It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They "encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

Here's what I've been reading lately:

 

 

Julie of the Wolves (Julie of the Wolves #1) by Jean Craighead George, John Schoenherr (Illustrations) Here's another Newbery Award Winning book that I had never read, until now. It was quite a book! I was surprised by how quickly I got hooked into this book. I really started caring about Miyax and Amaroq (the wolf) right away. I was completely inspired by this courageous young woman as she worked so hard to learn how to be accepted into a wolf pack to that she could find food and survive in the Arctic tundra. It also made me curious to learn more about wolves. I love it when books make me want to find out more. There are a few intense scenes in the book that might not be right for less mature readers, especially when Miyax's young husband Daniel wants to consummate their marriage. But overall, it's an awesome book to have in your classroom library. I borrowed my copy from my school's book room, but I definitely want to have some of my more mature readers read it!

 

Keegan's Point (The Good Bad Guys #1) by H.D. Smith (Goodreads Author)

I had the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley. This book is an engaging suspense novel about a middle school student, Charlie Parker, who has spent a great deal of time studying and writing a research report on Keegan’s Point. Keegan's Point is the Florida island estate built by an eccentric billionaire, Marcus Keegan. Keegan died the same year Charlie was born. His body and twenty passports were the only things removed from the island—leaving a mystery and the unanswered question, who was Marcus Keegan?

Charlie gets kidnapped by a gang of robbers who plan on going to the mansion and searching the premises to find an extremely valuable diamond. While Charlie realizes that he's in a great deal of danger, he's also fascinated by this opportunity to see the estate in person and solve the mysteries of the lost treasure.

There's plenty of suspense and dangerous action for fans of these types of novels. However, I was a little troubled by the kidnapping of Charlie at the beginning of the book. For all of the expertise and experience these criminals have in executing this job, it seems kind of hard to believe they would be hanging around the diner owned by Charlie's mom and talking loudly enough in the parking lot to be overheard by Charlie, necessitating the kidnapping of the boy. It seemed like kind of an awkward way to have this kid involved in the story.

The main kidnapper, Nick and his client, Zoe, use different names and accents when talking to each other and others. This also seemed to make the story unnecessarily confusing.

But aside from these difficulties, I did enjoy the story. I cared enough about these characters and the mystery, that I was eager to keep reading to find out what happens. I believe there are many middle school aged kids who would enjoy reading this book. I'm pretty sure there are 5th graders in my class that would pick it up and read it eagerly.

Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder (Goodreads Author), Julie Morstad (illustrator) This book is absolutely lovely! I was enchanted by every bit of it. The story of Anna Pavlova is very inspiring for anyone who has ever longed to play a role in something beautiful. I could almost hear music playing as I read through the text. The language is so moving. I'm really looking forward to sharing with my students the author's use of metaphor to describe Anna's movements: "Anna is a bird in flight, a whim of wind and water. Quiet feathers in a big loud world. Anna is the swan." The illustrations are stunning and do an awesome job of bringing us into Anna's world in czarist Russia. I'm very excited to have this book in my classroom library!

Toys Meet Snow: Being the Wintertime Adventures of a Curious Stuffed Buffalo, a Sensitive Plush Stingray, and a Book-loving Rubber Ball by Emily Jenkins, Paul O Zelinsky The illustrations in this book about three toys' first adventure in the snow are absolutely stunning. Loved it!

 

Henny by Elizabeth Rose Stanton   At first this book seemed kind of strange to me: a chicken that was born with arms, instead of wings. But as I continued to read - I realized, that's the point! The chicken was strange, and felt strange, as many youngsters (and folks of all ages) do. But as time goes on, the chicken realizes the positive aspects of her strange features. Soon she can do all sorts of things that the other chickens can't. I think it has a great message to kids about embracing that which makes you unique. The illustrations are really cute. My favorite is the chicken sniffing under her arms and wondering if she needs deodorant!

Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins   This is a really cute book that has a great lesson about manners. The rude cake engages in unpleasant behaviors that I'm sure many children will recognize from encounters they have with bullies and will probably even have to admit that they themselves have been a rude cake more than a few times in their lives. On night something very strange happens that turns it all around for the rude cake. This would be a fun book to share with all ages. Lots of good reminders!

Float by Daniel Miyares   Awesome! The illustrations were stunning - especially the ones that showed the reflections of the young man in the puddles as he happily played with his paper boat. Without words, you feel the heavy blow to the boy as his boat gets pulled into the storm drain. You feel the love of his parent, who comforts the boy with a hot bath, warm clothes and cocoa and then makes a new paper toy.

Two Mice by Sergio Ruzzier (Goodreads Author)    This is a cute book for young children. Two mice have a little adventure while the text focuses on things by the numbers. The illustrations are clever.
  

 

Celebrate Saturday

Celebrate Link-Up: Ruth Ayres Writes

 

 

I'm blown away by the awesome gift that we received in my classroom this week. A few weeks ago, I received this note from Sophie Blackall:

 

 

 

 

I have spent a lot of time and money to build a classroom library that would be full of great children's books. And I'm always excited to find ways to build upon that. So, I was happy to get this note and I shared it with my students and colleagues.

 

As time passed and the activities of a busy and challenging class of fifth graders pushed this note to the back of my mind, imagine my surprise when I was called to the office to pick up a package that had been delivered by UPS. Sitting on the counter in the main office was a HEAVY box from Greenlight Bookstore in New York City.

 

When I opened the box in my classroom, I was just thrilled by the contents. There were eleven brand-new, high quality picture books that had been published this year. The kids were also very excited.

 

Here's a list of the picture books that were included:

 

A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat by Emily Jenkins, Sophie Blackall (illustrator)

 

 

 

Float by Daniel Miyares

 

 

 



Yard Sale by Eve Bunting, Lauren Castillo (Goodreads Author) (Illustrations)

 

 

 



Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson, Sydney Smith (Illustrator)

 

 







Henny by Elizabeth Rose Stanton (Goodreads Author)

 

 

Toys Meet Snow: Being the Wintertime Adventures of a Curious Stuffed Buffalo, a Sensitive Plush Stingray, and a Book-loving Rubber Ball by Emily Jenkins, Paul O Zelinsky

 

Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder (Goodreads Author), Julie Morstad (illustrator)

 



Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman (Goodreads Author), Zachariah OHora (illustrator)

 

 

 



Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena (Goodreads Author), Christian Robinson (Illustrations)

 

 

 



Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins

 

 

 





 

Two Mice by Sergio Ruzzier (Goodreads Author)

 

 



Once again, I want to thank Sophie Blackall for this amazing gift to my students. It really means so much that there is so much love and caring for kids that are working hard to become readers. There is also a package of Thank You letters coming your way! 

 



 

 



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

 

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester

 

I really enjoyed this book. It is a suspenseful novel about a girl who has the ability to fly. Piper McCloud's family strongly discourages her from flying, so she does it alone where no one can see her. But when her ability to fly becomes known in her community, she is sent away to I.N.S.A.N.E.(the Institute of Normalcy, Stability, and NonExceptionality). When she first arrives, she believes this is a school to help her learn how to use her power for good. But as time goes on, she comes to realize that the nature of this institution is something altogether different.

The book has a good message about the nature of talent and extraordinary ability. Once Piper realizes she has the ability to fly by jumping off the roof, she has to practice and suffer many bumps and bruises in order to become good at it. "Raw talent only gets you so far in this old world and the rest is a whole lot of practice, persistence, and perspiration. She got lucky on her first jump. Beginner's luck. But from there on out, Piper fought tooth and nail to get herself back up into the sky and to be a real, honest-to-goodness flyer."

I also liked that one of the lessons she learns as she is practicing is the power of focus and a goal. She discovers that she should never even think about the ground. "The second she even considered the possibility that she might fall, she fell and some part of her body was hitting the earth. The sky was her goal, and she trained her mind to think of nothing else."

This book also does an awesome job of portraying a strong, courageous and inspirational female protagonist. Piper seems to have a way of warming the hearts of the other students in the institution, several of whom are very difficult to befriend. Piper always sees the best in people and seems to accept the imperfections and mistakes that people make as just a natural part of living in the world.

As all of the characters in this novel come together and work toward a common goal, the suspense builds. I got to bed very late a few nights this week, because I really wanted to see what was going to happen and how it was all going to turn out! I can see why this book has been a popular one in my fifth grade classroom!

 

 



Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way (Encyclopedia Brown #9) by Donald J. Sobol

 

I used to LOVE the Encyclopedia Brown series when I was a kid. I saved my allowance and bought each of the books whenever I had the chance. I would always feel very smart each time I was able to figure out the mystery and inspired to read more and learn more whenever I had to peek at the answers. I've been reading Two Minute Mysteries by the same author to my fifth grade students and they've been enjoying those. So there has been a renewed interest in Encyclopedia Brown in my class. I found this aging paperback copy at a library book sale. I had fun rereading these little mysteries that I enjoyed so many years ago when I was in fourth and fifth grade. A few of the cultural references seem a bit dated for today's kids, but I'm going to put it in my library and see if they like it.

 

 

 

Lost and Found by Andrew Clements, Mark Elliott (Illustrator)

 

I really enjoyed reading this book. When I was younger, I was always fascinated by twins, especially identical twins. This middle grade novel taps into that fascination by exploring what might happen if you had twins sharing an identity at school. I always wished there was a way that I could have a twin that could go to school for me half the time and take on half the work load. That's what the twins, Jay and Ray, do in this story. Through a clerical mistake, the school believes there is only one new student: Jay Grayson. Ray Grayson's file has gotten mixed up in Jay's. And it works well, at first. And then it gets complicated and sticky. There's a good deal of suspense in this book. I was constantly feeling tense, wondering if these two were going to get away with this and what would happen if they were caught. I think this book will be a good addition to my classroom library.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog. I was afraid this would happen once school started and everything is so hectic!  Unfortunately, the pace of my reading has slowed down as well.

 

 Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol

 

At school, I've been reading this book to my fifth graders. They're short mysteries/puzzles to read and solve. I've been using it as a way to help my students learn to listen closely to details. I was only going to read the first few out loud as a listening minilesson. But they seem to enjoy them so much, that I'm going ahead and reading several every day. This book is by the same author that wrote the Encyclopedia Brown series. I have several of those in my classroom library, and the students have become more interested in them since I started reading Two-Minute Mysteries.

 

 

 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket #1) by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illustrator) I know it's crazy, but this is another book that I somehow never got around to reading, until now! I enjoyed it a lot. It's a fun tour of the factory, and everyone gets what they deserve. I borrowed this copy from school and I am pretty sure I have some 5th graders that would enjoy reading it. Be careful, though - it's kind of hard to read without plenty of chocolate around! We had more fun with the story over the weekend. We borrowed both movies from the library (the 1971 version with Gene Wilder and the 2005 version with Johnny Depp). We watched them both and had a great time eating candy and comparing the two films. I STILL live the book version the best!

Art-Rageous (Finley Flowers #4) by Jessica Young Finley Flowers is a fun character to read about. She's very creative and sensitive. As her class goes on a field trip to an art museum and completes a group project about art, she decides she wants to be a famous artist when she grows up. The book provides great ideas for budding young artists to try. It also provides a recipe for the pumpkin bread the characters eat for dessert one evening.