I had a chance to talk to our Usborne sales representative last week at the Dublin Literacy Conference. I hadn't kept up with all of the great things in their catalog so I asked for a new copy. I was excited to see I LOVE WORDS
by Francoize Boucher. I am always looking for ways to help kids get excited about words and word learning so I was thrilled to take a look at this book.This book is an activity book. The subtitle on the cover says: An activity book for writing, drawing, and having fun." It reminds me of the doodle books out there. It is larger in shape, filled with fun pages to add to.
There are a variety of things to do in this book. Each page invites the reader to do something different with words. One page is in the shape of a bulletin board and it is titled "A Little Group of Words that Make Your Eyes Water". There are a few samples and then you can fill in the other 12 spaces. There are other pages set up in similar ways (for words that make you laugh and others...) One page invites readers to learn to write in reverse. Another teaches you how to make "word confetti". There are pages for poetry, your thinking, different sayings, words with hidden meanings and more.
If I had a lot of money, I would buy one of these for every child in my class/school. This would do great things for kids. But since I don't have enough money for that, I am going to use this book as a resource. I can see building the pages together as a class. I can see so many of the pages being springboards for class discussions around words and writer's craft. It would be a fun book to work though together, as a class, for the year. I think these little invitations would change the ways kids talked about and thought about words and word learning.
So glad I discovered this book!
. I had fallen in love with 
by Jeff Wilhelm and Michael Smith. I have learned so much from secondary educators about literary elements and am anxious to read this new one.
by Michelle Harrison looks like a fun fantasy read. It looks engaging--love books about fairies and this one got great reviews. I am not sure how I missed this one when it came out but am glad I found it.
is the first in a new series by by Dan Gutman looks like a fun adventure. I like to read the first books in new series that look like they might become popular so this is one I hope to read soon. It looks like a fun read.
by Lara Berger. This was part of a series of three books at the fair. These look like great early chapter books. They are short and several of our more transitional readers picked them up and looked interested. I think it is definitely a series worth checking out.
are two chapter book biographies written by Sid Fleischman. The Charlie Chaplin biography is the newer one and I thought it might be a fun one to read since we are doing so much with film-making in the library. But these look like great biographies--the kind of bios that our older kids can't get enough of. Great photos throughout as well as an accessible font for kids. I am very excited to have discovered these biographies for middle grade readers. Another biography I picked up was 
by Michael Tunnell. I think kids are fascinated by stories like this one and this is another that looks pretty accessible to middle grade readers. I see so many kids going to the same people year after year after year--not because they are so interested in them when it comes time to read biographies (which is another post) but because they don't really know about that many people. I think a good biography can open up kids' minds to all the ways people have contributed in the world. Kids are fascinated by great stories of people. My issue has been that the quality of the writing doesn't always match the person's story. I look for quality writing about amazing people. 
by Jordan Brown draws readers in as it tells about lots of little things that are all around us. The book takes a "close look" at things like bacteria and bedbugs. There is lots of text in this book and I am a little nervous about reading all of it. There is good info on Bacteria in the Bathroom and "the 5 Second Rule" among other things. The book is divided into chapter so it is definitely one that can be read cover to cover for readers who are interested. Packed with a little too much info for me, I think....
by S. D. Nelson mentioned on a few lists and was happy to see that the book was written by a Native American. I am looking for more reviews on the book. I am trying to add much better literature to this section of our library and thought this one was worth checking out. It was on a few notables lists if I remember correctly.
by Eric Kimmel. I feel like a lot of our mythology is either outdated or newly published to meet the needs of fans of the Lightning Thief series. I was thrilled to see this newer version of stories with great illustrations. Kids couldn't get enough of this book--even those who are not Lightning Thief fans. This is the perfect size book for readers of mythology. Stories with illustrations in a larger picture book format.
by Jim Arnosky looks like a great collection of one page pieces about reptiles. Each two-page spread focuses on one subtopic such as "Turtles" or "Where Do Reptiles Go In Winter". The organization of the book, the accompanying illustrations and the amount of text on each page make it one that I think will be interesting and accessible to kids.
to my fourth graders. I almost told this English Language Learner to put her paper away during read aloud, but, not knowing for sure how much she can even understand as she listens, I let her keep doodling while I read, as a "consolation prize" for all the "incomprehensible English that was washing over her."
(1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.
