Shooting the Moon

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Shooting the Moon

By Frances O'Roark Dowell

I think it is a rare and true artform when a short book can be so powerful. This book hits close to home because it is about a girl who's dad is a colonel and her brother enlists in the army during the Vietnam War and my dad fought in the Vietnam War. To me this is just a completely perfect example of writer's craft. I think it was brilliant of the author to tell the story from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl whose older brother goes off to war. She can relay the feelings of everyone: her mother, her father, her brother, other kids' whose siblings are in the war, people she interacts with on the base. This book says so much without having to come out and directly say it. It is so interesting how easily the character goes from being pro-war to anti-war, how easily she seems to grow up, how connected you can become with the characters. It is nominated for the Rebecca Caudill award and I truly believe it is worthy of it.

Minn and Jake

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Minn and Jake

By Janet Wong

Minn and Jake is a novel written in verse. This book is about two kids who both need a friend and how they end up befriending each other. My favorite part of this book was when they try and catch lizards but poor Jake keeps breaking the tails off! I'll never forget when we had a lizard in our hotel in Florida and we tried to catch him and broke off his tail! Very cute story!

Stargirl

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Stargirl

By Jerry Spinelli

Oh, Stargirl. I love this book. I think I love Love, Stargirl even more, but you can't have Love, Stargirl without Stargirl. Jerry Spinelli is one of my favorite authors. I love the generosity in Stargirl's character. I think it's so sad that she has to be shunned by the entire school in this book, but I also think it's an interesting story about the idea of having your own identity and how hard it is to really have your own identity, know that you do, and be comfortable with it in high school.

One of my students is reading Schooled by Gordon Korman right now and that book reminds me of another character (Cap) who is so in tune with himself and that is just completely misunderstood by other people. It's interesting to realize how messed up people can be when wonderful people like Stargirl and Cap are weirdos and can't be accepted.

Wings

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Wings

By Aprilynne Pike

If you read my previous post about Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, then you know about "cute" books. This is not one of them! I loved Wings. It was great and had me interested the entire time. Laurel is a girl who has a few idiosyncrasies but nothing like the wing-like blossom that grows out of her back one day. She comes to find out she's a faerie! How cool is that? I can't really tell you more but it is definitely worth reading. This book has a great ending but there is definitely room for a sequel or a series even...I hope so!

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

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Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

By Louise Rennison

I had to read this book after I saw a few of my middle school students chose it from the school library and 1. they were way to excited about these books, 2. I know what snogging means, and 3. the back of the book talked about a Sex God. I was suspicious. There are a ton of books in this series, although I'm not sure I'll be reading the rest of them. Honestly, this book was actually entertaining and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read it before knowing and having read the entire Princess Diaries series. This book reminds me a lot of the PD series because it's about a girl in high school who writes in her diary and is trying to figure out hair and boys and friends and little siblings, but mostly boys. I could see how it would be appealing to middle school students, totally.

On a side note, I was in another middle school and was talking to a student about this cool-looking book she had on her desk. It looked so cool, but she read it and it was good but not all that great. Another teacher joined into our conversation and she asked what the girl had thought of the book. They decided to call the book "cute". It was funny to listen to them discuss books and decide that if it was a good book, an easy read, but not an amazing must-read well-written book they agreed those would be "cute" books. So I guess I have to say this book was cute.

Birthday CaPe Project

Jordan went to a three-year-old's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Carter is the son of one of my friends from work. We went bowling with him over the summer and rode on Thomas with him, too. Jordan was very excited to go to Carter's birthday party. I got the idea to make him a cape because Jordan has a Superman cape that he loves to run around in. Of course, we thought a book would be a good birthday present, too so we had to find a book to go with our cape. Who did we find? Skippyjon Jones!!!! If you haven't read any of the Skippyjon Jones books I definitely recommend them. They are books about a Siamese cat who is always getting in trouble. He drives his mother crazy because he thinks he's really a chihuahua. Super cute books.

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but this is how the whole cape-sewing adventure started: pins all over the living room floor because Jordan wanted to help me...

I used Jordan's Great-America-Superman cape as a template.
I cut the letter "C" out of felt and used Wonder Under to adhere it to the cape.

I don't really have pictures of anything else when it comes to sewing the cape because I kind of called my mom to come help me and she took over and figured it all out. The fabric was slippery and I had no idea how I was going to make the neck circle work to sew it. I'm a wimp when it comes to sewing and I don't know what I'm doing, I just call my mom. THANKS, MOM!
Here is the final product! Plus, a felt mask that matches Skippyjon's that I also made. We thought it was a fun present!
C is for Carter, and cucumbers, and Cars, and cool.
My name is Skippito Friskito!

American Idols 2009 Tour Part Twoh

Chad was so excited at the Idols tour that he asked one of his friends from work to go with him again when they came to Chicago. We saw them on Friday in Milwaukee and then Chad saw them the very next Wednesday night in Chicago. It was crazy but it was fun. This time he had floor seats and was really close to the stage compared to when we saw them in Milwaukee (I'm just a little jealous.)

Danny Gokey performing

Allison Iraheta

Danny Gokey!!!!!!!!!

Anoop Desai

Chad collected all the Idols' autographs on his program from the show. It has all of their pictures on the front and they each signed their own face. It's pretty cool!

Carrie Underwood 2009!

I'm not sure if we looked forward more to the Idols concert or the Carrie concert all summer. We saw Carrie Underwood at Ravinia and we actually decided to get tickets in the pavilion, which we have never done before. It was very cool. I would definitely do that again, although I did miss a little bit of the hanging out on the lawn. It was nice not to have to decide what to bring to eat, pack it up, lug it in, and lug it out, that was nice. Her new CD comes out soon, but not yet, so we heard all the songs from her current CD and her classics, which we have seen her perform before. Nonetheless, she was outstanding. She has an amazing voice. These were the pictures I got, some were decent, most were blurry.

When we saw her a few years ago I was amazed by her voice but also by her awesome wardrobe. This wasn't as big of a production, but she still had cool outfits. She had an awesome loosely crocheted sweater vest that was awesome. She had a cool yellow tanktop/halter top. She had a glittery silver dress that she wore with cowboy boots. Need I say more?

American Idols 2009 Tour Part One

Just after school started, we headed up to Milwaukee to see the American Idols tour. We went with a big group from Chad's school and it was really fun. After the show we got passes to go meet the Idols and get autographs. As you can tell, Chad was in heaven! Here are the Idols we met in the order we met them...

Chad and Anoop

Matt Giraud

Lil Rounds

Adam Lambert

Kris Allen

Michael Sarver

Scott MacIntyre

Megan Joy

We couldn't believe we were able to get backstage and actually meet everyone. It was awesome! Since we were in Milwaukee, which is Danny's hometown, he was hanging out with all of his friends and family in another room so we didn't get to see him. We also didn't get to see Allison Iraheta, she walked through but wasn't really signing autographs or talking to anyone. Chad had such a blast he decided to go again when they came to Chicago...but that's another post!

Ralph Fletcher

Ralph Fletcher and I, August 24th, 2009

Our school district has been working with Ralph Fletcher lately because our primary focus this year is on writing. They have written and adopted a whole new writing curriculum incorporating Mr. Ralph Fletcher's ideas. When I first heard about his books for writers and for writer's notebooks I thought they were worthy of reading and I made sure to check them out. I have one filled with sticky notes upstairs by my bed right now and I read another one earlier in the year.

At our back-to-school institute day we actually got to hear Ralph Fletcher speak. I was so happy to hear him speak in person. His books are so relate-able but even moreso now that i have heard him in person. I'm not sure if other people realized how cool this guy was because I was the only one who approached him and asked to take my picture with him. I blame Chad, he's gotten me into this whole autograph/picture thing. I do have to say that I saw Jim Trelease when I was pregnant with Jordan and I regret not taking my picture with him. He was very moving as a speaker and I still remember many of the points he made during his presentation that stick with me. He is another author who I can so easily relate to and who I can clearly hear his voice when I read his work in print. (Too bad he's retired and isn't touring any more. *tear*)

The English Roses

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The English Roses

By Madonna

I think I knew Madonna had written a children's book, but I hadn't paid much attention to it until one of my students showed me one of her books that she had checked out from the library. This book is actually a picture book but she has a 10-book series all about a group of girls who call themselves the English Roses. I love the illustrations in this book, I think that is part of the appeal, but this plot was also high-interest. I could see how students could easily relate to this story. One other thing I liked is that you learn a lesson. Madonna employed a fairy godmother to help the girls see what it might be like to live in someone else's shoes to help them understand someone else perspective. I think kids could totally relate to this.

Stuart's Cape

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Stuart's Cape

By Sara Pennypacker

I heard about this book at a conference I went to last school year. This book is a chapter book but there are quite a few pictures and it is a pretty quick read. It's a cute story about a boy who realizes life is just way cooler when you're wearing a cape because adventures just happen to you when you're wearing a cape! Many adventures come his way. I think this would be a great story to read and to get kids thinking about what kind of wild adventure they could have wearing a cape!

Happy Birthday, Chad!!!!

It has been exactly one month since Chad's birthday and since we had his birthday party...so I guess that's officially how far behind I am!

We had a great celebration for Chad. It was pretty simple but it was fun. His family and my family came over on a Sunday morning and we all chowed on delicious, piping hot waffles and an outstanding egg casserole.

Here's Chad opening his new, stellar waffle maker!

Ta da!!!! All ready to go!
Jordan helped Chad open his presents.
Sergio made Chad a birdhouse. It was expertly painted!
Afterwards we thought about how our house is kind of on the small side, but I, personally, felt like everyone found a place to be and everyone felt comfortable. We had a great morning just spending time together. Some people were in the living room, some people were upstairs playing with the train table, others were at the kitchen table. To me it was family.

The Other Half of Life

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The Other Half Of Life

By Kim Ablon Whitney

I obviously studied WWII school and have read a lot of historical fiction set during WWII but this is the first time I had heard of the MS St. Louis, a ship that left Germany full of Jewish passengers only to arrive in Cuba to find out Cuba would not allow them into the country.

The story is written from the perspective of a young man whose mother puts him on the ship in hopes of getting him safely to Cuba where his brother is. The book revolves around his experience on the ship. I don't want to give too much away but I thought this was a great read especially after all the books I have read about WWII. Having said that, even though this happened towards the beginning of WWII, I think it is best to read it after studying or reading about the Holocaust specifically because that is not a focus in this book.

I do have to add that I did at one point spontaneously burst into tears...you can ask Chad. In my eyes, that's a mark of a good book because it means I had a strong connection with the characters and with the story. I'd love to hear what you think of this book...or other WWII historical fiction you have read.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

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A Great and Terrible Beauty

By Libby Bray

I had super high hopes for this book and I just found out it is only the first in a series so my hopes have not been completely dashed...yet. This book is about a girl who is sent to a boarding school after her mother dies. At the same time, she starts having mysterious visions. At boarding school she manages to make three very good friends who explore her "visions" with her. I like the other world that the author sets up in this book but I feel like there were so many things I thought could or would have happened, but didn't. I'm definitely reassured now that I know there will be another book or even a series to go along with this one. I think I would read it to see how the author ties it all together. The author mentions other people who can help the girl with her visions, they are part of the Order. I wish she had gone in search of these people, but that must be intended for the next book. Overall, I liked the writing and the characters and the fantasy elements in this book, I just wanted more!

Fantastic Mr Fox

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Fantastic Mr. Fox

By Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is one of my all-time favorite authors. I love the craziness of his stories but also the endearing characters. I think most of all I love that all his stories are so unique and yet somehow so true to Roald Dahl. His writing hut would be a place I would love to visit if I ever go to England.

I remember reading Fantastic Mr. Fox when I was a kid and I thought it might be a great read aloud to do with my 5th grader since the movie is going to be in theaters in November. So many of Dahl's books have been made into movies. This book will be a great way to introduce my student to Roald Dahl and his creep, greasy characters like Bunce, Bean and Boggis. I can't wait to see if she likes it!

If you haven't read this, it's a story about a sly, cunning fox who steals food from the three most despicable men on the planet until they get mad and stake out his hole. Mr. Fox is way to smart for those three though! You'll have to read and find out!

Flat Stanley Collection

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Flat Stanley

By Jeff Brown

Who doesn't love Flat Stanley? I found the complete audio collection at a book sale last year so I decided I would listen to them finally. Jeff Brown's humor is so funny. The stories are about Stanley, whose bulletin board falls on him at night and flattens him. He helps people while he's flat, but in the end he'd rather be round and, luckily, he does get to be round again. The other books are: Invisible Stanley, Stanley In Space, and Stanley, Flat Again! They are all super cute. I particularly like the one where he goes into space with his family. They are all super easy and super cute reads. I just looked on Barnes and Noble and they also have a Worldwide Adventure series featuring Stanley. The fun continues!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

We read this book for book club this month. I have been hearing lots of people talk about it and have seen it randomly in the stores so I was very excited to read it. I was not disappointed! I loved it! This book is an epistolary, which is a book that is written as a series of documents, letters in this case. I wasn't sure how the story was going to unfold because it was all written in letters, but the authors do a good job of telling you what you need to know and being sneaky about fitting in background information so you don't even realize they are doing it. It was kind of nice too because they could jump in time easily and you could just fill in what had happened based on the character's response in the letter.

I love Juliet as a character and I love how the characters on Guernsey embrace their literary society and that it becomes like family to them. How great is that? Oh, and throw in some romance and some historicality and it's totally my kind of book!

I'm Still Here!

I am still here!!!! I know I haven't blogged in forever and I feel so bad about it...and then today I looked at my blog and realized how completely forever ago it seems that we went to the Racine Zoo. Sheesh. I've been busy! It's not for lack of things to blog about, just lack of time.

I just looked back at my pictures and here are some fun pictures of some jewelry I made before school started. I hadn't made any jewelry in a while so I was excited to get a few pieces made!

It's simple...but it's a post! The plan is to not wait so long to post again!