Double Draw Dare! with Tom Angleberger and Dub Leffler, from the Virginia Festival of the Book

May 15, 2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

This week, I had the amazing opportunity to moderate a virtual session for the Virginia Festival of the Book‘s Shelf Life series. Double Draw Dare had everything – a gameshow wheel, outer space dragons, sea creatures in formal wear, and two incredibly talented illustrators: Tom Angleberger and Dub Leffler. I’m still sore from laughing! I […]

Virginia Festival of the Book 2018

March 22, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking at the Virginia Festival of the Book’s big kickoff event, the Read & Lead Lunch. I shared my experiences with the Festival of the Book in the classroom, and the impact that I have seen the festival have on my students. As this was a closed event, I […]

Cville OneBook

January 25, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

I am so excited to share that St. Anne’s-Belfield School will be a community partner with Cville OneBook this year! As a member of the Cville OneBook Committee, I am so excited about the opportunity to use a story to bring the Charlottesville community together for reflection and discussion. Let me tell you a little […]

Visiting Author: Liz Starin

March 31, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

Liz Starin is both an author and an illustrator, and St. Anne’s-Belfield School students have had so much fun learning about her and sharing her work during an author visit thanks to the Virginia Festival of the Book. Students loved all of Liz’s books – but Splashdance, which Liz both wrote and illustrated, was so beloved […]

Visiting Author: Kwame Alexander and Ekua Holmes

March 25, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

Thanks to the 2017 Virginia Festival of the Book, St. Anne’s-Belfield School welcomed more than 2,400 young students from around the Charlottesville area onto the Learning Village Campus on Wednesday for a special event: Out of Wonder: Poets Celebrating Poetry – A Conversation Between author Kwame Alexander and illustrator Ekua Holmes, moderated by Sarah FitzHenry. In my […]

5th and 6th Grade Book Club: Booked, by Kwame Alexander

October 25, 2016.Reading time 10 minutes.

Finding a book exciting and interesting enough to captivate both 5th and 6th graders, boys and girls, with a wide variety of interests and reading levels, is no easy feat. The book needed to be short enough not to frustrate readers working on their skills, but challenging enough for even our best readers to push […]

This Month in Photos: March 2016

April 14, 2016.Reading time 11 minutes.

Spring is officially here, bringing with it all of the excitement of beautiful weather, bright flowers, and fun activities! Johnson is a flurry of excitement these days, and it’s all a librarian can do to keep up. March and April have been busy busy busy, and I’m happy to share a snapshot of some of […]

Learning Leopard Library post published by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

May 15, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

This March, Johnson students were lucky enough to get to see Kate DiCamillo speak during the Virginia Festival of the Book. The experience was spectacular, and I wrote a blog post to share the wonderful things that we learned. Since then, the post has garnered hundreds of page views, been shared by Charlottesville City Schools […]

Festival of the Book: Visiting Author Kate DiCamillo

March 27, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

Last Friday, students from all over Charlottesville City and Albemarle County zipped rain coats, boarded field trip buses, and made their way through the rainy city of Charlottesville to St. Anne’s-Belfield school. More than 1,200 students gathered in the STAB Convocation Center and sat, tapping their feet and twiddling their thumbs nervously. There was electricity in […]

Festival of the Book: Visiting Author Anne Marie Pace

March 23, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

Thursday afternoon, Virginia Festival of the Book author Anne Marie Pace stopped by Johnson to teach our students what it’s like to be an author. She had some great insider details about the writing and editing process, and even showed us real drafts of her Vampirina Ballerina series! Mrs. Pace started from the beginning, talking about where […]