What Ms. Moore is Reading - March 2017

Here are some of the most recent books I've read and thought my students would like. They're all available from the public library, but any donations towards getting them into our collection are most welcome! All cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads.

Picture books

A young astronaut is absolutely sure there is life to be found on Mars. But when he arrives, equipped with a package of cupcakes as a gift, he sees nothing but a nearly barren planet. Finally, he spies a single flower and packs it away to take back to Earth as proof that there is indeed life on Mars. But as he settles in for the journey home, he cracks open his cupcakes only to discover that someone has eaten them all! Readers will love being in on the secret. (2018 Mock Caldecott nominee)

The day Priscilla gets a book about gorillas, she instantly becomes obsessed. She dances like them, eats like them, and wears her gorilla costume 24–7! There are so many things to love about gorillas, but what Priscilla loves best is how they seem to always get their way.

So when Mr. Todd tells all his students to dress up like their favorite animal, Priscilla’s choice is obvious. But dancing around and beating her chest when it’s not her turn sends Priscilla straight to the Thinking Corner. She is of course outraged—nobody tells a gorilla what to do!—and as her attitude spreads, soon the thinking corner is full of her classmates. Is Priscilla really channeling her inner gorilla, or is she just a troublemaker in ape’s clothing? 

Shh…look…listen…to the sounds of the dark say Goodnight!

What sails? What flies? Those…these, Down low, nearby, far off, up high. Who listens? Who looks? Who hears? Who sees?

An homage to the melodies of nighttime, to each critter that sings, hoots, or glows, All Ears, All Eyes takes us on a moonlit journey where the landscape shimmers with Fantasia-like beauty. Where if you look and listen, you might spy an owl, a deer, a chipmunk—or—what else!—before falling asleep.

Early Chapter book

From acclaimed author Linda Urban comes a sweet and funny illustrated novel about third-grader Max, who pursues neighborhood adventures with his dad as they both adjust to recent changes in their family. Max and his dad love their weekends together. Weekends mean pancakes, pizza, spy games, dog-walking, school projects, and surprising neighbors! Every weekend presents a small adventure as Max gets to know his dad’s new neighborhood—and learns some new ways of thinking about home.  (2018 RICBA nominee)

Middle grades

Eleven-year-old Perry was born and raised by his mom at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility in tiny Surprise, Nebraska. His mom is a resident on Cell Block C, and so far Warden Daugherty has made it possible for them to be together. That is, until a new district attorney discovers the truth—and Perry is removed from the facility and forced into a foster home. When Perry moves to the “outside” world, he feels trapped. Desperate to be reunited with his mom, Perry goes on a quest for answers about her past crime. As he gets closer to the truth, he will discover that love makes people resilient no matter where they come from . . . but can he find a way to tell everyone what home truly means? (2018 RIMSBA nominee)

Obe Devlin has problems. His family's farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy abandoned him. And he keeps getting nosebleeds. So Obe hangs out at the creek by his house, picking up litter and looking for animal tracks. One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog, or maybe a small boar. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. ... No one has ever seen a creature like this before, because there's never been a creature like this before. The animal--Marvin Gardens--soon becomes Obe's best friend and biggest secret. But to keep him safe from the developers and Tommy and his friends, Obe must make a decision that might change everything.

Charles just moved to Echo City, and some of his new neighbors give him the creeps. They sneak into his room, steal his toys, and occasionally, they try to eat him. The place is teeming with monsters!

Lucky for Charles, Echo City has Margo Maloo, monster mediator. No matter who’s causing trouble, Margo knows exactly what to do—the neighborhood kids say monsters are afraid of her. It's a good thing, because Echo City's trolls, ogres, and ghosts all have one thing in common: they don't like Charles very much. (2018 RICBA nominee)

Grade 1 Wockets

We celebrated Dr. Seuss birthday / Read Across America in first grade by reading There's a Wocket in My Pocket; as we went through the pages, I asked the kids to think of alternate words for certain locations in the book (e.g., basement instead of cellar). Then I asked them pretend we were adding pages to the book and to to come up with rhyming "creatures" that could live in these new locations (e.g., a jasement in my basement).

The next week, I decided we SHOULD add pages by creating our own version of the book. I still need to pick up a binder and page protectors, but once I've made the shopping trip, our new book will be added to the collection and available for checkout. Here are some preview pages:

Klassen v. Shea: K Illustrator Study

One of our 2nd trimester standards for kindergarten is to define the words "author" and "illustrator." To support their learning, we're studying the work of two of my favorite illustrators: Jon Klassen and Bob Shea.

The students have noticed lots of differences between them; for example, Jon uses muted colors while Bob's pop off the page. The fonts in Jon's books are pretty simple, while Bob incorporates the text into his illustrations. Both, however, create wonderful images that the kids loved.

Page spread from "This is Not My Hat," posted to amazon.com

Page spread from "Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great," posted to bobshea.com

After reading "Dinosaur v. the Library" by Bob Shea, the kindergartners came up with their own drawings. (Template from nikarella.wordpress.com)

This was actually done by a 5th-grader who found a leftover paper in the library. :)