Summer Reads #10: Space Case

I promised a fun one this week, so here it is! When I started teaching 5th grade last year, I noticed my boys were passing around Stuart Gibbs books as fast as they could read them. It started with Spy School (which is still on my list) and then moved on to the Moon Base Alpha series (which is what Space Case belongs to), and then there is also the FunJungle series that I haven't read yet.

Then this book appeared on the middle school Virginia Reader's Choice list, so I decided to get it in this summer. It isn't what I would typically pick up, but I can see why my boys liked it so much!

Click on the book to purchase from my Amazon affiliate link.

Dash is a 12-year-old living on the moon, which sounds cool, but really it's super boring. He used to live in Hawaii and could go surfing and hang out with his friends. On the moon, there are very few kids and almost nowhere to go inside the base. He hasn't stepped foot outside since he arrived on the moon, and he's going stir crazy.

Until one of the scientists dies when his helmet isn't properly secured on the moon's surface. Everyone says it was a terrible accident, but Dash isn't convinced. He overheard Dr. Holtz excitedly talking about a new secret that he was going to reveal the next morning, and it doesn't seem like a coincidence to him. Dash is determined to solve this murder-mystery even if it means danger for himself!

Summer Reads #9: The Thing About Jellyfish

Alright, guys, I'm going all in again this week with a hard-hitting book. Why is it that so many middle/high school books are so sad? I will tell you now that next week's book is a more upbeat, fun book, though!

Click on the book to purchase from my Amazon affiliate link.

The Thing About Jellyfish is another middle school Virginia Reader's Choice book for this year, and I loved it! It's a book following a girl, Suzy, who is dealing with the loss of her recently estranged friend. Franny was one of the best swimmers that Suzy knew, so surely she didn't just drown. Suzy is convinced that she was stung by a jellyfish and will not stop until she has proven it to be true.

Oh, and Suzy is a bit of a social outcast.
And she feels like it is her fault that Franny died.
And she is refusing to talk.

This is a very deep book, but it's great for students who feel alone and misunderstood. Suzy is very scientifically minded and misses many social cues, so it does have some lighthearted, funny moments, but your heart really does bleed for Suzy.

Summer Reads #8: The Crossover

Wow! Summer is flying by WAY too fast! I have two more weeks before I report back, so we are nearing the end of the "Summer Reads" series. I do, however, have plans to continue sharing books, just maybe on a biweekly schedule instead. It all depends on how crazy the beginning of school is. I'll start biweekly and then go from there.

Also be on the lookout because I want to actually start posting about other things. Like what activities I'm doing in the classroom and actual teachery things. ::GASP:: Don't count on it yet, though. This is year two at my new school, so I should have a better grasp at life and be able to manage more. Plus my boys are getting old enough that they can play on their own and let me lay on the couch and be a lazy bum work mostly in peace!

Anyway, that's not why you're here. Just giving you a heads up that hopefully I'm legitimately getting back on track as far as blogging goes. And who knows, maybe I'll even start making new products again one day!

Oh, PS. I kind of got carried away on the Kwame train, so this is a little more than a single book review. You might call it more of an author review. Enjoy!

I am SO excited to share today's book today because Kwame Alexander has quickly become one of my favorite authors! Like, for real. I stalk him on Instagram and Facebook (and he follows me back on Instagram, so basically I'm amazing!), and I was even given a chance to read his latest book that came out last week (more on that in a minute). He's a Virginia author, which is part of why I love him, but his poetic structures are POWER. If you have kids that claim they hate poetry, get his books in their hands. I swear most of them will change their mind at least a little!

Click on the book to purchase from my Amazon affiliate link!

The Crossover was the 2015 Newbery Medal winner. It's narrative poetry, without feeling forced, following twin brothers that have mad basketball skills as well as a respect for family and education. With a former basketball star for a father and an assistant principal for a mother, these boys are as well rounded as they come. This book has it all: humor, vocabulary (the word "pulchritudinous" shows up, for Pete's sake), love, family drama, and even some tears. Seriously, after talking about it, I want to read it again.

Then, as if it couldn't get better, he has another book, Booked, along the same lines but about soccer that is on the Virginia Reader's Choice list for middle school this year (Crossover was on it last year).

Click on the book to purchase from my Amazon affiliate link!

AND if you're a high school or higher middle school teacher, he just came out with a brand new book last week that I was able to score an advanced copy of. It's called Solo, and it's about a guy graduating from high school whose father is a rock star that is in and out of rehab, ruining his entire life. He even crashes Blade's graduation IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS SPEECH! Blade decides to take a trip to Ghana to find himself. It's an amazing book, although the content makes it more appropriate for older students. I'd say if you teach middle grades, preview it and just know your students.

Click on the book to purchase from my Amazon affiliate link!

AND because, like I said, he has quickly become of my favorite authors, there is apparently going to be a PREQUEL to The Crossover, and of course I'm not stalking his pages to see when that's coming out. That would be too much...

So moral of this post is BUY ALL THE THINGS. Kwame is amazing!

Book Talk Thursday-ish: Creature Features

Hi everyone! I'm going to just stop apologizing for not posting as frequently and accept that this is just going to be the new norm for me. At least until Caffrey is a little older and I can get a better grasp on time and life and all that stuff. And in my defense, I started this post yesterday, but I didn't have a chance to finish it until this morning.

I did, however, want to share a new book that I discovered. Every year, a committee selects books for the Virginia Readers' Choice list, and they publish the next year's list in February. I happened to get my hands on the latest list last week and IMMEDIATELY started hunting down all of the books. I have 7 of them in my possession now and two others on hold at the library.

Andrea is featuring one of the books on her blog today, and I wanted to link up with one of my favorites here: Creature Features: Twenty-Five Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do.

Click on this image to see other great books!

This book is perfect for questioning, AND it ties right in with science for an animal adaptations lesson. I used it as a model to ask "why" questions, which I feel like my students always struggle with. In my class, we use the Fountas & Pinnell LLI system, which is a kit that includes leveled books to quickly get students reading on grade level. The fourth grade pack has a series called Intriguing Animals. I pulled a few of those books and split my students into groups. Then they looked through the books and found unique characteristics about each animal to come up with two questions and answers. Then they selected their favorite and shared it with the class.

To extend this activity, I would love to give the students a picture of a strange animal and have them generate a list of questions to then research online or in a book later. There are so many possibilities, and I love the fact that the lesson is cross-curricular!