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)

Reading Without Walls Challenge

Students (and teachers! and parents!)  are being encouraged to participate in the Reading Without Walls Challenge.

To participate you can:

1) Read a book about a character who doesn't look like you or live like you

2) Read a book about a topic you don't know much about

3) Read a book in a format that you don't normally read for fun (a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, or an audio book)


What book are you going to read?

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!

Illinois 2017 Bluestem Winner!

The official 2017 Bluestem winner has been announced...

Congratulations to El Deafo!

Interested in seeing the full list of votes? Follow this link.

2017 Rebecca Caudill Award Winner!

Our winner of the Rebecca Caudill Award has been chosen. Fourth through eighth graders who read at least three of the nominated titles were able to vote.

And the Disney winner is...

And the official state winner was just announced. The Illinois 2017 Rebecca Caudill Award Winner is...

(For anyone who's interested, The War that Saved My Life  came in second for the state.)

Thank you to all who voted!

Disney 2017 Bluestem Winner!

The votes are in! Fourth and fifth graders have voted for their absolute favorite Bluestem nominees.

In third place tied with 25 votes each...

In second place with 30 votes...

And the winner with 35 votes is...

If your favorite title didn't win, don't despair. All votes were tallied and sent in to the state library association. Stay tuned for the official winner!

Illinois Student Choice Book Awards

Every year we are thrilled to participate in Illinois's Student Choice Book Awards.  In order to participate, students have to read a certain number of nominated titles in order to vote in February (the Rebecca Caudill) or March (the Bluestem or Monarch.)

All second and third grade classes at Disney are reading books from the Monarch nominee list.  There are some fabulous books this year!  As we read the books we also have lessons related to the books including research and writing responses.  We are keeping track of what we've read using a poster for each class.

Find this year's list of titles here.

The Bluestem Award is for 3rd-5th graders and opens up a world of chapter books.

Find this year's list of titles here.

The Rebecca Caudill is for 4th-8th graders and includes longer and more in-depth works.

Find this year's list of titles here.

Students have been hearing book talks about the nominated titles and have been practicing their note-taking skills as they write down what each book is about.  Students can check these books out from our library, the public library, or can even find them as e-books in both collections.  As they read these books, students can sign their names to the Bluestem and Caudill Hall of Fames in our library.

  

Global Read Aloud 2016

This year all of my 1st-5th grade classes are participating in the Global Read Aloud.  The idea of the Global Read Aloud is that kids all over the world are reading the same books during the same six week period.  Then their teachers and librarians are sharing what they are doing with the books using online connections.

This year's chosen picture book author/illustrator is Lauren Castillo.
Fourth and fifth graders are reading Roald Dahl's classic The BFG.  Great timing as in September we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Dahl's birth!


Follow the link to find out more:

The Global Read Aloud

Check back for more about what we've been learning and how we've been collaborating with other classes who are also participating in the Global Read Aloud.

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.)

And the winners are: Rebecca Caudill Award

Disney's choices for the Rebecca Caudill Award:

Third Place Tie:
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
and
Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

Second Place:  See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

First Place:  Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Illinois's Rebecca Caudill Winners:

Third Place: Hidden by Helen Frost

Second Place: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

First Place: Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

And the winners are: Bluestem Award

Disney's choices for the Bluestem Award:

Third Place: The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

Second Place: Tie
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Sidekicks by Dan Santata

First Place: Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Illinois's Bluestem Winners:

Third Place: Sidekicks by Dan Santata

Second Place: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

First Place: The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

Book Spine Poetry Two

And a few more fabulous book spine poems:

Book Spine Poetry

April was National Poetry Month and we celebrated with one of my favorite poetry activities - book spine poetry.  To create book spine poetry you use the titles of books as they appear on book spines to create a stacked poem.   Students worked together in groups to look for titles that inspired them and then built poems off of them.  Take a look at some favorites created by Disney students:

Bluestem Nominee: The 13-Story Treehouse

Students loved this fun and funny book and Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton's other tree house books are just as popular.

Bluestem Nominee: Sidekicks

Graphic novels just fly off of our shelves and Dan Santat's Sidekicks is no exception.  What a fun book!

Bluestem Nominee: Stay

Stay by Michaela Muntean is a charming non-fiction book that tells the story of circus performer Luciano Anastasini who finds dogs at shelters and trains them to perform in the circus.

Bluestem Nominee: Fortunately the Milk

Neil Gaiman's Fortunately the Milk was not my favorite of his books the first time I read it.  After reading it aloud to several fourth and fifth grade classes I am a convert.  What a ridiculous, hilarious, good time!