Mapping Our Manga: Charting A Course For Acquiring TItles....Register For The Upcoming Follett Content Webinar, Friends.

 

Our readers love manga! We can't keep it on the shelves. 

I am so excited that our friends at Follett Content are hosting a webinar with librarian Britt Plotsky, aka The Manga Monarch, called Mapping Our Manga: Charting a Course for Acquiring Titles. 

In this one-hour webinar, she will demystify this powerful format and share practical tips for collection development. 

You won't want to miss this deep dive into one of the most requested formats in school libraries.  

Register here today, friends.  The recording and resources will be sent out to everyone who registers too. 

Join The AppSmash Bash: Weekly Webinar Series From Book Creator!

 

I love a great appsmash and couldn't be more excited for the AppSmash Bash starting October 27, 2025. 

You will create, combine and level up student learning from October 27 to November 20, 2025 with this amazing series from Book Creator. 

You'll register once to get everything you need.  Starting October 27, you will receive a weekly email with that week's webinar details, join links, and resources. 

And you will also get: 

• Weekly lineup and quick registration links

• Featured AppSmash use cases and classroom examples

• Slides, recordings, and resource book after each session

The confirmed partners for the AppSmash Bash are Adobe • Brisk  • Edpuzzle • Epic • Genially • Kami • ScreenPal • Snorkl • Wayground • WeVideo!

👉 Register here to get weekly AppSmash Bash updates in your inbox starting October 27.

It's going to be so much fun, friends.  Can't wait to see you there. 

You can get a FREE Book Creator educator account here.

The New PebbleGo Next Animals Is Here, Friends!

 

Our students LOVE PebbleGo Animals!  It's one of their favorite places to go to explore and learn about all kinds of animals from around the world.  

And guess what?  

There is a NEW PebbleGo Next module.  It's PebbleGo Next Animals!

This amazing new addition is designed for our learners in grades 3rd through 5th, who love animals just as much as our youngest learners. 

It's also available in Spanish! 

Check out the PebbleGo Next Animals Article List....It's filled with cool animals our learners will love! 

You can read all about PebbleGo Next Animals here, friends.  

The October Activity Journal From Book Creator Is Here, Friends! Remix and Share With Your Students Today!

The October Activity Journal from Book Creator is here! 

The October Activity Journal is packed full of special activities to celebrate amazing events throughout the month including...

...National Book Month, 

Indigenous Peoples' Day, 

International Sloth Day, 

National Pumpkin Day, 

Timeline to Halloween, and more. 

And don't forget that you can get all of the Monthly Activity Journals in the back of the October Activity Journal too.

Remix the October Activity Journal and make it your own. You can change up any of the pages and then share it with your students. 

The Book Creator Activity Journals are perfect to share in our classrooms and libraries. I love sharing these with my teachers every month so they can complete them with their students in class. 

Get Book Creator today, friends.

Enter The Future Ready Librarians Court At The MassCUE Conference In October, Friends!

 

We are excited to head to the MassCUE Fall Conference in October. 

Future Ready Librarians® and the Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA) are leading the Future Ready Librarians Court, a new space where school librarians can connect, learn, and lead.  

As shared in the invite: 

In this space on Wednesday, Shannon McClintock Miller (Future Ready Librarians Leader, international speaker, and author) and Lia Dossin of All4Ed, attendees will explore topics like AI, digital citizenship, and innovation in school libraries.

Plus, we’ll be celebrating MSLA, named the 2025 AASL Chapter of the Year Award winner, and highlighting their Thursday session:

Forward Together: How Tech Staff, Teachers and School Librarians Can Collaborate for Student Success with Suzanne Larsen & Ella Stocker.

The Future Ready Librarians Court is more than a space—it’s a movement. 

Don’t miss it at Gillette Stadium, October 15–16.

Learn more and register for the MassCUE Fall Conference today, friends. 

Episode 3, Season 11 of the Leading from the Library Podcast Is Live....It’s Time for Young Teen Lit!

In this epiosde of the Future Ready Librarians podcast, you will meet middle school librarians Christina Chatel and Marcia Kochel, who started an advocacy campaign to encourage publishing companies to create a new category of books for young teens. Learn about the gap between middle grade and young adult books and how important it is to have Young Teen Lit for our 12-15 year old readers.

You will find this podcast episode on YouTube here.

Here is their information too: 

Website: Young Teen Lit

Email: itstimeforyoungteenlit@gmail.com

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/youngteenlit.bsky.social

IG: young_teenlit

#itstimeforyoungteenlit

#youngteenlit

On the Leading from the Library podcast site, you will find all of the future and past episodes.

There are so many important, interesting and exciting topics for all of us as Future Ready Librarians and educators. You won't want to miss them. 

You can subscribe to wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

A big thank you to our friends at Follett Content for supporting our Future Ready Librarian Podcast Series. 

We hope that you join us each week for the Leading from the Library Podcast, friends.  

The Recording and Slides Are Here From Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats...Getting Started In The Library!

 

This week we kicked off our new Capstone webinar series, Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats.  

The recording and slides are here now, friends. You can find the recording here and the slides here. 

And don't forget to register for our next webinar on Monday, September 29, Advocating For Your Library, and webinar 3 and 4 here. 

We can't wait to see you there. 

Building Digital Literacy Skills Through Story + Creation With Book Creator and the ISTE Digital Explorers!

                        

I’m so excited to share the newly released ISTE Digital Explorers Reading Companions—created in partnership with Book Creator!

This summer at ISTE Live 25, my new children’s book series, ISTE Digital Explorers, with Capstone and ISTE, officially launched! These books help teach and support essential digital literacy skills in fun, age-appropriate, and meaningful ways—all aligned with the ISTE Student Standards.

I’ve teamed up with Book Creator to develop incredible Reading Companion Activity Books. These interactive resources are designed to extend the learning from each story, giving students hands-on, creative ways to explore the digital literacy themes covered in all four books.

These companions are the perfect addition to any classroom or library, helping educators seamlessly integrate the ISTE Digital Explorers series into their teaching while empowering students with the skills they need to thrive in today’s digital world.

You will find them on this new Book Creator page that includes all six of the activity books.

There is one for each of the four books...Hagan Proudly Presents, Jack's Playground Plan, 

Ana's Smart Move, and Sonia Speaks Up. 

Look inside of Hagan Proudly Presents to see what one of the reading companion includes! 

I love the Create a Favorite Animal Presentation at the end, which can also be found separately in the Book Creator library. 

And look at My Digital Citizenship Pledge! I am going to start the year off with this activity at my school.  The kids will love creating their own pledge in Book Creator. 

 I will be sharing more about the Digital Explorers Book Creator Book Companions throughout the summer and how I will use them with our students.  

I can't wait to hear how you will use them with your students too. 

Find the ISTE Digital Explorers Book Companions here, friends.

And get your Book Creator account today.

Join Us For Advocating For Your Library....The Second Webinar In The Capstone Series, Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats!

On September 29, join me, and my special guest, Tim Jones, for Webinar 2 of the NEW Capstone webinar series, Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats.

For everyone at the webinar, we will have a very special giveaway.  And if you join all 4 of the webinar series, you are entered into the GRAND PRIZE. 

You can register for today's webinar, and all four in the series here. 

Hope to see you all there.  It's going to be so much fun! 

Do You Have A Favorite Digital Tool To Share For The Future Ready Librarians App Smash? Sign Up Today To Be Part Of This Special Event.

On November 18, 20245 at 5:00pm EST, we will be hosting the 6th Annual Future Ready Librarians App Smash Webinar.  You can register for this super fun webinar here.

In this webinar, 25 teacher librarians and instructional leaders will share their success creating amazing learning experiences for students in the library, classroom and anywhere learning takes place. 

Each person has 2 minutes and 30 seconds to share their ideas during our live event on November 18. 

We are currently looking for those 25 special guests. If you have something you would love to share, please apply at futureready.link/app25 by October 24, 2025 to apply to be a presenter.  

I can't wait to see what you have to share, friends.  This is always so much fun. 

You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Taylor and Travis!

We are all so excited about Taylor and Travis’s big news, and what better way to celebrate than by bringing this fun pop culture moment into our libraries! 💖🏈

As we create special displays for our readers, I’ve pulled together a collection of 24 amazing books all about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. From biographies and behind-the-scenes stories to fun fact books and more, these titles are perfect for fans who want to learn more about their favorite singer and football star.

Click on the book covers to explore each title in Titlewave®, or find the entire list of Taylor and Travis books in one place on the choice board too. 

You will find the You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Taylor and Travis here. 

A Titlewave Tip...Creating Monthly Titlewave Lists Make It Quick and Easy To Add Books As You Go!

                  

I use Titlewave for so many things throughout the month.  One of my favorite ways to use Titlewave is to create monthly Titlewave lists. 

Each month, I create a new list in Titlewave. I keep this list in a tab on my laptop, and bookmark in my Titlewave Monthly Lists folder in Chrome. 

These Titlewave lists make it super quick and easy to add books as we go through the month. 

Watch this short video on how I use Titlewave lists to help with collection development as I go through each month.  

I think this Titlewave Tip will help you too! 

You can sign up for your FREE Titlewave Account from Follett Content Solutions here, friends.

Join Us Today As We Kick Off The New Capstone Webinar Series, Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats!

 

Today is the day, friends.  We are kicking off the new Capstone webinar series, Library Tips, Tricks, and Treats. 

Join me, and my special guest, Heather Fox, for the first in our series, Getting Started in the Library. 

It is at 4pm CST today, September 22, 2025. 

For everyone at the webinar, we will have a very special giveaway. 

You can register for today's webinar, and all four in the series here. 

Hope to see you all there.  It's going to be so much fun! 

Creating A Place To Spark Fall Research and Writing Activities With PebbleGo and Capstone Connect!

                           

I love it when our teachers come to me with new ideas. 

Last fall, one of our 2nd grade teachers asked me to come to her classroom to help with a new idea.  She wanted to create a place where her students could find several curated topics to write about throughout the month.  We brainstormed how a choice board would be perfect for this idea. 

She gave me a list of topics for October and the fall. I took the list and went back to the library to work on a choice board to meet this goal. 

I logged into our Capstone Connect, which is the perfect place to start for a project like this. 

In Capstone Connect, I can search PebbleGo, Capstone Interactive eBooks and Activity Bundles to find resources around my topics. 

I started with Apple Harvest. I found the PebbleGo article, grabbed the link (the arrow is pointing to the link), 

and added it to the choice board I created in Google Slides.  You will see that in the image above. 

I did that for every topic, and a few more that I found in Capstone Connect, to create this choice board for our 2nd graders. 

Once it was all filled in, I shared the Published Link with Staci so she could share it with her students.  You will find this link by going to File, Share, and Publish to the Web as shown in the image above. 

I made a copy of the Pick A PebbleGo Topic To Learn More About This Fall! choice board if you want to do this for your students too. 

You will find it here to make a copy. 

I am excited to create these for our 2nd graders and others throughout the year.  I love this idea and I know our students will too. 

You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Diwali!

 

Diwali, known as the Festival of Lights, is India’s biggest and most important holiday. It’s a time filled with joy, tradition, family gatherings, food, and light. Across India and around the world, Diwali is celebrated with fireworks, decorated homes, the exchange of sweets, and prayers for prosperity and happiness.

This year, Diwali will be celebrated for 5 days starting on October 20, 2025. To help our students learn about and celebrate this meaningful holiday and the rich traditions that surround it, I’ve put together this special You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Diwali choice board featuring 14 wonderful books about Diwali. These books include picture books, nonfiction titles, and stories that highlight the customs, legends, and celebrations of Diwali in ways that readers of all ages can enjoy.

You can click on each book cover in the choice board to explore the individual titles in Titlewave, and you can view the entire curated list of Diwali books too. This is a great way to bring the spirit of the Festival of Lights into your classrooms, libraries, and homes this season.