Read-A-Thon Spring 2021!

Hello friends! It's been awhile, but I'm so excited to be back on the blog. What better time to get re-acquainted than for Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon. It's been over a year since I've last participated in RaT. I'm so happy to be in a better mind frame this year, than I was this time last year. I have some major reading I need to get done. I'll be posting updates on this post throughout the day. Happy reading to me! 😁 

Reading stack on deck! 

Cultivating You, Inc. Summer of Giveaways!

Cultivating You, Inc. is not offering in-person or virtual programs this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are committed to nurturing talent through the written word. We will be hosting two book giveaways a month from June through August. The giveaways are to help curb summer slide, build home libraries, and spark discussion. Giveaways will include current topics, new releases, student recommendations, and a mystery selection.  

Must Reads by the Close of 2019

If you're anything like me, there's either a stack of books next to your bed, on your bookshelf, living room floor, kitchen table, combination thereof, or all of the above that is demanding to be read. This year I've added more books to my TBR Goodreads Bookshelf than I've read, which of course is to be expected. However, there are a few books that I refuse to go into a new year, a new decade without having read or completed them.

Books to read or finish by the end of the year:

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon Fall 2019 Announcement, Updates, & Wrap-Up

Hello reader friends! I decided to participate in read-a-thon after all. Here's my reading stack for the next 24 hours:

Read-a-thon reading goals: 

1. To complete two books
2. To knock off one of the books for the Mount TBR Challenge
3. To read at least three chapters of my current read, Reading Reasons  
4. Above all else, enjoy RaT!

Update Alert

Hello reader friends! With only a little over two months before the end of the year, I wanted to pop in for a moment and share a brief update.

Five book reviews made it from unfinished draft to published since the beginning of the year. Even though the number is much lower than I'd like, it's much higher than last year's. Progress, slow and steady, but progress nonetheless.

Mount TBR Challenge 2019, Here I Come

While on Goodreads this past weekend, I found a new book challenge to join. Since I can't stay away from bookstores, book sales of any kind, and the book section in thrift stores, the Mount TBR Challenge is going to help me trim the stacks of books that continue piling up in my home.  Since there are books that I want to read that I do not own or have not owned prior to the start of 2019, I'm reading 12 books for the challenge. I attempted a similar challenge back in 2016 and fell short--way short. Five of the books I've chosen for this challenge are from the previous challenge. For motivation, I'm posting an image of my chosen reads. I'm determined to get them read and off my TBR stacks.

Pike's Peak Challenge Picks 

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Challenge Update: Jan. 4, 2020

Of the 12 books, I completed four: Daughters of the Stone, Dumplin', Lies We Tell Ourselves, and Miles Morales: Spider-Man. During Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon in October, I began Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire. At the close of RAT, I had read up to p. 62 and since haven't read anymore of it. 

It's Dewey's Read-a-thon Day!

Bring on the books, snacks, and hours of reading! 

First selection: 

Update #1

10:00 a.m.- I finally settled down to read at 8:20 a.m. I'm 47 pages in. If I stop rereading sentences I like, I would be much further.

Update #2

1:16 p.m. - I'm stopping on p. 132 to ready myself for an engagement I agreed to before signing up for read-a-thon.

April = Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon Spring Edition

Spring marks the change of seasons, the return of warmer weather, new beginnings, and for many readers across the globe, the arrival of Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon. I'm looking forward to this spring's read-a-thon because there are several books that I must have read by the close of the month.

Top Ten Reasons School Counselors Want Students to Read: Social-Emotional Learning Opportunities! by Sarah Scheerger

Reason #1639 of why I love the Nerdy Book Club...

Reposted from the Nerdy Book Club.

Top Ten Reasons School Counselors Want Students to Read: Social-Emotional Learning Opportunities! by Sarah Scheerger

• Cultivating Empathy

When we read, we climb into the minds and bodies of our characters. We feel with them and we feel for them. I explain empathy to students as follows: Empathy is the experience of walking in someone else’s shoes and imagining how you might feel if you were in a similar situation. This is different from sympathy, which is feeling sorry for someone else. Cultivating empathy is a way to combat bullying. Reading offers a way to understand another’s behavioral choices through first understanding the underlying feelings and thoughts that propel that behavior.

Books offer a “window,” a chance to peek into someone else’s reality and feel with and for them.

How Do You "See" the Books You Read by Emily Asher-Perrin

Reposted from Tor Publishing

For the most part, I have no issues visualizing the books I read. Though it's less like a movie and more of pictures/images actualizing the storyline before my eyes without need of additional equipment. My realized stories translate into life not played out over a screen, but real life. The life of those characters and their everyday reality. Whenever an image is murky or I stumble upon text I have problems computing to pictures, I reference other books or look up on the internet. 

What about you? 

How Do You "See the Books You Read by Emily Asher-Perrin

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Inevitably, when someone is trying to advocate reading over watching things on screens, some variation of this old joke gets made: “Books are like movies inside your head!” This assumes everyone can—and does—create a full mental picture when they read, complete with sets, landscapes, costumed characters, and easy-to-follow action.

But that’s not how it works for me.

Read-A-Thon Is Here!

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon is here. Bring on the books! First up: 

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Note to self: Update on the day of the event not days...60 days to be exact...after the event. Must do better!

Update: 6/28/18--Well, my doable reading goals went unattained. My morning started off as usual with a tutoring session at 10:00 a.m. Once finished, I immediately headed home and began reading. I made it to p. 50 of Salvage the Bones before I stopped reading...couldn't get into it. The flashbacks randomly plopped in the middle of passages threw me off. I will eventually revisit the book. Although I didn't finish the meditation audiobook as I'd planned, I did begin listening to The Supreme's at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, which I finished on May 7th. Unfortunately, I forgot to track how much of the book I had listened to by the close of read-a-thon.

As of now, I'm planning to participate in the next read-a-thon in October. Hope you'll join me! 

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon Spring 2018

April was fast approaching and I knew a notice would be hitting my inbox any day. While I awaited the official notice, back and forth, back and forth, the pendulum swung as I decided whether or not to participate in read-a-thon this spring. My hand clutched the swaying pendulum stopping it on "no" in part stemming from the drastic change my life has undergone in the last four months. Adaping not just to motherhood, but motherhood of a sixteen, now seventeen-year old, having someone with me all of the time, being responsible for someone other than myself, changing job responsibilities, appointments, errands, and all of the running around has been a challenge. Keyword: balance. The balance I have yet to master.

How a Kid Who Didn’t Read a Book Until He Was 17 Grew Up to Become a Literary Star by Nora Krug

All it takes is the right book to get students hooked on reading or in Reynolds' case, a rap album with incredible lyrics.

Reposted from The Washington Post

By Nora Krug October 23 

Young Adult author Jason Reynolds (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Jason Reynolds can empathize with kids who don’t like to read: He was 17 before he read a book cover to cover. It’s a fact he’s shared with thousands of kids in classrooms and auditoriums across the country, as a cautionary tale.

“It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s not cool,” he told a group of seventh-graders in Stafford, Va. “The truth is, my life was made infinitely more difficult because I didn’t read any books. But I didn’t read any books. That’s my story. That’s my truth.”

Read More...

Reading by Example: What Kids Learn About Books from Watching You by Edward Viljoen

During a family gathering last month, my five-year old cousin, in all seriousness asked, "Step, why you don't have no books no more?" Suppressing laughter, I replied, "I do have books, plenty of books, I just didn't bring any with me today." To Ayden, my presence means books and to be present without books for his sister and himself was an affront to his five-year old sensibilities. Particularly, since this was the second time I had been in his presence without any books for him.

I share this story with you because my attitude toward books has been keenly noted. At five-years old, Ayden knows I love to read and that I'm always giving away books. Just as my younger sisters' children know that I will never deny a book purchase request. 

While reading Viljoen's article, think about the reading behaviors the kids in your life are learning or have learned from you? As Viljoen writes, "Someone is watching." 

Reposted from Brightly

Reading by Example: What Kids Learn About Books 

from Watching You by Edward Viljoen

It's Read-A-Thon Time!

It's April and April means Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon! 

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon is a bi-annual event and is held in April and October. I participated in my first RaT last April and I'm so excited to be doing it again this year. I will be updating this post throughout the day with my reading progress. 

Today's Reading Pile:

26 Reasons Why You Need To Read More by Jarry Lee

Although my heart hurts because another BookExpo America has come and gone and I still have yet to attend, in honor of another successful year, here's a delightful post from last year's BEA.

Reposted from BuzzFeed

Jarry Lee / BuzzFeed / Thinkstock

Public Libraries and At-Risk Teens by G. Neri

Reblogged from School Library Journal 

"All teens are at risk. They’re at risk of falling prey to ignorance, hatred, violence, and all the other negative influences that surround them. They’re at risk of failing to take advantage of the opportunities and resources available to them. Everything we do here in the Teen Lounge serves at-risk teens. The rules of the teen lounge are respect the space, respect the staff, respect each other. And that’s all we try to encourage." -Andria Amaral, Young Adult Services Manager, Charleston (SC) County Public Library

Public Libraries and At-Risk Teens

Book Talk Tuesday: What Books Are Talking to You?

Picks of the Week

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow-The second installment of Jarrow's deadly disease trilogy chronicles Mary Mallon, the infamous Typhoid Mary.

Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd- Kidd prompts students to notice the graphic design in the signs they see everyday.

What books are talking to you this week?

Book Talk Tuesday: What Books Are Talking to You?

Pick of the Week

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom-- "My father's wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us," begins this historical fiction tale of 1940s America.

What books are talking to you this week?

Book Talk Tuesday: What Books Are Talking to You?

Pick of the Week

NIL by Lynne Matson-Charley has exactly 365 days to escape the mysterious island of Nil. Will she survive?

What books are talking to you this week?