I remember when I was in first grade; I spent more time in the school library than I did in my classroom.  It’s true.  My teacher, Mr. Page, would send me to read in the library because I didn’t fit into the blue, red, or green reading group.   And so I spent my days devouring books, curled up in a corner of the library, while the rest of my class slowly moved through the boring, leveled readers that were mostly only good at sucking the life out of books and reading.

Fast forward twenty years, and I remember as a second grade teacher, making sure to have a classroom library in my room that had books of every level and interest.  Students weren’t sent out of my room to read by themselves in the school library.  Instead they were given time to devour books and hopefully develop a love of…

As we stare down November and see only two months left of 2017, we at Nerdy HQ are curious about which kidlit (picture books through YA) titles you have decided are the not-to-miss-books of 2017. Share your Class of 2017 reading recs for us in the comments!

“Kids haven’t changed.” I hear it all the time. Yesterday’s spitballs are today’s fidget spinners. My grandpa’s whoopie cushion is my nephew’s Atomic Fart app. In so many ways, kids are still kids.

But they have changed. You see it too, don’t you? My tribe of young adult readers I spend time with every day is unmistakably sadder. It’s a lonely time to be an adolescent. A loneliness epidemic, in fact, looms ahead according to a recent article by Jean M. Twinge in The Atlantic.

In my own angsty tween years I had the ear of Judy Blume and others who didn’t sugar coat my real life problems. Putting books in the hands of young adults should mean feeding them truth. But how? How do you form words from those powerfully raw feelings? This list is a tribute to the brave and talented authors whose words truly do scrape the…

Like many Nerdy Book Clubbers, I have a reputation as a capital-R Reader, and in addition to being asked about how I could read so much, I often get asked how I find so many books to read. Sometimes people are seeking recommendations. Others are baffled how the books I want to read seem endless (I know I’m not the only one in the Nerdy Book Club room here who finds herself saying, “Oh! That’s on the TBR list!”). Here are the top ten places I find new titles to curl up with:

1. Recommendations from Readers. When you know people who read widely and often, you learn to pay attention to their recommendations. My Nerdy friends frequently post their thoughts about what they are reading to their own blogs, to Goodreads, and here on the Nerdy blog. Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp host #TitleTalk. Many tweet titles they are…

As a twenty-two-year-old, I completed my student teaching in an 8^th grade Reading class for students new to the country. My cooperating teacher told me, “It’s just like teaching Pre-K to teenagers!”

Even my much younger self knew something was not quite right about that statement. Did these adolescents with nearly adult bodies and often very adult experiences, need to sit crisscross apple sauce on the floor to go over the alphabet? Or, was there perhaps another way to engage them in reading and other literacy activities?

I began my teaching career in that same middle school and I kept pondering who my students were and what they really needed. They were indeed in the dynamic process of English acquisition, not to mention beginning a new life in a new country, making new friends, adjusting to a different climate, and discovering the highly processed food of the school cafeteria…

Text: The book Rufus the Writer by Elizabeth Bram is an endearing tale about a young boy (Rufus) who decides rather than the traditional lemonade stand, he’d like to open a story stand.  With all the diligence and vision of a young entrepreneur, he readies his stand with a tablecloth and sign, paper and pencils, a cheery disposition, and, of course, the ever professional bowtie.  His customers soon flock, inquiring about this new business venture.

“What are you doing?”

“How much do your stories cost?”

Through these interactions with friends and family, Rufus learns about each of them, and this information sparks ideas.  Using his imagination and love for words, Rufus creates cherished stories for his friends and family, showing everyone the gift a story is to its reader.  A gift in which a price cannot be placed.

Tool: This text provided inspiration to think about instructional tools it…

Our readers come to us, like a box of buttons. I realized this while crafting with my three year old daughter. I watched her drag her fingers through, feel each one and bend her ear down low to listen to the sounds of them clinking together, ever so slightly. Through her eyes, I observed how she noticed, with wonder, all the vibrant colors, the varying shapes and sizes, some shiny and new, others worn and experienced.

In those moments, I considered how each button tells a story.

You dig in and hold one in your hand, inspecting it up close you wonder where it has been.

Like buttons, readers come to us and tell a story about their reading journey. Some readers are shiny and new, eager and ready. Some are worn and experienced. Some are even broken, their love for books, seemingly ruined forever.

The similarities between a button…