Fall in Love With Emma-Jean Lazaurs!

For the first time in a good while, I fell in love with a book and its heroine. Lauren Tarshis’ Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love is the best middle school book that I’ve read in a couple of years.
Tarshis has middle schoolers “down pat” from their friendships, to their crushes, to their self-centeredness. The author’s insightfulness on adolescents is evident as she has Emma-Jean “studying the relationships of seventh graders.” (47)
Even though we do not meet Emma-Jean’s father we realize that she is so like him in many ways, logical and intelligent. As I read the book, I thought this must have been how Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan would have been as a child.
This will go into my list of favorites for seventh graders. A minor problem for me was with the first paragraph on page 108 (and I realize that it is fiction). I cannot imagine teachers in a middle school accepting a note from a student explaining why she was going to be missing classes for several days – legalities, accountabilities, etc.

Fractured Fairy Tales for Middle School

If you know any middle schoolers who love(d) fairy tales, Vivian Vande Velde’s Cloaked in Red is a must read. She has fractured the story of Little Red Riding Hood eight times. Three of my favorites are “Little Red Riding Hood’s Family”, “Deems the Wood Gatherer”, and “Why Willy and His Brother Want Ever Amount to Anything”.  Her clever twists and turns include werewolves, vampires, and hints of other fairytale characters. This book is a great writing jump start. After reading a few aloud to your class and talking about the changes in the story, have your students choose one of their favorite fairy tales to rewrite, I mean fracture.

Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher

Hello, Harvest Moon is the first picture book of Ralph Fletcher’s that I remember reading. One fall day when shelving books, I picked it up to read thinking the title sounded like a good seasonal read. And it is. I did not realize he was the author until I read the book, fell in love with his lyrical prose, turned to the cover to see who the author was and was delighted to find that it was Ralph Fletcher. Already a fan of his “how to write” books, I was delighted to find an example of his “creative” writing. Kate Kiesler’s oil paintings in autumn colors complement Fletcher’s prose and make Hello, Harvest Moon a perfect read aloud to introduce the fall season and its descriptive attributes to kindergarteners and first graders.

Rosemary Wells' Lincoln and His Boys

Although the blurb on the dust jacket calls it a biography, it is historical fiction. In the author's notes Wells tells us that the incidents happened and only the dialogue is made up. I loved the way the book brought Lincoln (and his family) to life - personally and politically. Through descriptions of the cities, the White House, and moments in the lives of the Lincoln family, Wells takes us into the time of Lincoln's election to just before his assassination and gives us a feel of being there with the Lincoln family. This would make a great, quick read aloud for Virginia teachers of 5th and 6th graders to give students a realistic picture of the Civil War era.

A good book for high school freshmen

ten miles past normal by frances o'roark dowell is the story of most ninth graders trying to find their niche in high school. Janie Gorman lives on a small goat farm in North Carolina (a farm that five years earlier she gave her parents the idea to buy).  When she goes to high school, she is separated from all of her friends except for her best friend who shares one class. Although she's looking to fit in and be normal,  Janie ends up being herself in this insightful coming of age story. She finds new friends in Verbena, a quirky outcast who draws on her arms and Monster, an eleventh grader who is mature beyond his years. And along the way she meets some local civil rights figures who worked with a Freedom School during the 1960s and once again enjoys her eccentric life. Recommended for ages 12+

r

I Love Picture Books!

     Sharing picture books with kids is probably my favorite part of being a librarian. I also love sharing them with adults! I have so many favorite ones! One of my personal goals for the new school year is to use this blog to share some of my favorites.
     I love to begin the school year with the Black Lagoon series by author, Mike Thaler and illustrator, Jared Lee. This series is full of laughs. The students get some of the jokes, but a lot of them are for adults! One year when a new teacher's aide came to work, they put her in the library shelving books for a couple of hours (a rarity) and as she shelved books, she listened and giggled a lot. The series introduces students to the various people who work in the school - teacher, principal, school secretary, school nurse, librarian (my favorite, of course), cafeteria workers, bus driver and more. I love to talk about fiction and imagination when sharing these books with my first, second, and third graders. I read different titles to each grade.
     The school year begins next Wednesday and I'm sure that I have some new books waiting to become favorites! Tune in next week to read about a new favorite that I discover. . .