Wednesday Lesson Plan: Choosing Just the Right Book

Today with my 1st and 2nd graders, we discussed "choosing just the right book".  I showed them a variety of books and we decided which ones looked like they might be a "fit".  We talked about shoes and how you have to get the right fit, or it doesn't really feel good.  I asked the students why a big, scary book may not be a good fit and got lots of great answers, like, it might be too long, too scary, too many hard words, no pictures, and so on.  We looked and really easy books and I asked why these board books wouldn't be the best fit.  Their answers were perfect:  too easy, baby books, not enough words to practice, I'd finisih to fast...

So I handed out a bookmark with these steps to follow for choosing just the right book:

1.  Look at the cover
2.  Read the title and author
3.  Read the blurb on the back of the book
4.  Open the book and skim through it.
5.  Use the 5 finger rule:
     Read the first page and if there are more than 5 words you can't undestand or sound out, it is probably too hard.

It seemed to have helped in their selections today.

Books I'll be Displaying for Christmas

Jan Brett was born on Dec. 1st.  I'm thinking that it wasn't a coincidence, because she personifies all things Christmas.  Here are some of her Christmas books I have that I will be displaying, along with many others in the library.



















And the list goes on.  She is magnificent.  Go visit her blog for a real treat.  www.janbrett.com

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Just wanted to wish all my friends and family and readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I like Thanksgiving, because the pressure is only about the food and it's pretty easy to get that right.  Non of the, "I didn't get what I wanted this year", kind of stuff.  So to all of you, hope you had a wonderful day.

Picture Books that Tell of Adoption

Book Description

Release Date: November 19, 1992 | Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Reading Rainbow Books

A little boy living in a distant country is lonely. He needs a bed of his own, a room of his own, a house of his own -- and most of all, a momma and poppa of his own. But he must travel far to get them. He must fly for a day and a night through blue skies and clouds and stars before he comes to a place he can call home... with his loving new adopted family.

Tell me again about the night I was born. Tell me again how you would adopt me and be my parents. Tell me again about the first time you held me in your arms.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell, author and illustrator of the best-selling When I Was Little: A Four Year Old's Memoir of Her Youth, have joined together again to create a fresh new picture book for every parent and every child. In asking her parents to tell her again about the night of her birth, a young girl shows that it is a cherished tale she knows by heart. Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born is a unique, exuberant story about adoption and about the importance of a loving family.

 

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PS:  As many of you know, our family adopted a beautiful little 2 year old boy over 11 years ago.  He has been such a blessing to our family, as we have learned to parent a child with learning disabilities and other challenges I never expected to face as a parent.  He has made us better parents and our other 6 children adore him, probably more than their other siblings sometimes. 
     I know of a loving family who is looking to adopt right now.  They are absolutely incredible, so if anyone who is reading this blog right now knows of a birth mother who is looking to place her baby with a loving family, please comment and let me know.  I will put you in touch with this family!!!  http://sunshinepromises.blogspot.com/

Suggested Books

A Mother for Choco

Are You My Mother?

The Little Engine that Could

Goodnight Moon

Guess How Much I Love You

Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale

The Family Book

The Velveteen Rabbit

Brown Like Me

All About Adoption: How Families are Made

Stellaluna

The Mulberry Bird

Horace

FRIDAY FICTION: "THE THIEF LORD" by Cornelia Funke

Sam and I just finished reading "The Thief Lord", by Cornelia Funke.  I read most of it, but he read as well.  It held his interest almost 100% of the time, unless he was too sleepy and was a great read for a 13 year old boy who "hates to read".  I kept it light, on the "you have to take a turn reading", side and he relaxed and often begged me to read to him.  This is my goal with him.  I want him to want to hear reading and read himself. 

The plot is enticing, moves along quickly and the characters, mostly children, are full of personality.  It takes place in Venice and so we first looked at a "coffee table" book with lots of pictures of Italy and Venice, so he could imagine the city.  It includes some magic, thrown in toward the end, which really puts an unexpected twist on the plot. 

I recommend this book to any preteen or teen boy, or girl for that matter.  It has a happy ending as well.

Here's a well stated review from a reader on Amazon by "Mpxwa":

"I completely recommend this book. I absolutely enjoyed the adventure. Without giving away the story, and where I'm a new "review writer", just trust me when I say, READ THIS BOOK!!!! I like that I was always kept in suspense as to what was coming next. I enjoy books where I cannot guess what the ending might be, and this one did the job. There was humor, suspense, struggle between adversary and hero, a change in heroes, mystery... An absolutely fascinating book! Buy it. "

Let's Give Thanks Booklist

Let's Give Thanks Booklist | Books by Theme | Children's Books and Authors | Reading Rockets

A Few More Quotable Reading Quotes

 

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

— Jorge Luis Borges

 

"Indeed, learning to write may be a part of learning to read. For all I know,writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading."

— Eudora Welty

 

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

— Frederick Douglass

 

"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I [haven't] read."

— Abraham Lincoln

 

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

— J. K. Rowling

 

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

— Emilie Buchwald

 

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

— Groucho Marx

 

"Teaching reading IS rocket science."

— Louisa Moats

 

"Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different."

— Steven Pinker

 

"Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today."

— Gabriela Mistral

 

"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read."

— Marilyn Jager Adams

 

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all."

— Jacqueline Kennedy

 

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet."

— Lady Montagu, providing advice on raising her granddaughter, 1752

 

"Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back."

— Chinese proverb

 

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."

— Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"

 

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

— Austin Phelps

 

"You may have tangible wealth untold. / Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. / Richer than I you can never be – / I had a mother who read to me."

— Strickland Gillilan

 

"The ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive."

— The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964

 

"A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us."

— Franz Kafka, 1904

 

"The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can't."

— Mark Twain

 

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

 

"Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!"

— A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943

 

"When I was a kid they didn't call it dyslexia. They called it you know, you were slow, or you were retarded, or whatever. What you can never change is the effect that the words 'dumb' and 'stupid' have on young people. I knew I wasn't stupid, and I knew I wasn't dumb. My mother told me that. If you read to me, I could tell you everything that you read. They didn't know what it was. They knew I wasn't lazy, but what was it?"

— Whoopi Goldberg

 

"The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things."

— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

 

"The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves."

— E.M. Forster

 

"I'm not a teacher: only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as you."

— George Bernard Shaw

 

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island."

— Walt Disney

Books for Boys Who Hate to Read

Ask a boy who hates to read what he does like to do, and you’ll get a surprising array of answers. Everything from playing sports to building models, to dinosaurs and animals to cars, machines, and movies – the funny ones, the sci-fi ones, and the scarier the better. So let that be your guide. Find books that plug into his hobbies and interests – books he’ll want to tell his friends about – and he’ll be hooked.  

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ADVANCED READS for tweens and teens, ages 11 up

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang

Three stories--one following the Chinese folk hero Monkey King, another, the Jin Wang and his struggle to fit in with his American classmates, and a third, of Danny, who changes schools to keep away from his embarrassing cousin--ultimately converge in this graphic novel about race and self-identity.

ASHFALL by Mike Mullin

Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when a supervolcano erupts, descending the world as he knows it into darkness, ash, and violence. All seems hopeles until he teams up with Darla, and together they fight for survival.

DEATH CLOUD (Young Sherlock Holmes series) by Andrew Lane

About to begin his summer vacation from boarding school, the fourteen-year-old Sherlock learns he has to spend the holidays with remote relatives. Before long he becomes deeply involved in attempting to solve a murder mystery, and suddenly Sherlock’s summer vacation is anything but dull.

ERAGON (Inheritance Cycle series) by Christopher Paolini

Eragon comes across a mysterious polished blue stone, which soon hatches--and Eragon finds himself in charge of training a baby dragon he names Saphira. King Galbatorix, the feared and hated ruler of all Alagaësia, murders Eragon’s uncle, and Eragon and Saphira flee, vowing vengeance.

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST (Fullmetal Alchemist series) by Hiromu Arakawa

This manga follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, whose lives--and even their own bodies--have been taken over by the dangerous powers of alchemy.

THE GOATS by Brock Cole

When kids from a summer camp strip and maroon a young boy and girl alone on an island for a night as a prank, the pair--or rather, the "goats"--decide to stay.

THE KID FROM TOMKINSVILLE by John R. Tunis

This classic author of books for boys writes of a young baseball player named Roy Tucker. The pitcher is drafted to the Brooklyn Dodgers to help the team out of a slump, but after a serious accident, Roy must find another place for himself on the team.

LEVIATHAN (Leviathan series) by Scott Westerfeld

Climb on board the Leviathan, a living airship, and join the action with two teenage heroes as they’re swept up in an alternate universe version of World War I.

LOCKDOWN (Escape from Furnace series) by Alexander Gordon Smith

Lockdown is a story about criminals and thugs, about monsters and madmen, about a bunch of kids who’ve been thrown into the most terrifying prison ever conceived.

THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT (Maximum Ride series) by James Patterson

'The Flock', Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel are pretty normal kids--except that they're 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. And they were raised in a lab by evil scientists. And they can fly. Oh--and they've been called on to save the world.

THE MAZE RUNNER and the rest of the series by James Dashner

Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing. He joins a group of boys who have been penned into a large walled-in area called the Glade, which opens up to a maze every morning. When the first girl joins them the next day, Thomas realizes he may be more important than he could ever guess.

THE MOVES MAKE THE MAN by Bruce Brooks

Jerome Foxworthy, basketball extraordinaire, can handle anything--he grew up without a father, he was the first black kid in his school. When Jerome meets Bix Rivers, Jerome takes it upon himself to teach his new friend all his greatest moves.

THE OBSIDIAN BLADE (Klaatu Diskos series) by Pete Hautman

Around Tucker's idyllic town of Hopewell, unearthly disks appear, suspended in the sky. Not everyone can see them, but for those who can, the disks serve as portals to other places and times. When Tucker's parents disappear, it's up to him to find them, against all the ghosts, mega-maggots, futuristic medicine and weapons that come in his path.

THE RED PYRAMID (The Kane Chronicles series) by Rick Riordan

Fourteen-year-old Carter Kane and his twelve-year-old sister Sadie Kane discover that the blood of the pharaohs runs through their veins, and they are the most powerful royal children to be born in centuries. Can they summon enough magic to rescue their father and reconcile the gods with the Per Ankh, the House of Life, before Set—the Red Lord, the evil god of chaos—destroys North America and more?

SCORPIA RISING (Alex Rider series) by Anthony Horowitz

After eight dangerous and daring missions, teen spy Alex Rider has come to his last. But this mission is like no other. The danger is greater, the stakes higher, the villains deadlier, as Alex once again goes up against Scorpia, the terrorist organization that he’s fought and barely defeated twice before.

DISASTERS: Natural and Man-Made Catastrophes through the Centuries by Brenda Guiberson

Ten well-known catastrophes including the great Chicago fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and hurricane Katrina are dissected alongside detailed photographs and drawings.

SHIPWRECK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD by Jennifer Armstrong

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton attempted to be the first explorer to cross Antarctica by foot "from sea to sea," but he and his team never reached their objective. The ship became entrapped in ice, and the men were forced to abandon their mission and try to survive in the brutally harsh Antarctic wasteland for 19 months.

WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson says in his Author's Note, "I chose to present the voice of the narrator as a collective voice, the voice of every player, the voice of we." It takes about a page before you figure this out, and then it feels like everyone is telling you stories about what it was like to be a Negro League player.

GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS 2012

PAGETURNERS for ages 8-12

ASTRONAUT ACADEMY by Dave Roman

Hakata Soy leaves his past as the leader of a superhero team to attend Astronaut Academy, a school on a space station orbiting Earth. He hopes to make a fresh start in life, but his heroic past keeps catching up with him.

CHARLIE JOE JACKSON by Tommy Greenwald

Charlie Joe shares the tactics that have gotten him all the way to Middle School without EVER reading a whole book. Reluctant readers ready to learn his secrets will find instead that they have just finished (and enjoyed!) an entire book.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (Wimpy Kid series) by Jeff Kinney

Writing and drawing his stick-figure pictures in his new journal helps Greg deal with middle school, overbearing parents, and two brothers.

THE HAUNTED SCHOOL (Goosebumps series) by R.L. Stine

Tommy has a hard time making new friends at his new school. And the school is big--so big, Tommy gets lost. And that's when he hears the voices, kids crying for help, coming from beyond the classroom walls...

HERO by Mike Lupica

Fourteen- year-old Zach Harriman knows he has a pretty amazing dad. He accepts that his dad’s job as a government agent with a high security clearance means that Zachary must be kept in the dark about much of what he does. When Zach’s father dies in an airplane crash, Zach starts to learn just how many secrets his dad really had, including his super-hero powers--and that the powers are hereditary.

THE LIGHTNING THIEF (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series) by Rick Riordan

Percy is about to find out the truth about the father he's never met. "Lost at sea" is all his mother has ever told him. Well, Percy's father is a god. A Greek god. A real one. And that makes Percy a demigod, a half-blood, and he's now in mortal danger.

MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE (Middle School series) by James Patterson

Middle School doesn’t begin well for Rafe Khatchadorian. Between run-ins with the school bully, Miller “The Killer” and a book of rules that the school actually takes seriously, to say Rafe is disillusioned with the educational system would be understatement. And so it’s totally understandable when his best friend, Leonardo, suggests that Rafe set out to break every rule in the book.

SIDEKICKS by Dan Santat

In this graphic novel romp, Superhero Captain Amazing needs a new sidekick. Enter four super pets, all vying for the coveted spot as his right-hand man… er… animal.

THE STORM MAKERS by Jennifer Smith

Twins Ruby and Simon move to a Wisconsin farm, and suffer the consequences of the worst drought in history. Enter MOSS, the Makers of Storm Society, and Simon discovers he holds powerful weather-changing powers.

SWINDLE (Swindle series) by Gordon Korman

Griffin sells an old Babe Ruth baseball carp to a memorabilia shop, where the owner gives him 120 bucks for the card, claiming it is a knockoff made in 1967. What a liar! Griffin soon sees the dealer being interviewed on TV, showing the selfsame 1920 baseball card, worth a cool million. Griffin assembles a heist team and together they plan to steal back that card.

THE UNWANTEDS and others in the series by Lisa McCann

In Quill there are three types of people: Wanteds, Necessaries, and Unwanteds. Wanteds, as their name suggests, are the most valued members of society. Necessaries are tolerated for whatever menial skill they may possess. And Unwanteds, typically those showing a flare for creativity and resistance to conformity, are put to their deaths. Or so the Quillians think.

THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl

A recently-orphaned boy stumbles upon the yearly meeting of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children while staying at a posh hotel. But wait. These are not ordinary ladies. Alas, the group is actually made up of nasty witches, who are meeting to hatch a hideous plan to turn all of the children in England into mice.

BABY MAMMOTH MUMMY by Christopher Sloan

The discovery of baby mammoth Lyuba allows for a never-before-seen inside look at prehistoric Sibera, 31,000 years later.

EVERY DAY ON EARTH: Fun Facts That Happen Every 24 Hours by Steve & Matthew Murrie

Your taste bud cells are replaced at a rate of 50,000 a day. Almost 40,000 trees are cut down every day just to make paper bags. What else happens around the Earth in the span of a day?

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE SUMMER OLYMPICS by Matt Christopher and Stephanie Peters

Relive great moments in Olympic summer sports history, especially in the games of Track and Field, Gymnastics, and Swimming.

GET THE SCOOP ON ANIMAL POOP by Dawn Cusick

There comes a time in every kid’s life when poop becomes an object of fascination, and this entertaining and informative introduction to coprology, the study of feces, is sure to satisfy every imaginable scatological curiosity.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS ALMANAC 2013

TRANSITIONAL BOOKS for ages 7-10

BAD KITTY GETS A BATH and other titles by Nick Bruel

You think you have a problem pet that rules your roost? Get a load of this quintessential bad kitty, a sleek, black, rowdy ruffian who is none too happy about getting a bath. OK, that’s an understatement.

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (Captain Underpants series) by Dav Pilkey

George and Harold hypnotize their principal, mean Mr. Krupp, and turn him into their superhero creation Captain Underpants.

DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK (Magic Tree House series) by Mary Pope Osborne

A mysterious treehouse whisks Annie and Jack to the past--and in this first novel, that means the land of the dinosaurs. But how will they get home?

DRAGONBREATH: CURSE OF THE WERE-WIENER (Dragonbreath series) by Ursula Vernon

At lunchtime in the school cafeteria that day, Danny's overly large and bright red hot dog bites Wendell's finger. By the next day, Wendell's finger has turned candy-apple red, and his back is growing hair. Sneaking into the cafeteria's walk-in freezer to investigate, Danny finds an unusual package of hot dogs with the label "Were-Wieners, a product of Transylvania."

EVERY THING ON IT by Shel Silverstein

A new collection of 30 never-before-seen poems and drawings from the remarkable writer and artist Shel Silverstein.

THE FENWAY FOUL-UP (Ballpark Mysteries series) by David Kelly

Can Mike and Kate solve the mystery of who stole the Red Sox's star player's lucky bat, right in front of everyone's noses? Each book in this series is set in a different American ballpark stadium.

HORRID HENRY (Horrid Henry series) by Francesca Simon

Horrid Henry and his neighbor Moody Margaret set out to make the grossest sludge ever glopped together.

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate

Ivan barely remembers his life before the mall. He has some wonderful friends: there’s Stella, the stoic elephant twice his size; there’s Bob, the homeless-by-choice dog who sneaks into the mall every night and sleeps on Ivan’s big belly; and there’s Julia, the human daughter of George the custodian, who does her homework by Ivan’s domain every evening and who shares a love of art with him. Yes, that’s right: Ivan is an artist.

SQUISH: SUPER AMOEBA by Jennifer Holm

Squish is an amoeba in elementary school with a good heart but facing a lot of obstacles. A mysterious enemy is threatening our hero, as if the usual pitfalls of weird parents, obnoxious bullies, homework, and more weren't enough. Kids will really identify with this unlikely hero who has to save the world even though all he really wants to do is get through the week.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS by Jon Scieszka

Alexander T. Wolf would like to set the record straight. He says, "I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started, but it's all wrong . . . The real story is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar."

ENCYLOPEDIA PREHISTORICA by Robert Sabuda

A look at all things dinosaur, packing in facts on more than 50 species, and the six major watercolored pop-ups are spectacular.

HENRY AARON’S DREAM by Matt Tavares

Every kid has a wish–a dream for his or her own future. Henry Aaron was no exception. He wanted to play baseball, but baseball stadiums in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama in the 1940s were for “WHITES ONLY.” It took perseverance, enormous talent, and courage for Henry Aaron to not only hold onto his vision, but also to make it a reality.

WEIRD BUT TRUE: 300 Outrageous Facts by National Geographic Kids

Did you know that... The world’s oldest pet goldfish lived to be 43 years old? The world’s longest soap bubble was as long as four school buses? On Neptune, the wind blows up to 1,243 miles an hour? The whole family will be dazed and amazed by this remarkable assortment of crazy but very true facts.

YOU NEVER HEARD OF SANDY KOUFAX? by Jonah Winter

For six years, 1961-1966, Koufax was known as the greatest lefty pitcher ever. Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer, Willie Stargell, said, “Hittin’ a Koufax fastball was like tryin’ to drink coffee with a fork.” In high school, this Jewish kid from Brooklyn aced every sport, and soon the scouts came calling. This has to be the coolest-looking sports biography ever.

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