Hello Book Bums families!
Warmer weather is here, and we are all thinking about summer. This week's newsletter has over 70 book recommendations so your kids will never run out of book ideas. Now is a great time to visit the library or put some books on hold so you are ready when summer break begins!
"Books are a uniquely portable magic."
- Stephen King, author
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Word of the Week
portable (port-ah-bull) adjective/describing word - able to be carried.
Smart phones changed the world, in part, because they made the internet portable by allowing us to carry it in our pockets.
Literary Calendar
• May 20 is the birthday of author Mary Pope Osborne.
• Osborne is the author of the popular chapter book series Magic Tree House where brother and sister duo Jack and Annie travel through time and space with help of some books and a magical tree house they discover near their home.
Tips for Families
The best way to promote reading is to have great books handy. Leave them everywhere your child might be tempted to pick one up. They can’t be just any ol’ books, though. You need books that your child can read and is motivated to read. If your child cannot decode the words on the pages accurately, you do the reading while your child gets explicit, systematic phonics instruction. (Email [email protected] if you have questions about that.) If your child CAN read the words on the pages with accuracy, all you’ve got to do is find irresistible books and provide plenty of time and space for reading.
Here are some ideas to get your summer off to a great start:
Remember, kids need some down time—even if it’s planned down time. My grown boys still remember the many, many days we all gathered to read together during summer months. Sometimes it was on a big blanket under a tree. Sometimes, on stiflingly hot days, we relished an hour of reading in the air conditioning, all of us lounging around the great room. Other days, we each took a cushioned wicker chair on the shady front porch. You could even try a coffee shop date with older kids. The thing is . . . you need to do it together.
If you don’t have a bin with books in your bathroom, yet, consider adding one! I had been known to stock my bathroom with all kinds of books—and because our main bathroom is right by a window, I once added bird identification books along with a pair of binoculars! Keep lots of good books rotating in, and feel free to get creative.
A simple flashlight at bedtime might inspire some under-the-covers-reading. Add a basket of books along with a flashlight to your child’s bedside table this summer.
When you’re packing the pool bag, stick in some books for the kids. Adult swim is boring if you don’t have something to do while you’re out of the water. (You can also take some fat paint brushes and some cups with you. Your kids can paint words on the concrete with their wet brushes and then watch the words evaporate in the sun.)
Visit your local library often. To add to the fun, your kids can invite another book-loving friend to meet them there. Together, they are bound to find more great books.
Do you have some more ideas? Share them with us, and we’ll put them in an upcoming newsletter.
From our Bookshelves
It’s the time of year when we’re outside more, and if you live near water, you’re seeing ducks and geese as they are upending and dabbling. When reading Just Ducks by Nicola Davies we not only enjoy the story of a young girl who lives near a river that is home to lots of ducks, we also learn what words like upending and dabbling actually mean. You see, interspersed within the story, Davies adds lots of fun facts about mallard ducks and their curious behaviors. This book is a wonderful example of literary nonfiction. These types of books are fact-filled, but they are also beautifully crafted, using literary techniques that make the information shared more lyrical.
I love noticing things like onomatopoeia (sound words) such as quack-quuuack-quack which really shows what ducks sound like! I also enjoy the alliteration (glossy green heads and neat white collars). This book has an index which tells on which pages the reader can find particular “duck things” such as nesting, predators, and upending.
Another inexpensive way to complement the story is to provide your kids with some watercolors and paper and invite them to paint some ducks and their surroundings Salvatore Rubbino-style! The illustrations are simple and glorious.
Tips for Readers and Writers
Last week we said that we’d share lots of great books for kids to read on their own.
Here are 20 of our favorite titles for beginning elementary readers:
Click the link to find the books on Amazon!
Last week we said that we’d share lots of great books for kids to read on their own.
Here are 20 of our favorite titles for beginning elementary readers:
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa series, Erica Silverman
King and Kayla series, Dori, Hillestad Butler
Henry and Mudge series, Cynthia Rylant
Annie and Snowball series, Cynthia Rylant
Mercy Watson series, Kate DiCamillo
Elephant and Piggie books, Mo Willems
Pigeon books, Mo Willems
Danny and the Dinosaur, Syd Hoff
Katie Woo series, Fran Manushkin
Fly Guy series, Tedd Arnold
Frog and Toad books, Arnold Lobel
Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss
Big Fat Cow Goes Kapow, Andy Griffiths.
Zack’s Alligator series, Shirley Mozelle
Little Bear series, Else Holmelund Minarik
Press Start series, Thomas Flintham
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Alice Dalgliesh
The Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dalgliesh
Nancy Drew Clue Crew series, Carolyn Keene
Nate the Great series, Marjorie W. Sharmat
Here are 50 of our favorite titles for more advanced elementary readers:
The Bad Guys series, Aaron Blabey
Dragon Masters, Tracey West
The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Warner
Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
Freckle Juice, Judy Blume
The Magic Tree House series, Mary Pope Osborn
Judy Moody and Stink series, Megan McDonald
A-Z Mysteries, Rob Roy
The Story of Thomas Alva Edison Inventor: The Wizard of Menlo Park, Margaret Davidson
Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner
Top Secret, John Reynolds Gardiner
All About Sam, Lois Lowry
Socks, Beverly Cleary
Clementine, Sarah Pennypacker
Ivy and Bean, Annie Barrows
The Doll People, Ann Martin
Rowan of Rin, Emily Rodda
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims, Clyde Robert Bulla
Molly’s Pilgrim, Barbara Cohen
The Stories Julian Tells, Ann Cameron
Absolutely Lucy series, Ilene Cooper
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Cam Jansen, David A. Adler
Katie Kazoo series, Nancy Krulik
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Richard Atwater
Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
Chocolate Touch, Patrick Skene Catling
George Brown, Class Clown, Nancy Krulik
Andrew Lost, On the Dog series, J. C. Greenburg
Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo
The Trumpet of the Swan, E. B. White
Dragon Slayers’ Academy, Kate McMullan
Old Yeller, Fred Gipson
How to Eat Fried Worms, Thomas Rockwell
The Jacket, Andrew Clements
Mick Harte Was Here, Barbara Park
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
The Great Cake Mystery, Alexander McCall Smith
Jake Drake Bully Buster, Andrew Clements
Love That Dog, Sharon Creech
School Days According to Humphrey, Betty G. Bimey
Little House in the Big Woods, Wilder
Shredderman, Van Draanen
Daisy Dawson series, Steve Voake
Whatever After series, Sarah Mlynowski
Tuesdays at the Castle, Jessica Day George
The Quirks series, Erin Soderberg
Recipe for Adventure series, Giada de Laurentiis
Fancy Nancy chapter book series, Jane O’Connor
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Did we forget some of your favorites? Email Christy at [email protected], and we’ll share another list of great books in the coming weeks.
The tip, here, is to always have a variety of great books on hand for your readers. We’re providing a list to make the book search a little easier for you.
Wordology Workshop
• The Latin root port means to carry.
• Port appears in many common words inlcuding export, transportation, portal, and our word of the week, portable.
• Can you find the root port anywhere else in this week's newsletter?
Practical Grammar
Have you heard of portmanteaus? Even if you’re not familiar with the term, you’ve certainly heard these kinds of words and you’ve even USED them yourself. Portmanteaus is pronounced like this: port-MAN-toe. The first definition is a large suitcase, but the second definition is the one that’s popular today, and it’s what I’m sharing, here. It’s name-meshing. It’s blending two words to make one word that combines the meanings.
Here are some common examples:
smoke + fog = smog
breakfast + lunch = brunch
gigantic + enormous = ginormous
brother + romance = bromance
friend + enemy = frenemy
How many can you and your family members think of? Try brainstorming as many as you can the next time you’re in the car together!
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