It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts has the link-up. Go check out what everybody's reading!

I'm getting ready for the summer edition of #bookaday and Mother Reader's 48 Hour Reading Challenge. Here are my three stacks:

General TBR

Amulet #6: Escape From Lucien

Manhunt

The Badger Knight

Dangerous

The Meaning of Maggie

Fish Finelli (Book 2): Operation Fireball (you know me...I'll have to find
the first book in the series before I can read this one...)

Nine Open Arms

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy)

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

The Forbidden Library

Room 214: A Year in Poems

How I Discovered Poetry

Under the Egg

Nightingale's Nest

And Short the Season: Poems

Professional Reads/Annual Re-Reads

I'm sure I'll add more to this stack as the summer goes by. I can't wait to dig into

Readers Front and Center: Helping All Students Engage with Complex Text

Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for Analyzing Texts--and Life

For the NCTE Excellence in Poetry Committee

I've already read a couple of these. I'm most looking forward to

Miss Emily

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal

Caminar

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

The Power of Precise Language

It's DigiLit Sunday at Reflections on the Teche!

Check out all the digital literacy posts for this week.

As we wrap up our final research/nonfiction writing project, it's fun to see that my students are much more savvy about Internet searches than they were even a couple of months ago when they were satisfied to pose the exact question I'd given them to Mr. Google and fumble around with whatever information he decided to give them.

After their Evil Teacher forced them to use an encyclopedia repeatedly to gather information, my poor benighted students are much more willing to browse an online article (or even, heaven forbid, a book) for basic information before heading to more specialized sites. (Resisting the urge to say, "Told you so...")

And they are learning the power of precise language both in their Internet searches, as well as in their spoken language. My favorite example of the first is the girl who got lists of celebrities when searching "famous science people from Texas." She got what she wanted when I suggested she switch to "famous scientists from Texas." One precise word makes a huge difference. My favorite examples of the second include the boy who told me, "There were lots of presidents in my state." When I expressed confusion about how that could be, he reworded his statement to say, "There were a lot of presidents born in my state." Another student complained, "There's nothing about history in this book!" When I located an entire section about history in the table of contents, he reworded his statement, "There's nothing about the history of the native people of Florida in this book." Much better. Much clearer.

Poetry Friday -- Today by Billy Collins

Peony and Ant by Mary Lee Hahn

Today

by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like...

(read the rest of the poem here)

Ahh...five more days of school...need I say more?

Violet has today's Poetry Friday roundup at Violet Nesdoly / Poems. 

Please note that Jone and Buffy have traded weeks at the end of next month. Jone will be hosting on June 20 and Buffy will have June 27.

History -- Graphic Novel Style

Graphic novels count for your summer #bookaday and for the 48 Hour Book Challenge, so put these on your TBR if you teach grades 4-8 or simply if you want to brush up on your American History.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

With a given name like Nathan Hale, how could you NOT write about Nathan Hale? This book is the set-up for the whole series. Nathan Hale is about to be hanged for treason. (On the cover, bottom left is the British officer in charge and, bottom right, the doofus hangman.) When Hale says his famous words, he is sucked into the Book of History and can see ALL of history. He delays his hanging by telling the Brit and the Hangman great stories from history. In this book, the focus is Hale's story, and the big picture is the American Revolution.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad!

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

Big Bad Ironclad focuses on the race between the North and the South during the Civil War to develop ironclad ships. Big picture: Civil War.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 6, 2013

review copy purchased for my classroom

The Donner Dinner Party should also be known as "How Many Bad Decisions Can Be Made Based on Pride, Greed, Stubbornness and Competition?" Focus: surviving a winter stranded in the Sierra Nevadas. Big picture: Westward Movement.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood (A World War I Tale)

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, May 13, 2014

review copy purchased for my classroom

If you're like me, you're a little fuzzy on why World War I was fought. The politics of WWI are extremely (EXTREMELY) complicated, but Nathan Hale does a masterful job of bringing them down to kid level. To help the reader keep track of all of the countries involved, he draws each nationality as a different animal. 

Free YA Audiobooks!

Every week from May 15-August 20, Sync offers a pair of FREE YA audiobooks for readers to download with the Overdrive app on their desktop computer or mobile device.

Each YA book is paired with a classic. This week, the pair is Warp: The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

Once you download them, they are yours to listen to immediately, or whenever you get the chance! 

I'll be downloading them all, but there are a few I'm especially looking forward to:

June 12 – June 18
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell

THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne 

June 26 – July 2
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin 

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister 

Happy Listening! Happy Reading (with your ears)!!

Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast to Kick Off to 48 Hour Read and Book-A-Day

Our last day of school is on Monday, June 2.  We are having lots of conversations in our classroom about summer reading and the joys of having extra time to read. Even by 3rd grade, some of my students already see summer reading as a chore so they looked a little confused the first two times I shared my excitement for the 2014 48 Hour Read and Summer Book-A-Day (#bookaday). 

Mother Reader started her 48 Hour Book Challenge many years ago. Although I have never participated as a challenger, I have participated many years just for fun. For me, it is like a Hallmark Holiday--if Mother Reader says that June 6-8 is the 48 Hour Read, then I have a great excuse to read.  You can read more about the challenge in the link above. Mother Reader also posted 48 Hour Challenge FAQs last week.  If Donalyn challenges me to read a #bookaday, I give myself the gift of reading time each day.

I think one of the reasons I love the 48 Hour Book Challenge is that it is a great way to kick off summer reading and #bookaday..  No matter how much I read in the winter and spring, there is less and less time to fall into a good book during the last few weeks of the school year.  With all of the end-of-the-year things there are to do to close out the school year and to focus on the classroom community's last few days together, taking time for my own reading, always takes a backseat for a while. So, the 48 Hour Read and the #bookaday challenge help me make time to jump back into my reading life.

Another reason I LOVE the 48 Hour Read is that we often kick the weekend off with a Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast and Book Shopping Spree.  (If you are a Central Ohio blogger and would like to join us, email one of us and we'll give you the details!) We started this little tradition a while ago and it is amazing how it has evolved.  Funny thing is that many of us have become great friends through blogging and the fact that we all live close enough to get together once in a while is quite fun.  The morning is always filled with great talk, lots of laughing, delicious food and very heavy bags of books!  In 2008, I began the 48 Hour Read alone, getting my hair colored. In 2009, we decided that in Central Ohio, we might need to change the name of the challenge to the 48 Hour Shop! And in 2011, we discovered the fortifying power of granola, thanks to Bill Prosser.  I am sure 2014 will bring lots more fun and great books!

Now on to the reading plan.  I don't feel like I have a lot of 3rd grade-ish books to catch up on.  I spent lots of last summer reading transitional chapter books and feel like I can keep up with new ones easily. I've also kept up on lots of great new nonfiction as I've been trying to build my library in that area. But I seem to have fallen behind in my middle grade, YA and adult reading. I have already created a mental TBR stack that is bigger than anything I can read in one summer alone. But I do have a stack that I want to read early on in the summer. 

These are my summer MUST READS so far.  

The Forbidden Library

The Crossover

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

Boys of Blur

Another Day as Emily

Circa Now

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) 

The Riverman

We Were Liars

My New Friend Is So Fun! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

We discovered Binky the Space Cat in 2009 and fell in love with him immediately. Since that time the two of us have mentioned Binky several times on the blog. He is a great character. His stories are fabulous and funny. So I was thrilled to see a new book from Binky's author, Ashley Spires. The new book is called The Most Magnificent Thing.

In this story, a little girl decides that she is going to create the most magnificent thing.  She has a vision in her head of what she wants to create and she is confident she can create it. After all, she is good at creating things. She and her dog begin the magnificent creation.  Along the way, they hit a few bumps and a little frustration.

If you have read anything by Ashley Spires, you know that her characters and her sense of humor make her books magnificent. This is totally true of this book. The story is a great one. The character is fabulous--you get to know both the girl and the dog through the text and the illustrations. Spires is brilliant! And her sense of humor--surprising lines kept popping up making me laugh aloud.

I am VERY excited about sharing this book at the beginning of the year. It will start fabulous conversations about creating, invention, working through struggles, frustration, etc.

So much to love about this book! My new favorite for sure.

Here is the book trailer:

The Most Magnificent Thing Book Trailer from Kids Can Press on Vimeo.

And in this video, author/illustrator, Ashley Spires Hacks her book:

Other Reviews

Betsy Bird reviews the book on her School Library Journal blog.
The Cozy Little Book Journal has a great review with lots of visuals.
Miss Tiff reads reviews the books and adds some great ideas.

And her upcoming fall title (Edie's Ensembles )  looks fabulous as well!

Celebrate! CLA's 2014 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts!

Celebrate this week with others by visiting Ruth Ayres Writes.

This week, we are celebrating another great list of Notables from the Children's Literature Assembly of NCTE. Great work, Committee! Great books, Authors!

 2014 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts 

www.childrensliteratureassembly.org 

Ah Ha!, by Jeff Mack, published by Chronicle Books. 

Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan, published by Dial. 

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein, published by Random House. 

Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet, by Andrea Cheng, published by Lee & Low Books. 

Exclamation Mark, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, published by Scholastic Press. 

Forest Has a Song, by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, illustrated by Robbin Gourley, published by Clarion Books. 

Gaby, Lost and Found, by Angela Cervantes, published by Scholastic Press. 

Hold Fast, by Blue Balliett, published by Scholastic Press. 

Journey, by Aaron Becker, published by Candlewick Press. 

Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me, by Daniel Beaty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, published by Little, Brown and Company. 

Light in the Darkness: A Story About How Slaves Learned in Secret, by Lesa Cline-Ransom, illustrated by James E. Ransome, published by Disney/Jump at the Sun Books. 

Little Red Writing, by Joan Holub, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, published by Chronicle Books. 

Look Up! Bird Watching in Your Own Backyard, by Annette LeBlanc Cate, published by Candlewick Press. 

Martin and Mahalia: His Words Her Song, by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, published by Little, Brown and Company. 

Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press. 

Nelly May has Her Say, by Cynthia DeFelice, illustrated by Henry Cole, published by Margaret Ferguson Books/Farrar Straus Giroux. 

Prisoner 88, by Leah Pileggi, published by Charlesbridge. 

Sure Signs of Crazy, by Karen Harrington, published by Little, Brown and Company. 

The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny), by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illustrated by Stacy Innerst, published by Harcourt Children’s Books. 

The Candy Smash, by Jacqueline Davies, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. 

The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, published by Philomel Books. 

The Language Inside, by Holly Thompson, published by Delacorte. 

The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist, by Margarita Engle, published by Harcourt. 

The Long, Long Journey: The Godwit’s Amazing Migration, by Sandra Markle, illustrated by Mia Posada, published by Millbrook Press. 

The Matchbox Diary, by Paul Fleischman, Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, published by Candlewick Press. 

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, by Kathi Appelt, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 

This Journal Belongs to Ratchet, by Nancy J. Cavanaugh, published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. 

When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders, by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Jim Burke, R. Gregory Christie, Tonya Engel, John Parra, and Meilo So, published by Chronicle Books. 

Words with Wings, by Nikki Grimes, published by WordSong. 

Zebra Forest, by Adina Rishe Gewirtz, published by Candlewick Press. 

2014 Notable Childrens’ Books in the Language Arts Selection Committee Members: Patricia Bandré, chair; Shanetia Clark, Christine Draper, Evie Freeman, Dick Koblitz, Jean Schroeder, and Barbara Ward