Book Chat with Mrs. Matzat

Monday night at my library conference, I got to find out the winners of this year’s Mark Twain Readers Award and the Show Me Readers Award. Are you ready to find out? May I have drumroll please…

And the winners are:

Show Me Award:

3rd place – Titanicat (21, 313 votes)
2nd place – Love, Autumn (13,864 votes)
1st place – Two Bobbies (21, 313 votes)

Mark Twain Award:

3rd place – Go Big or Go Home (1, 229 votes)
2nd place – Found (2,214 votes)
1st place – Stolen Children (5,123 votes)

So, were your predictions correct?

I had a great time getting to hear the authors speak about their books, and the coolest part was that I got to escort Mary Downing Hahn for the evening. I took her to all of the places she needed to go at the conference, and I was her helper during the autographing session. She is a very nice lady who really loves writing books for children.

Here is a picture of me with Mary Downing Hahn, the author of Deep and Dark and Dangerous.

Here we are at the autographing session.

Look at all the people waiting to get their books signed!

Here I am with Mary Casanova, the author of  Some Dog!

Here is Ard Hoyt, the illustrator of Some Dog.

Don’t forget that today is the last day to qualify to vote for the Mark Twain Award and Show Me Award. If you finish before the end of the day, be sure to have your teacher email today!

Also, don’t forget that tomorrow is Family Reading Night, where we will be having a Reading Carnival! The fun starts at 6:00 in the East gym, and ends at 7:30. We will have lots of fun carnival games, prizes, food and you get to see my ever-so-cute pink clown costume. Bring you whole family! It’s free!

Your library lady,

Mrs. Matzat

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas break. Now that we are back at school, I thought it would be a good time to think about ourselves as readers.

January’s character trait is Commitment, and what a great word to focus on during this time of year. At the start of a new year, many people take time to reflect on the past year and make resolutions, or commitments, to things they want to do in the new year. I want you to think about yourself as a reader. Take a minute to reflect on yourself as a reader so far this year. Did you have any goals that you reached? Do you wish you could have done something that you didn’t? Did you learn something new or make progress with reading? Now think of a reading commitment you would like to make for the new year. Do you want to read more each day, read a new kind of book, complete a reading contest?

Since the beginning of school, I have done a great job of keeping up with my Mark Twain committee reading. I am proud of myself for this task. My reading commitment for 2011 is to try to read books in different genres. I read a lot of fantasy stories, but I want to branch out and try some new things.

I would love to hear your reflections and commitments to reading. Share your reading reflections and resolutions by commenting on this post. I can’t wait to read about your ideas.

Mrs. Matzat