name. In the URL field, please link to this specific post that contains the book review (That way people don't have to scour your blog looking for it!) 

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Ahhhh!  Welcome to another year! Another chance to become the person you want to be! Another chance to accomplish your goals! Another year to feel guilty about all of the things you should be doing but don't.  I have lots of resolutions for myself.... but I have realized that nobody cares about your resolutions. Unless you are a book junkie and you are talking about books.  So, I will spare you my lofty personal goals and cut to the chase. 
In 2012, I would like to read 100 books. Last year I set this very goal and logged 28. There is nowhere to go but up! The Internet holds a bounty of book challenges for you to take on! I am not joining any formal challenges- my only challenge is to turn off the tv and the computer and read. But, if you would like to join some challenges to increase your reading in 2012, try these:
LibLaura5  and A to Z Library are  hosting The Caldecott Challenge: Read all 300 picture books that have won the prestigious Caldecott, from 1938 to the present. About the challenge:
"THIS IS A STRESS FREE CHALLENGE. It is intended to be fun! You are invited to participate in this challenge at your own pace and at your own level of "strictness" to the list of books. Some of those older honor books may be difficult to get your hands on. You may choose not to re-read titles. You may make this challenge about what works for you!" 
Colby Sharp and John Schu are hosting The Newbery Challenge.Same as The Caldecott Challenge, but the books are a bit thicker and there are 16 more of them. Mr. Schu explains the challenge in this video.




 Kidlit Frenzy and The Nonfiction Detectives are encouraging us to read more nonfiction in the year twenty twelve with The Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge! This is a great opportunity to try something new and learn something along the way!  You can also use these nonfiction picture books for your overall goal! You set your nonfiction goal and then share your reviews each week.  Get your students involved with the help of PageinTraining and her Passport Nonfiction site!


Ms. Houghton is hosting The Sibert Challenge to get your nonfiction mojo flowing. (I had to Google "Sibert Award" to get in the loop.)











No matter how many books you challenge yourself to read, you can track them at Goodreads.com. Just tell Goodreads how many books you'd like to read and they track your progress.  They will also tell you how far behind you are. They offer a gadget that you can embed in your blog so your readers can track your progress.



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Whether you'd like to read 2000 books or 2 books in 2012, you should be proud. Even if you read 1 book in the coming year, you will be forever changed. May be you want to read to your kids more- what a powerful goal that is!  Don't define yourself as a success by the number of books you read... this is a powerful article by Donalyn Miller about just giving yourself permission to read in 2012- no matter the number of books.  

So- what about you? What are your reading goals for 2012? Tell us! Are you participating in a reading challenge this year? Share it with us! The more the merrier! Leave a comment and tell us about your goals this year. One of your goals should be: Visit the links below and LEAVE A COMMENT for each blogger... bloggers love comments!
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Now- on with the show! The reason you are all here! Book Talk Tuesday! Book Talk Tuesday will be a great resource to all of us as we create our reading lists this year! Check back often- and don't forget about the book talk archives (which I still need to update!)
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1. Ms. O Reads Books-- The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman11.Mrs. Mattei21.The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (Kidsmomo)
2.The Unwanteds (pageintraining)12.60 Not- to- be- Missed Picture Books22.Little Blue Truck (Flowering Minds)
3.sharpread (Colby Sharp)13.The House Baba Built (NC Teacher Stuff)23.Never Forgotten by Patricia McKissack and the Dillons
4.Mr Schu Reads14.Library Fanatic24.lit360 IJohn)
5.Winterling (ICPL)15.King School Library25.Middle Grd Reads
6.List of Snowy Books (Bigfoot Reads)16.Amanda @Maestra Amanda's Bookshelf26.Kid Lit Frenzy
7.Niki17.When Life Gives You O.J. / Hound Dog True (Chocolate Air)27.The Spiderwick Chronicles (Lit Lad)
8.Jen and Kellee @ Teach Mentor Texts18.Migrant @A Picture Book A Day (Natalia Ortega- Brown)28.Lib Laura5
9.Caroline Starr Rose - Glory Be19.Baja's Cozy Book Nook (Scape Goat and The Secret Knowledge of Grownups)
10.The Brain Lair20.Cynthia Alaniz (@utalaniz)

18 comments:

  1. I feel a little lame ... I am so not interested in reading all of the old Caldecott and Newbery's. But BRAVO to those who do want to tackle that. I made my goal 400 again but am thinking about lowering it. Read too fast and you don't really stop to pay attention.

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  2. I'm excited to be participating in the Caldecott, Newbery and Nonfiction Picture book challenges this year. I also have a personal challenge to read Little Golden Books that have been passed down to me from family.

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  3. In my typical New Year's enthusiasm for resolutions, I've chosen 3 challenges (YA/MG Fantasy, Award-winning Books and Nonfiction Picture Bookss) as well as a Goodreads goal of 200 books.

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  4. I did a lot of picture book reading in 2011. I’d like to maintain that while reading more novels in 2012.

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  5. No challenges for me this year other the self-imposed support of my fellow MG/YA debuts and an attempt to read through the many books I own that I have yet to open.

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  6. I will add one more picture book reading opportunity to your list of reading challenges. I have compiled a list of 60 not-to-be-missed picture books and am encouraging people to read all 60 (5 per month) or only those picture books that look interesting. The list includes international authors (e.g. Jutta Bauer, Tomi Ungerer, and Ulf Stark) as well as U.S., Caldecott-eligible authors. It would be great to have you join us, discover a new author or two, and add your thoughts to the conversation that I hope will develop in the comments to each monthly post. -Amy

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  7. My goalis 100 books, just because it is a nice round number. I preloaded25 books onto the homepage of my iPod/kindle reader.

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  8. Thanks for the inspiration to get started blogging and to join some of these great challenges!

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  9. After realizing that I failed most of my 2011 Challenges, I decided to keep it simple this year and just read more. I use Goodreads religiously, so that keeps me motivated. :) Happy reading in 2012!

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  10. While I'd love to join in on the Newbery and Caldecott Challenges, they are kind of intimidating! I think I might keep those in my back pocket for next year, or even summer when I have more time. But for right now, I'm going to shoot for 225 books (up from my 215ish this year) and participate in the Debut Author Challenge (hosted by The Story Siren). Good luck with your goals and challenges!

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  11. I smashed my goal in 2011 to read 111 books. I ended up reading 218. In 2012, I have set a goal of 225 books. These books will be a mix of PB, MG, and YA books. I used Goodreads faithfully for the first time last year and now can't see how I kept track of my reading without it! Gotta Keep Reading!

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  12. I'm all in for the Newbery, Caldecot and the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenges!

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  13. Challenges never really interest me but I'm tempted by the Newbery one. Reading/collecting all the winners/honors is a personal goal of mine-- but a challenge might spoil the fun.

    Happy to be linking up again.

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  14. I'm participating in Nerdbery, Nerdcott, and I am daring myself to read 500 books this year. Your blog is awesome! Thanks for hosting this discussion.

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  15. Hi, we participated in the Picture Book Reading Challenge last year - I don't know who's hosting that this year, but we'd probably be joining that. And Paper Tigers' Reading the World challenge if they're doing it again this year. Would also check out the Caldecott Honor Reading Challenge - it would be good to have that overlap with our own Award-Winning-Book-Reading Challenge which you might also want to check out Kelly! This could overlap with the reading challenges you have already joined! :) Here is the link just in case you might be interested:
    http://main.gatheringbooks.org/?page_id=191

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  16. Thanks for mentioning the Non-fiction Picture Book Challenge. And I am trying the Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert, and Belpre challenges along with the Non-fiction Picture Book Challenge. :-)

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  17. Haven't decided on my challenges this year--can't wait to look at them all more closely and read with my boys!

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  18. I'm on board with the #Nerdbery Newbery challenge. I'm done Story of Mankind and almost done Dolittle! I was looking over the list of Newbery winners this morning and realized there were some years where I have read all the Award and Honor books.

    I set my Goodreads goal at 150 this year - chapter books, graphic novels, and compiled trade paper backs of my favorite comics.

    @mselke01 on Twitter - though tweet about many geeky things (like Star Wars and comics) in addition to reading.

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