Belfast Free Library

I'm sending out a big THANK YOU to the Belfast Free Library who will be loaning us the multiple copies of select titles to get us started this summer! Please do not forget that these books must be returned to me by the conclusion of the summer program, August 17th. The books will thereafter be available at the Belfast Library. And, to make it easy for you to borrow those books, or any others, as part of the summer reading program I will be sending home parental permission slips for students to register for their own cards at the Belfast Library. (these are not required to be in the program, I'm just happy to offer the opportunity!)

If it seems to be in our schedule, I would love to take a field trip to the Belfast Free Library with everyone!

Dark Emperor

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

Like Sidman's Caldecott Honor Book, Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems (2005), this picture book combines lyrical poetry and compelling art with science concepts. Here, poems about the woods at night reveal exciting biology facts that are explained in long notes on each double-page spread. In a poem about crickets, lines describe “the raucous scrape / of wing against wing,” while a prose passage explains that the cricket's wing has a serrated “file,” which the cricket rubs against a hard “scraper” on its other wing to attract a mate, creating a sound called “stridulation” that can swell to deafening levels. The facts are further reinforced in the accompanying picture, which shows the small file on a cricket's wing. In an opening note, Allen explains his elaborate, linoleum-block printmaking technique, and each atmospheric image shows the creatures and the dense, dark forest with astonishing clarity. Looking closely at a picture of a snail, for example, readers will see the physical detail, described in an adjacent poem, in the small animals' moist, sluglike bodies, “riding on a cushion of slime.” The thrilling title poem captures the drama of predator and prey: a mouse in the undergrowth flees an owl's “hooked face and / hungry eye.” A final glossary concludes this excellent, cross-curricular title.

Portland Sea Dogs

Another super fun donation for the Mount View Elementary MSBA Readers Summer Program, from the Portland Sea Dogs... vouchers for tickets to select games!

Old Fort Western

The wonderful folks at Old Fort Western in Augusta have donated some visitor passes for participants in the Mount View Elementary MSBA Summer Readers program! Thank you so much!

Cloud Tea Monkeys

Cloud Tea Monkeys In this original tale, inspired by a Himalayan legend, young Tashi befriends some wild monkeys near the tea plantation where her mother picks tea leaves. When her mother becomes ill and unable to work, the monkeys come to the girl’s rescue. Vividly illustrated and beautifully written with descriptive details.

Facebook Page

Everyone has a facebook page these days (I actually have a few), so why not the Mount View Elementary MSBA Readers too?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mount-View-Elementary-MSBA-Readers/109627819129770

Summer Reading Program

To kick things off a little early, I will be leading a MSBA group during the Summer Reading Program, at the Mount View Elementary School Library. We will meet Wednesdays from 2pm-3pm, July 6th through August 17th. I have selected the following titles to have available for us to choose from at the first meetings, but you are free to pick another title from the list at any time!

Cloud Tea Monkeys (Mal Peet)

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (Joyce Sidman)

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester  (Barbara O'Connor)

The Sixty-Eight Rooms (Marianne Malone) 

A Tale Dark and Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)

Maine Student Book Awards at Mount View Elementary!

I am honored to be leading the book group at Mount View Elementary School for the 2011-2012 Maine Student Book Awards! The program will run through March 2012, with the students then voting in April for their favorite book from the list. The students in the program will be from fourth and fifth grades. I thought this blog might be a good way to keep us in touch!