• Lists

    Top Ten Tuesday: Why I Love Reading

    Top Ten Tuesday

    This should be a pretty easy list to create! I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. EscapeBooks allow youto escape your everyday world and explore new places. BalanceI can actually tell when I’m not reading enough! I get super cranky and impatient. Even if I can read…

  • Lifestyle

    It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 7/5/2021

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    What I Read Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake was amazing! You can check out my review from earlier this week. I also finished up A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey. This was a fun YA book that I…

  • Lifestyle

    Home Renovations on a Holiday Weekend

    reno

    Home renovations are a dichotomy. They are both exciting and exhausting. Exhilarating and stressful. What started out as a quick renovation of our upstairs (main) bathroom has now been pushed to the back burner as we await our installation of a new HVAC system. We live in a split level…

  • Lists

    Four on Friday: Tails & Tales

    whale tail

    This summer’s theme for many public libraries’ summer reading programs is Tails & Tales from the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Hence, my inspiration for today’s post – four titles all about tails! These are really interactive titles that work for toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary school age – it just depends…

  • Lifestyle

    RIP Patricia Reilly Giff

    writing

    Patricia Reilly Giff was an author I grew up with. Her early chapter book series The Kids of Polk Street School were a staple of my checkout pile. Later, as I grew up, I graduated to Giff’s other works. These middle grade books took on a more serious note and…

  • Reviews

    Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea

    ocean

    Synopsis: “For fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Ali Benjamin comes a poignant yet hopeful novel about a girl navigating grief, trauma, and friendship, from Ashley Herring Blake, the award-winning author of Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. Hazel Bly used to live in the perfect house with the perfect family…

  • Lifestyle

    It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 6/28/2021

    bookmark

    What I Read I honestly can’t remember what I’ve read this week! It was so busy with the start of Summer Reading at work and my parents visiting this weekend that I didn’t have a lot of time for reading. I’m about halfway through Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue…

  • Lists

    9 More Middle Grade Novels in Verse

    poetry

    What I love most about novels in verse is the power that words have. In fact, this is an update to a previous middle grade novels in verse book list I created back in 2019. With such few words on the page, authors must choose every word even more carefully.…

  • Lifestyle

    Director’s Thoughts – 6/25/2021

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    It’s been almost six months since I’ve written a Director’s Thoughts post. As you can imagine, life has continued to throw us curveballs and I’m happy to say that I’m still standing at the plate (how’s that for a sports metaphor?) We officially started our Summer Reading Program on Monday…