Reason #265 why I love my job

Have I told you lately how awesome my job is? Ohmygosh...it's absolutely dreamy! Just in case you're tuning in for the first time, I work mornings as a teacher-librarian at an elementary school. It's my first year in this position and just about everyday I have to hold myself back from kicking up my heels and singing show tunes in the hallway...that's how much I love my job!

On Tuesday I went to my 2nd book fair...yes that's right, I get days off to go and purchase books...and it just reaffirmed my love for this job. Even though I technically only work mornings, book fair days are overwhelming and exciting so I always end up staying much later being careful to spend my money wisely.

I brought home 6 boxes of books this time and I've been lugging them into work a little each day. Pictured above is just a tiny fraction of the books I bought on Tuesday. They're the ones I'm taking into school tomorrow so I can catalogue them and get them on the shelves ASAP.

My secret mission on Tuesday was to purchase books that would inject some much needed life into our cooking & crafty sections. Oooh boy did I have fun with that! Here are 4 books I'm especially excited about:


Here's a peek inside The Teen Vogue Handbook. The girls are often asking me if I will buy fashion magazines for the library and the feminist in me refuses to do so. I thought this was an excellent compromise. This book is pure eye candy fashion-wise but it is all about the wide range of careers available in the fashion industry, everything from magazine editor and clothing designer to makeup artist and modelling scout. It also introduces readers to people in the industry like Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. I think the Grade 6-8 girls will be especially excited about this book. I know I would have read this cover to cover when I was that age.


Also super excited about Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan. I can't wait to borrow this and try a few of the crafts myself! Especially this adorable necklace:


Also purchased on Tuesday: craft books about making puppets, using recycled materials, making masks, building adorable structures like little mushroom houses, etc etc PLUS a few kids' cook books AND the latest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I cannot even tell you how excited I am to show all of these books to the different classes at my school! They're going to go crazy!


This morning when I surprised a student with the Leave it to Pet graphic novel that he requested way back in September, he just about lost his mind! It was the best moment of my day!

I'm not kidding...this job is so much fun it's ridiculous!

PS. If you have wee ones to buy for over the holidays(like 4-8ish), I cannot recommend these two new discoveries enough. They are my new favourite picture books.
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
Ivan the Terrier

oh dear, it's been so long.....

hi all, i'm back from my mostly-unintentional absense. it's been a crazy few months since my last post. the last week of may up until the last day of june was spent recouperating from a series of unfortunate events. and then since july 2nd i've been immersed in a course at oise learning the ins-and-outs of being a teacher-librarian (my position for next year which i'm pretty thrilled about). it was a super-intensive course, normally a full semester, but for the summer session crammed into 3 weeks! needless to say, when i wasn't sitting in the ugliest, most uninspiring classroom at u of t for 5 1/2 hours a day or on fun class field trips to places like another story bookshop and the beguiling, i was completely immersed in projects, projects, projects! throw in an occasional stress-induced meltdown here and there and well, now you basically know what my july has been like.

the good news is that my course finished yesterday and there's still 6 weeks of summer left before school starts. yay!

i absolutely hate doing a post and not giving you any pretty pictures to look at so i'm posting just a few of the wonderful books i discovered (or already knew but re-discovered) in doing my final project/presentation about fractured fairy tales (stories based on original fairy tales but involve some twist...and often quite funny!)







that jon scieszka guy ("the true story of the three little pigs" and many other awesome books!) is pretty much a genius. if you don't know his stuff and you have kids, pick up "the stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales". so funny!