One of my fondest childhood memories consists of my father reading The Hobbit to me just before going to bed. The book he read from had amazing, full page illustrations, and my father read in voices, doing his best to make the story come to life. Ever since then, I was hooked on reading! I still can't get enough of it!
I love reading this book aloud to my classes because of all of the fun characters' voices. By starting off the year with these voices, we all get to be silly together pretty quickly and that helps us create our classroom community.
Overall, Harry Potter is my favorite series because it sparked my love of reading which led me to want to become a teacher. Half-Blood Prince is the 6th book of the 7 book series. It is my favorite because its events had been foreshadowed throughout the entire serious, so I loved seeing how Rowling tied it together. It also sets up the ending in book 7. I have read this book at least 20 times.
The book thief is a nine-year-old girl who just wants to learn to read. It takes place during WWII where the young girls witnesses war, heartbreak, love and loss, yet all she wants is to learn to read.
It is so beautifully written that I get lost in its magic every time I read it. A story filled with dreams, love, loss, mystery and magic. If I could live in a fictional world created in a book - this would be it.
CVSD Faculty and Staff have shared some WONDERFUL memories about Libraries:
Mrs. Robinson, Winding Creek: When I was younger, we had a large, wooden boat in our elementary school library. I remember getting in the boat with my friends and reading Choose Your Own Adventure books and it was like we were on our own adventure in the boat in the library.
Ms. Steiner, CVHS: The library is where I first read Harry Potter! My mother took me to the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg weekly where I would check out at least 5 books a week!
Mrs. Shaddock, Sporting Hill: In middle school, my friends and I would go to the city library to "study". The library had these big wooden tables where eight of us could sit. We did a little bit of studying, but mostly we talked, giggled, and enjoyed our time together. The librarians were so patient with us, but they would come over every once in a while and give us the obligatory "Shhh..." while holding their finger up to their lips.
Mrs. Leitzell, CVHS: I can't think of libraries of my childhood without picturing those white, plastic shelf placeholders. In elementary school during library time, we were each armed with a 12-inch long piece of plastic and then were "released" amongst the books! If we found something interesting (in my case it was often a Stephen Biesty cross-sections or an Eyewitness history book), we would remove the book and slide the plastic placeholder into its spot to mark it. Each placeholder had a little cartoon character at the end of it, so that you would know which one was yours. I must've always gone for the one with the cute, happy dragon on it because that's the only one I can still picture. I don't even know if they are used anymore, but I my library memories are forever (and fondly) intertwined with my memories of those placeholders :)
Mrs. Grice, Mountain View: I'll never forget my middle school librarian painstakingly teaching to me the process of creating a citation in MLA format. She tirelessly walked me through every letter, space, and punctuation mark for what seemed like an eternity to me at the time. I'll never forget her patience and what she taught me!