reading in the summer is the best

Three weeks ago was my last day of the school year. The beginning of summer has been filled with a family vacation at the beach, taking kids to lots of appointments and practices, fixing all the things that we put off during the school year, and so much reading.

At the end of the school year, my reading life was rough. By the time I grabbed a book to read at the end of the day, I would often find myself falling alseep before I made it through two pages of the book.

Reading during the summer is different. I start my day with a book, and continue to read it throughout the day. When I lay down with it at night I am not “end of the school year tired”, so sometimes I find myself reading a hundred pages before I fall asleep. I am in reading heaven.

Early in my teaching career I filled my summer with teaching summer school, working random summer jobs, and stressing out about the next school year. Now, I am lucky enough to hang out with my family a ton, and read a whole bunch of books. I feel very lucky to be able to do this.

I no longer spend June and July thinking about next year. I often think of the students that I spend the year with, and each book that I read makes me think of multiple kids that I would hand the book to, but in terms of what I will be doing in my classroom next year, those thoughts don’t get much space in my brain. There is nothing wrong with spending lots of time in the summer prepping for next year. That is just not what is best for me at this point in my career/life. I find that I will be a better teacher next year, if I focus on my family and myself during the summer.

I do REALLY want to work on some things next year when it comes to teaching writing, but that work will be there when I’m ready.

Trying to keep up with my list of AWESOME new books has been fun. I feel like I want to add a new book to the list every single day. Here are four books that I recently added.

I hope that you are finding lots of time to get lost in amazing books. There is nothing like reading in the summer.

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Yesterday, I had an opportunity to hop on a call with Professor Mel Rosenberg to talk about picture books. It was so much fun! If you are interested in hearing our conversation, you can find it in the video below.

A lot of new books have been coming my way, so be sure to check out the latest edition of Kid Lit Book mail. I think you’ll find some great books to add to your to-read list!

I’m currently reading Jennifer L. Holm’s next middle grade novel Outside. It is her first dystopian novel. I’m about a third of the way through the book, and I cannot put it down.

Thanks for reading my newsletter. I hope you get to read a great book today!