Kellee

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Websites/Resources for Parents/Teachers to Who Want to Talk to Kids About Books

September 19, 2017 by Kellee

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because The Broke and Bookish are particularly fond of lists (as are we!). Each week a new Top Ten list topic is given and bloggers can participate.

Today’s Topic: Ten Websites and Resources for Parents/Teachers to Who Want to Talk to Kids About Books

1. Brightly

Brightly is the Penguin Random House site dedicated to helping parents, teachers, librarians, and just about everyone with kids in their lives grow lifelong readers. Brightly offers book recommendations from all publishers for every age and stage, reading tips, author essays, book lists, free printables, and much more!

2. TeachingBooks.net

Teaching Books’s quest is to empower every reader to connect deeply with a book, gain new insights and understanding from authors, and thoroughly enjoy the experience of reading through cultivating an extensive and ever-growing collection of instructional materials about young adult and children’s books and authors.

3. Teaching Guides on Publisher Websites

Many publishers have teaching and/or discussion guides on their website. For example: Abrams Books has a whole teaching guide section, Candlewick Press has an educator resource section, while with Chronicle Books you have to search for the specific books to find the guide (example: Maya Lin by Susan Goldman Rubin). All publishers have guides, so just look around 🙂

4. Activities on Author Websites

Authors also are a great resource because many of them include activities on their websites. For example: Josh Funk has activity kits, Jess Keating has a kids’ magazine and printables, and Deborah Heiligman has information on research and readers’ theater activities. Most authors have something on their website to add to their books–make sure to check them out.

5. Read Write Think from ILA and NCTE

Read Write Think’s mission is to to provide educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials.

6. The English Companion Ning

This is Jim Burke’s website, and it is free to teachers. The Ning is a great place to post questions, and the forums are filled with ideas.

7. NCTE

NCTE hosts a lot of great pages like the National Day on Writing and the Right to Read. There are a lot of great resources on censorship. Further, ILA hosts a great website about intellectual freedom, and ALA hosts a great pages about banned books.

8. ALAN

Let me count the ways I love ALAN. Stop at this website if you love young adult literature. You won’t be sorry.

9. The National Writing Project

The National Writing Project was life-changing for me (Ricki). It shaped how I look at writing. I highly recommend their program and their Summer Institute if you have a local National Writing Project chapter.

10. The 2ndaryELA Facebook Group

This Facebook group makes me so happy. I love reading the ideas and the support from teachers to teachers.

What resources are your go to websites for literacy resources?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 9/18/17

September 18, 2017 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journeys and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book!

Kellee and Jen, of Teach Mentor Texts, decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join us! We love this meme and think you will, too.

We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Last Week’s Posts

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Books to Read with my Mom from Sarah H., 8th grade

Thursday: Review and Giveaway!: It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk by Josh Funk

**Giveaway open until Wednesday!**

Last Week’s Journeys

Thank you all so much for your kind words regarding Hurricane Irma! We lost some fence and power for a bit, but overall we were so lucky versus others who are still dealing with no power, flooding, or damaged homes. They are in my thoughts! We’ve been out of school all week, so one plus is that I had extra time with Trent and books!

I don’t often get to go be class mom at Trent’s school, but this week, I went in to not only to spend some time with them, but I also got to release his class’s butterflies and read his class a book (Hand, Hand, Finger Thumb by Al Perkins)!!!

The other picture books I read this week was Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex which is so funny and creative yet has such a great theme underneath the silliness.

Middle Grade

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate is all I wanted it to be! Katherine has such a way of writing a story that seems like one thing on the surface but is so much deeper in the end.
Stealing Our Way Home by Cecelia Galante was recommended to me by Michele, and I can definitely see why she is recommending it. It is about climbing back up from the bottom as a family.
I really liked The Terrible Two Get Worse by Mac Barnett! I think the first of the series was setting up for this story which I felt had more heart and story than the first.
The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers is on our state list (SSYRA) and is one of my students’ favorites so far.

Young Adult

I am so sad yet happy to finally be done with the Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman. It was such a PERFECT ending, and I loved the entire experience!
The Border by Steve Schafer is a must read book. It shows the humanity and hardship behind immigration. Steve Schafer said this on Twitter, and I agree: “I loved how THUG turned an issue into an individual’s battle. It made the emotion & nuance shine. The Border tries the same for immigration.”
Everyone We’ve Been by Sarah Everett looks at memory in an interesting way (like More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera although not like it also). And it is structured so interestingly and had such a true romance.

Ricki

For picture books, this week, I read Truck Stop by Anne Rockwell (a great book for vehicle lovers); Romping Monsters, Stomping Monsters by Jane Yolen (a fun book with clever language and fantastic illustrations); Look Up! by Jung Jin-Ho (a translation with almost no words that is very imaginative); The Fuschia is Now by J.otto Seibold (a futuristic book that is intriguing); City Lullaby by Marilyn Singer (a book with great counting and vehicles); Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds (a book with a beautiful moral), and What George Forgot by Kathy Wolff (a silly story that kept my son guessing).

Picking a favorite would be difficult. I will read Nerdy Birdy again and again. The moral is so important, and it teaches the value of kindness to those who might feel alone. I also adored the almost wordless, Look Up!. This translation is quite clever and fun to read.

I also REREAD one of my absolute favorite books, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I am so, so excited to discuss it with my college students on Monday and Wednesday. I have some big plans for our discussion. 🙂

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

Currently reading: Felix Yz by Lisa Bunker
Currently listening to: Refugee by Alan Gratz
- Well, technically, I haven’t started either, so I’ll give you updates next week!

Ricki

I nabbed Patina by Jason Reynolds from the library. I was so excited to see that it was available!

Upcoming Week’s Posts

top ten tuesday

Tuesday: Ten Websites/Resources for Parents/Teachers to Who Want to Talk to Kids About Books

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway!: Flashlight Night by Matt Forrest Esenwine

Thursday: Here Comes Teacher Cat by Deborah Underwood

Friday: New-to-Me Favorite Bilingual Picture Books from Arte Público Press: Growing Up with Tamales by Gwendolyn Zepeda; Esteban de Luna, Baby Rescuer! by Larissa M. Mercado-López; The Little Doctor by Juan J. Guerra; Dalia’s Wondrous Hair by Laura Lacámara; The Runaway Piggy by James Luna; Grandma’s Chocolate by Por Mara Price

So, what are you reading?

Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Love to Read with my Mom from Sarah, 7th grade

July 22, 2018September 12, 2017 by Kellee

Today’s Topic: Ten Books I Love to Read with my Mom

from Sarah H., 7th grade

1. Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene

My mom and I love mysteries and trying to figure out what happened.

2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

My mom and I loved reading the first one together.

3. Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks

After reading it for Mrs. Moye’s Lunch Book Club, I recommended it to my mom, and we both loved it.

4. Pigeon Books by Mo Willems

I remember my mom reading these to me at bedtime, and we would both say the lines over and over.

5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

After reading it in Kindergarten, my mom and I read it over and over.

6. Pinkalicious and the others in the series by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann

My mom and I still read these–I love her imagination!

7. The Giver by Lois Lowry

I told my mom I was reading The Giver, and we started talking about it (after she reread it).

8. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

My mom and I love the movie, and we wanted to see the differences.

9. Dr. Seuss Books

I still have these in my closet, and we sometimes reread them and look through them.

10. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

My mom and I love all the animals in this book. We read it over and over.

Thank you, Sarah!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 9/11/17

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Last Week’s Posts

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Tuesday: Ten Favorite Quotes from Books from Habiba, 9th Grade

Wednesday: Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill

Thursday: #mustreadin2017 Fall Update

Friday: Review and Giveaway!: Things That Surprise You by Jennifer Maschari

**Giveaway open until 9/14/17!!!**

Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Hi, everyone 🙂 It is Wednesday here, and I am setting this up a bit early because Florida is preparing for Hurricane Irma, and I didn’t want to get too busy or lose electricity without at least checking in. Here is what I have finished as of today, and I will update you next week on what I read between now and then.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is just so phenomenal! I loved his work already, and this one blew me away. I used it for an example for writing book reviews for my students. Here’s what I wrote:

Neal Shusterman’s Scythe takes place in a futuristic world where death no longer exists and it is up to a group of chosen ones called Scythes to inflict death on the ones they choose to keep control of our population. Citra and Rowan were living a normal life until a Scythe came to them and chose for them to be his apprentice. Will Citra and Rowan want to be a master of death for the rest of their lives?

I really enjoyed Scythe because Neal Shusterman’s concept for the book is so unique, his futuristic world is plausible, and he gives us insight into many character’s feelings. Fans of dystopian science fiction are definitely going to enjoy this book!

The only way the story may have been better for me is if a map of how the United States had changed including its new regions and city names had been included.

The biggest appeal for me was the underlying concept of Scythe. I cannot think of any other book that includes a world like Shusterman has created. I also felt the story was especially strong in the area of character development because Shusterman included points of view for so many of his characters, so it gave a well-rounded look at the world that Shusterman has created. I also really enjoyed that the world that Scythe takes place in is realistic based on what our world is like right now. It shows that the cloud turned into a greater being called the Thunderhead which dictates the world, that scientists were able to eradicate all disease, and that even wars ended with the start of a worldwide governing body.

“A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Knockout Games by G. Neri was more than I even could have expected from the summary and what I knew about it. I was sucked into the world and just didn’t want to stop reading. I highly recommend it and the audiobook.

Ricki

Stay safe in the storm, Kellee! We are thinking of you!

I enjoyed I Am Bat by Morag Hood. It is reminiscent of Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony. It doesn’t have the exact same premise, but there are a lot of great similarities.

Train by Mike Vago is a great book to get kids enjoying reading. It comes with a red train that kids can weave through the grooved train tracks on the pages of the board book. The train sits right in the pages!

Poor Louie by Tony Fucile is about a dog named Louie who isn’t sure why his parents aren’t paying attention to him. This is a great baby shower gift to parents who also own a dog.

I reread The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. God, I love this book.

This Week’s Expeditions

Ricki

I have been rereading a lot of YAL in preparation for my Adolescents’ Literature course each week. Planning for the two classes has taken up a lot of my reading time. I’ll definitely be rereading Aristotle and Dante this week, but I hope to finish The Smell of Other People’s Houses, too.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Books to Read with my Mom from Sarah H., 8th grade

Thursday: Review and Giveaway!: It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk by Josh Funk

So, what are you reading?

and

Review and Giveaway!: Things That Surprise You by Jennifer Maschari

September 8, 2017 by Kellee

Things That Surprise You
Author: Jennifer Maschari
Published August 22nd, 2017 by Balzer + Bray

Summary: Emily Murphy is about to enter middle school. She’s sort of excited… though not nearly as much as her best friend Hazel, who is ready for everything to be new. Emily wishes she and Hazel could just continue on as they always have, being the biggest fans ever of the Unicorn Chronicles, making up dance moves, and getting their regular order at The Slice.

But things are changing. At home, Emily and her mom are learning to move on after her parents’ divorce. Hardest of all, her beloved sister Mina has been in a treatment facility to deal with her anorexia. Emily is eager to have her back, but anxious about her sister getting sick again.

Hazel is changing too. She has new friends from the field hockey team, is starting to wear makeup, and have crushes on boys. Emily is trying to keep up, but she keeps doing and saying the wrong thing. She want to be the perfect new Emily. But who is that really?

Things That Surprise You is a beautifully layered novel about navigating the often shifting bonds of family and friendship, and learning how to put the pieces back together when things fall apart.

About the Author: Jennifer Maschari is a classroom teacher and the author of THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF CHARLIE PRICE and THINGS THAT SURPRISE YOU. She is hard at work on her next middle grade novel with Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins. Jennifer lives in Ohio with her husband and stinky (yet noble) English bulldogs, Oliver and Hank. To learn more, visit http://jenmaschari.com/.

Review: Things that Surprise You is a perfect starting middle school book because it really shows the truth of how that transition is a turning point in kids’ lives. As a middle school teacher, I see students all start coming into their own or getting pushed by peer pressure to be something they’re not. It is such a tough time in a kids’ life; a book like this will surely make them feel less alone during the turbulent time.

There are other two minor plot lines/characters that I felt were really well done. First, I think the inclusion of Emily’s sister’s eating disorder was done tastefully and was not added in just to make the book an issues book. Although this story didn’t take center stage, it was dealt with in a way that was respectful yet also brought light to anorexia. The struggles that Emily’s sister, family, and Emily face during this time is realistic because so many middle schoolers are facing adversity at home and when starting middle school. I also really enjoyed Emily’s teacher. I think her ability to make students feel like her classroom is a home for them and that she is there for them was honorable, and I hope that I can be just a tiny bit like her.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: A curriculum guide has been created by the publisher that includes discussion questions and activities that meet Common Core standards.

Discussion Questions: What do you think surprised Emily the most about middle school and was the most impactful?; What is the theme of this book? What is the author trying to tell us about middle school?; Do you have a book series that you love as much as Emily loves her unicorn books? What series is it? Why do you love it?; What do you think was the hardest for Emily in middle school?; Hazel changed a lot throughout the book. How would you compare/contrast Hazel from the beginning to the end of the book?; Mina’s eating disorder is one of the main conflicts of the book. Do you feel hopeful about Mina going forward?

Flagged Passages: “While Hazel and I wait, we bench dance to the music from the jukebox. It’s a lot like car dancing but a little more restrained since you’re in public and everything. She does the squid, a move she made up where you wiggle your arms on either side of your body. I do the turtle, where you bob your head forward and backward. Hazel’s snort-laughing and I practically have tears coming out of my eyes, when I hear a noise behind me. Hazel stops dancing. I turn my head to look, but not so fast that I miss Hazel taking the purple horn off her head and hiding it below the table. I blink once and then again Confused.

‘Hazel!’ the voice cried but it sound like ‘Heyyyyzel’ the way she draws it out.

Three girls wearing the same field hockey shirt Hazel was before crowd around the booth.” (p. 18-19)

Read This If You Love: The Real Us by Tommy Greenwald, Hundred Percent by Karen Romano Young, Truth or Dare by Barbara Dee, Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles, The Secret Hum of Daisy by Tracy Holczer, Georgia Rules by Nanci Turner Stevenson, Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry

Recommended For:

GIVEAWAY!!

One lucky winner will receive a copy of THINGS THAT SURPRISE YOU (U.S. addresses).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Thank you Barbara at Blue Slip Media for providing a copy for review!!**

Ricki and Kellee’s #MustReadIn2017 Fall Update!

September 7, 2017 by Kellee

#MustReadIn2017 is hosted by Carrie Gelson at There Is A Book For That:

“For anyone out there with a To Be Read list that seems like it will never end, this challenge is for you! This is all about making your own personal list of books (5? 10? 20? 30? more?) that you commit to reading in 2016. Books can be published in any year, be from any genre, and be from any category (adult, YA, MG, Graphics, NF, etc.). As your TBR list grows, you promise you will get to the books on this list.”

Our (hopeful) #mustreadin2017 Lists:

Ricki

Whew. I have not been doing a good job. Similar to Kellee, below, I have had some major obligations. I wrote a 280-page dissertation! I am hoping to fly through some of these books right after I graduate next month. 🙂

March by John Lewis

This book. If you haven’t gotten to it yet, read it. It’s simply incredible

Kellee’s Review from July 12, 2017

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Yes, yes, yes. I learned so much about agoraphobia, but I also learned so much about friendship and what it means to be human.

Reviewed on June 29, 2017

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

This book is phenomenal. I feel fortunate to have read it. After Quinn’s sister passes away, he holes himself up in his house. This book is raw, and it feels real. Tim Federle also manages to add a lot of humor in the text.

Kellee

Since our Spring Update five months ago, I have been able to put a significant dent in my #mustreadin2017 list! I still don’t know if I am going to finish them all, but I am proud of where I am: I’ve read 9 out of 20!

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Belzhar is so brilliantly crafted and is a fascinating look at the teenage mind, love, guilt, depression/mental illness, friendship, and literature, and I am so glad that I read it (FINALLY, as Jessica Moore would say).

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Oh man. The feels that this book gave me! Sol will always have a special place in my heart! And the audiobook was really quite well done.

The Hunted by Matt de la Peña

I am so mad at myself for waiting so long to read The Hunted! I loved The Living, and I loved The Hunted. It is interesting though because they are two very different dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories because they deal with two different conflicts, but you really need to read both to understand the full devastation you are just introduced to in The Living.

March by Jon Lewis and Andrew Aydin

Reviewed on July 12, 2017

This series meant to much to me! Please read my review because I lay it all out. AND I GOT TO MEET JON LEWIS!!!

Posted by John David Anderson

Reviewed April 21, 2017

Posted is a must-have for middle school libraries and classrooms. It is funny yet leaves you with a really important message.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is just a perfect high school story. It has the right bits of snark and romance and drama.

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicole Yoon

The Sun is Also a Star is a love story. But it is also a story of how people affect those around them. And it is a story about parents’ impacts on their kids’ lives. It is a entanglement of feelings that leaves you satisfied at the end.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Gaudin

WHOA! This is such a messed up series! But so good. As soon as I finished the first one, I had to read the second one. It is terrifying to think about a world where Hitler still rules but it is even more terrifying to think how our world actually fits some of they dystopian tones of a fiction story with that plot line.

What have you read from your #mustreadin2017 list so far?

and

Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill

September 6, 2017 by Kellee

Giant Pumpkin Suite
Author: Melanie Heuiser Hill
Published September 12th, 2017 by Candlewick Press

Summary: Who are you, if you can’t be what you always expected? A moving coming-of-age tale of prodigy and community, unlikely friendship and growing things.

Twelve-year-old Rose Brutigan has grown seven inches in the last eight months. She’s always been different from her twin brother, Thomas, but now she towers over him in too many ways. The gap in their interests continues to widen as well. Musically talented Rose is focused on winning the upcoming Bach Cello Suites Competition, while happy-go-lucky Thomas has taken up the challenge of growing a giant pumpkin in the yard of their elderly neighbor, Mr. Pickering. But when a serious accident changes the course of the summer, Rose is forced to grow and change in ways she never could have imagined. Along the way there’s tap dancing and classic musicals, mail-order worms and neighborhood-sourced compost, fresh-squeezed lemonade, the Minnesota State Fair — and an eclectic cast of local characters that readers will fall in love with.

Review: I must be honest as I start this review. I love the cello. I started playing at 11, went to a music school of choice in high school, and minored in music in college. And I believe that the Bach Cello Suites are some of the most beautiful pieces of music in existence. All of these facts may have made me a bit biased when it came to Giant Pumpkin Suite.

Rose is one special young lady. She is a prodigy of the cello and academics. She is taking college courses and has skipped grades and is in high school at age 12. And at the beginning of the book because of all of these things, she has lost what it is like to be a child. The only child-like thing she does in the first 50 pages or so is read Charlotte’s Web, which is her favorite book. Everything else in her life is structured and serious. But then something happens and everything changes. This is where the pumpkin comes in.

Rose truly transforms in this novel in a way that is believable yet amazing. The girl at the end of the novel seems so far away from the young lady you meet at the beginning, but as a reader, I loved the transformation. Rose is one amazing character who really finds who she is because of all the people in her world who truly do care for her.

Speaking of the other people, I loved the supporting cast in the novel. Hill did a great job making sure every character in the novel had their own personality and story and each played such an important part. I felt like I was part of the neighborhood by the time I was done with the book. And it isn’t only Rose that grows throughout the book. I loved seeing how Thomas, Jane, and other characters really found themselves throughout the book.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: I am interested to hear what students think of this book! I had it in my book speed dating in my classroom, and students seemed to love the cover and synopsis. I personally think that fans of the books listed below are going to love Rose’s story, so please put this book in your libraries 🙂

Discussion Questions: How did Rose change from the beginning to the end of the book?; Who do you think made the biggest impact on Rose?; How did the pumpkin affect the whole neighborhood?; Why did the bowl from Japan mean so much to Rose?; How do you think the story would have been different if the accident didn’t happen?

Flagged Passages: From Chapter 1:

“It was all so clever. Bach was a musical genius, but he didn’t even stop with beautiful music. He had all these jokes and numerical riddles running in the notes — forward, backward, and upside down, sometimes. Two of her favorite things in one package: math and music! Oh, how she loved Bach.”

“At age twelve (and two weeks and three days), Rose was almost a foot and a half taller and four grades ahead of her twin. Thomas had been sick a lot in first grade and had been held back, while she’d skipped a grade a couple of times and had started high school this past fall. She was left-handed; Thomas was right-handed. She loved to read; Thomas hated it. She went to university for math, but Thomas had never passed his multiplication tables. Nearly everyone had forgotten they were twins. Except Mr. Pickering, who seldom mentioned it. And Calamity Jane. Who mentioned it all the time.”

Read This If You Love: Vanished by James Ponti, The Way to Stay in Destiny by Augusta Scattergood, Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Audition and Subtraction by Amy Fellner Dominy, A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Recommended For: