Walk Two Moons... and Read Many Books!

Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.... In Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (RL 6.6), thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle and her beloved grandparents travel by car from Ohio to Idaho, tracing the path of Sal’s missing mother.  Sal had a loving relationship with her mother and is devastated by her sudden departure.

During the journey west, Sal shares with Gram and Gramps the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom, whose discontented mother also left her family. As Phoebe’s tale unfolds, similarities and differences between the two friends’ lives become clear, and we begin to understand Sal’s story.   

Walk Two Moons is about coming to terms with the loss of a loved one and about the development of new relationships and friendships.  What will Sal find at the end of the road?  We can learn more about Sharon Creech and her storytelling.  Click on the red-highlighted words to get started.

Mrs. Nigro shares a favorite.

Mrs. Nigro enthusiastically recommends the 1995 Newbery Medal winner, promising, “The story-within-a-story is one you won’t want to put down.  You will laugh, and you will cry.”  
This summer, the fourth grade Language Arts teacher is reading by her pool, in the mountains of Colorado, and on the beaches of North Carolina. 

We think Mrs. Nigro may want to pack a few titles from Carole Marsh’s Real Kids, Real Places for her summer travels.  Each mystery in the series incorporates geography, humor, history, and culture—and includes related quizzes and activities.  Click on the red-highlighted words to learn more! 

In The Mystery in the Rocky Mountains (RL 4.9), Grant, Christina, and two friends join their mystery-writing parents on a trip to Denver, Colorado, and find themselves navigating a haunted hotel, a scary ski slope, and mountains of clues as they work to solve a mile-high mystery.

In The Mystery at Kill Devil Hills (RL 4.5), the friends find themselves racing through aviation history to locate the Wright Brothers’ plane, which has gone missing before a celebration of Orville and Wilbur’s historic first flight.

More about Mothers and Daughters:  In The Mother Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick (RL 4.2), four very different girls— at their mothers’ urging— come together to read classic fiction, learning valuable lessons about family, friendship, and middle school life along the way.

Lafayette Readers Layla and Mia like The Mother Daughter Book Club.

Travel to a classic: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien (RL YA). Published in 1937, the story introduces us to respectable hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole— until wandering wizard Gandalf recruits him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.  Take a look at a book commercial, created by Jamie W.

Krishna B. recommends The Hobbit.

 

More about Moccasins: In Who Was Sacajawea? by Judith Bloom Fradin (RL 4.9), readers learn about the life and times of the Shoshoni woman who accompanied explorers Lewis and Clark on their historic early nineteenth-century expedition.  This title from the popular Who Was? biography series describes Sacajawea’s early life and education:
  

The Shoshoni did not have schools.  Sacajawea learned by working beside the women of her tribe.  She collected wood for fires.  She helped make moccasins, clothing, and tipis.  She picked berries and dug roots for her family to eat.  She learned to make medicine from plants.   

We walk many moons in Sacajawea’s remarkable moccasins: the sixteen-year-old travelled thousands of miles on foot, on horseback, and by canoe— carrying a baby on her back!

Two centuries later, we celebrate Sacajawea with a golden coin bearing her image.  The Sacajawea dollar, minted since 2000, originally featured an eagle on the "tails" side of the coin.  Since 2009, the reverse design has changed yearly, showing different aspects of Native American culture.

Walk a Mile in Julian Twerski’s Shoes: Twerp by Mark Goldblatt (RL 5.1).  When twelve-year-old Julian returns to school after a week-long suspension, his English teacher makes him an offer can’t refuse.  If he keeps a journal—and writes about the bullying incident that got him suspended—he will be excused from writing a report about William Shakespeare. 

Julian begins writing about sixth-grade life.  Page after page-turning page, there remains one story Julian can't bring himself to tell, the one story his teacher—and readers—most want to hear.  Inspired by the author’s own childhood growing up in 1960s Queens, New York, Twerp is filled with humor and heartache.  Like Walk Two Moons, this conduct-of-life story will have readers laughing and crying along with its cast of imperfect but perfectly-created characters. 

Summer Reading is taking us places!  It's like Salamanca observes in Walk Two Moons:  
On and on we go.  We walk in everybody’s moccasins, and we have discovered some interesting things that way....

In the Swim of Things: Sunshine Series, Jerry Spinelli, and Shark Week!

The calendar has flipped to August, and we’re in the swim of summer reading, diving into popular series that bring sunshine and smiles to the Book Beach...
 

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (RL 4.5).  While she's sorting through friendship difficulties with her neighbor Margaret, eight-year-old Clementine finds lots of topsy turvy trouble and winds up with several unique hairstyles.  She also helps her father in his quest to banish pigeons from the front of the family’s apartment building.

Clementine by Kelly G.

Fourth grade Language Arts teacher Mr. Cleary appreciates the honesty and humor of the Clementine series.  “A kid should be a kid,” he observes, “and Clementine is exactly how I felt as a kid!"  Mr. Cleary will be taking his reading to Virginia Beach this summer.  He believes that once you read the first Clementine book, you’ll be hooked: you’ll want to read the series. 

Clementine by Charlotte P.

Naila I. agrees. “Clementine is a book that any reader will enjoy.  Check it out from the library.  Read the entire series!"  Another enthusiastic Lafayette reader composed a Reading Road Trip letter to the author: 

Dear Sara Pennypacker,

I really enjoyed your book Clementine... the book made me smile.  I could visualize everything that was going on.  My favorite part of the book was when Margaret got her hair cut off.  My best friend and I acted out that scene!  I hope you write many more books!

Love, Amy G. 

Clementine by Ally F.

Let's learn more about the Clementine series and author Sara Pennypacker.  Click on the orange-highlighted words to get started!

Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury (RL 3.3).  Talk about trouble!  On the day before he starts fourth grade, nine-year-old Calvin catches the attention of the school bully. Meanwhile, on the home front, the unfriendly fifteen-year-old daughter of his mother's best friend has taken over his room.

Calvin Coconut by Farrell P.

We can check out all the books in the Calvin Coconut series when Lafayette School takes a Reading Road Trip to Hawaii.  Click on the red-highlighted words to get started.

Reading Road Trip Postcard from Hawaii by Ellie G.

Reading Road Trip Postcard from Hawaii by Amy G.

Next, let’s visit with Jerry Spinelli, an author who never fails to make a splash at Lafayette School:

First punch, first kiss, first sports humiliation: in Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid by Jerry Spinelli (RL 5.4), the Newbery Medal-winning author shares memories of his youth in Norristown, Pennsylvania.  Filled with humor, drama, warmth, and wonder, Jerry Spinelli's story is entertaining and fast-paced... a smooth summer read!

Lafayette reader Ryan recommends Who Ran My Underwear up the Flagpole? by Jerry Spinelli (RL 4.5), fun summer fiction about friendship and football season from the author's School Daze series.  We can learn more about Jerry Spinelli and his many popular books.  Click on the red-highlighted words to get started.

It’s Shark Week!  

Sketch-a-Scene

Since 1987, The  Discovery Channel has celebrated Shark Week, a week-long series of television programs dedicated to... sharks, of course!  Broadcast in over seventy countries, Shark Week raises awareness and respect for the fascinating, fearsome creatures of the ocean.

Let's celebrate Shark Week with games, puzzles, and activities.  Click on the red-highlighted words to get started.

Dive into Shark Week-- and New Jersey history-- with a book from one of Lafayette School’s favorite fiction series: I Survived... The Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis (RL 4).  Ten-year-old Chet Roscow, thrilled by stories of a great white shark terrorizing swimmers along the Atlantic coast, wonders if he sees the beast in the waters of Springfield, New Jersey!

Sharks in the sky: in The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths (RL 5.0), Andy and Terry are trying to write their next book, but they are distracted by the unusual animals and amazing rooms in their unusual, amazing home!  There’s the shark tank... an awesome game room, a bowling alley, a secret laboratory, a comic book library, and self-making beds.

Don’t get out of the water!  In The Missing Manatee by Cynthia DeFelice  (RL 5.1), eleven-year-old Skeeter, coping with his parents' separation, spends most of Spring Break in his boat on a Florida river.  He finds a manatee shot to death and begins searching for the killer.  Natalie H. shares a video book commercial for this suspenseful story:

Swim on, Lafayette Readers, through Sunshine Series, Stories by Jerry Spinelli, and Shark Week.  And remember: your bookmark makes an excellent imaginary flotation device!

Summer Reading: Can You Dig It?

Holes by Louis Sachar (RL 5.1).  If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.  That was what some people thought.  And here is what we think on the Book Beach: if we take a good book and read it every day in the shade, it will turn us into bright and happy summer readers! 

  

An Unlikely Hero: Overweight, bullied, and haunted by a curse that has brought bad luck to his family for generations, Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongly accused of theft and sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center near a not-so-green and dried-up lake in Texas.

  

Soon, Stanley begins to question the motives of the camp warden who forces resident boys to dig five-foot-deep holes in the scorching Texas sun as punishment.  Holes, winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal, is a story about self-discovery, friendship... and buried treasure!

We can play the Holes Match ‘Em Up Challenge or test our skill at the Holes Green Lake Treasure Hunt. Just click on the blue-highlighted words to get started.

Lafayette Principal Mrs. Russo recommends Holes for summer reading fun.  She "loves how the story moves back and forth between the legendary curse and the current time—and how it all connects in the end.”  
Mrs. Russo shares that she will be reading and relaxing in beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine, this summer... and perhaps digging for buried treasure in her own backyard!

Also from Louis Sachar: 

A Sideways Series to Read When We’re Not in School! 

   

Sideways Stories from Wayside School (RL 3.9) presents comical episodes from the thirtieth-floor classroom of a school that was accidentally constructed sideways, with one crazy classroom-- and lots of crazy stories-- on each story.  

In Wayside School is Falling Down (RL 3.9), students learn to tango, deal with the cafeteria’s dreaded mushroom surprise, and study a hobo during show-and-tell.  

In Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (RL 3.3), Pet Day brings dogs and cats, frogs, skunks and pigs... and a pet orange named Fido to the school.  More surprisingly, favorite teacher Mrs. Jewls is expecting a baby.  That means a substitute teacher is coming....

Sideways Movie Poster from Lafayette School!

We can learn more about Louis Sachar and his books.  

Click on the blue-highlighted words to visit the author's website!

A Super Story to Read 
When We’re Not in School!   

Powerless by Matthew Cody (RL 5.3).  After moving to small-town Noble's Green, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Daniel learns that his new friends have extraordinary powers that they will lose when they turn thirteen... unless he can use his regular-kid brain power to protect them!  

Check out a book commercial for Powerless, 

created by Tamer L: 

From Holes... to Whole Nother Stories?

A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup (RL 5.6).  Ethan Cheeseman and his children, ages eight, twelve, and fourteen, hope to make a home in a small, quiet town-- at least long enough to complete work on their LVR-ZX time machine.  Sneaky spies and government agents have been chasing the family, however, and they are about to catch up:

 

Another Whole Nother Story, also by Dr. Cuthbert Soup (RL 6.0).  Ethan Cheeseman time travels with his children—and Captain Jibby and crew—to the year 1668 to put an end to an ancient family curse and to save the children's mother.  Damage to the time machine and the arrival of Mr. 5, however, complicate the adventurers’ return.

No Other Story by-- you guessed it-- Dr. Cuthbert Soup (RL 6.6).  When Mr. Cheeseman and his three smart, polite, and relatively odor-free children travel to the not-so-distant-past, they meet something weirder and wilder than anything they've encountered in their earlier adventures. They are about to meet... alternate versions of themselves! 

Buried Treasure, Sideways Schools, Super Powers,

Time Travelers... Let's Dig into Summer Reading!