Welcome to my Blog!

It is with great resistance that I have come to have my own blog.  People might say I’m somewhat of an old fashioned girl – I don’t text.  I don’t tweet.  And only recently have I surrendered to the pressure of social media by posting a Facebook Author Fan Page.  Hooray for me leaping into the 21st  Century like that!

My problem is I’m clinging to the past in many ways.  You see, I still have a huge collection of cassette tapes which are unfortunately collecting dust since I don’t have a cassette player in my car anymore.  Many would argue that I should just get rid of my cassettes, but then what would I play in the background if I ever got the urge to do some high-impact aerobics to some fabulous music from the 80’s?  (I should mention here that this is the same reason I still have my leg warmers in a sweater box under my bed.)

So, as you can see, I’m really not blogger material, but I am beginning to feel that if I don’t do something drastic, I may be left behind wearing my leg warmers while rewinding my cassette tapes on an old boom box.

If you were born any time after the 80’s, you have no idea what I’m talking about and may even wonder why you’re reading a blog written by a crazy lady, who is technologically, emotionally, and socially stuck in the past; but not too worry.  I’m not really crazy, maybe a little misguided and awkward, but hopefully everyone can find a little humor in that.

My blog is called Nancy’s Book Bag.  Now if I were a little more 21st Century, I’d probably call it Nancy’s Nook Knapsack or Nancy’s Kindle Carrier; but you know, it’s all about who you are.

The book bag thing works for me because I’m sometimes called the bag lady.  You might be raising your eyebrows and thinking, bag lady?    But not to worry, my bag lady nickname comes from loving bags.  And no, not the really expensive, chic bags that are the latest trend.  I just like bags – shoulder bags, book bags, backpacks – you know the kind that you can get on the cheap at Wal-Mart or K-mart or whatever mart you have near you.  I also like shopping bags, and often when I buy something nice enough and expensive enough to actually warrant a salesperson giving me a real shopping bag, I cherish it.  I’m not kidding.  I love the small ones that are great for putting your lunch in for school.  I love the medium-sized ones that are perfect for returning library books.  And the jumbo ones make it so easy to clean out your closet and take your old clothes to Goodwill.

So anyway, Nancy’s Book Bag is going to be about all sorts of things, mostly things that have to do with books.  I’m an author, teacher, librarian, reader, and parent; and I plan to share tidbits of information about all sorts of things that will interest other authors, teachers, librarians, readers, and parents.

My plan is to be short and sweet – I don’t want to blog, blog, blog.  Everybody’s busy.  There are tons of blogs out there.  Who has time to read all this stuff anyway?  (Besides we should all be outside getting some fresh air.)

So, now that you know who I am and what I want to tell you, I promise to keep it shorter and sweeter from now on.

Coming Attractions:

A Few Great Books and What Makes Them Great
The Importance of the Read Aloud
The Plight of the Struggling Reader
Developing a Community of Readers
Babysitter’s Bag of Tricks
Five Great Books I’ve Recently Read (in no particular order)

Best,

Nancy J. Cavanaugh