This week we continue reading our Beehive Book nominees with a fun, graphic novel-style book by Ross Burach. Burach is also the author of The Very Impatient Caterpillar series, which is very popular here at Upland and won the Beehive Book Award in 2021. This book is also part of a series from Scholastic's Acorn line, which is ideal for new readers who are building their skills. It's also really funny! With three short stories, we meet ...
Week of 2/6
Thank you to everyone who supported our Scholastic Book Fair Monday and Tuesday in the library! Your purchases went toward Scholastic Dollars that were donated to our hard-working teachers to purchase books for their classrooms. This is such a generous community and every dollar counts! The rest of this week we are reading Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast by Josh Funk. When Pancake and French Toast find out there is only one drop left of ...
Week of 1/30
We have another great Beehive Book nominee to vote on this week in the Upland library. See the Cat by David LaRochelle won the prestigous Theodore Geisel award in 2020. This award anually recognizes the best books for beginning readers. What I love about this book is it's simple to read, so emergent readers can try it themselves, but it also has a clever premise and it's laugh-out-loud funny! I'm excited to see how our students vote on this ...
Week of 1/23
This week we are reading and voting on another Beehive Book nominee, Mel Fell, by Corey Tabor. When little Mel decides it's time to leave the nest, she doesn't let her fears get in the way. She takes a straight dive all the way down to the bottom of the tree. The bees, the spider, even the snail try to break her fall, but she whizzes right past them and into the pond below. Then Mel flies right back up with none other than a fish in her ...
Week of Jan. 9
Adam Rex has some of the funniest children's books out there and this week, we are reading his book, On Account of the Gum as one of our 2023 Beehive Book nominees. When a girl sleeps with gum in her mouth, it ends up in her hair and everyone has a solution to get the gum out. Scissors, butter, grass clippings, bacon and noodles, a bunny, a cat, and a vacuum cleaner are all items that might work, except when they don't! It's fun to hear ...
Week of 1/2/23
Happy New Year and welcome 2023! Hopefully everyone had a wonderful holiday break and enjoyed some time with family and friends to ring in the new year. To start off the year in the library, I'm reading this fun book by Ali Bahrampour, Monsters in the Fog. Hakim the donkey is good at knitting, even with hooves! And because he knitted a sweater for his friend, Daisy, it's time to venture out and deliver his gift. But after being warned by ...
Week of 12/12
The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher is new to our library this year. And for some kids, nothing could be better than combining Christmas and dinosaurs! Christmasaurus lives at the North Pole with Santa and his greatest desire is to be able to fly and help pull the sleigh. But eating magic reindeer food and thinking happy thoughts are NOT working for Christmasaurus. Finally after trying and waiting 3 years, Santa agrees to take him in the sleigh ...
Week of 12/5
Santa needs Reindeer! To kick off the Holiday season in the library, we are reading a new book I got at the bookfair this year called, Who Will Pull Santa's Sleigh? by Russ Willms. Santa is on the countdown to find animals who can pull his sleigh for the very first Christmas. So he puts together a job description and sends it out to all the animals. "Sleigh Pullers Wanted: Must be able to work as a team. Landing accuracy important. Only ...
Week of 11/28
This week we are reading Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Loren Long. It's a beautiful picture book about the men and women who help make dreams come true. "All across the great big world, jobs are getting done, by many hands in many lands. It takes much more than one." This book does an excellent job in rhyming verse of showing how dreams start with an architect, an engineer or a designer coming up with an idea, ...
Week of 10/31
It's Battle of the Books Junior time! This week I am introducing the Battle of the Book Junior program to grades K-3s, a reading incentive program run through our library to help get kids reading all types of books. Look for info packets coming home this week! We have 10 categories, with 2/month assigned over the next 5 months (Nov-April). Kids read 3 books of their own choosing for each category. They record the titles and then send in ...