From Romance to Research: Our Summer Reading Picks for Teachers [Episode 264]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 264 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research-based and teacher-approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:36
Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking all about summer reading. It’s a fun one, plus we’ve got a teacher-approved tip for turning reading into a celebration.

Heidi 0:48
But first, let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try right away. Emily, what’s our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:55
This week, if you haven’t already, you should download the Libby app. So, if you haven’t heard of it, because you live under a rock or something, well, Heidi only heard about it recently, so.

Heidi 1:06
No, that’s not true. I did know about it, I just didn’t have it.

Emily 1:09
That’s true, that’s true. Okay, well, Libby is a free app that connects to your local library and lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks. So you sign in with your library card, and you can browse the library’s whole digital collection, and check things out the same way that you would in person, except it all happens on your phone.

Heidi 1:26
And it really is actually free. It’s not one of those things that you have to like put in your credit card to get a trial of. The library pays for the licenses, so you’re not pirating anything. All of the authors are getting paid, you just read the books, and you don’t have to pay anything.

Emily 1:39
Yeah, you may have to wait a while to get the book you want, that is the risk of that. So, my tip is to always have your holds maxed out, however many holds your library has, have that many waiting, so that you’re more likely to always have something to read, although it does tend to be that you get three or four holds up at the exact same time.

Heidi 2:01
That’s how it works all the time.

Emily 2:03
Yeah, well, you can read on your phone or your tablet through the app, and you can listen to the audiobooks in the app, and if you have a Kindle, you can send the ebook directly to your Kindle to read it there, which is so nice. But yes, just be aware about if it’s a popular book, especially, it’s going to have a waitlist. But sometimes that also means they recently bought more, or they’re gonna buy more while you’re on the wait list, so sometimes you get off of it faster than you think.

Heidi 2:28
And if you don’t have a library card, this is your sign, and no judgment, because I just barely got my library card. And so you can join me in starting with Libby this summer. I’ve only had it a few weeks, and I’ve already read a ton more than I usually do.

Emily 2:41
I know it’s so nice when they’re just there and they’re free.

Heidi 2:45
And every day you get like a little surprise, like, “Oh, my hold came up.”

Emily 2:48
Yes, such a treat. Yeah. Well, if you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five-star rating? Ratings and reviews are one way that new listeners find us, so every rating and review really means a lot to us and is a huge help.

Heidi 3:05
Okay, we are going to try something a little bit different today.

Emily 3:09
Yes, we are. So, since books are such a big part of summer fun, at least for us, or for you if you’re doing your summer right, we are dedicating today’s episode to reading, so we’re going to be sharing some of our recent faves and what’s on our summer to be read lists. And don’t worry about writing everything down, because we will have all the links in the show notes.

Heidi 3:31
Plus we will be talking about a special book that we are pretty excited about, but before we get to that, why don’t you kick things off with one of your book recommendations, Emily?

Emily 3:41
Okay, my first recommendation is my most favorite book of the year so far, and that is One and Only by Maurene Goo. I hope that’s how you pronounce it. And it is about a Korean American named Cassia Park, who lives in Los Angeles, where she works for the family matchmaking business. So, the secret to their success is that for centuries the women in her family have been able to peer into the past lives of their clients to find their fated true love, and Cassie has known who her fated is for 10 years, but she hasn’t met him yet, and now she’s almost 40, but she does meet a younger man named Ellis, who is handsome and wonderful, but he’s not her fated. So I just got such a kick out of this book. It didn’t go the way I thought it was gonna go. It really surprised me how much I enjoyed it. And I do love a book with some magical realism.

Heidi 4:27
That is one of my favorites too. I have not seen this book anywhere. I’m gonna grab that.

Emily 4:39
You’re missing out. It’s good.

Heidi 4:41
I’ll put it on as one of my Libby holds.

Emily 4:42
There you go. All right, what’s your first recommendation?

Heidi 4:46
Okay, my first recommendation is also a little bit of magical realism, but historical romance. This is The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton, and I read another of India Holton’s, that, what is it, The Ornithologist Field Guide to Love? She’s got such a fun, unique voice. It’s very, very dry humor. Just picture like uptight Victorian ladies who are, you know, the the prim and proper auntie who’s worried about her young niece catching cold if she goes out without her shawl on, but they’re, they’re also pirates. They’re not at all concerned that she’s covered in gunpowder, and a grenade just came launching through the window.

Emily 5:31
Oh, this sounds amazing.

Heidi 5:32
Prim and proper Society of Lady Pirates in Victorian England, and they have houses that fly, so instead of ships, they sail their houses around.

Emily 5:42
Obviously.

Heidi 5:43
It is just so crazy and so silly and so fun. If you like historical fiction with a little bit of romance and just want to have a fun time, this, this is the book.

Emily 5:55
Well, this is already on my TBR, so I’m glad to hear that it’s a good one.

Heidi 5:59
Yes, and I got it through Libby. Hey, look at that.

Emily 6:03
All right, I’ll put it on my holds. I think I have one open spot.

Heidi 6:06
That came up pretty quick. I only barely put it on the other day, and I already got it. It came up really fast. So, yeah, okay. Emily, give us another one.

Emily 6:14
Well, I’m going to share a teaching book recommendation. If you want a teaching book to inspire you this summer, and that is The Joyful Classroom by Lynn Bechtel and Kristen Vincent. So this is a great read for inspiration and guidance on how to make your class more joyful, so that your students are more engaged and challenged. And this is important because the research supports that students learn more when they’re engaged, and when students are engaged, your job is much more fun. And we feel really strongly about that, which ties into the special book we’ll be sharing later. But Joyful Classroom was also worth a read.

Heidi 6:53
Yeah, I really like that one, and I appreciated that it wasn’t very dense, so it was very clear, practical takeaways, lots that you could take from it, but it didn’t feel like a slog to get through. It wasn’t super heavy and like research language that was hard to navigate. It was just, it was written to help teachers, and that was very clear. And I think so often we underestimate how important it is to enjoy your job.

Emily 7:16
Yeah.

Heidi 7:17
But it is important to enjoy your job.

Emily 7:19
I think that’s a big key with teacher burnout is that if you don’t even like it, you’re going to get burned out so much faster, because there’s already a million things to help burn you out as a teacher. So, at least if you could have the teaching part be something you enjoy, that’s the goal.

Heidi 7:34
Yes, absolutely.

Emily 7:35
Well, did you have a teaching book you want to share?

Heidi 7:38
Yes. So, the one I am recommending is called Classroom Engagement: The Unwritten Code by Jen Foster. And again, I like this for the same reason I like The Joyful Classroom, is that it’s just full of really practical takeaways that are easy to consume. If you’re reading a professional development book on your personal time, you don’t want to have to wade through all of the research summaries to get to the good stuff.

Emily 8:02
Yeah.

Heidi 8:03
You just want, what do I need to know for tomorrow, or for back to school to make this year easier. And this book is laid out really clearly. It’s very easy to navigate. The content is broken down in a way that makes sense, so it’s, highly recommend that one if you want teacher development, classroom management, but not any of the stress.

Emily 8:25
That sounds like a great read. I’ll add that to my list too.

Heidi 8:29
Okay. Emily, what is your third recommendation for us?

Emily 8:31
Okay, I actually had a hard time narrowing it down to only three. This was hard, but based on what I was most blown away by this year, my third recommendation is Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser, and this is a Cinderella retelling, which I do like a fairy tale retelling, but I also think they’re hard to do well. So I was kind of not sure that this was gonna work, and this is told from the eyes of the evil stepmother in Cinderella, and I feel like I should say that evil is in quotation marks. And I really was worried this is going to be predictable, because you know the Cinderella story, but that wasn’t true at all, and it wasn’t completely faithful to, like, the Disney version of Cinderella. There was a lot more, you know, ability to change the story a little bit. And I feel like it just tells a really interesting tale of the lengths a mother will go to for her children and also how powerful a strong ambitious woman can be, so, and this book is a debut novel from this author, which is pretty incredible, because it’s an amazing book and it’s getting really good reviews.

Heidi 9:42
Well, that’s interesting. I love a good retelling.

Emily 9:44
Yeah, you’ll have to read it. It’s good.

Heidi 9:46
Okay, I’m kind of picturing Lady Featherington from Bridgerton.

Emily 9:49
Yes, yes, in some ways yes, but I would say a little more willing to get her hands dirty, that maybe.

Heidi 9:58
Oh, okay.

Emily 9:59
She, you know, Mrs. Featherington is not so much. Lady Featherington, not Mrs. She’s a lady, right? Isn’t she a lady?

Heidi 10:06
Yeah.

Emily 10:07
All right. What’s your third recommendation?

Heidi 10:09
This has to come with a caveat that I don’t know how it ends. I was listening to this on Spotify, and Spotify only gives you so many hours a month.

Emily 10:18
Oh, yes.

Heidi 10:19
So I’m not to the end yet, but so far I really enjoy this.

Emily 10:23
Well I’ve read to the end, so I can say that the ending is good.

Heidi 10:26
Okay, phew. Emily can vouch for this. This is called How to Write a Love Story. It is by Catherine Walsh, and the only other books I’ve read by Catherine Walsh have been Christmas ones, and I’ve loved her Christmas books. They take place in Ireland, and they’re, you know, just full of heart, nothing too racy or scandalous.

Emily 10:41
Yes, you’ll get the swears, but.

Heidi 10:43
Yes, Irish are sweary. Yeah, nothing too heartbreaking happens, but it’s also not mind-numbingly boring, like this happens, but you’re not, you know, in agony over it. So, this is the story of a young woman whose father wrote a famous fantasy novel series, and he died before the final book could be published, and so the publisher wants her to write this final book, and she is really struggling. I cannot blame her, that would be an impossible task. And so the publisher sends over an editor to help her, and wouldn’t you know he’s young and handsome and full of ideas. Hijinks may ensue.

Emily 11:24
Yes, and it’s got that small town feel of this cute little town in Ireland, and the people in it, like, it’s a good one. I really liked, I just love Catherine Walsh. All the books I’ve read from her, I really like.

Heidi 11:35
Just so fun.

Emily 11:37
Okay, so we still have our TBRs to share, but hopefully we have given you some good ideas for titles to add to your TBR list, but of course we have to mention our very top recommendation, which is Structure and Spark, a flexible framework to manage every classroom curveball, which we wrote, so we may be biased.

Heidi 11:57
Yeah, we wrote a book, I still can’t believe it, and it comes out August 18. We’re so excited, so excited. We’ve been working on this since November of 2024, so it’s been a long time.

Emily 12:11
Yeah.

Heidi 12:11
And the book walks you step by step through the seasons of the school year with specific examples of ways to adjust your management to meet the particular needs of that season.

Emily 12:22
And by season we do not mean winter, spring, summer, and fall. We mean the specific seasons that we have identified that the teacher experiences throughout the school year. And once you’re aware of them, you can be prepared for them, so you won’t be caught off guard again by the spring fever chattiness. You’ll know it’s coming, and you’ll have a plan for exactly how to address it, so you can pre-order the book now and be ready to go this school year.

Heidi 12:50
And we know that every author says this, but pre-orders really, really do matter. The publisher is already tracking totals, so we would love to get that number as high as possible.

Emily 13:01
Yes, we are so grateful to any of you who pre-order, and as a thank you for anyone who does, we’ve got some bonuses for you. So, let’s tell you about the bonuses. So, the first one is our Spark Vault, and this is a collection of small ways that you can add Spark to your day when you need a little energy to add to your lesson, or something to get your students engaged again. We’ve got the vault of ideas that you can just quickly grab something that will help you when your Tuesday afternoon is dragging.

Heidi 13:33
And then, you know, because we love a podcast around here, we are creating a special private podcast companion listening series, so we will walk you through the book season by season, and give you lots of extra support and ideas to go along with that season, and ways you can implement those ideas in your classroom. And you know the bonus of a podcast is you can just listen wherever you happen to be in the summer, so you don’t have to make time to sit down and really pay attention, because we’re going to go along with you.

Emily 14:01
Yes, and our third bonus is the Structure and Spark Coach. So, if you like using AI, we have a custom AI tool that is trained on our framework. So, when your class is bouncing off the walls and you can’t tell whether this is a structure problem or a Spark problem, you can describe what’s happening, and the coach will help you sort it out and point you to some ideas of what to try, so it’s kind of like a diagnostic version of what you’ll learn in the book, so it’s good to have both. They will work well together.

Emily 14:34
And then the final bonus is time in the Teacher Approved Club, where we use this structure and Spark framework every month, and the earlier you pre-order, the longer you get for free in the club. So, if you pre-order by June 15, which is today, you will get three months free in the club. If you preorder by July 15, you get two months free, and if you pre-order by August 17, which is the day before our book comes out, you get one month free in the Teacher Approved Club.

Heidi 15:03
You can check out the link in the show notes, or visit secondstorywindow.net/book to find all of the details and all of the ways to order your copy.

Emily 15:13
Okay, now let’s get to our TBRs. Heidi, what’s one of the books on your TBR?

Heidi 15:18
Okay, well, since we’re talking teaching, one of the books I want to read this summer is called The Together Teacher by Maya Hake Merlin, and I did start this last summer, but you know, life got busy and I put it away, and but I really want to get back to it, because the ideas are so good. So it’s all about how to organize your teaching life, but the ideas are so valuable that I, even though I’m not in the classroom right now, there were very actionable takeaways that I need in my own life.

Emily 15:46
Oh.

Heidi 15:46
You start by kind of looking at your, what your ideal, realistically ideal week would look like, and then what systems have to be in place to make that happen. And then figuring out how to put break those systems down into the parts that they need, and then how to put those into action in your life. So, it’s really, I love that it works big picture down to like granular detail, and then it walks you step by step through how all of these pieces work together. If you are in the classroom, I think this could be such a valuable resource, and even if you’re not, like I said, there’s tons of good time management, material management, life management tips in there that I found really helpful. So I’m excited to get back to that. I just pulled it out today. All my post-it notes are sticking out of it, ready to dive in.

Emily 16:33
Well, that sounds like an excellent read.

Heidi 16:35
Yes, highly recommend. Okay, Emily, what is top on your TBR list?

Emily 16:40
Well, for a teaching book, I have Do I Have Your Attention: Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning by Blake Harvard. So, I just really love learning about the science of learning and the way your brain works to handle information and your memory. I just find that so fascinating, and I think it’s really important for us as teachers to understand, so we can tailor our teaching to those findings, and I just think this sounds like a really promising read.

Heidi 17:09
Yeah, that does sound interesting. I’ll have to check that out.

Emily 17:11
Yeah, what’s next on your TBR?

Heidi 17:14
Okay, so next up is the book, The Smallest of Joys by Diane Shiffer, and if you’re like me, maybe you already followed Diane on Instagram or TikTok. Her name on there is ShifferDiane, I think it’s her username. And if you haven’t met Diane, you are in for a treat. She is the loveliest woman in the whole wide world. She calls herself like a vintage Nana. She says her style guru is Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show.

Emily 17:43
You know what, that tracks.

Heidi 17:45
She loves wearing, you know, vintage dresses from the 30s and 40s, and her home is, you know, decorating these lovely vintage linens, and she just, it’s just sunshine and sunlight and warmth and a big hug on your screen. And this is her new book that came out. I actually pre-ordered it, but I haven’t had a chance to listen yet. And, of course, I had to get the audio book, because I want to hear her read it to me, because her laugh is just like a warm cup of a hug, like you’re drinking a hug. It’s so darling. So, I had to get the audio book. I thought the book was going to be like a memoir, but it’s actually just short essays about her thoughts on life, and she kind of moves through the year about, you know, lessons from winter and lessons from spring. And so I’m really excited to dive into that, because she is such a lovely person. So, and getting to spend time with her sounds like a treat.

Emily 18:36
Well, I will definitely be anxious to hear what you think about. I’m sure you’ll love it, because she is a treat. I would love to check that one out.

Heidi 18:45
Definitely. Okay, Emily, what is next on your TBR?

Emily 18:48
I’ve got Dolly All the Time by Annabelle Monahan. So, I have loved all of Annabelle’s other books, and this one is getting excellent reviews. Everyone I’ve heard from has raved about it, and I don’t know a ton about the story, but I do believe it’s a fake dating story, which I’m not gonna lie, that’s my favorite trope. But it’s hard to do well.

Heidi 19:09
Yes, it’s adjacent to, like, marriage of convenience, but it makes more sense in the modern world. I haven’t read any Annabelle Monahan, she has really bright covers, right?

Emily 19:18
Yes. Oh, you’ve got to, they’re good.

Heidi 19:21
Yeah. Okay. Well, now I’ve got Libby. I have so many more options.

Emily 19:25
All right. What’s your last book on your TBR?

Heidi 19:29
Okay. Well, this is another magical realism one. This is The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston. So, the premise is the new head gardener, a young woman moves to this enchanting Lily Moore house to take care of this old home, and she stumbles upon a secret garden that has a door that, like, vanishes and reappears, but never in the same place twice, and when she goes through it, she finds this secret garden that happens to have a mystery man trapped inside of it.

Emily 19:56
As we all do.

Heidi 19:59
So I loved The Seven Year Slip from her.

Emily 20:03
Yes.

Heidi 20:03
And last year, what was the one we read last year?

Emily 20:05
I can’t remember what it was called. It was like she kind of gets stuck in a town from a book she’s read, so like a fictional town, right? Isn’t that the premise?

Heidi 20:14
No, it was the song. She could, she and her like rival songwriter guy could hear the same song, like could hear each other’s thoughts.

Emily 20:24
Yes.

Heidi 20:24
I think it started, they could hear the same song, and then they could start hearing each other’s thoughts as they collaborate to write this song.

Emily 20:29
Well, the book town one is another one by her. I know that’s one of her books, and all her books have magical realism in them.

Heidi 20:36
Yeah, so the one with the song was Sounds Like Love, and the trapped in the fictional romance town was A Novel Love Story.

Emily 20:44
Yes, yes, yes.

Heidi 20:45
And I bought The Dead Romantics, but I haven’t read that one yet. I’m saving that. That felt like a fall read.

Emily 20:51
Yeah, that’s one I haven’t read yet either. But I have liked her other ones. They’re fun.

Heidi 20:56
Yeah, I like magical realism because it’s a way to up the stakes without having to necessarily up the trauma.

Emily 21:03
Yes, and there’s usually less world building than a true fantasy book.

Heidi 21:10
Yes, also that. If you’re listening to this episode the day it comes out, this book comes out tomorrow. So I’m very excited, I got it pre-ordered, so I’m ready to go.

Emily 21:19
Fun.

Heidi 21:20
Okay, Emily, what is your last recommendation for us?

Emily 21:23
Okay, my last one is another one that I’ve been seeing get tons of good reviews, and that is This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page. It makes me wonder if that is a pen name.

Heidi 21:34
Yeah, it might be.

Emily 21:35
So, this one’s about Tilly Nightingale, who finds out there’s a birthday gift waiting for her at her local bookstore from her husband, which is surprising, because he died four months ago. But he had left her 12 books, one for each month, to help her in the first year without him. So she sets off on a year of bookish adventures, and she’s vlogging it as she goes. It has lots of good reviews, and it sounds really sweet, so I’m excited to listen to that.

Heidi 22:03
That sounds like a good one, and hopefully you’ve gotten lots of new books to add to your TBR, and we would love to hear what you’re reading this summer, so you can come join the conversation in our Teacher Approve Facebook group.

Emily 22:15
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters, and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher-approved tip is plan a summer reading celebration. What do you got, Heidi?

Heidi 22:27
Well, the idea for this comes from one of our favorite Christmas traditions, which is the Jolabokaflod, and that is the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books on Christmas Eve, and then spending the night reading and eating chocolate. Really, it is a highlight for us, and we’ve adapted it to where we usually do it on December 23 because 24th is crazy for us. But we eat lunch, and then we just spend the afternoon reading for as long as the kids will stay focused.

Emily 22:54
Which last year was pretty long.

Heidi 22:55
Yeah, they, they’re getting bigger.

Emily 22:58
They’re getting bigger, they liked their new books.

Heidi 23:00
Yeah, that helps, but I think this idea could adapt really well to summer. Maybe you let everyone pick out a new book at the library or the bookstore, and you grab some snacks, and then you can just go home, and everyone enjoys a relaxing afternoon or evening of reading in the air conditioning. It’s too hot to be outside.

Emily 23:17
Yeah, so when it’s too hot, then you can make being inside extra special. It’s an event. And guess what? National Book Lovers Day is august 9, so that would be the perfect day to do this.

Heidi 23:28
There you go, it’s all set up.

Heidi 23:30
All right, to wrap up the show, we’re sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 23:35
Well, to stay on theme, I’m giving extra credit to my Kindle stand. So we’ve already given extra credit to our Kindle page turner remotes that we both got from our mom a while back. Well, the Kindle stand takes the remote to the next level. Mine has a base that sits on the floor, and then a stand with an adjustable arm, so I can arrange it to hold my Kindle over my bed while I’m so cozy under my covers, and I can just click the remote to turn the pages, and I don’t have to take my arm out of the warm blanket to tap the screen. It is for sure ridiculous, but neither the stand or the remote are particularly expensive, but they make the Kindle reading experience so much better. And also, the stand will hold other things like your phone and things like that, so it’s not only for a Kindle.

Heidi 24:24
And what I like, I mean, this actually is a practical tool, because we both have arthritis in our hands, like the old ladies we are, and you would think, like holding a book or holding a Kindle, actually really hurts after a while, so this is just a way to make that easier, and you get to stay snug and cozy, so that’s another bonus.

Emily 24:41
Yes, you can choose to be lazy even if you don’t have arthritis. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 24:48
Well, my extra credit goes to the Reading Journey app.

Emily 24:52
I just downloaded this.

Heidi 24:53
Okay, good. Now, I don’t like Goodreads. I kind of was on there years ago, but I just, I don’t like it. Because probably because there’s just too many people I don’t want to have to show my reading to other people.

Emily 25:04
Yes.

Heidi 25:04
So I really haven’t seriously tracked my reading, but I’ve noticed it because most of my reading is either ebooks or audiobooks. Without the cover, I’m really having a hard time remembering which books I have read, because you just don’t have that visual reminder. So last year I decided I need to start keeping track of what I read, and so I bought this cozy little Google sheet library that builds little libraries. You like every time you finish a book, it adds a little book to the your library, which I love for that to be an app, because I didn’t find it easy to use on my phone.

Heidi 25:41
So this year I set out on a quest to find a good reading tracking app. I’ve been trying out four different ones, and of the four, Reading Journey is by far my favorite. It has a really nice interface, it’s easy to navigate, and I will put a link into the show notes if you want to see it. I don’t know if it’s available on Android, I have it for iPhone, but it’s worth checking out. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles that some of the other apps do, but I am using the free version, so maybe there’s more in the paid. And then of the other apps I’m trying, Fable is probably my second favorite. It has a nice interface, but it does seem more geared toward connecting you with people. I don’t really care what anyone else is reading, and I don’t want anyone else to see what I’m reading. Make it sound like I’m reading salacious novels. I just don’t want to have to explain it.

Emily 26:27
Yes.

Heidi 26:27
And then the two that I have not enjoyed are Bookmory and Story Graph. I found them both kind of hard to navigate. Bookmory actually pops up with ads because I’m using the free version.

Emily 26:40
Yeah, I didn’t like Bookmory either.

Heidi 26:42
No, and I have logged, I think, 25 books now in all of these apps, and every single time Bookmory makes me like so frustrated because I can’t figure it out, like I can get it uploaded, I can’t get the thing to work, I can’t get the rating on it, just, yeah, so don’t like that. And StoryGraph is fine, but it’s kind of hard to navigate, and it’s not very pretty.

Emily 27:04
I like all the data you get from Story Graph, that’s what it’s good for, but I feel like a lot of the other things, it’s not really good for that, so.

Heidi 27:11
Yeah, and I do find it tricky in Story Graph, if I want to see, like, all of the books I’ve read so far this year, surprisingly hard to find. I can see the genres and all the pages and everything, but yeah, so that’s Heidi’s recommendations.

Emily 27:26
What I liked about Reading Journey is the cute widget you can get on your screen that has like a bookshelf that shows what you’re reading. Did you know you can do that?

Heidi 27:36
No!

Emily 27:36
Yes, so it like puts a little like rectangular bookshelf onto your screen, and then it has what you’re currently reading on the bookshelf.

Heidi 27:44
Oh, that’s really fun.

Emily 27:45
So, I’ll show you how to do it.

Heidi 27:47
Okay, yeah. I look forward to that. Trying to decide if I want to get the upgrade. I missed the days where you could buy an app and just own it instead of having to pay for it every single year.

Emily 27:55
Yeah.

Heidi 27:56
So that’s my hang up with that one.

Heidi 27:59
Well, that is it for today’s episode. Thank you for coming with us on this ride and this experiment. Hopefully, we’ve got some new ideas for books that you can put on hold at the library, so you can enjoy reading all summer long.

Emily 28:09
And don’t forget to add our book, Structure and Spark, to your list.

Heidi 28:16
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 28:20
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 28:26
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 28:33
Bye.