Search results matching tags 'fiction' and 'school stories'

More Pilgrims?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:57:00 GMT

With Thanksgiving on the way, it's a good time to consider the definition of a Pilgrim. Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen does just that. When Molly explains to her mother what her teacher told her about why the Pilgrims came to America, Molly's mother thinks it describes why their family came from Russia less than a year ago, too.

Molly's English isn't really good yet, and she suffers a lot from the teasing she gets for being different. Written in 1983, this book provides a good jumping off spot for discussions of tolerance and differences and how it feels to be the odd one out. Along with what IS a pilgrim, anyway?

Jack and Miss Stretchberry are back.

kiya@evpl — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:54:00 GMT

Miss Stretchberry loves poetry, and makes it part of her classroom every day. In Love That Dog, we meet Jack, who thinks poetry isn't for boys, and that he can't understand it. The story is told through Jack's poetry assignments. As the year unfolds, he finds that poems do have something to say to him. Meanwhile, the reader learns a lot about Jack.

Now, we have Hate That Cat, and find out that both Jack and Miss Stretchberry have been promoted to the next grade. Once again, a story develops as we read Jack's assignments, and learn about his family.

Sharon Creech includes the text of some of the poems Jack and his classmates study in school. Both books are touching, funny stories, even as they arouse the reader's interest in poets and poetry.

Love That Sharon Creech.

How Long Could YOU Keep From Talking?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:12:00 GMT

Dave was normally a pretty noisy 5th-grader. In fact, maybe he was a loudmouth. But after reading about Gandhi, and how for many years he spent one day a week not talking at all, Dave thought it was worth finding out what it would be like to keep silent. After about a half day of trying silence on his own, he and Lynsey took up a dare to make silence a contest between the 5th grade boys and the 5th grade girls. They set the time limit of 2 entire days. Exceptions were only that they were allowed to respond to a teacher with a 3-word answer. Any more words counted as points for the other side.

What happened to the teachers when the lunch room was entirely silent? How did they manage in their classes?
Who won? And how DID it feel to keep mostly silent for all that time?

Andrew Clements has come up with another unique situation for his characters in No Talking.

Do you think you could keep silent for even one entire day?