What we are Reading?

Tonight is one of those nights where I am not sure what I want to write. I decided it might be a perfect night to let you know about some of the things we have been reading.

The book I am most excited about is Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord. This book is really starting to pick up pace. Lucy's father has left town for work, and Lucy is still working on finding her place in her new home. Each day a friendship seems to be growing between Lucy and Nate the summer next door neighbor.

The two keep searching for photos they can take as part of a photo scavenger hunt. This is the same photo scavenger hunt that we are asking the class to try on their own. I love everything about this book so far. Lord is a master at describing setting.  Each day I find a passage that makes you want to travel to New Hampshire and find the lake setting she is describing. I also love how Lord has brought text messaging into this book. I have not really read a book that has shown this modern form of communication. Lucy is using texts to communicate with her father while she is a way for work and to communicate with her new friend.

This week we have also read two books by the amazing Patricia Polacco.  The first book we read was My Rotten Red Headed Older Brother and then we read Babushka's Doll. Ms. Cavallaro used these books to model how she makes text-to-self connections and text-to-text connections as she reads.

Polacco is a favorite of almost every fourth grade teacher. We will continue to share her books throughout this year. 

We also have read two articles from one of my favorite websites Newsela.  This website is amazing for finding great nonfiction articles. Plus each article on the page can be found at different Lexile levels. This can allow me to print out an article about the same idea on four or five different Lexile levels. The first article that we read this week was about Buddy Baseball and today we read about Google's driverless cars. 

Yesterday was also an amazing book release day. Two books that I am especially excited about that debuted on shelves are Quest by Aaron Becker and The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. Both these books may be in the running for a Caldecott and Newbery Medal. If you are looking for a great read, try to find these books I do not think they will disappoint.  

Happy Reading!!