Category: Middle Grade

eXPLORING aRT in Your Community: Connecting Visual Art and Literature

5/13/2024

I'm excited to highlight community connections in my latest post on School Library Journal's Teen Librarian Toolbox. Thanks to Amanda MacGregor for the opportunity to write four guest posts for TLT this year. It was a new endeavor for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also loved reading other articles on the blog and expanding my PLN.

My small, rural community in central Kansas is unofficially a fine arts magnet. Between award-winning programs in the public schools and a variety of opportunities through Sterling College, my students and I are flush with opportunities to engage with fine arts.

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A Rover's Story: STEAM Connections

4/10/2024

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Take a look at my guest post A Rover's Story: STEAM Connections on School Library Journal's Teen Librarian Toolbox blog. It's about a wonderful middle grade science fiction novel by Jasmine Warga and the fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) connections I explored with my literature circle students.

I found a great lesson on the connection between music and emotion and asked students to analyze these elements in the story. I also asked them to share a piece of music that was meaningful to them, which led to some rich discussion.

As a culminating activity, students used Sphero mini robots to complete a Mars rover challenge involving mapping, problem solving, teamwork, and coding. Students loved this activity, and it was a fun and engaging way to extend the learning of our novel study.

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Library palooza!

2/26/2024

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Over the weekend I attended Library Palooza , a literature festival held in San Antonio, TX, focused on middle grade and young adult literature. I had been following Library Palooza on Instagram for a while and was very impressed with the diversity of authors at the festival. When they announced the authors and illustrators being featured for 2024, I knew I had to ask my administrators to let me attend. Take a look at this incredible group of book creators!

The day started with a panel discussion involving all six authors (Renee Watson had to cancel) followed by individual author sessions and book signings. It was so hard to choose which authors to see (there were just three sessions), but I decided to attend sessions with Victoria Aveyard, Gabriela Epstein, and Kelly Yang.

What made a great day even better was that I got to spend it with a librarian friend! Pattie and I used to live in the same town and our kids grew up together, and I have been missing her since their move to Texas. When I found out I could attend Librarypalooza, I invited her to join me and we spent the day catching up and meeting amazing book creators.

The entire day was so joyful! I was surrounded by kids, book creators, and book lovers. I had an amazing lunch from the Fat Tummy Empanadas food truck, got books autographed, and I even won some free books!

If you have a chance to attend a literature festival, I encourage you to do it. It is so fun and energizing to be around so many fellow book lovers.

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Book Review: The world-Famous Nine by Ben Guterson

1/27/2024

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If you're looking for a mystery with a fantastic setting, surprises and danger throughout, and coded messages you can solve along with the characters, The World-Famous Nine hits the mark.

When Zander's parents are involved in a research trip for work, he gets to spend a few weeks at The Nine, his grandmother's amazing nineteen-story department store.

The Nine is an enchanting department store that feels more like a self-contained city peopled with interesting characters and places. Zander's family has owned the store for generations - I love that the women of the family have always run the store - and have built a caring community of employees and customers. Much of the story feels like a giant scavenger hunt as Zander and his friend Natasha scour the store seeking clues and collecting information. I loved getting out a pencil and paper to decode clues along with Zander. Students will be hungry for their own scavenger hunt and code-breaking activities after reading this engrossing mystery.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Publication date: January 30, 2024. Advanced Reader's Copy provided by NetGalley.

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James Ponti, Spies, & Trivia: a winning combination

1/24/2024

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Head over to the Teen Librarian Toolbox (TLT), a School Library Journal network blog, to see my guest post about James Ponti's City Spies series and my amazing experience at the City Spies party at the American Association of School Librarians National Conference in Florida in October.

Thanks to Amanda MacGregor at TLT for the opportunity! I have three more guest posts scheduled for this semester, so I'm looking forward to sharing more. TLT is holding a "Mind the Middle" campaign this year where they are focusing on middle grade books, authors, and programs. My posts are part of that project.

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eXPLORING aRT in Your Community: Connecting Visual Art and Literature

A Rover's Story: STEAM Connections

Library palooza!

Book Review: The world-Famous Nine by Ben Guterson

James Ponti, Spies, & Trivia: a winning combination

Amy Brownlee

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