Have you read a good book this summer that you would like to share?  Bring the title and a short summary of the book into school or send it to my email and I will post it here.

Today the class finished a wonderful story called Stone Fox.  It was written by John Reynolds Gardiner.  In the story a young boy is living on a farm with his grandfather.  For some reason the grandfather becomes ill and is not able to talk, walk, or in any way communicate.  Little Willy decides that he will save his grandfather by saving the farm.  He works hard to bring in the potato crop with help from his loyal dog Searchlight.  This is not enough however, and Little Willy needs to find another way.  Willy and his dog, Searchlight enter a dogsled race and try to win the $500 prize.  This would be enough to save the farm.  Unfortunately there was another contestant who also wanted to win the race.  Stone Fox had never lost a race before. 

Who would win and go home with the prize money?  Read to find out the heartbreaking end to this story.

In this historical fiction novel written by Harry Mazer, a young boy named Adam has just moved to Honolulu, Hawaii.  He has finally started to make friends with some of the boys from school when they decide to go fishing one morning.  After climbing a fence and finding a small row boat on the military base they head out into the harbor to fish.  Planes begin to fly overhead and the boys stop to watch the military planes fly overhead.  Suddenly they realize these are not American planes but Japanese planes and bombs were being dropped.  As the boys struggle to reach safety they realize that life is changing for all of them.

 

This was a great read at a Fountas and Pinnel level T.  It gives a good look at what happened on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Lawn Boy focuses on the summer vacation of a 12 year old boy.  Gary Paulson's 12 year old character starts off his summer with an unusual gift from his grandmother.  She gives him a riding lawn mower.  Before he knows it he is making money hand over fist and cutting everyone's lawns in his neighborhood.  When he can't handle everything on his own, Lawn Boy, becomes an entrepreneur and hires helpers to take over some of his duties.  In his adventures he meets a boxer and must fight off some organized crime figures.  He also becomes involved with a stockbroker and that could really change his life forever. 

This book is a great summer read and is a Fountas and Pinnel level V.
 

Hoot is set in South Florida and has a cast off unusual characters.  Roy, the main character, has moved over and over again because his father works for the US Government in the DOJ.  Roy is not sure exactly what he does but thinks he must be good at it because they make him move a lot.  As the new kid Roy faces off against some bullies and is captivated by an unusual kid he sees running past the bus sop one morning.  No one knows who that kid is and the weirdest thing is that he doesn't have any shoes.  Roy gets into some unusual situations as he begins to look for the mystery boy. 

Strange things are also happening all across town as construction is set to begin for a new breakfast place.  Read to find out how Roy deals with the bullies, finds new friends, and saves a protected bird, and solves the vandalism mystery.  Carl Hiaasen did a great job on this Newberry Honor Book.  It is a Fountas and Pinnel level W.  Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down!
 

Today I decided to focus on a book from a series.  Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventure #12: Escape to California, features a familiar set of characters (Stanley, his brother Arthur, Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop) along with a few new ones.  In this story the Lambchop family head out to San Francisco, California on a family vacation.  Once they arrive Stanley steps up to help a girl who has lost control of her wheelchair and is headed down the steep hills of San Francisco.  Things suddenly go wrong and Stanley and his father are kidnapped  leading up to a surprising adventure in which Stanley needs to lead an escape from one of the countries most notorious prisons, Alcatraz.

This book is perfect for students reading at the third grade level (Fountas and Pinnel level O) or those who enjoy adventure stories. Once you are hooked on a series it is fun to keep on reading to see where the characters will take you next. 

I just finished reading Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail by Kate Messner.  This book reminded me of the Magic Tree House series because the main character travels to the past to help others in need.  The main character in the book is a golden retriever named Ranger.  After digging up a first aid kit in the yard he travels back to the 1800's and joins a wagon train heading west on the Oregon Trail.  A lot of the events in the story are real things that could have happened in the 1800's.  I really liked this book and if you were a Magic Tree House fan you should give it a try too.

This book by Avi is a great historical fiction story but it is written at a higher level.  It is a Fountas and Pinnel level W(about a 6th grade reading level) and has won the Newberry Medal for literature.  In the text a young boy is cast out of his village in the middle ages after his mother dies.  He overheard a conversation in the woods and has been declared a "wolf's head."  This pretty much makes him an enemy of the state and anyone is allowed to hunt him down and return him dead or alive.  He needs to do many things in order to survive and save his new friend who has been captured for helping him.

I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble yesterday (thank you to my students for the gift card) and was not able to stop reading it until I was done.  This is a great book for older brothers or sisters or even parents who enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy. It is a little too advanced for my third graders. (Sorry kids) Marie Lu did a great job writing about a future America that is divided and fighting itself.  Children are tested at age 10 to find their purpose in the republic.  The main characters Day and June are on opposite sides and face off against each other as adversaries until one realizes that everything they had believed in was untrue. 

I have already contacted the public library to reserve the next book in the trilogy, Prodigy, and can't wait until it comes in so I can continue to read the series.