I love a great sentence. You know the ones that just grab you and make you say, whoa! One of the suggestions I always have for the teachers I work with is that they model sentences from these fantastic middle grade novels that we just love to teach grammar, editing, and revision. Jeff Anderson, also […]
Category Archives: Top Ten Lists
October
06
Ten Great Mentor Sentences from a Middle Grade Text by Kris Barr Paquette
posted by CBethM
September
29
10 Positive Things about Aging We Need to Show Kids in Books by Lindsey McDivitt
posted by CBethM
Childhood is an important stage of life, but it’s time limited. The fact is—we all have lots of living to do beyond age 18, yet the images of growing older in books for kids are often skewed to portray negative stereotypes as truth. Adulthood is frequently ignored and late life is often seen as sad. […]
September
08
Ten Middle Grade Book Beginnings Begging to be Read by Kris Barr Paquette
posted by CBethM
It’s the beginning of the school year, and you have all your favorite summer reads stacked up in your mind to book talk. I know. It’s exciting. The kids are going to love each and every suggestion you give them! Let’s fast forward a few weeks, suddenly you are buried beneath a stack of personal […]
August
25
Character-Inspired Collectors by Heather Rader
posted by CBethM
“Question #460: Poop. Poop. Poop is stupid. Stupid poop. Stupid. Poopid. Poopidity. Is poopidity a word?” Silence. When “Poop” is the first word your teacher reads aloud from As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds on your first day of school of fourth grade—that gets your attention. The main character Genie’s questions […]
August
18
Top Ten Reasons Students Should Read More Whole Books and Fewer Passages and Packets by Cari White
posted by CBethM
This seems like a list that should be written by Captain Obvious, right? Of course students should read whole books from beginning to end! But does that really happen at your school? Or does the workroom copier groan under the load of stapled packets with “passages” and related multiple-choice questions? Are students unable to find […]
August
11
Ten Early Readers and Transitional Chapter Books Not to Be Overlooked by Alyson Beecher and Michele Knott
posted by CBethM
As the start of the school year quickly approaches, I have been finding ways to book talk as many books as I can to teachers. Recently, I shared picture books, early readers and chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, and nonfiction for children with a group of K-12 teachers. Yes, a little of […]
July
21
Top 10 Books that Should Have Won the Newbery (According to Me, Anyway) by Stacy Nockowitz
posted by CBethM
Each year, a group of carefully selected committee members is given an impossible task: to choose the children’s book that they deem the most distinguished written by an American author and published in the previous year. I’m a middle school librarian who previously taught middle school language arts for more than twenty years, and I […]
July
14
Fighting the FOMO: Ten Ways to Make the Most of Your Local Book Festival (Without Breaking the Bank) by Oona Marie Abrams
posted by CBethM
I consider myself lucky to live in New Jersey — really! When my parents relocated here from Illinois in 1994, it was quite the culture shock, but I’ve embraced the Garden State enough to call myself a Jersey Girl (Exit 163!) and now raise my own family here. One of the benefits of living in […]
July
07
10 Musical Middle Grade Novels to Rock Readers’ Worlds by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
posted by CBethM
My middle grade years were immersed in music. I sang in the choir. I learned to play piano. I discovered my parents’ record collection, Top 40 radio, and cassingles. There was joy in lifting my voice, coaxing chords from the keys. There was comfort in hearing pop singers magically echo my deepest feelings. If life […]
June
18
A Top Fifteen List of Diversity in YA Realistic Fiction by Kristyn Dorfman
posted by CBethM
Hello again! You may recall I recently posted about Diversity in Speculative Fiction but I felt like it was also important to highlight some amazing realistic reads. I firmly believe that everyone should be able to see themselves in the stories they read and, of course, also see, lives different than their own. There […]
