books and breezes

Retired K-5 LMT. Sharing my passion for reading and literacy. DEI-focused. Let kids read what they want to read. Views mine.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

“I need 20 on 3!”

[Natalia Marcos @cakivi]

Vi este capítulo de 'Widow's Bay' hace unos días y no paro de pensar en esta escena. Pasas del terror y reírte a carcajadas de lo absurdo que termina siendo todo. Y no acaba con el vídeo del tuit. Maravilla

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

“I need 20 on 3” is my new favorite ear worm

[i am superwholost @slayercomma]

@GeonnCannon I hope she got some actually edible food after her stressful night

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

And the reason for the shift is rooted in politics, not Scripture.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

James Talarico: “The Southern Baptist Convention was pro-choice until the late 1970’s. This idea that to be a Christian means you have to be anti-gay and anti-abortion, there really is no historical theological biblical basis for that opinion”

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

Absolutely phenomenal book. One of my high recommends.

[黛（Mayuzumi） @JPstock_L @drbillen_the110]

🏆 Winner: ⬇️⬇️⬇️

(But first comment BOOKS for a link to the top 5 runner-up books)

🏆 Winner:
After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat

Teachers love this book because it helps kids:

-build inference skills

-build emotion...

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

@tubpumpkin Totally agree 👍

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

I love the Unreliable Narrator trope and also that she was a hot mess. The ending didn’t stand up for me.

[The RazzDazzler @tubpumpkin]

@BarryPierce I just finished this book last night and I thought it was really good. I’m not understanding why people hate it so much? Can you guys just not read a MC you’re supposed to hate? Or are we not down for laughing at tradwives or what?

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

I reallllllly wanted to like this one. And I did. Until the end. When a story doesn’t stick the landing it feels like the whole thing was a waste of time.

[barry pierce @BarryPierce]

In case you’re wondering what it’s like to work in a bookshop at the moment…

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

We need to stop equating stupidity with confusion. He isn’t confused. He isn’t “cognitively declined”. He is that stupid. He is the donkey at the high stakes table.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

🚨TRUMP IS CONFUSED ABOUT THE PRIMARY

Trump just said “I don’t care about the midterms” because Republicans winning last night means voters are happy with the war. Of course Republicans won… IT WAS A PRIMARY.

Trump, 80, is genuinely confused about what election happened. Wow.

[Kevin McLeod @bannon1975]

Children are not refusing to read.
They are refusing the books they are being handed.
When researchers asked disengaged readers in Scotland what would make them read more, the answer was not more phonics lessons.
Not more reading tests. Not more reading records sent home.
Books linked to their interests. Books they actually chose. Books that looked worth opening.
If you're not in Scotland, is this the same conversation happening in your country?
Source: National Literacy Trust 2025 Annual Literacy Survey

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

Couldn’t agree more

[Goodreads @goodreads]

a book, a breeze, and absolutely nowhere to be

[Freyy @Freyy_is]

there was something beautiful about library checkout cards because you could literally see the history of human curiosity attached to a book. like a tiny ghost trail of strangers connected by the same story.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

This could happen a lot more often if we do away with AR.

[Kevin McLeod @bannon1975]

There is a moment, and it doesn't always announce itself, when a reluctant reader stops being reluctant. You don't notice it happening.
You just notice, weeks later, that they've stopped complaining about reading.
That they're finishing books. That they're asking for the next one.
That moment was always coming.
We just had to stay out of its way.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

She’s the reason Blithe Spirit is one of my favorites 🧡

[Margaret Rutherford @DameRutherford]

Remembering the brilliant @DameRutherford 54 years after her passing. No moment captures her inimitable charm better than her delightful unscripted twist-dancing scene in MURDER AT THE GALLOP (1963) where she effortlessly out-danced the younger crowd and won our hearts forever.🌹

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

This all day long. ⬇️

[Lisa Marie Newton @LisaMarieNewton]

@clharrington024 If you don't want your kid to read graphic novels, that's your right as a parent. But let's realize that reading is reading, whether it's a graphic novel, a shampoo bottle, or a cereal box. ALL reading increases literacy.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

@clharrington024 A whole lotta data out there that suggests otherwise. Graphic novels provide visual literacy, make books and stories accessible for neurodivergent readers, improve stamina, and appeal to otherwise reluctant readers.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

The beauty of reading is that every reader has their own unique relationship with a book - we each bring our own life experiences, ideas, beliefs, and interests along for the ride. So it isn’t the same book for everyone. It’s why I love it so much.

[Sue♡ @bookslattes]

Finishing a book and loving it….just to find out everyone hates it and apparently it’s written at a fourth grade reading level.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Very well written essay on the MAGA voter. This is what we are up against.

Sam is 61 years old and lives in a town where the Applebee’s closed in 2014 and people still mention it like it was a natural disaster. The old factory shut down years ago, but Sam keeps his faded employee badge in a kitchen drawer because he considers it proof that America peaked sometime around 1987, right between the release of Top Gun and the invention of low-flow toilets. He firmly believes the country began collapsing the moment they stopped letting people smoke in restaurants and started putting kale in things.

He wakes up every morning at 5:12 a.m., not because he has anywhere to be, but because decades of shift work, untreated sleep apnea, and permanent low-grade outrage have hardwired his body into a permanent state of agitation. He shuffles into the kitchen wearing camouflage pajama pants and a T-shirt that says “I Stand for the Flag” even though he has not stood up quickly without groaning since 2009. He pours himself coffee strong enough to power farm equipment and settles into his recliner to begin his daily ritual of becoming personally offended by things happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. Within half an hour, he is enraged about crime in Chicago, drag queens in Seattle, wind turbines in California, and a college professor in Vermont he has never heard of and never will again.

Sam spends most of his time marinating in an ecosystem of Facebook memes, talk radio, Fox News, chain emails, YouTube clips, and badly designed websites with names like Patriot Eagle Freedom Truth News. By noon, he has shared seven posts warning that America is under attack by socialists, immigrants, vegans, pronouns, electric stoves, and people who use the phrase “lived experience.” He believes every story because every story confirms what he already feels: that the country has been stolen from people like him and handed over to people he does not understand.

Sam is absolutely convinced he is one of the last remaining “real Americans,” despite living in a county entirely populated by people who also think they are the last remaining real Americans. He misses the America of his youth, which in his memory was a magical place where every man had a factory job, every woman made tuna casserole, every child respected authority, and nobody had tattoos, gluten allergies, or opinions about gender. He is nostalgic for a version of the country that mostly exists as a combination of old pickup truck commercials, Toby Keith songs, and stories his grandfather exaggerated after three beers.

His truck is the size of a military vehicle and has never once carried anything heavier than mulch and emotional baggage. His pickup truck is so large that small birds alter their migration patterns to avoid it. The truck has never hauled lumber, gravel, or equipment, but it does haul an enormous amount of political anxiety. The back is covered in bumper stickers warning that he is armed, angry, and deeply suspicious of the federal government, except for when it comes to Medicare, Social Security, highways, farm subsidies, police funding, veterans’ benefits, and keeping its hands off his lawn. He likes to tell people he is “not political,” which is impressive considering his entire personality has become an endless loop of cable news grievances.

He cannot attend a barbecue, church picnic, football game, or grandchild’s birthday party without eventually bringing up inflation, Hunter Biden, gas stoves, “the border,” or how nobody can say Merry Christmas anymore even though literally everyone still says Merry Christmas.

Then Trump arrived, descending from his golden escalator like a casino-themed prophet sent by God to sell steaks and grievance. Sam had finally found his perfect candidate: a billionaire from Manhattan with multiple mansions, gold-plated bathrooms, and a private jet, who somehow convinced Sam that he understood the pain of a man screaming at the self-checkout machine in Walmart.

Trump was loud, angry, theatrical, and constantly under investigation, which only made Sam admire him more. Every lawsuit, scandal, or indictment was not evidence of wrongdoing. It was proof that Trump was fighting the deep state, the media, the elites, the globalists, the FBI, the Democrats, the RINOs, and possibly the ghost of George Soros.

Every scandal, every lawsuit, every indictment, every accusation became proof that Trump was fighting the corrupt establishment on behalf of “real Americans” like Sam.

At this point, Sam does not support Trump because of policy details. He supports Trump because Trump has become the human embodiment of his anger, nostalgia, confusion, and Facebook feed. Trump says the world Sam remembers can come back, that the people Sam dislikes can be punished, and that all of Sam's frustrations are someone else’s fault.

To Sam, Trump is no longer just a politician. He is a lifestyle brand. He is a martyr, a warrior, a stand-up comedian, a victim, a patriot, and the lead singer of a traveling grievance festival. Sam owns at least three Trump hats, two Trump flags, a Trump coffee mug, a “Never Surrender” T-shirt, and a giant “Let’s Go Brandon” sign in the garage that he insists is “not political, just funny.”

For Sam, that is not politics. That is therapy. Trump is not just a candidate anymore; he is an emotional support billionaire.

He is a spray-tanned security blanket with a private jet. He is the gold-plated, fast-food-fueled mascot Sam clings to whenever the modern world feels confusing, threatening, or insufficiently patriotic.

Trump gives him a ready-made explanation for every disappointment in his life: it is not aging, bad luck, economic change, or his own choices; it is the immigrants, the liberals, the media, the globalists, the vegans, the people with pronouns, and whoever is ruining Christmas this week.

Supporting Trump lets Sam believe there is still someone out there fighting for him.

[books and breezes @FredLibrarian]

He can shop there if he wants. I’m still not going to. It’s been over a year and I don’t miss it.

[rolandsmartin @rolandsmartin]

BREAKING NEWS: The more than 400-day Black-led national faith-based fast of @target has come to a close, Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant announced today in Washington, DC. The news conference is being streamed live now on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the Black Star Network https://t.co/RU5lJBzETK

[Barry Rosen @brosen1501]

From my own life experience as a hostage in Iran for 444 days, I know how fragile safety can be--and how precious our rights are, especially now that we are plunged into war with Iran.
I am outraged that a woman, one who I know, who has
lived her entire life in the United States--adopted as a toddler by an American military family in Iran---now faces deportation to Iran, of all countries, because of a bureaucratic visa technicality.
She has no criminal record, has lived in in California communities, paid taxes, more than contributed to the fabric of this nation, and calls this country her home. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security says she must removed because she technically "overstayed" a visa from the age of 4.
"She has fought for nearly two decades to fix her status within the system--always above board, asking for no shortcuts--but she fears her next court hearing later this month" may "almost certainly result in detention and deportation."
She has said," I'm struggling and fighting so hard to keep this life in America that I love and deserve...It's such a betrayal to my dad and to myself to send me back to a country where I was just an orphan baby."
This is beyond unjust--it is cruel. She does not even remember Iran, a country she left as a child, and where as a Christian she could be persecuted, imprisoned, or worse under Iranian law that treats apostasy as crime punishable by severe penalties and even death.
How can we call oursleves a nation of justice and compassion when we tear apart someone who is, in very sense an American?
This isn't immigation enforcement--it is punishment of an innocent woman who belongs here. If we allow this to happen, we are not enforcing the law--we are abandoning our humanity.
Where is the outrage? Where is the national coverage?
If we allow this to happen, we are abandoning the very values we claim to stand for.

[Everton Blair, Jr. @evertonblairjr]

As a former math teacher, I can tell you this: no teacher can fix a system that sends kids to class hungry, over-policed, and under-insured. We need funding, counselors, nurses, libraries, and housing. The test score is not the starting point. It is the result.