Avery's Book Talk for My Last Best Friend

Dragon in the Sock Drawer

It's a book with adventure and magic! Recommended by Paige.
Emmy hatches from a thunder egg and Jesse and Daisy turn into Dragon Keepers to defend Emmy against St. George. St George Killed dragons to drink their blood to be alive for centuries.
This fantasy book is a Maud Hart Lovelace 2011-12 Nominee by Kate Klimo

Captain Nobody

The narrator did a fine job of reading this book. I was hooked from the first chapter. Even if you read this book instead of listen to it as I did, you could be cheering for Newt Newman (Captain Nobody) as he is a saver to many people he encounters.
Without giving too much away: His older brother, Chris has an accident and is the focus of his parents' attention. Poor Newt was overlooked before, but now even more so. Halloween is coming up and his friends encourage him to come up with a costume. What happened was more than a wardrobe change!
Great book to discuss with friends. Let me know what you think about this Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee by Dean Pitchford.

Please Write in This Book! by Mary Amato

I would say this book is a cross between the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants but much better. Third and Fourth graders will like this very fast read and may get good ideas for writing their own book.
The story: Ms. Wurtz, the teacher, puts a blank book in the Writing Center with only two rules: Have fun and Sign your name. The students find the book and write in it. The personality of each writer is quite obvious. Many of the entries have simple drawings to add to the light heartedness of the book. And the transition from snot to collaborative story is amazing.
This is a Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee 2011-12

Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel

How do you think you'd feel being a new student in your third grade class? You miss your best friend and your old apartment and plus another new student is a big bully to everyone. Dyamonde is a spunky new girl and she solves the problem of the bully in addition to getting a new best friend. Younger readers will enjoy this Nikki Grimes short chapter book and older students will love a quick read.
This book is one of our Maud Hart Lovelace Nominees for 2011-12 Division I

The Maze of Bones

The first book of the 39 Clues series written by Rick Riordan was a fun book to listen to. No I didn't read it aloud to myself, I checked out the CD at the library on Wentworth. It's a good way to catch up on some reading while I drive to school. I know many of you have already read these books so I was anxious to find out why everyone seemed to like them. The story centers around two very likable siblings, Dan and Amy who are searching for answers to clues and then more clues while traveling around with their amazing au pair.

The Magic Half

You are a middle child with two sets of twins as siblings, one older set as brothers and a younger set as sisters. How would you feel?_______ So does Mira. She feels stuck and on her own.
When Miri picks up a piece of an old eye glass and peers through it.....things get wavey and are bending, the wallpaper looks different too, wait, this isn't her bedroom...or is it? Why does this girl think she is a fairy? And who is yelling at them?
Read this book if you enjoy time-travel, friendship and getting back at a big bully. I think 3rd and 4th graders would like this book by Annie Barrows, who also wrote the Ivy and Bean stories. This book is a Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee 2011-12 Division I

On the Blue Comet

The illustrations go beautifully with this hefty story. Looking at them you feel as if you are in the 1930s. My mom has a book from her childhood with pictures just like this. Oscar's simple life is tragic but pleasant as he and his dad live a child's dream in their world of Lionel trains. Then the crash, loss of a job, left to live with an aunt, etc. The story kinda drags until he ends up in California with Dutch (a famous actor.) I am glad I stuck with the story because it had a good ending. I think all the references to history and well known financial folks: Morgan, Rockefeller, Merrel and Lynch and actors such as Joan Crawford will have no significance to a ten-year-old, but it was good to give it historical footing. I would recommend this time traveling historical fiction to upper 4th and 5th graders with an explanation about train sets and perhaps a Internet search of the model trains ahead of time.

Jacqueline West's "The Books of Elsewhere"

 I was very excited to meet the author, Jacqueline West at the Best of Times Bookstore in Red Wing a couple Saturdays ago. She was giving a book talk for her newest book Spellbound. I read her first book, The Shadows (click to see review on a previous post) and am looking forward to continuing Olive's adventure.

She explained that while growing up in River Falls, her school bus drove past the house that inspired the setting for the Dunwoody's mansion. It looked haunted and had all sorts of gadgets and things laying around in the yard.An inventor lived there and she could just imagine all the artifacts occupying the house.  

I asked her what her favorite books were as a child and she said she loved Bunnicula and anything by Dahl or Milne, books funny and scary. Ms. West read the first chapter (funny and scary) aloud to a room of enthusiastic fans of her books. Many many children wanted her to sign their books. Including me!

Ragweed by Avi

Ragweed is the prequel to Avi's award-winning Poppy which I have never read but it was a Maud Hart Lovelace nominee in 1997. Our library has several copies. I admit that I never had any intention of reading it and just the thought of reading a fantasy where the main characters were mice didn't appeal to me at all.

But then two things: One, I needed to read an Avi book that I hadn't read before for my Camp Read-A-Lot adventure with guest: AVI!!!! and Two, my grandson's (second grade going into third) teacher read to the class this series of Tales from Dimwood Forest and he loved the books. His mom bought him the five book collection and he is so excited about these books. I have never seen him get excited about any other book like this before. So I read it.

This book really buttered my muffin, know what I'm saying? Dude, this book rocks! Ragweed, a country mouse decides to see what else is out in the world and ends up in this mouse town totally clueless, "he's so green, he makes the grass envious." But Ragweed makes friends and saves other mice and rocks their world, as well as his own. This book has lots of action, suspense, friendship, funky names and great sketches throughout. It's totally rave. Awesome. It's phat. Check it out!

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

How would one prepare to take a trip to outer space? Are there practice trips? What is it like to be weightless? Liam is a tall boy who looks older than he really is and uses that to his advantage. When he and his "daughter" win a trip on a spaceship, getting there isn't as easy as he thinks. This book cracked me up many times but one of my favorite times is when the principal thinks he is the new social studies teacher and he addresses the school at an assembly!!

because of mr. terupt by Rob Buyea

I will have to get this book for our library. So many of us like Andrew Clemens' books and this has the same feel of his books. School situations. The story is told from the point of view of seven students in Mr. Terupt's 5th grade. It is his first year of teaching and he has a different way about him. The students all have unique personalities, family situations and relationships with each other. One of the interesting things Mr Terupt does is have his students go in small groups to the Collaborative Classroom to hang out with the special needs students. Mr. Terupt understands his students and what they need and they become better people because of him. I would like you to read this book so we can talk about the characters. Look for this book at the South St Paul public library.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

It is so easy to read a good book, the pages just fly by. I didn't want this one to end. Melody, the narrator is a fifth grade girl with celebral palsy, her brain is fine but her body isn't. Sharon Draper has accurately described the life of the classroom and the pettiness that students sometimes have toward each other. The life of a person with disabilities is hard to imagine but listening to Melody gave me new understanding into her life. She is quite the smart girl, but can she compete with the "normal" kids to be part of the Whiz Kids Team?

A Tale Dark and Grimm

Do you know the children, Hansel and Gretel? Do you know their whole story? If you think you aren't old enough for these Fractured Grimm fairy tales then stay away—they may be too gruesome for you. The narrator starts out with Once Upon a Time and we meet many characters in a variety of interesting stories. Hansel and Gretel take you through all the stories and despite the blood and poor parenting skills, you will occasionally crack up. This tale, very dark and very grim held my interest page after page. After reading this book you'll want to look up the Brothers Grimm and compare stories.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

This graphic novel by Barry Deutsch is probably the best graphic novel I have read. The colors, the expressions, the flow of the words, dialogue and illustrations are wonderful. It all works well together.
Eleven year-old Mirka is an Orthodox Jewish girl who is one spunky, clever, independent and courageous girl! She yearns to fight a dragon and is constantly going through her Big Book of MONSTERS. She encounters many conflicts including one with a Pig!
(Jews don't have pigs.) You will learn about being Jewish in this book, though not in a preachy way, just incidentally as the story moves along. 
This graphic novel has some fantasy and mythological elements to it and readers ages nine and up will enjoy following Mirka on her quest.

A Million Shades of Gray

What if you had your own elephant? Your special friend, someone who would comfort you when you feel lonely or needed time to think.  Y'Tin has Lady, his own elephant. Y'Tin lives in Vietnam and this story takes place during the 1970s. The American Special Forces have just left his country and Y'Tin's Rhade village is under attack from the North Vietnamese. This historical novel by the author of Kira-Kira gives you a little taste for what it must have been like in Vietnam and the few scenes of violence in the book are written with care but the main story is the relationships Y'Tin has with his elephant, the other elephant handlers and his family and members of his village. "The jungle changes a man."

Emily's Fortune

I  enjoyed listening to this rootin' tootin' short fun novel written by Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor*. Set in the olden days of the wild west, orphaned Emily wants to go live with her aunt but an evil uncle is after her inheritance. Yikes! What will Emily do? What will her helpful neighbors, Mrs. Ready, Mrs. Aim and Mrs. Fire advise? The Catchum Child Catching Services and a fellow traveler, a very clever orphan add to the suspense of this comical adventure.  

*Shiloh books

The Shadows

Suppose you were looking at a painting and something inside the picture moved! What would you do? Olive and her parents just moved into this old Victorian mansion where all the rooms still have the contents of the previous owners. As Olive goes exploring she notices that the paintings are stuck to the wall and they don't budge. Weird glasses enable her to enter into the paintings. And the talking cats aren't much help either or are they? For a mysteriously scary (not too), sometimes creepy adventure, start The Books of Elsewhere series by Jacqueline West. If you look at the photo above, you will see this book in Katie's hands. Ask her what she thought about The Shadows.

Word After Word After Word

The award winning author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan writes this short and clever "How To" book that reads as a novel. Though maybe I shouldn't have said that. Don't let that scare you away. I was intrigued with the lives of the five classmates who spend their time after school under the lilac tree. These neighbors are all in the same class and for six weeks at various times, they have a guest author, a very famous author visiting their class and she teaches them how to write poetry. Ms. Mirabel is magical, affirming and a riddle and she lures the children into the writing world, word after word after word.  Perhaps you have a poem you'd like to write down now.

Happy Earth Day!

I picked up Recycle This Book to share with my classes. I was drawn to this book because the one hundred authors for each essay on different ideas were authors of many of the books that are checked out from the library. Each writer chose a way that they were attempting to "go green." A variety of green activities were shared, but with one hundred submissions, many of the essays were redundant. Some ideas were general, such as the typical recycling your paper, glass, cans and plastic, but some talked about composting and vermiculture, solar panels, biking and eating less meat. We can unplug our many electrical gadgets when not in use, use cloth napkins and line dry our clothes. Have fun picking out some new ideas and share them with this book blog.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Most of the historical fiction books that I read usually take place long ago. But this book takes place in October of 1962. The whole story takes place within several days of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Franny is afraid and worried. Her school is doing "duck and cover" drills and her grandfather keeps flashing back to his days in the war. I personally don't remember having duck and cover drills when I was in school but I can certainly relate to the relationship complexities with the girls in Franny's class. This book has a lot to offer in addition to an interesting story, there is music, news clippings and advertisements interspersed throughout to give the historical background of the time. This book isn't in our school library but a parishioner donated it to the sixth grade classroom and several students have already read it. I hope you let us know what you thought of Countdown.

The Loser List by H. N. Kowitt

Flipping through this book it will remind you of a Diary of Wimpy Kid book. The pages are sprinkled with the drawings of the twelve-year old narrator and the lined notebook paper gives the impression of a composition book. I read the first Wimpy kid book and I must say I enjoyed this book much more. The story started out with a problem (Danny had a crush on a certain girl), it got more complicated (he was put on a loser list), he gets in trouble (of course, the conflict) and before he finds a neat and tidy way out, his problem becomes more complicated. The story moved at a fast pace and with all the pictures, it was a very quick book.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Hi!
If you are looking for a good book, choose Hatchet, if you don't agree, let me tell you what it is about. Hatchet is about a kid who visits his dad on a plane with a pilot. When they fly over the Canadian forest, the pilot has a heart attack. The kid is stuck in the forest with no food or water but only his hatchet. To find out what happens—read Hatchet!
Blog entry by Michael Vasquez

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

What happened on March 2, 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person? Answer: Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to move out of her seat for a white person. Author Phillip Hoose interviewed Claudette Colvin and researched immensely to weave Colvin's words and other facts that tell the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and trial that actually resulted in a victory for the Negro community of Alabama. Claudette Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit who put the City of Montgomery on trial and she was just a teenager! Read this story and learn about this courageous and often overlooked heroic young woman who fought Jim Crow and stood up for her Constitutional Rights. This well written nonfiction book is filled with photographs, primary sources and sidebars of background information to give you a great history of the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 1950s.