All library books due on...

That's right - it's that time of year! In only a few short weeks we will begin to collect all student library books. Since we check out about 40,000 books a year this can be quite a task.

All student library books are due on or by Friday June 9th.

2017-2018 Battle of the Books Titles

We are so proud of the sixty-six students who participated in Battle of the Books this year! Now it's time to start reading for next year. The first five titles have been released!

Grade 4-6

• Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova (Yen Press, 2015)
• Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (Square Fish, 2016)
• Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar (Delacorte, 2015)
• Masterminds by Gordon Korman (Balzer and Bray, 2015)
• A Poem for Peter by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Viking, 2016)

                                         Grade 7-8

• Flying Lessons and Other Stories by Ellen Oh (Crown Books, 2017)
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin YR, 2016)
• One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes (Bloomsbury 2017)
• The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz (Simon and Schuster, 2016)
• We Will Not Be Silent by Russell Freedman (Clarion, 2016)

Congratulations Disney Battle of the Books Teams!!

Both the 4-6 and 7-8 grade teams qualified for the City Finals! 217 teams competed and only the top 15 team in each age group advance to the City Finals. Congratulations!

Battle of the Books Teams

This morning Ms. Herceg and I had the opportunity to announce the students that will be representing Disney for Battle of the Books.

Our 4-6 grade team:
Brazil
Izabella
Kaitlyn
Renee
Rijad
Tarun
Tyler

Our 7-8 grade team:
Asia
Caleb
Melanie
Nicole
Stephanie
Teste
Violet

Congratulations to those students and THANK YOU to everyone who came out and participated. We hope to see you again next year!

Battle of the Books Update

This week we had our final "battle" that will determine our school teams. The top seven students in 4-6 and 7-8 will represent Disney against the other Battle of the Books teams in Chicago.

Teams will be announced tomorrow!  Thank you so much to all of the students who participated this year and made Battle of the Books so much fun. Even if you do not make the 2017 final team, we hope to see you all again next year!

What I'm Reading Now: Catching up on Bluestem/Caudill

I've been trying to finish up all of the books for this year's children's choice awards as well as a couple of Battle of the Books Titles.  Jonathan Stroud's The Whispering Skull is just because I'm absolutely loving this series.  I think we're going to need more copies of Kwame Alexander's Booked.  The Crossover is so widely read here and I have no doubt that Booked will be just as adored!

What I Read This Summer

One of my favorite things about the summer is having more time to read.  Although I didn't read everything that I took home this summer (it was a huge stack of books!) I did read several books that I absolutely LOVED.  I couldn't put down Jonathan Stroud's The Screaming Staircase. How often do you find a book that's truly unique and unlike anything you've read before? The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim by E. K. Johnston was so different and absolutely blew me away.  With one exception I really enjoyed everything I took home this summer.  (Even librarians have books that just aren't for them and one I took home just wasn't!)  Take a look below.

Calling All Readers! We want YOU!

We hope to have a Battle of the Books program again next year!  If we do, we hope to see interested 4th-8th graders join us in reading fabulous books and participating in competitions about those books.  (That means if you're going to be a fourth grader next year, you would be able to participate.)

Here's a sneak peak at some of the titles that will be on next year's list.  It's never too early to start reading!

Grade 4-6

                

·         28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World. By Charles R. Smith Jr.  Roaring Brook Press, 2015.

·         Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff.  Puffin Books, 2015.

·         Funny Bones: Posada and his Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh. Abrams, 2015.

• Slacker by Gordon Korman.  Scholastic, 2016.

·         Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford. Candlewick, 2015.

    

Grade 7-8

• Booked by Kwame Alexander HMH Books, 2016.

·         Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle. Atheneum, 2015.

• The Marvels by Brian Selznick. Scholastic Press, 2015.
• Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney.  Roaring Brook Press, 2015.
• The Smoking Mirror: Garza Twins Book One by David Bowles. IFWG Publishing, 2015. 

Battle of the Books City Finals

Battle of the Books City Finals was this past weekend.  I am so proud of our teams.  This is the first year Disney participated in Battle of the Books and both our 4th-6th grade teams and 7th-8th grade teams qualified to go to the City Finals this past weekend.  (This means that both teams were in the top 15 scoring teams of all the participating schools.  There were originally 98 4th-6th grade teams and 81 7th-8th grade teams.)

Both teams worked incredibly hard and it was a joy to work with them for Battle of the Books.  Eighth graders we will miss you next year!

(Thanks to Ms. Herceg for this picture.)

Battle of the Books City Finals

Congratulations to BOTH of our Battle of the Books teams!  The 4th-6th grade team and 7th-8th grade team both qualified for the City Finals.  Only 15 teams in each age group qualified for the upcoming City Finals battle and we are so proud.  Good luck!

Monarch Award: The Watermelon Seed

Second graders read this fun nominee what feels like ages ago but it's definitely stuck with them! 

 They had such a fabulous time creating their posters for this book in which a hungry alligator just can't get enough watermelon - until he swallows a seed.

Bluestem Nominee: Fortunately the Milk

I try every year to read at least one of the chapter book Bluestem nominees to my fourth and fifth grade classes even though it takes a bit of time. There's so much that can be done with a chapter book.  This year we read the fabulous and strange Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman and it has been so much fun.

I have a confession though.  When I read it on my own last summer I didn't really like it.    It just wasn't for me.  I thought maybe I was wrong about it since it was written by Neil Gaiman.  He wrote Coraline! and The Graveyard Book!  It has to be good! I have now read it six times to six different classes and I have decided this is a book that is absolutely made for reading aloud.

Students have been responding in writing to the book as we've read.  Now as we're finishing up they're doing a little investigating into Neil Gaiman himself using his website www.mousecircus.com.  Then they shared what they learned with one another via Padlet.

Take a look at what they found out.

Ms. Stumbras's class

What I'm Reading Now

I've finished Shadows of Sherwood which was great fun.  As I shared with the Battle of the Books kids this is really a great mix of dystopian literature and the Robin Hood story - with Robin as teenage girl.  I'm fascinated with how different Kekla Magoon's books seem to be.

I also whizzed right through Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead which was no surprise - I love her books.  I find that her writing is always recognizably hers in a very good way. I seem to be reading a lot of children/YA books about the shifts in female friendships recently and I'm particularly taken with how she addresses this.  It's hard to describe exactly what this book is about, but I've definitely recommended it to several of our middle school students in a vague sort of way.  Some are reading it but not yet finished so I'll have to wait and find out their take.

So.  Two very different authors, one with a recognizable style and one a chameleon.

What are you reading now?

I've recently finished How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson, True Stories ed. by Jon Scieszka, and Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire.  My thoughts? In order: beautiful, absolutely fascinating, and a little bit confusing.

How I Discovered Poetry was a very quick read, beautifully written, and I felt I learned a lot about Marilyn Nelson's childhood.  As in any collection of work, I enjoyed some stories in True Stories more than others.  There were a couple that I couldn't stop thinking about/talking about for days which is always the sign of good non-fiction for me as a reader.  As for Egg & Spoon I'm not sure what I think.  I liked it but thought that sometimes there was just too much going on in the story.  It is based on the folktale of Baba Yaga, the witch whose house walks on chicken legs.  This definitely intrigued me and I thought the first chapter of the book was absolutely beautiful.  As the story went on my attention wavered a bit.  Ultimately I was glad I finished it but would be interested to hear what others thought!

Next up Shadows of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon.  I've read a couple of other books by Magoon and liked them, so I'm looking forward to it.

Battle of the Book buzz

I'm LOVING listening to students talk about their Battle books!  I just had a sixth grade class and Roller Girl was all one table was talking about.  What other Battle books are you loving?

Battle of the Books starts tomorrow!

For the over 60 students who have signed up for Battle of the Books, don't forget that our first meeting is tomorrow!  

What are you reading now?

Hope everyone is enjoying Winter Break!  I've been having a blast spending time with my little boys and reading as much as I can.  I finished The Red Pencil.  I've also worked through several graphic novels: Ms. Marvel, Roller Girl, and I found the copy of El Deafo  that I started and finished that as well.  I am really glad I read all of them.  For pure enjoyment I really loved Roller Girl but I'd have a hard time picking a favorite.  I was struck by the fact that all three were very interesting in terms of depicting the changing friendships of their characters.  I also read The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and Kinda Like Brothers which I loved.  I sped through that one!  

Next up, I've started Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire.  So far I'm really enjoying this novelization loosely based on  the folktale Baba Yaga.  I read one of Maguire's other retellings many years ago and didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to (I usually love fairy tale retellings) so I've been very pleasantly surprised.  It's beautifully written and so far the story is really holding my interest.  

Hope you all have had the chance to read something great over break!

What are you reading now?

I just finished Rain Reign which is one of the Battle of the Books titles for 4th-6th grade.  I'm now starting The Red Pencil which is another Battle of the Books title.  Like other books I've read this year (May B., The Crossover, and Hidden) this is a novel in verse.  Have you ever read a novel in verse?  What did you think?

Battle of the Books

I'm very excited that this year we are starting our very own Disney Battle of the Books teams!  Students in grades 4-6 and 7-8 are invited to turn in permission slips to participate in Battle of the Books.  

Battle of the Books is a team competition in which students are asked a series of questions pulled from a specific list of books.  Students will work together throughout the year to better understand the books and prepare for a school battle in late March.  At that point, a final Disney 4^th-6^th grade team and Disney 7^th-8^th grade team will be decided.  Those teams will compete against other schools in early April.  The top 30 teams in each age group will then move on to the City Finals Competition in early May.  The team that correctly answers the most questions about the books wins!

Here at Disney we will be meeting weekly with our preliminary Battle of the Books teams for students to engage in fun activities about the books as they work toward our goal of the school battle in March!  Students will be expected to set personal goals for reading the titles on the list.   Ms. Herceg and I will be coaching the 4-6 grade team and Mr. Fernandez and I will be coaching the 7-8 grade team.

If you have any questions please email me at gerowe@cps.edu or give me a call at the school.

CPS Battle of the Books Wiki