Sunday, May 4, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5.05.14

This weekly post comes from Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers.  It's a great source to find new books to use with your students.

I was traveling last weekend and wasn't able to get in my usual posts.  This week I'll highlight the best of my two weeks of reading!  You can see all of my books that I read on my Goodreads shelf.  Check my link on the right!

Starting with:

Zen Shorts
Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth
5/5 stars
I loved this book with the Panda, Stillwater, teaching the 3 children different lessons with his stories.  Muth explains in an author's note in the back of the book the Zen origins of the stories.  I think the lessons actually go along very well with Notice and Note strategies!
One of my stops in D.C. was The National Zoo.  I wanted to specifically go there to see the pandas.  They unfortunately weren't outside but inside their domains (which I will always think of that way because of The One and Only Ivan).  
 


Picture Books

A Pet for Fly Guy (Fly Guy, #15)
A Pet for Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
5/5 stars
I love that Fly Guy came out of his usual early chapter book and entered into a picture book!  The text is still rich and the storyline fun.  Young readers will love this new installment.

I Didn't Do My Homework Because...
I Didn't Do My Homework Because... by Benjamin Chaude
3/5 stars
Some of the homework excuses in this book were fantastic - blaming it on the cough medicine he took the night before or because his little brother had his little "problem" again (turning into some weird hairy beast).  Most excuses were just ok.

Stella's Starliner
Stella's Starliner by Rosemary Wells
4/5 stars
This was a fun find for me because I didn't know what to expect.  It ended up being a great book to use for bullying and knowing home is where your heart is!

Miss Maple's Seeds
Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler
4/5 stars
Great spring story about Miss Maple, a small, little lady who gathers seeds at the end of fall, takes care of the seeds all winter, to spread them in the spring time.  Beautiful illustrations.  

2015 Monarch Nominees
One of the state reading awards that our students vote on is the Monarch Award.  This award is for students in K-3rd grade.  My school library got a lot of the titles this week and I got to bring a stack home to preview!  Here are some of my favorites:

The Princess and the Pig
The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett


If I Built a House
If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen


Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud That Changed Baseball
Miracle Mud:  Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud That Changed Baseball by David Kelly


Prudence Wants a Pet
Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly


Poetry

The Poem That Will Not End: Fun with Poetic Forms and Voices
The Poem That Will Not End by Joan Bransfield Graham
5/5 stars
This was my find of the week.  I cannot say enough good things about this book.  Cute story that talks in rhythm and rhyme, but then there is a poem on each page.  Great to show students you can find inspiration for writing poems in your daily life!  The poems featured are of different poetic forms.  Don't know which ones they are?  No problem, in the back of the book is a glossary of the different forms as well as the corresponding page number they can be found on!  Great book for your poetry collection!

Early Chapter Books
I find this genre is always one of the hardest to find.  It seems that books go straight from picture books to middle grade and those young readers (1st and 2nd grade) who are ready for chapter books but not middle grade books get left out!  I'm thrilled that Lauren Myracle is writing books for this genre!  Her series, The Life of Ty, is about the brother from the "Winnie" series who seems to find trouble when he definitely is not looking for it!  I highly recommend this series for 1st-3rd graders.

Non-Random Acts of Kindness (The Life of Ty, #2)

Books that have characters that tear at your heartstrings
I came across this post from The Stylin Librarian via Margie Myers-Culver @loveofxena about characters that have flaws... kind of like Auggie from Wonder.  Since that book has a very special place in my heart and we have many 4th graders reading it, I decided to plow through this list and read the ones that are appropriate for that grade level.  I love having a variety of books to hand off when I know a student "likes" a certain type of book. Here are two that I got through so far:

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things (Alvin Ho, #1)
Alvin Ho Allergic to Girls, School and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look
4/5 stars
As I mentioned before, I love finding books that I can give to a variety of elementary students and know it's appropriate content they are reading.  Alvin is a lovable character and kids will like that he does have challenges.  Great series for elementary level.

Tiger's Fall
Tiger's Fall by Molly Bang
3/5 stars
I really liked that this book was about an able bodied person who had to learn what it is like to be handicapped.  And with Twitter kicking off #weneeddiversebooks, this is a perfect book for that - low-income family living in rural Mexico.  


Continuing to Read

Boys of Blur
Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson
Exciting... mysterious... adventure... 50 pages in and it's got me hooked!

20 comments:

  1. I think that students will like Boys of Blur, but all the damp and mud kind of creeped me out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is definitely a boy book!!! I'm liking it so far, we'll see!

      Delete
  2. Great books Michele! I am most intrigued by The Poem that Will Not End, Miracle Mud and The Life of Ty. Thanks so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were good books - all very different. I always like finding something that will hook boys and Miracle Mud was a good one!

      Delete
  3. What a wonderful selectuion you've read this week, Michelle! Boys of Blur sounds like just the book for my sixth graders who love mystery and adventure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Boys of Blur is definitely one for the boys! Football... mud... perfect :)

      Delete
  4. You have many wonderful books listed here Michele. I have Boys of Blur on order. Have a terrific week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boys of Blur has been an interesting read so far. I'm anxious to see where it goes! Happy reading, Margie!

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you read Zen Ties yet? That one's my favorite of Muth's Zen books.

    Prudence Wants a Pet is absolutely adorable. I love that book!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zen Ties just went on hold for me at the library, thanks :)
      Prudence surprised me, better than I thought!

      Delete
  7. I was happy to win a copy of The Poem That Will Not End. Thanks for reminding me, still haven't reviewed it! I will look for Tigers Fall, sounds very good, Michele. I love Zen Shorts. Thanks for so many reviews. Sorry you missed the pandas.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow! What a great collection of books this week! Many I've read but several new titles for me. I enjoy Rosemary Wells but have not read Starliner yet - I definitely want to read this! Jon Muth is one of my favorite author/illustrators. The Three Questions is one of my favorites - and his new one Hi, Koo features Stillwater the Panda as well. The Poem That Will Not End is now at the top of my TBR list! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't wait to use The Poem That Will Not End! Kids are really going to enjoy it. I do like Stillwater :) Such a knowledgeable panda!!

      Delete
  9. Thank you for sharing The Poem That Will Not End! I added it to my list of books I need to get from the library. It looks very clever, so I am excited to read it. I always enjoy reading all of your reviews, so thank you for sharing these with us!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I think it can be used with a variety of kids - the story itself is for a younger audience, but the poems and the lesson of writing poetry can be used with older kids. Thanks for the compliment :)

      Delete
    2. Dear Michele,

      I nominated you for a Liebster Award. :) I hope you haven't been nominated before. Thank you for hosting such a fantastic blog!

      http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=3311

      :) Ricki

      Delete
  10. Lots of great titles here. I love, love, love Prudence Wants a Pet. So much fun as a read aloud. Thanks for your review of Life of Ty - I was thinking of getting this title for my classroom collection.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi there Michele, that more than makes up for the two weeks, I think! Lots of great titles here! And new-to-me picture books. The Poem that Will Not End sounds like a real winner and one that I'm sure I'd love. I have yet to discover Alvin Ho by Lenore Look, I should try to borrow at least one title from our libraries. I know what you mean about Zen Shorts - definitely one of my favorites. Jon Muth is extremely talented.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for sharing Life of Ty. I am also always looking for good early chapter books. My older son is a struggling reader and it's tough to find series he enjoys that still have lots of illustrations for support--especially books about boys. So I will definitely look for this one. I love Alvin Ho so much--except for the scenes where he plays Indian Chief. So wish that Lenore Look had used something else there. I'm looking forward to Prudence Wants a Pet and If I Built a House! Thanks for sharing so many wonderful titles!

    ReplyDelete