Let's Talk Books- It's Newbery Week

As a middle-grade Library Media Specialist, I am blessed to be surrounded daily by amazing books.

I have spent the last few weeks sharing Newbery award-winning books with my students in preparation of tomorrow's Newbery 2019 announcement. There are many awards given tomorrow through the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards, but for the age of my students, I focus predominately on the Newbery award.

I thought today that I would share two of my favorite Newbery books from previous years.

2013 Newbery Winner

I love The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. I think my love for this fantasy story comes from the fact that I remember reading an article in the newspaper about the real Ivan in the mid to late 1990s. Applegate read a similar article and did research on the real Ivan as a jumping off point for writing this book. In her story, she makes her Ivan into the protector he never got to be in real life.

As an experienced reader, animal books are so hard for me because I know that many times the animals in the story die and I struggle with that.

Here is the book trailer for The One and Only Ivan:

I think Gary D. Schmidt, the author of Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, said it best "The One and Only Ivan will break your heart --and then, against all odds, mend it again."

I have a deep love for this book and for the real Ivan, who luckily got to live the remaining ten years of his life at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here is a link to Zoo Atlanta's page about the real Ivan: Ivan the Gorilla.

I think this book is appropriate for readers 8-12 years of age. I give it a solid 5 stars, even as an animal book where an animal dies.

2016 Newbery Honor Book

Another favorite of mine is The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

I  don't think I have ever been upset by what the Newbery committee chooses as a winner, but in 2016 I was dumb-founded. A picture book beat out The War that Saved My Life and I was not happy. I rarely reread anything, because my to-read list is forever long. I have read this one twice and will probably reread it again before I read the sequel- The War I Finally Won.

The War that Saved my Life is historical fiction and takes place during WWII as European parents began evacuating their children out into the countryside to keep them safe from what they feared would be bombings of the larger cities.

Here is a good book trailer for The War that Saved My Life:

Never in my life have I championed a character from the beginning until the very end of the book. I found myself encouraging & cheering for Ada on every page. I also have never despised a character as quickly and as thoroughly as I did Ada's mother from page one, till the very end of the story.

Here again, I give this one a solid 5 stars and I recommend it for children 10-14 years old.

 I have a long list of Newbery books that I am interested in reading and at the top of my list is Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo & The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

I am hoping tomorrow's award announcements add new and amazing books to my Newbery award reading list.

Color Throwdown #527

This week's Color Throwdown #527 uses my very favorite color- GREEN! So I was really excited to create a card using this week's colors.

Years ago I went through a Hero Arts Wood Block background stamp purchasing frenzy. Of the many I purchased, S5154 Three Ferns and S4878 Old Letter Writing are still two of my favorites. You might be able to find them through eBay or other crafty sites, but I'm not sure. It has been quite a while since I have used a wood mounted stamp and I am quite spoiled using my Misti stamp press, so today's card gave me a little bit of anxiety. I was determined to stamp it well once and not have to remake my card base. 

I actually ended up stamping the ferns twice, but I was able to simply flip over my Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock and start over. The first stamping on the smooth side was too light and I didn't like it. I did use a stamp positioner to help me stamp the second time on the rough side. I'm glad I used it because I ended up needing to stamp a second time to get better coverage. 

I stamped the fern using a mixture of Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Crushed Olive. I then stamped the Old Letter Background over the top of the whole piece in Simon Says Stamp Slate Ink. I could have masked the fern image so that the Old Letter Background wouldn't be on top of the fern, but I didn't want to take the time to hand-cut the mask and I also wanted the Old Letter Background to be seamless across the whole background. 

To minimize the grey lettering on top of the green of the ferns and to give the ferns a more solid appearance I used Distress Markers in the same Distress ink colors to add additional color. I used a watercolor brush and water to give the ferns a completed look. I then splattered the background with Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls. The Thank You message is from an older clear Hero Arts stamp set- All Occasion Messages CL272, which may still be available through eBay or other crafting sites. I stamped it on navy blue cardstock and embossed it with white embossing powder. I matted the card on the same navy blue cardstock and then added an additional mat of bright green handmade paper, that I have had forever. I finished the card with gold and clear, iridescent sequins from my stash. 

To complete the envelope, I stamped the fern background in the bottom left corner and then again on the back flap. 

Color Throwdown #526

I am back with another Color Throwdown weekly card.

This week's challenge uses beautiful blues that feel very wintery to me. 

I was in need of another birthday card for a sweet neighbor, who I happen to share a birthday with this week. I plan to drop this card in her mailbox on the way to work Friday morning. 

This card started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock and Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, and Chipped Sapphire. After ink blending, I sprayed the whole piece with Perfect Pearls Mist. The white die cut snowflakes were cut from another white piece of watercolor cardstock and then inlaid into the blue background. Additional vellum die cut snowflakes and sequins were added to the background along with the Wishing die cut. I used Broken China Distress Ink to create a mat for the piece & then mounted the whole thing on a pre-made card base and envelope set I picked up at Michaels. The envelope was stenciled with an older The Crafter's Workshop snowflake stencil using Broken China Distress Ink. 

I was able to inlay the blue snowflake die cuts into the white cardstock base, so I have another card base in the making. The most difficult part of this whole card was placing the original colored pieces back into the die cut shapes.

I'm looking forward to the release of the Color Throwdown's next color challenge tomorrow.  

Color Throwdown #525

I'm playing along again this week with Color Throwdown #525

I was in need of a card for my brother who has a birthday coming up in February. He is an outdoors kind of guy so  I knew this color scheme was perfect for a masculine, outdoorsy card. 

I started with a piece of Desert Storm cardstock & the exclusive Tim Holtz Stamptember stamp set I picked up in September 2017 at Simon Says Stamp (linking his wood slice stamp that was in his holiday line from 2017). The wood slice stamp was perfect and I used it as my background and also a popped up piece. I stamped three wood slices so that they would be in the foreground and then used stamp masks to stamp the remaining wood slices in the background. I used Post-it notes as my masks and I made multiples so that I could cover all the previously stamped areas. All the stamping and distressing were done with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress ink. I used Antique Linen Distress Ink to shade the foreground wood slices to add a little depth. I then sprayed Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom Gold all over the background. 

Using my Misti, I then triple stamped the wood slice stamp onto Desert Storm cardstock and rubbed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I used a dark piece of fun foam to pop up the darker wood slice and splattered it with Heirloom Gold Distress Inks. 

The deer head wood veneer is from an old Christmas kit from Cocoa Daisy. I sprayed it with Heirloom Gold as well. The baker's twine underneath the deer head is from my stash.

The die cut sentiment and embossed birthday sentiment are from Simon Says Stamp. To finish the look I stamped the envelope multiple times with the wood slice stamp. 

Color Throwdown #524

With one day left in our Christmas Break, I had the urge to get inky. I knew I had a color challenge blog that I followed through Instagram: @colorthrowdown, so I looked them up and found the newest color challenge.  I used the latest color challenge as a guide for a birthday card for the sweet lady who is the instructional aide in my son's kindergarten class every day.

Here is the latest Color Throwdown challenge:

And here is my take:

I will try my best to link the products I used to create this card. One of my creative plans for this year is to use the materials I already have available in my scrap space. If you are anything like me, you have lots of unused supplies that are just gathering dust. I hope to use quite a bit of mine up this year so that I can justify buying more of course! 

The base of this card is from a card and envelope set I picked up from Michaels. They come precut and scored 50 to a pack with envelopes. Card size is 5 by 6 1/2. 

The yellow and black mats are from pieces of cardstock from my stash. The colored background is a piece of Tim Holtz Water Color Cardstock inked with Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, and Mowed Lawn. Then the background was misted with Perfect Pearls. The silver die cut piece is from Taylored Expressions. I die cut it first and then embossed it using Versamark and Wow Embossing Powder in Metallic Silver. I then die cut a shimmery vellum circle from vellum I had in my stash and layered on the stamped pieces. The stamped pieces are from Altnew's Beautiful Day stamp and die set. The flower was stamped with TH Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and the leaves were stamped with the Green Field mini cube set from Altenew. The other smaller grey pieces were stamped in Altenew's Moon Rock ink.  I finished the card with an old Happy Birthday sentiment from Cocoa Daisy and a scattering of gems from my stash. 

Thanks for checking out my card. It was time-consuming because I am not a fast creator, but I like the results, and I think Jude's teacher will love it as well. Especially with a Sonic gift card tucked inside.