Bookish Treats!

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We’re in full-on Thanksgiving Retreat preparation mode over here at Gracepoint Berkeley church, so I’m going to be “taking it easy” and featuring photos and videos this week. As an evangelist of great stories, as well as THE Story, I’m very excited about this year’s retreat theme of God’s Story, but I’ll stop there, and leave the rest for this weekend!

It warmed my heart to receive this bookish treat from Emily, the 1st grader (not a present from myself), who went to Boston with her family. I was pleasantly surprised to find this waiting for me on my desk. Bookmarks are wonderful souvenirs because you can always use one (unless you don’t read!), and they don’t take up much space in your suitcase. So unlike some other souvenirs, they are definite win-wins for both the giver and the receiver! 🙂

I especially love the curly details in the fancy post-it note. They show a lot of care and effort!

Do you use bookmarks? Proper ones, or do you make them out of scraps or post-its? Or do you turn down (aka. “dog ear*”) your pages?

 

*Confession: I often dog-ear my pages. Gasp!

Reading Spaces (or The Giving Tree pt. 2)

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Kids like to create reading spaces. Remember reading forts, corners, alcoves that you would make with blankets, pillows, chairs, and anything you could find? Flashlights made them even more awesome. And when a make-shift fort isn’t enough, you can make an actual library, as you all saw in the making of Bibliopolis: Minneapolis Branch.

Today’s reading snapshot proves that even the youngest of us can and want to create reading spaces in which we can relax and enjoy our favorite stories. You might remember Ezra from Gracepoint Riverside from the video of Uncle Pastor Ed Kang reading and commenting on The Giving Tree. Apparently he loves this truly sad book, and he likes to enjoy this book during his independent reading times at home.

EzReadingComfy

This is how mom and dad found him. He set this up all by himself! He knows how to get comfy. And he also knows you always need extra books, and a getaway car in your reading space. Just in case.


That smile! It’s not a humorous book in the least, but that’s beside the point. He’s engaged in the story, and he’s creating his own positive reading experiences!

What were/are your or your children’s favorite reading spaces? Share a story below! (Or submit your story by emailing Gracepoint Church Library and maybe it’ll be featured in a future post.) 

 

Narnia November & NaNoWriMo Begin!

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narniaNovember 1st kicks off Narnia November! It’s not an official thing, but I’m hoping it becomes one. The challenge is to read as many of The Chronicles of Narnia books you can this month. It’s open to all ages across all Gracepoint churches, not just Gracepoint Berkeley church. I know November is a busy month, but there’s also Thanksgiving Break, and for some school districts, that’s a whole week of no school! So I think it’s possible.

It doesn’t matter in which order you read the books, whether the one that starts with The Magician’s Nephew or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I personally like the latter, which is the order of writing/publishing, but no matter. The point is the reading. The last time I read the series all the way through was in 1997, so I’m definitely due for a visit to Narnia.

PrintNovember 1st also signals the official beginning of National Novel Writing Month. This *is* an actual thing, and the goal is for participants to write the novel they’ve always meant to — and the novel needs to be 50,000 words (or more). There is a Young Writer’s Program for NaNoWriMo, in which students can set their own word goals for their novels. I’ve participated (but not completed) several times with different classes over the years. This year some of the 7th and 8th grade girls of Bibliopolis and I will be participating. We’ll see how far I get in my masterpiece. I have the best title and concept ever, but it’s the rest of it that I can’t seem to do! This might be a quantity over quality type of deal, since the goal is to just write. But even if we don’t finish, we’ll challenge ourselves to write more.

Will you be participating in Narnia November? In what order do you read the books? Which is your favorite of the series?