Scholastic Book Fair February 27-March 3

This week is Yulupa's annual Scholastic Book Fair held in the Library/Media Center from 8-9 AM and 1-4 PM. On Wednesday it will stay open from 1-7:30 PM. This is a great opportunity to get your kids some books, both for read alouds and for reading on their own. And maybe even pick up a book for your child's classroom; teachers fill out slips of paper with the names of books they would like to add to their classrooms. Check out the Scholastic Book Fair Flyer. This is just a small sample of the books available.

One of the books I plan to purchase is Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey of Captain Underpants fame. This is the second book in the Dog Man series. In this short clip, Dav Pilkey talks about why graphic novels should be in every classroom. You can here more from him in this January, 2013 interview on NPR.

Another book that interests me is Pig the Pug because it is 1) a dog book and 2) it is about a pug, albeit a rather naughty one. This book is part of a picture book series.

One of my granddaughters loves the Upside Down Magic books. The flyer features Showing Off, the third book in the series.

To help you and your child find the just right book to read here is the Five Finger Rule again:

2017 Newbery Medal and Honors

The American Library Association awarded the 2017 Newbery Medal  for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” to The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

Honors were awarded to

Freedom Over Me, Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life words and pictures by Ashley Bryan

The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Dog words by Adam Gitwitz and illustrated by Hatem Aly

I am in the middle of this book right now. Despite being set in 1242 AD in France, it is a book for our times. And it obeys the first rule of dog characters in children's books: the dog is the smartest one!

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

This was one of my two favorite middle grade books from last year. Another story for our times set in Pennsylvania in the early 1940's.

Candlewick Sparks

Due to the success of the Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo, Candlewick Press started a new series of books for newly independent readers, Candlewick Sparks. I have read three of the 34 titles. Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover by Cece Bell, which was awarded a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor in 2013, I reviewed that same year..

Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways by Laura McGee Kvasnosky was awarded the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal in 2007.

Because Dad is making cucumber sandwiches AGAIN for lunch, sisters, Zelda and Ivy, decide to run far enough away so that their parents can't see them but they can see their parents. They play 14 hands of Go Fish, have a little tea party and put on their pajamas. Do their parents miss them yet? Will hunger pains make them go home? Did Dad save each one of them a cucumber sandwich?

Two more chapters follow. One is about making a time capsule and the other is about developing a secret concoction to solve Zelda's writer's block.

There are six books in the Zelda and Ivy series. The type is large and widely spaced, almost every page has a picture and the chapters are short which is ideal for emerging readers just getting into chapter books.

The Sonoma County Library has nine copies. The AR is 3.0.

In Joe and Sparky Go to School by Jamie Michalak and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz two inhabitants of Safari Land, a giraffe and turtle, spend a day in school.

A school bus filled with kids returning to school after their field trip stops right in front of Joe and Sparky. Curious, Joe (the giraffe) and Sparky (the turtle) look in the windows at the kids, the teacher and the driver. When the driver takes off, Sparky is on the roof of the bus. Joe runs and jumps on the back of the bus to the delight of the kids inside. When they arrive at school, the near-sighted teacher's glasses break. She winds up herding Joe and Sparky into the classroom for circle time. Sparky gets a star for listening during reading. They count peas, investigate the magic pond, have music and art before the day ends. Will Joe ever get a star?

The Sonoma County Library has seven copies. The AR is 2.1. There are two other Joe and Sparky books in the series.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day. In honor of this special day, a couple of pirate-related links: A Pirate's Guide to the First Grade and Talk Like A Pirate fiction and non-fiction book lists with a special added bonus of a pirate's code of conduct

Hat tip: Raising Readers

Books for Kids Reading Above Grade Level

This is not a topic we talk about often on this blog but it is something I spend a great deal of time on with the kids in my life. The situation described by the author, Joan Kindig, about a teacher reading aloud to her third grade class applies to many kids in elementary school. They have already read and enjoyed the read aloud book and can become bored. The solution to the read aloud challenge in the classroom is headphones and audio-books. Let's stop here for a minute. Did you know that audio-books count as reading? I have been on many car trips where we listened to the great Jim Dale use his 101 different voices to read the seven Harry Potter books. The article, Books For Kids Reading Above Grade Level from the School Library Journal has a list of audio-books that are age appropriate but have more meat. They also are great for read alouds at home and for kids to read by themselves. These are my favorites:

The Sonoma County Library has six copies of Stella By Starlight, the AR is 4.8. The library has ninety copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the AR is 5.5; there are twenty-three copies of Echo and the AR is 4.9; there are eleven copies of The War That Saved My Life, the AR is 4.1 and twenty-seven copies of Dead End In Norvelt, the AR is 5.7.

Happy 100th Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

Six decades ago, I picked a book from my school library called Beezus and Ramona. At the time my favorite books were fairy tales, The Betsy, Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace and the Cherry Ames series by Helen Wells. None of these books were about contemporary families like mine. The Betsy, Tacy books took place in the early 1900's, more my grandmother's childhood than mine (I loved those books and so did my daughters). The Cherry Ames books were a series about a young girl starting  nursing school and following  her into various nursing positions. Cherry Ames, Army Nurse was my first real exposure to World War II. All of that was a far cry from Beezus and Ramona. Almost a quarter century later, when my daughters were reading the book, it was just as real. By then, Beverly Cleary had written several more books about Ramona and her family: Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona and her Father and Ramona Forever. In 1999, she wrote her final book about Ramona, Ramona's World.

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 Did you know Beverly Cleary was a struggling reader who grew up first to be a librarian and then a writer? You can find out more about her at CNN and NPR. She also has a website, http://www.beverlycleary.com/ where you can find all the 41 books she has written, learn about the characters and even play games. In Ramona Quimby, Age 8, she wrote about Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) a month long celebration of reading. D.E.A.R. programs have been held nationwide on April 12, Beverly Cleary's birthday.

Beverly Cleary won the Newbery Medal in 1984 for Dear Mr. Henshaw and Honors in 1978 for Ramona and Her Father and in 1982 for Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

The Sonoma County Library has every book written by Beverly Cleary and many as audio-books as well.

Reading and Bookish Links

Every day I come across interesting blog posts and articles about kids and reading from Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Each week I will try to round up the most helpful and post them here.

Do you have a child who is ready for chapter books or a reluctant reader? Melissa Taylor from the Imagination Soup blog has compiled an long list of humorous books,Funny Books for Kids. Bonus: many of these books are one of a series.

This morning on Facebook there was a picture of my 3 month old great-niece being read to by her father. Joy! Reading to your child from birth onward is the most important thing you can do to prepare her for success in school. From the Scholastic Parents Blog is 5 Tips Every Parent Needs to Rock the Read-Aloud.

A few years ago, I gave a Yulupa teacher a copy of The One and Only Ivan to read to her class. The class had just raised money and purchased a painting by an elephant in a preserve in Thailand. What I did not count on was that she did not read the book first. When she got to the part about (spoiler alert) Ruby dying, she started crying. Her students were very concerned and tried to comfort her and the next day she received flowers and cards from them. The story and the teacher's reaction brought out empathy in her students. On the Brightly website, Heather Shumaker writes  about Why We Should Share Sad and Scary Stories With Kids. When stories reflect the broad spectrum of life kids can feel empathy, wonder and relief in a safe place.

Jessica Woodbury writes for Book Riot, To Ramona Quimby, With Love about reading all the Ramona books to her children and how different it was from when she read them as a child.  I read the first book in second or third grade and two and a half decades later I read the Ramona books to my kids. My reactions as an adult paralleled Jessica's. I was amazed at how real to life the books were. Beezus and Ramona was the first book in the series, published in 1955. Real life books were not the standard in the 1950's. They are every bit as real today. On April 12th, Beverly Cleary will be 100 years old (more about that later).