Junior Sasquatch Award, AKA OTTER Award

In Washington State, our middle grades children's choice book award is known as the Sasquatch Award.  For years, I have challenged the 4th, 5th , and 6th grade students to read all twelve books on the list, tempting them with medals, certificates, and of course, pizza.  This year, we lost our 6th grade to the middle school, and I have had only two students finish reading all twelve.  I thought that maybe we need another level of books, a little easier, to entice students to keep reading for a goal of twelve books.  As a group, my district librarians came up with a new list to Beta test.  Next school year I will challenge the 2nd and 3rd grades to read all 6 on the new Otter list, and then challenge the 4th and 5th to read twelve books from either list.  The librarians in another district are trying a similar course of action after finding that the Sasquatch list was a little too hard for most of their K-5 students as well.

Here is our list, and I am excited to see how this goes!
  
  

If you are a Washington State librarian and would like to try out the Otter Award, feel free, and then let me know how it goes.  Maybe we could make this an award through WLMA, along with the Sasquatch Award.

Link of the Week, now that's a good idea!

If you haven't checked out Mr. Schu and his blog yet, you need to go right now. It is called Watch. Connect. Read. -  http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/   Don't even finish reading this, just go!

Ok, now that you have visited his blog, I would like to direct you to one of his thousands of great ideas - Link of the Week.  This week's link is about Summer Reading and Kate DiCamillo, but the funny thing is that you don't have to go to that link.  You should really go to Mr. Schu's blog about the link because he adds the videos and pictures. He is always up to date on the latest books and authors, so any of his suggestions will be good ones.  His students are lucky to have such an enthusiastic lover of literature as their librarian.

  
  

Now I have amassed another HUGE pile of books to read this summer. I may have to start the #bookaday challenge early! Thanks, Mr. Schu!

The Boy on the Porch

For years I have loved the work of Sharon Creech.  I used to work in an independent bookstore where I found Walk Two Moons and Love That Dog.  Even my own young adult children have read most of her books, so when I read about The Boy on the Porch, I needed to read it.  What a touching and lovely story about family, fostering, and heartache.  Creech does not disappoint, and I hope that people will share this story with all types of families.  The generosity of the unassuming characters in the story makes you want to help them, not just get to know them.  And, of course, there is a loyal dog...there is always that loyal dog.

Here is Sharon Creech reading the first page of the book to get you intrigued.

Check it out at your local library and see what a gem it is.

Extraordinary Warren

One more superhero book for the week - Extraordinary Warren by Sarah Dillard.  One day, Warren realizes that he is no ordinary chicken, he is a special chicken, perhaps even Chicken Supreme.  Not knowing what Chicken Supreme is, he imagines that maybe Chicken Supreme is a superhero chicken with an extremely quiet sidekick, Egg.  When he figures out that Millard the rat is not having the chickens over for a barbeque, but intends to eat them at the barbeque, Warren jumps into action! Read and find out what happens next in this graphic novel for younger students.

Superhero Theme, Continued...

I  seem to be obsessed with superheroes lately. Here are some more titles to go with my school's theme for next year - SUPERHERO!

1. NERDS by Michael Buckley

Imagine super spy elementary students with their own hideout and lab below the school!  Who wouldn't want your braces to reach out a catch bad guys, or your inhaler to make you fly and blast enemies?

2. The Adventures of Beanboy by Lisa Harkrader

Although the characters in this are not superheroes, the main character is trying to create a sidekick for his favorite comic book hero.  And you can probably figure out Beanboy's super power!

3. Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Holy Bagumba! A flying squirrel who can type poetry! What more could you want?

And here is a link to a new Incandesto Adventure to get kids excited about Summer Reading!

Happy reading!!

Superhero Theme

As the end of our school year gets closer, we have one tradition at this time of year here at my school - we announce the theme for the next school year.  Even in the midst of walk-outs for better funding happening all over our state, we as teachers still look forward to the end of one year and then the brand-new beginning of another.  I am fortunate to be one of the people who decides the theme for the next year, and I chose SUPERHEROES!  Of course, before announcing the theme, I created a Pinterest page to get everyone excited and full of ideas.  Other schools in our district tend to call us the Pinterest school because almost every teacher really gets into the theme, with spectacular bulletin boards, amazing classroom decorations, and even outfits for the first week of school.  There certainly were a lot of animal prints around in September as we celebrated our SAFARI theme, and I expect more than a few capes to appear this fall!

To keep up my end of the superhero excitement, I have been searching for superhero-themed books in the library, and I have come across a few that are perfect picture books for the theme.

1. Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis
I love the confidence this girls has!

2. Traction Man is Here! by Mini Grey
Who wouldn't love this action figure who has amazing adventures in dirt piles and sinks?

3. Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwartz
What a great superhero adventure about a smallbeast in pajamas!

Look for middle grade superhero books tomorrow!