It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

These are memes started by Teach Mentor Texts and Book Journey, and I'm excited to participate, along with many other bloggers, in reviewing books I read the previous week. I'll be reviewing picture books through adult books.

EARLY MIDDLE GRADE BOOK

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

	2013-book, award-winner, character-development, character-who-writes, early-middle-grade, read, teachers-who-inspire

	This is a sweet story about Billy, a second grader with a big heart and honest feelings. My favorite chapter was the one about his love/hate relationship with his sister. I think younger middle grade readers will like it. I love Kevin Henkes because he find beauty and humor in simple things.

MIDDLE GRADE BOOK

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

2014-book, bebrave, character-who-writes, characters-with-disabilities, family, fantasy-science-fiction, fears, figuative-language, friendship, gifted-character, home, loss, love, mock-newbery-2015, mock-schneider-family-award-2015, model-for-writing, mood-tone, vocabulary I wrote about this book and my Mock Newbery Club's Skype visit with her on my Celebration Saturday post, but I'm not done talking about her or her fabulous book yet! You can see Natalie (just barely) on the screen with us. Brady (2nd front left) is holding the Jeni's Ice Cream we ate during the Skype visit. We sent some to Natalie as a thank you, too! Spindiddly! I just finished what is destined to become a children's literature classic. I knew I was in for a treat when one of my sixth graders, who read it for my Mock Newbery Club and is a voracious reader, said, "This is the best book I ever read. It has everything I like." Wow. I know what she means now. It's funny, poignant, compelling, magical, and real. I have so many post-it flags marking favorite parts that I couldn't possibly write them all, but I'll include some: - A sister is like a...more Spindiddly! I just finished what is destined to become a children's literature classic. I knew I was in for a treat when one of my sixth graders, who read it for my Mock Newbery Club and is a voracious reader, said, "This is the best book I ever read. It has everything I like." Wow. I know what she means now. It's funny, poignant, compelling, magical, and real. I have so many post-it flags marking favorite parts that I couldn't possibly write them all, but I'll include some: - A sister is like a super-forever-infinity friend. - But there is was. I'm fairly certain LONELY'S most natural habitat is a school cafeteria. - I can very often tell how much a person loves another person by the way they say their name. I think that's one of the best feelings in the world, when you know your name is safe in another person's mouth. When you know they'll never shout it out like a cuss word, but say it or whisper it like a once-upon-a-time. - Some miracles are big and flashy, and others are sweet and simple. - Home isn't just a house or a city or a place; home is what happens when you're brave enough to love people. Lloyd's writing reminds me a little of Ingrid Law, Kate DiCamillo, Sharon Creech, and Deborah Wiles, and that's factofabulous!    The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black                                    2013-book, fantasy-science-fiction, young-adult-book   I'm a big fan of Holly Black. My kids read her Spiderwick Chronicles when they were young, and we met her and Tony DiTerlizzi when they visited The Blue Manatee years ago. I LOVED Doll Bones, a 2014 Newbery Honor Award winner. This one, however....yikes!!! This is no Twilight romance - it's a dark and violent vampire story. Black's writing is captivating and creepy. Not for the faint of heart or younger teens! Great ending. Here are pictures when we met Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi in 2004

Slice of Life Classroom Challenge - Memoirs - Post 4

We are participating in a modified way in the Two Writing Teachers' Classroom Challenge.  Since my students don't have individual blogs, they are writing a slice every day in their writer's notebooks.  Several times a week I will select a few to post here, on our classroom blog, to link up with other classroom slicers.  We are writing memoirs this month, so many students are writing about memories.  I gave them a choice, though, so some slices are about other topics.  We'd love for you to comment on any or all the slices I scanned and posted.  I hope you can read them okay. I'm slicing, too, right along with my students, on my own blog:  http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/

 

I've started reading Twelve Kinds of Ice aloud, and we're practicing identifying figurative language and sensory details so we can put it into our own memoirs and Slices of Life.  The memoir writing continues.  Enjoy!

 

                I accidentally cut off a line here.  It reads:  really little.  He is just like

 

We'd love to hear your comments!

 

Classroom Slice of Life - Trying Out Different Leads and the Memoir Writing Begins! Post 3

We are participating in a modified way in the Two Writing Teachers' Classroom Challenge.  Since my students don't have individual blogs, they are writing a slice every day in their writer's notebooks.  Several times a week I will select a few to post here, on our classroom blog, to link up with other classroom slicers.  We are writing memoirs this month, so many students are writing about memories.  I gave them a choice, though, so some slices are about other topics.  We'd love for you to comment on any or all the slices I scanned and posted.  I hope you can read them okay. I'm slicing, too, right along with my students, on my own blog:  http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/

 

In yesterday's mini-lesson, I showed the kids several leads that draw readers in: dialogue, action, description, thoughts/feelings, etc.  I asked them to try out their memoirs several different ways and pick their favorite one.  I counted the starters as their slices that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I gave a mini-lesson on how to write dialogue.  There are SO many nuances to writing dialogue, but they got the gist.  We'll fine-tune it as we go along.  I love the "before the dialogue mini-lesson" in Sam's writing, and the "after."  I love seeing the difference!

 

 

 

 

And now we're starting our rough drafts! 

 

5th Grade Slice of Life Classroom Challenge - Post 2

We are participating in a modified way in the Two Writing Teachers' Classroom Challenge.  Since my students don't have individual blogs, they are writing a slice every day in their writer's notebooks.  Several times a week I will select a few to post here, on our classroom blog, to link up with other classroom slicers.  We are writing memoirs this month, so many students are writing about memories.  I gave them a choice, though, so some slices are about other topics.  We'd love for you to comment on any or all the slices I scanned and posted.  I hope you can read them okay. I'm slicing, too, right along with my students, on my own blog:  http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/

 

This week I have used several mentor texts.  These are picture books I have used for years to teach memoirs because they are pretty much perfect.

 

 

 

And a new one! 

 

 

I asked my fifth graders to write memories about someone older than they are, a place they love, and an animal story. We also noticed an author's craft, so there are writing techniques that show up in their writing that they are trying out - figurative language, repetition, reflection, etc.  I love that many of them are coming to me saying they only set out to write half a page in their notebooks (the requirement), but they end up writing much more.  Writing is POWERFUL!

 

Write about someone older than you:

 

 

Write about your favorite place:

 

 

 

 

Write about an animal story:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'd love for you to comment!  Come back in a day or two for more slices from these talented young writers!

 

 

 

 

5th Grade Slice of Life Challenge - Post 1

We are participating in a modified way in the Two Writing Teachers' Classroom Challenge.  Since my students don't have individual blogs, they are writing a slice every day in their writer's notebooks.  Several times a week I will select a few to post here, on our classroom blog, to link up with other classroom slicers.  We are writing memoirs this month, so many students are writing about memories.  I gave them a choice, though, so some slices are about other topics.  We'd love for you to comment on any or all the slices I scanned and posted.  I hope you can read them okay. I'm slicing, too, right along with my students, on my own blog:  http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/

Stephen's Slice

Lauren's Slice

Jenna's Slice

Megan's Slice

Our slices go perfectly with our scrapbook-making and memoir-writing this month!  Here are pictures with the finished scrapbooks.  Sorry I missed the first group - I had camera malfunctions!