Good morning everyone! I know it's Good Friday, a day off from the challenging two weeks of learning online into which everyone has taken a deep dive. From all I've heard and read, congratulations to the teachers who have created robust learning experiences for students and to the students who have been engaged learners in this educational adventure. As librarians, we've lived in a digital world for a very long time with the advent of e-books and online databases, the virtual became reality for us over a decade ago. Here we are, on several digital platforms with resources, live reference service, and now book talks and ideas. Today I am trying my hand/voice at Podcasting.
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| Grant Snider If You Can’t Go Outside, Read,<https://nyti.ms/34xjAuw> |
I had lots of ideas about independent reading for you during this time. For the first installment of "Chats from the Stacks" I didn't talk about just one book, I talked about my experience over spring break of making my time to read also a time to disconnect a bit from the technology that has become pervasive during this our social distancing and engage with words and ideas in a printed form. We, of course, want you to keep borrowing from our Overdrive Collection! Also for the purposes of full disclosure, I am most often a Kindle person. Easy to transport, books on-demand, late-night reading, the Kindle has been my reading go-to for a long time. Reconnecting with some familiar printed books though has been a singular benefit of this time apart. What I have produced for independent reading this week then is based on the Book Riot Read "Harder Challenge" from 2019 which I modified for middle school with a Read Harder Challenge for 7th and 8th graders Choose five genres to read that are not typically in your wheel-house. Now that we have more time to read, certainly feel free to take the time to make your choices. My second idea is to scan the bookshelves in your home. Pick up a book that was memorable but that hasn't been read in a while and read it again! The Hunger Games anyone? It's a chance to visit characters who are old friends and remind ourselves of the finer details that made the story so unforgettable. Look for more posts like this one from the other librarians and me. You know how we love to talk about books!
Works Cited: “Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder Challenge.” BOOK RIOT, 3 May 2019, bookriot.com/2018/12/12/2019-read-harder-challenge/.
