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| Grammar Girl |
Lists, plus grammar! It's like I'm in book news heaven.
NPR's Three Books feature this week is "
Three Books for the Grammar Lover in Your Life." I don't necessarily love teaching adverbs and infinitives to middle schoolers, but I certainly appreciate a well-written sentence. I also love listening to
Grammar Girl podcasts, which makes me doubly nerdy, I suppose! In May, my classes will be creating a Slang Dictionary, and I can definitely see myself using the book
The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution Of 'Proper' English, From Shakespeare To 'South Park'
from NPR's list.
If you were a fan of the
Sweet Valley series
back in the day (like, late '80s to early '90s), you've probably heard this already, but if not: Francine Pascal just released a new Sweet Valley book titled
Sweet Valley Confidential
that shows fans where their favorite characters are ten years later. Although I was somewhat unimpressed with the ebook sample I downloaded, others have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on a copy. It made it to #14 on the
NY Times bestseller list,
according to EW's Shelf Life blog. Also coming up, a movie, another sequel, and necklaces just like the twins wore! Visit the book's
website for other fun Sweet Valley trivia and games.
It is
National Library Week. As I've been a library-user since I could read (and I have many fond memories of my mom taking us to the library as a kid -- they had a
yellow brick road which you walked on to get to the children's section! Really!), I often forget that there are other people out there. You know.
Non-library-users. I don't understand this, as to me our libraries are our greatest (free) national resource. (Well. Free. I'll put it this way -- your tax dollars are going there whether you use it or not, so you may as well use it for no additional cost and get your money's worth!)
There is a
fascinating article on NPR's
Monkey See blog about using libraries. It is highly enjoyable, and I recommend it mostly to any of you non-library-users out there. Otherwise, you might think (as I did, from a regular-library-user's point of view) that blog host Linda Holmes is kind of dumb for an intelligent person. (Obviously, she's getting better, as you will see from the article!) Anyway, get out there and support your local libraries for
National Library Week. I promise, you won't be disappointed.
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| The Guardian's Books |
I read a lot of book news sites (both because I like them, but also in preparation for my Book News posts each week). In case you are wondering what those might be, here is
a link to my Delicious bookmarks which are tagged BookNewsLinks. A new one was added this week as
The Guardian revamped their books section and created
a page for book news and reviews.
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| Illustration for Dahl's The BFG |
Since
I have read Roald Dahl to my classes this year, I had to include one last fun book news tidbit:
cereal boxes in the U.K. will soon be featuring quotes from Dahl, according to Galleycat. I could not love this idea more!
It's been a busy, busy week for me! We gave standardized tests at my school this week, which as you can imagine, made for a crazy time. We also are having a Spring Festival and Craft Fair this weekend. I am doing no fewer than three things at once the whole time. Friday night, all teachers are supposed to have a game in their classrooms, and I am spraying color in kids' hair! Also Friday night, our school's
Relay For Life team will have a table set up at the Spring Festival, and I've been busy getting signs and things ready for fundraising. We have already raised more than $300 with candy bar & bracelet sales alone. I'm hoping that increases a lot after tonight! On top of those two things, my mom and I are also doing a booth in the Craft Fair. She is a jewelry-making expert, and I have recently jumped onto that bandwagon.
In between all the activities that are going on, I will still be reading this weekend! Right now, I'm listening to A.S. King's
Please Ignore Vera Dietz from Audible.com, reading
The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain on ebook from NetGalley, and reading two actual printed books:
Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark and
Catfish Alley by Lynne Bryant, both review copies from excellent publishers.
Enjoy your weekend, and happy reading!
Grammar Girl podcasts are a great listening tool.
ReplyDeleteI eagerly anticipated SV Confidential, only to be disappointed once I read it. Then again, I expected more than I should have. I didn't know necklaces and a movie was going to come out. Hmmm.