I’ve just come back from my annual trip to Shrine School.  For the past ten years, maybe more, I’ve gone there at Christmas time to read to Terrie Atkinson’s class.  The kids there seem like old friends, and it wouldn’t be the holidays for me if I didn’t visit.  There are always some old favorites that I read: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express, and a book only I seem to have – Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present.  We’ve read these so many times that the kids join in with me and it becomes almost like choral reading. 

Each year I try out a new book.  Two years ago it was Robert Sabuda’s wonderful pop-up The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Kids and adults alike are thrilled when the last page is turned and the tree lights up!  Last year I found Alan Katz and Pete Fornatale’s Elfis – this year, I perfected it by singing the songs in my very best Memphis Elvis voice….don’t know why the kids laughed so much at my singing.  This year, my new offering was Kate DiCamillo’s Great Joy.  It’s a beautifully illustrated story about including the least of us in our holiday celebrations.  I’m pretty sure it will become one of my old favorites from now on.    Happy Reading!

Where did the last month and a half go?  Between conferences, school holidays, and special events, the time has flown by – but boy have I read some great books!  On the way down to the annual NCTE convention in San Antonio, I read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. My plan was to start the book on the plane going down and finish it on the way home.  The reality was that I couldn’t put it down – I read it at the gate, on the tarmac, by the luggage carousel.  I tried to read it pulling my bag to the taxi stand, but that didn’t work out well – I kept running into people who were not understanding even though I kept apologizing.  Folks had told me that it was a combination of The Lottery and Lord of the Flies, but that doesn’t do it justice.  It’s adventure, science fiction, romance, and more.  Set in a future where every year two young people from each district must report to the capitol city for a reality survival competition…to the death, the book caught me up from the very first.  I finished it on the way to San Antonio, which meant I had to find another book to read on the way back.  More about that later.  Suffice it to say that The Hunger Games is now the BOOK OF THE DAY!