Global read aloud 2014

I have already posted the link to global read aloud and wanted to be involved in it this year. The first title I read would not have been suitable for my upper primary class. So I decided on locating and reading the other titles before school resumed.

The Fourteenth goldfish was only released last month, and I was hesitant to buy. I am sooooo glad that I did! It is an enjoyable quick witty read, I was hooked after the first chapter.  This is the book that I would read to my class! The book opens with Ellie being babysat and her mother is at the police station with her grandfather. When her mother returns she has with her a weird little boy, who dresses funny and sounds a lot like her grandfather. The reader is taken on a journey about life, friendship, growing pains and family with a little bit of science thrown in. Just like the front cover slogan... believe in the possible. Highly recommend!

This book is well written. Highly engaging and I felt myself drawn into the character of Carley Connors. This was also a page turner requiring lots of tissues. This book has recommended ages 9 and up on the back cover, but I would be hesitant recommending this to anyone older than 12, and they must be a mature reader. I definitely wouldn't read it aloud to my class as it is about a child who goes through a pretty horrific experience with her mother and new husband. She is removed from mother and placed in foster care with the Murphys. As you read this book, you realise that Carley Connors has not had the best of upbringings. I do recommend to adults and high schoolers. It was a book that made me appreciate my life.

The Giver Quartet

I have recently posted about the book titled The Giver by Lois Lowry,  this book hooked me in and I couldn't wait to continue reading the series.

The second book in the series is Gathering Blue.  This feels like a stand alone book, as it doesn't have any of the same characters as the first book or even set in the same dystopian world. It is a companion to the first book, different dystopian world and ordered is established by how many syllables in your name, example Matt is a youngster, one syllable, Kira is a teenager, two syllables etc. I related to this book as Kira creates beautiful stitcheries and my love of embroidery and sewing. I actually preferred this narrative than the first.

The  third in the quartet is Messenger and it links the stories of the character Jonas from the first book and Matty from the second book. It was here where I made connections between the first two books.

Lastly Son gives us the conclusion to the three stories. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the series. It was a quick read. Highly recommend you read all in the series if you enjoyed the first.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

http://www.globalreadaloud.com

This book is one of the titles for Global Read aloud this year. I have had this book on my shelf as it is by one of my favourite authors Kate Di Camillo. It is about a porcelain rabbit named Edward who lives with a little girl, she dresses him each morning in the most stylish of clothing. Her family decide to move abroad one day and Edward accompanies them on the sea journey. Edward is a great companion for Abilene, however, the other children on the ocean liner, fight over Edward and he goes overboard. The story reminds me of the movie Toy Story as it is narrates the adventure Edward has once he becomes lost. Going from owner to owner. It was a lovely story but I think it would be best suited to a younger audience, maybe Grade 2-3.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

This book has mystery, adventure and some quirky characters, all ingredients in a recipe for a fantastic read. Claudia decides to run away, and her younger brother Jamie has the savings to get away without being caught. So she convinces him to join her in running away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they travel one Wednesday with $25 between them to New York and begin their adventure. Here the story gets really interesting with the pair hiding among the exhibits and concocting plans to avoid being detected. When a sculpture appears in the museum, Claudia decides to find out the origins of it and refuses to return home until she does. A quick read!

The Giver

In the same genre as The Hunger Games and Divergent, The Giver is about a utopian society. In this world, society is organised by ages, and people are assigned roles. In this world there is no hunger, no pain, no war or choice. We discover this society through the story of Jonas. He lives happily with his mother and father and sister Lily. The story starts just before Jonas' twelfth ceremony, so we come to know what life is like before he encounters the Giver. When Jonas is twelve he is assigned his role. The role of receiver. He alone is trained by the Giver to be the holder of memories. Once assigned there is no going back.

I loved this story and only discovered, now that I have finished reading it, it is one of four books about this society... I am going to have to go out now and see if my local library has any other titles in this series. Highly recommended!

Our Village in the Sky

I was so blessed to be given a copy of this delightful book from the publishers Allen & Unwin. This beautiful book is a collection of poems written by Janeen Brian and illustrated by Anne Spudvillas. The poems tell about the daily life in a Himalayan village. Janeen has a way with words, capturing the sounds and images of the routine tasks of gathering water, washing clothes and playing with a ladder as a seesaw. Anne's illustrations are vivid and demonstrate the innocence and delight in the faces of the children in the village.

I can't wait to share this book with my class. I want to explore with them the beautiful imagery and figurative language used. It's a wonderful book to illustrate the effective use of repetition, personification and alliteration at the same time as comparing our daily life with that of the children portrayed in the poems.

Dear Mr Henshaw

In my primary school years, I discovered author Beverly Cleary. I loved her Ramona Quimby books and was excited to know they made a movie based on those books. Ramona and Beezus. I took Liam to see it years ago at the cinema, trying to get him to love the characters I had loved.

So recently I went looking for other books by Beverly that I hadn't read, and I found Dear Mr Henshaw. This book is about a boy who writes to his favourite author. Through his writing he deals with the struggles of his parents' divorce, a lunchbox thief and writing for school. An enjoyable quick read for children stage 2/grade 3 and up.

Old Yeller Fred Gipson

An absolutely endearing story of an "Old Yeller" stray who ends up on a Texan farm. At first Travis doesn't want the dog around, but with his father away on a cattle drive, he realises that the dog would be beneficial on the farm. Eventually the whole family falls in love with the rascally stray. This story takes me back to the post civil war era and is reminiscent of watching Little house on the Prairie. A great read!

Jackie French's novels

Jackie French has written many books for children. I love her picture books, Too Many Pears, and the Diary of a wombat series. Last year I discovered Pennies for Hitler. It was nominated for an Australian Children's Book Council award. I was hooked immediately by the story, set in 1939 Georg is living with his parents in Germany but when a protest at the university graduation ceremony occurs, he fleas for London and then later arrives in Australia.  A real page turner!

It was after I finished reading this that I discovered Hitler's Daughter. I thought it was a  prequel or tied into the story I had just read, but it is just a companion book, set in the same time period. I do encourage you to read it,  I wondered as I read the story, did Hitler's daughter really exist? I won't divulge the storyline but it is another page turner, one that I am sure you will love.

A Single Shard

In my endeavours to find Asian literature I stumbled upon A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. It is set in 12th century Korea, and tells the story of an orphan boy named Tree Ear. He admires the work of a potter and accidentally breaks a piece, he has to pay off his debt by working for the potter. Tree Ear is determined to learn the craft of his master. This story is a tale of determination and courage and narrates a story about the formation of the beautiful celadon vase depicted on the front cover. A remarkable story that is an easy read. Highly recommended!

Man's Best Friend

I have accidentally started reading stories about mans best friend. Kate DiCamillo is one of my favourite authors, and Because of Winn Dixie is one the recent stories I have read. A little girl named Opal rescues a mischievous dog in a supermarket one summer. Together they befriend some interesting characters. A wonderful story about friendship. Highly recommended, it's also been made into a movie, so it could lead to a movie/book study.

Where the red fern grows by Wilson Rawls took me back to my childhood, watching Little House Prairie. This is an adventurous story about a boy desperate to have some coon hounds. I love the determination and drive of Billy. It is a lovely story about the bond between a boy and his two dogs. One I really wanted to share with my son.

After reading Wilson Rawls book, I wanted to read more from this time period and recently bought Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. I haven't finished this book yet. It also made me want to rediscover Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

Book club reads

I read this with my book club. It is a teen fiction and not one that I would share with my class, as it does cover adult themes.

 

It is not a book about cancer although the two main characters have cancer and meet in a support group. I think it is a story about life and its struggles. I absolutely fell in love with the character Gus, I thought he was such a breath of fresh air in Hazel's life at the beginning, and allowed her character to grow. It has been at the cinema for over a month and I haven't yet allowed myself to see the movie as the characters haven't been casted as I imagined them to be. I am sneaking off by myself tomorrow as it is the last week on the big screen. A great read loved by every one that I find myself talking with about the book. I even feel inpsired to read another book by John Green as I found him so easy to read.

The other book my book club loved this year was Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time. The book is a great Young adult novel chronicling the incidents after a dog ends up being killed in a neighbour's home. It is narrated by a boy named Christopher, he has asperger's, and his story allows the reader to experience what life is like living with asperger's. I found Christopher's quirks endearing and was in the world of story quite quickly with this page turner. Well worth reading.

 

A really powerful read

Michael Morpurgo was a very popular author in my class last year. I loved seeing all the children borrow his books from the library, order the box sets from Book Club and other book shops. I discovered this book at my local library in November, and read it to my class in the week leading up to Remembrance Day.  The memorable story is about Christmas in the trenches in 1914. It is inspired by the Christmas truce. After reading this story my class were motivated to examine historical documentaries on youtube about the events. They found it hard to imagine resuming the fighting, and what it would be like to follow orders. Coming up to the 100 year anniversary, I will be reading this book to my class again this year and hopefully they feel encouraged to share this story with many others.

Gold stories

 Term two this year, my class was studying gold and we were looking at perspective for our English unit. I selected a couple of novels and a picture book. I had read New Gold Mountain by Christopher Cheng as a novel study. I thoroughly enjoyed the diary entries of a Chinese boy of the goldfields. His story was linked to the riots at Lambing Flats in NSW during the gold rush era. Unfortunately time in the term was getting away from me, and I ended up switching text and reading the class, Seams of Gold also by Christopher Cheng. The Making Tracks series by the National Museum of Australia is an exciting series. Each book in the series is linked to a piece in the museum's collection. Seams of Gold is linked to a sewing basket. Whilst New Gold Mountain is aimed at upper primary, Seams of Gold is much more suitable for your reluctant upper primary children or middle primary classes. The class thoroughly enjoyed this story and understood a bit more what life was like for the Chinese immigrants to the Australian gold fields.

 

We then read Rachel Tomkin's To the Goldfields. It is a picture book with a gold perspective from the point of view of the British settlers. The children learnt a lot about the way of life in this period from reading these stories.

Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson

I read this story in the January school holidays. I was planning a unit of work on Refugees and Migration for Year 5/6. I had considered using Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard but was aware that many of the children in my class had read the book. I decided to read them Libby Gleeson's Mahtab's story and among many English activities was for them to compare the two literary works.

My class were swept up into the world of the story really quickly just like I was. Libby Gleeson has a wonderful way with words. We examined an extract of her text and the children created the most amazing imaginative texts extending the story at the point of reading.

Everyday the children were asking me when are we going to find out what was happening to Mahtab, and we would read on. The children watched a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Ykw6ehfPI of Libby Gleeson explaining the motivation for writing the book. The children already thought the story was much more authentic than a previous similiar themed book.

It was an amazing read and I felt so priviledged sharing this story with my class. I am sure they will remember this story for years to come.