In which I talk about the books I’ve purchased/been given since I last made a video, and tell a story about giggling teenage boys.

I had an entire bit in the video about Feature Shelf, and how I’m almost done writing the one for this week and I’ve even already started on the one for the week after that. The video was getting a little longer than I like, so it got cut, but here’s the gist: next week’s Feature Shelf is about baseball. One of the students in Ms. Williams’s 7th grade English class asked for it. One of the books on that shelf inspired the shelf for the week after, which is going to be about identity.

Here’s the other part of what I said (and cut): I totally write Feature Shelves around books that I’m really excited about. So the Black History Month Edition was written around Brown Girl Dreaming, the Baseball Edition is written around We Are the Ship and the Identity Edition is written around Freakboy. I am quite excited about these books in particular. What will I do when I run out of books that I’m thrilled about? (Like that could really happen.)

Books Mentioned

• I Was Here by Gayle Forman http://bit.ly/1M3GyKJ
• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor http://bit.ly/no-witch
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson http://bit.ly/1roNHJ2
• Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark http://bit.ly/kec-freakboy
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout http://bit.ly/1DTSF72
• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
• Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A. S. King http://bit.ly/1tHtGUO