A look at what I reviewed in October 2008:

Beyond Leveled Books: Supporting Early and Transitional Readers in Grades K-5 by Karen Szymusiak, Franki Sibberson, and Lisa Koch. From my review: “I’d further suggest it to parents who are trying to understand what is going on in their child’s classroom and what is happening with their child’s reading skills and how those skills are much more than a “level.” What about comprehension, understanding what is going on in the book, etc? The authors and other contributors, all classroom teachers, explain some of the “critical needs” of their students, using examples, including how and when an adult can help the student meet those needs. The parent who complains about a teacher using picture books or graphic novels, or who doesn’t use books grades above the child’s grade, needs to read this book to understand better how reading is much more involved than learning how to read words.”

Pop Goes the Library. No, I didn’t review the book, but linked to reviews others did! “Brookover and Burns cover most of the important lessons on librarianship that can be taught in a book: creating a niche; building a collection; using technology; and developing crowd-pleasing programming, among others. As an added bonus, their writing style is as much fun to read as Michael Buckland, S.R. Ranganathan, Jesse Shera, or Elaine Svenonius.’