Blog

  • Why is the Colorado Blue Spruce Award So Important?

    Many states have young adult book awards where adults suggest the nominated books. But for the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award, (CBSA), teens do all the choosing of what books to nominate. Middle and high school librarians mentor students (called judges) in book groups (called teams). Each team reads many books and chooses…

  • Concrete Rose

    The Odyssey Dragons Concrete Rose Book Talk Odyssey Middle School Team (Elena, Iseaja, Lola, Luka, Nora) Concrete Rose follows Maverick as a teenager trying to be a better father in a system set up against him.  Why did this book stick with me? (Two members read the book for the first time months ago, and…

  • The Sad Story of 2 Little Free Libraries

    Below is the letter I wish I could write to two individuals or two groups of people. I have never met them and never will. I just know that someone or some people used fireworks in both the Julys of 2020 and 2021 to blow up two Little Free Libraries located on the grounds of…

  • “Will You Finish To Kill A Mockingbird?”

    In this pandemic year, nine Partners in Literacy reading volunteers shared reading remotely with nineteen 8th graders. Seven of these kids were students who remained at home when their classmates returned to school. The rest were chosen by their teacher to read with a volunteer because they were nonflluent readers or because their voices were…

  • Rush Hour in the Library

    What do the five kids below have in common? Thayden, 6th grade, a student with very little focus to do the thing that his teacher is asking him to do and a tremendous amount of focus to work on his own goals. Mason, 6th grade, a student who would just rather not. Bram, 6th grade,…