IMWAYR

This is going to be a good reading week. I can feel it! This week I plan to re-read Crenshaw and find examples of signposts for book club. I also need to figure out what our next two books should be! Would love it if anyone has suggestions.

I'm working through these two books still (Once We Were Brothers and The Ripple Effect).

 

I'm listening to The Case Against Sugar on audio book and really loving it. I need to get started on 419 by Will Ferguson. It is our next book club book!

   

The Four Tendencies (Gretchen Rubin)

I'm really enjoying Gretchen Rubin's books. I'm starting to realize I don't have to fit in other people's pigeon holes. Learning more about myself and what works best for me is liberating! It also helps me understand relationships I have. I have close family who are definitely obligers. They do things and then complain about having to do them. I have never understood why they do things and then feel so put upon.....just don't do it! I understand now that they are obligers. I've learned that I'm an upholder/questioner. I especially appreciated her chapters about how to get along with different profiles of the tendencies. Brilliant read!

I would love a book on tendencies focused on children.


Goodreads says:
In this groundbreaking analysis of personality type, bestselling author of Better Than Before and The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin reveals the one simple question that will transform what you do at home, at work, and in life.

During her multibook investigation into understanding human nature, Gretchen Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question "How do I respond to expectations?" we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress, and engage more effectively.

More than 600,000 people have taken her online quiz, and managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people make significant, lasting change.

The Four Tendencies hold practical answers if you've ever thought...

· People can rely on me, but I can't rely on myself.
· How can I help someone to follow good advice?
· People say I ask too many questions.
· How do I work with someone who refuses to do what I ask or who keeps telling me what to do?

With sharp insight, compelling research, and hilarious examples, The Four Tendencies will help you get happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. It's far easier to succeed when you know what works for you. 

The Tree That Grew to the Moon (Eugenie Fernandes)

We have been talking a lot about genre in my class. This story is full of 'what if' conversations. It is a great exercise for kids to talk about all the crazy, good, bad things that could happen if something continues. The illustrations in this story are great and the kids in my class were quite captured by the conversation between the girl and her mom.

The author was born in New York but now lives in Ontario, so we'll claim her as Canadian. She also wrote Little Toby and the Big Hair, which, as someone with lots of hair, has always had a special place in my heart!


Goodreads says:

If Lena plants a baby tree in her bedroom, and sprinkles it with a little imagination, anything could happen. It might even grow to the moon!

IMWAYR

It's report card season and I'm so distracted!! I really just want to read - especially when I have report cards to write. However, I better get that done first. Then I'm ready for these!

I need to finish The Four Tendencies this week:


I'm listening to this one as an audio book. I love it!

Once We Were Brothers is in the, "would you just finish this book already???!!!" bin.


I've been dabbling in The Ripple Effect for a while and it's time to finish it:

Crenshaw (Katherine Applegate)

April 2016: Wow. This is an intense story. Poverty is hard on parents. I was especially struck with how hard it is on kids too. I had thought this would be a One School One Book choice. The topic certainly would be timely given our economy and the oil industry right now. However, just like Jacksons parents, my instinct is to not expose kids to sad stories of homelessness, hunger and other financial struggles. I am not sure I would read it with kids younger than grade three.

I think this would make a great novel study. I can imagine great discussions could come out of this story. We could even start a food drive for the food bank. Good character project!

I loved the cover for this book. Jackson has an imaginary friend who helps him through hard times. That seems right. 

Reread March 2018
Questions to bring up at book club:
- Why do you think Jackson's parents don't tell him everything about their troubles? Should parents tell their kids more?
Jackson wasn't honest with his friend about their situation. Wasn't he doing just what his parents were doing?
Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
How can imaginary friends help kids?
Why did the author choose a cat as an imaginary friend? Cats are often not that friendly. They don't mind being alone.
Was Crenshaw a typical cat? He really didnt like dogs....???what else?
Why did the author make him so silly? (He loved jelly beans, bubble baths, etc)

Goodreads summary:

In her first novel since winning the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience.

Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again.

Crenshaw is a cat. He's large, he's outspoken, and he's imaginary. He has come back into Jackson's life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?

Beloved author Katherine Applegate proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary.

A Big Day for Baseball (Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne)

I'm a big fan of the Magic Treehouse series for the age of kids that I teach. This one is particularly relevant for us because we read the story of Jackie Robinson every year as part of the anthology we use. This tells the story of Jackie Robinson's first game and would be a great preamble to reading Teammates.

Goodreads says:

Meet Jackie Robinson and solve a mystery in the #1 bestselling Magic Tree House chapter book series! 

PLAY BALL! Jack and Annie aren't great baseball players . . . yet! Then Morgan the librarian gives them magical baseball caps that will make them experts. They just need to wear the caps to a special ballgame in Brooklyn, New York. The magic tree house whisks them back to 1947!

When they arrive, Jack and Annie find out that they will be batboys in the game--not ballplayers. What exactly does Morgan want them to learn? And what's so special about thisgame? They only have nine innings to find out!

Discover history, mystery, humor, and baseball in this one-of-a-kind adventure in Mary Pope Osborne's New York Timesbestselling Magic Tree House series lauded by parents and teachers as books that encourage reading.

Magic Tree House books, with fiction and nonfiction titles, are perfect for parents and teachers using the Core Curriculum. With a blend of magic, adventure, history, science, danger, and cuteness, the topics range from kid pleasers (pirates, the Titanic,pandas) to curriculum perfect (rain forest, American Revolution, Abraham Lincoln) to seasonal shoo-ins (Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving). There is truly something for everyone here!

Have more fun with Jack and Annie on the Magic Tree House website at MagicTreeHouse.com! 

IMWAYR

This week I'm finishing up Once We Were Brothers.


I have meant to read A Big Day for Baseball for a while. It finally came in at the library:


Our book club is going to read Crenshaw this month. I'm really looking forward to it!