Picture Books for Young and Old

Here are a few of my new favorites...

How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills is a read-it-every-night sort of story.  A plucky bird claims a reluctant young dog as her student.  Wooing him with an appealing story (obviously chosen for his interests) she gets him excited about reading.  My Kinders loved this story - yours will, too. :)






It's A Book by Lane Smith is a slightly saucy sass that extols the virtues of plain old print.  Even though I LOVE my Kindle and would be LOST without my iPad, I still cherish a good old fashioned paper-bound BOOK.  Lane, apparently, does too.
Language alert: this book has a jackass for a character...and he's called by his name (though it is tastefully done, in a sort of sarcastic way).

So Long Overdue! Oh, the irony!

School has been buzzing and readers have been reading full steam ahead at my school for almost two months now, and I've neglected to post any new reading recommendations. Shame on me!

Sorry for the delay - I hope you enjoy these recommendations.

My favorite fiction read this summer was Crunch, by Leslie Connor.
This book follows a talented and charismatic family of five children as they manage without their parents for a week during a nationwide fuel "crunch".  Mom and Dad didn't abandon them - they got caught in the "crunch".  While the folks are away the kids do all sorts of play, of the productive, life-learning, creative sort.  Running a bike shop, the two middle children (teen boys) learn a lot about competence and hard work.  Acting as parent is their 18 year old sister, who learns that she does have limits and that is OK.  Rounding out the family are the young twins, who learn that things work out in the end with patience, perseverance, and the assistance of good neighbors.

 

My favorite nonfiction read this summer was The Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller.  There have been a lot of wonderful books written about the lost colony at Roanoke; this one offers evidence of an answer to the questions, "What happened to the colony?  Why did it fail?".  Miller offers an evidenced based narrative that hooked me and kept me turning the pages.  I've had a few students take my recommendation and read this book already - they loved it!