Hate That Cat (2008), Sharon Creech

I started reading this book in preparation of the upcoming poetry unit in my Writing class.  The book written in the form of a student's writing journal; there are poems, expressions of frustrations with the writing process, and his half of written conversations with his teacher.  The student, Jack, starts out disliking the poetry writing process, but as he is exposed to masterful poetry, he begins to become inspired.  We learn that Jack just got a kitten - he is nervous that he won't like this kitten because he has had a bad experience with a black cat in the neighborhood that he HATES.  The kitten ultimately becomes his muse and the reader is treated to adventures of a growing cat.  There are examples of poetry from William Carlos Williams, Boston born Edgar Allen Poe, and T.S. Eliot, as well as a hefty poetry resources section at the end of the book.  This was a quick read and serves as an enjoyable way to introduce poetry to a student. 

Back by Popular Demand

It's been a while since I posted - mostly because I've been working as a full-time teacher.  Yay!  It's a lot of fun, very rewarding, and also exhausting.  I spend most of my free time working to develop curriculum or to create a lesson for the next day of school.  Now that I've reached the 1-year mark of teaching, I think I'm going to have a bit more time to update the blog.  I've been reading a lot and have a number of books to add, so keep tuning in for more of my thoughts on children's books.

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Stumbling on Happiness (2006), Daniel Gilbert

I read this book because I wanted to join a book club, and this was the next book on the list.  Stumbling on Happiness was billed as a Freakonomics-type book that would enlighten me to how the brain works.  Wrong.  Though Daniel Gilbert has a great sense of humor, and is able to synthesize complex psychological studies into laymen's terms, I just couldn't get into this book.  There were a few interesting segments about perception of happiness and how humans are the only species that think about the future - but for the most part, I found that Gilbert rambled on and on and gave way to many examples for each topic.  Skip this one.

I did get a new favorite quote though: "If we adhere to the standards of perfection in all of our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album."  Daniel Gilbert - how did you know that I love both math and the Beatles?!

Daniel Gilbert is a professor at Harvard - with his humor, I bet his classes are a blast!

Messenger (2004), Lois Lowry

[Fall, 2010]
I really enjoyed this book.  It took a few chapters to get into the plot and get a feel for the characters, but as soon as that happened - I was hooked!  The main character, Matty, lives in a utopian society called Village.  He lives with an old blind man who goes by the name Seer.  Most of the adults go by the names of their jobs - the teacher is called "Mentor" and the mayor is called "Leader."  You get the sense that something is going amiss in Village - people are starting to become angry with one another, and the community seems to be falling apart.

Outside, Village is surrounded by a forest, which is called Forest.  Forest does not like to have people enter; it often leaves people with "warnings" like a scrape or a thorn prick.  These warnings become more intense and hurtful as you get deeper into the book.  However, Forest does not mind when Matty enters, so Matty is often the person who is sent to other villages on the other side of Forest.

Seer's daughter, Kira, lives in a village on the other side of Forest.  Leader asks Matty to go on a mission to bring Kira back through Forest, but Forest does not want this to happen.  Kira and Matty have special powers that help them to overcome obstacles that they face in Forest - but will they make it to the other side back to Village?  What will happen to the other villagers?  Will the negative energy that is overcoming the citizens be overcome, or will it just get worse?  Those are questions you will have to find out for yourself!

This is a very good read - just make sure to stick through the first few slow chapters!

A Year Down Yonder (2000), Richard Peck

[January, 2011]
I loved A Long Way from Chicago so much, I just had to read the sequel A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck!

It's now 1937 - the Great Depression is over, but there is now a recession that has rocked the Dowdel family.  Once again, Mary Alice's parents send her to stay with Grandma Dowdel.  This time, instead of just staying for the summer, Mary Alice stays for the entire year and has to go to school in a one-room school house.  Quite a change from her Chicago lifestyle!  Her brother Joe is now older and on his own, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees in the western part of the country.

There are eight short stories of tales of life in a small Illinois town.  Halloween tricks and treats, Christmas traditions and surprises, Valentine's Day cherry tarts, and young love.  All are told by Mary Alice, who we didn't get to know very well in A Long Way from Chicago, but we see bloom in these stories.

I can't get enough of Grandma Dowdel!  I want to read the final book in this series, A Season of Gifts, but I'm worried that I'll miss the characters too much when that book is finished!

Hoot (2002), Carl Hiaasen

[January, 2011]
Roy just moved to Florida, and he hates it.  On the way to his first day of school, he get's beat up by a meat-head bully.  Urgh.  Nothing's going his way.  He did notice an unusual sight though - a boy, about his age, running by the bus stop...in bare feet!  Who was that boy?  And why was he barefoot?

Roy eventually realizes that the building site of the new "Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House" is actually on top of the home of state-protected burrowing owls.  Roy, Beatrice, and that mystery boy set out to save the owls from the bulldozers.  

I really enjoyed Hoot - I think you'll get a hoot out of it!  (Ah!  What a terrible joke!)