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.
It's the beginning of the third grading period and the start of the second half of the school year. In the midst of the testing and report cards, thankfully we've had a reprieve from the nasty weather of winter. With the temperatures in the 50s and 60s, we've been able to have outside recess and run off some of the pent up energy. And we've still been able to make time for reading some terrific books. Hope you've had a great reading week, too!
Middle Grade Novels
I
had the opportunity to share a copy of Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart
with my BookRelays Twitter group. What an intense, exciting book! It is
the story of Jonathan Grisby, a young man who has been sent to the
Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys. This institution is in a
massive, albeit crumbling, complex on an island. The place is just
awful and his sentence appears to be a long nightmare. But on the first
day after his arrival, tragedy strikes and all of the grown-ups are
gone. Suddenly the kids are in charge. The inmates are running the
asylum.
The book is so well written, I was hooked from the very beginning. The story sort of reminded me of Holes by Louis Sachar and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The characters are very well developed. We find out about them in bits and pieces throughout the narrative. But the main character is very mysterious. It takes a long time to figure out the crime for which he was sent to this island, although the reader is frequently told that it was pretty bad.
Once the boys are on their own, Jonathan manages to find a library from which he can borrow old books. The first book he takes is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. He starts reading it out loud to one of his friends, and soon there's a whole group of boys who wants to hear it. I love the way the warmth of reading by candlelight with friends is contrasted by the cold, dark imagery of rats, sword, and the hungry menace behind the ancient door.
There's plenty of drama in this book. I think a lot of young readers will enjoy the conflict and suspense that seems to end each chapter. It's hard to put the book away, when you just want to know what's going to happen next.
There's some strong language and some pretty intense imagery. This would be just right for a mature middle grade reader.
The book is so well written, I was hooked from the very beginning. The story sort of reminded me of Holes by Louis Sachar and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The characters are very well developed. We find out about them in bits and pieces throughout the narrative. But the main character is very mysterious. It takes a long time to figure out the crime for which he was sent to this island, although the reader is frequently told that it was pretty bad.
Once the boys are on their own, Jonathan manages to find a library from which he can borrow old books. The first book he takes is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. He starts reading it out loud to one of his friends, and soon there's a whole group of boys who wants to hear it. I love the way the warmth of reading by candlelight with friends is contrasted by the cold, dark imagery of rats, sword, and the hungry menace behind the ancient door.
There's plenty of drama in this book. I think a lot of young readers will enjoy the conflict and suspense that seems to end each chapter. It's hard to put the book away, when you just want to know what's going to happen next.
There's some strong language and some pretty intense imagery. This would be just right for a mature middle grade reader.
So
much happens in this book, even though most of the narrative takes
place in a single setting - a dusty, old well in the middle of Texas.
Kammie and her mother and brother have recently moved to Texas to reset
their lives and make a fresh start. In an attempt to become friends with
a popular clique of girls at her new middle school, Kammie was standing
on a board that covered the well and singing the national anthem.
Suddenly the board broke, and Kammie plunged deep into the well, with
her arms pinned to her sides. Attempts to wriggle free only make her
slide further down. As she waits for someone to rescue her, she thinks
back to the events that led to her predicament. This book has so much
suspense as you keep reading to find out what's going to happen. This
book also deals with many issues that are so relevant to middle grade
readers - peer pressure, bullying, having a parent who is incarcerated -
that I'm sure I would have quite a few students who would be able to
relate to and enjoy this book.
Picture Books
Using
spare text and simple watercolor and brown ink illustrations, this
sweet picture book tells the story of family, friendship, and acceptance
of differences. Three of four eggs hatch and the little birds fly away.
But they return to the fourth egg that has not hatched. With help from
the birds, the egg hatches to reveal a surprise. This surprise is
frightening to the birds and they fly away. Young readers will want to
keep with the story to find out how these birds will deal with this very
different family member.
This
heartwarming picture book celebrates the special relationship between a
little girl and her grandfather. Sophie's grandfather lives in her
family's apartment, and spends much of his time by the bedroom window.
Every day Sophie comes to him for a unique Lost and Found game that the
two of them share. I love Jerry Pinkney's illustrations and the way they
capture the special bond that this family enjoys.
This
beautiful picture book uses a reverso poem to tell the story of a young
owl's adventurous night flight. The gorgeous illustrations and spare
text bring to life this owl's trip through the forest to a pond, where
he's startled by his reflection and flies back home to the warm safety
of his nest.
Beautiful
watercolor paintings transform the letters of the alphabet into
stunning works of art. This is a great book to inspire the imagination.
This
beautifully illustrated picture book takes us through all the seasons
in a year as Matt, Katie and Pablo reclaim a pond from a littered dirt
pit in the neighborhood. One day as Matt was walking, he noticed a small
stream of water. With help, he cleared away the junk and moving rocks,
sticks, and mud to hold the water. Eventually they had a pond where they
could spend time enjoying the new plants and animals that moved in.
This would be a great book to help young readers take steps to reclaim
nature in their own neighborhoods and communities.
This
would be a terrific book to read at bedtime! Ethan checks under his bed
for his monster, but realizes his monster has left for another child
who needs him. It turns out that Gabe, Ethan's monster, has moved down
the hallway to his little sister's room. She's a little girl who does
not want to stop playing and go to bed, so obviously she needs a monster
to scare her to sleep. But Ethan wants his monster back so he can go to
sleep. Young readers will have fun reading to see if there's some other
monster that can get Emma to go to bed. The digitally colored
illustrations are awesome.
This
fun picture book takes a look at the academic subjects Frank studies in
school by relating them to all of the ways that he and his dog, Lucky
have fun together. Perfect for the beginning of a school year, readers
learn a little bit about science, geography, art, history, and math in a
very clever, humorous way.
This
great mentor text uses a story about a little girl struggling through
the writing process to come up with a perfect poem to present to an
author visiting her school for Poem In Your Pocket Day. Things at school
usually come pretty easy for Elinor. But has she and the other students
in Mr. Tiffin's class study poetry in anticipation of a visit from Emmy
Crane, a famous poet, she stresses out because she can't write a
perfect poem to put in her pocket. This would be great to share with
students during National Poetry Month in April.
This
picture book uses a compare and contrast text structure to show readers
how people's relationships with whales has changed through the years.
We meet a little girl whose father is the captain of a whale-watching
boat. The book alternates between the excitement of whale-watching today
and the whaling expeditions in the past. This book would be a great
starting point for research, as it also has an author's note and
references in the back.
This
is an awesome story, especially for dog lovers. This inspirational
picture book tells the true tale of Dozer, a dog who became so curious
by the runners going past his home, that he took off and joined them. It
turned out that the runners were participating in the Maryland Half
Marathon to raise money for cancer research. Everyone was so excited
about the dog running the entire course, that donations poured in to
sponsor Dozer's run.
This
Caldecott Honor book was written back in 1996, but I am only just now
reading it. Most of my students know Dav Pilkey for his Captain
Underpants series, which is very popular with them. I would like to
share this one with them, because of the beautifully rendered
illustrations that tell the story of a young man who gets up before the
sun comes up on a Saturday morning to deliver the morning newspaper.
Most of the students in my class don't have a newspaper delivered to
their homes, and so I'm not sure if they understand much about paper
routes.
This
is a fun picture book about a spring break field trip back in time to
study dinosaurs. When Miss Pym and her students buy their train tickets,
they are planning to visit a dinosaur monument in Utah. But as the
train trip gets under way, they realize they are getting more than they
bargained for. Beautiful illustrations of children getting up close and
personal with prehistoric creatures really bring this story alive.
