Reading | Jackie Reeve

We’ve Got the 2019 Caldecotts (And Lots of Other Award Winners)

jackie February 2, 2019 Activism, Booklists, Children's Books, Events and Celebrations activism, caldecotts, Children's Books, libraries, picture books, reading

I went to ALA Midwinter while it was happening in Seattle last weekend, and it was amazing to walk the exhibits space and just see so many great books. I’m not as current with what’s happening in children’s lit since I left teaching, and I really miss it. I love being a full time, working writer, but…I love children’s books, and I love sharing them with kids. I was at ALA on Sunday, and then Monday morning they held the ALA Youth Media Awards, where they announce all the big winners in kidlit. This is what I watch every year for the announcement of the Newbery and Caldecott books, and then I immediately buy all of the Caldecotts for H’s collection–we have them all for every year of her life, plus the year I was pregnant (and lots of other years because I just love Caldecott books). I also picked up a lot of the other award winners announced on Monday, and by Tuesday they’d all arrived.

ALA Midwinter in Seattle

jackie February 1, 2019 Booklists, Events and Celebrations, Grownup Books books, events, librarians, reading

I know I’m not a working librarian anymore, but the American Library Association had its annual midwinter conference here in Seattle over the weekend. Which was really exciting since this is where the announce the Newbery and Caldecott books every year! I didn’t go to the awards ceremony, but I did spend Sunday afternoon walking around the exhibit floor.

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2018 Was a Completely New Thing

jackie January 2, 2019 Adventuring and Celebrations, Living Life, Making Stuff, Projects, Quilting Stuff, Reading moving, new year's, planning, Quilts, Travel

Last year was unlike any other year I’ve ever had. I think the silence on this blog kind of reflects that. Trucking along in a quieter-than-usual but other wise normal year, and then June 17th comes and off the grid I go. That’s when we finished packing up everything we owned in NJ (everything that was left after weeks of purging, yard sales, and donations), left the house we’d owned for 10 years, 7 months, and 12 days, spent a week driving across the country to Washington, moved into a rental apartment, spent three months looking at houses/putting offers on houses/buying a house, and then moved into our farmhouse on the 28th of September. It’s on six acres of forested woodlands, it’s beautiful, and I’m so in love with it out here.

January Books We Read

jackie February 1, 2018 Booklists, Children's Books, Grownup Books, YA Books audio books, books, Children's Books, Grownup Books

It wasn’t a terrible month for reading, or a bad to start to a new year of books.

We’re still in this phase of life where we read and reread H’s favorite books on a loop, so even with our trips to the library, we don’t read that many new books. She could have Winnie-the-Pooh read to her every night and be completely happy, and…honestly we’re also pretty happy. Adam loves reading Pooh to her. But we did read some new stuff this month.

What We’ve Been Reading

jackie October 8, 2017 Booklists, Children's Books books, Children's Books

I so wanted to do a summer reading post back in August to wrap up the stuff we read during those months off from school. But it just never happened. I didn’t stay on top of the photos for some books, and it was just a much busier season than I anticipated (I started working full time for Wirecutter on July 5th).

Read more on What We’ve Been Reading…

Protest Books for Kids, and Sewing As Empowerment

jackie March 27, 2017 Activism, Booklists, Children's Books activism, books, Children's Books

In January, I wrote a list of protest and activism books for kids for GeekMom. I never blogged about the list here, but after last Friday’s events, when the health care bill was killed after people on both sides of the aisle spoke out, it felt like a good time to remind our kids that speaking out–and speaking up–works.

Dinosaur Week! (Roar)

jackie March 16, 2017 Children's Books, Crafts, Outings, Projects adventures, books, Children's Books, Crafts, field trips, science, screen free time

We’ve been trying a thing around here, or at least I’ve been trying a thing, to better organize our time. Because I’m not a homeschooler. But…I work. I work at home, I have a child in half day preschool (probably next year as well), I have a child getting 4 sessions of private speech and OT each week, I do not have childcare, I do not want to just park my 5-year-old in front of the TV all day.

Dr. Seuss Day at Home

jackie March 2, 2017 Children's Books, Crafts Crafts, dr. seuss, preschool, read across america

We celebrated Dr. Seuss Day, formally known as Read Across America, here by reading The Cat in the Hat and making cat hats. This was my go-to library lesson for years with pre-k and kindergarten, and now my own small human can benefit from all of my supplies and old lesson plans. I still have a stash of white paper bags in the perfect size for hats that I bought myself. I took them with me when I stopped teaching, so I still had them on hand to make hats.

I’m 38 Today, and I Celebrated with Elephant & Piggie

jackie February 10, 2017 Children's Books, Events and Celebrations, Family, Theater birthdays, Children's Books, family, new york, theater

Today is my actual birthday, but last Sunday we went to see Elephant & Piggie: We Are in a Play at the New Victory Theater. That was my birthday celebration. My mom pointed out that they were doing a sensory friendly performance, I saw it was the weekend before my birthday, and that’s what I wanted. No presents.

Book Club Prizes and My Nana’s Whiskey Balls

jackie February 9, 2017 Food, Grownup Books, Reading Challenge book club, books, Food, gifts, nana

My virtual book club just started its third year, and last week I mailed out the prizes to the big winners from 2016. We don’t read a set book each month, we just read whatever we want and talk about it. The past 2 years I gave out prizes for the most books read, the most pages read, and the most audiobook time listened. This year we’ve moved over to Goodreads, and we’re just straight tracking the number of books read. So, next January I’ll announce a first, second, and third place winner.

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