Super Six! {Take Two}

Bewitched Bookworms is back with a new Super Six Sunday linky:

Six books that make you laugh!

Jennifer Cruisie is about the funniest author out there.  And her funniest, by far, was Wild Ride.  Written with her sometimes co-author Bob Mayer, Wild Ride is totally different than her other books.  Maybe that's why I find it the most memorable.  Definitely anything by Jennifer Cruisie is worth the time - I know I'll be laughing out loud.

Speaking of laughing out loud, Meg Cabot's books are also guaranteed to get me going!  The Boy Next Door, the first book I ever read by Ms. Cabot, remains my favorite!  Written entirely in emails between the characters, I read it in one night and have re-read it twice since then.  (Which is a huge thing; I almost never re-read books!)

 Another favorite author is Sophie Kinsella.  Wedding Night almost caused me to get into an accident - I was laughing so hard as I listened to it in my car. 




As for kids' book that make me giggle, it's hard to narrow the choices down to just three!

My favorite read alouds that keep the kids in stitches are Lois Lowry's All About Sam and Roald Dahl's The Witches.  I defy you to read either of these books aloud and not have to stop to wipe a tear!  The best part is listening to the kids laugh - every class loves both of these books!

Finally my suggestion to nearly every student who asks for a funny book is most often Mudshark by Gary Paulsen.  So cleverly written, especially the subplot narrated by the principal at the beginning of each chapter.





I can't wait to add to my TBR pile for the summer when I check out everyone else's books over at bewitched bookworms!  Check it out!

Better Late Than Never, Right?

After changing my blog design earlier today, I am motivated to get back into blogging!  Summer's approaching and I'll have more time to share more about the huge challenge my new job has been - in both bad and {mostly} good ways!

But for today I'll join in with a new linky party I've found: Super Six Sundays, hosted by bewitched bookworms.  And even though it's Saturday, and they'll be starting a new linky tomorrow, I loved the topic they chose for this week and can't help but join in the fun!

This week's prompt:  List Six Books You Couldn't Stop Thinking About.


Zoo by James Patterson

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of James Patterson, and usually when I finish one of his books, I can't remember it for more than a couple of hours.  That's what makes Zoo so different!  I read it months ago and I keep talking about it to anyone who happens to bring up books, reading, animals, or almost anything else!

Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb

This is one of the best books I have ever read.  I recommend it to everyone who asks, but I have never known another reader who has read it!

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

I spent all of last summer looking for a new great book that could measure up to the previous summer's offerings - to no avail.  Read my review for Ivan here.

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

The same summer that gave me Ivan also introduced me to Doug Swieteck.  I have still not recovered from my angst for Doug.  Read my original review here.





 

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

Historical fiction at its best. Meticulously researched and brilliantly executed, I felt like I was in the midst of the French Revolution, and Marie's struggle to survive!







The Book Whisperer & Reading in the Wild by Donnalyn Miller

The best professional books ever!  Each one confirmed for me what I already knew and justified my teaching style to anyone who doubted me!






Click each title to see the book on Barnes and Noble.

Hold Fast

Hold Fast 

by Blue Balliett

Published March, 2013

From Barnes & Noble:

• From NYT bestselling author Blue Balliett, the story of a girl who falls into Chicago's shelter system, and from there must solve the mystery of her father's strange disappearance.  Where is Early's father? He's not the kind of father who would disappear. But he's gone . . . and he's left a whole lot of trouble behind.
  
  As danger closes in, Early, her mom, and her brother have to flee their apartment. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to move into a city shelter. Once there, Early starts asking questions and looking for answers. Because her father hasn't disappeared without a trace. There are patterns and rhythms to what's happened, and Early might be the only one who can use them to track him down and make her way out of a very tough place.
  
  With her signature, singular love of language and sense of mystery, Blue Balliett weaves a story that takes readers from the cold, snowy Chicago streets to the darkest corner of the public library, on an unforgettable hunt for deep truths and a reunited family.

Excerpt:
"...'Reading is a tool no one can take away.  A million bad things may happen in life and it'll still be will you, like a flashlight that never needs a battery.  Reading can offer a crack of light on the blackest of nights.'
    Early looked carefully at her mother's face.  'You sound like Dash now.'
    'Do I?' Sum smiled with her eyes, one of the saddest smiles Early had ever seen."  (p.166)

With themes of everything from homelessness, mystery, words, puzzles, to family, Hold Fast is a book I cannot wait to share with my class.  So much so that I am working on a bunch of activities to go with the novel.  When they're done, I'll put them up in my TpT store.

I'm linking up with Heather at Peacocks and Penguins to share with her Read it Wednesday Linky!  (Just cannot resist!!)

I'm off to start a new book.  Have you read Capture the Flag by Kate Messner yet?

Animoto, anyone?

Once again I have been inspired by a fellow blogger!

Heather over at the Meek Moose recently wrote about a tech class she's taking and mentioned Animoto.  Now I tried Animoto years ago when it was new and hated it!  But she made it seem so easy and fun, I've given it another chance.  And she's right!

I love it!

So I made this quick video.  This 30 second book report took me about 30 minutes.  The most time consuming part is searching through the internet and the site itself choosing pictures.  Not good for a perfectionist like me.  I can imagine that kids could throw together a quality video in just a few minutes.  How cool would it be to assess their videos; they would love it!



Make your own slide show at Animoto.

 There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom is one of my all time favorite of Louis Sachar's books!  If you haven't read it yet, please do!  I read it out loud to my class every year, and everyone loves it - even the boys!  It's funny and sweet and silly and touching.  I cry at the end every year!  (I warn my kids ahead of time...) 

Bradley is boy whom everyone - even the teachers - hate.  He lies, he growls, he doesn't know how to make friends.  His only friends are his animal figurines.  When a new counselor is hired at his school, Bradley learns, through Carla, what friendship is.

Summer Readin'

Summer's here and I've been a reading fool!  I miss reading so much during the school year.

And since most of what I've read has been kids', I'm linking up with Teach Mentor Texts for the weekly linky:

Coincidentally, the books I read last week are all about immigration.  I didn't plan it; it just happened.  Weird.

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan is written in verse.  In it,  Kasienka and her mother immigrate to London from Poland.  Her mother is convinced that she will be able to find Kasienka's father and reunite their family.  With her mother completely focused on her own problems, Kasienka is left to try to fit in with her new classmates with no one to talk with.  Her escape is the school pool.  When she's in the water, her problems seem to float away - at least for the moment.

The Weight of Water is a coming-of-age story that deftly handles issues of immigration, alienation, and first love.  I love novels-in-verse like this one (and so do my kids) because they are quick and easy to get lost in.  Sarah Crossan writes Kasienka's story concisely but with compassion for a young girl's determination to figure out where she belongs. 

Here I Am by Patty Kim is a picture book about a little boy and his family who moves from his home to a busy American city.  This wordless picture book follows the boy through his first months in his new home - full of new sounds, sights, and a language he doesn't understand.  His isolation is apparent in the pencil and watercolor sketches.  As is his journey into acceptance and love in his new home!  Lovely - and anyone who knows me, knows I love the challenge of a wordless book for my students.  I can't wait to get a copy of Here I Am when it is release later this summer!

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai many people have already read.  I am late to the bandwagon on this one, but it was just as good as I expected!  This 2012 Newbury Honor book follows Ha as she and her family must leave the only home they've ever known - Saigon.  Beautifully written - like The Weight of Water - in verse, I know that I will reread this one time and again.  I can't wait to recommend this to my class next year!  (How's that for positive thinking!)

Ivan's Great Fall: Poetry for Summer and Autumn from Great Poets and Writers of the Past by Vanita Oelschlager I reviewed yesterday here.  Great poetry picture book.


Here's a peek at what I'm reading next:

I'm also reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  I have no idea how I missed it when it came out?!?!  Loving it so far!  I can't wait to get my hands on the new one!

What are you reading?  Have you read any of these great books?

Christmas Break = Rejuvenation!

Well, it's Christmas break. I've had a great time off, and I'm still looking forward to another four days! (I totally just had to check to see what day it is; for some reason it feels like a Sunday!) I spent the entire first week of my break just relaxing - no school stuff, no surfing TpT or Pinterest, no creating new games and activities for school, nothing. It's been sooo nice! Please tell me I'm not alone in sometimes wishing I worked in a job where I could leave at the end of the day and not think about work until the next day... 

Anyway, now I'm back in school mode. I've had a ton of fun looking at all the great resources available for the new year and even Valentine's Day on Pinterest and TpT. (Note to self: Write a post about said resources after using them!) I've even had time to catch up a little on reading the posts by all of the amazing teacher bloggers I've been ignoring since school started. I am absolutely in awe that you all can do everything - teach, blog, raise a family, etc. Do you all sleep? One of the great blog posts I read and feel like I have somethng to add is from Courtney at Swimming Into Second. She is hosting a linky called and if there's one thing I love and can't resist, it's a LINKY!  So here goes:

My boys (and some of the girls!) love, love, love the I Survived... series.  The favorites of them so far this year are I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 and I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (no surprises there, I suppose.).  A few of them have read the one about 9/11, but it seems too soon to me.  I can't read it yet.  I wonder how long it will be before I can relive that day with some detachment?

 

What are your boys reading?  Your turn to link up!  Click the graphic above or here to join in the fun!

Wonder Woman I am not!

Boy, have I been a bad blogger this week.  I had big plans to be a part of the Teacher Week Linky, but only got Monday's post written, before I hit the wall.  We started with kids on Thursday after three days of meetings, and I am wiped out!  I spent yesterday catching up on laundry, sleep, and grocery shopping.  I also managed to write some basic lesson plans for this week.  So today, I have time to relax, read, knit and blog!

Speaking of reading, I am reading a really great story by Chandra Hahn called UnEnchanted; an Unfortunate Fairy Tale.  It was a freebie I found and started earlier in the summer on the school's iPad and found yesterday for my Nook.  In UnEnchanted, Mina is a typical insecure teenager who is unknowingly descended from the Grimm Brothers.  A family curse catches up to her, and she must complete the Grimm tales to stop the characters from living in our world.  I love it.  Click the picture to add it to your Nook library for free!

In other book news, Ivan died this week.  So sad!  Ivan's story was just released by Katherine Applegate (of Animorphs fame) in her remarkable book The One and Only Ivan.  You can read my review of this amazing story here.

In other news, my new class is great!  Although we only have two days done, and who knows what they'll be like when we actually start school work, so far, they have been delightful!  A bit chatty, but I am hopefully attributing that to their excitement of a new year.  This week, they will have so much to do, they won't have time to talk!!!  :)

The scariest night of the year is just around the corner.  No, I'm not talking about Halloween.  Or even Monday...  CURRICULUM NIGHT!  Picture me cowering in a corner...  I don't know if anyone can relate, but I get sooo nervous in front of parents!  I am super silly and have been known to sing and dance in front of the kids, but in front of the parents, I turn into a complete mess.  Even after 12 years, I hate it.  But I have a secret weapon this year.  I have made a Prezi to introduce the parents to room 102; my hope is they will be sol busy being amazed by my tech-savviness, they won't notice how nervous they make me!

Room 102 on Prezi

Back when I thought I was Wonder Woman and could do everything plus three more things, I was going to write about Prezi for Technology Tip Tuesday.  And to wrap up this crazy, rambling post, the movie at the end of my presentation is about Ivan.

Hope the beginning of your year is the best ever!

Princess Academy

Princess Academy

Shannon Hale

July 2005

I fear I might be in a total rut; I've read a ton of fairy tale-like books lately, and this one is no exception.  I guess it's because we end the school year with a super fun fairy tale unit and I am still living in that moment.

Anyway, Princess Academy is really good!  It's easy to see why it was honored with a Newberry Honor Award.  And since one of my students read it (and like 100 other books this year - no lie!) and recommended it to me, I couldn't wait to read it. 

Miri lives with her father and sister in a mountainous territory of the fictional Danland that is known for its linder stone (marble).  Life on Mount Eskel is simple and pleasant, and the people of the territory are a strong, tight knit community.

When the king's priests tell him that his son's bride is from the small village, he wastes no time in sending guards and servants to create a Princess Academy to prepare the girls of Mount Eskel to become princesses.  In one year, the prince will come to the Academy and choose his bride.

Miri and the other young girls are taken away from their families and put in the often harsh keeping of Olana, their tutor.  Faced with harsh conditions, competition from the other girls and homesickness, Miri ultimately uses her new knowledge to aid her family and her entire village.  Through her studies she learns that her people have been taken advantage of when they sell their linder stone to the traders who visit each year.

Full of intrigue, mystery, adventure, and a little bit of magic, Princess Academy lends itself quite easily to discussions of character, setting, themes of acceptance, friendship, and even economics.  This would be a good book for a small group; I don't think most of the boys would enjoy it.  But the right group of girls and boys might really get into it!  I will definitely recommend this book for partner reading next year.

Buy it now at Barnes & Noble 

The Code Busters Club #1: The Skeleton Key

The Code Busters Club #1: The Skeleton Key

Penny Warner

September 2011

Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. are middle school students who have one thing in common: they love writing, deciphering and working with codes.  Strengthening their code busting skills and turning them into more than a simple hobby, they create a club - complete with secret clubhouse and ever changing passwords. 

When a nearby house catches on fire, the Code Busters Club is on the case.  They are determined to find out what caused the fire that landed the Skeleton Man, their strange, reclusive neighbor, in the hospital.  Soon they are embroiled in the midst of a real life mystery with codes leading every step of the way!

In this very cleverly written series, readers are encouraged to solve the puzzles along with the Code Busters.  The Code Busters must decipher all kinds of codes - everything from American Sign Language and Morse Code to Consonant Code and Semaphores. (I didn't know what it was either!)  Don't worry, though, there are decoders and answers at the back of the book.

I loved this book!  The concept is clever and lets the reader be the detective along with the characters.  The mystery is fast-paced and intriguing, and the characters are likeable and daring.    As I was reading this, I kept thinking about all the novels I love that have to do with language, words, and how people communicate and decided this would be a great read aloud (showing the codes on the document camera) during a guided novel study of such books as FRINDLE (lower level) and NO TALKING by Andrew Clements, THE WORD EATER by Mary Amato, and for my advanced students THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norman Juster.

Of course this would also be a great tie in to our annual Mystery Week in fifth grade, but I don't think I can fit one more thing into that week!

Wonder

 

Wonder

R.J. Palacio

February 2012

After reading this blog post, I knew I had to read this book.  So when I saw it at the library today, I snapped it up, and rushed home to read it!  It didn't disappoint; this is perhaps the most touching, realistic middle grades book, and I am recommending it to everyone who teaches, goes to school or at some time has felt like an outcast.  

August Pullman is starting 5th grade in a new school.  A difficult transition for any kid.  But for Auggie the addition of two extraordinary factors make it even more stressful.  1. He's been homeschooled his whole life and 2. He was born with an extremely rare birth defect: as he puts it, "I won't describe what I look like.  Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse."  WONDER follows Auggie through his first year at his new school - the ups and downs that every new kid faces magnified by about a million.  Cleverly told from several points of view, R.J. Palacio does a remarkable job at conveying emotions and feelings of the characters.  

I can't wait to share this book with my 5th graders next year.  Themes of family ties, growing up, acceptance, bullying, and growth and change make this a great book that I feel will lead to wonderful discussions.  I'm already planning some great anchor charts for character development!

I could really go on forever about this book: just read it.  I promise you'll love it!  I leave you with the book trailer from you tube:

Buy it now from Barnes & Noble.

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

Mary Downing Hahn

Publish Date: September 2010

When Florence is summoned from the orphanage where she has lived most of her life to live with her Uncle, she dreams of a better life. Unsure what to expect but still hopeful, Florence is almost immediately disappointed. Her spinster aunt seemingly hates Florence. Florence bears a remarkable resemblence to her cousin, Sophia, who was killed in an accident not long ago. Aunt resents Florence for taking Sophia's place in the house, making Florence miserable. In addition, James, Sophia's sister, has been bed ridden since Sophia's death. FLorence's hope for a friendship with her cousin is dashed.


Soon, though, Florence's quiet and sometimes boring life is shaken when she begins to see, and hear, Sophia's ghost. Sophia is a spiteful and jealous girl who has returned to get revenge on her brother. Florence must find a way to save both James and herself from her vengeful sister.


Spine-tingling, thrilling and sometimes downright scary, THE GHOST OF CRTCHFIELD HALL will engage readers of all ages. It is a perfect tale for young readers who like mysteries or ghost stories. Fast-paced and intensely creeepy, Ms. Hahn will have many readers at the edge of their seats. This great book is not recommended for late-night reading - readers may never get to sleep! I will definately add THE GHOST OF CRUTCHFIELD HALL to my classroom library.

Buy It Now at Barnes and Noble