Sharing stories with children is such a privilege; helping them discover a love for reading is why being a librarian is the best job ever!  This year at Mt. Carmel Elementary, our students are stepping up to a new library reading challenge to become Genre Geniuses.  Inspired by author Jackie Mims Hopkins ' book, "Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes" and encouraged by our teachers to revive my former genre reading program of years past, I spent a good bit of my summer modifying the old to blend with new to create this school-wide reading challenge.   The final result has been very exciting!

Students have loved hearing the story of Joe Bright, the Storyteller, and his new found Genre Dude friends and have begun looking at their books with new eyes.  Each of the Genre Dudes tells the reader about his genre and what type of literature they represent in the "Friends of the Forest Library". As a K-3 school, the focus so far has been mainly with 2nd and 3rd graders.  The idea of describing a book within the context of a genre has been quite a discovery to share.  The discussion has spurred excellent questions, which have led to even move questions! Each book identified by genre leads to the consideration of the next.  Connections are sparking and common interest are coming to light.

With this new challenge to read across the genres in our library, the students are earning Genre Brag Tags for reading three books in one genre.  After reading their chosen book and then taking an Accelerated Reader test on it, students then enter information about the book in a Google Form and submit the entry to the librarian using the online form.  Genre Genius Submission Form Initially the form seemed a bit foreboding to students not too familiar with inputting through the keyboard, but with assistance and encouragement the participation has doubled in one week's time (as of 9-3-15).

Parents can help students enter information in the Genre Genius Form by accessing Home Connect Accelerated Reader program.  Most of the information needed to complete the form can be found by viewing the student's "AR Bookshelf" in Home Connect.  Students will need to know how many pages are in their book to complete the form though, so this might require a search for the book on Amazon,com, a trip to the library to search for it on the computer, or remembering to enter this information in their AR Reading Log in the classroom.  To log into Home Connect you can use this link Mt. Carmel HOME CONNECT
 
Each student will receive an document describing the Genre Genius reading challenge and a Genre Dude Tally Sheet that has a description of each genre.  You will notice that there are eight genres listed on the tally sheet.  Although the seven genre dudes story is cute and reminds us of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as their librarian, I have included one more genre, Fantasy, to be sure and cover some of our favorite titles at Mt. Carmel like Clifford, Franklin and Thomas the Tank Engine, because these story lines could not possibly be real but don't fall under the folklore genre or any others represented by the seven genre dudes.  If you misplace your forms, here is a link to the documents stored online and available for sharing with our students and parents:  Genre Genius Forms  Please email me if you have any questions about our Genre Genius Reading Challenge Mrs. Dunning, Library Media Specialist

In closing, I would like to thank my friend and fellow Library Media Specialist, Jane Scott, LMS for Legacy Elementary, for sharing her genre brag tag program with her fellow librarians of Madison County Schools and sharing her time to walk me through the steps she took to set up an online accounting system that could help to manage a large number of participants. It was also wonderful having the support of author, Jackie Mims Hopkins as I worked out the details of adding one more genre to extend her story (she called me personally to discuss the program plans at length) and my students just love to know that the author really cares about their reading.  And finally, I would like to thank John Manders, Illustrator for the support he provided in developing our brag tag design. Although we could not ultimately use his drawings to create the brag tag illustrations, it's a wonderful lesson in copyright to share with the children.  Those illustrations Mr. Manders drew are now the property of Upstart Promotion, the company that published the book, the matching posters, the Genre Dude Trading Cards  Activity guide and Library Lessons that are free to download.