Showing posts with label summer reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer reading. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

 Summer Stacks and New Blog Button

If you haven't read The Book Whisperer, quit reading this post, go get a copy, and then come back to this blog.  Then figure out a way to make the passion Donalyn Miller has for reading evident in your classroom, even if the only thing you can do is talk about your own reading...or someone you know who is an avid reader (I know there are some people who just aren't lovers of reading...my brother....i have given up trying to turn him.) 


Anyway for those who have read The Book Whisperer, did you know Donalyn Miller has a blog and a challenge.  I always look forward to what she has to share.  Last summer I completed the book a day challenge and thought I would share some of the great reads I came across, in case you need to add to your summer stack.


First of all, I love to keep track of what I read.  I do it in a journal and on goodreads.com.  Why both, I am not sure, but I still have a handwritten version going on.  Goodreads has lots of ways for finding what to read next.

Reading so many books, often means I can't remember details from a lot of them, so I am sharing the ones, whose titles bring back stories I remember.  Numbered, but in no particular order....


1.  Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot.  Chick Lit....fun and light reading:)
2.  Alice, I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin:  Alice Liddell tells the story of how she become the inspiration for the Alice of Wonderland.
3.  Keeper and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt--I love Kathi Appelt's books.  She tells numerous stories within in one book and magically weaves them all together by the end!
"On the night of the blue moon when mermaids are said to gather on a sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico, ten-year-old Keeper sets out in a small boat, with her dog BD and a seagull named Captain, determined to find her mother, a mermaid, as Keeper has always believed, who left long ago to return to the sea."
"An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner's run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to be reunited and free."

4.   Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea--Seven fifth-graders at Snow Hill School in Connecticut relate how their lives are changed for the better by "rookie teacher" Mr. Terupt.   WARNING:  Do not read this book without tissue!

5.   The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner-I loved this series, but you gotta read them all.  Brilliant!  It starts with a boy who declares that he can steal anything and the epic story goes from there.
6.  Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer--The book is written via letters.  Once I got used to that, I loved this book.  " As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guensey-a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island."
7.  Barkbelly by Cat Weatherill--"One silver-starry night, a shiny, wooden egg falls from a flying machine high in the air . . . down, down, down through the midnight sky . . . down to the small village of Pumbleditch, where Barkbelly is born. Where he’s the only wooden boy. And where he’s the cause of a tragic accident."
Some other books I loved, but I have either already blogged about or I have already seen a lot of:  Divergent, Insurgent, Matched, Delirium, The Night Circus
and everything by Sarah Addison Allen

And if you need a place to read more book reviews check out The Best Endings.  With so many different contributing authors, there is a book for everyone!


Happy Tuesday,
  
I am playing with a new blog button....please try out the code and let me know if it works.


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

 Reading Linky x 2 + Freebie

Do you know about the Book A Day Challenge?  Here are the guidelines:
The rules (more guidelines, really) are simple:
Read one book per day for each day of summer vacation. This is an average, so if you read three books one day (Hey, I have done this!) and none the next two, it still counts.
You set your own start date and end date.
Any book qualifies including picture books, nonfiction, professional books, poetry anthologies, or fiction--children's, youth, or adult titles.  (Somedays, I feel like blog reader could be added to the count.)
Keep a list of the books you read and share them often via a social networking site like goodreads or Twitter (post using the #bookaday hashtag), a blog, or Facebook page. You do not have to post reviews, but you can if you wish. Titles will do.
Donalyn Miller (of The Book Whisperer fame) started the challenge here four years ago.  I have managed to do it the past two summers (although I wasn't blogging then) and feel so accomplished when August ends.  Now that you are on the up and up with the Book a Day Challenge, here are some linky parties to get your reading started.
There are FEW things I love more than reading, so linky parties involving books make my heart happy.  So imagine my excitement when I hear about two different book inspired linky parties!  The first one is at Mrs. Stanford's Class.  Her linky party is all about summer reading plans...which everyone needs.  Here are some of mine.
1.)  One of my goals this year was to read a piece of "classic" literature.  I am a huge reader, but apparently I avoid this genre.  So Northanger Abbey is on the top of my summer reading list.

2.) On my bucket list is to read all the books on the Newbery Award Poster.  I plan on reading a few from that list.

3.)  I have been wanting to reread Christy for a long while....this summer seems like a great time to make it happen.   Last time I read it, I think I was in high school.


4.)  A long list of YA reads:
Rampant, Partials, Pandemonium, Glow, Halo, Ascendant (this series is about Unicorns....not the happy-rainbow kind!), Pure...I am sure there will be more.


I could very easily go on and on listing books.  Join the party...I am needing some adult reading to round out my summer list.  The Best Endings is also a great place to gather book suggestions!

Onto the next linky over at Run! Miss Nelson's Go the Camera  This one is all about classroom read alouds.  Another hard thing to decide...but here are two picture books I always read.  Teammates is one I read at the beginning of the year and talk about community and working together.  Thank You, Mr. Falker is another great read aloud, especially for kiddos who need some encouragement not to give up.  


My favorite chapter book read aloud is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  There are not words for how much I love this book.  Kids connect with it and so much can be drawn out of the story. 
Congrats!  You finally made it to the end of this post....so I leave you with a freebie.  Last year, I challenged my students to read the summer book a day challenge.  Here is the letter I sent home explaining and encouraging them to be summer readers.  
Add some cute clipart...I deleted the images, because I don't know the rules about using pics from google images:-)


Happy Wednesday,