Monday Reading - Get Outside!

    Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and 

  

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading! 

          I hope you're enjoying beautiful Autumn weather. Our mountains have had good snow and two ski resorts are open but we down in the flat have had warm and gorgeous days. 

       

         If you want to discover how a fifth-grader processes things, you need to read Maple Mehta-Cohen's story. Kate McGovern allows Maple to tell us readers a lot, not only a deep secret of what she cannot do but the wonderful things she can do. We need to pay attention! 

        Maple's a terrific storyteller, as is her creator, Kate McGovern. And if you know the definition of "story", you'll also find that Maple makes up the stories she should not. In the harshest of times for her, she lies. Maple, half Indian, half Jew, loves dictating her stories into a small recorder, and some parts of them are included in this book for readers to see how good she is. Unfortunately, Maple has kept a secret for a long time; she can't read. Her dear teacher has caught on, finally, to all the clever tricks Maple has used. She smart, after all. But this time, caught, she and her parents have just been told she's being held back. She will repeat fifth grade! She has fooled her parents, too, and perhaps, as the story moves on, she really has fooled herself. Falling into the deep pit of lying, missing her two best friends who are now cool sixth graders, and going to the 'baby' class for those who do need extra help. What could be worse? 

          I've known a few students like Maple, always clever at hiding that those words on the page cannot be deciphered, make the brain hurt, swim around. You've possibly heard these things about those with learning differences. It's a poignant story that parents and teachers will love along with many students, those who are hiding out in plain sight, and those who wonder about a friend, a classmate, or two. 

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for this advanced copy. 

           I have delayed this book too long, my thanks to PR By the Book for the copy of the fourth book in this series! My family traveled to Belize this past July! Although we didn't have the thrill of seeing "The Great Blue Hole", we did do some snorkeling to see some of the coral reefs - Amazing! Robert Scott Thayer has also recorded an audio CD with "Kobee's Song." The book published on September 28th.

                     

          Kobee Manatee wants to swim from the Cayman Islands to see his cousin, Quinn, to help her clean up her new "all-vegie, underwater bistro", Quinn's Seagrass Café. He's traveling with his friends, Tess, the seahorse, and Pablo, the hermit crab. Vivid, colorful illustrations by Lauren Gallegos fill the pages of the travelers' journey. Very soon, they must act on a challenge: a loggerhead turtle is caught up in a plastic bag. Luckily, Pablo cuts away the bag with its claws. And as we readers "swim" along with these friends, each page holds a visual titled "Kobee's Fun Facts". They add to the information in the story. For example, this page tells that "More than fifty percent of all sea turtles consume some form of plastic during their lifetimes." It also explains how plastic never goes away. Throughout the book, there are recommendations of organizations that are fighting plastic in the oceans.

        The group keeps traveling, encountering and protecting each other against a Portuguese Man of War and a spotted scorpionfish, along the way learning about climate change and the challenges for ocean life. This picture book will be a terrific way to begin an ocean study, sea creatures, and climate change. 

      Here is one of  Kobee's Fun Facts - Yikes! Did you know "Shoppers in the United States use about one plastic bag per resident per day? Meanwhile, shoppers in Denmark use an average of four plastic bags a year."

     There's another adventure at The Great Blue Hole and all about it, too. It has stalactites, which "Scientists believe these formed in a dry cavern above sea level during glacial periods." Jacques Cousteau explored it in the 1970s. 

     In reality, I could continue for a long while because Robert Scott Thayer has packed a myriad of info into this one book! One can research keywords throughout from those "Kobee's Fun Facts".  

HERE is the Kobee Manatee website, with a sign-up that offers games and coloring pages.  

      

           David Bowles, (remember They Call Me Güero?) shares that he grew up doing this very tradition told by the young boy in this book, a weekend trip across the border with his father that includes certain 'same' things to do like visit Tio Mateo at his grocery store, a cold treat from the palatero, and a pharmacy purchase. The father and son enjoy their day, also gather some things that at the end, readers discover they are purchasing for those waiting at the border to get permission to cross into the US, a poignant ending. Brightly colored images drawn by Erika Meza shown the breadth of the story. At the border bridge, the double-page spread shows the wondrous expanse of land on both sides. The father tells that this land used to belong to the Coalhuiltecans, now to two countries. A mix of cultures and some Spanish included makes a special book to share.

          I saw this book and knew I needed to share it with one granddaughter who is fascinated with bugs, loves looking for them and learning about them. Ben Brashares takes this journey that is about bugs but also a surprising journey of growing up to find one's own way to "be". In watercolor and pencil, this family trip (another by father and son) happens in memories. Young boy Chuck is the fifth "Charles Van Velsor Whipplethorp". He is bored. They have just moved and via a page of his neighborhood, we see that it's new, homes all alike, young trees. You've seen those places! The page of those four generations shows the first as a mountain climber, the second as an oceanographer, and number three as a 'famed entomologist'. He even discovered a new bug! Chuck unpacks his grandfather's insect collection, from when he was a kid - amazing. Chuck is feeling pretty down. How can he ever be amazing? Chuck's dad works as a data analyst, tells Chuck maybe he could go build a fort, OR, help unpack boxes.

        Surprises lie in store for readers as Chuck does do something with boxes after finding (in that sparse neighborhood) very few bugs. And THAT is amazing! With Elizabeth's also amazing illustrations, kids will see, and perhaps be inspired to discover how NOT to be bored. It's a terrific book!

            When I was a young girl, living in a small town before a move to a city, it was okay to stop by the telephone office to watch the operator "plug" and "unplug" the telephone lines. It was fascinating! Here is a story of some heroes who did more than that, they volunteered in World War I to help with the communications. A call went out and Grace Banker answered. She was college-educated, fluent in French, and sailed off with others to France. And, she was named "chief operator"! Claudia Friddell tells this fascinating story of the "Hello Girls" from their beginnings to a last call that said "Cease Fire!" She does add their history after the war, too. Elizabeth Baddeley's illustrations, and note at the back, show the painstaking research done to add to the story of this little-known hero and her group from World War I. There is more information in the back matter, including a timeline. 

 

What's Next: Still reading Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, thanks to Candlewick Press, I'm beginning The Return of Zombert by Kara LaReau, illustrated by Ryan Andrews and I just got The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer.