One Lovely Blog Award

We are honored to be accepting the One Lovely Blog Award 

and are thankful to two blogging friends, Amy and Lynn, for choosing us!

                                Amy from Youthful Yogini         Lynn from Inside This Book

To accept this award, we need to tell seven things about ourselves 

and then share this award with fifteen of our favorite bloggers! 

1. Jen and Kellee met each other because they both have a love of The Baby-Sitter's Club books. 

2. Kellee's parents said they'd buy her any book she asked for (big mistake) and they did. 

3. Jen begged her mom to buy her Archie comics while waiting in line at the grocery story and she did.

4. Kellee has had the same favorite book for 18 years- The Giver by Lois Lowry. 

5. Jen has had the same favorite book for almost 4 months 

(which is just about as long as it has been published) Wonder by RJ Palacio. 

6. Kellee's classroom library has almost 2500 books in it and is always growing. 

7. Jen doesn't know exactly how many books she has but her husband would say they are everywhere!

Here are fifteen blogs we love!

1. Linda Baie's TeacherDance
2. Mindi Rench's Next Best Book
3. Colby Sharp's Sharpread
4. Sarah's Page in Training
5. Maria Selke's Maria's Melange
6. Katherine Sokolowski's Read, Write, Reflect
7. Alyson Beecher's Kid Lit Frenzy
8. Jennifer Fountain's Fountain Reflections
9. Megan's YA? Why Not? 
10. Kathryn Trask's Miss T's Reflections
11. Danielle Smith's There's a Book
12. Debbie Alvarez's The Styling Librarian
13. Lorna Wheaton's Not for Lunch
14. John Schu's Watch. Connect. Read. 
15. Franki and Mary Lee's A Year of Reading

  and 

Versatile Blogger Award!

Wow! We have been nominated by Beth at Thinking of Teaching for the Versatile Blogger award! We are so excited! Our goal is to share our reading and ideas with parents and teachers and it feels awesome to know it's appreciated. Thanks, Beth!

Now we are supposed to: 

1. Thank the person who nominated us and provide a link back to their blog. 

2. Share 7 things about ourselves.

3. Nominate 15 other blogs that we've discovered.

You can visit Beth's amazing blog by clicking her Thinking of Teaching button!

We thought we would do a mini-interview for our 7 things!

Jen: Are you a sticky note or notepad kind of girl, Kellee?


Kellee: I am definitely a sticky notes kind of girl! You will find them all throughout my classroom with notes to myself and to do lists. Now, I do use notepads to actually take notes at conferences or such, but that is it. 


So, Jen, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 


Jen: I actually wanted to be a teacher! I remember being in kindergarten and already knowing I wanted to be a teacher. I had a great kindergarten teacher and I think I wanted to be just like her but as I got older I still always loved school and working with kids so I knew I wanted to be a teacher! 


Here's a teacher-y kind of question: if you were going to write a book, who's (author's craft) voice would yours most likely remind you of?


Kellee: Hm.  This is a hard one because I’ve never thought about it.  But I think that if I was going to write a book it would be contemporary/realistic fiction and my author’s voice may sound a bit like Sarah Dessen (I’d hope at least :D).  Her books are so enjoyable, but also so beautifully written.  I’d be lucky to craft a book anywhere near as well as she does.  My author’s voice wish would be John Green because he can make you laugh with a single word and make you cry with silence.


Staying on the topic of books, if you could be any character in any book, who would you be? 


Jen: Wow, I've never thought about actually being a character before. Hmmm....my first thought is not to pick a character who has anything horribly awful happen to him or her! Actually, a Harry Potter character comes to mind immediately because I would love to do magic. I'll pick Hermione then, she's also smart and brave - love it. 


I'm also thinking about being one of the Penderwick sisters from The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy. I really enjoyed that book and I love the relationships between all the sisters. 

What kind of cupcake would you be?


Kellee: YUM!  This question makes me think of my favorite cupcakes from Sweet! down the road (and they have gluten free cupcakes Jen!).  Now I want to go there! Well, I think if I was going to be a cupcake, I’d be the Sweet! Plain Jane.  I am a bit predictable and like schedules and planning (white cake cupcake with vanilla butter cream icing), but I try to shake things up randomly to keep life entertaining (sprinkles!). 


I love cupcakes but to switch the mood-tell me about what bothers you. What is your pet peeve? 


Jen: Wait! I love cupcakes - go back - they have gluten free but do they have vegan cupcakes? ...just checked their site, I don't see vegan options. That's okay though. I'd love to see one of their giant party cupcakes at Sweet!


Back to your pet peeve question! I give up! I' ve been sitting here struggling to think of a pet peeve. I'm sure I have them but I cannot think of even one right now. I'm generally an easy going person and I try not to let things bother me too much. Not that there aren't things that drive me crazy...but I can't think of something I would consider to be a pet peeve unless, does being late or other people being late count? I get that people run late - and now with two kids, we're late from time to time - so it doesn't make me insane, but I do feel it's only respectful if you are where you are supposed to be on time.

What is your favorite flower? AND what color is you favorite for that flower?


Kellee: The orchid.  They are simply phenomenal flowers- doesn't matter the color, they are one of the most beautiful plants on Earth. 

And now our favoritest 15 blogs at the moment:

1. sharpread: One Book at a Time

Colby can also be found on Twitter at @colbysharp.

2. Kid Lit Frenzy

Alyson can be found on Twitter at @alybee930.

3. Watch. Connect. Read. Exploring Children's Literature through Book Trailers

John can be found on Twitter at @mrschureads.

4. The Brain Lair

Kathy can also be found on Twitter at @thebrainlair.

5. Abby the Librarian

Abby can be found on Twitter at @abbylibrarian

6. A Rep Reading

Teresa can be found on Twitter @trkravtin

7. Next Best Book and Making it Work in the Middle

Mindi can be found on Twitter @mindi_r

8. Y.A. Love 

Sarah can be found on Twitter @yaloveblog

9. Heise Reads and Recommends

Jillian can be found on Twitter @heisereads

10. Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf

Lauren can be found on Twitter @lauren817

11. Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing

Ashley can be found on Twitter @basicallybooks

12. The Book Monsters

Kate and Kristen can be found on Twitter @TheBookMonsters

13. The Reading Zone
Sarah can be found on Twitter @thereadingzone

14. Lemme Library
Kathy can also be found on Twitter at @lemmelibrary

15. The Nonfiction Detectives
Cathy and Louise can be found on Twitter at @NonfictionDetec

Thanks again, Beth, for giving us the Versatile Blogger award!
We hope you check out some of our favorite blogs or join us on Twitter!!!

  and 

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Okay, I just went back to check when I officially started blogging for Teach Mentor Texts, and it was less than two months ago.  My first post was on May 10th.  I have had so much fun getting to meet lots of other book bloggers.  It is a great community of people.  I love talking about books and I feel so connected with all these other people who are talking about books, too.  I'm looking forward to going back to school to share my blog with the teachers I work with.  I'm so proud of what this blog has become in such a short time.  

Thanks to Isalys and Vanessa from Book Soulmates for giving me The Versatile Blogger award.  It's fun to meet new people and I am so happy to accept this award from the Book Soulmates.  Definitely check out their blog, they are a ton of fun!  I'm considering the whole vlogging thing because of them....but so far just considering...maybe after the baby comes!

The rules for the award are:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (in no particular order...)

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

Seven Things About Myself:

1. My favorite color is pink!

2. I'm horrible at gauging/estimating anything like distance, time, cost...

(I never know how long to put things in the microwave, for example!)

3. I am a planner - I love getting organized for things like birthday parties or other events.  I make list upon list to keep track of everything.

4. I have celebrity crushes on Ashton Kutcher and Shai Labeouf.

5. One of my favorite things to do is go to Starbucks and read in one of their comfy chairs with a frappuccino - soy double chocolatey chip with a shot of peppermint and whip - any size.

6. I was on the badminton team in high school.

7. I'm missing being able to run...I can't wait to get back out there!!!  

I nominate the following blogs for this award:

There's a Book

At Home With Books

Til We Read Again

The Introverted Reader

Fiction State of Mind

A Novel Idea

DeRaps Reads

Life is a Patchwork Quilt
Reading Through Life

(These are the newest blogs I'm following - I believe that less is more!)