 What a fun, creative and sweet book! I wouldn’t expect anything less from the incredibly talented author Laurence Yep. He and his poet wife, Joanne Ryder, teamed up to write this modern day dragon tale, which is told from the dragon’s point of view. A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans tells the story of Miss Drake, an ancient dragon living in modern day San Francisco. When she suddenly acquires a new pet human, a little girl named Winnie, Miss Drake realizes that pets can be quite a lot of work and frustration. Especially since Winnie mistakenly thinks that Miss Drake is her pet. As Winnie and Miss Drake spend time together, the dragon introduces Winnie to a magical world that is usually hidden from humans. Winnie is given a drawing tablet that turns out to be magical, and everything that Winnie draws comes to life. Suddenly Miss Drake and Winnie are on an adventure to recapture the magical creatures that have escaped from the notebook. This book would make an excellent read-aloud for third and fourth grade classes. I highly recommend it to boys and girls in grades three, four and five who enjoy magic, dragons, and light adventures with plenty of heart. Welcome back! I’m excited to be starting my second year at Coyote Ridge. Our theme in the library this year is Wild About Reading! The inspiration for the theme comes from the wonderfully clever and cute picture book Wild about Books by Judy Sierra. The illustrations are by Marc Brown who is best known for his Arthur picture book series (and television show).  If you haven’t read Wild About Reading, be sure to check it out. It’s a fun story about a zoo full of animals who discover they love reading when the bookmobile mistakenly arrives at their zoo. Thank you to the PTA!! The library sends a huge Thank You to the PTA for donating new books and two beautiful new sofas to the library. Students will be able to read in comfort this year! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the PTA members who give time and energy to provide such wonderful resources for the students at Coyote Ridge Elementary!
With summer break just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about summer reading. My To Read list is already 15 titles long, and I’m just getting started! According to research, students who read during the summer do better in school and don’t experience the loss of learning that can affect students who don’t read during summer break. Check out these summer reading programs for great options to motivate your children to read.  
This week a local author, Marci Peschke, visited our kindergarten, first and second grade classes. Mrs. Peschke is the author of more than 20 books, such as the Kylie Jean series, Growing Up Daisy series, and several mysteries. The Kylie Jean books are about a lively Texas girl who has big dreams from being a beauty queen to a singer to a soccer star, and the series is popular with early chapter book readers in our library.
Students learned about the book making process from the initial story idea all the way to the printing and assembling of the pages. Mrs. Peschke shared with students how they can use their real lives to generate ideas for fiction writing. She also revealed the family member upon whom she based her Kylie Jean character. We even got to see a picture of the real Kylie Jean! Mrs. Peschke wore her pink cowboy hat just like Kylie Jean would wear, and she read a chapter from Kylie Jean Rodeo Queen. After the visit, students were excited to check out her books from the school library and start reading! You can learn more about Mrs. Peschke’s books at her website: marcipeschke.com. Below is a short video clip overview of the author visit!  source: Junior Library Guild The Crossover by Kwame Alexander is the most recent winner of the Newbery Medal, which is awarded yearly to the best children’s chapter book. I honestly was not very excited to read this book because it is written in verse (think poetry), which is not my favorite format, and the story revolves around basketball (not my favorite topic). But I gave it a try, and I have to admit the Newbery committee got it right with this book. It is phenomenal. I literally couldn’t put it down and finished it in one sitting. This is one of those books that is so well written that you want to go back and reread parts out loud (at least, I did).
The story centers on Josh, a middle school student and basketball fanatic with a twin brother who shares his passion for sports. His mother is the assistant principal at his school, and his father is a former professional basketball player. When Josh’s twin brother turns his attention to a new girlfriend, everything starts to fall apart for Josh. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just tell you that The Crossover is a powerful and emotional story. Who should read this book? Best for students in grades five and up, I would recommend this book to both boys and girls, basketball fans and the un-athletic (like me).  Source: Junior Library Guild I read a lot of books each month, but usually only a few stand out as noteworthy. Each month, I’ll introduce my favorite book from my most recent reads.
This month, I’m recommending The 13-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths. This isn’t a brand new book (there are already several more books in the series), but somehow I only recently got around to reading it. My son and I had so much fun reading this book together. It is wacky, wild, and hilarious. Although it is technically a chapter book, much of the story is told through cartoon pictures and it is a quick read. My son and I finished it in about two days. The story is about the fictional version of the author, Andy Griffiths, and illustrator, Terry Denton. They live in an amazing, decked out 13 story treehouse and spend their days doing anything except working on their next book. The problem starts when their book is due to the evil publisher ASAP and they’ve only written a sentence. That’s when their zany adventure begins. It includes flying cat-birds, giant gorillas, and slimy sea creatures. This story is everything except predictable. Who should read this book? I recommend it for students in grades 2-5 who enjoy comedies like Captain Underpants, Bad Kitty, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Even kids who don’t usually like to spend their time reading might find themselves enjoying this bizarre novel.
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