Contest and The Questory of Root Karbunkulus by Kamilla Reid

When I first began reading Kamilla Reid’s The Questory of Root Karbunkulus: Item One: Miist I was immediately taken by the voice of the story. I found myself laughing out loud for the first few pages! Lately I have been reading a lot of new fantasy novels (everyone wants to be the new [...]

Summer Reading Update

Today I went into NYC to see “Hairspray” on Broadway with my friend’s day camp. A lot of my students from this past year were campers and we got to catch up a bit. Of course, I asked what they have been reading. What awesome language arts teacher wouldn’t? But I [...]

An award!

Stacey, over at TwoWritingTeachers (one of my favorite blogs) was kind enough to bestow an Arte y Pico Award on my blog!
Of course, I am honored!  And I want to bestow the same on some of my favorite blogs, too.
Essentially this award is like a Meme. There are rules for paying it forward after [...]

Living a writerly life

During Writer’s Workshop, I am always telling my students to live a writerly life.  I share my own writing with them (and this was especially successful during our poetry unit), and I even share my fear of sharing with them.  I think it models that adults aren’t always perfect and that we have fears, too.
However, [...]

Almost there…

I can not believe that we are already nearing the end of July.  I will be back at school in a month!  That just seems unbelievable.  Needless to say, I have been planning and preparing already.  Today I spent a lot of time on my new class website.
For the past few years I have bounced [...]

The Rise of YA

Say what you will about the decline of pleasure reading among kids, but YA is alive and kicking. How do I know this? How about the fact that “Hundreds of teens camped overnight outside the San Diego Convention Center for a chance to see early footage of the film and get a glimpse [...]

A Fun Toy!

Thanks to Stacey over at TwoWritingTeachers for this great website! I am having way too much fun with it and I can already think of some fun ways to use it this school year.

 
Spell with Flickr!

Breaking Dawn Quote of the Day

Those of you like me, who are anxiously awaiting the the release of BREAKING DAWN, should be sure to check out Stephenie Meyer’s website. She is posting a quote from the book each day leading up to the release. She also did this with ECLIPSE and it’s a ton of fun to try [...]

Unbelievable!

Thanks to A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy for this link.
For those of who who did not click on the link (or only skimmed the article), Newsweek is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables.  I am a self-professed Anne aficionado.  I grew up reading everything from L.M. Montgomery that I [...]

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Blog Tour

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is a young author who published her first novel, In the Forests of the Night (Den of Shadows), in 1999 when she was just thirteen. I was only sixteen then, and I remember being amazed that someone so young was publishing novels. To date, she has published a new YA novel [...]