Book of the Week: When You Reach Me

This post brought to you by student blogger Margaret.

Miranda is a sixth grader and has a best friend, Sal. One day they are walking home and a random boy comes up and punches Sal. Things were never the same after that. Sal never talks to Miranda or walks home with her.

Miranda starts to get notes, and she doesn't know who they are from. Mysterious things start happening. Her mom gets invited onto the tv show she loves. Miranda is stunned. Things like this don't happen to people like them! Her new friend is best friends with Miranda's rival.

Read to find out what happens to Miranda, Sal, Annemarie, Julia, and Marcus! 

This book is great for people who love adventures. Something unexpected happens in almost every chapter. I would recommend this book to everyone 8 and up.

Book of the Week: The Wishing Spell

This post brought to you by student blogger Kristen. 

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

This is a book of Adventure, Excitement, Mystery, and Fun!
Ever think there might be a different side to a story? Sure, the is a side of good and evil, but what if they are told differently, what about their beginning? What would happen if I told you that everything you know could be a lie? What would you do then? Try to reject what is right before your eyes, take the long way around avoiding your deepest fear? Or... Take in what has happened, and know your life... Your life has changed forever.
Alex and Conner Bailey was born being have human have fairy, although they don't know about it, they starts to piece it together when the book their grandmother gives starts to glow! Along the way the book transports them to a fairytale land, where they have to journey through the realms to collect the items they need to wish their way home. As usual, this book has some problems. Snow White's stepmother has escaped and is now on the verge of interfering with the twin's way home, during then in which the fairy godmother herself is hunting them down too! Will they return home safely, or be stuck in a "fairytale" forever?

This is a book for about ages 9-14. When I started reading this book I could not stop with the interest of what was going to happen next! I hope that it is the same for you. 

Fun with Book Club

This year Mrs. McSweeney and I started a book club for 3rd and 4th graders. The club is called Page-Turners and it's a lot of fun! We've been reading the Maud Hart Lovelace nominees, which is Minnesota's kids' choice book award. Any student in Minnesota who reads at least 3 books in his/her grade division is able to vote for their favorite. So far the club has read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, Rump by Liesl Shurtliff, and When Life Gives you OJ by Erica Perl. 

At our latest meeting, students created their own "practice dogs" just like in the book When Life Gives you OJ. Parent volunteers came and helped out. The parent volunteers were vital to this activity because we needed to use hot glue on the felt. Each child got to create his/her own personalized dog with details like ears, spots, collars, leashes, and more. They turned out very cute. It's always great to have an "experience" that goes along with the book, and I'm glad I could provide this one. 

We Love Mo Willems!

Kindergarten students have been loving the books by Mo Willems! In the library, we've read several of the Pigeon books and several of the Elephant and Piggie books. If you haven't read these books, I highly recommend them! They are so much fun. 

Then we got crafty in the library, making paper-tube pigeons, and Piggie and Gerald puppets. The kids had a lot of fun! It has been a fun month reading Mo's stories. 

Here is where we got the craft templates. 
Paper-tube pigeon: http://library-thisandthat.blogspot.com/2007/09/cute-craft-to-go-with-mo-willems-pigeon.html

Piggie and Gerald puppets: http://blog.heidisongs.com/2015/02/mo-willems-elephant-piggie-paper-bag-puppets-freebie.html

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0725/1285/files/Elephant___Piggie_Puppet_Project.pdf?11893769874875646999

Book of the Week: Divergent

This post brought to you by student blogger Allicia. 

Do you like books with tons of action, surprises, and plot twists? Divergent by Veronica Roth might be what you're looking for. It's the story of a girl, who has to choose her own future. A test determines which faction, or society you belong in. Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite, or Divergent. However, the choices of faction is yours no matter what your test results are. Join Tris, as she chooses a faction that shocks everyone, and has the adventure of a lifetime. Towards the end of the book, you learn that the government of the society is more evil than it seems, and it's up to Tris, and a few others to save everyone.

This book is loaded with suspense and surprises, and you'll be on the edge of your seat when you read it. Honestly, I couldn't put it down. This book has you wondering what will happen next. It's interesting to see Tris slowly adapt to her new life and become so powerful. This was an excellent book. 

Book of the Week: The 5th Wave

This post brought to you by student blogger JP. 

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

Do suspenseful books keep you on the edge of your seat? Well, if that is true for you, you should read The Fifth Wave. The Fifth Wave written by Rick Yancey is a alien apocalypse book full of suspense and action. The Firth Wave has several different parts and in each part the point of view switches between different peoples perspectives so you get to see the same event but different opinions experiencing it. At the beginning of the book it may seem like you missed a book or vital information but you are informed of what you thought you missed later on in the book. The main character Cassie Sullivan is constantly on the run and fighting for survival after her entire family died, and 6.98 billion people after the aliens attacked all of the humans on earth over the course of five waves. The first wave was a giant EMP (electric magnetic pulse) causing almost anything that uses electricity or batteries to stop working and wiping out about half a million people. The second wave was a series of huge tsunamis that spanned all the coastlines in the world wiping out about forty percent of the worlds survivors. The third wave almost eighty percent of the survivors were killed by a strong epidemic. And the fourth wave the aliens get into people's brains and control their host. What is the Fifth Wave?  Well,  why don't you read the book to find out?

Book of the Week: If I Stay

This post brought to you by student blogger Sadie. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If you like tragic, romantic books you will love If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Mia is a teenager who loves to play the cello. There is a snow day, and her family decides to drive to their grandparents house. The roads are very slippery. A truck crashes into the front of their car. Mia gets up and sees her body laying in a ditch. But who is she, is she a ghost? She rides with her body in the ambulance and later in the helicopter. When she gets to the hospital her grandparents are in the waiting room. Where is the rest of her family? Many visitors come in and out. Mia is in a coma, so only her grandparents actually visit her. Everyone else just sits in the waiting room. Will Mia wake up from a coma? Will she find her family? Find out in If I Stay by Gayle Forman.