Countdown to Summer

One of the great things about being a teacher (really trying to focus on those these days) is that summer still holds the same magic that it did when I was a kid. It still means freedom and staying up and sleeping late. It means losing track of what day it is because any day is a good day for the beach. It means a break from routine and plenty of time for shenanigans. Most of all, for me, summer has always meant books. I am that big of a dork.

I have very vivid memories of rainy summer days in Vermont when my mom would take all of us to the Fletcher Free Library for the afternoon. We would check out new books of course, but we would also sit down with the sweet librarian lady and tell her about the books we had just returned. She would then give us a stamp (or sticker? check mark? apparently the memories are not so vivid after all) on our summer reading goal chart. Wow, huge dork. Whatever, there were prizes involved and a pizza party. In any event, I loved it, and it cemented for me the connection between summer's endless unplanned hours and mountains of new books.

Here are some of the summer reads I have planned. Any other recommendations? Where can I get a goal chart and some stickers?