Hello Book Bums families!
As July comes to a close, we hope you are enjoying lots of summertime moments. This week in the newsletter we have practical advice, a book recommendation about family history, and great ideas for reading with your kids and starting some literary conversations.
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Word of the Week
scenario (se-nayr-ee-oh) noun/person, place, or thing -a sequence of events, especially hypothetical or imagined
My mom plans for worst-case scenarios by always traveling with an umbrella, first-aid kit, and water.
Literary Calendar
• Hey Harry Potter fans, July 31 is Harry's birthday!
• This is the date in the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, when the owls start arriving with Harry's letter from Hogwarts.
• If you have an 11 year-old hoping for their own letter, you can use this template and balloon owl idea.
From our Bookshelves
Imagine investigating and learning all about your family history. You’ve got names and dates of births, deaths, and marriages to compile a well-appointed family tree. You’ve got journal entries, stacks of letters written to and from your relatives, and pads filled with notes you’ve taken as you’ve conversed with those who knew your family members. You’ve used every tool afforded at Ancestry.com, and you’ve begun imagining the conversations and the emotions experienced by those who helped to make you who you are—from five generations ago.
The Postcard by Anne Berest is based on true events from her own family on her mother’s side. Berest fictionalized history by creating subplots and imagined scenarios and by adding personalities and emotions to the facts. She speaks of herself, one of the characters in the story, in third person (using she instead of I). This kind of writing is known as autofiction.
The Postcard is not for the faint of heart, for within the pages the reader will find graphic violence as well as drug use, antisemitic language, and suicide. That’s to be expected when reading about the deteriorating safety of Jews in Europe as Hitler came into power.
Though The Postcard was translated from French to English and there were French words used that I had no idea how to pronounce, the story came through. Following is the review that resonates with mine.
“The story overall is poignant, tense, restless, and ultimately pivotal, as Anne not only solves her mystery, but, more importantly, gains her identity...The anguish and horror of genocide arrive with fresh impact in an absorbing personal account.”—Kirkus Reviews
Tips for Readers and Writers
When trying to “make” your kids read this school year, it’s not effective to incentivize reading a certain number of books or minutes with extrinsic rewards. That’s why BOOK IT is no more. (You remember BOOK IT, don’t you?)
Threats do little to inspire could-be readers.
The way you frame your child’s reading time is important. Rather than threatening or incentivizing, make book reading the reward.
It’s not, “If you don’t read your books then you won’t get time on your device.”
It’s, “You have been so responsible with turning off your device the first time I ask, I’m going to take you on a date to Joseph-Beth and we can spend some extra time reading—just you and me—tonight!”
Kids want time with YOU. If you want to make the time with you even more enjoyable, add a great book.
• Books spark great conversations. (I can see why Phil assumed Daniel stole the jacket. Would you have assumed the same thing? ~The Jacket, by Andrew Clements)
• Books provide opportunities for introducing new vocabulary. (What do you think he means when he says, “ . . . a whole raft of lemons.” (It means a LOT of lemons. The Stories Julian Tells, by Ann Cameron)
• Books can inspire “firsts” like trying to start a fire together using flint and steel. (My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George)
• Books can inspire kids to work hard even when things get tough. (Chocolate by Hershey, by Betty Burford)
• Books can promote family values. (You just did something little Willy would have done. Thank you so much for not giving up on what was important to you. Stone Fox, by John Reynolds Gardiner)
I could go on and on.
Make reading rewarding. Sending your kids off to get their reading done isn’t inspiring. If your kids love you reading to them, but they don’t like reading themselves, they’re probably not equipped well enough, yet, to read the words. Kids don’t like doing what they’re not good at. (Isn’t that true for all of us?) It’s unfair to ask kids to read words they haven’t been sufficiently equipped to decode. Until they’re well equipped, you lead the way by reading lots and lots of books with them.
Pause for Poetry
on paper
The first time I write my full name
Jacqueline Amanda Woodson
without anybody's help
on a clean white page in my composition notebook,
I know
if I wanted to
I could write anything.
Letters becoming words, words gathering meaning,
becoming
thoughts outside my head
becoming sentences
written by
Jacqueline Amanda Woodson
Tips for Families
As the weather cools, many of us are determined to get our garages organized. If you have any hazardous waste to dispose of, you should know that every Thursday until November 21st, between the hours of 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., you can take things like old oil-based paint, varnish, or stain; old automotive fluids, old pesticides and fertilizers, solvents, drain cleaners, batteries, expired fire extinguishers, propane, helium, or oxygen tanks, fluorescent bulbs, driveway sealer, kerosene, and old pool chemicals to Republic Services at 3555 Yankee Road in Liberty Township. For more information, go to www.butlercountyrecycles.org.
Just for Fun
Name the vowels, from left to right, in Celine Dion’s name.
(Remember, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u.)
Celine Dion
Speaking of vowels . . .
Did you know that there are some words with all five vowels?
Obviously the most appropriate one is:
education
This one has the vowels in alphabetical order!
facetious
Tips for Husbands (Bonus)
Practical Grammar
News from Book Bums
We’re just finishing up the Faith Alliance Summer Literacy Program! Thank you to all who dedicated your time to sit alongside kids who really needed you over the past eight weeks. We saw tremendous growth in our students, and we know you enjoyed being a part of that. Doesn’t it feel great to know that we’re sending kids back to school better equipped for academic success? You helped to make that happen, and we’re so grateful.
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