I am very lucky. I have had the best students in the world. One of those students, Logan LeDuc, is particularly special to me. As a senior in high school, she approached me and asked if she could do an independent study in Advanced Young Adult Literature. I knew Logan very well at that point, and it was an easy yes. She published book reviews in the town newspaper and easily read over a hundred books that year. She continues to read with passion, and I assure you that I did not have a role in this. Logan devoured books long before she met me, and her reviews of literature and critical eye were extraordinary before our connection. I was simply happy to work with her and learn from her that year. Logan has gone on to establish The Book Elves, an Instagram account with over 30K followers. Obviously, I am one of many folks who admires her.
Logan is the curator of the young adult literature box for Once Upon a Book Club. As many of you know, we have pretty strict advertising rules on this blog. We don’t advertise. We don’t accept money. We are here for teachers. Teachers, I think you will love this idea so much that I am sharing this very cool interactive reading experience. It’s a subscription service that allows users to receive a box every month (or in longer intervals, if that is preferred). Logan sent me this box for my own enjoyment. She didn’t know that I would be posting about it on the blog, but I just couldn’t stop myself.
Below is a picture of the May young adult book club box for Once Upon a Book Club. I also captured a side angle photo because it’s quite thick. I was pretty excited when it arrived at my doorstep.
The box included a reminder that I am not supposed to open any of my gifts yet.
And here is the box. The picture doesn’t capture how beautiful it is:
Each gift is neatly wrapped with a page number sticker. This sticker includes the page number of which I should open the gift. And in case I get lost in the book (Between Two Skies), the pages have sticky notes to remind me to stop to open my gifts. This allows me to read freely without thinking about whether I missed a gift!
Get ready, teachers. This next part will make you swoon. They include read along dates for unboxing/discussion. At the noted times, readers can log into Instagram or Facebook to discuss the book together! And there are discussion questions, too!
How fun would it be to unbox and unwrap the books as a class read-aloud? I know I would have been the kid who logged in to join the discussions on the set evenings.
I’ll report back after I’ve read the book and unwrapped the gifts. I also plan to go online for the live unboxing videos. Woot! I am off to read!
