makes you think

Cloudette is a very small cloud who looks high and low for a way to do something very big. 

On her journey, she discovers new friends, new adventures, and her own silver lining.

"cheese - us - crust"

4th grader's diorama of Dead End in Norvelt.
Thanks Nat!

I just finished reading the 2012 Newbery Award winner, Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos... starring, Jack Gantos. This book is at once semi-autobiographical and "wildly fictional". It features obituaries, a lot of dead senior citizens, Hell's Angels, underage driving, shooting antique guns, war stories, history, rat poison, a whole lot of nose bleeds... and as the picture above illustrates - the destruction of a corn field.

Jack is an 11-year-old boy who is torn between wanting to do things and being a coward... his nose always gives his fears away.

Over the course of one summer in 1962, Jack learns that actions have consequences... and that history and the future are part of the same time line.

To listen to Jack Gantos reading chapter one of Dead End In Norvelt, click here.

Today, in honor of Shakespeare...

puzzler

So, I read this book that was good but... not great. It's called The Seventh Level by Jody Feldman.  

It's a book about  a seventh grader, Travis, who must solve seven puzzles in order to be accepted into a secret society at school. The cool part was that you got to solve the puzzles and brainteasers right along with Travis. The lame part was the cover of the book.


The Seventh Level lead me to another book, The Unknowns: A Math Mystery by Benedict Carey. 

Two seventh graders (Tom Jones and Lady Di) investigate the disappearance of their math tutor, Mrs. Clark. If you like maps, math, and math history you will love solving each clue along with Tom and Di.


So, to summarize...
If you like to do math, solve puzzles, have adventures, and save the day - these books are for you.


ps- you may need Sal Khan's help on a few of the math problems in The Unknowns (www.khanacademy.org). Good Luck... and may the odds be ever in your favor (oh wait, that's a different book!)

read!

Lovers of books and reading have come together to put books in the hands of kids who need them most.


Taken from Reading is Fundamental's website
"Remember visiting Narnia, playing Jumanji, and eating Green Eggs and Ham? Books can have an incredible effect on children’s lives, yet there’s only one book forevery 300 kids living in underserved communities in the U.S. So we’ve brought together some of our most beloved literary characters to help make this film and rally Book People for the cause."   


Check out the NYTimes article on this campaign.

The campaign urges bibliophiles to take five steps: Sign a pledge on the microsite, share the commercials with friends and family, donate money to Reading Is Fundamental, volunteer for community literacy organizations and advocate for the principles of the organization.

favorite firsts

One of my daughter's friends just read Moby Dick. Which, upon saying the words Moby Dick made my brain immediately respond: "Call me Ishmael."


I live for a good first sentence. When I pick up a new book, I don't always judge it by its cover... I judge it by its first sentence.


Here are some of my all time favorites:


In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (obviously)


"Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. - E.B. White, Charlotte's Web


I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. - R.J. Palacio, Wonder


It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice


Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. - Charles Dickens, David Copperfield


All this happened, more or less. - Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five


The circus arrives without warning. - Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus (which I love because the book ends as it began... oops, I've said too much already!)


Do you have any favorite first lines?