New Year's Fireworks

Happy New Year! 

Our Mock Caldecott reading of Fireworks, illustrated by Catia Chien and written by Matthew Burgess, coincided with the first week back to school after vacation. After the readaloud, we

watched the London fireworks and 

listened to Katy Perry sing. 

Here are some paper "fireworks" created by first-graders: 

Best Reads of T1 2025-2026

Of the 43 kids' books I actually finished, these were my favorites. All images and summaries from Goodreads.

Picture Books

Meet Bean, a very tiny hedgehog. She loves ghosts, swings and a stuffie called Clem.

Meet Bean’s grandma. She loves strawberries, sweaters and tiny Bean burritos.

And they both love stories.

In ten tiny stories we follow Bean and her grandmother through adventures of the everyday.

Aggie is very excited to live on her own—until she finds out her new house is haunted. But no fear, the situation is nothing that can’t be fixed with a carefully considered list of No haunting after dark. No stealing socks. No eating all the food.

But the ghost doesn’t like playing by the rules and challenges Aggie to an epic game of tic-tac-toe—winner gets the house.

Evergreen Forest is a very nice forest, with very nice trees and very nice animals. It’s a rather dull place, but no one says a word about it. In fact, no one says very many words at all! And therein lies the problem.

Until the word-loving wandering wombats arrive.

They use words like enthusiastic and splendiferous, ready to turn ordinary into EXTRAordinary! With twinkles in their eyes and words on their minds, the word wombats come to transform Evergreen Forest. 

In a world where the pressure to speed ahead seems relentless, now is the time to take a trip to the rainforest and cheer for the slowest mammal on Earth—a hungry sloth—who takes her time moving through thicket and vine in search of the tastiest leaves.

Early Readers

Fall is here, and it brings a slew of exciting autumnal adventures for best friends Bat, Cat, and Rat, from leaf-raking romps to peculiar pumpkin picking to the trials of trick-or-treating.

In “Raking,” falling leaves make for extra chores—and extra pranks.

In “Picking,” each member of the trio has their own unique idea about what makes the perfect pumpkin.

In “Costuming,” the roommates each work on their costume creations in secret, and the big reveal brings a big surprise!

Kat and Mouse are Kat is spontaneous and creative, and Mouse likes routine-and cheese. While Kat's lunchtime is always an adventure, Mouse, on the other hand, has cheese every day. Kat doesn't Mouse ever get bored of cheese?! Mouse does Kat ever get bored of me?! Can this duo find a lunch that fits their friendship?

Chapter Books

Jasper the Rabbit is back! A little older and wiser, he collects creepy stories to share as cautionary tales. If you’re ready for some chills and chuckles alike, tune in as Jasper weaves the yarn of Charlie Marmot and the particular pickle he found himself in.

See, Charlie''s tonsils have become infected and have to come out. No biggie, right? But when he decides he wants to keep them in a jar for show and tell, things get creepy… First, strange slurping sounds in his room keep Charlie awake the night before his surgery. Then, he goes to the doctor only to be told his tonsils are already gone! Could it be they’re out for revenge?

Nonfiction

This delightfully fun exploration of trees both informs and entertains, and helps young readers make sense of the world around them. The charming protagonist, Tree, sparsely narrates her story in ten short chapters with text bubbles and vignettes sprinkled in to provide wit, style, and humor.

When Kathleen Friel was young, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and a doctor told her parents all the things she'd never be able to do. They left his office for good and found a new doctor.

As Kathleen grew up, she found her own methods to tackle tricky tasks and make her way through the world. After becoming fascinated by science, she went on to earn a PhD, investigating how injured brains can build new connections. She now runs her own lab, developing new techniques to help others with cerebral palsy.

 

International Games Month

November is International Games Month, sponsored in the U.S. by the American Library Association as an effort to “reconnect communities around the educational, recreational, and social value of all types of games.” 

I LOVE games, from crossword puzzles to board games to Candy Crush. During the first trimester, I taught students how to play 20 Questions, Apples to Apples, Bananagrams, bingo, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, and Uno. Games encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and language skills … all things that tie directly into my purpose as a library teacher.

Here are some of our gamers:

A Little Thankful Spot

On the day before Thanksgiving, I followed up A Little Calm spot for some classes with A Little Thankful Spot by the same author, Diane Alber. She created a list of questions to go with the book, and I present to you now my favorite answers.

What are you THANKFUL for that ...

is red: blood

makes you smile: birthdays

is soft: bed

is very big: school

is very small: insects

What person are you THANKFUL for?  Lebron James

Grade 3 FICtion Covers

Every fictional chapter book call number has "FIC" as the first line, and then the first three letters of the author's last name as the second line. 

For example, if I wrote a book, the call number would be 

FIC 

MOO 

What would YOUR call number be? 

Students in third grade figured out the call numbers for a list of books and then created their very own for a fiction book they "wrote." Here are some of their book covers: