Spring Break Beach Reads

Wide swaths of beach four inches deep in shells.

Morning walk at low tide.

I'm finally getting to this book. Did you know that you can now  "borrow" books free at Amazon Prime?

This was a free ebook download back before Christmas. A good book for analyzing a few recent reads and thinking about a new story idea. 

Audio book  for the drive down. Will finish on the way home.  

Hubby brought this one in hardcover. I may delve into it when he's done. 

And I'm playing in the March Madness Poetry Tournament. Round One has started. I'll get my first word (seed #2) tonight. Voting for Round One begins tomorrow. 

The UPS Man Thinks I'm Famous

I got my new business cards last week. I'm officially a "curriculum resource specialist." I suppose it's just a fancy label for bookseller, but it's also a pretty good description of what I do.

Let's say you are a fourth grade teacher in Georgia, where a strongly standards-driven educational system dictates what teachers teach. At some point during the year, you'll be teaching the Inuit, the Kwakiutl, the Nez Perce, the Hopi, the Pawnee, and the Seminole. Then you'll move on to the exploration and settlement of the American colonies, the Revolutionary war, and so forth, until you're just short of the Civil War. If you teach science, you'll be working on stars, the water cycle, weather, light and sound, and ecosystems, among other things. You'll want books on these subjects in your school library. Library bound books at an appropriate reading level. I can help with that.

Lots of schools these days want classroom libraries. Paperback books in the back of the classroom for their students to read during the day. A good percentage of these books should be nonfiction on the topics they study.

A fourth grade teacher needs books in his/her classroom on the appropriate subject, but they also need that subject matter to be written at the level the students are reading. That can vary for a fourth grade classroom. Some students may be reading at or above fourth grade level, but a lot of them won't be. Not only do teachers need books on those specific Native American tribes at a fourth to fifth grade reading level, but also at a second to third grade reading level for their struggling students.

I search for the right books at the right level from my Delaney database of over 75 publishers. That's the part of this job that I love. Matching the books to the needs of the classroom teacher.

One of the perks of being a curriculum resource specialist is that I get lots of samples. Publishers come out with new lists of books twice a year, spring and fall. So I usually get three shipments of books and catalogs somewhere between January and March and again between August and October. Occasionally I order my own samples if I have a customer who would like to see a product. And then there are the specialty products that come at random times of the year. Like the Dr. Jean Literacy kits for Pre-K. Or the Big Books by George that come in some really fabulous canvas bags packaged according to comprehension strategies. A great product for my county that's moving in this direction with every subject.

So let's just say the UPS man knows my address really well.

On Saturday, my husband walked into the salon where he gets his haircut. He's a regular and is pretty well known among the hairdressers. This week there was another man sitting in one of the chairs.

"So how are things going at 4... B.... Drive?" the strange man asked.

"Pretty good, I guess," my husband managed to say.

The hairdresser laughed. "He loves doing that to people. He's the UPS man."

In the ensuing conversation, the UPS man asked, "So what's in all those boxes your wife gets?"

"Books," my husband explained. "She's a writer."

"Well that explains why they're so heavy."

Fast forward....

"So did you tell him they weren't my books?" I asked.

"No, he thinks you're famous!"

Oh good grief.

My husband is extremely supportive of my writing. He thinks everything I write is wonderful, which makes him a sweetheart, but not a very good critiquer.

But here's the heart of the matter. How did the UPS man identify him as the resident of 4... B...... Drive?

You see, it's not me that's famous at all. It's the man and his truck!

New Books!

I spent three freezing cold days in New Orleans last week attending the 2010 Delaney Book Launch. Many of our wonderful publishers were there with new books from their spring lists. I love new books. I love touching them, seeing the pictures, reading the text. I look forward to sharing them with you here on my blog.

I had lunch the first day with my boss at a hole in the wall restaurant in an alley behind the hotel in the French Quarter. I was glad it was daylight! I had coffee and beignets with my roommate at Cafe du Monde. I listened to publishers. I had more coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde with my daughter who drove over from Hattiesburg for the afternoon.

We ate dinner in front of a fire at a tiny little restaurant a few blocks from Jackson Square where we watched the Joan of Arc parade. It was the lady's birthday, and the parade came complete with Joan riding her horse with sword lifted, a fully armored knight, friars, maidens, and a host of somewhat normal people carrying lighted candles.

Here's an exciting new series from Bearport Publishing, called Amphibiana. What a great cover! It makes me want to read. How about you? It's high interest/low level reading. ATOS levels aren't in yet, but it should be about third grade reading level. With habitat maps, vivid photographs, and fact boxes, this series should be a hit with the kids. Natalie Lunis is the author of this one, but the set includes other writers.

Complete set includes:
Amazing Water Frogs
Leaping Ground Frogs
Little Newts
Slimy Salamanders
Tricky Tree Frogs
Warty Toads

Teaching Kids to Write (In Memory of Doreen)

I love teaching creative writing classes. It's always an eye opening experience to see what kids will come up with. Some funny, some heart wrenching, but always unique.

I've been reading two books on writing written for kids. Neither of them is new, but they found their way into my reading stack for different reasons. The first is What's Your Story: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction by Marion Dane Bauer. I attended a conference this summer where Marion was one of the featured speakers. I thoroughly enjoyed her approach to the workshop and wanted to see how she passed on her wonderful body of writing knowledge to young writers.

In the introduction, Marion tells readers that "our stories put us in charge. They allow us to explore our feelings without having to face the consequences of acting them out." It's a good observation and a great way to start the storytelling journey. Marion's writing on writing is vivid. She is a master at capturing the intensity of the present moment, in her own stories and helping young writers tell theirs. A great resource.

The other book is Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words by Ralph Fletcher. Doreen Sears introduced me to Fletcher. "He's the guru of writing these days," she told me."You need to know him." So I went in search of his work and found I liked it a great deal. He has several lovely volumes of poetry and many novels, too. His clear thinking and practical examples bring life to his book for young writers.

Doreen Sears was a dearly-loved, K-12 reading specialist for Muscogee County. She died on Friday after a long battle with cancer. Her kindness and her smile will be sorely missed. So my book suggestions today are in memory of this gentle lady who loved reading and writing and helping students discover the power of words.

Wake Up Call

I'm not a morning person. Never have been. My dad still laughs when he remembers how I hated to get up for school. Oh, I liked school. I just didn't like getting up.

I've never worked a regular job, at least not after I got married. I worked at home or from home, so no drastically early hours. Of course, then there were babies. I got up for them. As they grew up, we homeschooled to the beat of mom's biorhythms. And they weren't early ones.



The kids are all off on their own now, and I'm working from home again, setting my own hours and managing my time well enough to get everything done. Until recently, that is. In the last three months I've had deadlines on three manuscripts, one for an agent who requested a full manuscript, one for an editor who wants to see a full manuscript and one work-for-hire contract. In the middle of all this, I landed another contract for a book that's going to require a lot of research and a lot of words. Suddenly, there isn't enough time in the day. There aren't enough days in the week, or the month, for that matter!

So I'm back to getting up with the babies. Only now the babies are books. Sometimes they wake me up in the middle of the night and need tending or changing. They aren't screaming for food at six o'clock in the morning, but I'm setting the clock like they were. I finished a whole chapter this week. I felt like a proud parent. And I'm ready for sleep when the sun goes down.

COMO se llama?

I do know there should be an upside down question mark before that title, but I cannot figure out how to find it!

Last week, I spent several days at the COMO conference. The Council of Media Organizations represents the Georgia Association for Instructional Technology, the Georgia Library Association, and the Georgia Library Media Organization. Librarians and media specialists from across the state gathered in Columbus to exchange ideas, listen to speakers, and wander the trade show floor.

I manned the Delaney booth, along with my mentor and friend, Veronica, who has taught me so much about taking care of my customers and their book needs.

For two days, I greeted friends and customers that I know and have worked with for the last two years. I said hello to many new friends, as well. I know my customers' names and schools, but put them all together in one place, out of the halls of their customary surroundings, and I have to admit, the names start to run together. Fortunately, most of us had name tags!

Southern Breeze writer friends, Hester Bass and Diane Z. Shore, were presenters at the conference. Many of my media specialists mentioned their sessions, so I know they did a great job.

Hester's book, The Secret World of Walter Anderson, received a starred review from Kirkus and was named an Okra pick for 2009 by SIBA. It's a beautiful book with artwork by E.B. Lewis faithful to the style of this fascinating American artist.If you haven't seen it, you should give me a call and I'll put it on your list!

Diane Z. Shore is a bundle of poetic energy, zipping from place to place with the speed of energetic six-year-old. And of course, children and librarians alike love her. Diane's I Can Read Book, How to Drive Your Sister Crazy, is a must read for boys. Their sister's should read it, too, for protection! Check out her lovely poetry, too, in This is the Feast and This is the Dream.

Fire Safety in Action

My son is a volunteer firefighter in Wisconsin. The fire crew may be seeing some action tonight. My husband was reading the sports section this morning. It seems the entire state of Wisconsin is ready to burn all their Brett Favre paraphenalia. Favre played his entire football career with the Green Bay Packers and retired a hero. Then he had a change of heart and tried to get back into the game. When Green Bay didn't rehire him, he moseyed across the state line and joined the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay's most bitter rivals. Now, they're planning to burn his jersey. Firefighters will be on standby tonight when the flames of Monday night football rise to a new height.

Speaking of fires. I was talking with a media specialist last week, when the pre-K teacher walked into the library. "Aren't you looking for fire safety books?" the media specialist asked. "Take a look at this one. What do you think?"

The teacher flipped through the pages of Fire Safety in Action from Capstone Publishers. "Yes, this is perfect," she said and commenced to sell the book for me. "Even the photos show kids the right age."

You have to be really specific with pre-K students. You have to tell them exactly what to do if they smell smoke or if a fire alarm goes off. This set of fire safety books does just that. Simple, but clear directions explain how to get out safely if there's a fire.

Titles in the set by author Mari Schuh:

Fire Safety in Action
Fire Stations in Action
Fire Trucks in Action
Fire Boats in Action

AR levels aren't assigned yet, but the books are written for emergent readers.

Honoring the Soldiers

I spent most of this week at the Infantry Conference downtown at the trade center. It's a mind boggling collection of technology and soldiers. From flashlights and water containers to unmanned aerial vehicles and drones.

Technologically, this is a terrible photo, and yet there is something about it that I like. It gives you a feel for the constant motion on the trade show floor.







Then on Thursday, my dad went with about 100 other World War II veterans on the Honor Flight to Washington, DC. They visited the World War II memorial and saw plenty of other sites while they were there. On their return home, about 1400 people cheered their arrival at the airport. Sons and daughters cheered, grandchildren held homemade banners, and great grandchildren waved flags. I've never seen a more surprised and delighted crowd of veterans. My dad said it took two hours for him to get from the plane to his car. He shook hands, hugged necks, and was saluted by ROTC students and Army band members. It was quite a day.



Since many of the schools I work with in the Delaney sales job are in the vicinity of Fort Benning, one or both parents of many students serve in the military. My recommended titles for the week salute the sacrifices of our fallen soldiers. War Memorials is a new set from Rourke Publishing recommended for grades four through eight. Authors Jennifer Burrows and Maureen Robins do a great job presenting basic history about each war, along with detailed information on the memorial.

Titles in the set include:
Arlington National Cemetary
Korean War Memorial
USS Arizona Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial
World War I Memorial
World War II Memorial

These are brand new, so AR levels are not in yet.

Little Boys Love Trucks

When my youngest son was small, his favorite book was a tattered copy of an old book (1953 pub date) by Norman Bate, called Who Built the Highway? In the story, Big Town and Little Town had a discussion about why there was no road connecting them. They decided to wake up the people and tell them to build a road!

I became intimately familiar with every hill and valley between Big Town and Little Town. I read that book so many times, I could name the road-making machines in order, as each one claimed it would build the highway.

The intricate sepia-type drawings of bulldozer and earthmover, power shovel and tampers, grader, truck, roller, subgrader, roadlayer, and finishers made up in detail for what they lacked in color.

My son still loves trucks. And I still look for truck books whenever I'm in a bookstore. Only now, I'm checking them out for my grandsons, who are all long distances away. I've found a great way to stay connected to them. I choose a couple of my favorite books for them at each birthday and read them onto a CD, complete with a bell for page turns. It gives them good books to read and keeps my voice in their heads until the next real visit.

I recently read this one for my grandson in Texas. I loved it, and I know he will, too.

And of course, for my library clients, who can never seem to find enough truck books for their young readers, this is a wonderful set.


Construction Zone, from Capstone Publishers, is a fine addition to any library. Titles are all written by Joanne Early Macken. The photos are stunning. Text is simple and clear. Young truck lovers will enjoy reading these for themselves.

Titles included in the set are:

• Building a Road
• Building a House
• Building a Skyscraper
• Building a Bridge
• Construction Tools
• Construction Crews
• Demotition
• Digging Tunnels

AR levels range from 1.5 to 2.3

Queens and Princesses

My four-year-old granddaughter is determined to be a princess. She loves frilly pink dresses, high-heels, and diamond tiaras. She knows every princess in every fairy tale and sometimes has trouble deciding which one she wants to be for the day. She's not alone in her fascination.

Princess books abound in the fiction market these days, from Fancy Nancy picture books to YA Princess Diaries. Girls of all ages are reading about the glamour of royalty.

Capstone Press has found a way to channel the princess interest into the realm of nonfiction with their series "Queens and Princesses." These well-written 32-page biographies of real life royalty are sure to satisfy readers who want to know what it's like to be a queen. Each book includes full-page, high quality photos and personal quotes that reveal the lives of these remarkable women.





The original set included:
Diana, Princess of Wales
Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
Princess Grace of Monaco
Princess Kiko of Japan Queen Rania of Jordan

New additions to the set include:
Queen Elizabeth of England
Queen Christina of Sweeden
Helen of Troy
Nefertiti of Egypt

Interest level: Grades 3-9
AR levels range from 4.9 - 5.1