Pemba's Song

Book #45: Pemba's Song:A Ghost Story by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin

Pemba and her mother move from Brooklyn to Connecticut. As soon as Pemba arrives at the new house, she knows something isn't right. She begins having blackouts and sees an 18th century African-American girl. Something terrible happened to Phyllys, a slave that lived in the house hundred of years earlier, and she needs Pemba's help. Working with Abraham, an eccentric old man who lives nearby, Pemba must uncover the girl's story to finally put her to rest.

This book was a quick read. I enjoyed it but would have liked a bit more meat.  My students liked this book a lot and were very excited to read it.  They breezed through it quickly and easily.  I would recommend it for about 4th to 12th grade (although the older kids may get bored with it and want more to they story just like I did.)

Shooting the Moon

Book #34: Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell

This book is set during the time of the Vietnam War (Conflict? I don't know what we call it now but it was a war in my mind so I'm sticking with it.). Jamie Dexter's brother TJ joins the army and Jamie is thrilled. She has grown up with a Colonel father and she and her family live and breath army life. Jamie can't wait to get letters from her brother describing battles and the sights and smells of Vietnam. But the first letter isn't a letter. It's a roll of film and Jamie learns to develop the film for her brother. As more rolls of film come to Jamie, the shiny exterior of the army begins to fade for her.

I liked this book but it wasn't one that grabbed me and made me keep reading. I think it's appropriate for grades 3+. The reading level is about a middle of 5th grade level though.

The Phantom Tollbooth

Book #33: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Milo is a boy who just doesn't know what to do with himself. When he's in school he wants to be out and when he's out he wants to be in. One day, a tollbooth appears in his bedroom and because he has nothing better to do, he uses it and is transported to a magical land of letters, numbers and nonsense. He embarks on a quest with a watchdog named Tock to rescue Rhyme and Reason. During his adventure, he finds that life is far from boring.

For me, this was a middle of the road book. Good at some parts, lost my interest at others. I ended up just reading beginnings and endings of paragraphs at some parts and completely skipping chapters because I just wanted to be done. Probably not something I should say when I talk about this book to my class.

"'I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.' And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all." (p. 9).

This quote made me think a lot about how many people are taught in school. It's just a "learn this because you'll need it for next year" approach. If the things we're teaching our students are not more important than that, why do they need to know them? I try my hardest to give my students reasons to learn things other than "you'll need it next year." Which brings me to my first difficulty in teaching math this year. The 6th grade curriculum says 6th graders need to know how to find the prime factorization of numbers. Other than being helpful in other math operations, do you ever prime factor a number in real life? I can't think of anyone who uses this in their daily life except for math teachers. Do you know of a way I could make this part of the curriculum more realistic for my students?

Unicorns

Book #31 Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville

Cara lives with her grandmother because her parents left her when she was a child. One day while Cara and her Grandma are out shopping a strange man starts following them. Trying to escape they run into a church and start climbing the bell tower. As the man pursues them Cara's grandmother hands her an amulet and tells her to jump off the bell tower at the 12th toll. When Cara does she finds herself in Luster, the land of the unicorns. There she befriends Lightfoot, a unicorn, the Squijum, a small squirrel like creature, and the Dimblethum, a wookie type animal. They journey through Luster in search of the Old One, pursued by the strange man and the Delvers. Along the way they meet Thomas the Tinker, a dwarf, and a dragon. Before the end Cara must face the truth about who she is and find out who the strange man is that looks familiar.

I enjoyed this book though it was pretty predictable. I would recommend it for 4-6th grades. The reading level is middle of 5th grade.

Freckle Juice

Book #22 Freckle Juice by Judy Blume

Andrew Marcus, a 2nd grader, wants to look like Nicky Lane, a fellow 2nd grader who has freckles. Andrew wants freckles so his mom won't be able to tell if his face is dirty. Sharon, who often tricks Andrew, sells him a secret recipe for Freckle Juice for 50 cents. He drinks the concoction and becomes sick. He then decides to draw freckles on his face with a blue marker. All the kids laugh at him and his teacher gives him a magic freckle remover. Nicky Lane then asks his teacher if he can use the remover also.

This is an extremely quick read (47 pages with pictures)! I don't know if I'm just not into early reader chapter books because they can't really get into a big story or what but I wasn't loving this book. I can see it as something that would be a quick, fun and easy read for 1st or 2nd graders but I'm not into teaching younger grades so I wasn't into it.

Saul, Julie and Keoko

I had an appointment to get Saul's oil changed today. (Saul is my car's name. It's an old man name and I think my car is creeping to old man status pretty quickly so it fits him nicely) This oil change was supposed to happen 2 months and 1000 miles ago...oops! I've been a little preoccupied lately, anyway, I got up in plenty of time, took a shower, barely got ready but still ended up leaving late. How does this happen? When I was in high school I was impeccable at being on time to EVERYTHING. In this last 6 months to a year I've become horrible at being on time. Maybe my late-for-everything-friends finally rubbed off on me. Ugh.

Looking for a job...

is very possibly the worst experience in the world. I got an email from a principal yesterday wanting to set up an interview. Sure sounds great. I email back saying any time is great. She emails me "How about 10am on Friday?" I again say sure sounds great. She emails me back later saying wait that doesn't work, "How about in between 2:20 and 3pm?" I email back "Does 2:30 work?" Still no response. I'm showing up at 2:30. End of story. On another note, I heard from a professor that an elementary in Salt Lake was looking for a 1st grade teacher and wanted a Westminster grad. The professor said to call the principal, mention that I graduated from Westminster, was interested in the job and that the professor had told me about it. Easy enough. I tried to talk to the principal but I had to get through Maggie, the secretary. I think Maggie secretly wants to be a bouncer at a club and I'm not wearing a short enough skirt or slipping her a 20. So I just faxed my resume like Maggie said. We'll see what happens.

Book # 8: When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

The first thing I noticed about this book was how similar it was to A Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi. This story is told from two perspectives--Sun-hee and Tae-yul. Sun-hee and Tae-yul are sister and brother. They alternate as narrators of separate chapters, and many times they both provide individual views of the same events. The book follows their experiences living in Korea as it is occupied by Japan during WWII. The novel provides accurate information about the war. Some chapters were dry and boring and I found myself skipping over a lot while I was completely engrossed by other chapters. I don't think I would give this book to anyone younger than 5th grade primarily because the level is pretty high and it would probably become quite discouraging for younger readers. Also, the content may be a bit controversial for some students. I'm giving this book 3 stars. If you're really interested in this subject, this is a good book, but there are better ones out there.

"You burn the paper but not the words. You silence the words but not the thoughts. You kill the thoughts only if you kill the man. And you will find that his thoughts rise again in the minds of others--twice as strong as before!" (p. 106)

"How could an alphabet--letters that didn't even mean anything by themselves--be important? But it was important. Our stories, our names, our alphabet. Even Uncle's newspaper. it was all about words. If words weren't important, they wouldn't try so hard to take them away." (p. 107)

Bunches of Made Up Words

Book #4: Frindle by Andrew Clements

I enjoyed this book. It was a very easy read and is about a 2nd-4th grade level book. It's is about a boy named Nick who learns from his teacher that words mean what they mean because we say they do. He gets an idea to start calling pens "frindles" and soon has his whole school using the word. The story follows his 5th grade year and how the word frindle grows into a nation wide word. I give this book 3 stars.

Book #5: The BFG by Roald Dahl

I can hear the outcry now. I'm sure people are going to be very upset with me for saying this but I HATED THIS BOOK! I usually like books by Roald Dahl but this was the exception. I think the reason I hated this book so badly was because of the massive amount of made up words and because of The BFG's horrible grammar. Why are giants always so bad at speaking standard English? Is it in their gigantic DNA? I had the most difficult time finishing this book and actually put it down many times because I was sick of it. I was very disappointed because I had heard that it's a great book. I didn't think so. I gave this book 2 stars. One of the stars was just because it's written by Roald Dahl.




I also had an interview for a 6th grade position today. I rocked it hard! I was so relieved to know that I can give a good interview, the first two I was just a ball of nerves. Now I've gotten over my anxieties and I think I'm going to get a job soon. I hope it all goes well. By the way, this principal taught 6th grade at Jordan Ridge (where I went) when I was in 6th grade. Small world, right?