RAE’S READS

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This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

Author: Rae Longest

  • MAY 12-18 IS NATIONAL ‘READING IS FUN’ WEEK

    Reading is Fun Week has been around since 1979, a time when I was teaching seventh graders who ranged from loving to read to hating it. Since they had a forty-five minute English class to cover grammar, composition, and literature, my forty-five minute class’s purpose was to motivate and encourage students to read. We dealt…

  • BAREFOOT DREAMS OF PEDRA LUNA by Alda P. Dobbs: A Review

    Up front, let me say that the copy I read was provided by the author with absolutely no strings attached. The opinions voiced here are strictly my own. Twelve-year-old Petra Luna was happy living with her abuela in a small town in Mexico. Although her mother had died, things were going right in her life–until…

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    The Tuesday Teaser “game” asks readers to copy a couple of sentences from their current read to “tease” other readers to read the same book. Today’s T T is from Alda B. Dobbs’ Barefoot Dreams. WHOOPS! I placed it in my Little Free Library after lunch, not remembering I hadn’t copied my “lines” for TT,…

  • MONDAY GROUCH

    I don’t know if it was the Dewey’s 19 hours of reading I did or what, but I have no desire to read anything. I didn’t even post my Sunday Summary even though I had a brand new header for it, as you can see. So, to catch up, I’ll steal a page (or image)…

  • SATURDAY MORNING FOR KIDS/ THE CLASSIC CLUB

    Just as Saturday morning TV programing was reserved for kids, Saturday mornings on PWR bring recommendations for kids’ reading. Today’s recommendation also happens to be my April selection for The Classics Club, a kid’s classic, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. After a young girl’s parents are killed in India, she is sent to…

  • A FAREWELL TO NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, APRIL 2021

    I have enjoyed being more aware of and reading more poetry this year than ever before. Although I miss celebrating in person with my students during April classes, I did enjoy holding the poetry contest for my online students, and I am happy to report that all three winners were mailed their copies of home…

  • POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY, April 29th

    Originally posted on Literacy and Me: Today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day Carry a poem in your pocket today and share it! To celebrate Poem in MY Pocket Day today, I plan to carry a very short poem in my pocket and meditate on it all day. I will have copies of it…

  • NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, 3 Days left

    One of my reading goals for 2021 was to read more poetry. Thanks to Dewey’s 24 Hr. Readathon and a gift book from a friend, I have been able to do just that. One of the books I finished during Dewey’s last Saturday was Margaret Atwood’s Dearly. I have always had great respect for Atwood…

  • NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, 4 days left

    Today’s poems are from a current collection by Rupi Kaur entitled home body. It was recommended to me by a blogger friend, and I liked it so much I made a copy part of the prize for my Advanced Writing class poetry contest this month. READ A POEM TONIGHT!

  • DEWEY’S 24 HR. READATHON, STATS

    GOALS ACCOMPLISHED I had hoped to “finish several books that are in progress.” I finished two that I had already started. I wanted to read any books checked out of the library that were “lying around the house.” There were no library books at home after I turned in Adam Grant’s Originals on Friday. I…