Reading Abounds

Title:  Elephants Cannot Dance! Series:  Elephant and Piggie Author:  Mo Willems Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 35689 Description:  Gerald the elephant is certain that he cannot dance but his friend Piggie convinces him to try. Curriculum Links:  Character Ed: Perseverance Character Ed: Respect Character Ed: Kindness Learning Differences Arts: Dance Social Studies: Feelings Reading: Transforming Notes:  Design:  Piggie dancing next to a dejected elephant on the cover just makes you want to open the book.  The title automatically makes you wonder if really elephants can dance!  The front endpapers show Piggie dancing and the back endpapers show elephant trying to dance and pigeon too! Content and Illustrations:  The story is well written.  The book may say that elephants cannot dance but it doesn't say that they cannot "try."  This is such a great concept for young readers.  So while Piggie attempts to teach elephant to dance, elephant has

Title:  Burning Blue Author:   Paul Griffin Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 75470 Description:    When beautiful, smart Nicole, disfigured by acid thrown in her face, and computer hacker Jay meet in the school psychologist's office, they become friends and Jay resolves to find her attacker. Rubric Rating:  Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It:   I had read Adrift by Paul Griffin and this novel sounded good as well. Notes:    I liked this book and read it over the course of two days.  Jay and Nicole go to the same school, they know of each other but don’t know each other.  Nicole is the school beauty queen and Jay is a loner with epilepsy. At an assembly in Freshman year Jay had an epileptic attack in front of the whole school.  He hasn’t been back since with the exception of meeting with Mrs. Schmidt the school Psychologist. Nicole’s life was great until someone squirted battery acid onto her face.  When Jay and Nicole meet Jay decides to take it upon himself to f

Title:  Guppy Up! Author:  Jonathan Fenske Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 67788 Description:  Illustrations and simple rhyming text introduce a guppy with some unusual interests, such as shopping, mopping, and playing the guitar. Curriculum Links:  Kindergarten: Early Reading Reading: Word Play and Spoonerisms (eg. Guppy sips on a drink, Guppy drips on a sink.) Reading: Word Recognition Science: Animals Social Studies: Feelings Art: Lines Notes:  Design:  This is a typically designed early reader.  It was the bright orange on the cover that made me pick up the book and the title - Guppy Up! sounded a little like giddy up and I wondered what this fish would get up to.  This book is designed for an emergent reader so there is very little writing on each page and almost each sentence is limited to two words.   Content and Illustrations:   This is one interesting guppy! For a book with few words this fish has a lot going on.  The illustrations are simple.  I w