First Day Around the World (Ibi Zoboi)

 

This book is beautiful! There is a ton of information. It isn't so much about the first day of school, but about school and children around the world. 

Topics/activities that could emerge:

• non-fiction texts don't have a beginning, middle and end. You could jump around and read stories from countries that the children were interested in
• We could do a writing assignment about their first day of school or maybe even what their parents remember from school when they were growing up, especially if many of the children are from another country.
• Mapping activity - break the story apart and make a big map that shows all their experiences on an annotated map

Goodreads says:

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and artist Juanita Londoño, this lyrical celebration of the first day of school across every continent explores what going back to school looks like for children in countries around the world!

How do children around the world spend their first day of school?

Some eat warm akara for breakfast in Nigeria, while others unwrap lunches of kluski in Poland. In China, they practice intricate characters in special notebooks, and in Argentina, they learn each other's names in a sing-song memory game. No matter where in the world, every student has something new to look forward to on their first day!

From Ethiopia to Germany to India to Brazil, this lyrical text introduces young listeners to the breakfast-to-bedtime routines, cultures, and landscapes that connect people across all continents.

The Miracle Morning (Hal Elrod)

 

I really loved this book. It validates my tendancy to be an early riser and he gives some great tips on how to spend that time as well as why to get up and practice positive habits each morning. I love the positivity he exudes as well. He's honest about struggles. 10/10 recommend! 

This guy has a ton of resources and says he's always willing to have people contact him and share struggles as well as successes.

Things to check out:

• www.tmmbook.com
• Hal Elrod podcasts
• www.yourpalhal.com
• Facebook group www.myTMMcommunity.com

Goodreads says:

Start waking up to your full potential every single day with the updated and expanded edition of the groundbreaking book with more than 2 million copies sold.

Getting everything you want out of life isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming more. Hal Elrod and The Miracle Morning have helped millions of people become the person they need to be to create the life they’ve always wanted. Now, it’s your turn.

Hal’s revolutionary S.A.V.E.R.S. method is a simple, effective step-by-step process to transform your life in as little as six minutes per day:

•Silence: Reduce stress and improve mental clarity by beginning each day with peaceful, purposeful quiet
•Affirmations: Reprogram your mind to overcome any fears or beliefs that are limiting your potential or causing you to suffer
•Visualization:Experience the power of mentally rehearsing yourself showing up at your best each day
•Exercise: Boost your mental and physical energy in as little as 60 seconds
•Reading: Acquire knowledge and expand your abilities by learning from experts
•Scribing: Keep a journal to deepen gratitude, gain insights, track progress, and increase your productivity by getting clear on your top priorities

This updated and expanded edition has more than 40 pages of new content, including:

•The Miracle Evening: Optimize your bedtime and sleep to wake up every day feeling refreshed and energized for your Miracle Morning
•The Miracle Life: Begin your path to inner freedom so you can truly be happy and learn to love the life you have while you create the life you want

Mazy Chan's Last Chance (Lisa Yee)

 

This book is amazing. It is well written and touches on a multitude of hot topics. It is powerful because the main character is a middle-school aged girl just trying to figure out life by observing adults. Through grandfather telling Maizy family history stories we learn about racism towards Chinese people over the last hundred years in North America. Maizy sees her family brought together to a greater understanding of each other and that not everything is as it seems.

Goodreads says:

Welcome to The Golden Palace!

Maizy has never been to Last Chance, Minnesota. . . until now. Her Mom’s plan is just to stay for a couple weeks, until her grandfather gets better. But plans change, and as Maizy spends more time in Last Chance (where she and her family are the only Asian-Americans) and at The Golden Palace—the restaurant that’s been in her family for generations—she makes some discoveries. For instance:
• You can tell a LOT about someone by the way they order food.
• And people can surprise you. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes in disappointing ways.
• And the Golden Palace has Secrets.

But the more Maizy discovers, the more questions she has. Like, why are her mom and her grandmother always fighting? Who are the people in the photographs on the office wall? And when she discovers that a beloved family treasure has gone missing—and someone has left a racist note—Maizy decides it’s time find the answers.

Daily Rituals: Women At Work (Mason Curry)

 

I came at this book looking for the secrets of success in life. 

I didn't find them. Every single woman had a different style, different rules and different avenues to success. It was interesting though!

Goodreads says:

More of Mason Currey's irresistible Daily Rituals, this time exploring the daily obstacles and rituals of women who are artists--painters, composers, sculptors, scientists, filmmakers, and performers. We see how these brilliant minds get to work, the choices they have to make: rebuffing convention, stealing (or secreting away) time from the pull of husbands, wives, children, obligations, in order to create their creations.


From those who are the masters of their craft (Eudora Welty, Lynn Fontanne, Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie Curie) to those who were recognized in a burst of acclaim (Lorraine Hansberry, Zadie Smith) . . . from Clara Schumann and Shirley Jackson, carving out small amounts of time from family life, to Isadora Duncan and Agnes Martin, rejecting the demands of domesticity, Currey shows us the large and small (and abiding) choices these women made--and continue to make--for their art: Isak Dinesen, "I promised the Devil my soul, and in return he promised me that everything I was going to experience would be turned into tales," Dinesen subsisting on oysters and Champagne but also amphetamines, which gave her the overdrive she required . . . And the rituals (daily and otherwise) that guide these artists: Isabel Allende starting a new book only on January 8th . . . Hilary Mantel taking a shower to combat writers' block ("I am the cleanest person I know") . . . Tallulah Bankhead coping with her three phobias (hating to go to bed, hating to get up, and hating to be alone), which, could she "mute them," would make her life "as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water" . . . Lillian Hellman chain-smoking three packs of cigarettes and drinking twenty cups of coffee a day--and, after milking the cow and cleaning the barn, writing out of "elation, depression, hope" ("That is the exact order. Hope sets in toward nightfall. That's when you tell yourself that you're going to be better the next time, so help you God.") . . . Diane Arbus, doing what "gnaws at" her . . . Colette, locked in her writing room by her first husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars (nom de plume: Willy) and not being "let out" until completing her daily quota (she wrote five pages a day and threw away the fifth). Colette later said, "A prison is one of the best workshops" . . . Jessye Norman disdaining routines or rituals of any kind, seeing them as "a crutch" . . . and Octavia Butler writing every day no matter what ("screw inspiration").
Germaine de Staël . . . Elizabeth Barrett Browning . . . George Eliot . . . Edith Wharton . . . Virginia Woolf . . . Edna Ferber . . . Doris Lessing . . . Pina Bausch . . . Frida Kahlo . . . Marguerite Duras . . . Helen Frankenthaler . . . Patti Smith, and 131 more--on their daily routines, superstitions, fears, eating (and drinking) habits, and other finely (and not so finely) calibrated rituals that help summon up willpower and self-discipline, keeping themselves afloat with optimism and fight, as they create (and avoid creating) their creations.

I Wish I Could Draw (Cary Fagan)

This would be a great book to read when you're working on a writing project that you want your class to illustrate, especially with kids who say they don't draw well. This is a delightful story about creating a story.

Goodreads says:

The narrator of I Wish I Could Draw shares a name with creator Cary Fagan and has the same curly hair and glasses. Perhaps most interesting of all, though, the narrator believes he has no artistic talent — just like the Cary Fagan, who not only wrote but also bravely and exuberantly illustrated this book. Fortunately for readers, both Cary-the-narrator and Cary-the-children’s-book-creator refused to let self-doubt stop them from trying to tell (and draw) the funniest and most exciting story they could think of. The result is a book that delivers plenty of excitement, silly jokes, and fun — and also an important message about self-confidence and perseverance. Designed to look like a child’s notebook, I Wish I Could Draw will inspire readers to pick up a pencil and let their imaginations do the rest.

Jeffrey and Sloth (Kari-Lynn Winters)

Good story about inner voices and speaking positively to ourselves. This would be a great story to read in September when we start writing narrative stories.

Jeffrey makes a fun reference to Canada in the story too...which made sense when I found out the author was Canadian. Yea for Canadian authors!

It is illustrated by the same guy who did Richard Was A Picker.

Goodreads says:

Jeffrey can't think of a thing to write, so he doodles instead, only to have his doodle begin to order him about. Jeffrey struggles with the situation until he discovers that the most strong-willed doodle is powerless against a well-told tale. Jeffrey and Sloth is bound to have children rushing for their colored pencils and their pens to see who and what they can create.

Chester's Masterpiece (Melanie Watt)

 I was going to read Snappsy the Alligator to my class today. It reminds me of the Chester series because they both have characters that are aware of the author and those listening to the story. They are breaking the fourth wall. I said that to my class as I started in on Snappsy and realized they didn't know about Chester! How can we go on without first being introduced to Chester! I try to introduce my students to Canadian authors as much as possible. This series is also a good discussion starter for the work authors put into writing.

We laughed and laughed at his attitude. When we had Reading Buddies later in the day, it was snapped up quickly and passed around to many different partners. It is so fun to watch them share enthusiasm with grade one students that matches what I said to them when I introduced the book.

Goodreads summary:

Chester's finally ready to write his own masterpiece --- he just needs to get pesky writer-illustrator Mélanie Watt out of the way.

Chester's solo attempts at storytelling are messy, to say the least, but he's determined to go it alone. But where's his story going? After several alternative (but always unhappy) endings, Chester is confronted by a problem he never bargained for. A wry comment on the creative process and how good stories are constructed, this is the most uproarious Chester book yet.

A Shiloh Christmas

 

I almost didn't read this one. I read the other three books, Saving Shiloh, Shiloh Season, and Shiloh . I was going to skip this one for one reason: the cover of this one seemed a little too cheesy for me. I was also feeling like I'd had enough of the Shiloh story. Have I mentioned that I'm not much of a series reader? I get bored.

I'm so glad I did read this one though! It brings the Judd Travers issue full circle. I came close to a tear or two when he talked about his past. Definitely worth the read.

Warning: There are stories of abuse in here. It isn't anything graphic, but if this is a trigger for you, you might skip this one. They get a new preacher in their church and Marty and his family start to notice signs of abuse that concern them. Judd Travers also talks about the abuse he endured in his family. It all comes together well though and in the end, there is healing.

Favourite quotes: 

Page 1 "My dog's simple, all right, and next to getting his belly scratched, Shiloh's favorite thing in the whole world is rolling around in deer poop."

Page 7: "Problem, I guess, is that Judd's not changed enough to suit some people. Not fast enough to suit anybody, that's for sure. He don't keep his dogs chained and hugnry, the way they used to be, and they like romping around that fenced-in backyard. I haven't heard anymore complaints about him trying to cheat Mr. Wallace either, and he don't swear around Me, leastwise where she can hear it."

Page 55: "If there's a hell," he says, "I think it's what people make for themselves while they're living. Don't have to die to find that out .""

Goodreads summary:

A rescued beagle and his boy owner seek love and understanding for their troubled small town in this holiday companion to the Newbery Medal–winning Shiloh, from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Christmas is coming and Marty and his rescued pup Shiloh are sure glad about that—for their town is sure low on love and understanding and they hope that the joy of the holiday will bring with it the generosity of spirit that’s so lacking.

It’s been a year since Marty Preston rescued Shiloh from Judd Travers and his cruel ways, and since then, Marty and Shiloh have been inseparable. Anywhere Marty goes, the beagle’s at his side, and Marty couldn’t be happier about that. Even Judd has been working to improve his reputation.

But just as townsfolk grow more accepting of Judd, a fire in the woods destroys many homes, including Judd’s, and Judd’s newly formed reputation. Doubt, blame, and anger spread faster than the flames—flames that are fanned by the new minister, who seems fonder of fire and brimstone than love and mercy. And why are his daughters so skittish around him? And what’s happened to Judd’s dogs? With Christmas right around the corner, Marty has a lot of questions, and how they’re answered might just take a Christmas miracle.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s fourth book in the Newbery Award–winning Shiloh series—following Shiloh, Shiloh Season, and Saving Shiloh—is full of heart-thudding suspense, as well as comfort and joy.

Max's Words (Kate Banks)

This book was recommended by our literacy expert trainer, Patti. It really is a cute book and great for writing and talking about planning words we use in our writing.

Goodreads summary:

Max’s brothers have grand collections that everyone makes a big fuss over. Benjamin collects stamps and Karl collects coins, and neither one will share with their little brother. So Max decides to start a collection of his own. He’s going to collect words. He starts with small words that he cuts out of newspapers and magazines, but soon his collection has spilled out into the hall. All the while, his brothers are watching. Benjamin brags that he has one thousand stamps. Karl is just a few coins short of five hundred. But a thousand stamps is really just a bunch of stamps, and a lot of coins is only a heap of money. A pile of words, however, can make a story.

Bright, bold pictures incorporating clever wordplay accompany this highly original tale about a younger brother’s ingenuity.


Max's Words is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. 

Moonlight Over Paris (Jennifer Robson)

I loved this book. You can't tell by how long it took me - but I found myself wanting to just immerse myself in Paris life as I read. It is report card season right now so I had less time to read - but when I did I found myself reading for an hour and not even realizing I had been immersed in the book that long.

I loved how Helena followed her dreams, messing up along the way, but persisting. I found myself wondering if it was a true reflection of what life was like in Paris back then and, given Jennifer Robson's great historian skills, I tend to think it was pretty spot on. I marvelled at people wanting to separate themselves from family fortunes. Really?! What harm is there in having a big pile of money?! :)

This is a book (series!) I'll definitely read again.

Goodreads summary:

USA Today and internationally bestselling author Jennifer Robson takes readers to 1920s Paris in an enthralling new historical novel that tells the riveting story of an English lady who trades in her staid aristocratic life for the mesmerizing salons and the heady world of the Lost Generation.

It’s the spring of 1924, and Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr has just arrived in France. On the mend after a near-fatal illness, she is ready to embrace the restless, heady allure of the City of Lights. Her parents have given her one year to live with her eccentric aunt in Paris and Helena means to make the most of her time. She’s quickly drawn into the world of the Lost Generation and its circle of American expatriates, and with their encouragement, she finds the courage to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

One of those expats is Sam Howard, a journalist working for the Chicago Tribune. Irascible, plain-spoken, and scarred by his experiences during the war, Sam is simply the most fascinating man she has ever met. He’s also entirely unsuitable.

As Paris is born anew, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Great War, Helena realizes that she, too, is changing. The good girl she once was, so dutiful and obedient, so aware of her place in the world, is gone forever. Yet now that she has shed her old self, who will she become, and where, and with whom, does she belong…? 

Any Questions? (Mary Louise Gay)

We read this book as part of the International Reading Association's read aloud day. They get everyone to read the same book the same day and then calculate how many kids read the book. It's fun. We got everyone in our school to read it.

This book is kind of like having an author visit. Marie-Louise Gay speaks about how she writes, what it's like to be a writer, etc., and takes us through the writing process. It was a long story to read, but my class enjoyed it.

Goodreads summary:

Many children want to know where stories come from and how a book is made. Marie-Louise Gay’s new picture book provides them with some delightfully inspiring answers through a fictional encounter between an author and some very curious children — together they collaborate on writing and illustrating a story. Marie-Louise Gay has scribbled, sketched, scrawled, doodled, penciled, collaged, and painted the words and pictures of a story-within-a-story that show how brilliant ideas creep up on you when you least expect it and how words sometimes float out of nowhere, asking to be written. Any Questions? presents a world inhabited by lost polar bears, soaring pterodactyls, talking trees, and spotted snails, with cameo appearances by some of the author's favorite characters — a world where kids become part of the story and let their imaginations run wild, becoming inspired to create tales of their own. At the end of the book, she provides answers to many of the questions children have asked her over the years, such as "Are you Stella?," "How did you learn to draw?," "Can your cat fly?," and "How many books do you make in one day?"

Ralph Tells a Story (Abby Hanlon)

I keep running into Abby Hanlon lately. I heard about this book from Travis Jonker at:

http://100scopenotes.com/2015/06/23/review-dory-and-the-real-true-friend-by-abby-hanlon/

Then, soon after that, Abby Hanlon wrote a blog post for Nerdy Book Club, a blog I read pretty much every day:

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/from-survival-to-joy-by-abby-hanlon/

It is amazing to me that she both wrote and illustrated the book. Talk about talent!

I love this story! I have been thinking that I should have my students do more free writing. I would like to start each day by letting them write whatever they would like to write. This book will be a great one for introducing students to this idea.

The book jacket says:

Nothing ever happens to Ralph. So every day when it's time to write stori s, Ralph think really hard. He stares at his paper. He stares at the ceiling.

But he had no stories!

With the help of his classmates, Ralph realizes that a great story can be about something very small...and that maybe he does have some stories to tell.

This book will be great for those kids who just get stuck with writer's block.

I so relate to his feeling about sharing his writing. Nerve racking!!

Not sure these tips will work in my classroom, but they are cute! Perhaps we could write our own tips!

Little Red Writing (Joan Holub)

This is a cute new version of Little Red Riding Hood. 

I can see using this book in my classroom often to talk about the fun things words can do, the keys to being a good writer (juicy adjectives other fun words), grammar tips, and tips on avoiding run on sentences. It is all done in such a fun way! I can see this one being a classroom keeper to be read again and again.

Goodreads summary:

Acclaimed writer Joan Holub and Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet team up in this hilarious and exuberant retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, in which a brave, little red pencil finds her way through the many perils of writing a story, faces a ravenous pencil sharpener (the Wolf 3000)... and saves the day.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Chris Van Allsburg)

Great mysteries! Fabulous story starters.


Goodreads summary:


Fourteen black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption, entice readers to make up his or her own story. A fictional editor's note tells of an encounter with an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick, who provided the images and captions as samples, each from a different picture book he had written. He left with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chose to buy the books. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books. Readers are challenged to imagine their own stories based on the images in the book.