May 23, 2011

Armchair BEA Intro



Ok ok so I'm a day late in this, but I really wanted to share my cover crush on Monday! The great people at Armchair BEA are organizing all the fun for us that can't be there.  Check them out HERE!
I wish I could be in New York, but I can't with school ending soon.  So instead I'm joinging in this way!

Let me intro myself a little with some facts about me:
  1. I'm a 7th grade English teacher.  I love teaching 7th graders because they have so much energy! Plus they accept that I'm a book geek and move on from it :)
  2. I got started with the owls as a joke with my sister who decided, after seeing I have TWO of them, that I needed to collect owls.  When I started the blog I called it The O.W.L. as kind of a joke!
  3. I've got owls all over my classroom, but only about 3 at home.  My students never believe that.
  4. I'm 40 and proud of it!
  5. I'm a breast cancer survivor (8 years this summer)
  6. My students really believe I'm a geek when it comes to reading.  One student told me they say I'm a cool nerd.  I'll live with that!

About my blog:
1.  I focus on books that 7th graders read.  As much as publisher like to think they fall into the middle grade (MG) category they don't.  I thought about being a purely MG blog, but after really looking at what my students read I realized they were all over the board, so now I focus on what they read - the way I see it I focus on REAL middle grade readers!

2.  I review both new and older books because there are so many "older" books that seem to be missed.
I like to focus on books for boys in Fridays  in my Friday's For the Guys posts.  There is so much boy focus lacking in YA lit!

3.  I've been blogging for about 18 months, and I still find it unbelievable that people read what I write!  A couple of my students just went to a book signing.  They were talking to some ladies there and told about me blogging - they were followers! Yikes!!!!

Lastly

I'm an aspiring YA author.  I'm currently doing the second round of revisions on my first novel.  I don't know what will become of my writing, but I love it!

That's about all.  I hope you check out my blog and like what you see and come back!

6 comments:

  1. I had no idea you want to be a writer. Good luck!

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  2. Welcome to BEA! Congrats on being in revisions on your book. I wish I could get that far.

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  3. It was nice to meet your students. They were very nice young ladies. We had a great time chatting about books while waiting in line at Richelle Mead's signing.

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  4. My capacity for teaching maxed out at 6th grade - I applaud your bravery to deal with the older kids! And I think it is cool that you highlight the books they really read rather than the ones categorized for them. Oh - and that you focus on lit for boys - a very underserved group of readers.

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  5. I love collecting owl and bird stuff! I always think of HP and Purdue OWL when I see an owl, which are both literary things. Oh the joys of being an English person. :) I just graduated and looking for a English HS job. So yay teachers!

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