It's Monday, What are You Reading May 20, 2013

It's Monday! What are you reading? A weekly themed meme connecting many bloggers around the world and originally conceived by Sheila at Book Journeys. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts hosted by Jen and Kellee. I was messing around with a button Scholastic had given me and stuck it in a calendar and snapped a photo. Cool right? Now I flash this pic to kids and ask them, "What are you reading?"

This week I polished off the very sweet tale of A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff. 

My favorite character in the story was Cady, a little girl with an uncanny talent for understanding and baking the perfect cake for a person. Cady is the five time winner of a famous baking contest always beating out professional bakers and famous chefs. A Tangle of Knots includes a lovable ensemble of characters, some of them are not very nice but most of them are gifted with a special unique talent such as spitting, knitting, or matching orphans to their perfect families. If you are looking for a light hearted read filled with tasty sounding recipes, then this is your book. I am anxious to try out some of Caddy's cake recipes. Reading this book was even more fun because I read it with two other Twitter buddies @strohreads and @readerroberts, the latter, who by the way, made the Miss Mallory's Peach Cake for her family last night. Here is the recipe in the Youtube video courtesy of author Lisa Graff.

I also really enjoyed one of Graff's previous books, Umbrella Summer and how she captured the healing of two souls throughout the story. Click here to see my Kids Book Club wiki for Umbrella Summer. This was my first online kids book club which we now call our Bluebonnet Book Club. Each year I update the website with a new list of twenty books nominated for the Texas Bluebonnet Award. I update the wiki each time I present a library lesson on one of the nominees.






IDuring library lessons, I finished up our Favorite Storybook Characters unit with Mo Willems books with a focus on Pigeon. We read Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late and The Duckling Has a Cookie!?

Source: diaryfirstgradeteacher.blogspot.com via Julee on Pinterest

Download the The Duckling Gets a Cookie Event Kit









We made the TP roll Pigeon and they turned out great. Students have been practicing oral story retelling so they can go home and share with their families.


Our bedtime storybooks:

Barrys Best Buddy by Renee French
Nighttime Ninja by Barbara De Costa
Tea with Rex by Molly Idle

Plaidypus Lost by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

I read any and all books by this sister team. You know the book will be wonderful.

Plaidypus lost.
Plaidypus found
This story goes around and around.




A young girl's grandmother stitches her a stuffed toy out of her grandpa's old plaid shirt-hence the name Plaidypus. The girls is so pleased with her new special toy that she promises Grandma that she will never lose him, but then she does exactly that. Not only does she lose him, she loses him repeatedly throughout the story. She forgets him at the park, she forgets him at the store, she forgets him at the lake, and then the poor creature blows out of her family's car window and ending up in tattered pieces. Plus he's kinda creepy looking to begin with. I can see this as a successful library read aloud because of the girl's carelessness with her precious toy. The kids will be horrified. I can hear them now saying "Oh no! not again!"Of course the natural question to end the story with will be "Do you think the girl will lose her Plaidypus again or try harder to keep up with him?" My money is on it getting lost again.

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Listen to Clare Vanderpool explain why she wrote Moon Over Manifest and hear her read a portion of the story at Teaching Books.net. While this is a wonderful story, I just haven't warmed up to the voice actor's style of delivering the story through an audio presentation. I thought it was just me, but during a recent Twitter chat #MissRead on the comparison of print versus audio books, I discovered that other listeners had experienced the same resistance to the audiobook version of Moon Over Manifest. In fact, we agreed that in regards to audiobooks, the voice artist can make or break the story. I also love the works of Christopher Paul Curtis, especially some of his audiobooks, but I could not get into Mr. Chickee's Funny Money because of the voice actor.

Current Read

Penny Dreadful by Laurel Synder

On Saturday, I dashed to the MacDonald public library for a librarian hang out and to pick up my hold for Penny Dreadful. I am reading this as part of @MissionRead's #PageChallenge and already loving it even though I am just a few pages in. I can't wait to book talk with fellow readers.

When I arrived at the library, I noticed fellow librarian Lauren was holding a copy of Giants Beware and asked her if she was  planning to join in on this coming #SharpSchu book club on Twitter this Tuesday, May 21st.  I sent out a district wide email to all librarians encouraging them to join in. Lauren told me that she was not a fan of graphic novels but the red headed character on the cover of Giant's Beware had caught her eye and if she liked it, it would be her next Halloween costume. Cool, Claudette for Halloween. I like it! I, of course, launched into my praise of the book because it is one of my favorites and my students are ape over it. I haven't seen a copy in weeks except for the one that I begged the return of so I could brush up for the Twitter chat. 

GIANTS Beware!

Author: Jorge Aguirre

Illustrated by Rafael Rosado

First Second Books

Click here to see pages from the book.

I love this digital inking process and the cool accompanying music for Giants Beware.

Last but not least

Here is what Jennifer Green sent to me for Teach Mentor Text's Spring Book and Bookmark Swap. This was so much fun. My #Bookswap buddy was Maria Selke and I sent her The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson and I created three bookmarks for her to use because sometimes you just have to mark those very special passages you want to read again and again.

I have a big week ahead of me with library inventory beginning but since I always look on the sunny side of life that means more time to "read, before I weed" out a book. For those of you who do not approve of weeding libraries, don't worry-I make sure to get these books into the hands of children who usually do not have any books in their homes. I am also sadly out of book shelf space and already using every possible object that can hold books.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading May 13, 2013

Monday, May 13, 2013

A great day to celebrate books and reading!

It's Monday! What are you reading? A weekly themed meme connecting many bloggers around the world and originally conceived by Sheila at Book Journeys. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts hosted by Jen and Kellee. I was messing around with a button Scholastic had given me and stuck it in a calendar and snapped a photo. Cool right? Now I flash this pic to kids and ask them, "What are you reading?"

Happy Children's Book Week! It's finally here and I watched the final seconds counting down on the 
Children's Book Week website. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Happy Children's Book Week! On May 14 the winners of the Children's Choice Book Awards will be announced. 

This week, I am finishing up Son by Lois Lowry. It's very good and I like how my unanswered questions are becoming resolved. I have just a few pages left but it is typical of me to drag a book out if I don't want a series to end. I will go finished it after writing this post.

In the library I continued with my unabashed enthusiasm for the genius of Mo Willems. His books are so perfect for the emerging reader and I have been bringing in as many copies of his books as I can find to read until I am hoarse and then I go home and read to the kiddos at home too.

I love these type of interactive books that brings the reader into the action and feeling that they are a part of the story. J found this book on YouTube. He is a true book lover at the age of 2-almost-3 years old. I had forgotten about this book but I used to have it in my home library.

The Monster at the End of This Book

Our favorite Read Alouds this week are:

In the Library this week: 

Jangles: a big fish story
by David Shannon
Blue Sky Press

With a dirty green tackle box at his side, a father shares with his son a story of his encounter with the legendary giant fish Jangles. As it was nearing dark, he does not realize his anchor has come lose and he was drifting out into the middle of Big Lake. Soon he feels a tug on his line and pulls in an old rod and reel. As he cranks in the line, he sees a giant shadow swim up and swallow his lure and then is dragged over the side of his boat into the deepest part of the lake where he discovers that not only can he breathe under water but the fish can speak to him. 


Three year olds to sixth graders were mesmerized this week by the folk-tale Jangles. We created fishing lures that we thought would be just right for catching Jangles. Next week, students will be justifying their choice of materials for attracting Jangles. I am working on a fishing game to finish off our lesson. This is one of the books we are reading for our 2013 Bluebonnet Book Club 


My Re-Read:

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

I walked into Kohls to do some merchandising work and actually squealed with joy when I spotted my old frowny friend The Pout Pout Fish. It was so hard to complete my tasks because I was so anxious to purchase the book and fishy friends to take home to the kiddos. I have a library copy but this book needs to be in every home of little ones. The rhyming structure flows so easy and the story is such fun to read. This has been a favorite of mine for library lessons for the past few years.


What I am listening to: 


My students love the James Paterson books and have been anxiously awaiting the newest book which is now in my library collection. I am trying to listen to Middle School Get Me Out Of Here! but I suppose I am too old to appreciate the hijinks that seem to be an important part of the theme of this story-line. Well, maybe not. I still remember one prank I pulled in high school. I was an office worker and had access to the PA system. One day I slipped a fake announcement into the pile and the principal announced it. The best part of the prank was that I was smart enough to keep my trap shut and not brag about it. Oops, I just remembered another one. The senior class was always winning the weekly spirit award contest so some fellow sophomores and I made several hundreds signs saying "Sophomores Spirit!" and we snuck in and pinned them all over the heavy velvet curtain on the stage where spirit contests were held. The curtains were only closed before the drill team would perform. When the curtain closed, the cheers went up from everyone but the senior class and sophomores DID win the spirit award that day. Now that I am reminiscing, maybe I get the attraction.

Spectacular Summer Reading Lists
I am pulling together my summer reading list for students and here is a couple of resources.

 Peguin Books for Young Readers:
2013 Guide for Parents, Caregivers, Teachers, Librarians, and Booksellers

This resource was sent to me by comrade, Denise Hyde. Funny story-In 2010, I came in and sat down amid a mass of librarians waiting to hear Jamie Lee Curtis at TLA. I introduced myself to the lady next to me and it turned out to be Denise. We discovered that we worked at the same university, same city,  just in different libraries. I am the elementary school children's librarian and she is a university reference librarian. Small world.

This week, I begin A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

In a magical world where everyone has a Talent, eleven-year-old Cady is an orphan with a phenomenal Talent for cake baking. But little does she know that Fate has set her on a journey from the moment she was born. And her destiny leads her to a mysterious address that houses a lost luggage emporium, an old recipe, a peanut butter factory, a family of children searching for their ownTalents, and a Talent thief who could alter her life forever.


Happy reading!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading May 6, 2013

It's Monday! What are you reading? A weekly themed meme connecting many bloggers around the world and originally conceived by Sheila at Book Journeys. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts hosted by Jen and Kellee. I was messing around with a button Scholastic had given me and stuck it in a calendar and snapped a photo. Cool right? Now I flash this pic to kids and ask them, "What are you reading?"

There has been a heck of a lot of reading going on in my home lately. We have had a marathon of Elephant and Piggie books and a few other Mo Willem titles too. I had determined that L does not get read to enough and J, although still two-almost three years old is ready to learn to read. We read several books every night and have been practicing our alphabet letters phonetically. I have to give snaps to YouTube videos and Ipad apps that help make this journey so easy. There are some terrific sounding our sounds videos online.

These books have all been read five times each this week

The Murphys LOVE Mo Willems books

 As far as the big people books go, I quickly read the sequel that I had been waiting for: The Elite by Kera Cass. These folks really know how to design a book cover. Both books are enjoyable and fun to read but not as intense as Veronica Roth's fabulous Divergent, Insurgent, and now the third book Allegiant.

Visit author Kiera Cass's web site to learn more about The Selection and The Elite.

 

I am sure you have all heard the news about Veronica Roth's Allegiant 

which will be released on 10-22-2013

I can't wait!

I also finished up Ghetto Cowboy, a 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet nominee. This is how I am sharing this unique book with my students. 2013 Bluebonnet Book Club.

It is kinda cool that I finished it up this week because my mom and I went to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses that were in town for our annual Buccaneer Days. That's right, my city celebrates the invasion of pirates on our coastlines and the sad thing is not much has changed since as the violence and crime increases every year. My mom told me  that her dad took her to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses when she was a little girl. She is now 75 years old. Those fellas have been around for a long time. They are massively HUGE!

 This one is named Bud. Not very original.

 

This is my favorite shot of the day. I have plans to use this next time my kids get sassy.

Current Reads: 

This week, I have picked up a copy of Son by Lois Lowry. I have really enjoyed this amazing journey through The Giver quartet.  She is such a gifted writer. I am looking forward to learning how Lowry will brings all the threads of the quartet together to weave connections between the characters in all four books. I have heard it is beautifully mastered.

I also reading Sidekicks by Jack D. Ferraiolo because there has been some "whispers" about page 6-10 on the school bus about certain topics in this MG book. Thank goodness I have a good repertoire with my students so one of them came to me to share what was being talked about. He described the passage as "tension starting up in the character's pants". Oh great-just what I need someone thinking I keep dirty books in the library. I reminded everyone that if they are ever uncomfortable with any book they are reading, they should turn it in and find one to suit them. For now, I am tucking this one in my Middle School library section. Our middle schoolers understand that they are mature enough to handle realistic fiction about the things kids their age experience and if I started censoring these types of books, then I would be doing them a disservice.

 

    

Audio Books this week:

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading, April 22, 2013

It's Monday! What are you reading? A weekly themed meme connecting many bloggers around the world and originally conceived by Sheila at Book Journeys. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts hosted by Jen and Kellee. Its a terrific way to post a few of the books that you have recently read and put together a list of what you are planning on reading this week.

An avalanche of great books this week! I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket so I decided to cash some of it in. What joy to bump into a elementary librarian buddy shopping too. We preceded to comb the shelves and compare notes on what we thought would make for great library read alouds. We both opted to buy this fun little treasure:

Open Very Carefully-A book with bite
Created by Nicola O'Byrne with words by Nick Bromley
February 2013 ages 3+

Take a look inside the book-I am sure you will love it too.

Nosy Crow's description:

What would you do if you were settling down for a quiet bedtime story and you realised that a crocodile had fallen out of one story and into yours and was – not to put too fine a point on it – furious? Would you slam that book shut, cram it in the bookshelf for evermore or would you be brave enough to peek?

This crocodile has ended up in totally the wrong book, so he proceeds to eat his way out in this fantastic debut picture book of a very grumpy croc as he tries to escape a storybook that is all wrong for him but is great fun for the reader!

I decided to test run it with my two favorite book critics-J-a 28 month year old, die hard book lover and his cousin-L-who expects me to read mountains of books to him, which I happily do. They both loved guessing whose big green tail interrupted the story of "The Ugly Duckling" and laughed uncontrollably as I tried to read the sentences that were missing all the letters O and S. I must admit I delivered an Oscar worthy performance. They helped me rock the book side to side until the crocodile fell asleep and were shocked to see someone had used a red crayon to draw a tutu on the crocodile. (I am a bit concerned about copy-cat artworks suddenly appearing in our other books). It amazes me how L and J can talk my ears off with their thoughts and opinions on books. They both give Open Very Carefully a Hip Hip Horray!

Open Very Carefully is a terrific example of a good interactive read aloud for the preschool and kindergarten set and possibly first graders. In particular, it would be interesting to have first graders created a similar story with interactive action. 

Source: books.simonandschuster.net via Julee on Pinterest

Oh No, Little Dragon

Created and Illustrated by Jim Averbeck

Agers: 2-6

Simon and Schuster

Click here to view inside the book.

Publisher description: 

With a PHOOSH and a Grrrrrr and a CANNONBAAAALLLLLL! Little Dragon tears through his day (and the house). But even when he gets a little too rambunctious, there’s no OH NO! that Mama’s kiss can’t fix.

I will be pairing Oh No, Little Dragon up with Dragons Love Tacos as part of a Dragons leading up to Mother's Day lesson. I have an amazing dragon puppet and a three dimensional pop up dragon that will help me introduce both books. 

Looking for Alaska by John Green
My World Book Night 2013 Give a Way

description from John Green's website:

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

I will have a World Book Night Post up tomorrow with lots of great resources to share. 

My re-reads this week (by popular demand of L and J)

The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz

We LOVE this book both at home and at school and never get tired of reading it. I mean we read it a LOT-and act it out too. LOVE IT!

I only have three miles to drive to work each day, so it takes me a long time to finish audio books in the car. I am still listening to the children's classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

As usual, I still have a sack of books that we read this week but no time to list them all. Happy reading!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? April 15, 2013

It's Monday! What are you reading? A weekly themed meme connecting many bloggers around the world and originally conceived by Sheila at Book Journeys. I first learned about at Teach Mentor Texts hosted by Jen and Kellee. Its a terrific way to post a few of the books that you have recently read and put together a list of what you are planning on reading this week.


Here are the books I read this past week:

On D.E.A.R. Day I selected to read "My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother" by Patricia Polacco.

This is an autobiographical look into the relationship between Patricia and her own redheaded brother. I enjoyed it as I do all Patricia Polacco books.

Listen to actress Melissa Gilbert read My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

Next, I picked up Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri. I was able to read a chapter with each class and found it to be original and very interesting. I chose this book because it is one of the 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees. I discovered some fascinating facts about the Philadelphia Street Riders while doing backstory research. *Anytime I find a book I really like, I have to uncover its backstory.*  Look here on my Bluebonnet Book Club wiki. I keep my lesson resources on my wiki for quick and easy access.
This is one of my current reads. 




May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. Thank you to the very generous and King of Book Talks, @MrSchureads, for sending this survival themed novel in verse little gem to me. I loved it. Survival stories and historical fiction are my favorite genres. I am looking forward to the Twitter #SharpSchu Book Club that will take place on April 24th at 8 p.m. EST. Please  join in the chat that also includes author Sharon Creech and her book Love That Dog. Learn more about it here on Mr. Schu's blog.

Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes

Penny finds a marble as blue as the sky in a neighbor's yard and after taking it home she begins to feel guilty for taking it without asking for permission. It reminded me of the Highlights magazines that usually included stories with good moral lessons. Remember those magazines? They were always in Doctor and Dentist offices.

I just finished listening to Messenger by Lois Lowry, the third installment in the Giver series. It is my favorite in the series and I now look forward to reading the final book-Son. The audio version was due so I pulled the print copy from the library shelf to finish off the last three chapters. The library was very busy when I walked in but one of the librarians had to flick the lights on and off to alert us late stayers that it was time to close. As I was wiping the tears off my cheeks (it was beautifully written) I was shocked to see the library had emptied out. That is how removed I was from the world around me. I was swept away with the story. 

Current audio book:

I am listening to Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. I needed a refresher because another Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee, The Humming Room by Ellen Potter,  is the retelling of The Secret Garden. Click here to view   The Humming Room on my Bluebonnet Book Club wiki. You can find books trailers, lesson plans, and more. 

Project Gutenberg: Read the Etext version of The Secret Garden (27 chapters)

These were my pre-school and kinder class reads this week. We were learning about shadows and using your imagination. Bear Shadow is a wonderful book about a bear trying to get rid of his shadow and all the kids loved it. I brought along my handy dandy crank flashlight and we made shadows. I read a poem I had written about shadows and I even found a terrific little video to share. I played the music as they walked into the library.

I love Ame Dyckman's Boy + Bot and had read it before to the kids but they always beg for it and it was the perfect book to pair with the clever Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon. In Molly's book, we learn the wonders of cloud watching and creating toys out of flowers, twigs, and cardboard boxes. I brought out my special little robot head made out of a re-purposed diaper box (thank you Maddy) and used my best robot voice to introduce Boy + Bot. They kids went wild. I just know they went home and scrounged up old boxes and made their own robots this weekend. Or at least I hope they were lucky enough to be able to do so.


So this week, I will continue to finish Ghetto Cowboy and The Secret Garden on audio. I also picked up these titles at the Neyland library.

                      


Happy reading ya'll!