Imaginary Veterinary New Fun Series

Kids love series books, at least in my opinion, kids love series books.  They like the continuation of the story, the growth of the characters, the new adventures in every episode.  Lest you think I may be generalizing a little too much, I can tell you that some of the most commonly checked out books in our library are:

The Magic Tree House
Junie B. Jones
Clementine
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Harry Potter

All series or sets of books with the same cast of characters.  There is something about the familiarity and safety of those books.  They also make great jumping off points to get kids into other stories.  That's why I'm always on the look out for new series to add to our collection.  The Imaginary Veterinary fits that bill perfectly!

Ben Silverstein is "banished" to stay at his grandfather's for the summer.  Like any kid he is seriously bummed that he won't be playing video games with his buddies all summer, but instead, helping his grandfather in a small, middle of no where town.  Shortly after arriving he is advised to avoid that trouble maker, Pearl Petal.  When they both start seeing the same unusual figure flying about town, they get together to investigate.

What they discover leads them to the closed down factory on the hill.  Upon further exploration they find that it has been transformed into an animal hospital.  Not just any animal hospital, a hospital for curious creatures.  In the first episode, The Sasquatch Escape, Ben leaves the door open and a large hairy beast escapes.  Ben and Pearl are then assigned the task of tracking and trapping the creature to return him to the hospital.

Author Suzanne Selfors has tapped into something here.  It's a series and it's about things kids are fascinated with, strange creatures.  The Sasquatch Escape is already flying off the shelves and has a list of students with a reserve on it.  I'm sure the second in the series, The Lonely Lake Monster will be the same.

Splendors and Glooms - Looking for Newbery (2013 style) / It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

In an effort to organize my time more efficiently, I decided to make this post both one for our Looking for Newbery series as well as for IMWAYR meme.

FIRST BOOK:

So many people were talking about Splendors and Glooms by the masterful Laura Amy Schlitz, I just had to read it. 

As an adult, I absolutely loved this book - the magic, the darkness, the plot, how different characters are highlighted, the cliffhangers, the story plots that are so intricately woven together. All amazing! That being said, I'm not sure how I would use this book with my 5th grade students, but I know that is not a criteria for why a book is awarded a Newbery medal. 

Schlitz is a master storyteller, and Splendors and Glooms is a masterful story.  I would not be at all surprised if this book wins some Newbery love on January 28.


NEXT:

After reading Bill's Looking for Newbery post about The Summer of the Gypsy Moths, I knew I needed to reread it this weekend because for some reason I hadn't purchased it the first time.  Here's what I thought in both my first read and my reread:

I loved it! The author is Sara Pennypacker, of Clementine fame. I really enjoyed this read, and since I sometimes judge a book's success by how many tissues I use while crying at happy or sad parts (even when they're predictable), I can tell you this book had a 5-tissue ending. :)

I will definitely be remedying that not-buying-this-book immediately!

FINALLY:

 I also read Twelve Kinds of Ice and Almost Home this weekend.  Both books will be getting their own posts soon, but for now let me just say about both... BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Head on over to Teach Mentor Texts to see what everyone else is reading right now as well.  So many books, so little time!  What a delicious problem to have!

The Newbery Lists Bring Me Back

When Karen and I started this blog, one of the things we talked about was our fascination with reading the Newbery winning books.  Both of us tried to read all of the winners after they were announced, and that moved into trying to read them before they were announced which naturally turned into trying to predict the winners.  Sitting at breakfast the other morning, which we just don't do often enough, we both agreed to that we weren't up to trying to pick a winner this year.  We agreed that there are a lot of great titles out there, some on "the lists" some not so instead of racking our brains trying to narrow our picks down to 5 or so winners, we were just going to read what others say look like Newbery quality books.


Since I haven't been here in 3 months, and the Newbery Lists seem to be a bit of a circling back thing, I thought I'd start my side of the Reading for Newbery posts with my last post on Literate Lives.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker was a book I picked off the new shelf at my local library.  I didn't know anything about the book, but when I saw Sara Pennypacker, and it wasn't Clementine, I had to read it.

As my post says, I loved it.  The surprising events early in the book, the strong female characters who are survivors, the setting, everything about it was wonderful.  I put into the hands of some of my students in the Newbery Club and they loved it too.  They were a bit "freaked" out by the description of the dead body, and thought the girls should have handled the situation in a much different way, but overall, they liked it as much as I did. 

I've seen the book on a few lists, and on some Newbery lists it had it's day and is now gone, but in my mind, it's Newbery quality and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

Hey, it's good to be back writing about good books, I'm looking forward to hearing what books are on your lists!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? - Sept. 24

I love my classes this year, but another part of me is really missing those lazy days of summer when I read at will, whenever and wherever.  But as I've spent so much time learning about my students through beginning of year assessments, reading has taken a little bit of a backseat. 

But in the last three to four weeks, I have managed to get a few things read:

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker - My blog partner, Bill, had read this and recommended it. I loved it! The author is Sara Pennypacker, of Clementine fame. I really enjoyed this read, and since I sometimes judge a book's success by how many tissues I use while crying at happy or sad parts (even when they're predictable), I can tell you this book had a 5-tissue ending. :) (middle grade)

Small Medium at Large by Joanne Levy - I actually read this a few weeks ago, and forgot to record it on GoodReads. This will be a book I recommend time and time again to students, especially girls. I love the unusual element of the main character, Lilah, being able to hear ghosts. She then spends time trying to help them help the loved ones they left behind. Delightful. (middle grade)

The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford - I can't wait to get this book into the hands of many of my students, especially girls this year.  The concepts of how friendships can change and morph as middle school approaches, the idea that everyone wants somewhere to belong, and the concept that communities look out for one another.   This book has all that and a little voodoo and revenge wrapped up into a delightful bundle.   (middle grade)

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness - A really good ending to The Chaos Walking trilogy. Down to the wire, but the ending left me with hope. This one was probably the hardest for me to comprehend because of a group of characters; I had to really wrap my head around their being and their language. (YA)

 The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani - This was my adult book club read for tonight's meeting. I'm so happy we read this for several reasons. First, if you've never read anything by Adriana Trigiani, you're missing something special. She is closely tied to family and her Italian heritage, and that comes out in much of what she writes. In addition, the last book our club read was Elizabeth Street, which also dealt with Italian immigrants and heritage. What a great comparison we can make between the two books! Finally, our hostess for the evening has strong Italian heritage herself, and she found a cookbook Adriana Trigiani wrote with her sister of Italian recipes, and Chris will be preparing some of those foods for us to sample at book club - yum!!  (adult)

Please join Kellee and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, who are the cohosts of this wonderful Monday event!  I love finding out what others are reading, and start planning my next week's reading using some of the participants ideas. 

Summer of the Gypsy Moths is a Wonderful Read

I have always been a fan of Sara Pennypacker, especially her Clementine books.  She just has a way with creating characters that I think really connect with her readers.  So I was excited to find out that she had written a book for older readers, middle grades, called Summer of the Gypsy Moths.  I was even more excited when I found it on the new shelf at my local library.

Two twelve year old girls find themselves staying with an elderly foster parent near Cape Cod.  Both come from tragic backgrounds.  Stella never knew her father and her mother was incapable of taking care of her.  Angel's mother was killed in a car accident and her father drowned at sea.  Stella's Great Aunt Louise takes them both in even though they come from very different backgrounds and don't get along at all.

When Aunt Louise dies of a heart attack while the girls are at school, they have a choice to make.  Call the police and both get sent to yet another foster home, or learn to handle the summer vacation cottages on their own and stay independent.  They choose the second and go to some pretty drastic actions to keep the death of Louise a secret.

The owner of the Linger Longer vacation cottages, George, comes around and teaches the girls what it takes to change the cabins over for the next round of visitors.  The girls tell George that Louise has fallen and hurt her ankle and wouldn't be able to help for a while so the girls handle it all.

Angel works harder than she ever has, learning survival skills she has never had so she can earn enough money to get to New York to live with her aunt, a recent immigrant.  Stella follows her collection of Hints From Heloise articles and keeps the Linger Longer cabins running smoothly.  She dreams of her mother coming to live in Cape Cod and together the two of them taking over the care of the cottages from Louise.

The girls learn to live and work together and then become the closest of friends.  Each learns from the other how to do things they never thought they could.  Throughout the story the girls worry about the secret in the pumpkin patch and in a way grow even closer to it.

It will take a pretty strong middle grade reader to understand this book, but when we kick off this year's version of the Bailey Newbery Club, Summer of the Gypsy Moths will be one of the title I put on the reading list.

48 Hour Reading Challenge: First Update

So just as I suspected, not much reading time came my way. Started at 3 and an hour later went to dinner. After that I had to bake an apple pie, crust from scratch of course, for the lovely Mrs. Prosser's birthday and by then it was 8:30. So to update my reading time, 2 hours from 3 to 10:30...pathetic!

I finished two books, probably neither of them qualify under the rules of competition, but I enjoyed them both anyway and know I have young readers who will enjoy them too.

The first was the first in a new series called Ball Park Mysteries by David A. Kelly. The title is The Fenway Foul-Up. I think this is going to be a great beginning chapter book mystery series and I really like the list of facts in the back of the book. In this one all of the facts are about Fenway Park in Boston, one of my favorite cities. Oh yeah, I'm leaving for Beantown on Thursday with 47 of my closest friends.
The second book I finished was part of a new series by Kate Messner called Marty Mcguire. Marty is a tomboy third grader who would rather be in the woods or creek exploring nature than dressing girly and princessy. However, she gets the lead role in the class play and it's a princess. Very fun and well done. Fans of Clementine and Moxie Maxwell are going to love this series too.

Right now I'm working on A Million Miles from Boston by Karen Day. That should be good for a few hours!

Phineas L. MacGuire Series for Boys

I love Clementine, Junie B. Jones and Moxy Maxwell. I laugh out loud at all of their adventures. I recommend them to all of my first through third grade readers, and also to my older readers who just like a quick, fun read. Now, I have a series that I can recommend that features a boy character.

Phineas Listerman MacGuire, Mac, Big Mac, Phin, or Phineas, but never Listerman is a fourth grade science freak! He loves science, all kinds of science, and raises slime mold in his bedroom. His best friends are Aretha, an over achiever, class president who has dreams of being the best Girl Scout ever in the history of their school and Ben, the gifted artist who creates comics and in this episode, a video.

In the third installment Phineas is obsessed with going to Space Camp and is looking for ways to make money. The first opportunity involves walking Lemon Drop, the biggest yellow lab in the history of the world. Phineas is amazed at the amount of drool that a dog creates and his scientific mind begins to race. Ben video tapes as Phin and Aretha collect dog saliva for a series of experiments. Author Francis O'Roark Dowell (Shooting the Moon) creates fun characters and puts them in some hilarious situations.

One of my favorite characters is Mrs. McClosky, Lemon Drop's owner. According to Phineas she is approximately eight thousand years old but still has a pretty good arm for throwing a slobbery tennis ball. I love the interaction between her and the children. Mrs. McClosky calls them all by the wrong names, names that are close in sound to the real thing, but never quite right. The children NEVER correct her! I love that they accept that this is part of her and we don't have precocious children correcting her in a disrespectful tone.

I'm very excited to have a series for the younger readers that features a boy, and I'm even more excited that it's written by a quality author like Francis O'Roark Dowell. If you have not read Shooting the Moon yet, I strongly encourage you to move it to the top of your pile, you won't be disappointed, and if you are looking for a "boy"series, pick up Phineas L. MacGuire, you won't be disappointed there either.

Trading Spaces - my 5th grade classroom

After just spending several days in my classroom, reconfiguring space, I knew I wanted to be part of the Trading Spaces challenge over at A Year of Reading.

For the past two years, I've shared a classroom with someone, so our room needed to be a combination of what his needs for our students were, as well as what my needs were. Because of budget cuts, this year I have the classroom to myself, so I was starting all over, creating spaces that I hope will be inviting to students.

One of the most important spaces I like to create first is my meeting area with my students. This year, my class meeting area is in the back of my room, and is complete with the chair I sit in for read aloud, a rolling chart stand where all my chart paper is located, and a small table beside my chair that houses my markers for the chart, a small lamp, and our current read aloud (still deciding on what will be my first read aloud). I also am fortunate enough to have a magnetic chalkboard in the back of my room, in this area, as well as the front of the room. This back board is where I hang a lot of the anchor charts the students and I create together.

The rest of the meeting space is a big open space for children. My closet doors serve as the back boundary, and bookshelves serve as the sides (its hard to see the shelves on the left). Wall space is so valuable in our classroom that I also use the closet doors. They house the thinking we do about content (science and social studies) vocabulary we do together. This floor space is where we meet for class meetings, reading workshop mini lessons, writing workshop mini lessons, word study mini lessons, and all sharing. There are also pillows in the middle cupboard for the students to get out during reading workshop.

After creating my meeting area space, the next most important spaces are the areas in the room that are meant for students. This is the reading nook in our class this year. I have these huge windows in my room, and I wanted the natural light from the windows and the scenery outside of the window to draw students over here. It's nothing fancy -- just 2 fold-up soccer chairs with arms and a place for a drink (my students are allowed to have water bottles) set up in the corner by the window. The table you see is just a cheap stool I bought covered with some inexpensive fabric, and anchored with a light. Voila! A reading nook! In addition, there is a round table on the floor (basically, a table without the legs). Students love to gather on the floor around the table to either read or write.

I don't have a teacher's desk, per se, but rather, a little round table (my husband got it from Salvation Army eons ago when he was in law school) that houses my teacher computer, a lamp, lots of Post-its, and some other office supply needs. Right above this table is a small bulletin board that contains pictures of my family. I need the computer at this place in my room because it's right under the tv, and I will be able to demonstrate things to the class from my computer this way. But, I keep it small to make a statement about how much this classroom bleongs to all of us; it doesn't just belong to me.

The last spaces that are equally important to me are the places where the books live in our classroom. The display bookcase below will host great mentor nonfiction texts for the first month of school (different genres will be highlighted after that). The four bookshelves behind the display case will contain even more nonfiction, and possibly some picture books. This area is between the meeting area and the reading nook.

Then, there is another nook behind my chart stand where more fiction resides. It also contains, on the top shelves, the kids' language arts boxes. Each child has one, and these are the boxes that hold Book Lovers' Binders, writers' notebooks, and word study notebooks. If you notice all the books on these shelves are currently spine out. That will last for the first week or two of school until the students, as an entire class, figure out how to organize all the books. Then, we will probably have books sorted by genre, author, or series. The kids will sort the books into different tubs, and make the tags that tell what type of book resides in each tub.

The final picture shows the bookcases below my bulletin boards that also house reading and writing anchor charts and thinking. In addition, on the top are a couple of things worth mentioning. Since I started following blogs, and then purchasing books I really enjoyed in the last two years, I have highlighted those fabulous books in the teal, hot pink, and black fabric containers. The teal one contains many new series books I hope will "hook" kids -- Clementine, Moxy Maxwell, Stink, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc. The hot pink and black contain many of the new middle grade books I've purchased within the last 2 years that I really want kids to get their hands on!! The wooden bookshelf is where I'll put all new books I get this school year -- picture books, poetry books, nonfiction books, or chapter books. It is designed to have the feel of the New Book section of a bookstore or a library. Last year, highlighting books like this really encouraged students to read them!

So, there you have it -- my Trading Spaces. I can't wait to see everyone else's spaces as well!

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls is a Great New Series!

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day is the second in my posts about fun books to put in the hands of children before the end of the year, or for summer reading.

Meg Cabot, famous for her Princess Diaries series, has now found a voice for the younger girl. Allie Finkle is the main character in a new series Cabot is starting. Allie is nine years old and a fourth grader, and her parents have just informed her they're moving. Moving can be stressful, but Allie decides to take control, and make sure they never have to leave the house, the school, and the friends she loves so much. In fact, there are many ways Allie tries to impede the moving process. Sharing them might ruin the story, but let me say, she is quite relentless in her pursuit of not moving.

Since Cabot is starting a new series, this first book does a wonderful job helping us become acquainted with the settings that will soon be familiar to readers as they read other books in the series. We learn about Allie’s old house (well, really a new, updated suburban house) and old school (ok, really a fairly new school, complete with air-conditioning). Then, after the move, we transition to Allie’s new house (well, a very old Victorian home in need of much repair and redecorating) and her new school (ok you guessed it – an old school, that doesn’t have air-conditioning). We are introduced to two of the family’s favorite places to eat – Lung Chung (where Allie does something that may allow her to never go back, but I just know Meg Cabot won’t allow that to happen) and Dairy Queen (conveniently located to the new house).

Then, there are the characters. First of all, there is Allie’s family: Mom, Dad, Mark and Kevin (both younger brothers). Though we don’t meet him a lot in this book, Allie’s Uncle Jay is a character I hope appears more often in future books – he’s the “quirky” uncle. Then, there are Allie’s school friends (I use that word generically here). There is Mary Kate (her always crying best friend), Brittany (can turn on the charm with adults, but isn’t always nice to peers), Courtney (Brittany’s best friend), and Scott Stamphley (self-appointed annoyer of girls). At Allie’s new house, the girl next door is her exact age and grade – her name is Erica and she is a whiz at yelling, talking loud, having a great imagination, and gymnastics. I look forward to learning more about her in future books. Erica also has an older brother in middle school and an older sister in high school. John, the brother, plays a practical joke on Allie than becomes an integral part of her reluctance to move to the new house, much to her parents’ chagrin.

“That’s why I need the rules. Friendship is so COMPLICATED.” These 2 sentences reflect Allie’s reasons for needing the rules for girls. But her rules aren’t just about friendship; they cover the spectrum from pets to family to skateboarding without a helmet to celebrities. The book is full of rules Allie needs to navigate her way through the pitfalls of being a 9 year old, fourth grade girl. In fact, each chapter title is one of Allie’s rules for girls. But don’t let the fact that there are only sixteen chapters delude you into thinking Allie has only 16 rules to live by… quite the contrary. Embedded within each chapter, the reader can find even more rules. Allie has rules for everything. And just in case you’re having a difficult time keeping track of all the rules, Meg Cabot cleverly includes ALL of Allie’s rules in a list on the last 3 pages of the book.

This new series will be finding a home in my classroom this May. As series books tend to do, it will help support those readers who need to use their background knowledge to make sense of the text. Girls around this age can all relate to the personalities, the issues, and the basic question – where do I fit in? Then, as the series progresses, they will be supported by already knowing characters and settings – they can now focus on the story line.

Allie Finkle is a unique girl, who can’t be pigeonholed into a category. Because of that, she reminds me of other favorite characters – Junie B. Jones, Clementine, and Moxie Maxwell. If you know a child that likes a character that marches to their own drummer, Meg Cabot’s new series, Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls is a must read to put into their hands!

**note: The second book in this series, New Girl, will be available September 2008.

Why I Love Clementine...Again!

Sara Pennypacker has followed up the first two Clementine books with another great one. Clementine is one of my all time favorite characters and she is just as funny, ornery, and lovable as ever. In this episode, Clementine's teacher is nominated for a special program that will take him out of the classroom for the remainder of the year. Clementine feels betrayed by this and writes a bad, but humorous, letter of recommendation to ruin his chances. Along the way, Clementine sells other people's donations to charity, endures misunderstandings with the substitute teacher, and helps her best friend Margaret through some tough times. Here are my Top Ten Reasons I Love Clementine:

1. She lives in Boston, my favorite city.
2. She calls her baby brother vegetable names. In this book she branches out to Chinese veggies like bok choi and bamboo shoot. We have yet to learn his real name.
3. She wants to make her mom happy so she can see her "Wow! I must be dreaming! face."
4. She asks the principal, Mrs. Rice, random questions like "Do you like tatoos?" Clementine does, Mrs. Rice does not!
5. She is an expert at giving sting ray eyes, arrow eyes, and high power sting ray eyes!
6. She says hilarious third grade things.
7. She keeps adding rhyming names to her friend Norris. By the end of the book he is up to Norris-Boris-Morris-Horace-Brontosaurus.
8. She is a good and loyal friend to Margaret. Even though Margaret has way too many rules.
9. Even when she is bad, she is funny and adorable.
10. She knows what makes a great teacher and has a way with words when she describes one.

"And without you even knowing it, he will teach you how to make beans. And here is the tricky part: somehow you will think you learned it all by yourself! Plus, you'll think making beans is the most interesting thing in the world to do, because my teacher makes everything interesting!"

AWESOME! This is the description we all strive for everyday in the classroom. Clementine is my hero, thank you Sara Pennypacker!