Tag: teaching

• Book Review: Just One Gift by Linda Sue Park

  I was browsing new titles on NetGalley recently and saw a title listed that immediately caught my attention. The book was Just One Gift (HarperCollins/Clarion Books, April 2026) by Linda Sue Park. I didn’t know Linda Sue Park at all until late summer 2017 when I found out that I would be teaching one section…

  michardillo

  August 28, 2025

  books

  12th century, A Single Shard, Ancient Korea, Asian art, Asian pottery, book-review, books, Clarion, family, fiction, Freer Gallery, HarperCollins Publishers, Just One Gift, language arts, Linda Sue Park, literature, middle school, NetGalley, Newbery Medal, Peacock Room, pottery, reading, Smithsonian, teacher, teaching

• Book Review: Food Around the World by Ellen Lawrence

  I love to travel and I love to eat, so this new title jumped out for me in the listings of new books on NetGalley! Thank you NetGalley, Ruby Tuesday Books, and Ellen Lawrence for the opportunity to read this new book! First of all, the photography in this book is great. The scenes are…

  michardillo

  August 22, 2025

  books

  book-review, books, children’s book, Ellen Lawrence, food, Food Around the World, literature, middle school, NetGalley, nonfiction, photography, reading, Ruby Tuesday Books, teaching

• Pharrell Taught Me Well

  What positive emotion do you feel most often? The lyrics of the 2013 hit “Happy” by Pharrell Williams really do answer this question for me. Clap along if you feel like a room without a roofClap along if you feel like happiness is the truthClap along if you know what happiness is to youClap along…

  michardillo

  August 17, 2025

  Essay

  classroom, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2032, findthejoy, happiness, Happy, Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana, Pharrell Williams, reading, school, social media, teacher, teaching, writing

• Teachers: Those Who Can’t Teach? Not On Your Life!

  What profession do you admire most and why? Full disclosure, I am a teacher. I taught full time from 2007 to 2020, middle school English and literature. Then covid hit and I sat out (per doctor’s orders) the 2020-2021 school year since I wasn’t old enough for the vaccine yet. A shift in administration created…

  michardillo

  August 11, 2025

  Essay

  Catholic school, certification, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2027, education, English, essays, grad school, language arts, library, literature, middle school, reading, retirement, secondary education, teacher, teaching, writer, writing

• Book Review: The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell

  NetGalley is a digital platform that provides book people with FREE advance reading copies (ARCs) of books yet to be released in exchange for a review written and posted on their site, on Goodreads, on Amazon, on your own social media. Sometimes you are offered a book, but more often you request a book that…

  michardillo

  July 9, 2025

  books

  #Currently Reading, Alexandra Bell, Amazon, Ann Napolitano, Anne Tyler, ARC, Belle Epoque, book-review, books, death, Del Rey, Elizabeth Strout, England, Eve Shaw, Evie Woods, fiction, France, Goodreads, grief, historical fiction, Kaytee Cobb, Kindle, literature, London, magical realism, Max Everly, Meredith Monday Schwartz, NetGalley, novel, octopuses, Penguin, podcast, Ray Bradbury, reading, realistic fiction, Richard Osman, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, tattoo, teacher, teaching, The Lost Bookshop, The White Octopus Hotel, writer, writing

• Book Review: The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

  The Killer Question by Janice Hallett (Atria Books, September 2025) is my third book by Hallett. All of her books, those I’ve read and those I’ve yet to read, are told in epistolary style, meaning the story is told through a series of letters, or in modern terms, a series of emails, interoffice communications, text…

  michardillo

  June 30, 2025

  books

  84 Charing Cross Road, Annie Barrows, Atria Books, book-review, books, British, Catherine Called Birdy, Chat GPT, Emily Blunt, England, epistolary novels, Ewan McGregor, fiction, food, Goodreads, Helene Hanff, Janice Hallett, Karen Cushman, Kim Fay, Kindle, library, literature, Love and Saffron, Mary Ann Shaffer, middle school, mystery, NetGalley, novel, Paul Torday, reading, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Scotland, teacher, teaching, The Appeal, The Examiner, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Killer Question, writer

• Book Review: Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce

  I have a love-hate relationship with book series. Part of me loves the continuity, the bond established between the reader and the characters from book to book, the story taking me on a journey and coming back full-circle. But, I also hate when the series ends. To me, after I’ve invested so much time with…

  michardillo

  June 11, 2025

  books

  AJ Pearce, Blitz, book series, book-review, books, British, Dear Miss Lake, Dear Mrs. Bird, Edelweiss, England, English, fiction, Kate Messner, Kindle, library, literature, London, Maryland, Mrs. Porter Calling, mystery, novel, reading, Scholastic Press, Scribner, Silver Jaguar, social media, teacher, teaching, writer, writing, WWII, Yours Cheerfully

• Book Review: Mayhem at the Museum by Hannah Bruckner

  Thank you to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for the ARC of Mayhem at the Museum (September, 2025), a soon-to-be published children’s picture book. This delightfully illustrated picture book is the story of young Yuri who is terrified of birds. Okay, that’s fine. The story goes on, however, that Yuri is at a museum observing a…

  michardillo

  May 28, 2025

  books

  book-review, books, children’s picture book, dinosaur, Hannah Bruckner, Hurricane Katrina, Italy, Mayhem at the Museum, middle school, NetGalley, NorthSouth Books Inc., reading, teaching

• Book Review: Buzz! Boom! Bang! By Benjamin Gottwald

  This delightful children’s picture book has no words, just beautiful and colorful illustrations. It is a master class in the literary device onomatopoeia. If I were still teaching middle school language arts, I would bring this book into my 7th and 8th grade literature classroom and have students sit in small groups to “read” it…

  michardillo

  May 25, 2025

  books

  Benjamin Gottwald, book-review, books, Buzz! Boom! Bang!, education, Hamburg Picture Book Prize, Hurricane Katrina, illustrations, language arts, literary device, literature, Louisiana, middle school, Mississippi River, NetGalley, nonfiction, NorthSouth Books Inc., onomatopoeia, picture book, reading, teacher, teaching

• The Pause Between Acts

  April. 19, 2025 Day 7 of Holy Week Reflections Holy Saturday Today is Holy Saturday. Today we pause between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. A pause. An empty space. There is no Eucharist in the tabernacle. In fact, the tabernacle doors are wide open, and empty. The candle above the tabernacle has been extinguished. There…

  michardillo

  April 19, 2025

  Essay, faith

  Angelus, Ave Maria Press, blessed-virgin-mary, Catholic Church, Catholic school, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Jared Dees, Jesus, prayer, Praying the Angelus, Regina Caeli, teaching