Posts
I can't believe how long it has been since I posted! I have read quite a few things, but the beginning of the school year has been so busy, that I haven't had time to post. I did think about it a few times while at school, but ironically, my own blog is blocked at school. (I didn't really think my principal would feel it vitally important to the curriculum to unblock =) )
I read lots of things in the past several weeks though. I read a The Treasures of Weatherby by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. It was an o.k. book. Not much too it. I felt the focus should have been more on the climax and the amazing treasure, but all of that lasted about four pages. It will still keep the attention of some younger readers who don't expect much out of a book. I read the first book in the Gilda Joyce series: Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator. That book had surprisingly more bite to it than I expected. It certainly had a depth to it that I wouldn't have pegged from the covers. I might read the others in the series, but I have so many other books to read!!! I started the new Sisters Grimm book and an interesting book called Framed. I think this book has real promise. Quirky characters, mystery, and crime, I'll have to see where it goes. Luckily, I have silent reading "duty" for three pretty good classrooms, so I can actually get a few pages read during the day. That's a bonus! I also read the second Penderwicks book. It was still good. Fans of the first will certainly like the second. But it has a Disney sort of Parent Trap feel to it that I wasn't totally keen on. Lawn Boy was a very easy read that I think reluctant boy readers will really enjoy. Regarding the Bees is another great visual mystery from Kate and Sarah Klise. If you liked the first several by these authors, you'll like this one.
Of course, I looked at a few picture books too. And the Train Goes... has great rhythm and pace to it. I thought my 2 1/2 year old would enjoy it.
Casey Back at Bat was awfully cute and funny.
My boys at school jumped all over the newest Young Bond books and of course, the new Alex Rider book, Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz. Interestingly, The Invention of Hugo Cabret has still been a hot choice and I ended up using Scholastic points to get a second copy.
Speaking of, I got a great little tech tool from the Scholastic Instructional Resource Catalog with my points left over from Book Fair. It's an .mp3 player/recorder that has two sets of headphones and jacks and is super easy to use! It's even supported by Overdrive, which a lot of libraries use for the audiobooks. I wish I had more of them. The potential for using it for fluency and podcasting is so great! I wouldn't recommend buying it from Scholastic though. It's about $100 more from them than it is online other places. The representative tried to tell me that the others online only have one pair of headphones and this one has two, that's part of the difference. But I looked at ones with two sets and they weren't much more than $140. And you can't tell me that a second set of headphone (regular, plain headphones) is $100. That's ridiculous!
I'll try to keep up better on my blogging. I'm sure I'll be back soon with more books I've read!! Happy Labor Day!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Christmas in August
I headed to school today to try and get ready for school. It was like Christmas for me! Eleven whole boxes of books from two different companies for me...uhhhh...I mean the students to read. Two of the boxes were nonfiction books, mainly about sports teams and other sports. We were in dire need of updating our sports section. The other nine books were from Follett and were a variety of fiction and nonfiction.
I used a couple of sources for ordering this year. A huge source was the BER Best New Books for Children workshop I attended. Judy Freeman put on the session I attended and it was awesome. We received a huge book with annotations and activities for over 100 books. And she was very dynamic. I also collected newsletters on children's books from Borders and a local bookstore. I also attend sessions at our Educational Media conference every year that focus on the summer reading club and best new children's books. The best part is that Follett will take those lists that I receive and put them into TitleWave for me to add to my orders. And the BER guide gets put on TitleWave every year. Ordering was a snap. And this year I even sprung for the covering and barcoding. So my books were almost shelf-ready when they came.
If my library circ station hard drive hadn't crashed, I'd be sitting pretty! Oh well, at least I have an excuse for bringing more books home with me!
Here's a sample of what I brought home. (Remember, I love mysteries and fantasy...) Enola Holmes, Gilda Joyce, Evil Genius, Roddick Rules, Framed, Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Nixie's Song (Spiderwick), and Magyk.
Boy...school is coming too fast!
I used a couple of sources for ordering this year. A huge source was the BER Best New Books for Children workshop I attended. Judy Freeman put on the session I attended and it was awesome. We received a huge book with annotations and activities for over 100 books. And she was very dynamic. I also collected newsletters on children's books from Borders and a local bookstore. I also attend sessions at our Educational Media conference every year that focus on the summer reading club and best new children's books. The best part is that Follett will take those lists that I receive and put them into TitleWave for me to add to my orders. And the BER guide gets put on TitleWave every year. Ordering was a snap. And this year I even sprung for the covering and barcoding. So my books were almost shelf-ready when they came.
If my library circ station hard drive hadn't crashed, I'd be sitting pretty! Oh well, at least I have an excuse for bringing more books home with me!
Here's a sample of what I brought home. (Remember, I love mysteries and fantasy...) Enola Holmes, Gilda Joyce, Evil Genius, Roddick Rules, Framed, Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Nixie's Song (Spiderwick), and Magyk.
Boy...school is coming too fast!
Seer of Shadows by Avi
In taking a break from grading, I decided to pick up this book. Perhaps it was because it was around midnight; perhaps it's because I'm a weenie when it comes to ghost stories, but I was slightly spooked. Slasher movies, monster movies...those don't seem to scare me. But put in a ghost, especially a fairly understated ghost, and I'm freaked.
Avi's storyline, for the most part, contains that understated ghost idea. Where the ghost is hovering in the shadows. An angry ghost and a boy with a unique talent make for a great tale...until Avi gets sort of "Stephen King" toward the end. The end felt a little too rushed and perhaps that's why it came off as a typical horror flick climax. The last part of the book that is more like an epilogue brought back some of the spooky flavor, but I wasn't as thrilled with it in the long run because of the climax scene.
Not a bad read, but next time I'll try to save the ghost stories for the daytime!
Avi's storyline, for the most part, contains that understated ghost idea. Where the ghost is hovering in the shadows. An angry ghost and a boy with a unique talent make for a great tale...until Avi gets sort of "Stephen King" toward the end. The end felt a little too rushed and perhaps that's why it came off as a typical horror flick climax. The last part of the book that is more like an epilogue brought back some of the spooky flavor, but I wasn't as thrilled with it in the long run because of the climax scene.
Not a bad read, but next time I'll try to save the ghost stories for the daytime!
Friday, July 25, 2008
The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley
I realized I skipped this book in my blogging. I finished several days ago. If you liked the first, you'll like this. It was a good book, with possibly more heart than the first book in the series. A nice take on fantasy and fairy tales, pulling them into modern day society. As a little girl, I loved fantasies (unicorns were pretty predominate in my decor) and mysteries. This book blends the two of them together and I enjoy it for a nice read. If you don't like fantasy, you won't care for this series. And if you are tired of reading books that turn into a series, you won't like this one either. All in all, though, I found it to be a good book and ventured out to the bookstore to find the next in the series. Alas, they were out. So...it's on to another book that's waiting on my shelf!
23 Things from School Library Journal
School Library Journal is running a 23 Things initiative. If you are interesting in learning about web 2.0 technology check out the blog. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/290000629.html?nid=4377
If you are interested in finding blogs about books, check out the participating blog listing (http://www.netvibes.com/sljalltogethernow) and Michael's link from Alice Yucht. Both have lots of good book blogs listed.
I tell you, between Michael's blog, "Tame the Web", Stephen Abram's "Stephen's Lighthouse", and David Warlick's "2 Cents Worth" (by the way...where's the darn cents symbol?), my curriculum is building and building for the teacher/librarian technology class I teach. They are tremendous resources if you are interested in this sort of thing!
If you are interested in finding blogs about books, check out the participating blog listing (http://www.netvibes.com/sljalltogethernow) and Michael's link from Alice Yucht. Both have lots of good book blogs listed.
I tell you, between Michael's blog, "Tame the Web", Stephen Abram's "Stephen's Lighthouse", and David Warlick's "2 Cents Worth" (by the way...where's the darn cents symbol?), my curriculum is building and building for the teacher/librarian technology class I teach. They are tremendous resources if you are interested in this sort of thing!
Children's Choice Picture Books
I didn't want to create ten posts over each of the picture book nominees for the state children's choice awards, so I've just decided to do one monster post on all of them and give you the highlights.
By far, I think the favorite book will be Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds. It is fun and colorful and makes you hungry. =) The animals in the book are very reminiscent of Click, Clack, Moo. Including an ornery set of mice that seem to be running quite the racket! This is my prediction for the winner this year.
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen will also be a hit with the kids. All of them will love hearing about the fun extravagant (and unrealistic) details the main character is adding to his car. I think that you ought to hand out pencils and paper with this book, as every kid is going to want to draw their own car after reading it!
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen is sweet and touch and every librarian will love it. Kids will also like the idea of tame and well-meaning pet lion.
Fancy Nancy is already an instant class with little girls and if they have anything to say about it, this book will be high up there on the final list.
If you want a creative way to teach some math skill and work fairy tales in, The Three Silly Billies by Margie Palatini is perfect. Another fun and humorous book, this will be a great curriculum aide for teachers. Money counting here we come!
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven will be another great curriculum enhancer. The story of a Little League All-Star team from the 50's, this book focuses on racial inequality and has so many options for tie-in literature! I can't wait to share this one with my social studies teachers.
Three books, while o.k. books just didn't seem to have the pizazz the others did. Lucky by Jean Craighead George is a nice state tie-in, but the writing leaves something to be desired. "Cute" and "nice" are the two words I used to describe Duck and Goose by Tad Hills. There's not too much to this story, but it's cute. A book that seemed to be selected more for the adults than the kids is Nothing to Do by Douglas Wood. The message is plain, sometimes we gotta take time out to stop and smell the roses. But I'm pretty sure that students won't grasp this idea too easily. It's something that really seems to be learned in hindsight.
Finally, my rant about Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett. I like Jan Brett, I really do. But this book really disappointed me. Honey Badger and Honey Bird have a symbiotic relationship. And one day Honey Badger gets selfish and keeps all the honey for himself. He doesn't really pay attention to Honey Bird's upset squawks, so the next day, Honey Bird leads Honey Badger straight into a mean lion that chases him and scares him. In fact it mentions something to the effect of, "That's the closest any animal can get to an angry lion and live to tell about it." The rest of the animals are amused and call out to each other to watch out for Honey Bird. Hmmmmmmmmm....... Great lesson I want to teach my son. Share or you'll get eaten by a lion. If someone doesn't share with you, it's o.k. to be really mean to them. If someone has something scary and mean happen to them, it's funny because they probably deserved it. My son was really excited to look at the pictures and name all the animals, but after that, I took the book back to school. I wasn't going to read him the story. (I know...I'm a grouch.) I was really disappointed this was selected as a nominee.
That's all of them. Check back in May to see if my predictions are right: Chicks and Salsa and If I Built a Cart will be at the top of the results!
By far, I think the favorite book will be Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds. It is fun and colorful and makes you hungry. =) The animals in the book are very reminiscent of Click, Clack, Moo. Including an ornery set of mice that seem to be running quite the racket! This is my prediction for the winner this year.
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen will also be a hit with the kids. All of them will love hearing about the fun extravagant (and unrealistic) details the main character is adding to his car. I think that you ought to hand out pencils and paper with this book, as every kid is going to want to draw their own car after reading it!
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen is sweet and touch and every librarian will love it. Kids will also like the idea of tame and well-meaning pet lion.
Fancy Nancy is already an instant class with little girls and if they have anything to say about it, this book will be high up there on the final list.
If you want a creative way to teach some math skill and work fairy tales in, The Three Silly Billies by Margie Palatini is perfect. Another fun and humorous book, this will be a great curriculum aide for teachers. Money counting here we come!
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven will be another great curriculum enhancer. The story of a Little League All-Star team from the 50's, this book focuses on racial inequality and has so many options for tie-in literature! I can't wait to share this one with my social studies teachers.
Three books, while o.k. books just didn't seem to have the pizazz the others did. Lucky by Jean Craighead George is a nice state tie-in, but the writing leaves something to be desired. "Cute" and "nice" are the two words I used to describe Duck and Goose by Tad Hills. There's not too much to this story, but it's cute. A book that seemed to be selected more for the adults than the kids is Nothing to Do by Douglas Wood. The message is plain, sometimes we gotta take time out to stop and smell the roses. But I'm pretty sure that students won't grasp this idea too easily. It's something that really seems to be learned in hindsight.
Finally, my rant about Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett. I like Jan Brett, I really do. But this book really disappointed me. Honey Badger and Honey Bird have a symbiotic relationship. And one day Honey Badger gets selfish and keeps all the honey for himself. He doesn't really pay attention to Honey Bird's upset squawks, so the next day, Honey Bird leads Honey Badger straight into a mean lion that chases him and scares him. In fact it mentions something to the effect of, "That's the closest any animal can get to an angry lion and live to tell about it." The rest of the animals are amused and call out to each other to watch out for Honey Bird. Hmmmmmmmmm....... Great lesson I want to teach my son. Share or you'll get eaten by a lion. If someone doesn't share with you, it's o.k. to be really mean to them. If someone has something scary and mean happen to them, it's funny because they probably deserved it. My son was really excited to look at the pictures and name all the animals, but after that, I took the book back to school. I wasn't going to read him the story. (I know...I'm a grouch.) I was really disappointed this was selected as a nominee.
That's all of them. Check back in May to see if my predictions are right: Chicks and Salsa and If I Built a Cart will be at the top of the results!
Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Another book...another series. *sigh* Fortunately, I think I will be able to resist the pull of reading the next book in this series. It wasn't a bad book. In fact, I think there will be plenty of kids who like it. It's just a bit too sci-fi for me.
I knew I was in trouble when I was getting towards the end of the book and there was still a major reunion missing from the story. I thought, "It's never going to get wrapped up." Then I saw the back of the book. (I sometimes skip the back of the book so that I can form my own opinion.) It mentions the sequel coming out in Spring 2009. Drat. I wanted resolution now and not to have to read another long book to get it!
The book is rather long and it has a very intriguing feel about it. I fluttered back and forth between comparisons: City of Ember...Gregor the Overlander. I also was reminded of a play that I performed at Spanish camp one summer (yes...I was a nerd). I have no idea what it was called, but it involved a couple going exploring in some caves and finding a race of people inside. While the story is definitely well-crafted, it just wasn't the first thing I'd choose to read. But young adult sci-fi fans will definitely enjoy it. I'd stick with recommending this book to my upper elementary (HAL 4th and 5th) and junior high students. I think it's too much (and too violent) for younger kids.
I knew I was in trouble when I was getting towards the end of the book and there was still a major reunion missing from the story. I thought, "It's never going to get wrapped up." Then I saw the back of the book. (I sometimes skip the back of the book so that I can form my own opinion.) It mentions the sequel coming out in Spring 2009. Drat. I wanted resolution now and not to have to read another long book to get it!
The book is rather long and it has a very intriguing feel about it. I fluttered back and forth between comparisons: City of Ember...Gregor the Overlander. I also was reminded of a play that I performed at Spanish camp one summer (yes...I was a nerd). I have no idea what it was called, but it involved a couple going exploring in some caves and finding a race of people inside. While the story is definitely well-crafted, it just wasn't the first thing I'd choose to read. But young adult sci-fi fans will definitely enjoy it. I'd stick with recommending this book to my upper elementary (HAL 4th and 5th) and junior high students. I think it's too much (and too violent) for younger kids.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)