Dying to Meet You by Kate and Sarah Klise

Short fun book, very punny! I love the names especially Olive C. Spence. Poor Seymour Hope is all alone in this mansion except for his friend Olive, but she is a ghost. Seymour doesn't care, he likes it there and doesn't care that his parents are in Europe for the summer. The house gets rented by a grumpy writer who wants peace and quiet so he can write his next ghost book. Ha! You are thinking, a perfect spot for Ignatius Grumply. But Mr. I.B. Grumply doesn't think so, a child (he doesn't like children), and a ghost — a very sassy ghost too, and a cat! Will he ever get his book written? Will the ghost ever quit bothering him? Author Kate Klise writes this Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee in her usual fashion with letters, newspaper articles and very nice drawings by Seymour.

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

What if you couldn't move on to seventh grade because of your poor grades? Would you do Extra Credit? Abby Carson decides she better get her act together so she doesn't have to repeat sixth grade. Not only does she have to do Extra Credit but she needs to get good grades from now until the end of the school year. I read this school story to the 5th graders and we enjoyed learning about Afghanistan along with Abby. The pen pal idea was the teacher's and it made me want to arrange pen pals for my students to learn about another culture. I wonder how many of Andrew Clements' readers followed Abby and wrote to someone in a foreign country.

Goosebump Book Book Talk by Nick

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan

Pura Belpré Medal book award winner, The Dreamer caught my eye right away with the title and art. (It's okay, you can pick a book by its cover!) Then I received an added bonus—it was a very interesting and unusual book. Neftali Reyes is a real person and I learned about his childhood in this fictionalized biography filled with drawings and poetry. You may know him as Pablo Neruda, a very famous poet from Chile. He even won the Nobel Prize for his poetry. Becoming a poet had its challenges and one of which was his father who was verbally abusive and didn't want his son to be interested in words. But growing up, the sickly Neftali spent hours dreaming and captured the essence of life in simple but exquisite language. Learn about this awesome poet either with this chapter book, or this children's picture book, shown on the right. 

Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor

What if your mom moved the two of you to an artist colony for the whole summer against your will? Poor Raine, she couldn't even talk, much less find a phone to call her grandpa for help!
Raine makes some important decisions this summer and meets some very interesting people at Sparrow Road. While Raine's mom is cooking and cleaning, Raine pretty much can do what she wants (except talk) and gains a new perspective on her mother and actually makes friends with the silence. I love the way Raine started writing herself, using her imagination and from morsels of information tucked away in the secrets of the main house.

Here I am with author Sheila O'Conner!

Lucky me, I was fortunate to be able to meet Sheila O'Connor at our librarians' inservice and hear her story of how this novel came to be. We have a place in common—Red Wing—she wrote while in Red Wing at the Anderson Center. In fact, the idea of the artist colony at the Center gave her the idea for the setting for this book. Pretty cool.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

I was driving home from somewhere and listening to the radio and there was Jack Gantos, recent Newbery Medal Award winner telling a story from his life to the audience. This author was so entertaining!
A few days later, I see my grandson and he says he is reading the funniest story ever! Could it be? Yes, his mom is reading it aloud to him and he thinks the weird stuff Jack does and writes about is hilarious. His favorite thing (so far) is when the old lady's hearing aid lands in the toilet and the firefighters must help her out.
Perhaps I needed to be nine years old to enjoy this book, but I gave it a try and yes, I did enjoy it.
Give Dead End in Norvelt a chance, perhaps you can even solve the mystery of why all the old folks are dying.

Spellbound

Our class just finished reading the second book in Jacqueline West's The Books of Elsewhere series. We are eagerly awaiting book three, which we heard will be out in July. Maybe we can get an advance copy so we can read it together before school is out for summer.
I think I can say for the class: we totally absolutely really very much enjoyed reading this book. Ms. West is a great writer! We love the cats, they each have such unique personalities. Especially Agent 1-800. And each chapter left you hanging in suspense. Which characters can you trust? And will Olive ever get out from under the spell the grimiore has on her? Thank goodness for the cats.
Another bonus: We kept track of the similes as we were reading, just for the fun of it—and they were awesome, incredible and made the reading of the book so enjoyable, like eating ice cream on a hot day. Thank you dear Jacqueline West for an amazing book. Our fifth grade class will always remember our morning time with Olive.

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.