It's Monday, What Are You Reading? - Aug. 20

Wow!  It's hard to believe that my #summerbookaday time has almost come to an end.  It's fun to look back and see what I've read over the summer, and it will be great to share with my students very, very soon.

The past two weeks I've read a variety of books.  A little more than a week ago, during #PB10for10 event, I posted a list of 10 nonfiction picture books I loved.  I had literally just purchased (and read) all but one of them, so 9 of those books make my list for this week.  If you haven't checked out these books, you really should.

In addition, I read six adult books.  Some were just guilty pleasures (I love spy/intrigue and beach setting books), but one stood out as a book I would recommend to people looking for something really unique.  It was Heft by Liz Moore.  Heft was recommended to me by a friend who has impeccable taste in books, and once again, she did not let me down. Great story that develops characters over time - since I'm so character-driven when I read, this was perfect. Would highly recommend it to any adult book clubs!!

Children's books I read:

Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver -- I'm not sure how I missed reading this book when it first came out. But with this author coming for a free visit for our 4th and 5th graders at our school in the beginning of October, I needed to remedy not reading it immediately. So glad I did! I know Lauren Oliver as the author of the Delirium trilogy, which I love, so it makes me happy to know she can write for a younger audience as well.  Liesl is a little girl who recently lost her father and is locked in the attic by her step-mother. Po is the ghostly presence who comes from The Other Side to spend time with Liesl and eventually embarks on a journey with her. Will is an apprentice to alchemist who spies Liesl in her attic window and becomes attached to her without even knowing her.  I love how the three characters' stories intertwine. This will be a great book to share with my students.

Bird and Squirrel on the Run by James Burks -- This will be a fun graphic novel series for kids to follow. Bird is a happy go lucky character, and Squirrel worries about everything. They make a great pair as they have a cat that chases them throughout the book. Fun!

About Average by Andrew Clements -- This is another book by Andrew Clements that I think kids will enjoy, and to which they will relate. The idea of not having anything but average skills in many areas of life seems to be a theme in this time of competitiveness around us. This is a sweet reminder that we all have something special to offer.  For more about this book, check out Bill's review.

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee by Tom Angleberger -- What a great addition this is to the Origami Yoda series. This book might be my favorite because the focus is more on the girls this time. And it's also interesting to see how Angleberger dealt with Dwight, the originator of the Origami Yoda, not being at McQuarrie Middle School this year. Fun book to add to my Tom Angleberger tub.

Knight of the Lunch Table: The Battling Bands by Frank Cammuso -- I'm happy to be adding this book to my graphic novel bookshelf. The Knights of the Lunch Table series was a well-loved one in my classroom last year, and I predict this book and the other two will be widely read again this year.


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. 

Andrew Clements New Book is Better Than About Average

I like to have a list of "go to" authors in the library.  Authors I know that write great stories, usually short, and always easy to relate to.  Authors like Barbara O'Connor, James Preller, Gordon Korman and Andrew Clements just to name a few.  I know I can always count on authors like these when I recommend their books to kids who are having trouble finding something to read.

One of those "go to" authors has a new book out and just like the others, I know kids are going to like it.  Andrew Clements new book, About Average is about Jordan Johnston a sixth grade girl who was hoping this would be her year to stand out at something.  However, it's in the last week of school, and she still isn't the most athletic, the most talented musician, or even the tallest or shortest.  She's just Jordan, plain and average like the character in one of her favorite books, Sarah Plain and Tall.  To make matters worse she is the victim of a bully. 

Andrew Clements has a way of writing about kids that is completely accurate and true.  In About Average he does it again.  Jordan struggles with how to handle Marlea the bully.  She has learned all of the right things to do, tell an adult, talk to the guidance counselor, walk away, everything we teach kids to do with a bully, but, like most kids, she doesn't believe any of them will work and feels they will probably make things worse for her.

The relationships between Jordan and her friends and teachers are so realistically written that I know a lot of kids will see them in this story.  The end has some pretty dramatic changes that hopefully most kids won't have to go through, but the message that you need to be ready in case of anything is loud and clear.  I'll be recommending this book to all of my students grades 3 through 5 as I do all Andrew Clements books.

New Andrew Clements Series: The Keepers of the School

Actually the whole title is Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School: We the Children and actually, it's really good! The kids at my school love Andrew Clements, he's a pretty quick easy read for most of them, he writes a lot about kids at school, and he tells a darn good story. All things that kids love in a book. I know when school starts up again (not even thinking about it!) this is going to be a popular series.

Benjamin Pratt attends middle school at Oakes School on the coast of Massachusetts. The school was started just after the Revolutionary War by a sea captain Duncan Oakes and is now under attack from the city council who wants to tear the school down for a historical theme park.

In the opening book of the series, We the Children, Benjamin witnesses the death of the janitor and is given a mysterious medallion with the directions:

If attacked, look nor'-nor'east from amidships on the upper deck. First and always, my school belongs to the children. DEFEND IT.
Duncan Oakes, 1783

and with that, the mystery begins. Benjamin recruits his friend Jill to help him solve the mystery and the two of them find another mysterious artifact hidden behind a piece of base board after following the directions on the medallion.

The story line is well done with Benjamin's parents being separated and him splitting time between his mother's house and his father's sailboat. A third student, who isn't very nice to Ben, Robert Gerritt, is introduced early and even though Ben tries to avoid him, the story line keeps bringing them back together. In the final chapter, the two are pitted against one another in a sailing race that is very exciting and keeps the reader going. Andrew Clements provides a bit of a surprise in the end that is a cliff hanger that left me wanting to read the next book, NOW!

I really like the beginning of this series a lot. The book is only 143 pages which make it very accessible to every reader starting in the third grade. It's not fantasy or mythology or filled with weird creatures that are hard to keep track of, it's just a good mystery/adventure that real kids can imagine themselves a part of.

New Andrew Clements Earns Extra Credit

Andrew Clements is very popular in the library, his books don't stay on the shelves and teachers love to use them in class. The fact that he writes about kids and issues that kids can relate to, make him a favorite. I was excited when I went to the library and found a new novel by the king of the kid sized dilemma.

Extra Credit deals with a struggling sixth grade student Abby Carson. Actually Abby is beyond struggling, she is about to be held back due to her lack of interest in her school work. Abby loves the outdoors and has taken a real interest in rock climbing thanks to the wall in her school's gym. After receiving a warning letter from the guidance counselor Abby talks with her parents who feel as if they have failed by not paying enough attention to her school work and also a little angry that Abby promised to do better after her last grade card, but didn't hold up her end of the bargain. Abby informs them that she has a plan to talk with her teachers to see if there is anything she can do to avoid being held back. Her parents commit themselves to making sure homework is done first before Abby is allowed to explore the woods on the farm where they live.

Abby's teachers present a deal, Abby must complete all homework on time, earn at least B's on all tests, and complete an extra credit project assigned by her language arts and social studies teachers. Abby chooses a project that includes writing a pen pal in Afghanistan and creating a bulletin board to share the letters with her classmates.

Bring on Sadeed, a bright Afghan boy about the same age as Abby. When Abby's first letter arrives the village leaders meet with the teacher to choose a student to become the pen pal. Sadeed is the obvious choice because of his abilities in English but culturally it would be inappropriate for a boy to have correspondence with a girl in America. It is decided that Sadeed will help his younger sister with the English so the letters will come from her. As they begin to write the first letter Sadeed realizes that his sister is not really up to the task and begins to put more of himself into the letters, eventually, he sends two, one from his sister and one from him.

This is where Andrew Clements is at his best, creating the dilemma! Abby has the dilemma of whether to share Sadeed's letter since he asked her not to and because it is more personal than the letter from his sister. Sadeed has the dilemma of how to cover the fact that he is writing letters to an American girl against the wishes of the village leaders.

Andrew Clements is great at bringing the cultural differences to a level that will be understood by kids. He gives detail of life in Afghanistan in a manner that is descriptive and real. As always, he writes a story in such a way that will keep the kids turning pages at a reading level that is good for many ages, grades 3 through 5. Once again, Clements has provided an accessible, enjoyable novel for kids.

Andrew Clements' latest - Lost and Found

Lost and Found is the latest book published by the prolific Andrew Clements. As with most of his books, the main setting of the story is a school. The premise of the story, twins struggling to find their own separate identities, is a good one.

The twins, Jay and Ray Grayson (no, I didn't mistype that) have just moved into a new school. On the first day, Ray has to stay home ill. While at school, Jay soon realizes that there is no record of both of the twins at their new school; only him. So, the plot thickens -- the twins decide to start taking turns as to which one of them will show up each day and be "Jay" Grayson. As their trickery continues, what each boy realizes is that he really enjoys being a "stand-alone" person, and not a twin.

The lengths the boys go to in order to maintain the facade of only being Jay Grayson is at times funny, and at other times, slightly confusing. From the beginning, you realize that inevitably the boys' plan will go awry, adults will find out, and there will be consequences.

Clements did a nice job helping me, a non-twin, understand the difficulty a twin might have in trying to establish his/her own individual identity. My favorite part of the book is the last page and last illustration where it shows the twins' feet going in two separate directions at school -- in some small way, the boys are able to achieve the goal of some independence from each other.

The idea behind Lost and Found is a good one, but I think this book plays to a more limited audience (twins) than some of his books that were favorites for my class and me this year -- Frindle and No Talking.

Don't get me wrong -- I will definitely be adding Lost and Found to my Andrew Clememts collection. I still feel he is an author that has maintained a "feel" for some of the issues that happen to children in early adolescence (5th and 6th grade), and he can relate to school issues as well. And truthfully, kids just love reading his books!! They enjoy the topics that are familiar to them, and they enjoy the comfort of the text in chapter format, combined with the occasional illustration (done again in this book by the same illustrator for No Talking -- Mark Elliot). Personally, I just loved other books of his more.

I will be interested to talk to the first students that pick it out of the "new book" section at the beginning of the year...