Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Library Day!

We haven't been getting to the library as often as we did before Cupcake was born but I'm sure we'll be back to our regular visits as soon as those dog days of summer make us start whimpering for relief. Today though, we planned it and it happened! Whoo hoo! My kids missed searching the shelves for their old favorites. I usually hit the New Acquisitions Shelf and pull off what I think they might like. Today, I moseyed on over to the Texas Bluebonnet Books and look what I happened to see...

Zita the Spacegirl is up for a Bluebonnet Award! For those of you who don't know, the Texas Bluebonnet Award is a kid's choice award. Libraries, school and home school associations, teachers, and parents submit nominees and then children between the third and sixth grade vote on their favorite. You must read at least five of the nominees before you can vote. Since we own a copy of Zita, we checked out four others and plan to vote as soon as we get them read... which should be in a few hours! My kids have been starved for new things to read! They are devouring our crate full of books like ravenous wolves!

So all you Texas people, git on over to your library, grab yourself at least five Bluebonnet nominees and vote! (Vote for Zita!) Most libraries keep them on a special shelf to make picking them up so handy dandy!

UPDATE: Just discovered that our librarian gave me some misinformation. Voting does not happen all year long. It only occurs during the month of January. So, you have all year to read the 2012-2013 nominees and then you can vote (for Zita!) for your favorite in January of 2013. The award will be presented in Spring 2013. So get busy reading those books and I will remind you to vote (for Zita!) next January!

Other finds of the day for The Professor...

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (The Mysterious Benedict Society) by Trenton Lee Stewart
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (inspired by his Aunt Heather's interest in all things Titanic)
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

...for Sunshine and Shortcake...

Blue Willow by Doris Gates
The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough
The President's Daughter by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Sunshine has enjoyed the other books by this author, One-of-a-Kind Mallie, Ruthie's Gift and Weaver's Daughter)

... for BigBoy...

The Book of Dragons by Michael Hague (I think he thought it was the E. Nesbit book with the same name. It's not but it still looks promising.)
100th Day: A Spot-It Challenge by Sarah Schuette
Red Legs: A Drummer Boy of the Civil War by Ted Lewin (an unexpected ending even caught the older kids off guard)

...for me...

Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell (I'm previewing it for the girls, actually)

These were not all of the books we took home, only a selection of the ones new to us. Our receipt of items checked out was actually taller than BigBoy! And now... we bask in the exceptional quiet of the afternoon. Sigh. I love library days!
 

9 comments:

  1. How fun! And how awesome that Ben Hatke's book is up for the Bluebonnet Award. My oldest daughter has been carrying around Zita the Spacegirl since she received it in her Easter Basket. She LOVES it!! We need to move to TX so we can vote! ;)

    I'll have to see if some of those books are available at our library. The Little Blog of the Prairie sounds cute, and we will be studying the Civil War before too much longer.

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    1. We need to move to TX so we can vote!

      YES, YES, YES!!! But you have to do it before the year is up, so get packing!!!

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  2. After reading your post, I started researching the Zita books (never heard of them) and ended up on the author's blog. Did you know he's going to be in Houston on the 19th??? This is from his blog
    http://letflythecannons.blogspot.com/

    The first thing on my “event horizon” is the Texas Library Association conference in Houston. I will be there on April 19th. At 8 am I will be participating in the Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List panel, along with authors Shannon Hale, Gareth Hinds and Orson Scott Card. ORSON SCOTT CARD!

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    1. I check in with his blog every now and again but I must have missed that!

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  3. I'm jealous of your library day.;) I actually stopped at our library today but went through the drive-thru drop off to return our books. We haven't REALLY been to the library in a very long time, and I can't even think why.:( I hear you about the giant stack of books that comes home with you....we now have to bring 2 giant-sized bags to haul all the kids' books home! The kids have been reading and re-reading all the Magic Tree House mysteries. The older ones are trying to see who can read all 44 books the fastest. Why....I don't know! We actually bought the entire series for them for Easter since I hated checking them out of series order for Gabe (5). He loves having them right at his fingertips! Lucas still won't get into them very much. It's amazing to see Gabe reading at such a higher level than Lucas who is 2 years older. Oh, well....every kid is different.;) I love your book suggestions. I'll have to check those out.

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  4. Thanks for the recommendations! I didn't know there was a new Mysterious Benedict Society book, so I'm ordering it now.

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    1. Sara,
      It's more of a prequel, I think. I don't know for sure because I haven't been able to pry it out of The Professor's hands but I think it gives the back story for the series.

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  5. We love love love the library too! We just did our trip on Monday. My little guy got the same Dragon Book and a very similar Spot the Items book as your big boy. Funny. My girls adored the Mysterious Benedict Society series and will be thrilled when I tell them about the one you found. Have a wonderful week reading all your new treasures.

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  6. What!!! There is a new book Mysterious Benedict Society book? How could this have been missed. Can't wait to tell my kids!

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