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.







Celebrate Saturday

Celebrate Saturday

Celebrate Link-Up: Ruth Ayres Writes

 

 

 

It's been a rough week. I don't want to use my Celebrate Saturday to complain, so I'll just say that I am definitely celebrating the weekend, and a chance to rest.  I'm also celebrating the way a great book can fall into your hands just when you need it the most!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, which won the Newbery Honor in 1988, is an awesome book which (believe it or not) I've only just gotten around to reading. And what a treasure trove of inspiration this book is, at a time when I really have been looking for encouragement!

 

Most readers are probably familiar with the plot events of this survival story. Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson's parents are divorced and he is on his way to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness. The pilot of the single-engine plane in which Brian is flying suffers a deadly heart attack. Brian is forced to land the plane by himself and then survive, alone in the wilderness. As Brian makes his way through fifty four excruciating days, he learns many lessons. These are lessons that any reader, young or old, can take to heart.

 

On the first day after crash landing the plane in a lake, Brian is desperately trying to take inventory of what he has that might help him survive. He empties his pockets and takes stock of small change, fingernail clippers, a twenty dollar bill, a hatchet that had been a gift from his mother, his tennis shoes, socks, jeans, underwear, belt, a T-shirt, a ripped windbreaker, and a broken digital watch. And then he remembers something that a former teacher once told him, "You are your most valuable asset. Don't forget that. You are the best thing you have."

 

As he continues on into the next day. He realizes that he has to find food or he will not survive. He's so weak from hunger and still injured from the plane crash. And in the face of his dire circumstances he realizes how important it is to focus on one thing at a time: "Simple. Keep it simple. I am Brian Robeson. I have been in a plane crash. I am going to find some food. I am going to find berries."

 

After finding some raspberries, Brian eats and picks as many as he can. While he's picking the berries, to his horror, he encounters a bear. The bear looks at Brian, moves away from the raspberries and leaves without harming him at all. Of course, Brian is terrified and runs away from the berries (that he desperately needs to eat). When he stops to think a moment and catch his breath, he comes to a terrific realization: "If the bear had wanted you, his brain said, he would have taken you. It is something to understand, he thought, not something to run away from. The bear was eating berries. Not people. The bear made no move to hurt you, to threaten you. It stood to see you better, study you, then went on its way eating berries. It was a big bear, but it did not want you, did not want to cause you harm, and that is the thing to understand here."

 

As Brian's difficulties continue to mount - swarms of mosquitos that bite him all over, a porcupine that attacks him in the dark of his shelter, his inability to make a fire - he finally lets self-pity wash over him and he sits in his dark cave and cries for a long time. When he finally calms down, he reflects on his tears, and here is my favorite quote from the book:

 

"He did not know how long it took, but later he looked back on his time of crying in the corner of the dark cave and thought of it as when he learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn't work. It wasn't just that it was wrong to do, or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that - it didn't work. When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, was all done with it, he was still alone and the self-pity had accomplished nothing."

 

Once he learns this powerful lesson, he puts one foot in front of the other and starts working and doing things to help himself. When he puts the self-pity aside and focuses his efforts, he learns to make fire, and starts to "getting a handle on things."

 

As the story develops, Brian makes plenty of mistakes. But each time, he learns from what happens and works to make sure the same mistakes don't happen again. He grows and becomes a person that can "learn and survive and take care of himself."

 

"Tough hope, he thought that night. I am full of tough hope."

 

I am so glad I finally picked up this book. As I take stock of my assets, realize that I am the best thing I have, keep things simple, stop feeling sorry for myself, and learn from my mistakes, I will also be full of tough hope.

 

So, I am celebrating Tough Hope! Hope you have lots of things to celebrate, too. Have a wonderful weekend!

 

 





It's Monday What Are You Reading?

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.

 

With Labor Day, it was only a four day week! But I so busy, it seemed tough to find time to read. So here's what I was able to read:

 

 

Ride Like the Wind: A Tale of the Pony Express: A Tale Of The Pony Express by Bernie Fuchs Descriptive text and beautiful paintings come together to tell the story of Johnny Free, an orphan rider for the Pony Express. Being a rider for the Pony Express was a very dangerous job. Riders had to face harsh weather conditions, wild animals, and hostile Native Americans. In this story, Johnny has a confrontation with warriors from the Paiute tribe. This story has a lot of drama and suspense as the reader experiences what it's like to have to face such difficult circumstances.

 

 

Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Susan Jeffers (Illustrations) Susan Jeffers focuses on the classic poem's verses that depict Hiawatha's boyhood. The beautiful paintings are so vivid and detailed and they match the beauty in the language of the poem wonderfully. This book is a good picture book introduction to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.

 

 

One by Kathryn Otoshi Very clever and creative way to think about bullying and friendship and standing up for yourself. Very simple illustrations tell a powerful message.

 

 

New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers by David Halberstam (Photographs), Susan Meiselas (photos) 

 

 

 

The New York Times: A Nation Challenged A Visual History Of 9/11 by The New York Times, The New York Times

 

 

Aftermath: Unseen 9/11 Photos by a New York City Cop by John Botte

What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001--In Words, Pictures, and Video by CBS News

These are all great informational books with awesome photographs that tell the horrible story of what happened that day. While some of it is painful to look at and remember, my students weren't even born when this happened. These books share what is important in a very appropriate way. What We Saw has a DVD of CBS' coverage of the developing events. We shared about 45 minutes of it with the 5th grade classes at my school. The entire disc is 2 hours long.

September Roses by Jeanette Winter This is a lovely book that tells the story of two women who grew roses professionally in South Africa. They were on their way to New York City for a flower exposition when the terrorist attacks occurred on September 11, 2001. Once they arrived, they had thousands of roses that needed to be used somehow. It seemed natural that they should give the roses to the growing memorials at Ground Zero.

Hope everyone has an awesome week, with lots of wonderful books to read!

 

Book Review: The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari 

I had an opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley. This review is based on uncorrected advance content. 

The main characters in this fun spy novel, Jonathan and Shelley, are selected to be part of a secret network of spies because they are extremely ordinary kids. When they are brought to the headquarters of The League of Unexceptional Children, Hammett Humphries, the chief of the operation, explains the rationale behind it:

"We are a covert network of spies comprised of this country's most average and forgettable kids. Why average? Why not the brainiacs? Or the athletes? Or the beauty queens? Well, people remember those kids. They remember their names, their faces. They notice them when they walk into a room and they notice them when they walk out of a room. They are people with a footprint, a paper trail, an identity. But not you guys. You are the forgotten ones. You spend your days reintroducing yourself to kids you've known since preschool. And when people call on you, on the rare occasion it happens, they never call you by the right name. And you know why? Because you blend in. You are right there in the world's blind spot."

And so, these two unlikely spies are given a crucial mission. The Vice President of the United States has been kidnapped. The VP has the codes to the mainframe computer system of all of the essential parts of our country's government. The security of America hangs in the balance. There's no time for training, so Jonathan and Shelley are given an agent's handbook, called How to Make Great Popcorn in the Microwave (so no one would even be tempted to pick it up and read it). Aside from the book, they have to rely on their own instincts and judgment.

I enjoyed that the characters seem to have a great sense of humor about the situation in which they find themselves. I also like that they both rise to the situation, even though their selection is not based on positive qualities. They do the best they can in the hopes that they can become exceptional in their ability to be average and blend in.

Middle grade readers who enjoy spy stories would probably enjoy this book. There's lots of action, funny support characters, and school-based humor. Middle grade readers will probably be able to relate to a lot of the novel. There are lots of characters that are introduced and side plots and circumstances that might be confusing to some kids, but I still think this would be a fun book to have in my classroom library.