It's the Little Things

It’s ILA15 travel day!

This is a cause for rejoicing

Early this morning, round about 5am, Erin turned into the Logan Express parking garage and exclaimed, “This used to be a parking lot!  Look at this!”  Upon entering the terminal and taking in its modern seating and very large, interactive, touch-screen display, she marveled, “This is AWESOME!”  I enthusiastically agreed.  She then made a joke about the two of us gushing about the fineness of a bus terminal, laughed and said, “We don’t get out much.”

It got me thinking. 

There are many things that Erin and I share: taste in books, sense of humor, love for a certain beagle, two beautifully flawed children, and the romance novelist Sarah M. Beers.  But today we identified another similarity, one that Erin points out is likely to be a major contributor to the success of our partnership: our ability to become excited by everyday blessings.

I mean, yes, we know that the hotel will deliver toiletries should we happened to phone them at 10pm when they are discovered to be missing.  And yes, we know that there are many delicious breakfasts to be purchased in restaurants around the world.  But just *knowing* those things feels like a poor excuse for not celebrating them when they cross our path.  What’s wrong with a little rejoicing? 

I think one thing that sets The Crazy Reading Ladies apart from other folks – besides our bedazzled T-shirts - is our enthusiasm.  Yes, we are enthusiastic about reading, about teaching, about kids.  But we’re enthusiastic about other things as well – a beautiful sunrise, a quick trip to the airport, a second cup of coffee delivered by a smiling Southwest steward.  And while our passion may feel strong enough to fly a plane to St. Louis, it’s a rare thing in an adult.  We’re taught as children to temper our enthusiasm.  People are tolerant of children who ooh and ahh over the free snacks handed out on the airplane, but adults who do so are obnoxious. 

Room with a view! Sorta!

And I get it.  Mostly.  I mean, if I saw a grown woman standing with her nose pressed up against the terminal windows exclaiming, “It’s so big!” I’d first look for the hidden camera and then assume she had some sort of disability.  But what about an adult showing appropriate appreciation for the person who delivers a much needed coffee, or excitement at the sight of a landmark?  When did we all become so jaded that it’s not cool to marvel out loud at the adorableness of the tiny cut-glass salt and pepper shakers on the banquet table?

I think what upsets me more than seeing adults who have turned off their joy is seeing students who have.  When kids have instant access to all the knowledge in the world sitting in their pocket, they can be pretty darn hard to impress.  I fear that kids are losing their sense of wonder and excitement.  As teachers, we must remember this. 

We must try to see and experience things through the eyes of a child.  We need to not censor our positive emotional reactions.  We must react, and react big.  We must love out loud and model for our students how to be open to the world and how to appreciate its gifts.  If we show them the way, if we make our classrooms safe places, maybe we can awaken the sleeping passion inside our students. 

Today and every day of this St. Louis adventure, Erin and I promise to find the joy in the world around us.  We encourage you to do the same. We'll share with you some of the many things that make us smile.  We probably won't blog about all of them, but we'll tweet them, and we hope you'll share yours with us, too.  We are @allinreading.

And if you happen to be in St. Louis for ILA, please join us Sunday at 1pm room 232  for Building Intrinsic Motivation in Middle Level Readers.  Later that same day we'll be holding a fun-filled workshop from 3-5 in room 127: Putting the C in the CRL.  We're also hosting an author panel with Ellen Hopkins and Una LaMarche on Monday at 11am in room 124.  Hope you can stop by!

And, one last thing before we go:

Mary with her coffee-delivering savior

To Ray, kind-hearted Southwest steward who saw two bleary-eyed Crazy Reading Ladies and delivered a second cup of coffee just to be nice – thank you.  To Jim, always smiling manager of Renaissance Grand St. Louis, who helped when the cloud ate our hotel reservations - thank you.

You guys are AWESOME!

Share Possible

The sun has set and still we sit, basking in the wonder of Scholastic's extraordinary Reading Summit, and feeling positively overwhelmed in the best possible way.

Overwhelming. It was how our Assistant Principal chided us once upon a time; the wrist-slap we decided to own and wear as a badge of honor. Four years ago when she spoke those words, we took it as a compliment; in fact, we loved it so much that when it was time to give All In! its wings and form our very own educational non-profit, we named it in honor of our aha! moment: Overwhelming Success, Incorporated.

Overwhelming. It was the title of our inaugural post. For those of you who have just found our blog: Welcome Home.

Scholastic's Reading Summit served to attract the very best in literacy professionals, powerhouses of information and inspiration, and heart like you wouldn't believe. Being a teacher is not something you do, it's who you are. It's a calling, not a career. And in the last 24 hours, we were surrounded by hundreds of other people who just "get it."

Never before have we experienced such a sense of belonging. You are our people. You are our tribe.

Thank you.

To people like @MrSchuReads and @AuntieRez, who put open arms and smiling faces to Twitter handles for the very first time.

To Dr. Kim Parker, whose incredible essay laid the foundation of a road we will now travel. You have lit a fire.

To Andrea Davis Pinkney, whose presentation rendered us speechless. Your honesty, integrity, and limitless talent are breathtaking. Is it too early to ask how we could possibly get you to our school to be a Visiting Author?

To Alice Ozma, with whom we shared teaching anecdotes and delectable desserts, only to return to our hotel room, remember a certain CBS news piece and scream, "Oh my word, THAT'S HER!!!!!"

To Donalyn Miller, who allowed these fan girls the opportunity of a lifetime, as well as considerable wait time until we managed to speak coherent sentences in your presence. Thank you for striking the perfect balance between validation and inspiration. Thank you for taking the time to talk about books, and kids, and for honoring the duty we have to bring them together. Thank you for stopping by the elevator to wish a certain young man Good Night.

To Rebecca, educator extraordinaire and our long-lost triplet. Thank you for validating us. Thank you for conversation at dinner. And at breakfast. And in the hallway. And in the hotel room. And after the sessions. And in the lobby. Please continue to do what you do. The world needs more crazy reading ladies.

To all of the incredible people at Scholastic for spoiling us rotten and giving us the platform to share a little bit of our crazy. Thank you for bringing together some of the finest leaders in literacy in order to make the world better for our children. Let this be the first of many gatherings.

To Johnny Yotnakparian, Abby's uncle. It was our students who christened us, who gave us our identity as The Crazy Reading Ladies, and everything we do will always be about them. Thank you for honoring us with your gratitude and making us feel like royalty. We have the best jobs in the world. Thank you for "getting" us. And thank you for sharing our story.

To all of the Summit attendees, whose presence and passion made us feel right at home. This is our time. Remember that you are exactly what your students need. We know that you, too, live for the moment a child discovers the joy of reading. Do whatever it takes to get them there. Don't be afraid to love out loud, or on a blingy t-shirt.

For everyone else reading this, we know you're one of us.

Overwhelming. That was how our story started, and we look forward to sharing our journey.

ILA15 Top Ten!

Top Ten Reasons the CRL are Pumped for #ILA15

10. New Crazy Reading Lady Shirts.  Get ready St. Louis, we're bringing enough to keep ourselves decent for three whole days!

9. Vacation Food. We've been on a sugar cleanse for the last week. (9 days, 7.5 hours, to be exact.  But who's counting?) Said sugar cleanse will include more flexible rules as soon as we cross state lines.  Translation: Mary will be ordering dessert first.  And last. 

8. Our peers.  Our peeps.  Our tribe!  Passionate educators whose enthusiasm and abandon are contagious. We love making connections to other professionals who can talk for hours about YA titles, cross-curricular connections, and Woodcock-Johnsons. (If you're laughing right now, you clearly don't assess literacy skills for a living. This is the name of a highly-regarded reading assessment. Get your head out of the gutter!) Nothing is more rejuvenating and satisfying than spending time with professionals who never accuse each other of having a "teacher voice."  (Hi, Mom!) Last year, while in line for coffee, we were treated to an impromptu characterization dance by a woman we had never met. It was one of the finest moments of our trip.

Does this outfit meet dress code?

7. Functioning technology!  We hope!  Keep your fingers crossed that we'll actually be able to show the presentations we've poured hours of blood, sweat, and tears into.  We're still a tad traumatized from last year's experience, during which our finely-crafted, labor-of-love presentation refused to be projected onto the big screen. This brought four tech guys to our session as the clock clicked down and participants arrived.  An hour later, there was still no reasonable explanation as to why our laptop had friend-zoned the projector. Throughout that hour, Mary's wallpaper pic of her boyfriend (Hi, Jim!) was projected for all to see while Erin rambled aimlessly, vamping to buy time. It was a hoot. In all seriousness, we ended up winging it.  We were able to get slides up when we had about 25 minutes left, but at that point they seemed superfluous.  We talked and told stories and laughed and were pretty dang proud of ourselves. The bright side is we know we can do this without a net, but dang! It'd sure be nice to have a net.  But hey, they invited us back this year - for a session AND a workshop - I guess we did okay.

6. Hotel toiletries! Last year, our New Orleans hotel boasted Erin's favorite Aveda shampoo and conditioner. Once word got out, visitors brought handfuls for her stash. You've got big shoes to fill, St. Louis. I mean that stuff is normally, like $30 a bottle! (We don't get out much.)

5.Ideas. The thought of filling our notebooks with "We're SO doing this" ideas, collected from brilliant speakers and inspiring sessions. Last year, we returned from ILA with grand plans for redesigning our library into a literary cafe. It only took a year of planning, but that vision will become reality this fall.  I'm sure our fearless Gandalf awaits our return - and plans to take over even more of the school - eagerly.  (Hi, Mr. Fortin!)

4. Authors and books. Lots and lots of books. We'll happily wait in line to get books autographed for our kiddos, or to tearfully thank an author for writing something that made *that* child love reading.

3. St. Louis.  Home of the arch!  And BBQ!  And...other stuff!  Okay, so it's not New Orleans, but it's not Franklin.  As long as we can visit the local coffee shop without stopping to talk to six or seven current or former students, it will feel like a vacation. 

The CRL found this waiting in N'Awlins.

2. Bus schedules. You'll thank us later.

Aaaand, most of all...


The number one reason we're pumped for #ILA15...

It's a chance to share our crazy!

Please join us at:

Session #00562 - Building Intrinsic Motivation in Middle Level Readers: Tips to Get 'Em Hooked and Keep 'Em Reading.
Sunday, 1pm, Room 232

Workshop #00634  - Putting the C in the CRL: Experience the Outright Craziness the Ladies Bring to Literary Adventures.
Sunday, 3pm, Room 127

Putting Books to Work with Ellen Hopkins and Una LaMarche
Monday, 11am, Room 124

Look out, ILA15!  The Crazy Reading Ladies are coming!

How to Have a Middle School Book Swap

Considering organizing a community book swap? Let the CRL guide you with some helpful hints from our first venture.

It's a Book Buffet!
 
We looked at several options before deciding which incarnation would suit our school best. Since our focus was on community service, we would not keep track of who donated what. We knew that was a bit of a risk, but if you staff the swap with teachers who aren't afraid to speak up, it's not a problem. We were prepared to stop shoppers who left with a few dozen; however, due to the sheer volume of books we received, it wasn't something we needed to address.   Given the "browse and take whatever you want" atmosphere, we decided to market this as a Book Buffet.

We are open for business! Photo: Colleen Donahue

Fairness is something middle schoolers positively adore.  The kids more than any other group voiced opinions about how to keep people from taking more than their fair share.  Our open concept Book Buffet was a tough sell, but let us tell you: Letting go of the "give tickets to kids who donated and then let them pick x-number of new ones" was the best decision we made.  We were able to accept donations from all sorts of places (more below) and several students did leave with armfuls.  Because we had embraced openness, we were able to rejoice rather than rebuff.  Hooray!

Emptying the Bibliosaurus for the last time

The Drive

A month before the day of service (see last week's post), The Crazy Reading Minions created the Bibliosaurus.  He's big.  He's green.  He's spotted.  He has a theme song.  And he eats books.

After collecting trash, books that were older than Mary, and one diaper (yes, it was used), The Crazy Reading Minions hit the school news with a little public service announcement asking for books that middle schoolers might actually WANT to read. When in doubt, be explicit: No bodice rippers and no self help, please and thank you.

We placed want ads in both the town email system and the Friends of Franklin Facebook page. We received donations from students, former students, and community members. We encouraged teachers to purge their classroom collections with the promise to add to them later. We put signs in each and every classroom and bathroom. In a little over one month we collected a little over 400 books.

The Set Up
 

Setting up on June 4

The month-long drive gave us the opportunity to filter through books beforehand. Between us and our Minions, we spent about four hours sorting books in advance of the Book Buffet. We know it sounds crazy to have this in June, but hear us out: people are ready to clean, kids are looking for summer reading books, and teachers have little-to-no patience. This was a very good thing. You'd be shocked at the number of books the CRL deemed "unworthy" and dumped in a recycling bin.

We got so much done.

On June 4th our student volunteers gathered in the cafeteria to transform it into the Book Buffet.  Books were sorted by genre, arranged accordingly, and marked by balloon bouquets.

We have glitter and we aren't afraid to use it

If you want to sell anything to Middle Schoolers, it has to look cool. Now, we know the CRL version of "cool" isn't for everyone, but it usually works.

We indoctrinated our helpers to make it look as professional as possible. "That sign? It needs to be bigger. And centered. And nicer" (see lack of patience, above). We had staff recommendations and catchy neon starbursts. We had balloons and color-coded genres. We used book stands and displayed our inventory in concentric circles. And when several boys made helmets out of empty boxes and held jousting matches from opposite ends of the cafeteria, we told them to pick up scraps of paper off the floor.

Proud "staff" reviewer

While the students worked on physical merchandising and Erin herded 6th graders, Mary called students over one at a time to provide a review for the book of their choice. Students were photographed holding their book, and the photo and review were displayed alongside the books.

Our WWII section with the student-created label "Sad but True."

The Event

Stocking up for summer

Our Book Buffet opened (we were technically knee-deep in ice cream sundaes and just a few minutes late) for an evening event that welcomed students and their families. This was another benefit - so what if we lost track of time? The Book Buffet was essentially self-sustaining. Sure, the CRL would be there to supervise, smile, shake hands, and offer suggestions, but the fact that we were 10 minutes late didn't delay the opening.

"You mean they're free?"

We asked local businesses to donate small shopping bags which encouraged kids to pick more than one.

Before-the-bell crowd Friday morning

Though the evening event brought nearly sixty people through our doors, we kept the Buffet open the following day. It was so cool to watch students wander through the next morning as they arrived at school. Our Assistant Principal commented that she saw three 8th-grade boys reading their newly-selected books as they waiting for the first bell. Additionally, students and teachers were invited down before lunch to shop at their leisure. That's when the books really flew.

"I'm the mascot!"

The Breakdown

As sad as we were to see it end, our Book Buffet had served its purpose - re-homing nearly 350 books in less than 24 hours - and gone swimmingly enough for us to consider doing this again. Since our Buffet had to be cleared in time for lunch, we looked at the remaining selection with critical eyes and threw away a handful of rejected books. It took less than twenty minutes to collect balloons, take down posters, fold tablecloths, and pack one box with books we deemed "Keep for next time." Easy peasy. And our event wasn't short any amount of pathos. Students selected books as gifts for siblings. Mary's son - exhibiting great patience at yet another CRL event - found a quiet spot in the back and began reading. Friends sought out multiple copies so they could read together. And when Erin returned to her classroom the next day, she found a book waiting on her desk with a note. A 7th grader had selected one for her.

I promise.

Of all the things we've done to spread the love of literacy and put good books in the hands of kids, this was - by far - the simplest and the cheapest. Kids were chatting about books, making recommendations to each other, and seemed thrilled to have the gift of free choice.




We've already decided that this will be a semi-annual event at our school. Since the family element was so powerful, we'll likely connect the Book Buffet to an evening event such as parent-teacher conferences or concerts.

Let us know if you decide to pursue this at your school, and be sure to let us know how it goes!

Happy Summer Reading!

New books, ripe for the picking!

One of the three fiction tables

 

Nice view!

 

Shopping before school

This is why we work

For years, Erin has been talking about wanting to do a book swap. Unable to visualize Erin's concept, for years Mary has been humoring her.  "Yeah.  That would be cool.  Uh huh.  Yup." 

CRLs stand ready at the grand opening

Posing with the Bibliosaurus

This past Thursday night, Erin's idea came to fruition under the most unexpected circumstances.  We certainly didn't plan for it to happen this way, but the Crazy Reading Ladies are not known for planning ahead anyway. When opportunity knocks, we've decided it's best not to ask too many questions. We simply say "yes" first and figure out the details later. We just work well together. And we know we work. And we have way too much fun doing it.

So how did our (Erin's) book swap opportunity present itself?  Well...

Horace Mann Middle School  recently hosted singer and songwriter Chadwick Stokes and his charity Calling All Crows.  Chad worked with students to workshop some songs they'd written and teach them the songwriting process.  One lucky girl had her lyrics turned into a song, and it was performed by Mr. Stokes at a benefit concert that evening.  (How cool is THAT?!)

Staff Recommended

Because Calling All Crows emphasizes service to others, every student in the school was engaged in some form of community service for the second half of the school day on June 4th.  Teachers were given the opportunity to put forth ideas for community service, and students were then given their choice of service activity.  Animal-loving teachers helped kids make homemade dog treats to be donated to animal shelters.  6th grade teachers worked with students of all grades to create Welcome to 6th Grade informational pamphlets to be given to current 5th graders.  Students planted flowers on school grounds, read books to preschoolers, made cards for the troops, and turned old t-shirts into reusable shopping bags.  It was a super cool afternoon for teachers and students, and the CRL took advantage of the opportunity to pull together a book swap.

Okay, full disclosure.  Erin took advantage of the opportunity.  Mary, suffering from a condition known as 8th-graders-in-June, whined, "I don't care what I do, just please put me with Erin."

Voila! A scrumptious book buffet!

That night, before the Chadwick Stokes benefit concert, the doors of the Book Buffet opened (while Mary and and Erin were enjoying hot fudge sundaes and losing track of time), and students were able to fill bags with 100% free, no strings attached, new-to-them books. 

We're totally working.

Before we inundate you with photographs of the event, it's worth mentioning that the event was such a success that we've decided to make the Bibliosaurus a permanent fixture in the HMMS hallways and hope to make the Book Buffet a semi-annual event.  Hey, we're the CRL.  Go big or go home. 

"Can we take more than one?"

Shopping for summer reading

Censored

At IRA14, the Crazy Reading Ladies had the honor of leading a group discussion centered around Young Adult literature. The participants were teachers, librarians, literacy professionals, and several YA authors.  As we chatted about recommendations for reluctant readers, tried-and-true favorites, and upcoming releases, the word "appropriate" came up.  

Teachers and librarians dove right in, sharing their own stories about books they could or could not recommend to students, what they had been asked to censor at a parent's or administrator's request, or what their current permission slip looked like.

The authors were positively gobsmacked. Seriously, mouths hung agape. 

"Wait, you guys have to pre-screen stuff?" 

All around the circle, teachers' heads nodded as the moment of mutual shock set in. These authors had no idea that one sex scene, f-bomb, or allusion to drug use could remove their book from a child's hands. While we were overjoyed that a light had been shed on a very real problem, we couldn't really give the authors much assistance in making their books more marketable without crossing the line into censorship.

That's right.  We said it.  The C word.  

It's a fine line between determining appropriateness and censoring.  A mighty fine line.  


Determining what is and is not appropriate requires the teacher to look at the  big picture - identifying themes and ideas and matching those things up with potential readers.  Discussions take place around how the conflicts are developed, how far into the book one goes before the protagonist redeems herself, and the overall impression the reader leaves with.  When books are seen not as a arrangement of individual words but rather as a collective message, it becomes much easier to forgive certain sins. As public school teachers and educated professionals, we feel empowered to judge literature and determine it's relative appropriateness for our wide middle school audience.  Appropriateness includes grey area; something might be fine for a mature 6th grader but not a good choice for a sensitive 7th grader.  Appropriateness is flexible and fluid. 

Censoring is a different beast entirely.  Censorship pays attention to the power of individual words and phrases.  The idea here is that, while the overall message may be positive, the book itself is polluted by certain letters arranged in a certain order.  As ELA teachers, we understand the power of individual words.  Mary recently spent a full 15 minutes with her students teasing out the significance of the word "my" in a passage from To Kill a Mockingbird.  If a two letter pronoun can change the interpretation of an entire fictional relationship, then what can a four letter curse word do?  A lot.  If you're living in one of the less enlightened areas of the country, that four letter word can remove the book from library and classroom bookshelves.

Oh, stop.  He's singing "Where is Thumbkin?" 

Herein lies the problem. There is not one universal standard deeming language - or anything for that matter - offensive. It is a personal decision. What is upsetting for one person may be perfectly acceptable for another. 

Some authors have taken it upon themselves to help us out by altering the language that they use.  For example, in response to the John Green lovefest that recently swept our Middle School, we picked up a copy of AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Scattered throughout the book was a word we had never seen before: fug. In case you too are a bit kwanfused, let us put it in context. It can be used in the following ways: Go fug yourself or Mother fugger.  

First of all, was the original word (we think we know what he was going for...) so "offensive" it was deemed "inappropriate" for young adults?  If so, is the changing of that final consonant sound really fooling anyone? Are parents and publishers breathing a collective sigh of relief because of the absence of a certain expletive?  Are we the only ones who think that the connotation is loud and clear? Isn't the intent obvious? Come on, if you are going to say something, SAY IT!  You really aren't doing us any favors.  Really.


Now, we understand that some language is so offensive that parents feel the need to protect their children from it.  We understand that some scenarios in The Hunger Games or Divergent are upsetting to less mature readers.  And we have fully supported parents in their right to say no to their child.  Recognizing that each person has her own comfort zone, the CRL developed our policy regarding what to do when a parent is offended by our book choice: 

"The decision lies with the family. We will support you 100% in deciding what is best for your individual child." 

Sometimes, that is all it takes to mollify an upset parent.  Unfortunately, it is more frequently the case that parents are not content with choosing what is right for their child.  They want to decide that their standard should be applied to everyone.  And that's not okay with us. 

Ultimately, we Crazy Reading Ladies have decided that censorship is the mountain upon which we are willing to die.  

That is, we will listen to parents who disagree with our choices, we will talk them through our decision making process, we will listen some more while they list the thousand of other books we should have chosen instead.  We will encourage them to do what is best for their child and listen even more while they inform us of their various degrees in literature and child psychology.  We will thank them for their input, and we will relay their concerns to our principal, but we will not remove an otherwise appropriate book from the hands of 499 other middle schoolers simply because it has a word, a phrase, a scene, or a character that offends them.  We will not take that book from our shelves or wield black sharpies in an attempt to protect all our students from the material that one parent deems offensive.

We certainly aren't here to incite riots, wave flags, or further an agenda.  We have always sought to put good books in the hands of students and get them excited about reading. We are here to create lifelong literature lovers, nothing more.

That's not to say that we haven't somewhat caved to pressure.  This year we went to unprecedented lengths to get parent buy in, announcing the book to parents a full six weeks before it became available to students, allowing parents time to read and decide for themselves.  We chose a book we thought no one could possibly object to - the inspiring true story of a WWII hero.  We chose to adopt and promote the YA version of the book to further provide a buffer for those who felt the subject matter too upsetting.  And still...STILL...parents complained.  Frustrated and irritated by the request to choose a book better aligned to conservative family values, Mary exclaimed, "What do they want!?  Charlotte's Web?"  Erin replied, "That will upset the vegans."

I guess that's our take-away.  There is no such thing as the perfect book.   There will always be something to upset someone.  The best we can do is choose good books for our kids.  

And if they don't like it, fug 'em. 

 

Choose Wisely

We aren't that old. Really, we're not. We weren't in middle school that long ago; how did things change so fast? One of the most peculiar signs of our current times is The Power of Words.

On the one hand, if you turn on network television at 8:00 or listen to the Top 40, you'll hear words that were deemed "inappropriate" as recently as the '90s.  On the other, words "offend" with ease and, almost weekly, leave someone in court or out of work; or, at the very least, delivering a half-hearted and highly-scripted public apology. 

Four years, four books

Words matter. And we make our living putting pages of them in the hands of children. The stakes are high; very high. 

So where does that leave us - two Crazy Reading Ladies who are often tasked with endorsing books for a few hundred adolescents? Want to know what goes through our minds as we consider what to put in the hands of our cherubic charges? Yeah, so do we. 
  It has been almost five years since we started our All In! adventure. Over one thousand readers have devoured the pages of four very different books. And by most standards, we've picked a winner every time. So why is it so difficult to explain how we've chosen them? 

It's surprising - even to us as we sit here and type - that we don't have a clear answer. There's no rubric, no formula, no Russian judge. It's just us.

"No book for you."

Whether planning a school-wide reading initiative or simply shopping for our classrooms, The Crazy Reading Ladies read widely and frequently, and always with a few hundred middle schoolers on our hearts. We read with a purpose: is this the right book for our kids? Mary often compares this process to the Film course she took in college; once she knew how movies were structured, she viewed them through a completely different lens. She knew about lighting and music and camera angles and dialogue and reaction shots. And after a while no one wanted to go to the movies with Mary anymore, because she'd talk her way through the entire thing.

We are put in a similar situation. We read while thinking about relatable characters, assessing developmental appropriateness, analyzing messages presented, dreaming up activities, imagining costume potential, and responding to hypothetical parental and administrative inquiries. And if it gets our blessing, we go with it.

That's all.

Though it may be hard to believe, as frighteningly alike as we are, the two of us have different barometers. But we respect (and admire) each other to such a degree that if a book raises even one of our eyebrows, we put it aside; however, if we both think something is okay, we'll go with it and stand by it, which is not without risk for two ladies who love their jobs and work in an increasingly litigious society. 

We know our students think we have read every book that has ever been written (or at least the ones in our classrooms) but we haven't. We rely on casual recommendations, Top Ten lists, and online reviews just like everyone else. But what to do when the ALA-honored book you ordered for your 8th graders features both four-letter words and a certain toothpaste-tube tutorial? You go with your gut - and if you're us, you're sending that puppy back to Barnes and Noble. As Mary once famously said, "If I can't figure out how to write the permission slip, I'm not putting it on my shelf."

So I guess we can't tell you how we know it's right, but it's easy for us to identify when it isn't. 

Without expending too much end-of-the-year energy, we can easily rattle off the following honest-to-goodness charges we have received when people have deemed our book selections "inappropriate": 

• too long
• too difficult
• too easy
• too violent
• anti-American
• pro-American
• furthers liberal agenda
• too sexual
• contains inappropriate language
• is psychologically disturbing
• too real
• too fake
• too religious
• anti-Catholic
• characters are too old 
• presence of drugs

We believe in fairy tales

Jodi Picoult's new YA book OFF THE PAGE (co-written with her daughter, the lovely Samantha VanLeer) has spurred some recent commentary on social media: Which of Ms. Picoult's "adult" books can you recommend to young readers? 

Perhaps we're just far too verbose, but the CRL could not respond to that inquiry in 140 characters; there's no easy answer to that question. We've suggested THE STORYTELLER to some very mature 8th graders who are passionate about the Holocaust and seem ready for such an experience; on the other hand, there are several adults in our building who have yet to "go there." We've talked to an elephant-obsessed 7th grader about LEAVING TIME, but haven't given it to a friend who is mommy to a toddler. Everyone is different. It's about knowing your audience. 

We're not saying that our standard is perfect, but it has yielded some pretty stellar results and, even with 20/20 hindsight, we wouldn't change a thing.