Sharing a Terrific Post: Lesley Burnap on Nerdy Book Club

One reason I'm comfortable taking a "let it ride" approach to this picture book blog for a few months is that there are such excellent blogs and guest posts appearing on the blogosphere daily. While I continue working on projects related to my spring release of ODIN'S PROMISE, I still follow and read the helpful reviews and insights of others. It's hard to say what makes me happier: finding favorite titles of my own being highlighted in other blogs or discovering special titles, recent and classics, that are new to me. 

It's an even bigger treat when I read a post like this one by third grade teacher Lesley Burnap on The Nerdy Book Club Blog. I retired after decades of teaching but I still feel a visceral pull of "back-to-school" impulses each August and September. I feel twinges of loss at not facing a room full of eager faces to share the best of the best in books, particularly picture books. I felt a deep commitment to that effort, but an undeniable degree of isolation in my mission.

Then I read a post like Lesley's and I'm reassured that the good work goes on across this country. I remember that when I retired a few years ago, the Nerdy Book Club didn't exist, Donalyn Miller's THE BOOK WHISPERER was just getting its initial "buzz" and social media had not yet provided a forum for like-minded educators and librarians. 

That's when I realize that waking without an alarm clock, focusing my attention on reading and  writing, and investing my energy on a broader scope of literary and educational issues feels like the right fit after all.

It also allows me to muster my limited influence to boost Lesley's post even further. Please, click this link and take the time to read it. Several of the books she featured are archived in posts here. If they aren't, they are well worth exploring and using in homes and classrooms. Everything she suggests developing as great "habitudes" in the classroom are just as do-able at home and in child care facilities.

I'm confident the good work of Lesley and so many others will continue, will mushroom exponentially, and will develop an entire generation of kids with the "habitudes" of readers.

You go, girl! (Shows how old school I am, right?) You can follow Lesley on Twitter @auntierez.