Picked up some possible Mock Caldecott contenders at the library. What are you reading? Post below and get a paw when we get back to school!
Garden City Library Goings-On
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Monday, June 30, 2025
Best Reads of T3 2024-2025
I have been cranking through RICBA nominees and Mock-Caldecott-buzz picture books. Here are my favorites from the past three months. All images and summaries from Goodreads.
Picture Books
Llewellyn the bunny and his friends dream of many things. Some of their dreams are small, like learning to ice skate, visiting a friend, or acting in the school play. And some of their dreams are big, like going to the moon, or becoming a ballet dancer or a wildlife photographer. Their dreams feel so precious that the bunnies place them in jars for safekeeping.
But when a storm comes and destroys their collection of jars, Llewellyn and his friends wonder: what's the point of dreaming if everything could be lost?
Inside the hole he confronts his grief—the sadness, the anger, and the truth of how much he misses Matty. His friend is waiting when he climbs out, and when she asks, “Do you want to tell me about your brother?” he’s surprised to find that talking about Matty is a comfort.
Chapter Books
Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together. Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable.
Nonfiction
Discover why the world’s first Black Grandmaster Maurice Ashley thinks that chess is one of the best skills in life. Follow him on a journey from Jamaica to New York to the world stage where he has taught thousands of young people the life philosophies of the game. Part biography, part skills, and fully oozing with passion. (RICBA 2026 nominee)
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Not a Box! (continued) with K
One of the most important roles I have as a library teacher is cultivating my students' imaginations. In K, we read Geisel-honor Not a Box by Antoinette Portis; the main character creates all kinds of play scenarios with a simple cardboard box.
Then the kids drew their ideas for our own continuation of the book, which is now on the shelf with some additional pages from 1st graders who came in after K and found the templates still on the tables. Here are some sample pages:
Sunday, June 15, 2025
GC Class of 2018
I was thrilled during the graduate walkthrough to see so many students who I met in kindergarten during my first year of teaching in Cranston!
Here is how I remember them ... diddley doot diddley doot ... going back in time:
Grade 5
Coding with CupsGrade 4
Grade 2
Mock Caldecott VotingGrade 1
K
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Grade 2 Dewey Detectives
The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did.
Second graders each got a search term and a number from a "hundreds." They had to work with kids who had the same number to figure out how their subjects could be classified under one major label.
Can you solve the puzzles?
- 500s: planets, electricity, magnets, elements, weather, rocks, dinosaurs, bugs, ecosystems, plants, animals
- 700s: music, jokes, origami, drawing, magic tricks, football, chess, yoga, knitting, dance
- 900s: maps, ancient civilizations, countries, states, wars, explorers, The Titanic disaster, flags, American colonies