Welcome to My World

In the 35 days since I last posted a message on my blog, I’ve:

• taught 21 days of school
• read and reviewed 10 books
• written 6 newspaper columns
• started an e-mail list and sent 5 messages to the over 200 subscribers
• sent 6 query letters
• attended the 2 day Forum of Children’s Literature conference at UVSC
• presented at the Nebo Young Writer’s Conference
• participated in a Picture Book workshop taught by Rick Walton
• completed a night of parent teacher conferences for work
• attended a board meeting for the Utah Council of Teachers of English
• sat in a training session for foster parents
• posted final grades for over 125 students
• watched my sons play in 4 league championship basketball games
• kept track of my 5 sons for school, work, church, and play activities
• and somehow managed to keep at least a thread of my sanity.

Now you can see why I said I wouldn’t commit to updating my blog on any kind of a schedule. If the rest of you are as busy as I seem to be, you probably don’t have time to check in regularly either, so don’t feel bad if it’s been awhile since you stopped into the blog site.

I’m pleased to announce that my newsletter subscriber list has been growing by leaps and bounds. If you are interested in reading, writing, teaching, or adolescent literature, I hope you’ve signed up for these weekly e-mails. If you haven’t, and you’d like to try it out, just send an e-mail to me at LuAnn@LuAnnStaheli.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject heading.

I’ve started working on Volume 2 of Books, Books, and More Books: A Teacher and Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Literature. For those of you who are not familiar with my first CD-Book, in addition to chapters on how adolescent literature can be used with students, successful teaching strategies, and choosing books for multiple purposes, there are 100 Book Study Guides included in the text.

Volume 1 features guides for books by the following authors: David, Almond, Laurie Halse Anderson, Avi, Lois Thompson Bartholomew, Joan Bauer, Gary Blackwood, William J. Brooke, Bruce Brooks, Meg Cabot, Orson Scott Card, Eoin Colfer, Ellen Conford, Caroline B.Cooney, Sharon Creech, Chris Crutcher, Christopher Paul Curtis, Paula Danzinger, Kate DiCamillo, Sharon M. Draper, Alane Ferguson, Paul Fleischman, Susan Fletcher, Gail Friesen, Jack Gantos, Amy Gordon, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Mary Downing Hahn, Bruce Hale, Betsy Hearne, Sid Hite, Will Hobbs, Kimberly Willis Holt, Betty Horvath, Kathy Kacer, Ron Koertge, Gail Carson Levine, Ann M. Martin, Norma Fox Mazer, Joyce McDonald, Lois Metzgher, Carolyn Meyer, Walter Dean Meyers, Claudia Mills, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, John Neufeld, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gary Paulsen, Richard Peck, Rodman Philbrick, Randall Beth Platt, Phillip Pullman, Kristin Randle, Louise Rennison, Ann Rinaldi, John H. Ritter, J. K. Rowling, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Louis Sachar, Gloria Skurzynski, Lemony Snicket, Jerry Spinelli, Todd Strasser, Ross Venokier, Will Weaver, Gloria Whelan, Carol Lynch Williams, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jacqueline Woodson, and Lawrence Yep.

If there are any books you would love to see in a future edition, please let me know. It is always my goal to produce a user-friendly and helpful product. Thanks!

I can be reached either by leaving a message here, or send me an e-mail at LuAnn@LuAnnStaheli.com. Thanks again for checking in.

Lu Ann

Welcome to LuAnn's Library

Welcome to the first message in my new blog. I'm glad you've come to visit. It's my plan to share information about the recent books I've been reading or writing, ideas for teachers and parents to use with adolescents when it comes to language arts, or just share what's on my mind through regular postings. Hey, I've learned from reading other blogs that it's not a good idea to commit to a specific number of postings in a week or month. Life happens, and deadlines pass all too quickly to make that kind of commitment, so just check in once in awhile and read previous posts if you've missed something.

Without sounding like a braggart, I want to let you know why I'm qualified to write about both reading and writing. Here are just a few of my awards: Utah English Language Arts Teacher of the Year; Nebo Reading Teacher of the Year; Utah Valley League of Utah Writers Writer of the Year; Utah Arts Council Juvenile Novel Author of the Year; League of Utah Writers Diamond Quill winner and Juvenile Novel Author of the Year; and Christa McAuliffe Fellow for my project on adolescent literature.

I hope I'll have something to share that will be meaningful to you and your situation as a reader, writer, student, teacher, parent, friend, or family member.

Feel free to leave me a message here, or contact me via email at my new website at www.LuAnnStaheli.com. While you are on my home page, be sure to sign up for the free e-mailing list. I’d be happy to send you my regular column on issues of education and literacy, as well as keep you informed of upcoming events and new publications.

Until next time, thanks for checking in.