Behind the Blog: PGCE reading

Sometimes personal posts sometimes blogging posts!

I'm hoping to start a teacher training course in the Autumn so I've been doing some 'summer reading' to get ready and thought I'd share it with you.

So far I've mainly been focussed on picture books and 'Key Stage 1' books as they are quick to read and I got a good deal!

I tried to focus on books I hadn't heard of before instead of childhood favourites. They were all quite witty and full of good lessons. My favourite so far has been Rover by Michael Rosen, I loved how the story was from the dog's point of view!

I'm planning to move up the school years and read a few short 'chapter books'
I would love if you could comment any suggestions for what I should read next.

Much Love!
Lettie
Xxx
P.S Let me know if you enjoyed this type of post!

Behind the Blog: 4 Hearts to 4½ Hearts!

Last November when I changed up my rating system I decided to convert some ratings. I do sometimes rethink ratings so I thought I'd do a post about why.

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Easy by Tammara Webber.
Lengths by Steph Campbell and Liz Reinhardt.
Lost and Found by Nicole Williams.
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Why!
Reread
Since the original reading and reviewing I have picked up these five books over and over. Rereading scenes, refreshing my mind of quotes or simply reminding myself of how much I enjoyed them!
Start of a great series.
With Lengths and Lost and Found they both sparked great follow ups which I found myself loving but also realising how well written, characterised and enjoyable the first instalment was. With The Selection after The Elite I found cleverly hidden hints and great follow up on little details.
Unforgettable.
Most importantly these five books have continued to entertain me long after I have finished them!

Do you ever go back and change ratings?
Much Love
Lettie
Xxx

Behind the Blog: New Rating!

I created my rating system almost a year ago and I definitely feel like it has improved my reviews and made it a lot easy to differentiate between them.
However I do think it's time for a little update and refresh!

In!

4½ Hearts 

~ I love it! It's almost perfect and I keep rereading it over and over!

It's lead me to read similar books or more of the same author.

I often feel like books I've read are more than 4 Hearts but not quite 5 so in comes 4½ hearts!
I definitely feel like 4½ hearts is needed as I always find myself struggling with my ratings, I imagine 4½ will be like an A and 5 like an A*!

Out!

 

2½ Hearts

 I liked aspects of it but something really put me off... 

I rarely use 2 or 2½ as a rating so it makes sense to combine 2 and 2½ into one rating!

 

I'm looking forward to implementing this new rating!

I'm going to do a mini series of posts on ratings and reviewing etc. just to make my new rating system more open and concise.
 

Let me know what you think!

Much Love!

Lettie

Xxx