Monday August 6th, 2012

Posted on August 6, 2012 by carriegelson

It’s Monday What are you Reading? Celebrating books read and enjoyed from picture books to young adult reads. Link up with the meme sponsored by Kellee and Jen

I was on vacation this week so all of my reading was from the stack of books I brought with me except for two picture books I purchased at the Island bookstore.

Liu and The Bird: A Journey in Chinese Caligraphy Written and illustrated by Catherine Louis. Calligraphy by Feng Xiao Min. So many of my students every year attend Chinese language classes – this book will allow them to be the experts as everyone explores the calligraphy in this book. Illustrations are gorgeous!

Rain Rain Rivers written and illustrated by Uri Shulivitz. Loved the lyrical descriptive writing. In Vancouver, we had better celebrate rain! This book gets us started.

This week I finished a read aloud novel with my children: Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. A great adventure story that intrigued us all.

Hidden by Helen Frost. I found the format with the two perspectives told in different form very interesting. A quick read.

Having read both The Fault in our Stars and Paper Towns in the last few months, I continued with two more John Green novels.

Loved the characters in Looking for Alaska.

An Abundance of Katherines had many funny passages but probably my least favourite of Green’s novels so far. Colin, and his dependency and constant self doubt began to irk me. But loved the characters who resided in Gutshot.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater was my favourite read of the week. Finished it late last night and still digesting it. Dramatic. Haunting. Amazing.

I also read two professional books this week: Kelly Gallagher‘s Readicide and Tony Stead‘s Good Choice.

Happy Reading everyone!

Monday July 16th 2012

Posted on July 17, 2012 by carriegelson

This is the first time I am officially participating in Kellee and Jen‘s meme It’s Monday What are you Reading? blog link up! Such a wonderful way to share books read over the past week and plans for future reading.

Three favourite picture books I read:

The Friend by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small. I loved this book immediately because David Small is just so good. These pictures are gorgeous and depict the nuances and emotions that the book conveys. What a beautiful story about little Belle and Beatrice Smith, the housecleaner who adores her. Took me back to my own childhood of long summer days that start out with daily chores only I was lucky enough to be working side by side with my Mom.

Lola and Fred by Christoph Heuer. A delightful wordless book (How I love wordless books!) about a tortoise and a frog who want to fly. Just how will they make this happen? Imagine this would be a wonderfully loud “share aloud” with a primary class.

Two Bears and Joe by Penelope Lively and illustrated by Jan Ormond. This book celebrates imagination, play and pretend. Love Ormond’s illustrations as always.

I also read a number of Early Chapter, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels this past week.

Early Chapter:

Heidi Heckelbeck and the Cookie Contest by Wanda Coven

Piper Reed Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt I bought the first four titles in this series and plan to introduce it to some of my new students who are ready for a chapter book that is just a little bit longer. Love the school themes and the true to life family dynamics in the Reed family.

Middle Grade:

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. The children’s librarian at the Vancouver Public Library branch we frequent has started a Middle Grade ARC club allowing readers to “borrow” the ARCs, bring them home to read, write comments in if they so choose and share reviews. My nine year olds and I were vey excited and joined. I did a little leap when I saw this title on the shelf. Fantastic!

Young Adult:

Paper Towns by John Green.

Pearl by Jo Knowles The characters in this story nestle up beside you as you read this book and when you are done, they are not gone. I adored Pearl (Bean) and Henry.

Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

** I am also really enjoying Journey to the River Sea, the novel I’m reading aloud to my children.

Summer Reading inspired by Ms. Hong

Posted on September 7, 2011 by carriegelson

Ms. Hong, now the Teacher-Librarian at Strathcona Elementary used to work at Seymour and ran the Book Club with me. She is beautifully passionate about books and a voracious reader. I have a constant list of books to read inspired by Ms. Hong’s blog. She often posts young adult titles that I might not have come across and I love that she recommends so many fantasy stories. This summer I made good progress reading through my “must reads” recommended by Ms. Hong.

These titles are definitely for mature readers only, not suitable for my primary students but older members of book club may be able to handle some of these soon.

On one summer trip I devoured Graceling the debut novel of writer Kristen Cashore. Katsa, a young Graceling has the power to inflict deadly force on the victims the King sends her to punish. She meets Po, a prince from a neighbouring kingdom who turns her world upside down. Well written, engaging, impossible to put down. I requested Fire (the sequel/prequel) from the public library and enjoyed it as well.

On my last trip I woke up early one morning to admire the gorgeous sunrise. Everyone else slept in and so I read. A few hours later I had finished The Maze Runner by James Dashner. This is an intriguing dystopian science fiction story – fast paced and dramatic, it was hard to stop reading. Thomas wakes up remembering nothing but his name surrounded by boys who arrived to the Glade just like him – memories seemingly wiped clean and in a strange world. Will solving the Maze enable them to escape?

The book that impacted me the most though was Life as We Knew it written by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This is a story told by sixteen year old Miranda through a number of diary entries. The moon is hit by a gigantic meteor and is pushed closer to Earth. The tides and the weather are dramatically affected and everything in the world changes. How will the world survive? We get an idea by following the details of what happens to Miranda and her family. Compelling. We are pulled into Miranda’s world and experience this post apocalyptic world through her story.