Today we are honored to have a very close friend of the family write for us: Jan, grew up on a chile and cotton farm in southeast New Mexico. She attended Texas Tech University and New Mexico State and taught English as a Second Language and Spanish for 25 years.

My name is Jan and I am a reader! I belong to a Book Club.  I organized the Club as a wedding present to a college friend of mine who moved to our fine city of El Paso, Texas, after (accidentally) meeting a future husband in my kitchen while she was visiting  me from Washington, DC!  She said the thing she was saddest about leaving in DC was her Book Club, and from there we went.

First of all, let me say that I am the Boss, (or as I prefer, Queen) of this Club, The First Monday Book Club, hence to be known as FMBC.    I decided right away that having a format wherein the members choose the books would not do, mainly because of horror stories I had been told long ago about another book club, and so, along with the fun (and chore) of  choosing the books, I would bear the responsibility of choosing books that maybe not everyone would love. Lucky for me, my Book Club likes this arrangement.  I also organize the schedule, and send out the book information in a timely manner each year for the following Year’s books.

When I select our books for the year, I try to pick a variety that will be edifying, interesting, memorable, and fit into a rather loose set of criteria that I decided upon years ago.

• 4 or 5 fiction books
• 1 or 2 of those are being read widely currently

1 book by a first-time author

• 2 non-fiction books (usually a memoir or history of an event, sometimes a travel memoir)
• A book of short stories or possibly poetry
• A book that a man would enjoy reading (and a woman would probably not select)
• A book about a culture specifically not in the United States or known to our members
• A book about the Southwest or written by a local author
• Sometimes a classic children’s or young adult book
• No Oprah or other blatantly media-driven books
• No relationship, medical, or self-help books
• And I try to be careful to select books that will not be painful to any member due to a recent sad event or personal situation

Members of FMBC, in the beginning, were just women that had expressed an interest, and a member had invited them to come; however, over the past few years we have had to limit our membership to 18 due to the restrictions of our capability to feed and seat only so many in our homes. We read the book and go to the meeting and have a discussion.  Sometimes we will have a list of suggested discussion questions to guide us, but here are no “papers” presented about the book; nobody is required to give a report.  It is nice that we have a former high school English teacher and a former professional editor to contribute to the discussion. However, if you are just too busy to read the book, or started and didn’t finish the book, come anyway!  One is not required to read the book in order to attend the meeting.

Together we have lived through divorces, sickness, suicide, grief, and family members afflicted, or addicted, or running for national office.  (No, not the same ones!)   In 16 years of FMBC, we have had two members die.  We have celebrated new relationships, family weddings, babies and grandbabies born, retiring, getting new jobs, new homes, moving away and moving back.  Our ages range between 45 and 70-something and we represent a pretty wide diversity of incomes and political viewpoints.  Many of us did not know the others before FMBC.

The one thing that I haven’t done that I should’ve is to keep a running list of all the books that we have read.  That list would have 128 book titles on it!

Here are the books we read this past year.

 Swamplandia by Karen Russell

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje

The Lost German Slave Girl by John Barley

97 Orchard by Jane Zeigelman

Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

The Call by Yannick Murphy

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White

A Bunch of Amateurs by Jack Hill

Belonging to a Book Club is a wonderful way of expanding your mind, making new friends, and getting to know others in a completely new way.  If you don’t belong to a Book Club, start one!  It’s easy, just invite a few friends over, talk it out, and have each one bring another friend to the first meeting.  You might even make yourself the Queen!

It also inspires things like spring cleaning, change, clearing out the old and bringing in the new, fresh flowers, and sunny windowsills. And….in our house, a new set of bedtime stories. Our little guy has wanted to read the same two stories at bedtime for the last oh…I don’t know, three months? No matter the variety we presented him, he wanted the same two and that’s the end of that. He’s strong willed and I have no idea where he gets that…couldn’t be his Texas mommy….no sir.

I’ve read all about how it is totally normal for kids to demand the same books over and over again, that’s one way they learn and you should just go with it, follow their lead. But I have to say I was ready for a change from the ones we’ve been reading.

So, with this beautiful over 70 degree day, bright and sunny, I was inspired to encourage my little one to pick some new stories. At quiet time, I lead him over to the bookcase and showed him a few different ones, we looked together at the selection and I think he was ready too. We moved from Star Wars and Monsters Inc, to Cars 2 and Fish is Fish. Fine by me! Cars 2 needs no explanation but Fish is Fish is a little lesser known book and just a wonderful little story about loving who you are while being brave enough to look around yourself. It’s great.

Here’s to spring, and new stories!

Share with us, what are your favorite stories for spring?

Little by little,

Kiki

Not bad for one day! 2,000 books sorted and packed for special education programs.

Saturday was a great day! The weather cooperated and the books were plentiful. We shared stories, found hidden gems and laughed a lot. Courtney would have turned 33 tomorrow, March 4th, and on Saturday we celebrated in her honor. We sorted and packed dozens of boxes for over 15 special education programs across the country…and even had some leftover for new schools who apply.

Thanks to everyone who makes it possible for us to do this, and in the process, keep Courtney’s spirit alive and her passion for helping children with special needs going. Happy Birthday Court.

Little by little,

Kiki

Today, on a rare day off, Colin and I picked up TEN boxes of books from our friends at River City Books. As most working moms do, days off are spent running errands, we did lots of that today. With my co-pilot and Court’s Kids Vice President of Quality in tow, we went out for a marathon of running around ending with a visit to pick up books for our birthday sort. It was a great day, we even got a little unexpected sunshine…something we always seem to get when working on Court’s Kids events. If you are in the market for used books, you should visit these guys, they have been our biggest supporter from the start and we’re always thankful.

My VP of Quality Assurance & Co-pilot along with a full carload of books!

The garage/Court’s Kids worldwide headquarters is full of books to be sorted, ready and waiting for our group of friends and volunteers to join us on March 2nd. We will laugh, connect, remember our own literary experience, and pack books to go off to new little readers across the country. It will be a good time. Our goal will be to get at least 15 boxes packed up and ready to ship that day…I think we’ll be able to do more.

Little by Little,

Kiki

The staff at the Center for Innovative Learning

Since we launched Court’s Kids in 2009, we have had the pleasure of meeting some truly amazing teachers who, every day, help little learners make great steps. Supporting these educators in their efforts is the heart of what we want to do. Last week we received these great pictures from our friends at the Northwest School for Innovative Learning in Washington.  To say we are honored that they’ve named their new library after Courtney would be a giant understatement. We’re so proud of this group and what they have done and can’t wait to watch them grow. You’ll notice they still have some empty shelves, if you are interested in helping us provide more books to fill up those shelves contact us today. We’re committed to filling those shelves and helping support educators like this.

Little by little,

Kiki

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and your 2013 is off to a great start. Ours has been really wonderful so far. We received so much love and support from donors over the holidays, raising over $1500! For those of you who are new to Court’s Kids, this is HUGE for us. We work really hard to keep our operating costs to a minimum, in fact we really run on volunteer hours and personal time of mine and my family. So, that means that pretty much every dollar goes to shipping books to our partner schools. And, considering the average box of books costs us about $35 to ship, this money will go a long way. 

We’ve also gained new partner schools across the country, reaching as far as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We now reach from our little garage in Oregon out to Washington, California, Utah, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. When we started this, a few months after Courtney passed, I really only thought we could make a difference in OR & WA. I have to know she’s smiling on us now, especially when I open up our mailbox to wonderful, handmade thank you notes from our friends at partner schools.

Here’s to a new year full of love, laughter, happiness and helping each other.

Little by Little,

Kiki

For those who want to help.

For those who are trying to help their own little ones feel safe and understand what we as adults may never understand here’s a list of books that might help find some words.

Little by little,

Kiki

Today we are honored t0 repost one of our favorite submissions in the last few years from guest blogger Peter DeWitt, Elementary school principal who writes about students’ social and emotional health, for Education Week, you can check out this great blog here. 

As adults we often look at the world around us with different eyes than we used to when we were children. When we were children we had the opportunity to spend hours playing in the woods with friends. During the winter we would sled down big snowy hills and follow it up with a cozy blanket and a hot cup of cocoa. Many of us had childhoods that seemed magical, especially when we reflect upon it on days when we wish we could go back to that time.

Fortunately for me, I get to spend every day looking at the world through the eyes of children because I am an elementary school principal. Walking into the cafeteria during kindergarten lunch I have 60 kindergartners who wildly wave to me with one hand while they eat with the other.

Before becoming a principal I taught primary elementary school for eleven years. Seven of those years were inclusionary education, which brought together children with diverse learning styles. I loved being in the classroom. Each day was an adventure where it was our class against the world. The best part of my day was in the morning when I read to the class.

Like many first grade teachers I did calendar time with my students in the morning. We would sit on a big rug in the front of the classroom with our bulletin board hanging next to us. We would go through the day of the week and the month of the year. We discussed what the weather would be and what our schedule of the day would bring us. And just like any elementary classroom, I would hear about a student’s new puppy or where they went for dinner the night before. As much as it may not have had anything to do with my lesson, it had to do with their lives and they wanted to tell the story.

At the end of calendar time, and the many conversations, I would read a picture book. I love picture books! Children’s authors have a magical way to string together a few words to tell a story. For me, the best part was staring at the full page illustrations. A great picture book can draw us in and take us away.

As a class, we would take a picture walk together through each colorful illustration and we tried to figure out the plot of the book before we ever read a page. Sometimes their guesses were better than the books we read and other times they were completely on target with the plot the author was writing about.

Although it was probably a much shorter amount of time, I felt like I spent hours in the library picking out the best books for my class. One day I came upon a book called Snow Day by Moira Fain. I opened the book to the first page and saw the most amazing illustrations. I loved reading about Maggie, a little girl attending a private school in the 1960’s. Maggie had a flair for getting into trouble and one day forgot to complete her homework. She opted for a pillow fight with her five siblings instead!

Fortunately for Maggie, her town was blanketed with snow overnight and she ended up with a snow day. Instead of completing her homework during the day, Maggie went sledding on school hill with her friends and siblings. She figured she would finish it later that day, and would never run into her teacher. Unfortunately, Maggie ran into Sister Agatha Ann, her elementary school teacher. Her teacher was on school hill enjoying the snow with her colleagues.

As I turned to read the next page, I was met with a poem that I would remember for, what has been, ten years.

When I was young, the snow was deeper

And all the hills seemed so much steeper

The crusty ice I walked upon would never once give in

And every sled race that I ran would surely be a win

It’s good to see the snow again from a child’s point of view

Because what you see is different, when you’re a bigger you.

The truth is, I was fortunate to have a good childhood where I had sled races like the ones that Moira Fain describes in Snow Day. I played hide-and-seek with friends for hours before our parents called for us to come home. Summers were spent in the above ground pool in our backyard or playing baseball in our makeshift field down the road from our house.

As much as I love reading books now, that was not always my reality. I was a struggling learner and many factors interfered with my academic achievement. School was not a place I flourished; it was a place that I felt like a failure. Reading a book only acted as a reminder that I was not as smart as my classmates.

My friends would order books from our book clubs, so I did the same thing. However, they read them and I did not. I was motivated by the cover but struggled with the words inside. I was retained in fourth grade and struggled throughout my educational career. My dad passed away when I was in fifth grade but my mother did a great job raising five children.

After graduating fourth from last in my class from high school, my options were not plentiful but I opted to try out college because all of my friends were going. On my third attempt at a community college I found my strengths. I also ended up getting a job working at an after-school program. It was there that I knew I wanted to work with children.

Reading is powerful. Great books can transport us to another world or take us back to the ones we once knew. For children who cannot read well, books may be a source of pain, but with a good teacher, books can act as an escape for children. Great teachers can inspire even the most struggling learner to pick up a book and read it.

Not all adults are as fortunate as I am. They do not get the opportunity to work in a place where hugs and smiles are plentiful and crayons and picture books are just around the corner. However, if you’re willing, you can still buy books that transport you from your stressful lives and take you back to a time when the highlight of your day is sledding down a big snowy hill next to your school.

Fain, Moira. (1998). Snow Day. Walker Books for Children. New York, N.Y. 

As I do every Thanksgiving weekend, after we’ve had the big family dinner, catching up and spending time together…I wake with the holiday spirit, thankful. I can’t wait to start putting decorations out, hanging stockings and watching all my favorite Christmas movies (yes, I watched at least three this weekend…don’t judge).

I also pull out all the holiday themed books for Colin. He’s getting older now and so curious to understand what all this means. For us, as Christians, it means the birth of Jesus, Christmas trees, carols, Santa, elves, and everything else.

Tonight we read our first Christmas book together, it talked about the real meaning of Christmas, he listened curious and intrigued. It was a really special moment for our family. He’s really starting to be in touch with the world around him.

No matter what you celebrate, here’s to sharing traditions and belief with our children during this magical time of year.

Little by Little,

Kiki

PS – Join me on Goodreads, share your favorite holiday stories, if you’re like me as a parent you’re always looking for new fun stories!