Catching Fire Novel & Stationery Set Giveaway ~ Celebrating the Countdown to Catching Fire

To celebrate the countdown to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" movie release on Nov. 22, here's my next giveaway for teachers: a Catching Fire novel (movie tie-in cover) and a NECA Catching Fire Stationery Set. The stationery (or desk supply) set comes with two pencils, a pin, a pencil sharpener, a ruler, and two erasers. The best part? I will be giving away TWO of these prizes, so you have an even better chance of winning!

The movie tie-in edition of the novel features the beautiful depiction of Katniss from chapter one in District 12.

Two lucky winners will win this Catching Fire book!

The desk sets feature Katniss and Peeta and can make great prizes for students or enjoy them on your teacher desk!

I'll be giving TWO of these away, too, with the books!

Each time you share on a social media site you get additional entries, so tweet, pin, and post/share on Facebook every day for +2 entries each day. The giveaway closes in a week (winners will be announced Nov. 3rd), so enter now and enter daily! Good luck! 

Enter to win here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spring Break = Reading for Pleasure!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Even though I could spend my spring break cleaning my house (which needs it), catching up on laundry, or organizing closets, I probably won't. Why? Well, for starters I hate to clean or do housework. But more importantly, there are too many great books that I've been wanting to read but never have time during the school year.

One book I plan to start today is Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I've heard great things abut this book, so hopefully it will live up to its reputation. If I could get a copy of an arc of Divergent by Veronica Roth, I'd probably read that first since I heard great things about that novel, as well. But, unless I win the contest hosted by Writing Jewels (which ends tomorrow, by the way), I will have to wait for the May release.

The amazing Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness.

I did happen to finish the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness this weekend and, oh my, is it good! I'll be writing about The Knife of Never Letting Go (which is book #1 in the series) soon. I am developing materials for teachers right now and am going to see if this is a book I might want to read with one of my English classes. Next year I'll be teaching a small group of seniors and I could see reading the entire trilogy with them. If you are interested in materials for your students, I hope to have some posted by the end of the week. In the meantime, you can download a FREE prequel to the series called The New World. I don't own a Kindle, but I use the Kindle for Mac program (which is a free download) to download. Since my students all have MacBooks, this will be a great introduction to the series. If you own a PC,  you can use the Kindle for PC program.

Another book I'd like to read over break is Matched by Ally Condie, but I do believe one of my students has it checked out (which is great; I do love that they read my books!). I've already pre-ordered Crossed on Amazon based on the reactions of those who have already read it.

I've also heard rave reviews about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. A Young Reader's Edition will be released this fall. I read the review a while back in Entertainment Weekly (one of my all-time favorite magazines, by the way, and reason I purchased The Hunger Games initially) and the fact that the reviewer could not stop reading it, even while she was sick with the flu, was quite convincing. So I purchased it, but it has been sitting patiently in my "to read" pile.

Collection of essay on The Hunger Games trilogy.

Last week I received my pre-orders of The Girl Who Was On Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy edited by Leah Wilson and published by Smart Pop Books. I had already read all the teases of the essays on Smart Pop Book's website, and read a couple of the chapters/essays while hanging out at the dogpark and baseball diamond while my son practiced. It's very hard to do a close reading when you have to pause to tell your dog to stop humping another dog or when you are dodging foul balls coming your way. Plus, I kept thinking about Monsters of Men (the third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy) and how I really wanted to finish reading that before starting another book. So I plan to sit down for a closer read this week and take in all the different authors' perspectives on the trilogy.

For now, I'm going to end my list there because I know how long it takes me to develop new teaching materials (which I am working on), and plan for the rest of the school year, so if I finish at least two books this week on top of that, I'll be happy. And I will probably do a little cleaning and laundry, just so my wonderful husband–who normally does most of our housework and cooking so I can write, plan, and read–won't have to.

So what is on your spring break to-read list? Comment below to share!

Live & Learn and Pass It On... Life Lessons of the Characters from The Hunger Games

The rainbow after the storm. Erie, IL Photo by T. Orman

Throughout the school year I like to share "life lessons" from former students and excerpts from H. Jackson Brown Jr.'s book Live & Learn and Pass It On.  If you've never read the book, chances are you may have received an email with a few of the "lessons" people (ages 5 to 95) have shared.  Some examples are:

"I've learned that being a teenager is as hard on your parents as it is on you." -Age 13
"I've learned that you should be careful when sitting down in a chair that has rollers." -Age 72
"I've learned as a sixth grade teacher that when I send more than two boys to the restroom at a time, the principal usually ends up bringing them back." -Age 34
"I've learned that I shouldn't inhale through my nose when I'm eating a powdered doughnut." -Age 51
"I've learned that you don't really know a person until you've made them mad." -Age 22
"I've learned that the more you're in a hurry, the longer it takes to get your locker open." -Age 13
"I've learned that when my older sister says she'll be out of the bathroom in five minutes, I should just sit down and