… and scene

How perfect that this week is the final week of the #edublogsclub blogging challenge (a few weeks shy of a full year) and this past weekend I completed the Rae Carson Gold Seer trilogy. Into the Bright Unknown’s book birthday was Thursday, so I dutifully went to the bookstore to pick it up and read as quickly and slowly as possible because I knew it was the end. Likewise, when Edublogs announced several weeks back that they would be finishing out the challenge on week 40, I couldn’t help but be sad too. So I savored prompt 39 and now write slowly for my last one, knowing it will be the last.

Carson’s book was a riveting ending that didn’t quite have the explosions and bang bang shoot ’em up that book number two did nor was it the magic of being introduced to a strong female character, Leah Westfall, in the first (you can never get back that first-read feeling). This book felt mature. It was about each of the ragtag group that trudged through the American west to set up Glory together, all while the pains of prejudice and lawlessness reigned. Carson was so vivid in her descriptions of the west and then California where most of the third book takes place that I actually dreamed of the west.  It was a fitting ending and I won’t spoil it for you here, but there is hopefulness for the future of the fictional characters and a completeness to their story.

There is also hopefulness for the future of my blogging. I flexed the muscle of talking more about education rather than just books and it felt good. While I won’t always post about education and libraries in the future, I will incorporate those thoughts when necessary and in the context of my own professional interests around being a dutiful librarian. And for me, that means reading way more than I could possibly recommend so that I always have something to recommend to every reader. It means coming up with unique programs that keep students engaged and thinking. It means listening to and connecting with the students, our future. Edublogs did rev that engine and I thank them for that. I also connected with another school librarian named Alicia who works at a high school library whose initials are also AHS. You know, same thing: Edublogs inspiring me to be a better educator through blogging and also setting educators up on blind dates. Totally equal.

So, thank you Rae Carson for writing yet another fierce trilogy that made me sad to have to walk away. Luckily, I’ll have the books on my bookshelf as a memory of the good times we had. And thank you Edublogs for inspiring thoughtful dialogue among its practitioners and giving me tons of posts to look back on including these which are my favorites from our time together: 1) Folders, folders everywhere, 2) Creative expression, 3) “So, professional development should…”, 4) The swinging pendulum, and 5) Worth a thousand words.