Caleb's Choice

Wisler, G. Clifton. Caleb's Choice (1996; available in paperback and prebind)
Caleb has a privileged life until his father's bad financial decisions cause his family to lose their home in Galveston, Texas in 1858. He and his mother first travel to stay with an aunt, but when Caleb's cousins give him a rough time and his aunt doesn't want him around, he is sent to his father's parents. While there, he is almost drowned on the river, but saved and nursed back to health by a black man. When he later finds out that his grandmother and cousins are helping fugitive slaves escape, he must decide whether or not he will help them, despite the danger.

This was a rather slow-paced book, and the 90's cover art has made it a hard sell. However, students who enjoy historical fiction (and I have a lot of new 6th graders who do), will enjoy the rich details of every day life during this time period.

This summer I spent a lot of time working in the library and doing library things at home, but I was a little surprised at how much time I spent when I went back through my date book.

Planning and putting the library back together: 50 hours
Interviews and meetings: 10 hours
Helping with cross country: 23 hours
Volunteer hours donated by members of the community, doing work that I would need to do: 30 hours
Reading,working on book orders, blogging: 250 hours

Would I spend the time reading if I weren't a middle school librarian? Probably, but I wouldn't read exclusively young adult and middle grade books. And if I didn't read so much, how would I do my job?

I also spent at least $200 on books and $100 on supplies for the library.