Valentine's Day Reads to Warm the Heart

I LOVE Valentine's Day.  And no, not because it's so romantic--I love that Valentine's Day is an excuse to celebrate ALL kinds of love.  Love for friends, family, coworkers, students, anyone you're glad is in your life.  (The excuse to wear pink and eat chocolate?  Also not too shabby.)  If you want to share the warm fuzzies with your students--or if you want another chance to feel them yourself--here are five excellent books that celebrate love in all its forms.

1. Plant a Kiss by Amy Krause Rosenthal and Peter H. Reynolds
This is such a cute, simple book about what happens when "Little Miss planted a kiss."  The kiss grows and grows and starts things she never could have imagined.  One of my favorite Valentine's Day activities is to give every student a paper heart after reading and have them write down one kind thing someone else has done for them, and use those hearts to decorate the classroom. 

2. Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
Watch out, the Hug Machine is coming!  He'll hug everything and everyone, and no one can resist his hugs!  Parents, friends, mailboxes, benches--everyone deserves a hug, and our main character is making sure they get one.

3. Love, Z by Jessie Sima
I adore Jessie Sima's touching, original stories and artwork, and this book is no different.  When Z, a young robot, finds a message in a bottle signed, "Love, Beatrice," he wants to know what love is.  But when no one can give him a proper answer, he sets sail to try to find an answer, and to try to meet Beatrice.  And he may just learn that love was easier to understand than he thought.

4. My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
Michael Hall uses hearts to construct every animal seen on the pages of this book from lions to beavers to herons.  The text is simple and helps convey the idea that hearts can feel like many, many things.  Kids will have fun spotting all the hearts in the illustrations!

5. I'll Love You Till the Cows Come Home by Kathryn Cristaldi and Kristyna Litten
Reminiscent of Guess How Much I Love You, this is all about the love a parent feels for a child, and it's sweet, silly prose and adorable illustrations have something everyone will love.  How can you not love a book that includes, "I'll love you till the cows come home / from a trip to Mars through skies unknown / in a rocket ship made of glass and stone"?

Smooth Sailing During Checkout

We do a lot of checkout in the library, but that doesn't mean it's easy.  Keeping track of time, helping so many students find a book, meeting any specific requirements a teacher may have, and more . . . what's a librarian to do?  Below, I've listed some common checkout challenges and some ways to make them easier.

1. Every child needs help finding a book.
This is one I struggle with a lot; obviously, I want to help every child as much as possible!  But I also know I just don't have time to help every single one.   One thing I've found to be really helpful is to spend a few weeks teaching library skills and getting students familiar with the how the library is organized.  This way, I can tell a student looking for Wings of Fire that it's in the chapter book section, under SUT, and they should be able to find it.  So much simpler than having to show them where it is!

For reader's advisory, have you ever noticed that it's often the same students every week who need recommendations?  For these frequent fliers, I try to remember their preferences so I can have a few ideas ready ahead of time (or better yet, I've already put them on display).  I also think there's nothing wrong with directing a student, especially an older one, to spend some time browsing on their own.  They get to work on their independence a bit, and who doesn't love browsing?

If you're lucky enough to have the classroom teacher stay for library time, get them involved with helping students.  Sometimes they know a child's interests and abilities better than you do, and it's so helpful to have another adult helping out.  This also helps show students the crossover between the library and the classroom, and teachers may appreciate knowing more about what their class is reading.

2. No one can remember their ID number!
This is one of those skills that you just wish every child could magically acquire in ten seconds flat.  You don't want to spend all your time practicing in the library, but it's so time-consuming when a student is staring at the keypad.  At my school, we make library cards for kindergarten that we scan (we keep all the cards behind the desk), which is much easier than expecting them to memorize a long number.

For the older students, my assistant and I keep a list of all the students and their IDs so that we can easily look someone up.  Since first grade is the first year students check out with their numbers, I give them extra checkout time in September since so many of them don't know their numbers yet.  After a few weeks, we make them do as much of their numbers as possible, even if they don't know the whole thing--it reinforces the idea that they need to learn it.  We also send them home with their number on a sticky note so they can practice.  There's a learning curve for the students, but it's our job as teachers and librarians to support them and give them the time to develop skills.

3. The teacher has too many requirements for book checkouts.
Agh!  This is probably the hardest one to handle gracefully--you don't want to make any teachers feel like you're usurping them, but you don't want them usurping you, either.  Is the issue that the teacher won't let students check out books that are "too hard" or "too easy"?  Sometimes they have a point, and sometimes they don't--this is where I gently remind teachers that students have a choice in the books they check out, and that they can get a "just right" book while also getting a push book (my term for challenging books) or a simpler one.  See if you can help that student find a "just right" book as well--maybe something similar to the other one they want to read!

Sometimes I have classes that need to get a nonfiction book, or a biography, or a certain genre, etc., when they check out.  After a lot of frantic checkout periods where students didn't really know what they were supposed to be getting and we kept having to send them back to the shelves, I started asking teachers to let me know ahead of time what students needed, to communicate clearly to students what they needed to be getting, and to assist them during checkout to make sure they had the right kind of book.
It also bothered me that this required book (or books) was cutting into students' choice books.  I let students borrow three books at a time, and I want them to get books they're excited to read, so I decided that students can checkout three books in addition to any required books.  Sometimes students get to get four or five books--and they always get something they're excited about.

Finally, talk to the teachers if you feel they're being too restrictive.  It's never a fun conversation to have, but you're advocating for student choice and for them to be excited about reading--and when you're putting the kids first, those conversations are much easier to have.  You and the teacher ultimately both want what's best for the students, and in the library, classroom teachers need to respect your rules and expertise.  If needed, talk to your administrators--you don't have to tell on anyone, but a good admin can help you frame this conversation.

4. They just take too darn long to check out!
My 2nd graders in particular seem to take forever to choose books at the beginning of the year.  I kept trying to speed them up, until I realized: maybe they just need more time.  (Duh.)  I started making sure they had at least 15 minutes to choose books, and as the year has gone on, I've been able to cut that back down to 10.  Did I want that extra 5-10 minutes for instructional time?  Of course, but it was better spent letting kids have an enjoyable, productive checkout time.  I'm always reminding myself to meet the children where they're at, and if they're at needing more time, I'm giving it to them.

Now, we all have that kid who can have all the time in the world, wander around aimlessly, never touch a book, refuse all help, and then panic when their class is lining up.  For that student, try to give them a little extra attention and figure out what the issue is.  Do they not like reading?  Do they think you don't have their favorite book?  I like to remind these ones that they need to get at least one book, and I would love to help them find something.  Take some time to talk to them--what other books do they like?  Or TV shows?  What are their friends reading?  And if they still won't check out and have the last-minute panic, it won't hurt them to leave without a book for a week or two.  It's usually a good reminder that they do need to pick something when everyone else does.

What practices do you have that help streamline checkout?  Share below--I'm always looking for new ideas!

My 2020 Mock Caldecott

Awards season isn't just for Oscars and Golden Globes--every book person knows the biggest awards are the ones announced by the ALA at their midwinter conference.  The Caldecott Medal is the one I look forward to most; something about the art of visual storytelling really gets me.  It's also the perfect award to have a mock voting for in the classroom or library, since the contenders are usually picture books, perfect to use at your usual read aloud time, or to incorporate during morning meeting (or anytime, really).  This is my first year doing a mock Caldecott, and while I already know things I'll change in the future (like, um, starting it sooner), I'm sharing the books I'm sharing for 2020, how I chose them, and how I grouped them.

How I Chose My Contenders
When I was going through Caldecott shortlists, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to include everything.  Time constraints are one challenge--even after I decided to try to do 2 read alouds per class, I couldn't do them all.  I also looked at the interest level of the books; since I'm doing this with 1st grade, I left out a few books that I felt appealed more to older students.  I also left out a few that I thought would be tougher to share as read-alouds--some books are brilliant but just don't lend themselves quite as much to this.


The Books I Chose

Fry Bread (Author: Kevin Noble Maillard, Illustrator: Juana Martinez-Neal) 
My Papi Has a Motorcycle (Author: Isabel Quintero, Illustrator: Zeke Peña)
My Heart (Corinna Luyken)
Truman (Author: Jean Reidy, Illustrator: Lucy Ruth Cummins)
The Fisherman and the Whale (Jessica Lanan)
Another (Christian Robinson)
Daniel's Good Day (Micha Archer)
Saturday (Oge Mora)

How I'm Grouping Them: A Timeline

Week 1: Read Hello Lighthouse (last year's winner!) to introduce the unit and talk about what the Caldecott is for.

Week 2: Fry Bread and My Papi Has a Motorcycle
These two stories have such a focus on family, culture, and tradition that it made sense to me to read them on the same day.  Both of these not only have incredible artwork, but wonderful written stories as well.

Week 3: My Heart and Truman
Both of these tug at your heartstrings in the sweetest way possible.  They gave me a feeling of warmth and calm, and prove that quieter stories are just as good as loud ones.

Week 4: The Fisherman and the Whale and Another
It just makes sense to combine the wordless picture books, right?  The artwork styles here are very different, but they both use visual storytelling to tell interesting, compelling stories: one about what a boy and his father do when a whale gets caught in their net, the other about a girl who finds another dimension.  Since some students struggle with the concept of "reading" without words, I wanted to do these together so we could deep dive into this type of storytelling.

Week 5: Daniel's Good Day and Saturday
These are both stories about how ordinary days can be the most special ones, especially when you spend them with people you love.  Not only are the themes similar, but they both feature bold, colorful artwork.  Which isn't to say that they're different iterations of the same story--these are two unique books, both deserving of the award.

(Want to know my pick for the winner?  I'm rooting for Truman.  The deceptively simple line drawings perfectly capture Truman's range of emotions, making him a small, relatable hero who finds bravery in doing the things that seem simplest to the reader--something that children, no doubt, will relate to.  That said, I don't think it will win; from everything I've read, it looks like Saturday is most people's top pick, or possibly Vamos! Let's Go to the Market!)

Winter Read Alouds That Are Not Holiday Books

I don't know about you, but when I hear "winter read alouds," I automatically think, "holiday read alouds."  And there are a lot of great holiday books--but what about the rest of the season?  Winter is, arguably, the most beautiful and dramatic month: ice storms are gorgeous and slippery; blizzards are ferocious, but the snow left after is quietly stunning.  Here are some of my favorite books that celebrate winter--no holidays included.

1. Blizzard by John Rocco

Based on the author's experience of a real-life blizzard from when he was a boy, this picture book shows kids what a huge snowstorm is really like.  The main character ends up strapping on snowshoes and braving it to the store to get groceries and supplies for his family and neighbors--a great lesson in kindness, perseverance, and helping others.

2. Penguin Problems by Jory Jon and Lane Smith

Look.  Penguins have a lot of problems, okay?  It's cold outside, there are seals that want to eat them, and they all look the same.  What's a penguin to do?  This hilarious, cynical story is also a hit with older students.

3. Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner

Ever wonder what snowmen do when you're not looking?  The narrator in this book does, and he's got some pretty imaginative ideas.  Told in rhyming verse and jewel-toned illustrations, this book will delight children's imaginations and have everyone smiling.

4. Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak

A brother and sister go exploring outside and notice the signs of the seasons changing: falling leaves, bare trees, animals getting ready for winter, the first signs of snow.  The text is sparse but concise, and the whimsical watercolors feel cozy and will have kids making connections between what they've seen--and help them know what to look for.  This is a great one to read before a nature walk, or even before recess!

5. The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Weather by Jon Nelson and Mark Cassino
This nonfiction read aloud teaches about what snowflakes look like, how they form, and much more about the science of snow.  I like this one because it's a little simpler than some kids' science books, making it easier to read out loud and share with young students.  The book includes both photographs and drawings, and is sure to get students to look closer at snow.  If you live somewhere snowy, it also includes directions for catching and studying snowflakes!

6. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr
On a winter night, a girl and her father go on a walk in the woods, hoping to see an owl.  The night is quiet and still, and they know that even if they don't see an owl, they will still have had a beautiful walk through nature.  This book uses beautiful language to focus on people's relationship to the natural world, and its perspective is especially important today.

7. Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian
Ever wondered how we know so much about snowflakes?  Wilson Bentley, born in 1865, thought snowflakes were miraculous--so much so that he made it his life's work to photograph these tiny works of art.  His talents and interest weren't always understood when he was alive, and this book pays tribute to him while telling an engrossing story.  I've found this book to be a good read aloud for all elementary students; the pages include science facts in the margins that you can skip over or include, depending on your audience (or your time constraints).  Snowflake Bentley also won the Caldecott Medal for its detailed, wood-carving illustrations.  Show pictures of real snowflakes after reading to show students what Bentley saw.

What are your favorite winter read alouds?  Favorite extension activities?  Share below!