A Wise Owl Told Me

As I was "walking" around my new blogging block, I came across a wise Polka Dot Owl that told me to skip on over to Net Galley. Wow! I am glad I listened to that owl, because I am in reader's heaven. I adore, borderline obsessed, with children's lit. As a child, I drooled over Scholastic book club flyers that was sent home from school, but knew my parents wouldn't buy the books for me. We didn't have a lot of money growing and I didn't have a lot of books. So when I started college, I found out about Children's Book of the Month Club, and as a good education major with no kids, I joined the club and started my new obsession. Needless to say, seven years of teaching, grades K to 4th grade, and two boys later, I have enough books to create our own library. (I would love to own a room where I could organize and put all the books I own in the perfect order.) I own over hundreds of children's literature in my classroom and even got a comment from one of my kids (when I opened the cabinet to book boxes filled of books but don't have enough shelves to display around the room), "Mrs. Shaw are those all your books!" My reply with a big smile, "I love books and reading and these are all for you all to use."


I have to stay away from Barnes and Noble, because I can spend money very quickly there. My teaching friends and I go to eat at a nearby sushi restaurant, which is the same center as Half Price Books. So of course, we have a great meal eating expensive sushi and then head over to the bookstore. First, I run to the clearance section where I find great books for $1. Recently, I found a ton of How to draw books for my boys for Christmas. **Most of the things they get for Christmas are books, where my oldest, Ethan said, "books again." Which again with a big smile I reply, "sorry son, but you have teachers as parents. You are always going to have books galore in your life." He will never understand how mommy had few books as a child because he could have a whole room filled with them.
After all that, you can see, I love books, but mainly children's books. I went to Net Galley and registered very quickly and received an email instantly. You can even get the books sent to you on your Kindle. I was able to search through the children's books and then read my first book, The House on Dirty-Third Street by Jo S. Kittinger. It is a picture book, but I would suggest it be read to older kids or small group or one on one. The House on Dirty-Third Street brought me to tears! As we think about New Year's Resolutions and starting things over and what we want to do better for 2012. This is the perfect story about starting over, between a mother and daughter. It doesn't give a lot of background, so it would be great for inferencing. The little girl is narrates the story and the book is themed around having faith and working together as a community. I will definitely be buying this book when it comes out and I plan to read it to my kids. This book would be a great connection piece for my students, because I have a lot of kids that move around several times in a year and they can relate to this mother and daughter.

If you are a lover of children's literature, sign up and check out Net Galley!

Always Live.Laugh.Teach

Christina Shaw