Celebrate Children's Book Week 2025 With These Special Ideas, Resources and Events

 

One of our favorite weeks every year is Children's Book Week.  

Children’s Book Week, established in 1919, is a celebration of books and the connection they bring. This beloved program continues to grow and adapt each year with new resources and ideas for joining in. Read on for everything you need to celebrate with us May 5-11!

Celebrate May 5-11 with young readers in your community. Schools, school libraries, public libraries, bookstores, and individuals can sign up to participate this May. 

Each location will receive 2 free copies of Julie Flett’s stunning poster, as well as access to lots of free online resources.

There are lots of amazing free resources...

... that will help you plan and host your celebrations throughout the week.  

On the website, you can sign up for Spring Children's Book Week.

Have fun celebrating Children's Book Week with your readers and community too. 

Join Me and A Few Special Guests For A Super Fun Book Talk To Kick Off The Follett Content Shannon's Summer Webinar Series!

 

Friends, I am so excited to invite you to a special webinar on June 10th as we kick off Shannon's Summer Webinar Series. 

The first one is going to be a super fun book talk as we gear up for some back-to-school-time brainstorming with me and a few guests.  We will dive into the world of books with a fun and dynamic session designed for all grade levels, elementary, middle and young adult. 

Attendees will learn: 

• Elementary School: Discover delightful and captivating books that will spark the imagination of young readers as they head back to school.

• Middle School: Explore thrilling and adventurous reads that will keep middle schoolers hooked and excited for the new academic year.

• Young Adult: Uncover compelling and thought-provoking novels that resonate with young adults, perfect for starting the school year with a bang.

Visit the Follett Content site to register for this FREE webinar today.

And you can sign up for all 3 webinars in Shannon's Summer Webinar Series today. 

I can't wait to see you this summer as we stay connected, learn, and have so much fun talking libraries, books, programming, collaboration and more. 

Six Ways To Support ELLs Through Reading and Research....Register For The Upcoming PebbleGo Spanish Webinar Today, Friends!

 

I would love to invite you to a special new PebbleGo Spanish webinar, Six Ways To Support ELLs Through Reading and Research.  It's on April 24, 2025 at 6:00pm EST.

And I couldn't be more excited to have Veronica Rodriguez, my friend and Literacy & Cultural Studies Specialist at Harlingen ISD,  join me. 

As shared in the invite, 

When English Language Learners are given the tools to explore, amazing things happen. In this engaging webinar, learn six dynamic ways to support ELLs through reading and research—from building background knowledge and pre-teaching content to fostering vocabulary growth and independent learning. 

You'll get fresh ideas and easy-to-implement activities to help every student confidently connect with content and take charge of their learning journey.

Along the way, you’ll see how PebbleGo Spanish helps unlock access to content for ELL students with scaffolded supports and exciting topics—from curious creatures like carpinchos (capybaras) to pop culture icons like Caitlin Clark. It’s a fun and flexible way to make research and reading approachable for all learners.

Hear from Shannon McClintock Miller and Veronica Rodriguez as they share how they use creative approaches to make content stick and help ELLs thrive.

You can visit the site to register today. We hope to see you there, friends.

Join Us In Nashville This Summer For The Future Ready Librarians Summit! Register Today, Friends.

 

Join us in Nashville for the Future Ready Librarians (FRL) Summit, an inspiring professional learning event designed to empower district librarians as catalysts for change. Discover how you can lead from the library and become a driving force for innovation in today’s ever-evolving educational landscape.

This summit is proudly offered in partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Tennessee School Library Association.

What to Expect:

• Dive deep into the Future Ready Librarian framework and learn how to foster 21st-century skills through your library programs.
• Gain insights into effective communication, collaboration techniques, and leadership strategies tailored to your unique environment.
• Explore opportunities to actively contribute to curriculum development and instructional design.
• Learn from successful collaboration models between librarians and other educators.
• Discover new tools and resources to enhance library services and amplify student learning.
• Utilize digital platforms to empower student voices and creativity.

AGENDA NOTES: Registration opens at 8:30 AM local time.The summit will take place from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM local time. There will be a 75-minute lunch break. Participants are welcome to explore the many dining options nearby or bring their own lunch.

Register today, friends. It's going to be an amazing day together! 

Building Community and Positivity Through Library Design....Sign Up For Our Demco Webinar on April 15th.

 

We are excited for our next Demco webinar coming up tomorrow on April 15, 2025 at 4:00pm CST. 

Join us for our free Demco webinar featuring Dr. Robert Dillon and myself as we discuss ways to build community and joy through library design. 

In this webinar, participants will explore:

1. Leveraging the library for all learners
2. Activating an uplifting atmosphere in the library
3. Building and fostering collaboration in the library

You can register for this FREE webinar here.  

All webinars are archived and available for viewing within a week of the original presentation date. 

See you there, friends. 

Celebrate Librarians For School Library Month with PebbleGo and Book Creator!

 

For School Library Month, I love finding ways to celebrate with our students and school community. 

Here is an idea you can use with your students this week, friends. We are doing this with our readers this week too. 

First, you can have students go to PebbleGo and learn with the Librarians article in PebbleGo Social Studies. Here they can learn about librarians and talk about what their librarian does in their library and school. 

This is the perfect time to also share books about librarians and libraries. 

You will find a lot of my new favorites in this You've Been Book'd Choice Board With Books for School Library Month I brought together with my friends at Follett Content in Titlewave.

At the bottom of each PebbleGo article, there is an Activity button that will bring you to...

You can download the PebbleGo Activity and have students draw and write what they learned from the article. 

For our project, I will have students complete the PebbleGo Activity using Book Creator. 

Let me show you how! 

First, go to Book Creator, and click on New Book. 

Then click on Import PDF and...

....import the PebbleGo Librarians Share What You Know Activity. 

You can then choose a book shape and as you can see, Portrait looks best with that activity. 

Once the PebbleGo Share What You Know Activity is uploaded into the new book in Book Creator, you can share that with your students to complete using...

...Tools, 

Media, and even...

...Apps like Adobe Express AI Image Generator, Feedback Stickers, Animated Emojis and more. 

For my Book Creator activity, I decided to add a few things myself to make the Share What You Know Activity Sheet into the Celebrating My Librarian...Book! 

Students can add their librarians name, draw a portrait of their librarian using the drawing tools, add facts about their librarian, and share why they are important.  

I also added text-to-speech to the PDF. This is such a helpful and important tool within Book Creator and will support students who need help reading the text and working through the activity. 

It is super easy to do!  You just highlight the PDF you added to the book in Book Creator and click on the i (Inspector) from above and choose Scan For Text. This automatically scans the text in the PDF and adds the little Read to me icon at the bottom of the PDF as shown in the image above. 

When students click on that icon, the text from the PDF will read aloud.  They even pause it as they go. 

You can visit my recent blog post to learn more about adding Text-to-Speech to any PDF with Book Creator...and find an activity for Poetry Month too. 

Once you have your Celebrating My Librarian Book all ready to go, click on the Assign button and assign to the Library you wish to share it with.  The students in that Library will then be able to create their Celebrating My Librarian book. 

I Published this Book so you can...

...Remix a copy and...

...share it with your students in your Book Creator Library for School Library Month. 

Have fun, friends. I can't wait to see the amazing creations your students create using PebbleGo and Book Creator. 

Get Book Creator today. 

Let's Celebrate Earth Day On April 22 With This Choice Board Filled With Ways To Learn, Read, Create and Play!

                  

We celebrate Earth Day tomorrow on April 22.  It's a day to celebrate by learning what we can do to help the Earth.

I have put together the Let's Celebrate Earth Day Choice Board with resources to learn, read, create and play with Earth Day, environmental and recycling activities. 

I made two versions.  We use PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next at our school and there are several awesome articles that are perfect for Earth Day. 

One includes the Earth Day PebbleGo article, 

Recycling and the Environment article from PebbleGo Next and...

...Helping the Environment from PebbleGo. 

You can just find the articles, click on Copy Link as shown in this image and...

...attach it to the screen shot of the article in the choice board. 

The second choice board includes an article...

...from National Geographic Kids about...

...the History of Earth Day.  

You will find the Let's Celebrate Earth Day (with PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next) Choice Board here.  If you want to make a copy, you will find the link here. 

You will find the second Let's Celebrate Earth Day (with National Geographic Kids) Choice Board here. If you want to make a copy, you will find the link here. 

And you will find the two versions of the April Choice Board here in this blog post. 

I would love to hear any other ideas and resources we could add to the Earth Day Choice Boards, friends.  Just let me know if you have ideas or any questions.  I am happy to help.    

Let's Celebrate the Earth Every Day With These Amazing Lessons From The Achievery and ecoRise!

                   

Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd and there are so many special ways to continue to celebrate the Earth every day. 

One of my favorite resources are the amazing lessons from ecoRise that are part of  The Achievery. 

As shared on The Achievery, 

ecoRise mobilizes a new generation of leaders to design healthy, just, and thriving communities for all. We work at the intersection of sustainability education, climate resilience, and environmental justice to bring K–12 classrooms into the 21st century, elevate youth voices, and advance student-led solutions to real-world challenges through our range of award-winning curricula and programs.

On the ecoRise page, you will find...

....19 different units with videos and lessons plans. The grade level and more details are attached to each. 

As all of the units in The Achievery, the videos play from the platform and the lessons can be downloaded like the one above. 

I can't wait to see all of the lessons ecoRise adds to The Achievery.  This will be such a helpful resource for our teachers, students and families, and one that we can use all year long. 

You can sign up for your FREE Achievery account at futureready.link/achievery and share this link with others to get their free account too. 

You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Earth Day On April 22nd!

To celebrate Earth Day on April 22, I brought together 28 special books about the Earth and our environment.  

Visit the You've Been Book'd With Books To Celebrate Earth Day choice board today.

In the choice board, you will find the complete Titlewave list of these books.  You can also click on each book cover and that will open up in Titlewave too. 

Enjoy celebrating Earth Day in your libraries and schools, friends.

Join Us On April 15th For The FREE Demco Webinar, Building Community and Positivity Through Library Design!

 

We are excited for our next Demco webinar coming up next week on April 15, 2025 at 4:00pm CST. 

Join us for our free Demco webinar featuring Dr. Robert Dillon and myself as we discuss ways to build community and joy through library design. 

In this webinar, participants will explore:

1. Leveraging the library for all learners
2. Activating an uplifting atmosphere in the library
3. Building and fostering collaboration in the library

You can register for this FREE webinar here.  

All webinars are archived and available for viewing within a week of the original presentation date. 

See you there, friends. 

Check Out The 2025 Fall Book Preview From Our Friends At Capstone!

One of my favorite things about being a reader and teacher librarian is learning about and reading upcoming books. 

Our friends at Capstone have announced the upcoming 2025 Fall Books and I couldn't be more excited to see all of these upcoming titles. 

As Capstone shared on the site, 

Welcome to our preview of the most anticipated books for fall! 

Some titles we’re eager for you to read include How to Teach Your Monster to Read, a charming picture book helping young prereaders develop phonemic awareness skills through the adventures of a child and their pet monster. In Good, award-winning author Alexs Pate uplifts readers, reminding them of their inner Good even when Trouble comes along. Rounding out our trio of picture books you don’t want to miss is Waiting For Winter: A True Story of Resilience and Joy in the Face of Climate Change, from internationally recognized wildlife photographer Stephen Gorman, which takes readers on a stunning photographic journey with a group of polar bears coping with a warming environment.

More exciting additions to our list this season include the launch of Brain Candy Books, a browsable, fact-filled feast for kids to dip in and out for instant bits of knowledge, and Stairway Decodables Nonfiction, engaging nonfiction texts in key science and social studies areas to support Science of Reading instruction. Take a sneak peek at highlights from Capstone’s Fall 2025 titles before they hit the shelves.

Take a sneak peek at highlights of Capstone’s Fall 2025 titles before they hit the shelves.

I am extra excited to share my new series, ISTE Digital Explorers, including Sonia Speaks Up and three others for Fall 2025 are included.  These were created in partnership with ISTE and introduce important concepts in technology education tie to the ISTE Student Standards. 

I also cannot wait for the NEW Brain Candy Books! 

Check out the previews for the Brain Candy Books including the Your Favorite Stars Series with Taylor Swift. 

There are also several more special books including How To Teach Your Monster To Read, 

Scratching the Surface, 

lots of new picture books, 

early readers, chapter books, graphic novels and more. 

I am excited about every single title! They are all wonderful new books. 

On the Fall 2025 Preview page, you will find lots of Previews of the books.  Just click on the button that says Preview, 

and it will open up into a preview of the book. 

There will also be resources added soon and I will be sharing them on my blog, and with the seasonal choice board we make of the new releases.  

Visit the Capstone Fall 2025 Preview site today.  

I can't wait for all of these new Capstone books to be on our shelves for our readers. I know you will love them too.