New to Me - white fur flying

My second grade-reading journey is very exciting because I am continuously discovering "new to me" books.  white fur flying written by Patricia MacLachlan is a delightful story about helping, caring, and discovery.   Zoe's father is a vet and her mom rescues Great Pyrenees dogs.  Her sister Alice is a story teller who's vivid imagination stirs stories up.  Phillip moves in next door and doesn't speak.  His aunt and uncle are caring for him and they are new to "parenting".  

Relationships can be sweet, simple, and quiet.  Relationships take time and so does healing.  With time and healing new opportunities can happen and second chances are given.  The descriptive language in this book made me stop and pause a bit to think and reflect about the word choices selected by Patricia MacLachlan.  It's never quite clear why Phillip is living with his aunt and uncle, leaving this reader with more questions and discovering the answer didn't really matter to tell this delightful story.

Here are three lines I love from this story and hope you find, 

if you pick this book up.

"We watched white fur flying into the room, carried by the summer breezes coming off the porch."

"A little slice of sunlight marked the place she had been."

"But then, surprise, it is someone else who shows you what is really there, like the truth a photograph shows."

New to Me - Little Author in the Big Woods

When I was a little girl I devoured The Little House on the Prairie series as a reader.  I believe it was each Monday night we would gather for the weekly television show and I think secretly I thought I was one of the Ingalls girls.  I'm not sure which one I was, but I'm pretty sure I was jealous of my sister Carrie because she actually had a name of one the Ingalls girls.

I recently reviewed, Little Author in the Big Woods A Biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Yona Zeldis McDonough for the IRA Teacher's Choices.  In general, I'm really drawn to the narrative biography format and find it interesting to read.  I think it's a great format idea to help engage children with history and informational text.  While reading Little Author in the Big Woods I found myself having flashbacks to my younger days of reading and viewing this story.  All three formats mesh together because of this narrative form.  However, the book series does share new factual information about Laura's life and the travels her family lived.  It also does a great job explaining why they moved quite often and the hardships they had.  I found myself thinking, I've never heard this before and trying to remember when events happened that were new to me from reading this book.  I think I realized my younger experiences with Laura Ingalls didn't include all the details and adventures the family had.  I enjoyed reading a bit more factual piece about characters I still hold dear to my heart.

Here are three parts I love from this story and hope you find, if you pick this book up.

-"She didn't know it, but her future life as a writer was already beginning, right there amid the pages of those newspapers."  (She was reading newspapers)

-"and although she did not know it, making pictures with words for her sister was preparing her for what would be her life's work: it was turning a bright, observant girl who loved reading into a full-fledged writer."

-"Her salary would be $20.00 a month.  That seemed like so much money!"  (Her first teaching job.)

I knew Laura Ingalls was a writer when I was little but reading this book as an adult with new eyes I realized Laura was more than the book series and television show.  I found information about her parents to be quite different at times and very interesting.  Laura was an activist, wrote articles and had her first book rejected a few times before being published.  

This book is for an intermediate reader independently but I could see a second grader hearing it as a read aloud with a special adult after or before learning/reading the Little House on the Prairie series.  

The end of the book has a small collection of quotes and if you know the   "fictional" Laura this might make you smile.  "Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens."  

New to Me - Big Plans by Bob Shea and Lane Smith

My second grade-reading journey is very exciting because I am continuously discovering new books to me.  

The other morning my friend @JoEllenMcCarthy tweeted some suggestions of picture books for the beginning of a new year.  Many of the titles I didn't know.  I ran to school and our school library didn't have them so I favorited her tweet and thought I will have to explore these later and next year I would think through goal setting, revisiting our thinking about learning, and/or resolutions with more thought.  Then later that evening @missmac100 shared a sheet she used with her students about one goal and three learning interests.  I loved her sheet because it combined goals and interests.  She also had the students think about an action they could take to pursue their interest.  I've borrowed her idea and reviewed @JoEllenMcCarthy's selection of books but didn't see one that was just right for this.  Then I used google and discovered Big Plans by Bob Shea and Lane Smith.  

I'm not surprised that Big Plans is filled with humorous illustrations and lots of opportunities to read the story with inflection.  A little boy begins brainstorming plans, goals for life and is very excited to share his ideas.  He shouts them at the top of his lungs.  He has large ambitions.  He has a bird for a side kick who is a good follower and provides helpful feedback.  What I like about this book is the willingness of this little boy to dream big and make plans for huge ideas.  I found myself needing to read this book twice to follow the story line with all the dialogue and would recommend reading it twice before talking about generating goals with your students.

I had taken a winter break from Twitter and thought it was a bit nice but the power of our PLN for ideas and fostering our thinking can't be ignored.  

New to Me - Celebrate! by Jan Reynolds

My second grade-reading journey is very exciting because I am continuously discovering new books to me. Celebrate! Connections Among Cultures by Jan Reynolds is the perfect book to begin a discussion or unit of study about celebrations and cultures.  The book focuses on the components of a celebration; gathering together, food and drinks, decorating ourselves, music, dance, and the use of fire.  

This photographic essay is beautiful and rich with information about each component in different cultures.  I especially enjoyed the pattern of learning about four or five cultures and having each section end with an example from the United States.  A few of the cultures shared in this book were familiar to me but most of them were not familiar to me.  

The book ends with a summary around the notion there are many ways to celebrate the human spirit.  It helped me think about many things and the reasons cultures celebrate.  We celebrate to show we are thankful, to celebrate changes in our lives, celebrate people and important events.  After reading the book left to right and top to bottom I realized I wish I had read it differently.  I wish I had read the headings for each section first to discover components of celebrations and let my students ponder these thoughts.  Then reread the book with the text descriptions for the different cultures shared.  This would allow us to focus the idea of different cultures and different celebrations exist in our world. 

New to Me – Captain Awesome

My second grade-reading journey is very exciting because I am continuously discovering new books to me.  Stan Kirby is the author of the Captain Awesome series and I recently read the first in the series, To The Rescue.  I think we need to model how we pick books because that can be hard for students. I picked up Captain Awesome because the character on the cover looked fun and I thought it might be a book some of the boys might like to read.  I think I need more books to attract guy readers.  I will also share I thought many of them would love the sketches throughout to help support their reading. 

Eugene is a huge fan of Super Dude comic books and creates his own superhero to become.  All superheros have an archenemy and Eugene’s just happens to live with him.  Queen Stinky Pants from Planet Baby just happens to be his younger sister and creates mischief in his life.  Eugene’s not thrilled to start a new school because he recently moved.  Lunch is the best part because he meets Charlie who also likes Super Dude.  Turbo the class hamster helps create adventures at home and in school.  Eugene even has to change into Captain Awesome at school to save the day in front of his new classmates.  I thoroughly enjoyed how natural it was for Eugene to become Captain Awesome in public and change back to Eugene like nothing might be a bit odd about this.  He even wore his cape and no one made fun of him. 

 Here are three lines I love from this story and hope you find, if you pick this book up. 

“And if you’re making up your own superhero name, it shouldn’t be something lame like “Captain Just Okay.”  It should be mighty like…Captain Awesome! MI-TEE!”

“Like-greenbean-ice-cream-covered-in-broccoli-mush-sauce-worse.”

“It’s not easy being someplace new, and sometimes it helps to know that there are people who care.”

New to Me - Judy Cox

There are so many books and I am discovering new books on my reading journey I would like to share with you.  Judy Cox, wrote The Secret Chicken Society.  The title of this book caught my attention.   I had to pick up this book because I wanted to know what creates a secret chicken society. I have hatched chicken eggs a few times in my classroom over the years so I had a lot of background schema for this story.  My background knowledge made the first half of this book feel like a snapshot of my teaching life.  I kept thinking this is truly realistic, all the way.  This might not be the best book to read while you are hatching chick eggs or prior to hatching chick eggs.  It really covers a lot of life cycle content.  However, if you can't or don't want to hatch eggs but share the experience with students this would be the perfect book!

The chickens need to leave the classroom and in a turn of events, Daniel is able to bring all five chickens home.  He is convinced he has five hens until a rooster crows from the backyard.  This is not good news.  Hens are allowed for backyard farming in his neighborhood but crows are not.  Now, I bet you can figure out the need for a secret society.  I love the relationships between young and old.  I love how animals can help mend.  I love how you have to let something you love go.

Here are three lines I love from this story and hope you find, if you pick this book up.

"People take dogs. Therapy dogs. It's good for the patients.  Why not  therapy chicken?"

"Besides," added Dad, "weeds are just wildflowers.  Good for the birds!  Good for the bees!"