I received a new shipment of books yesterday here at my school. Books that I had ordered just a few weeks ago so, for me, it was a little like Christmas or my birthday…opening the box, smelling the new book smell, opening the crisp covers!! Quite a few picture books were wonderful but I have been enthralled with two chapter books; Elvis and Olive by Stephanie Watson and Julia Gillian and the art of knowing by Alison McGhee. Elvis and Olive has a great cover and a great opening chapter. We meet two characters right away that are polar opposites yet new neighbors. Natalie is sad about it being the first day of summer; she misses school (yeah!) and Annie, on the other hand, looks like a boy and shows Natalie a dead bird within 5 seconds of meeting her. This book may be a fifth grade version of Ivy and Bean, which J and I read and loved last summer. I picked up Julia Gillian right after I relunctently set Elvis and Olive down and again was in love with the first chapter. I especially love that it is set in Minneapolis. I don’t live there anymore but I love hearing familiar street names. I am now trying to figure out how to take these two chapter books home and read them around The heart of a chief, The sea of Monsters (yes, I finished The lightning Thief) and The Friday Night knitting club. Oh, and I must fit in some knitting this weekend as well as I have two friends waiting for washcloths. Funny, I noticed both these writers are from Minneapolis when I checked out their websites!!! Interesting.
Tag: What I’m reading
The Red Shoes by Eleri Glass
This book (published by Simply Read Books) made me want to go shoe shopping in a beautiful downtown boutique!! J and I read this several nights ago for story time and she, of course, wanted to read it again and again! She is, after all a shoe fanatic, a pint-sized shoe diva. When she was two she went for high heels at a Chicago shoe boutique, trying them on, toddling around on 2-inch red heels- not appropriate- like she was trying out for a role on Sex in the City! She is still that way and always wants the fanciest shoes so this gem of a book was right up her aisle. We both thought the words and illustrations were wonderful, especially “the red shoes are happy apples, waiting to be picked.” The look on the shoe lady’s face is priceless. This book deserves to be tried again and again!T/* Webfetti Layout Begins Here */ h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 { margin:0px; } #content { width:740px; margin:0px; text-align:left; } #main { width:485px; float:left; margin:0px; } #main2 { float:left; width:100%; padding:0px; } #sidebar { width:240px; float:right; margin:0px; } body { text-align:center; background-color:transparent; background-image:url(http://ak.webfetti.com/assets/layouts/g/excite_348.jpg); background-repeat:repeat; background-attachment:scroll; background-position:left top; } body, p, .post-body { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(65,48,16); } a:link, a:active, a:visited, a.username_dark:link, a.username_dark:active, a.username_dark:visited, a.link_blue:link, a.link_blue:active, a.link_blue:visited, a.link_profile_left:link, a.link_profile_left:active, a.link_profile_left:visited, a.link_profile_left_small:link, a.link_profile_left_small:active, a.link_profile_left_small:visited, a.link_white:link, a.link_white:active, a.link_white:visited { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; font-style:normal; text-decoration:underline; color:rgb(65,48,16); background-color:transparent; } a:hover, a.username_dark:hover, a.link_blue:hover, a.link_profile_left:hover, a.link_profile_left_small:hover, a.link_white:hover { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; font-style:normal; text-decoration:underline; color:rgb(65,48,16); background-color:transparent; } .post { border:1px solid rgb(255,247,146); background-color:rgb(255,251,211); filter:alpha(opacity=100); -moz-opacity:100; opacity:100; margin-bottom:20px; padding:10px; } .date-header, .sidebar-title { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(255,255,255); background-color:rgb(65,48,16); background-repeat:repeat-x; background-attachment:scroll; background-position:center top; } #blog-title { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:24px; font-weight:bold; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(69,52,16); padding-left:10px; padding-top:5px; } strong, b { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(69,52,16); } .post-title { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:13px; font-weight:bold; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(69,52,16); } .date-header, .comment-timestamp { font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:10px; font-weight:normal; font-style:italic; text-decoration:none; color:rgb(65,48,16); } #blog-title { background-color:rgb(65,48,16); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-attachment:scroll; background-position:left top; height:115px; width:768px; } a:link img { filter:alpha(opacity=100); -moz-opacity:100; opacity:100; } a:hover img { filter:alpha(opacity=100); -moz-opacity:100; opacity:100; }/* Webfetti Layout Ends Here */.button_sizeL {border-style:none;border-width:0;height:71px;width:120px;}.wfbuttonL {background:url(http://ak.webfetti.com/badge_04.gif) no-repeat left top;display:block;height:71px;text-align:left;width:120px;position:absolute;top:30px;left:10px;z-index:10000;}.wfbuttonL a:link,.wfbuttonL a:visited {display:block;background-color:transparent;}.wfbuttonL a:hover,.wfbuttonL a:active {background:url(http://ak.webfetti.com/badge_04.gif) no-repeat left top;display:block;height:71px;width:120px;}.button_size {border-style:none;border-width:0;height:45px;width:106px;}.wfbutton {background:url(http://ak.webfetti.com/badge_01.gif) no-repeat left top;display:block;height:45px;text-align:left;width:106px;position:absolute;top:30px;right:10px;z-index:10000;}.wfbutton a:link,.wfbutton a:visited {display:block;background-color:transparent;}.wfbutton a:hover,.wfbutton a:active {background:url(http://ak.webfetti.com/badge_01.gif) no-repeat left top;display:block;height:45px;width:106px;}
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
A teacher friend has been begging me to read So B. It by Sarah Weeks. I finally brought it home from my school library and started reading the first few pages and I was hooked. I proceeded to read it in two sittings. It reminded me of In search of mockingbird as they both have to do with a young girl’s search for clues about their mothers. Heidi, the main young character in So B. It, is being raised by her Mother, and the next-door neighbor, Bernadette, who suffers from agoraphobia. Heidi’s mother is mentally challenged and has a hard time making it through her day without help. Heidi loves her mom and really wants more information like does she have grandparents? She gets some clues when she discovers an old camera with film still intact in the back of a kitchen drawer. After the photos are developed Heidi sets off for an institute shown in the photos. The bus trip taking her from Reno, NV to the east coast is a fantastic journey with interesting characters very typical of a greyhound bus ride. Heidi does discover more about her mother’s past and meets two long lost relatives as well. This book is beautifully written and reminded me of the valuable thread that bind mothers and daughters together.
Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher
I love checking out author pages and as I am really enjoying Tom Perrotta’s new(ish) book, The Abstinence Teacher, I thought I would check out his site where I found this gem of a timeline. I can relate to much on this as he was born just a year before me and it is interesting to read of the stuggles he had getting published and all the odd jobs made me laugh.
I always enjoy books with a timely topic and this one is a perfect mix of Christian Coalition/Liberalism butting heads over sex!!! Fiesty!!
I just finished Maxinne Swann’s Flower Children, which I felt was bland and not character-driven. This book is a good one to follow it with because already I know and like Ruth Ramsey, the main character and sex education teacher and I am not even a third into the book.
oh, time to go walk the new puppy!!
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
The book blogging club at my school are reading this wonderfully brutal book by Deborah Ellis and they love it! The book has so many things my students don’t understand and they just read it and go “read it, it was good.” That’s it!! How can I get them to explore more, go deeper? I want them to have a greater aha moment with the book but maybe it is okay that they just like it. On their blog I have requested they find out more information yet they continue with one sentence comments, i.e. “why did they take him away when he didn’t do anything?” The writer is refering to the father being dragged off to prison by Taliban soldiers. It’s not a “bad” question, it is just not a deep question. This group has now read The Devil’s Arithmetic as well as this book and I am just waiting for this big amazing moment of comprehension and it may never come. Maybe it is just hidden inside them and it will appear next year when they go off to sixth grade.
Story Time
This week I came across two fabulous books that are my new story time favorites!! I read The Night Pirates by Deborah Allwright to Kindergarten classes this week and it just has great language in it. I love the idea of the little girl pirates!!! And that they borrowed Tom’s house to steal treasure. I love that the big pirate guys ran away. This is a flolicking, non-scary read for all pirate fans. The second book is Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk. This book could be used for all ages to teach genre as well as writing skills. Library Mouse lives in a busy public library and he reads at night. At some point, he decides he should write a book and he writes a biography of life as a mouse. I used this to introduce fiction/non-fiction to 1st and 2nd graders.
The Magician
Yeah! I just finished The Magician by Michael Scott, the sequel to The Alchemyst. It was wonderful and I am ready for the third one to come out!!! It really left me hanging and wanting more. I was so worried that Josh was going over to the “Dark side” ahhh but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. It is a thrilling read though.
Five books
I am juggling so many different books right now especially when I get tied up (so easily) in this online world of blogging and commenting!! I am reading The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen for a 5th grade blogging book club I am working with at school and reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan with another 5th grade book club-both great books and very, very different. I am, also reading The Magician by Michael Scott, a follow-up to his book The Alchemyst. My son and I have read this series together and we love this sequel as much as the first one. I am trying to read The World is flat by Thomas Friedman because I’m interested in his new book and thought I should look at this one first and Little Heathens byMildred Armstrong Kadish, an Iowa farm story.
Wow…I should shut off the computer.
Junie B.
I have read two Junie B. books with Japhy and have been really enjoying them with her. I mentioned this to my dear friend, Verda today and she reminded me that I have been negative about this series in the past. Well, now I take it all back. The last time I read a Junie B. was when Tristan was younger and they seemed to be a baby-ish chapter book and I didn’t think the language in it worked. Of course, Tristan now 13 came out speaking in full adult-like sentences and never sounded like Junie B….now I have a 6-year-old, Japhy who is quite similar to Junie b. so to all those I have not recommended-I have changed my mind and love Junie B. now. That does not make me a flip flopper…just someone who can intelligently change my mind!! So cheers to Barbara Parks!
Very first post
I’m excited to begin this blog…something I have been wanting to create for two years and haven’t done!! Tina’s blog today was the catalyst for just doing it!! It also makes me feel behind…time to catch up! The latest adult book I read and loved was The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood! It was amazing to love it so much because it is such a sad book and made me shed tears, really cry, cry, cry!! The book made me focus a bit more on appreciating my wonderful children. I finished Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, which has been on my “to read” list for a year. I finally read it and thought it combined fairy tale themes with the Holocaust very well. I am excited to take home the Iowa Children’s Choice books for the summer and read those. My after-school student book club is reading The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I didn’t think this book was going to capture my attention as much as it does. It brings up many themes for our girl’s group to discuss, such as forced marriages, the desire to learn, money and how it makes the world go ’round and prejudices on many levels.
That’s all for now-
Peaceful Reader 
