Prediction – Page 11 – Unleashing Readers

Ellie Ultra: An Extra-Ordinary Girl by Gina Bellisario

March 13, 2017February 3, 2017 by Kellee

Ellie Ultra: An Extra-Ordinary Girl
Author: Gina Bellisario
Illustrator: Jessika von Innerebner
Published September 1st, 2016 by Stone Arch Books

Summary: Ellie is super excited for first day at Winkopolis Elementary School. After spending her whole life being homeschooled by super-genius inventor parents, she can’t wait to hang out with normal kids and learn normal things. But Ellie soon learns that her super powers make her stand out in a not-so-super way. Can she save the world and fit in with her new friends? Or is blending in the one thing this superhero can’t do?

Review: What a fun new early chapter book! I am so happy to see that group of books expanding to include so many diverse types of stories, diverse genres, and diverse characters. Ellie Ultra is just one of a few early readers with POC as protagonists that I’ve read recently (Juana & Medina and Bea Garcia are the others). And, especially right now, it is so important to have a diverse selection of characters for readers to relate to! Ellie is also different because it is sci-fi! It is a wonderful intro to the world of superheroes mixed with the widely understood topic of starting new things. This, and its sequels!, are going to be a book that many young readers are going to enjoy!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Ellie Ultra is going to be a wonderful addition to any early ed classroom library and as a read aloud. The after back matter of Ellie Ultra has a glossary, discussion questions, and writing activities for the classroom (more below).

Teacher and library section on Gina Bellisario’s website: http://www.ginabellisario.com/for-teachers-and-librarians.html

Discussion Questions: When was a time you had to do something new that you were worried about? What did you do to overcome your worry?; When was a time that something didn’t go as well as you’d hope? How did it turn out?

Two examples from the back matter:

-Ellie’s superhero cape is super special to her–she had to wait months to get it. Talk about an object that is special to you, What makes it so important?

-Ellie is worried that she wont fit in at her new school because her superpowers make her different, but our differences are what make us unique! Write a paragraph about what makes you special and unique.

Flagged Passages: “She [Ellie] had been counting the minutes until she could attend Winkopolis Elementary School for as long as she could remember. But first, she’d had some important things to learn at home, with her parents as her teachers.

In kindergarten, they’d taught her death-ray safety. In first grade, she’d learn how to stump an evil mastermind. And in second grade? That year they’d quizzed her on every super-villain in Winkopolis. Naming their weaknesses counted for extra credit.

It hadn’t been ordinary school, but Ellie’s parents weren’t exactly ordinary. They were super-genius scientists who worked for a special group called B.R.A.I.N. Ellie wasn’t sure what B.R.A.I.N. stood for–only the actual members knew that–but she knew the group squashed super-villains, just like she did. After all, Ellie was a superhero!” (p. 10-11)

Read This If You Love: Superheroes, Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale, Lola series by Christine Pakkala

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Gina for providing a copy for review!**

Natumi Takes the Lead: The True Story of an Orphan Elephant Who Finds a Family by Gerry Ellis with Amy Novesky

December 28, 2016 by Kellee

Nonfiction Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

Natumi Takes the Lead: The True Story of an Orphan Elephant Who Finds Family
Author: Gerry Ellis with Amy Novesky
Published November 8th, 2016 by National Geographic Children’s Books

Goodreads Summary: After losing her mother, shy Natumi is rescued by a team from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an orphanage for baby elephants. At the shelter, Natumi hides behind keepers’ legs to watch the other elephants at the shelter. But soon, she meets several other orphans, and the eight of them play together in the surrounding bush.

As the babies become closer and more like a real family, they need a leader, someone they can trust. Can Natumi grow into this role?

Join the herd to find out what happens when they travel back into the wild. This sweet story, with its heartwarming photographs, explores the challenges and joys of family, love, and growing up, and is a perfect bedtime tale.

Review: In addition to being a story that teaches about elephants, Natumi’s story is one that will warm readers’ hearts. Her story is sad yet inspiring, heart breaking yet beautiful, and the reader gets to be there every step of the way. Gery Ellis’s photographs allow the reader to be right in the story and helps move this book past just a normal informational nonfiction text to literary nonfiction thus allowing it to cross boundaries in the classroom.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Since the text crosses the informational/literary boundaries, there are immense possibilities to how this text could be used in the classroom. When I finished, the two things that struck me right away were the theme of the story and the inquiry that this story could be a basis for. Natumi’s story definitely has a pretty solid theme that can tie into many other texts or even science discussions about animal behaviors. Also, the text talks about one animal in peril in the wild, and it could be a jumping off point for a science/language arts crossover project where students state find a problem in the wild and create information, much like the author’s note, that shows ways to help and learn more about the issue. In addition, there are opportunities for vocabulary development, mapping skills, prediction, cause/effect, and much more.

Discussion Questions: How did poachers change Natumi’s life forever? Why are there poachers in Africa?; Why are elephant orphanages needed? How could we help this problem?; How did Natumi become the leader of her family?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Elephants, Learning about endangered animals, Africa

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Karen at Media Masters for providing a copy for review!**

Noodles’ and Albie’s Birthday Surprise by Eric Bennett

December 16, 2016 by Kellee

Noodles’ and Albie’s Birthday Surprise
Author: Eric Bennett
Illustrator: Milanka Reardon
Published December 9th, 2016

Summary: Noodles’ & Albie’s Birthday Surprise is the continuing adventures of Noodles (a penguin) and Albie (his fish friend). The story takes place on the day of Noodles birthday, which happens to be December 24th. While waiting for his party to start, Noodles and his friends play on the ice while a group of red jacket wearing tourists from a nearby cruise ship take the penguins pictures. Meanwhile, his friend Albie is under the sea searching for the perfect birthday gift for Noodles. She eventually comes across an old compass from a sunken treasure chest, which is perfect for Noodles as in the first Noodles & Albie story (2014), he had some major sense of direction issues. After giving Noodles his compass, the two friends head off for a day at Polar Kingdom, the world’s greatest undersea amusement park. After a fun day, the pair begin their journey home, but soon notice a red glow up ahead on the oceans surface. The glow it turns out is coming from the nose of one of the strange animals they come across stranded on an ice floe, along with a mysterious red jacket wearing “tourist” with a white beard, and a sled full of boxes. It turns out the mysterious tourist is lost because his assistants insisted he try a GPS devise to help guide him. Now the chubby, old man is hopelessly lost. Not only is he lost, but he’s on a deadline, and he’s in Antarctica. He can’t find his way back on track because it’s always daylight in Antarctica in December, and the poor tourist can’t even see the North Star to navigate. He needs to get North and fast. Will Noodles help the lost tourist by giving him his compass?

Review: Noodles’ and Albie’s Birthday Surprise takes readers on a second adventure of two best friends that is just as wonderful as the first and with a delightful cameo the reader doesn’t see coming. Teachers and students will find much to discuss as they read this humorous, clever tale. After reading the first of Noodles’ and Albie’s stories, we were happy to hear that Eric had written a second to allow us to go on even more adventures with these great friends.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: While reading aloud Noodles’ and Albie’s Birthday Surprise, there are many opportunities for think alouds and discussions such as predicting what Noodles will do, discussing the end of the book as well as the characters’ traits, and discussing birthday and holiday celebrations.

Discussion Questions: What character traits does Noodles and Albie show throughout the story? Include evidence for each trait.; What is the best birthday you have ever had?; How did the lost traveler know where Noodles lived?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Loved: Noodles and Albie by Eric Bennett, Penguin series by Salina Yoon, If You Were a Penguin by Florence Minor, Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton, Penguins by Seymour Simon, Tacky series by Helen Lester, A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis, Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Recommended For:

and

**Thank you to the author for providing copies for review!**

Be Light Like a Bird by Monika Schröder

December 9, 2016 by Kellee

Be Light Like a Bird
Author: Monika Schröder
Published September 1st, 2016 by Capstone Young Readers

Summary: After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Wren finds her life thrown into upheaval. And when her mother decides to pack up the car and forces Wren to leave the only home she’s ever known, the family grows even more fractured. As she and her mother struggle to build a new life, Wren must confront issues with the environment, peer pressure, bullying, and most of all, the difficulty of forgiving those who don’t deserve it. A quirky, emotional middle grade novel set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Be Light Like a Bird features well-drawn, unconventional characters and explores what it means to be a family and the secrets and lies that can tear one apart.

Review: When I originally started this book over the summer, I had just finished Truth or Dare by Barbara Dee which was about a young girl’s grief after the loss of her mother, so when I picked up Be Light Like a Bird and Wren’s father passed away in the first few pages, it just emotionally wrecked me. I tried continuing, but the grief that Wren and her mother feel just lept off the page and into my heart–I had to put it down for a bit. When I picked it back up, after Augusta Scattergood recommended it, I jumped right in, prepared this time, and loved every second of my journey with Wren and her mother.

Be Light Like a Bird was so tough for me to read the first time because the emotions that Monika Schröder evokes through her writing are just so real. Wren’s mother is in the anger stage of grief and just cannot seem to leave it while Wren wants to accept and learn to live without her father, but when your only remaining parent is in such denial and anger, it really affects the young person’s life that they are raising.

I also really love Jana’s review of Be Light Like a Bird. Visit her post to see more about the book.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Wren’s journey is going to be perfect for students dealing with grief, moving to a new school, bullying, or someone who wants to start a petition or stand up for something they don’t think it write. Wren and Theo work very hard in the book to save a local pond from being built over. On their political journey, they go to a town council meeting and start a petition. They are an inspiration to what young people can do to make a difference, and teachers could definitely use part of their story to discuss advocacy, environmental, or political issues their students could fight.

Discussion Questions: What are different ways to deal with grief?; What are the six stages of grief? What are some examples from the book that show that Wren and her mom went through some of the stages?; What did Theo teach Wren about herself?; Why do you think Wren chose to try to talk her mom into staying in Pyramid? Who in the town of Pyramid helped Wren feel at home?

Flagged Passages: “…I realized she wasn’t crying because she was sad–it was because she was so mad.

Then she told me to put everything I wanted to keep into a suitcase.

How do you decide what to keep when your Dad has died and your mother has turned into a raging woman you hardly recognize? If it were up to me, I would have kept everything the way it was before. But that is obviously not an option…I sad in my room and looked around, trying to decide what to pack, but the cloud was making me numb. None of the stuff really mattered anymore.” p. 13-14

Read This If You Loved: Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd, Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand, Far from Fair by Elana K. Arnold

Recommended For:

**Thank you to M0nika for providing a copy for review!**

Teaching Guide for The Hat Trilogy by Jon Klassen

October 13, 2016October 11, 2016 by Kellee

Happy book birthday to We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen!

We Found a Hat
Published October 11, 2016 by Candlewick Press

I Want My Hat Back
Published September 27th, 2011 by Candlewick Press

This Is Not My Hat
Published October 9th, 2012 by Candlewick Press

The first two books of The Hat Trilogy have enthralled readers for years. They have been read in many classrooms and in many bedrooms delighting millions of children (and adults!). Today we get to celebrate the final installment of the trilogy.

Summary of We Found a Hat: Two turtles find one hat – and it happens to look great on both of them.

Q&A With Jon Klassen:

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions:

I am happy to share the teaching guide for the books that I had the honor of writing!

The guide can also be found here.

Happy reading!

Teaching Guide for Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier

October 7, 2016 by Kellee

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard
A Peter Nimble Adventure
Author: Jonathan Auxier
Published April 5th, 2016 by Abrams Books

Summary: It’s been two years since Peter Nimble and Sir Tode rescued the kingdom of HazelPort. In that time, they have traveled far and wide in search of adventure. Now Peter and Sir Tode have been summoned by Professor Cake for a new mission: find a 12-year-old girl named Sophie Quire.

Sophie knows little beyond the four walls of her father’s bookshop, where she works as a bookmender and dreams of leaving the confines of her city walls. But when a strange boy and his talking cat/horse companion show up searching for a rare and mysterious book, she finds herself pulled into an adventure beyond anything she has ever read.

Teaching Guide:

Sophie Quire is a special young lady, and you and your students are going to adore her adventure! Here is a teaching guide to help guide you or your students through your reading. This guide can be used as a tool for classrooms or book clubs.

You can also access the guide here.

You can learn more about Sophie at ABRAMS’ website.

Recommended For:

Blog Tour with Review!: Olivia Decoded (Olivia Twisted #2) by Vivi Barnes

September 23, 2016 by Kellee

Title: Olivia Twisted
Author: Vivi Barnes
Published November 5th, 2013 by Entangled: Teen

Summary: Tossed from foster home to foster home, Olivia’s seen a lot in her sixteen years. She’s hardened, sure, though mostly just wants to fly under the radar until graduation. But her natural ability with computers catches the eye of Z, a mysterious guy at her new school. Soon, Z has brought Liv into his team of hacker elite?break into a few bank accounts, and voila, he drives a motorcycle. Follow his lead, and Olivia might even be able to escape from her oppressive foster parents. As Olivia and Z grow closer, though, so does the watchful eye of Bill Sykes, Z’s boss. And he’s got bigger plans for Liv…

Thanks to Z, Olivia’s about to get twisted.

Title: Olivia Decoded
Author: Vivi Barnes
Published September 6th, 2016 by Entangled: Teen

Summary: This isn’t my Jack, who once looked at me like I was his world. The guy who’s occupied the better part of my mind for eight months.

This is Z, criminal hacker with a twisted agenda and an arsenal full of anger.

I’ve spent the past year trying to get my life on track. New school. New friends. New attitude. But old flames die hard, and one look at Jack—the hacker who enlisted me into his life and his hacking ring, stole my heart, and then left me—and every memory, every moment, every feeling comes rushing back. But Jack’s not the only one who’s resurfaced in my life. And if I can’t break through Z’s defenses and reach the old Jack, someone will get hurt…or worse.

About the Author: Vivi Barnes was raised on a farm in East Texas where her theater-loving mom and cowboy dad gave her a unique perspective on life. Now living in the magic and sunshine of Orlando, Florida, she divides her time writing, working, goofing off with her husband and three kids, and avoiding dirty dishes.

Find her on her blogs: http://vivibarnes.com/ and http://4chicks.wordpress.com/

Find her on twitter: https://twitter.com/ViviBarnes

Find her on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vivibarnes.author

Check out http://www.oliviatwisted.com/ for the Olivia Twisted official trailer!

Review: I was very lucky to be one of the early readers for Olivia Twisted (Vivi’s children actually go to the school I teach at! Check out the discussion questions at the back of the book, too–I wrote those!), and I fell in love with Liv and Z. I loved how Vivi retold Oliver Twist yet made the story completely hers at the same time. However, anyone that read the book had one big question looming over them: What happened between the end of the story and the epilogue?!?!? It is something that I am sure Vivi was asked over and over again, and Olivia Decoded is the answer, and it is a GOOD answer. I read this book in one sitting, and I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened because even though you knew what happened because of the epilogue in Olivia Twisted, how it got to that situation was a big mystery.

Excerpt: “Wow, who gave you that?”

“My grandfather. He left it on my car seat this morning.”

“Oh, boo. I thought maybe you had a secret admirer or something.” I try not to smile at her obvious disappointment. Emerson’s been on me to date for months now. She knows I had someone back in Richmond who was special, but only that we broke it off before I moved here. She doesn’t know anything else about Jack. No one does, because what would I say? The last guy I dated is a criminal, and the last time I saw him was right after we got kidnapped by his horrible boss and almost died trying to escape. That’d go over really well.

“I don’t know, what do you think?” Emerson breaks into my thoughts as we walk down the hallway to our lockers.

“About what?”

She sighs. “Where Kade’s taking me tonight. Girl, you are not with it today, are you? Are you doing anything tonight?”

“My grandfather’s taking me to dinner.”

“Sweet. Not so romantic, but sweet.”

I smile. “Yes, he’s sweet. But a little over the top on gifts sometimes.” Even after eight months of living the wealthy life, I’d be happier if he gave me a gift card to a bookstore instead of extravagant jewelry I rarely wear.

My phone starts buzzing, and I pull it from my pocket. Grandfather’s text reads: What gift?

I frown, typing, The bracelet you left in my car. I snap a quick picture of the bracelet on my wrist and send it to him. Maybe his text was a hint to send a picture, though I doubt it. He’s usually pretty direct about things.

“What’s up?” Emerson asks.

“Looks like Grandfather forgot he left me the bracelet.” But even as I say it, it doesn’t sound right. He’s one of the sharpest people I’ve ever known, and he runs a financial institution.

“Maybe he gave it to one of his staff to put in your car.” Her voice has the usual bitter tone whenever she’s thinking of her parents. They’re hardly ever around, and when they are, they don’t pay much attention to her.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I don’t believe that, though. Even though it’s possible Mrs. Bedwin did put it there, I doubt it. Grandfather is the type to handle things himself when it comes to me. But Emerson’s parents travel so much for their business that they often let their staff handle things like birthdays and other events they think aren’t important. So as grateful as I am that Grandfather’s always there for me, I don’t like to rub that in Emerson’s face.

“Maybe you really do have a secret admirer,” she says hopefully.

I roll my eyes.“I doubt that.”

“Oh, really?” She stops in her tracks, her eyes fixed straight ahead. I follow her gaze, a sharp sense of dread creeping down my spine. A white rose is dangling from the vent in my locker.

A rose I know wasn’t placed there by my grandfather.

Discussion Questions: Why is Olivia so hesitant to date and make friends at her new school?; How does Olivia’s mom’s decisions affect how Olivia’s grandfather treats her?

Read This If You Loved: Olivia Twisted by Vivi Barnes, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Loud Awake and Lost by Adele Griffin, Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia

Recommended For:

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Make sure to not miss out on any of the stops on the blog tour!

September 12^th

The Phantom Paragrapher – Review Book #2

The Book Beacon – Spotlight Post

September 13^th

RoloPoloBookBlog – Spotlight Post

Roxy’s Book Reviews – Spotlight Post

September 14^th

Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews – Author Interview