Local Authors Visit During Reading Week!

As always, we had lots of fabulous activities going on during Reading Week, but this year we enjoyed something truly new and special.  Members of the Association of Rhode Island Authors came into the school throughout the week to read from their books and talk to our students about writing.  Each class received a personal visit from one of the authors!




Ashely Richer shared her book Chasing the Moon, the first in her "Tyler's Tall Tales" series, with Mrs. Lee's kindergarten class.

Seth Coombs shared his story Old Salty Dog, complete with his own full-sized illustrations, with Mrs. Breault's first grade class.

Kristen Calenda introduced Mrs. Vocatura's third grade class to her book Nubiana, the true story of a cat in need of a home.

Dawn Porter brought along a presentation complete with lots of interesting facts about the Ocean State, which was a perfect companion to her book Searching for Rhode Island. Our fourth graders study their home state, so Mrs. Ornburn's class was all ears!

   
It was with great pleasure that we welcomed back our own "Miss Terry"!  Theresa Schimmel was a teacher right here at Ashaway School back in the day!  It was wonderful to see her in the classroom again as she shared her book, David's War/David's Peace, with Mrs. Young's fourth grade.  



As a culmination of the week's events, our wonderful PTO once again sponsored a "Pop and Swap" event on Friday.  (All the students who "popped" in got to select some books from the many donations we received and were able to enjoy a free snack: some popcorn and a Popsicle!)  This year we added a "Meet and Greet" to the festivities: all of the local authors who visited throughout the week were also in attendance!  Families were not only able to buy their own copies of the books but they were able to get them signed as well.  As you can tell by these smiles, the students really enjoyed this extra opportunity to interact with our guests!  

The authors not only donated their time, but they also very generously gave a portion of their book sale proceeds to the Ashaway School PTO.  (Thank you!)

For more information about our special guests and their books, please visit the websites listed below.

 

Theresa Schimmel

David's War/David's Peace

http://www.tamstales.net

Seth Coombs

Old Salty Dog

http://www.artofsethmccombs.com/

Ashley Richer

Chasing the Moon

www.facebook.com/tylerstalltales

http://www.bigrhody.com/tylers_tall_tales/

Dawn Porter

Searching for Rhode Island

http://www.StillwaterPress.com

Kristen Calenda

Nubiana

http://kristencalenda.com

And the winner is...

 "Escape From 
Mr. Lemoncello's Library"

by Chris Grabenstein

is the winner of the 2015 Rhode Island

Children's Book Award! 

Just a few of the students who awarded this book a "gold star"!

I'm sure I'm not the only librarian who was ecstatic to learn that an adventure story set in a public library was selected to win the 2015 RICBA award!  While the nominee list is selected by adults, the recipient of the award is selected by students!  In fact, every Ashaway School student who has read this book has told me that they loved it.  Woohoo!

All students in grades 3-6 in Rhode Island are eligible to vote for the winner.  Our fourth graders filled out their ballots back in February.  (To learn more about the award and to see the complete voting results, please visit http://www.ri.net/RIEMA/bookaward.html.)

The students earn a star for each book they read, which goes up on a poster in the library.  All of our fourth graders are encouraged to read at least 5 of the books on the nominee list. When they do, they get to sign the poster that reads, "We're Going to the Rooster Games!"  (If you don't know about the Games, click here!)  So far, 20 fourth graders have signed it.  Keep reading, fourth graders!

Checking the poster for stars earned