Athens Community of Readers

Today I had the opportunity to do a live booktalk with my students on this sweet new book that is set to be published in a few weeks.  Avid Bookshop was kind enough to lend me an advanced reader copy.  I just love the way this book, like George before it, has universal themes that any middle schooler can relate to yet very specific as well that might be just the right mirror that some students really need when they may be feeling all alone. I just finish the book Rick by Alex Gino, the author of the book George. This book comes out on April 21st, but I got an early copy of it from Avid Bookshop. It's a very quick read and it has some of the same characters in it that are from the book George. Just like the book George before it, Rick, has some universal concepts that are important to middle school age students. The idea of how it's OK to not have a clear concept of what your identity is at that age as well as the idea it's ok to change and seek acceptance and un...

My daughter Kate read one on the ARCs I received from Follett and did a review for me.  She really enjoyed the book When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed.  The book is due to be released April 14th.  Read her review below: “When Stars Are Scattered” Authors: Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed By: Kathryn Hinger “When Stars Are Scattered” is a wonderful graphic novel about friendship, hardship and love. It is a beautiful reenactment of the day to day life of Omar Mohamed from his journey in school and education to his brother, Hassan’s, story. I would recommend this book from 3rd grade and up. I Believe it has everything a good book needs to win a Newberry Honor just like “Roller Girl”which was written by the same author. Omar the main character and his younger brother, Hassan, have lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for most of their lives. The life of a refugee is hard and bleak due to the fact there is little food, it’s extrem...

One of my FAVORITE authors Kwame Alexander is reading from his book Crossover on Monday morning!  Please go and watch it with me on Instagram.  Please check out his Tweet below and go watch it on his Instagram at the link below! And  the link to his instagram  where he'll be doing the read aloud.

Ms. Frederking, one of our awesome 8th grade English teachers, sent me her booktalk on this touching book by Jennifer Longo, What I Carry . It's a YA realistic fiction novel, which is right up my alley. Please watch her booktalk, and then you'll probably be like me and want to go read the book! Mrs. Frederking is looking for book recommendations for her next read, so make sure you comment below here with suggestions for her next book!

Today I added a new resource to our Media Center eBooks Page.  It's called Capstone Interactive.  Consider viewing this screencast on accessing these interesting books.  One of the most interesting ones I found today were part of the 10 minute series in which they instruct you in how to make 10 Minute Art Project, 10 Minute Duct Tape Projects and the like. Hope you enjoy this new resource for eBooks! Go to bit.ly/cmsmediacenter Click on eBooks to Read From Home (link in the middle of the page and at top navigation) Login ID: continue Password: reading

Good Morning Owls!   Below is the screencast I made this morning on ways to access eBooks on the CMS Media Center Website.  Please watch the video and then go to bit.ly/cmsmediacenter to use these tools!

Thanks to First Books our students have access to FREE eBooks using the Open eBooks App.  I had my younger daughter, Kate, a 5th grader from Timothy Road, test it out today for you guys.  Here's the step by step process and a little info from Kate about what she read today using the app. 1.  Email Mrs. Hinger at hingers@clarke.k12.ga.us and get a login ID and password 2.  Download the app Open eBooks 3.  Login using First Books, use barcode and pin from Mrs. Hinger after you've emailed her 4.  Browse all the great books. x 5.  Open and read any book you would like, you may download up to 10 books. Kate was very excited to learn that Open eBooks has many books from a series she has been reading in book format over the last year or two.  This is a series of non-fiction graphic novels called  Science Comics.  She read  Robots and Drones: Past, Present, and Future today and really enjoyed it...

Hello everyone! This is the first post of many, I hope, in which we can begin to share a conversation about the books we are reading.  I had an idea about starting a blog for our students back a couple of months ago and the current distanced learning situation just made my spark of an idea seem like a fire.  And so it begins... I would love for students (CMS and from other schools around the community), parents, community members and teachers to send me book reviews (written or video), pictures of themselves reading etc. to share within our community and beyond. I will focus most of my reviews on books available online since we don't currently have access to our libraries, but feel free to share about books you have at home or books you've ordered online (  Avid Bookshop can ship to your home and they are offering some scheduled pickup at their store) or found at the Little Free Libraries around town (I'm driving around and placing books in those every few days so i...