Princess Ponies: A Magical Friend

Princess Ponies #1

A Magical Friend

By: Chloe Ryder

Chevalia is a magical island. Only people who love ponies can find the island. The island is in trouble the eight golden horse shoes that provide the island its magic have been stolen. Pippa went the beach with her family one day and the next thing she knew she was at Chevalia. She promises to help Princess Stardust find the missing golden horseshoes. They go on an adventure and find the first horseshoe returning it to it's rightful home. The book is an early chapter book perfect for readers in grades 1 to 3, the story includes some black line drawings to support the storyline. 

Owl Diaries "Eva's Treetop Festival"

Owl Diaries Series Book #1

Eva's Treetop Festival

By: Rebecca Elliott

Owl Diaries is a cute early chapter book. The book is written with pictures and small chunks of text on each page. Eva Wingdale is the main character who writes about the events in her life. In book #1 she wants to plan a festival because she is bored. She does not like to ask for help from others, but soon realizes that she needs others in order to create her vision for the festival. With the help of others the festival is a success. The book is a great introduction into personal journal writing. Students could create their own diary as an extension to reading this series.

The Trials of Apollo

The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle

by Rick Riordan

Summary: Rick Riordan has produced another great novel about Camp Half-Blood. Apollo is a great new character to explore and read about. He is humorous and very self centered. Zeus has banished him to the mortal world in a human vessel. Being banished is nothing new to Apollo, but being vulnerable is a different story. The campers at Camp Half-Blood have been vanishing from camp. Apollo comes to camp discovering the disappearances and the fact that the oracles are not working. He takes on the quest to solve the disappearances with the help of a friend. He comes to realize that Meg is not on his side completely and he is being played by her. His quest to find the Grove of Dodona is successful but at a price. People he thinks are friends turn out not have his back and the camp suffers a tremendous amount of destruction. By the end he is still mortal and has not proven himself to Zeus. He comes to realize his help is needed to defeat the former emperors and restore the Oracle of Delphi by facing his old enemy Python.

LSSL 5385 Text Book Chart

I have created a chart outlining key concepts, future applications in the library of the concepts and examples of the concepts in action through literature from 25 books in my blog. The textbook that is illustrated in this chart is Making the Match by Teri S. Lesesne.

Lesesne, T. (2003). Making the match. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

View Chart at this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Qej3vD_6WL_7gbnaMUEbwsEVHjcdd5vJPB1Q6UWr3Q/edit?usp=sharing

When You Reach Me

Stead, R. (2009). When you reach me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books.

About the book: Miranda receives a few mysterious notes that predicts future events. The story starts out in current time for Miranda and then she remembers events that happen around the time she received the first note. She tells about her relationship with Sal and how he stopped being her friend. She becomes friends with Annmarie and Colin. Every day at lunch for almost two months they help the sandwich guy at his shop. She meets Marcus who beat up Sal the last time she remembers Sal talking to her. Marcus is lost in thought in his head a lot. Miranda and Marcus discuss the possibility of time travel. A Wrinkle in Time is Miranda’s favorite book. Eventually the sequence of events leads up to Sal being almost hit by a vehicle. The Laughing Guy that would stand on the corner and frighten her; kicked Sal out of the way and was hit instead. Miranda comes to the conclusion time travel is possible and the laughing guy came to the future to save Sal. He practiced everyday with kicking his leg out into the street. She also concluded that Marcus and the laughing guy are the same people.

Readers Response: In When You Reach Me, Miranda’s favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time. Her favorite book involves time travel. Miranda is trying to solve a mystery of who is leaving the notes and why. Her reflections on past events help her put the pieces together. An activity that could be done with this book is reading both books and talk about similarities and differences. Then pose some of Peck’s questions for the students to answer in reflection to one of the two books.

The Author's website: http://www.rebeccasteadbooks.com/

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Green, J. & Levithan, D. (2010). Will Grayson, Will Grayson. New York: Dutton Books. 

About the book: Will Grayson is best friends with Tiny – a very big, person and personality. They have been friends since elementary school. Tiny happens to be gay. Will Grayson meets Jane through Tiny. A girl with a great taste in music and is not afraid to say what she thinks. Will Grayson struggles to break out of his comfort zone and participate in life. He wavers back and forth about liking Jane. Finally, when she is not available he decides he does like her. Tiny of course pushes him towards Jane. One night they all go to a bar to hear a band play. Will Grayson’s fake i.d. does not work to get him in. The others leave him behind and he runs into another person named will grayson. The new Will Grayson is gay and has just found out his supposed friend set him up with an imaginary person in order to get him to own up to being gay. Tiny takes the new will grayson and distracts him from the issue. They start dating, Tiny throwing his whole self in as he always does in relationships. will grayson struggles with being needed by Tiny and struggles with his depression. Tiny has written a musical about his life and works on organizing the production of the musical. Will Grayson the best friend does not want him to use the character that portrays him, but Tiny does not relent just changes the character’s name. They have a few falling outs during this time period. The emotional struggles that occur help them to start to understand and begin to become more comfortable with who they are. Will Grayson and Jane become boyfriend and girlfriend, Tiny and Will Grayson break up, and finally everyone let’s Tiny know how much he is appreciated by them.

Readers Response: The text is told by two different characters with the same name. The text changes as the different Will Grayson tells his story. Regular use of capital letters in the text for the original Will Grayson and no capital letters for the other will grayson. The book Will Grayson, Will Grayson would be an excellent addition to a booktalk that was about books by the authors John Green and D. Levithan. If I used as this book as the opener I would read the conversation between will grayson and Tiny when they are breaking up. I think it would make a reader want to learn more about the characters and consider reading the book. Some other books I might include in the booktalk would be Every Day by Levithan, An Abundance of Katherines by Levithan, The Realm of Possibility by Levithan, The Lover’s Dictionary by Levithan, Let it Snow by Green, and The Fault in Our Stars by Green.

Questions about the book answered by the author: http://johngreenbooks.com/wg-questions/

More Happy Than Not

Silvera, A. (2015). More happy than not. New York: Soho Teen.

About the book: More Happy Than Not is on the 2016 Best Fiction for Young Adults list by YALSA. Aaron lives in a time that people can go to a clinic and forget painful memories in order to lead a happy life. At the beginning of the story Aaron is dealing with the aftermath of his dad’s suicide and his attempted suicide. He has a girlfriend and decides to have sex with her before she goes away for 3 weeks to art camp. Aaron plays games in his neighborhood with his neighborhood crew. One day he meets Thomas and they become fast best friends. Aaron believes himself to be straight and in love with Genevieve his girlfriend. He starts to develop feelings for Thomas, struggling to understand what that means. Thomas does not return his affections. The neighborhood crew realize he is gay and beat him up really badly. His brain starts to unwind and he realizes he had Leteo wipe his memory of being gay. He picks back up with his boyfriend Collin, but soon realizes something is not right. He develops memory problems and struggles to hold onto reality. He decides to cut all friendships so he can remember the happy past parts and so he does not cause hurt to his friends. His mother and brother support him and try to help him live a happy life. He hopes that one day Leteo will develop technology to help him fix the memory problems.

Readers Response: In Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, he states three levels; preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. In the book More Happy Than Not the moral decision of is it right or wrong for someone to wipe your memories can be contemplated while reading. After reading the class could have a debate about the pros and cons of the reality of Leteo existing on our society. After reading I pondered how many people would participate in Leteo if it was a service today. So many people who are hateful and refuse to accept others for who they are. By discussing a social issue that is not real it gives the students a safe place to work through their thinking and feelings about making choices in a safer climate.

Author's Website: http://www.adamsilvera.com/