Author Julie Danneberg

Illustrator  Judy Love. 

Every student is nervous on the first day of school.  There is no exception for Sarah.  Sarah  is the main character in this comical fiction book.  When Mr. Hartwell tries to get Sarah up and ready for her first day at a new school it is a struggle.  He questions her about what everyone would think if she was not there.  This is a prime example where the pictures facilitate in the reading of the story.  Excuse after excuse is presented until they arrive at the school where the principle escorts Sarah to class and introduces her.  The ending is a real laugh-out-loud shocker.

I enjoyed this book all the way through it is a must read for the first day of class.

The depth of the characters in this book is amazing since you do not know until the end of the book who it is.  

Lesson Plans: http://www.charlesbridge.com/client/client_pdfs/downloadables/FirstDayJitters_ActivityGuide.pdf

This link is amazing!

The Story is read aloud on you tube.

Five Live Bongos

 

By George Ella Lyon

Illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers

Five Live Bongos is an extra LOUD story there is so much noise in this book that you should NOT read it for bedtime.  Kids everywhere will want to get up and dance and make sounds that you have never heard before.  When a painter’s five children decided to turn household items into musical instruments, it is almost impossible to stop them.  Until, they are sent to the garage to build a magnificent contraption, which leads the five children on a wonderful trip to the dump. 

If you like LOUD books this book is great!!

 

Beware this book does not rhyme.

*****I intend to use this book in my classroom for music.  It could also be used to show children that you can be creative with whatever you have on hand.  The illustrations in this book are done in a watercolor style and are amazing to see.  This may be a good time to introduce the students to the Blue Man Band.   Lesson plans.

 

You can make your very own musical instruments.  Fallow the instructions on the link.

 

Image Credit:

Amazon.com: Five Live Bongos (Paperback) (9780590466554): George Ella ...

 

 

 

 

 

Dedicated to The Fallen of September 11, 2001.

 

September 12th We Knew Everything Would Be All Right

 

 

Authors and illustrators:

First-grade students of H. Byron Masterson Elementary in Kennett, Missouri

 

 

This book was written by a class of first graders at the time of the 9/11 tragedy.  They present many healing allegories in this short 29-page book.  My personal favorite is “2+2 still added up to 4”.  The illustrations are amazing and all hand drawn.   September 12^th We Knew Everything Would Be All Right was a very proactive way for this teacher to help not only her class but also several other Americans heal from this tragedy.  Every person in the nation has been affected by September 11.  As adults’ we do not realize that the younger generation needs to deal with the aftermath of the situation.   I choose the genre of historical essay, because it honors the reality of what the children saw the day after a tragedy.  This book has won the Kids Are Authors Award.

 

The kids dedicated this book to their parents:
We like to feel secure and safe. Somedays, the rut is the best place to be.

 

 

 

 We honor all our fallen Soldiers, Active Duty Soldiers, Firemen, and Emergency Workers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children born after of 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM6Kn3kYOpY&feature=related

 

 

 

 



The Weedle on the Needle

                                        by Steven Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James

This Post is Dedicated to my Very Smart and Very dear nephew who lives in Seattle Washington, Johnny I Love You!

            For my book talk today I choose A Serendipity Book classic, The Weedle on the Needle.  For those of you that are not familiar with the Serendipity collection allow me to introduce you, this collection consisted of well over fifty books.  They were written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James (sight links at bottom of the page).  The stories featured lovable animals or fantasy creatures with the story centered on a moral theme.

            The Weedle on the Needle that my book talk is about is the original 1974 publication.  This book has been re-released and is different from the original version, personally I enjoy the way the original story reads and the way it teaches the child to accept and accommodate the many people and creatures we have in our world.  The book is dedicated to Seattle, Washington.  The re-released copy is readily available at The Space Needle.

            Now, for a short summary of this wonderful story; a weedle lived in the Northwest.  One day a ship full of men arrived to settle Seattle.  While they were building they began to whistle.  Well the whistling hurt the poor Weedle’s ears.  So the Weedle moves far away from the bay of Seattle to Mt. Rainier.  He is finally able to sleep.  He sleeps for many years.  When he wakes the men have built right up to the edge of Mt. Rainier and were still whistling.  So the Weedle decides to stop the whistling.  He chooses The Space Needle to put his plan into action.  So the people and the Weedle have to work together to solve the whistling problem. 

            I did not give very good details at the end of the summary because the end of a book should never be given away, it should always be explored by its reader.

           

How can this book be used in the classroom?

            The Weedle on The Needle would make a wonderful and light introduction to a social studies unit about Seattle, Washington.  It would also be useful for explaining land marks such as The Space Needle.  I really love the way that this book is written it has strong paragraphs and is not just a short read.  It will challenge students to infer about what the Weedle is going to do and what the Mayor is going to do for the Weedle. 

http://stephencosgrove.com/
 http://www.robinjames.net/

THE SEEM: The Glitch in Sleep by john Hulme and Michael Wexler

 

THE SEEMS: The Glitch in Sleep Book Review

Book Title: THE SEEMS : The Glitch in Sleep

Author: John Hulme and Michael Wexler

Illustrator: Gideon Kendall

This book was about

12 year old Becker Drane leads an average life until he takes an aptitude test at the Books & Café in Highland Park.  Now there are times when his world is turned completely upside down at a moment’s notice.  If you like adventure, action and drama; this is the perfect book for you.  You will visit alternate worlds and hear and learn things that only Seemians are suppose to know.  Do you believe enough to bring the wonderful characters of the Seems to life? Read it and find out!

My favorite character in this book was Casey Lake because

She holds one of the highest positions that an outsider, from the seems, can hold. She is also very witty.  Her peers and co-workers hold her in high revere. She is a very active person in the story.

I liked this book because

There are so many different settings with something very unique going on in each and every one of them.  I loved that there was very little down time and the characters were always in action.  This book is a wonderful introduction to a series of adventure stories.

You should read this book because

This book is a quick paced read. There is adventure with the tern of every page. The words are so descriptive that the characters easily come to life and are completely amazing.

How could this book be useful in the classroom and what age group would use this book

This book should be used for high readers in 3rd grade to readers as old as you can get.  I think mostly fourth and fifth grade.  One of the fun things about this book is that you can take the seemian aptitude test, there is an appendix in the back and the for shadowing is amazing. This could very easily be the one book that gets the child who is resistant to read completely engrossed into reading.  The word choice in this book is amazing . There are endless possibilities on how to use this book in a lesson plan, this book has 254 pages and holds tones of adventure for both boys and girls.