Book Talk Thursday with Andrea

Hello, everyone, from the beach!  It is Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars! 

I am doing Book Talk Thursday over at Melissa's blog today while she is on vacation too!  She is over on my blog today with a Book Talk Thursday book too!  The link is in both places too, so link up!

Before, I start with the book review, I have to say that getting to know Melissa has been super fun!  As soon as we started commenting and emailing, we realized how much we have in common!  We have the same job in different schools in the same state.  We have lived in the same places and even like the same sports team!  I am so blessed to be able to call her a friend who is there for any kind of advice!  Now onto the book review!

Fourth of July is right around the corner, and I found a wonderful chapter book to review for Melissa's blog.  It is part of the Capital Mysteries series by Ron Roy called Capital Mysteries #6: Fireworks at the FBI.

Kids love to read mysteries, and this one is a lot of fun to read.  KC, the girl character in the story, gets to live in the White House since her Mom married the President.  Her friend Marshall lives in town, and they are always on the lookout for new mysteries to solve.

This story takes place on the Fourth of July and the days after.  After the fireworks are over, rockets are set off at the FBI building, which is quite unusual.  The next day KC and Marshall are snooping around and find an empty pizza box in the trash, but KC can tell that it has NEVER had a pizza in it.  They go in search of the pizza box and even go ask the security guard for some help in the case.

The secondary story of going to get a greyhound as a surprise for the President leads them to the greyhound rescue and track, where they end up getting more clues to the mystery.

Now, all of this is a little far-fetched for two children (or even the President) to be a part of, but kids will be able to see how KC and Marshall use their inferencing skills to help them solve this mystery.  This is a perfect springboard for helping students understand the importance of making inferences and drawing conclusions, a hard task for many of them.

I always tell my students that to draw a conclusion, we have to use our own knowledge of the topic and the author's clues in the story to help us make that inference.  I always have them help me make an anchor chart to keep up in the room and help them out when they need it.  Since they can't take that anchor chart with them, I have created some great bookmarks to take everywhere with them.  You can grab them here for free or by clicking on the picture below.

Another great and fun resource is Melissa's own Case of the Missing Backpack Activity.  She has several of these, and this one is perfect for the beginning of the year or any time during the year.  Check it out in her Teachers Pay Teachers store or in her Teachers Notebook shop.

Thanks, Melissa, for letting me hang out today on your blog!  It has been fun!!

Link up here or head on over to my blog to link up for Book Talk Thursday!  

Now for your book review!