I never thought I'd write a blog!

I am a school librarian and have been one for 17 years. I love my job! I truly do. I'm sitting at my desk and it is a little past 6:00 PM. I should leave. I still have to stop by the grocery store but instead I sit here, gazing out my office window at my magnificent library with its collection of popular books, and walls painted in a castle decor. The PTO brought in a muralist a few years ago after the library went through a major renovation. The walls had all been cream and now they reflect storybook characters, flying pigs, dragons, and quotes about the journey you can take with books.

It is beautiful and I'm lucky that I get to work here.

We are a K - 4 school and I have been teaching the students about reviewing the books they read. The reviews need to be more than "This book was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".
I think some students would feel a need to add even more exclamation points. Basically, they were writing reviews that told their classmates nothing useful about the book they had read or why someone else should pick it up and read it. I searched around and found tips in various areas and created a cheat sheet for them to use to help them write better reviews.

I have taught this to all six 4th grade classes and will teach it to seven 3rd grade classes by the end of this week and it got me thinking. I believe the advice I have given the students to be sound but how do I really know unless I try it for myself?

And if I'm going to spend after school time writing reviews, I might as well put it out there for others to read.

So here I am, creating a blog. Something I never thought I'd do!

For the reviews I use a 5 star rating:
⭐- Did not like it
⭐⭐- It was okay
⭐⭐⭐- I liked it
⭐⭐⭐⭐- Really liked it
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- It was amazing!

After a brief summary, I'll answer a few questions about my reading experience such as:
Why did I pick it up?
How did I feel when I read it?
What did I think about the book?
Who would I give it to and why?